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Chapter 46: The Times Have Changed? Not Anymore.
The scene instantly became awkward, yet surprisingly, no one dared to laugh.
Even Headmaster Dumbledore, who was sitting at the same table as William, looked as serene as if nothing had happened. He was studying the table with intense focus, as if considering what strange object he might transfigure it into for entertainment later.
The students sat ramrod straight, so quiet that William almost thought he had misheard.
Just as he was beginning to wonder if the world's timeline had somehow deviated, Professor McGonagall waved her wand. A loud whoosh, caused by something rapidly cutting through the air, came from upstairs. Then, a rolled-up piece of parchment shot into the Great Hall with a swish.
Professor McGonagall caught the parchment with a calm expression and unrolled it to inspect it.
William could distinctly hear a slow, collective exhale from the entire Staff Table—everyone was clearly relieved.
At that moment, the Great Hall suddenly showed signs of life again. The students, who had all been sitting with perfect posture, relaxed and began to whisper amongst themselves.
Professor McGonagall quickly checked the list, then set it down and addressed the first-year students once more:
"The Sorting will now recommence. When I call your name, please come forward and await the Sorting."
"Barry Baker."
A small boy timidly emerged from the crowd and obediently put on the hat.
"Ravenclaw!"
Almost instantly, the hat shouted the name of the House.
The Ravenclaw table erupted in thunderous applause.
William, on the other hand, was completely stunned.
"You have witnessed a great ritual. You have received Treasure Chest x1."
What part of that was great?!
Putting on a thousand-year-old hat and being assigned to a House—he had already asked about it, and no one ever failed this step!
To describe such a simple matter as "great" was a bit of an exaggeration, wasn't it?
Grumbling inwardly, William casually opened the Treasure Chest.
[Ritual's Hope (UR) (Special): Since 993 A.D., Gryffindor's hat has served as the tool for the Four Houses' student selection. The four great wizards blessed this hat together, simultaneously imbuing the Sorting Ceremony with various blessings.
The age of enrollment for wizards differs across the world; the earliest, at Mahoutokoro, even accepts students as young as seven (Note 1). Only Hogwarts enrolls students at eleven.
Only the most powerful wizards can skillfully harness the effects of rituals. These rituals can destroy cities, unleash plagues, or grant power akin to resurrection and bestow permanent blessings (Note 2).
The magical power that new students accumulate before enrollment—allowing them to fly through the sky, move through the earth, and make items disappear and reappear—is transformed by the ritual into the strongest form of protection, sheltering them through the long years before they come of age (Note 3).
And this ritual, left behind and continuously improved and repaired by generations of Headmasters, has become what it is today.
In 1876, the castle's poltergeist, Peeves, after escaping a trap, successfully acquired a large-caliber muzzleloader and a small cannon within Hogwarts (Note 4).
It was a battle where Peeves practically suppressed the entire school's faculty. In the end, the School Authority had to agree to Peeves's various privileges in exchange for peace.
But from that day on, the ritual's protective power, at the cost of some of its defenses, began to specifically target these kinds of Muggle weapons.
When Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald first met and hit it off, the two young geniuses began to research protective magic against Muggle weapons, making unprecedented progress.
After the two parted in anger, Albus Dumbledore continued their initial research and, after becoming Headmaster, applied this magic to improve the ritual.
Ritual Effect (Wizards are unharmed by firearms): Any high-velocity bullet that approaches within a certain range of a wizard will immediately trigger an effect similar to Apparition, transferring the bullet underground.
—Believe me, transferring a thousand bullets is not as difficult as a single Apparition. Distinguishing the bullets is actually the more complex part.
—There are always those who want to shout that the times have changed, but Albus Dumbledore changed them back.
Card Effect: You have gained this ritual effect for free.]
*Hiss*—
William couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath. He finally understood why his magical power seemed so much stronger than that of other wizards his age.
So that's what happened! Other people's magic was used to solidify the defensive ritual. All the magical power they had accumulated before the age of eleven—that was no small amount.
Fortunately, he now had it as well. Speaking of which, could the so-called rule about not telling unsorted students about the Sorting Ceremony have something to do with this?
Well, he didn't need to be envious anymore. He had it now, too.
***
Note 1: Mahoutokoro in Japan is a recognized wizarding school. They enroll students at the age of seven, much earlier than Hogwarts at eleven.
