svetikya Chapter 126 Changes at Hogwarts
Chapter 126 Changes at Hogwarts
Chapter 126 Changes at Hogwarts
In the summer of 1991, excluding Owen, there were thirty-three new students at Hogwarts.
In the summer of 1998, the number of new students at Hogwarts was 147.
And this number has not stopped rising. In the summer of '99, the number of new students at Hogwarts exceeded two hundred, and it is understood that the number will be even higher next year, possibly even reaching more than three hundred.
This isn't because the wizards have had too many children; it's because their territory has expanded!
The Ministry of Magic's expansion has been quite effective, with branches established in most parts of Europe. The Book of Admissions is also quite interesting; it seems to tacitly approve of this expansion and displays the names of eligible young wizards in these countries.
As the number of people increases, the task of receiving them can no longer be left to the professors alone. Those within the UK can be handled by senior students, while those outside the country will still need to be received by the Ministry of Magic.
There was no other way, because young wizards outside of Britain could only enter the headquarters through the branch's Floo Network and then go to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies.
Of course, some things can change, but others still adhere to tradition. Owen looked at the admission list, then at the Sorting Hat on the bookshelf, and chuckled, "Old Hat, how about we skip the singing this year? There are too many people. Shall we sort our houses first?"
The old man twisted his face: "No, this is a right granted to me by Gryffindor!"
Irving rested his right hand on his chin: "Should I take you to see him?"
"Honey, you can't scare me. You wouldn't do that."
"Okay, let's shorten the singing time a bit, otherwise it will affect the time students go to sleep tonight. Tomorrow is not the weekend, but Monday, and the students have to go to school."
The old hat thought about it and it seemed to make sense, but it didn't quite understand: "How can the singing time be shortened?"
"Speed up the pitch. While you still have time, practice as fast as you can."
Leaving Old Hat in the principal's office to practice, Owen went to the edge of Black Lake, then walked straight onto the water, all the way to the entrance for the first-year students, and counted the number of boats one last time.
The number of students increases every year, but the old habit of four people sharing a boat remains unchanged. It's just a matter of making more small boats. However, the number of carriages pulled by Thestrals is not enough. The number of Thestrals is limited. Even with the carriages being expanded time and time again by the Seamless Expansion Spell, it is still not enough. Therefore, in addition to Thestrals, there are also some Divine Horses.
Irving originally wanted to bring the centaurs to help, but the stubborn centaurs refused to do the work no matter what, saying they valued their dignity.
However, the centaurs were out of the question, but the giant spiders were no problem. They were happy to do the job because Owen would be very generous and treat them to a good meal afterward.
As for whether spiders will attack students—you can rest assured. The spiders love students the most now. Even if some mischievous ones wander into their territory, they will carry the little wizards back on their backs. Spiders are not human, they don't have such a big memory. They still remember the warning Owen gave them.
After looking around, Owen went to the kitchen. Since Hogwarts is now an international magic school, the food can no longer be mainly British. The house-elves take courses every year during the holidays, and their French cuisine is no worse than that of a five-star chef.
But we can't let the students eat like this!
The school's finances are getting healthier, but they can't spend all of it on food, can they? Even if you have money, you can't afford to eat French food every day, and you don't have enough time for it either.
Therefore, deep-frying is still the main method, and in addition to potatoes, there are various kinds of noodles that can be prepared in advance as staple foods.
The elves are all very busy, but they enjoy their busyness. Although Owen did not promote them in terms of status after taking charge, he set an example by doing so. As a result, the students also do not discriminate against the elves. When they meet, they will greet each other politely.
As for compensation, they do receive a salary of two Galleons per month, which is incredibly stingy, but the elves are overjoyed and even think it's too much.
"Hi!"
A stunning blonde beauty suddenly jumped out and blocked Owen's way to check on the dormitory. But she didn't frighten him. At Hogwarts, nothing that happened in any corner could escape Owen's notice. Fleur was able to enter the castle with Owen's permission; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to get in at all.
"Welcome to Hogwarts—" Owen embraced the beauty, then chuckled, "Ms. Maxim isn't happy that you're here as a teaching assistant, is she?"
Furong waved her hand confidently: "I've already graduated, I can make my own decisions!"
Owen smiled and shook his head. Then the two of them walked around the four wizard towers together. After finding nothing unusual and confirming that the Unseen Expansion Charm was very stable, they finally arrived at the Great Hall.
Now, Irving can sit at the professor's table, but the dining spot he used when he was a teaching assistant is still there. Coincidentally, when Fleur came, she sat there.
It wasn't dinner time yet, and it wasn't dark, but Irving was looking at the list of admitted students in his hand, occasionally twitching his facial muscles.
His status has changed, but he is still the youngest among professors. No one else is suitable to do this kind of hard and tiring work.
The senior students arrived first and sat quietly at the long table. Some of them looked at the auditorium, which had been expanded again, and sighed, "The school gets bigger every year!"
Indeed, without expanding, there simply wouldn't be enough room for so many students.
However, if there are too many students and too few professors, the professors will naturally not be able to keep up and the teaching quality will not be guaranteed. Fortunately, in recent years, a lot of talented people have been attracted to the area, and some of them will take on professorships in order to stay. So now, the former deans have not changed, but they are now the group leaders in charge of their respective disciplines. There are at least five professors for the same course.
As for Owen, he was primarily in charge of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
Voldemort has been dead for many years, and his name has been largely forgotten. As for curses, they haven't occurred since Owen took office.
He now has six teachers under him who also teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, two of whom are students who stayed on to teach at the school, and the other four are former Aurors.
Knowledge can arm the mind, but practical skills are equally important. Therefore, black-out defense courses are now mostly hands-on, only the subjects are different.
