Chapter 19: Hufflepuff

Kyle did not hesitate and went to the stage in a few steps.

He patted his chest after surviving the ordeal, looked at Professor McGonagall sincerely, and said: "Thank you, Professor."

Professor McGonagall probably didn't expect there to be such a polite child in Hogwarts. Kyle's sudden action really caught her by surprise and only reacted after two or three seconds. She shook her head and said, "This is my responsibility."

Although she said this, Professor McGonagall's original stern expression softened a lot, moreover, before she even patted the dust off the sorting hat before placing it on Kyle's head.

'It would be great if such a polite child could be sorted into Gryffindor.'

Professor McGonagall was looking forward to it. What Gryffindor lacked most was this kind of model student.

Last year, she had even dreamed of abducting Cedric into her house, but unfortunately, neither Sprout nor Dumbledore agreed.

She was depending on this year.

Professor McGonagall stared at Kyle with burning eyes and prayed in her heart that the sorting hat would be reliable for once.

...

"Strange, this is too strange."

After Kyle put on the sorting hat, he heard a soft voice in his ear saying: "You actually thanked her sincerely? That shouldn't be the case, I mean, are you really a polite child?"

"Of course I am!" Kyle said seriously: "You can ask around. Whether it's the Weasley family and Mr. Scamander, they have all said that I am the most polite boy they've ever met. So please don't slander me, otherwise, I will complain against you even if you are just a hat."

"..." The sorting hat fell into rare silence, and the tip of the hat swung back and forth unconsciously as if there was something wrong. He was speechless and seemed to be struggling with something.

After a long time, he continued: "Your shameless behavior makes me feel like I have returned to over a thousand years ago, but at that time I was just an ordinary hat on Godric's head.

So, how about going to Gryffindor? I think that place should be...forget it, that place is not suitable for you."

"I think..."

"Let me think about it." Kyle was about to speak when he was interrupted by the sorting hat: "Slytherin is still better. You will achieve glory there; there is no doubt about it."

"Uhh..."

"Wait, wait."

For the second time, the sorting hat interrupted Kyle again: "No, it's still not suitable, and if you go to Slytherin, Snape will definitely pour some strange potion on me in the future. Let me think about it again…

Dumbledore has given me a big problem… 

Too bad, if only Azkaban or even Nurmengard belonged to Hogwarts."

...

The more Kyle listened, the more frightened he became. What was going on? He didn't seem to have done anything wrong. At most, he had scared Kanna just earlier, but how was it possible that he should be assigned to Nurmengard for that?

You're still being unreasonable!

Besides, the entire magic world does this, and there are many people who are even more exaggerated than what he said. Why are they fine?

There should be no such double standards.

Kyle felt that he should do something. If the sorting hat really yelled out, he would be done for.

Azkaban was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Magic, and it was not a place where one could go as they pleased.

But Nurmengard was different. Dumbledore has connections there. It was too easy for him to send someone there.

Kyle also knew in his heart that the reason why the sorting hat said this was most likely because it was dissatisfied with him complaining about it. The hat just wanted to get back at him for being mischievous. It was impossible for it to yell out that place.

But what if...   

For a hat that existed for more than a thousand years and had its own consciousness, no one knew what was going on in its mind. What if it suddenly wanted to yell out to liven up the atmosphere?

It was really possible.

"Well..." Kyle gave a harmless smile: "The song you just sang was good, especially the first few lines. The lyrics were concise and the tone was light. It was much better than the cliched songs of the Weird Sisters."

Upon hearing this, the sorting hat suddenly became interested: "You also think it sounds good, right? Let me tell you, it took me a year to come up with it. How could it not sound good? Only Dumbledore doesn't understand how to appreciate it. He actually persuaded me to sing the school song, that old bee!"

Well...

Kyle didn't intend to say bad things about the Headmaster who sat behind him, that would be too risky, even if the Headmaster couldn't hear it.

After coughing twice to muddle through, Kyle continued: "Pardon me, but your song sounds familiar to me. Is it a rap style?"

"Rap style..." the sorting hat asked curiously: " What does that mean?"

"You don't know! You are self-taught, that's amazing." Kyle pretended to be shocked at first, and then explained: "Rap is a very popular style of Muggle music."

"Muggle music..." the sorting hat became even more curious.

"Yes, I think you can give it a try. It should suit you very well." Kyle said sincerely: "If you want, I can give you a gift related to rap on christmas."

"Okay …No, what I mean is, let's sort you into a house first. It's been a long time and you must be hungry as well. It won't be good to delay the banquet." The sorting hat cleared its throat and said: "By the way, where were we just now?

Kyle smiled and said: "You just said that I am a good polite boy, but you think Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw were not suitable for me."

"Huh? I just mentioned Ravenclaw... Oh, I almost forgot, that is indeed true, you are absolutely right. In this case, the result is already obvious..."

"Hufflepuff!"

When Kyle's sorting result was announced, the entire great hall, including the teachers' bench, burst into thunderous applause.

It took a full twenty minutes. This could be said to be the longest sorting in the history of Hogwarts, and it was finally over.

They were really hungry, after all, the banquet had already started at this time in the previous years.

The Hufflepuff table was particularly lively. Cedric no longer cared about the Quidditch team and came over to give Kyle a hug enthusiastically.

"That's great, Kyle. I knew you would definitely come to Hufflepuff."

Kyle smiled and said, "You have a better vision than the sorting hat."

"Huh?" Cedric was stunned for a moment. He didn't understand what Kyle meant.

However, Kyle just smiled and did not explain.

At this moment, several seniors came over to shake hands with him. Judging from the badges on their bodies, they should be the Hufflepuff prefects.

This was also a common practice in every house. While expressing their welcome, they could also get familiar with the new students.

Kyle greeted them with a smile and sat on the empty seat next to Cedric.

The person who sat here before was a prefect, but after finding out that Kyle and Cedric knew each other, he took the initiative to give up his seat.

...

(End of chapter)