Note 2: There is no official term for this, but the spell Voldemort used for his resurrection was clearly different from a simple one-line spell. Other similarly complex examples from the original work include the Unbreakable Vow and the long string of words Ron recited at the start of school, thinking it was a spell. Considering the power of the Fiendfyre that Grindelwald unleashed, which nearly incinerated all of Paris, I believe it was also the result of a series of ritual enhancements.
Note 3: Much of the magic new students perform before enrollment is unconscious, but its effects are by no means weak. Harry could make the bulletproof glass in front of the boa constrictor disappear, and Neville, after being thrown from an upper floor, gently floated to the ground. Keep in mind that in his second year, Harry was nearly killed when a Bludger knocked him off his broom. Yet after enrolling, Ron said Harry and Malfoy could only make sparks with their wands—their magical power had dropped drastically. And before Harry entered his third year, he blew up his aunt and sent her floating far away just by being angry, without a wand. If there weren't some kind of magical damage reduction between wizards, third-year students would have been causing fatalities long ago. In summary, I conclude that wizards undergo a significant weakening of their magical power upon enrollment, which is converted into personal protection.
Note 4: In 1876, the Hogwarts caretaker at the time, in an attempt to expel Peeves, set up various traps for the poltergeist, using several scimitars, a few crossbows, a large-caliber muzzleloader, and a small cannon (you read that right, that's from the original source material) as a decoy. However, Peeves destroyed the traps and, for his own amusement, proceeded to fire the guns and cannon inside the castle, forcing the school to be evacuated for three days. Three days later, the Headmaster at the time, Professor Euprasia Moore, agreed to sign an agreement with Peeves. He would surrender his weapons in exchange for more privileges (swimming once a week in the boys' lavatory on the first floor, first pick of moldy bread from the kitchen for throwing, and a new hat specially custom-made for him by Madam Bonnabile). So Peeves is genuinely a badass, but it also means Hogwarts was likely aware of Muggle firearms long ago, which serves as the basis for my later deductions.
PS: This chapter might be quite controversial, so I spent a long time gathering materials for these supplementary notes. This will probably be the only chapter for today.
(end of chapter)
The scene instantly became awkward, yet surprisingly, no one dared to laugh.
Even Headmaster Dumbledore, who was sitting at the same table as William, looked as serene as if nothing had happened. He was studying the table with intense focus, as if considering what strange object he might transfigure it into for entertainment later.
The students sat ramrod straight, so quiet that William almost thought he had misheard.
Just as he was beginning to wonder if the world's timeline had somehow deviated, Professor McGonagall waved her wand. A loud whoosh, caused by something rapidly cutting through the air, came from upstairs. Then, a rolled-up piece of parchment shot into the Great Hall with a swish.
Professor McGonagall caught the parchment with a calm expression and unrolled it to inspect it.
William could distinctly hear a slow, collective exhale from the entire Staff Table—everyone was clearly relieved.
At that moment, the Great Hall suddenly showed signs of life again. The students, who had all been sitting with perfect posture, relaxed and began to whisper amongst themselves.
Professor McGonagall quickly checked the list, then set it down and addressed the first-year students once more:
"The Sorting will now recommence. When I call your name, please come forward and await the Sorting."
"Barry Baker."
A small boy timidly emerged from the crowd and obediently put on the hat.
"Ravenclaw!"
Almost instantly, the hat shouted the name of the House.
The Ravenclaw table erupted in thunderous applause.
William, on the other hand, was completely stunned.
"You have witnessed a great ritual. You have received Treasure Chest x1."
What part of that was great?!
Putting on a thousand-year-old hat and being assigned to a House—he had already asked about it, and no one ever failed this step!
To describe such a simple matter as "great" was a bit of an exaggeration, wasn't it?
Grumbling inwardly, William casually opened the Treasure Chest.
[Ritual's Hope (UR) (Special): Since 993 A.D., Gryffindor's hat has served as the tool for the Four Houses' student selection. The four great wizards blessed this hat together, simultaneously imbuing the Sorting Ceremony with various blessings.
The age of enrollment for wizards differs across the world; the earliest, at Mahoutokoro, even accepts students as young as seven (Note 1). Only Hogwarts enrolls students at eleven.
