Fortunately, a short while later Dumbledore arrived, and the noise in the Great Hall gradually died down.
"Another year has passed!"
Dumbledore stood on the dais and said loudly,
"Before we all set to and thoroughly enjoy this splendid feast, I must trouble you to listen to an old man's rambling."
"What a marvellous year it has been! I'm sure your little heads are all a bit fuller than they were before… and now you have a whole summer ahead of you to digest everything you've learned this year, so you can clear some space in there for next term."
"Now then, as far as I know, the first thing we must do is hold the House Cup award ceremony. The specific scores for each House are as follows: in fourth place, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two points; in third place, Ravenclaw, with four hundred-and-something points; in second place, Slytherin, with four hundred and seventy-five points; and in first place, Gryffindor—"
Before he even finished, the Gryffindor table erupted like a thunderclap. Their cheers were so loud it seemed they might blow the roof off the Hall.
Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff burst into enthusiastic applause. After all, Gryffindor had triumphed over Slytherin despite the pressure from Professor Snape; that alone was worth celebrating.
Only the Slytherin table remained completely silent. In that instant, it was as if every Slytherin student had turned into a perfectly poised aristocrat, conscientiously upholding the rule of "no talking while eating, no chatting while resting."
"Yes, Gryffindor have done extremely well," Dumbledore went on, "but some of the things that have happened recently must also be taken into account."
Some of the Slytherins suddenly remembered the warning Dumbledore had given in his speech at the start of term. They began whispering to each other excitedly, and before long nearly every Slytherin was grinning in anticipation, waiting to hear his next words.
Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"I have a few last points to award. Let me see… yes."
"First, to Mr. Neville Longbottom."
In that moment, almost every eye in the Hall turned to Neville, especially those at the Slytherin table. Their smiles looked ready to burst with glee.
"He used his own wit and resourcefulness to pass our test in a completely unexpected way. For his great wisdom disguised as foolishness, I award Gryffindor ten points."
The Gryffindor table exploded as if someone had set off a bomb. Cheers burst out everywhere. They were overjoyed that Dumbledore hadn't docked any of their points and that their championship title was safe.
By contrast, when the students at the Slytherin table realised it was extra points being given instead of points being taken away, the smiles vanished from their faces. Their expressions instantly became uglier than if they'd just been told their parents had died.
"Second, to Mr. Ron Weasley. Faced with danger, he remained calm and unafraid. With his brains and ingenuity, he resolved the crisis with ease, and he has always stood at the very front, protecting his friends. For this, I award Gryffindor five points."
This time the cheering was even louder, but one voice stood out above all the rest—that was Percy's, who was now shouting to the other prefects at the top of his lungs:
"That's my brother! You know, my youngest brother! Dumbledore actually praised his courage and his intelligence!"
The other prefects all looked at Percy like he'd lost his mind. With the twins—those two "pearls and jades before him"—and now Ron, who had just been singled out for praise by Dumbledore, Percy's own performance in comparison made it hard to see him as someone truly fit for great responsibility.
A few prefects even began discussing in private whether they could somehow get Percy replaced and choose one of the twins to be prefect instead. After all, the twins would be upper-year students soon enough.
"Third, to Mr. Harry Potter."
Dumbledore's voice rang out, and the Great Hall fell completely silent once more. Everyone listened intently for what he would say next.
"He has shown tremendous courage and a spirit beyond his years. For that, I award Gryffindor fifteen points."
When Dumbledore's words fell, the silence lingered for a moment longer. Everyone was still watching him, waiting for him to continue.
But Dumbledore simply sat down again.
The Great Hall once more filled with noise. The Gryffindor table was the liveliest of all; quite a few Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students even came over to join in the celebration.
The reason was simple: the Slytherin table was right between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. At the moment, a thick, oppressive aura hung over the Slytherins, ready to explode at any time.
The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students seated closest to Slytherin couldn't stand that suffocating atmosphere at all, so they fled to the Gryffindor table to celebrate there instead.
As Loren greeted the people around him, he couldn't help but marvel inwardly that Dumbledore really was an old fox who could play with words in Chinese as well. His little word games were truly something.
Just then, Loren felt like something was slightly off. He glanced around the Hall again, trying to pinpoint what was wrong.
