Cho Chang, the beautiful girl from Ravenclaw, had never experienced such a torturous start-of-term ceremony.
Her previous four start-of-term ceremonies at Hogwarts had always been so relaxed and pleasant.
Back then, the ceiling was dotted with sparse starlight, candles floated above the four long tables, ghosts drifted around in the candlelight, and students sat by their respective House tables, excitedly sharing their summer holiday experiences.
Then came the Sorting Ceremony, where the four Houses would jointly welcome their first-year students.
After Dumbledore announced the new term's Precautions, the delicious food filled the long tables, and the curtain on a new life at Hogwarts was drawn.
But now, everything was in chaos. Food in the kitchen was suddenly discovered to be poisoned, and Dumbledore had to temporarily absent himself to deal with the matter.
The House-elves who cooked for the Hogwarts students had all collapsed. The start-of-term feast was up in the air, and it was unknown how many of those poor House-elves would survive.
Cho's mood at this moment was like the Great Hall ceiling tonight—a swirling dark cloud, pouring down rain. Even Professor McGonagall's announcement of the good news about the Triwizard Tournament couldn't dispel the worry in her heart.
Dinner was served. There were sandwiches, jam, eggs, bread… not very lavish, but enough to fill one's stomach. Cho was very grateful to the people who had urgently prepared this food.
As the dinner continued, snippets of information about the kitchen poisoning case gradually drifted into her ears.
“Do you know? The person who poisoned it is very likely that crazy girl from our House—Luna Lovegood.”
Cho's best friend, Marietta, whispered into her ear.
“No way?” Cho's mouth was slightly agape, very surprised. “Even though she's very peculiar most of the time, I don't think she's a bad girl.”
“Yes, who would have thought?” Marietta curled her lip in disgust. “But we'd best stay away from her in the future. Who knows if she's really the poisoner, who knows if she'll do something bad to us.”
Cho pressed her lips together, her gaze passing over Marietta to Luna at the end of the long table.
She was sitting alone at the end of the Ravenclaw table, eating by herself. All the students kept their distance from her, as if she carried some deadly pathogen.
Only the Slytherin students at the next table occasionally threw crumpled paper balls, accompanied by whispers and sneers:
“Do you know? That crazy girl had a fit and poisoned all the House-elves in the kitchen!”
“Oh my goodness! How much money will her father have to pay! Can their family afford it?”
“I don't know, but I bet Dumbledore will expel her from school.”
“That's great. It's best to kick her out tonight, don't let her stay at school overnight.”
…
Cho couldn't see Luna's expression, but those harsh whispers entering Cho's ears made her feel inexplicably sorry for that lonely girl with no friends.
“There's never been any proof that Luna did it,” Cho thought sadly to herself. “And no Professor has announced that Luna is the real culprit, so why does everyone think it must be her who poisoned them? If Luna really had a problem, the Professors wouldn't feel comfortable letting Luna back into the Great Hall.”
Marietta was still whispering bad things about Luna into Cho's ear. All of Luna's usual peculiar words and actions were now being described by Marietta as preparations she made to harm others.
Cho didn't respond to Marietta, because she saw a tall, freckled, blonde boy walk out from beside the Slytherin table.
The boy walked up to Luna, but kept his distance, hands on his hips, head held high, and asked contemptuously:
“How long are you going to sit here? Aren't you satisfied after killing the House-elves? Do you want to kill students too?”
“I didn't hurt anyone.”
Luna confronted him. Although her voice was neither loud nor sharp, just like anyone's normal speaking voice, Cho vaguely heard a suppressed sob, as well as anger and grievance in her voice.
“Who is that boy?” Cho pointed at the Slytherin boy who was harassing Luna, asking Marietta beside her.
“Oni Stonfield,” Marietta said. “But I don't like him. He's too spoiled by his grandmother.”
Seeing that Luna refused to obey him, Oni began to tug at Luna's school robes, while loudly and repeatedly emphasizing Luna's crime of poisoning.
The eyes of all four Houses were drawn over.
This Slytherin boy seemed determined to confirm Luna's identity as the poisoner tonight and kick Luna out of Hogwarts.
“Stonfield! Why aren't you sitting properly in your Slytherin seat?”
Professor Flitwick walked over, angrily questioning Oni.
“Professor Flitwick, criminals cannot stay at Hogwarts.”
Oni defended his actions.
“Dumbledore is investigating this matter. Until the investigation results are out, Luna is still a Ravenclaw student!”
Oni opened his mouth, wanting to say something more. The Great Hall doors suddenly opened at this moment, and a small white shadow flew into the Great Hall at an extremely fast speed.
“Little master, Cassie has come to save you!”
A House-elf wearing a white infirmary pillowcase jumped in front of Oni, and just as she was about to cast a magic attack on Professor Flitwick, a powerful force suddenly struck her lower back. She rolled into a ball of flesh until she hit the corner of a student's bench, then stopped.
Oni had kicked her hard.
“Li… Little master.”
Cassie got up, seeing stars, her big eyes looking at the ashen-faced Oni, and then at the displeased Professor Flitwick.
“Shut up!”
Oni snapped: “Where did you come from, House-elf, so disloyal, you can't even recognize your master. I've never seen you!”
“Little master!”
Cassie, disregarding her numerous injuries, knelt before Oni and wailed:
“Cassie has always been loyal to little master! Please, little master, don't abandon Cassie!”
“Stonfield!”
Professor Flitwick was so angry he wished his height could increase by two feet, and he tapped Oni's head: “You'd better explain the origin of this House-elf!”
“He doesn't need to explain, Professor Flitwick. This House-elf named Cassie belongs to the Stonfield family. He brought his House-elf to school!”
The Great Hall doors did not close. Dumbledore and a thin boy with black hair and black eyes were standing at the Great Hall entrance at this moment.
The last sentence had come from the boy's mouth.
Under the gaze of all the Hogwarts teachers and students, the boy strode through the four rows of House tables, the wind generated by his quick pace blowing his school robes.
“Who is he?”
Cho's eyes widened.
“Weilan Costa. From Gryffindor, a year below us.”
Marietta seemed to have seen through Cho's thoughts, chuckling as she asked, “Do you have feelings for him?”
Cho's face flushed, and she pushed Marietta: “No, I don't!”
“I just think he has a unique and outstanding presence…”