The moment those words were spoken, it was like a stone dropped into still water—ripples spread outward in ever-widening circles.
The entire Great Hall exploded into chaos!
Voices of discussion and bursts of laughter rang out as one, with every student and professor turning their gaze to the Sorting Hat!
Now even those who'd been drowsy were wide awake, and those absorbed in eating forgot their hunger.
Clearly, everyone's excitement levels had shot up again:
Watching the Sorting Hat go on strike in protest—this once-in-a-millennium entertainment was far more thrilling than eating or sleeping, wasn't it?
Unfortunately, the students' joy meant the Headmaster's despair.
Dumbledore on the platform felt thunderstruck, nearly letting out a sharp shriek alongside the Sorting Hat!
Never in his life had he imagined he'd need to consider whether a hat might go on strike!
"My thousand-year inheritance of the founders' Sorting philosophy! My correct Sorting logic—all destroyed!"
"No more battering the Sorting Hat with brains! No more polluting the Sorting Hat with thoughts!"
The limp Sorting Hat writhed desperately atop the student's head, determined to escape that fourth student's skull—
Its body twisted into a distorted S-shape, the eye areas becoming wavy!
"New students are forbidden from using the following words including but not limited to: Slytherin, Jane Yu, Miss Jane, Senior Jane, and other terms for screen-spamming during the Sorting process!"
"Add Magical Game Console, playing games, gaming, game company, nostril-flying bats, fighting, food-snatching to the banned word list! Block them! Block them all!"
The hall erupted in roaring laughter, every student doubled over with mirth, some even laughing to tears.
New students had battered the Sorting Hat with the thoughts in their brains—what an unprecedented spectacle!
But the three first-years who'd just been Sorted weren't laughing. They glared unhappily at the Sorting Hat on stage.
"Quiet—please everyone remain quiet—"
Fortunately, Dumbledore, having weathered countless storms, stubbornly managed to continue hosting this opening feast smoothly.
Knowing the Sorting Hat would complete the Sorting Ceremony according to the four founders' programming, he quickly composed himself, forcibly soothed its strike, and placed it back on the fourth student's head.
"Slytherin!"
The laughter that had just died down in the hall erupted once more. The Sorting Hat had just finished saying "no Slytherin screen-spamming," only to immediately shout "Slytherin" itself—as if it had slapped its own hat-face!
But suddenly a figure jumped up at the Gryffindor table—that first-year little lion who'd just been Sorted. He shouted loudly:
"We were all four screen-spamming—why does only he get to enter Slytherin? This isn't fair!"
"I'm clearly so good at fighting and casting spells, yet someone as clever as me couldn't get into Slytherin—how am I supposed to make bats fly from people's nostrils and still get bonus points to win the House Cup—"
The laughter in the hall instantly turned into an uproar!
Never before in a thousand years had someone jumped up to protest Sorting results during the Sorting Ceremony—yet it appeared this year!
So this disaster-plagued opening feast was forced to halt once again.
Students from two long tables—Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff—craned their necks toward Gryffindor, whistling and applauding loudly, determined to see this brave soul's face clearly.
Meanwhile, the Gryffindor students' faces turned blacker than cauldron bottoms as they glared at this freshly-minted House traitor—a little snake wearing lion's skin—suddenly realizing:
Those who laugh at others will be laughed at in return...
Gryffindor had finally become the second source of entertainment for the whole school after Slytherin's fight!
But what the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs enjoying their gossip didn't know was—
Today was a day when all four Houses would take turns being the center of attention.
Amid the commotion, the freshly-Sorted little eagle stood up trembling, clutching the glasses on her nose bridge, voicing support:
"The Sorting Hat's logic has major problems! Of course, I think Ravenclaw is excellent, but I still must speak up for Sorting logic!"
"I clearly told it that if I could go to Slytherin and be with Senior Jane, I could use the latest Magical Game Console to clear all levels... study Alchemy—such reasonable words, yet it didn't consider my opinion at all!"
At these words, all the Ravenclaw eagles' wings drooped completely, looking as if they'd lost all power for soaring.
Hufflepuff, having been the only winner watching other Houses' entertainment, had just begun to smile when they heard that straightforward first-year badger speak bluntly:
"Yes, Hufflepuff is indeed very good, but I still think the Sorting Hat forcibly divided us!"
"We four clearly agreed when playing games on the train—if we're friends, we'd go to Slytherin together to find Senior Jane and play games! They're so good at eating and fighting—it's simply my dream House—yet the Sorting Hat deliberately separated us into four Houses!"
The red-faced badgers wished they could dig a hole on the spot and stuff themselves and this first-year into it together.
Amid all the commotion—
Only the Slytherin table was exceptionally quiet.
The little snakes looked left and right, their expressions becoming conflicted, their features fighting amongst themselves.
Though it was cause for celebration that when new students mentioned Slytherin, they no longer described them as "the House of Dark Wizards," "You-Know-Who's lair," or "cunning, treacherous vipers"—that most common attitude of talking about Slytherin with fear, the vicious cycle of mutual discrimination from the moment of arrival had mostly disappeared...
Who could have imagined that because of Jane Yu and the household-name Magical Game Console, because of the fight they'd had in rebellion—
Slytherin had directly become a fashionable item?
But what made the little snakes feel complicated was:
"Fighting and casting spells," "nostril-flying bats that can still earn points to win the House Cup"...
Was this describing their cool and composed Slytherin?
Being with Jane Yu they could understand...
But "going to Slytherin to clear all game levels," "if you're friends, go to Slytherin together to play games"...
When did their Slytherin House change its name to Gaming Competition Academy?
And that "dream House good at eating and fighting"...
Was this describing their resourceful Slytherin?
Was this correct?
Was this right?
At this moment, they only wanted to ask:
Is this what we Slytherin are like?
For a moment, the little snakes found it truly difficult to evaluate whether such reputation improvement could be called good...
For some reason, they suddenly felt that descriptions like "House of Dark Wizards" and "cunning, treacherous vipers" weren't unacceptable—
At least those sounded cool and cutting-edge, directly crushing the other three Houses by a whole tier.
Even "talking about Slytherin with fear" was much better than descriptions of "good at eating" and "nostril-flying bats"!
This made their facial expressions twisted and strange, noses wrinkled, eyebrows bunched together.
Even Jane Yu couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of embarrassment...
Accidentally letting first-year new students go hungry while watching a House brawl upon arrival, causing the House image to be ruined in one fell swoop...
As a prefect, she was very sorry.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 BOOK COMPLETED ON PATREON!📚
This story has reached its conclusion on my Patreon!
🔥 Full story available now
💎 Exclusive bonus content & early access to new books
👉 Join my Patreon community today!
[✨patreon.com/DarkGolds]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━