For the rest of the journey, the four of them gathered together to talk about the wizard cards.
Albert used the card games he had played before to perfect the rules of the Wizard Card game. Of course, this was only the prototype of the Wizard Card. Fred, George and Lee Jordan listened with great interest and offered their own opinions from time to time.
"You say, if wizard cards become really famous one day, how many Galleons will this notebook that originally recorded the rules of wizard cards be worth?" Albert shook the notebook in his hand and asked the three companions in front of him in a joking tone.
"If it were me, I would definitely not sell it." Li Jordan said without hesitation: "This notebook will become a legend and will be passed down along with the wizard cards."
The emotions of several people have been in an excited stage. The wizard cards and the prospects of this game that Albert described to them are too good. Moreover, whether it is Fred, George, or even Lee Jordan, they can feel the charm of this game.
There's no way, there are too few games in the wizarding world.
When the Hogwarts Express began to slow down, Albert and his friends suddenly came to their senses and hurriedly changed into their school robes.
Soon after, the train stopped at Hogsmeade Station under the rain. It was still raining outside, and Fred and George tried to cover themselves with cloaks. Lee Jordan took out an umbrella from the suitcase, looked at Albert in confusion and asked, "You didn't bring an umbrella?"
Li Jordan found it unbelievable. With Albert's personality, how could he forget to bring an umbrella
"No need, I have this!" Albert chanted a spell, raised his wand and conjured an umbrella, and reminded with a smile: "You probably forgot that I practiced the summoning spell for a long time last semester. Look, it comes in handy now."
"Don't push over here." Seeing Fred and George actually squeezed under his umbrella, Li Jordan was speechless.
"Albert, help me make a copy of the umbrella." Fred shouted to Albert. It was too crowded for the three of them to fit under one umbrella.
"Give me your wand," Albert shouted to Fred because it was too noisy.
"Don't you have a wand?" Fred was puzzled, but when he saw Albert holding up the wand, he understood what was going on and handed his wand to Albert.
"Duplicate." Albert took Fred's wand, chanted a spell, and knocked it on Lee Jordan's umbrella, helping to copy an umbrella.
Before returning it to the other party, Albert glanced at the wand again and muttered, "It's not as effective as mine. The power of the spell is obviously weakened."
"What are you talking about?" Li Jordan handed the copied umbrella to the twins and asked them to squeeze in an umbrella. The wizards behind him saw this scene and were full of envy. After all, only a few people brought umbrellas.
There are even fewer people who can use the summoning spell to create an umbrella like Albert did.
The rain was falling fast and hard, like buckets of cold water being poured on everyone's heads. The unlucky people who didn't bring umbrellas were soaked as soon as they got off the train. They could only lower their heads, squint their eyes, and shrink their bodies in the downpour, trying to block the rain on their heads.
"First years, come here!" A familiar voice came from not far away. Hagrid, holding an oil lamp, waved to the first years who were soaked like a drowned rat.
As was customary, Hagrid would lead them on the traditional journey across the lake.
Others pushed each other forward along the platform.
Albert, Fred, George and Lee Jordan deliberately lagged behind the team, looking at these unfortunate guys who were soaked like drowned rats with glee and making heartless remarks. George and Lee Jordan were still discussing why they were unwilling to bring an umbrella.
Of course, Albert and his companions were not the only ones who had umbrellas. All the students who had umbrellas followed the team leisurely, not wanting to squeeze with everyone else. Anyway, there must be enough carriages.
Several people followed other students through a rough and muddy road, and what came into view was a large number of carriages, each of which was pulled by an invisible night horse.
The shivering students hurriedly climbed onto the carriages, and Albert and his four companions boarded one. Angelina and Alia were sharing an umbrella with Sana next to them. The latter was chatting with Albert before getting on the car, expressing her interest in the replication spell.
"If I have time, I can teach you!" Albert said to Shanna, "This spell is not too difficult, as long as you are willing to spend some time practicing."
"It's time to go," Fred reminded.
After Albert climbed into the carriage and closed the door, the carriage stumbled away. The long team of carriages moved along the path leading to Hogwarts Castle, and the wheels rolled over the puddles, splashing a lot of water.
Albert leaned against the car window, feeling the violent shaking in the car.
No one spoke, everyone gathered around the car window and looked at Hogwarts in the distance.
Soon, the carriage passed through the Hogwarts gate with a winged boar sculpture and finally stopped at the stone steps in front of the two oak doors.
The people in the carriage in front had hurriedly climbed the stone steps and ran into the castle in the heavy rain.
Albert, Fred, George and Lee Jordan got off the carriage holding umbrellas and walked leisurely up the stone steps among the hurried crowd.
On the way, Albert pulled up a unlucky guy who had slipped. The other person just said "thank you" and hurried away.
"That guy is so stupid," George muttered.
"How stupid is it?" Li Qiaodan asked curiously.
"Guess for yourself."
Albert ignored the quarrel between the two men and stood at the door, looking back in the direction of the Black Lake. He could vaguely see blurry lights on the lake moving towards the dock.
Are the freshmen still crossing the lake
"Albert, let's go!" George urged.
“Here I come.”
Albert withdrew his gaze, followed the crowd, walked slowly towards the foyer, and entered the auditorium through two pairs of doors.
It is said that every year during the freshmen banquet, the Hogwarts Great Hall is redecorated to make it look more magnificent.
Albert walked into the auditorium and looked up at the guest of honor seat. Sure enough, he saw a strange figure there.
