CHAPTER 50 - Before everything started (Part 2)

After reaching Hogwarts, they were all prepared for their initial banquet. Sitting at the Ravenclaw table with the rest of their upperclassman, they all waited for the event that they happened to go through last year. The selection of their house.

As Logan and his friends talked, the arrival of the new batch of young wizards and witches was announced. They turned to look at McGonagall leading the new batch through the center of the Great Hall, directly towards the front of the four tables, where a stool with the Sorting Hat waited for them.

"Do you think we'll have a good batch this year?" William whispered to the group.

"Probably not? I mean… Our year has Logan and Cedric… It's quite difficult to surpass that. Right?" Jake asked.

"Aren't you forgetting me?" Roger asked perplexed.

"Oh, please. You're just a buffoon." Lyra rolled her eyes, causing Julie, Johanne, and Carla to chuckle, trying not to laugh too hard.

"What do you know…" Roger muttered before sighing. "I just hope there're some cute girls this year… And that they're sorted into Ravenclaw… That way we might redeem ourselves from our previous year."

Lyra glared at him, but before he could say something, an upperclassman silenced him. "Shut up, Davis. The sorting is starting." An older wizard said with judging eyes as he nodded towards the stall at the front, where they could see a chair right in front of the stall.

One by one, new students were being called to the stall. Originally, Logan thought he would actually recognize someone, just like he did with Cedric Diggory.

"Katie Bell."

[GRYFFINDOR!]

But as McGonagall called people after people, he found out that, actually, he didn't know anyone.

"Marcus Belby."

[RAVENCLAW!]

"Eddie Carmichael."

[RAVENCLAW!]

Soon, two young eagles joined them on the table, which made Roger sight in frustration while also being further rebuked by Lyra. Everyone meet their new underclassmen and tried to welcome them to the table shortly, not wanting to miss the rest of the ceremony.

"Cho Chang." McGonagall once again called someone, and this time, a girl went towards the chair, shyly, like the rest of the students. Logan quickly took notice of her, black straight hair, with somewhat Asian features.

{Isn't that the name of the girl that told Umbridge of the location where Harry and the others practiced on the fifth movie?} He thought as he looked at her, being this the actual reason why he took special notice of her. She soon reached the chair and finally sat down to be sorted. {What house was she again…?}

[RAVENCLAW!] The Sorting Hat shouted. {Well, that solves my lack of memory.} Logan thought while chuckling slightly. Meanwhile, the students of his house cheered and clapped again at the second Ravenclaw. Though not as much as the other houses did when a student was sorted in their house.

As McGonagall called the next name on the list, Cho Chang finally made her way to the house table, where she was quickly received by Lyra, Julie, Carla, and Johanne, congratulating her for entering Ravenclaw, the house of the wise as they said, only for Lyra to shot a comment about how sometimes students like Roger entered too, which made everyone, but Roger, laugh a lot.

Logan took the time to present himself too, while Johanne joked and told Cho, Eddie, and Marcus that if they needed any help with charms, they could go to Logan to ask for help. Or if, in the case of Cho, she happened to be bullied, she could also look for him, telling her the story of how he helped the four of them the previous year against some upperclassmen.

This in turn made the little witch look at him surprised, while Logan could only smile wryly. After all, most of the upperclassmen from Ravenclaw either looked at him with slight fear or with annoyance. Except for a few ones like Tulip, Talbot or Badeea, who were friendly with him thanks to what happened the previous year.

Not that long after, new students started to join their table, Marietta Edgecombe and Mark McCoy, which made this batch smaller than the previous one by three students.

{Curious, I always that there were always four boys and girls for each house, each year.} Logan thought while the others presented themselves and welcomed the new students. Though he was quickly rebuked by the system.

[Starting the year with a high bar in stupidity? This year is promising indeed.]

{And I thought I would have a quiet day...}

[Do you even know the improbability of actually having a regular influx of four boys and girls every year? Not only would you need to have an exact amount of wizards and witches being born each year, but they would actually need to have default personalities. Granted, the criteria of selection for each house are not precisely antonyms, as someone wise could be brave, and someone ambitious could be loyal, and so on, so maybe the living old cloth they use as a sorting hat can actually send them wherever it wants, that would indeed give some kind of balance to the sorting ceremony.]

{Right…} Logan sighed inwardly at the rebuking comment of the system, he simply chose to ignore it while the welcome banquet finally started, so he proceed to eat to his heart content. {I missed this!} He thought briefly. The food back at the orphanage wasn't that bad, but it wasn't abundant either, and after having a taste of the different feasts that Hogwarts had along the year, it wasn't a surprise that he would really miss them during his holidays.

Though, from time to time, he did escape to eat food outside. After all, while his investments didn't pay out that much yet, barely anything really, he still got some pocket money, and that was without taking into account the gold he got from the last cursed vault. He even took the chance to invest in some more stuff he remembered while looking at the newspapers back at the orphanage. He didn't miss the chance to invest in food, beverages, and some other industries that he barely remembered because he saw them on some news.

He even thought about writing some books or trying his luck with manga and anime, but his memory wasn't that good to remember all the plot from the famous movies, books, or manga he read in his past life. So he decided to stop that idea first.

With the welcome feast actually finished, Dumbledore gave some usual words, and after some slight music, and not that much more, they all parted from the Great Hall to go towards their respective common rooms.

As usual, current prefects were in charge of explaining the rules to the newcomers, and as if it was some kind of tradition, they asked the newcomers to test themselves in front of the door to their common room. The one to answer this time was Cho Chang.

With a small tour, almost nonexistent, tour through the common room, the prefects finally told them where their rooms would be located, and everyone went on their own.

Apparently being the one with the best academic record from the first year, Logan actually got the best room available for those in the second year. The difference wasn't actually that big, he still appreciated the bigger space, and apparently the smaller commodities it brought, like an extra table and a slightly bigger bed.

{It sure pays to try your best in classes.} Logan thought with a relaxed smile as he rested on the bed.

"Hey, System."

[What?]

"I know that usually out of Hogwarts, or well, out of the Wizarding World, I get not that many points and ML, but I've noticed that the last few months of the last year, my power barely grew…"

[It's natural. Your ML already reached 58, that's a lot. You should know that even in most OTS, while reaching 50 ML basically is a matter of a couple of minutes, moving up the 60 and next takes a lot more time. And things will only be harder after you go past the 66 ML and your core reaches its third stage.]

"Right… I guess I've had it quite easier until now." Logan nodded. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to focus on mastering what I have right now and expanding my power. That way I'll slowly grow my power."

[Precisely. Also, you have to remember that the quests also help you increase your power, and the original story of this world will start next year.]

"Yeah, you're right." He said, before finally closing his eyes to sleep.