Chapter 566: The Sorting Hat's New Song (Edited)

Not to mention Fish's little thoughts in his mind, not long after all the Hogwarts students took their seats, the classroom door opened and Professor McGonagall led the first-year students in from outside.

Every year, the new students had been frightened by the lie of the "entrance exam," and this year was no exception, so most of them looked bewildered and shivered as they followed Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall, as in previous years, walked to the front of the teachers' table, stool and sorting hat in hand, along with the list of new students.

The murmur of conversation in the Great Hall died down. The first years lined up in front of the teachers' table, facing the rest of the teachers. Professor McGonagall carefully placed the stool in front of them, placed the Sorting Hat on the stool and stepped back.

Then, the slit in the brim opened like a mouth. The Sorting Hat sang aloud....

In previous years, the Sorting Hat song had varied in its lyrics, but the general message was the same: a presentation of the four Hogwarts houses, the different qualities valued, and the Sorting Hat's own mission for the students' houses, with a bit of self-aggrandizement thrown in.

This year, however, the Sorting Hat song has changed considerably, describing not only the construction and division of Hogwarts, but also issuing a warning to students about the need to stick together.

Apparently, it was unusual for the Sorting Hat to issue warnings, and as soon as he closed his mouth, the young wizards below began exchanging pleasantries.

Professor McGonagall looked sternly at the whispering crowd and quickly silenced the noise in the Great Hall before unfolding the parchment in her hand and loudly announcing the first name.

"Euan Abercrombie!"

As each of the new students stepped forward to put on the Sorting Hat, plates of hot food suddenly appeared on the table in front of Fish, just as before.

This time, however, instead of munching as he had done in previous years, he looked around and saw that everyone else was empty, and Fish suddenly felt it was a bit unfair that he ate first.

But...

Fish looked at the buns, ham, meatballs, steak and fish soup in front of him, and sniffed the aromas they gave off....

(??Φ﹃Φ??)

(`ω≡`ω)

After staring blankly at the food in front of him for a few moments, Fish shook his head with great perseverance and then whispered Comey's name.

"Comey, take these things away nya!"

Fish buried his head in Hermione's arms, neither looking at nor smelling the food.

Hermione's cheeks flushed as Fish hugged her tightly, and when she saw the food disappear from the table, she slapped Fish on the back and said urgently, "Fish, that's enough, the food is gone."

Nya

?(??ω??)?

Fish poked his head out from between Hermione's arms to make sure his food had been taken away before sitting upright again.

Although she felt a little shy and embarrassed by Fish's actions, Hermione was glad that Fish had just behaved in a clearly affectionate manner towards the others....

Although Fish probably wasn't quite sure why he was doing it himself.

The sorting ceremony continued, and the long line of first years was getting a little shorter.

Fish rubbed his stomach, a little regretfully, but now asking Comey to bring the food... it was too much for Fish at that point.

So he could only continue to suffer miserably.

Hermione noticed Fish's low mood and silently grabbed his hand and squeezed it firmly to encourage Fish.

With his girlfriend's support, Fish made it to the end of the Sorting Ceremony, and then Dumbledore stood up.

"Welcome to our new students," Dumbledore said loudly, with open arms and a big smile on his lips, "Welcome! Welcome to our former students: welcome back!".

Fortunately, Dumbledore was not one of those traditional leaders who liked to give long speeches of all kinds, and quickly said, "There is plenty of time for speeches, but not now. Eat your fill."

The Great Hall erupted in laughter and appreciative applause as the house elves served enough delicious food for all five tables, and the food piled up like a mountain in front of Fish.

"Yah-ho-!"

Ψ(??≧??≦??)

Fish raised his knife and fork, let out a jubilant exclamation, and launched into shoveling one after another of the food in front of him into his mouth, quickly but elegantly.

The others, no better than Fish, gobbled down their food...everyone was starving.

When everyone had eaten and drunk enough, there was time to talk amongst themselves, mainly about what had been said in the Sorting Hat letter, and as more and more people spoke, the Great Hall became noisier.

At that moment, Dumbledore stood up again. The chatter ceased immediately, and everyone turned their faces towards the Headmaster.

"Well, now that we are digesting another delicious meal, I ask for a moment of silence to hear my usual cautions for the new term." Dumbledore said.

As he said, what he said next was not much different from previous years: no going to the Forbidden Forest, Filch's pile of rules, introducing new teachers, etc....

But when Dumbledore got to the selection of the Houses' quidditch team, his speech was suddenly interrupted by someone.

Umbridge, from the Ministry of Magic and this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, rose from her seat.

Dumbledore looked surprised for a moment, then sat down gracefully, watching Professor Umbridge intently, as if he couldn't wait to hear what she had to say.

The other teachers, however, were not as good as the Headmaster, and all seemed more or less displeased...except for Professor Snape.

Umbridge, however, said in her high-pitched, squeaky, wheezy, little-girl voice, as if she didn't see the discontent on the other teachers' faces, "Well, I must say it's wonderful to be back at Hogwarts."

Not only did her voice sound uncomfortably fake, but the content of her speech was offensive as well.

"It's wonderful to see all these happy little faces looking at me! I can't wait to meet you all soon, and I'm sure we're going to be very good friends!"

Everyone was very upset because they felt that Umbridge was treating them as if they were five-year-olds.

After offending all the teachers and students at Hogwarts in a few words, Umbridge cleared her throat again.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young wizards to be a matter of great importance...".

This time, her voice was much more serious, but it sounded dry, as if Professor Binns was talking about the history of magic.

So it wasn't long before the young wizards downstairs began to tire, and aside from a few students who were still hanging in there, most started talking amongst themselves or going about their business.

Fish, meanwhile, was lying with his head in Hermione's lap and drifting off to sleep.

_(??3」∠)_

Professor Umbridge did not seem to notice the restlessness of the audience as she continued to speak slowly and leisurely, oblivious to the attitudes of the others.

After an unknown amount of time, her speech finally ended and Dumbledore led the applause, bringing attention back to the students who had already stopped paying attention.

"Nya!"

∑(??Φ﹃Φ??)

Fish, who had been asleep, woke up at the sound of applause, looked around in a daze, wiped drool from the corner of his lips and asked, "Is it over nya?"

"Just the end of Professor Umbridge's speech," Hermione said with a shrug. "And even if we get fired, we still have to go show the first years the way."

"The Ministry of Magic sure is a bad place, Fish doesn't like this new professor nya."

(??ω??)

It was fine for Fish to show the way to the new students, but Umbridge's boring speech really put Fish off... It wasn't a class, so why talk so much!

Luckily, Dumbledore didn't have problems and, after a quick speech about the general syllabus for the new term, he called the class to a close.

Everyone was on their feet, ready to leave the Great Hall.

"First years!" Hermione stood up as quickly as she could and called out to the new students seated at the back of the table, "This way, please!"

She sounded a bit like Professor McGonagall in the way she gave orders.

When the two had led the new students back to the Gryffindor dormitory, Fish kissed Hermione on the cheek and said, "Get some rest."

(つΦ3Φ)つ

Fish wasn't going out with Hermione tonight, because he knew Hermione's energy was no match for his, she had been tired all day and needed a good rest.

Similarly, Fish had no intention of bothering Professor McGonagall tonight, he just wanted to walk around the school out of habit.

After watching Hermione leave for the girls' dormitory, Fish transformed into his cat form, climbed out through the portrait hole and strolled around the school.

?(=ΦωΦ=)?