For example, students in grades one through three mainly learn what's in the textbook. As long as the creatures aren't too dangerous dark magic creatures, they can be found in the school's dungeon.
Grades four through six consist of courses outside of the textbooks, primarily focused on preparing for attacks and counterattacks from dark wizards.
The seventh-grade Black Defense class consists entirely of wizard duels. Students not only duel with their classmates but also with professors, thereby improving their practical combat skills.
What?
With the Dark Lord gone, can the wizards finally relax?
Don't be ridiculous. The Dark Lord may be gone, but there are still aliens, aren't there?
If the Muggles can't hold on, then the wizards will have to step in. Although we don't interact with each other, we all share the same Earth. Those aliens don't care whether you're a Muggle or a wizard.
Isn't this more exciting than having a dark lord?
Therefore, the largest expansion of the Ministry of Magic in recent years has been the Auror Office. Ever since Owen brought news of aliens back to the wizarding world, the younger wizards have become excited, and most of the young people graduating from various magic schools every year have applied to join the Auror Department.
It's the wizard's duty to protect their homeland!
The British Ministry of Magic acted too quickly. By the time they had already established their dominance, other national ministries of magic were already reacting. Fortunately, Owen only made his moves in Europe and didn't extend his reach too far. If he had gone too far, it would have been inconvenient for the students and the schools, and it would have also damaged relations with other national ministries of magic.
The time had come. Looking at the horde of little wizards, Owen realized he had underestimated the situation.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please keep quiet. The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin. Gentlemen and ladies whose names are called, please come forward and sit in the chair next to me."
"Sir, are you going to eat us?" a freshman shouted. "If you're going to eat us, please just eat me, but please spare the others, okay?"
The professors held back their laughter.
The older students also held back their laughter.
But Irving laughed: "You're a brave warrior, so I agreed. You can go first."
The young wizard bravely stepped forward, but just as Owen was about to put the old hat on him, the old hat suddenly spoke up, "My dear, I haven't sung yet!"
What time is it to bring this up!
Without a word, Owen placed the hat on the young wizard's head, and then the old hat's booming voice echoed throughout the Great Hall: "Gryffindor!"
Cheers erupted at the Gryphon House table; they were absolutely delighted with this brave young wizard who dared to challenge Owen's authority before even enrolling.
"Alright, Chakri Warrior, you may sit at your own house's long table and wait for your meal."
The little wizard wiped away his tears: "You—aren't you going to eat me?"
Owen rolled his eyes: "I'm a professor, I teach you magic, I don't eat children."
Just as the young wizard was about to cheer, Owen's voice rang out again: "But if your grades are too bad, I'll beat you up. Believe me, you won't want me to hit you. Look at these upperclassmen, not one of them wants me to hit them."
This was just a small interlude. One by one, the young wizards were called out, and then each one had their hats put on them. After the old hats assigned them to different houses, Owen's voice was almost hoarse, and the old hats were practically puffing out white smoke. They were in no mood to sing anymore.
A sumptuous meal was laid out on the long table, and dinner officially began. While eating, the senior students explained the daily life of the school to the freshmen.
Of course, all the young wizards were warned not to try to challenge any of the prohibitions issued by Mr. Owen.
The smarter young wizards understood the implication: they couldn't challenge Owen's prohibition, but that didn't say they couldn't challenge the school rules!
Magic school, that's so interesting!
Filch's position was also promoted. He was no longer the only gatekeeper at Hogwarts, but the leader of the gatekeepers, in charge of ten Squibs. These people, like Filch, also had alchemical rings and could use certain spells.
On the first night of school, all eleven gatekeepers were mobilized, and in one night they caught a total of one hundred and thirty-four young wizards who were out at night.
When the number was reported to Irving, he didn't even look up: "Filch, just do it the usual way. You have the authority to handle these kinds of things."
Although this wasn't the first time Irving had said this, Filch had never made the decision on his own. He now had an excellent grasp of social dynamics.
He was no longer the Squirrel Filch who used to hug a cat and hate any wizard; he was now the head of the Hogwarts goalkeeping team!
Actually, the people who are most moved by the changes in the school are not the students, but the professors.
A few years ago, Hogwarts only had a handful of students. The professors taught from the first year to the seventh year. Even so, Professor McGonagall still had to spare some of her energy to handle the vice-principal's miscellaneous duties.
If this were today, you'd be working yourself to death trying to finish teaching all the classes, let alone doing anything else.
Having dedicated their lives to teaching, what they desired most wasn't Hogwarts' fame, but rather to see young wizards learn truly useful skills from them, become qualified wizards, and, after graduation, earn a living using magic, and then spread their lineage.
Students are the foundation of a professor's career.
This is the belief of all the professors at Hogwarts now.
So when students do well, they are happy; when students don't do well, they are anxious and try to find solutions. But now, they are much more relaxed because of Irving's series of adjustments. No matter how many students there are, no student will be left behind, and everyone will make progress.
These are the subject-specific study support groups.
People always have strengths and weaknesses. Some people are good at learning, while others work hard but can't seem to grasp the material. In such cases, those who can't learn will be grouped together to try other people's learning methods. Eventually, one or more of these methods will prove useful.
The school library no longer had any restricted book section, because all the restricted books had been moved to the second floor. To read a restricted book, it wasn't enough to just get a professor's approval; you had to submit an application stating the purpose and use of the book, and then have Irving's signature before you could enter the second floor.
Incidentally, the librarian of the second-floor restricted area isn't a person, but a little slip of paper. It only recognizes Owen's signature, and when the time is up, it will take the books back and push the young wizards to the first floor.