On the staff dais, Professor Snape was shaking hands with Professor McGonagall, smiling with a barely concealed air of schadenfreude. The other two Heads of House were smiling too, equally pleased. McGonagall's smile, however, looked decidedly strained.
Loren thought for a moment and immediately realised what was coming next.
Sure enough, Professor McGonagall stood up rather reluctantly and tapped her goblet with her wand.
When the Hall had quieted down again, she finally spoke:
"This year our education reforms have been a great success. All our students have made tremendous progress—especially with your workbooks. Your improvement has exceeded all the professors' expectations."
Hearing her so lavishly praise their efforts, more than a few students felt a stab of guilt. They knew full well their own workbooks had been written by paying to copy from someone else's.
So having to sit here while McGonagall praised them like this made many of them feel more than a little uncomfortable.
On the dais, Professor McGonagall continued,
"In order to reward all of you for supporting our education reforms, and to further strengthen these reforms, the school has decided to provide each and every student with a brand-new learning tool."
As she said this, Professor McGonagall waved her wand. Piles of magic notebooks that had been hidden behind the staff table rose into the air and floated over to the prefects of the four Houses.
The prefects, quick on the uptake, took the stacks of notebooks and began handing them out to the students.
Even Loren and Hermione, who already had Magic Notebooks, each received a new one.
The young witches and wizards eagerly opened their notebooks, only to find every page completely blank. Murmurs immediately broke out as they flipped through them.
"Now, let me show you how to use this learning tool," McGonagall said. "First, place your hand on the cover of the notebook and leave it there for five seconds."
The students below all did as she said. Only Neville hesitated, glancing first in Loren's direction. When he saw that both Loren and Hermione were doing the same thing, he finally placed his own hand on the cover of his new Magic Notebook.
Five seconds later, the children discovered in astonishment that the once-blank first page of their notebooks was now covered in strange little icons.
Quite a few of them cautiously tapped one of the icons, and at once a new screen appeared. Soon the whole Hall was full of excited students playing with their notebooks, utterly absorbed.
Seeing the lively scene below, Professor McGonagall lightly tapped her own Magic Notebook.
In an instant, every notebook in the Hall returned to its initial homepage. The collective gasp that followed was almost deafening.
A moment later, her voice echoed clearly through the Hall:
"These are Magic Notebooks, a new kind of alchemical tool that will officially go on sale over the summer. The ones in your hands were obtained through Professor Dumbledore's… private connections."
At that, the students erupted into cheers, showering their great Headmaster Dumbledore with praise for his generosity.
Dumbledore, for his part, had been quietly stroking his beard while listening to McGonagall's speech. Now his hand trembled, and he accidentally yanked out several hairs at once.
But when he caught sight of McGonagall's expression—one that clearly read, "If you dare say one more word, I'll throw down this job and walk"—he could only shut his mouth and obediently endure the students' adoration.
He knew that before long, those cheers would turn into curses. And with every new school in the world that adopted the Magic Notebook, that would be one more school's worth of students cursing his name.
After a while, the noise in the Great Hall subsided slightly, and McGonagall continued:
"Please click on the icon that looks like a book. This will be the feature you use most often at school from now on. It comes with its own user manual, so I want you all to read it very carefully."
The Great Hall fell completely silent again. Every student was hunched over their Magic Notebook, carefully reading through the instructions.
Loren skimmed the manual. He recognised the first part—it was the section he himself had written, with detailed explanations of every app and its functions.
But at the very end, an extra paragraph had been added. It read:
"All Heads of House have the authority to control and manage the Magic Notebooks of students in their own House. The Headmaster and Deputy Head have the authority to control and manage the Magic Notebooks of all students in the school. From now on, all homework and assignments at Hogwarts—"
Loren looked around. The students around him were fully immersed in exploring the Magic Notebook's many new features. Plenty of them had already started adding each other as friends and were trying out video calls. Not one of them seemed to realise they already had one foot in hell.
Soon, a crowd gathered around Loren as well, all wanting to add him as a friend. Loren didn't refuse. He took out his original Magic Notebook and added them all one by one.
Before long, the feast came to an end amid a chorus of praise for the Headmaster from every corner of the Hall.
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