Only the most powerful wizards can skillfully harness the effects of rituals. These rituals can destroy cities, unleash plagues, or grant power akin to resurrection and bestow permanent blessings (Note 2).
The magical power that new students accumulate before enrollment—allowing them to fly through the sky, move through the earth, and make items disappear and reappear—is transformed by the ritual into the strongest form of protection, sheltering them through the long years before they come of age (Note 3).
And this ritual, left behind and continuously improved and repaired by generations of Headmasters, has become what it is today.
In 1876, the castle's poltergeist, Peeves, after escaping a trap, successfully acquired a large-caliber muzzleloader and a small cannon within Hogwarts (Note 4).
It was a battle where Peeves practically suppressed the entire school's faculty. In the end, the School Authority had to agree to Peeves's various privileges in exchange for peace.
But from that day on, the ritual's protective power, at the cost of some of its defenses, began to specifically target these kinds of Muggle weapons.
When Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald first met and hit it off, the two young geniuses began to research protective magic against Muggle weapons, making unprecedented progress.
After the two parted in anger, Albus Dumbledore continued their initial research and, after becoming Headmaster, applied this magic to improve the ritual.
Ritual Effect (Wizards are unharmed by firearms): Any high-velocity bullet that approaches within a certain range of a wizard will immediately trigger an effect similar to Apparition, transferring the bullet underground.
—Believe me, transferring a thousand bullets is not as difficult as a single Apparition. Distinguishing the bullets is actually the more complex part.
—There are always those who want to shout that the times have changed, but Albus Dumbledore changed them back.
Card Effect: You have gained this ritual effect for free.]
*Hiss*—
William couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath. He finally understood why his magical power seemed so much stronger than that of other wizards his age.
So that's what happened! Other people's magic was used to solidify the defensive ritual. All the magical power they had accumulated before the age of eleven—that was no small amount.
Fortunately, he now had it as well. Speaking of which, could the so-called rule about not telling unsorted students about the Sorting Ceremony have something to do with this?
Well, he didn't need to be envious anymore. He had it now, too.
***
Note 1: Mahoutokoro in Japan is a recognized wizarding school. They enroll students at the age of seven, much earlier than Hogwarts at eleven.
Note 2: There is no official term for this, but the spell Voldemort used for his resurrection was clearly different from a simple one-line spell. Other similarly complex examples from the original work include the Unbreakable Vow and the long string of words Ron recited at the start of school, thinking it was a spell. Considering the power of the Fiendfyre that Grindelwald unleashed, which nearly incinerated all of Paris, I believe it was also the result of a series of ritual enhancements.
Note 3: Much of the magic new students perform before enrollment is unconscious, but its effects are by no means weak. Harry could make the bulletproof glass in front of the boa constrictor disappear, and Neville, after being thrown from an upper floor, gently floated to the ground. Keep in mind that in his second year, Harry was nearly killed when a Bludger knocked him off his broom. Yet after enrolling, Ron said Harry and Malfoy could only make sparks with their wands—their magical power had dropped drastically. And before Harry entered his third year, he blew up his aunt and sent her floating far away just by being angry, without a wand. If there weren't some kind of magical damage reduction between wizards, third-year students would have been causing fatalities long ago. In summary, I conclude that wizards undergo a significant weakening of their magical power upon enrollment, which is converted into personal protection.
Note 4: In 1876, the Hogwarts caretaker at the time, in an attempt to expel Peeves, set up various traps for the poltergeist, using several scimitars, a few crossbows, a large-caliber muzzleloader, and a small cannon (you read that right, that's from the original source material) as a decoy. However, Peeves destroyed the traps and, for his own amusement, proceeded to fire the guns and cannon inside the castle, forcing the school to be evacuated for three days. Three days later, the Headmaster at the time, Professor Euprasia Moore, agreed to sign an agreement with Peeves. He would surrender his weapons in exchange for more privileges (swimming once a week in the boys' lavatory on the first floor, first pick of moldy bread from the kitchen for throwing, and a new hat specially custom-made for him by Madam Bonnabile). So Peeves is genuinely a badass, but it also means Hogwarts was likely aware of Muggle firearms long ago, which serves as the basis for my later deductions.
PS: This chapter might be quite controversial, so I spent a long time gathering materials for these supplementary notes. This will probably be the only chapter for today.
(end of chapter)