He nodded imperceptibly to Rowena, then sat in the seat that Lee Jordan had specially reserved for him. He also said hello to the ghost of Gryffindor College, Almost Headless Nick, who was passing by.
"Good evening." Albert retracted his gaze and greeted his acquaintance from the same class with a smile.
"You're tanned." Shanna looked at Albert and said, "Did you go to the beach for vacation during the summer vacation?"
"The Basque Beach in France." Albert nodded. "The food there is really good and unforgettable."
"How enviable!" Sana said with envy, "It's boring to stay at home during the summer vacation."
"It's really boring." Fred muttered, "But it's basically the same every year. I'm used to it."
"At least you can still play Quidditch." Lee Jordan couldn't help but protest.
After everyone had chatted for a few words, Professor McGonagall came over with the first-year students. The sound in the hall began to disappear and fell into silence.
The Gryffindor head of house placed a tattered, dirty, and patched wizard's hat on a three-legged stool in full view of everyone.
Then, under the astonished gaze of the freshmen, the Sorting Hat suddenly sang a new Sorting Hat Song.
After the singing ended, the sorting ceremony officially began.
To be honest, it's quite interesting to watch other people's sorting ceremonies.
Freshmen began to be sorted into colleges.
Well, Albert would never admit that he was actually interested in Qiu Zhang's appearance.
After all, in the Harry Potter story, Qiu Zhang is a lovely girl with oriental appearance. However, one thing we have to admit is that there are differences in the aesthetic views of Europeans and Asians. No, it should be said that people from every country have differences.
Perhaps in the eyes of most Europeans, Africans and Asians all look similar.
Fortunately, Albert does not have the face blindness problem that many Europeans have.
Qiu Zhang was in the front row. Unlike Europeans, her face shape was more Asian. Well, she was indeed a lovely girl.
However, compared with Qiu Zhang, what Albert cares more about is a boy named Zacharias Smith. Albert doesn't have any special impression of his name, but he pays special attention to the surname Smith.
Incidentally, this Smith was sorted into Hufflepuff.
Gryffindor also welcomed several new students, Katie Bell was one of them. Albert had some impression of this girl, she seemed to be one of the three suitors of Gryffindor.
"Is that the Rowena Smith you mentioned?" Fred looked at the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor curiously and asked Albert beside him.
"Well, it's indeed him. Looks like we don't have to worry about not learning anything in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class this year." While Albert was speaking, Angelina on the opposite side was talking to George about flying broomsticks. She hadn't bought a broom yet and wanted to hear the opinions of other members of the team.
"The Nimbus 1700 is good, this series of brooms has always been good," Wood interrupted.
"What did you buy?" Angelina looked at Fred and George.
"Sweep Seven Stars No. 5." The twins looked at each other and said in unison.
"Where's Albert?" Angelina asked Albert again.
"He didn't buy a broomstick," Fred Albert answered.
"I suggest you borrow a broom from someone in the team and try it out, and then consider what to buy." Albert made his suggestion.
However, this suggestion was not a good one, as most people bought the Comet and the Seven Sweeping Stars, and no one bought the Nimbus, because the brooms in this series were more expensive.
"What's your budget?" Wood asked. "If it's not high, I suggest you buy the latest model, the Seven-Star 6. Comet hasn't launched a new flying broom for several years. Of course, the Comet 260 is also a good broom, but it's a little slow. It depends on your choice."
While they were talking, the last student entered Ravenclaw. After the sorting ceremony, Professor McGonagall took away the sorting hat and stool.
"Welcome to Hogwarts in the new school year!" Professor Dumbledore stood up from the guest of honor seat, looked at all the students with a smile, opened his arms and made a welcoming gesture.
"This year, I am pleased to welcome a new teacher to our team, Professor Smith, who will fill the vacant position in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class."
There was some applause in the auditorium.
"Well, I think you are hungry, let's start eating." Dumbledore raised the spoon and tapped the goblet in front of him.
The golden plates and goblets in front of everyone were suddenly filled with food and drinks, and the auditorium was filled with laughter and the sound of knives and forks clacking.
Albert was not very hungry, so he picked out the food he liked. While cutting steak, he discussed with Nick the academic question of whether ghosts could eat.
Nick said that ghosts usually only serve rotten food at their banquets, and when ghosts want to taste the food, they will pass through the tables where the food is served.
"I guess they let the food rot to make the taste stronger." Albert said to the people next to him, which resulted in a lot of eye rolls.
When the last of the desserts had been cleared away, Dumbledore stood up once more, and the buzz of conversation in the hall ceased abruptly.
"Okay!" Dumbledore looked at everyone with a smile and said, "Now that everyone has eaten and drunk enough, I have a few announcements to make."
"Mr. Filch, the gatekeeper, wanted me to tell everyone. This year, students are prohibited from growing garlic or bringing anything related to garlic into the castle."
When Dumbledore talked about this, many people couldn't help laughing. They all remembered that someone used garlic to play a prank on Filch before the summer vacation last semester.
After being kicked by Albert, Fred and George forced themselves not to laugh out loud, and both of them felt uncomfortable holding their breath.
…
The freshman opening party ended only when Dumbledore said that everyone should go to bed.
"I didn't expect Filch would actually ban people from bringing garlic." After leaving the hall, Fred finally couldn't help laughing out loud.
"What a pity, the garlic scrambled eggs taste quite good." Li Qiaodan said seriously.
This made Fred and George want to laugh.
Albert followed everyone to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room.
"Password?" the Fat Lady asked as they approached.
"Nonsense," Percy stepped forward and said.
The portrait suddenly sprang forward, revealing a huge hole in the wall.
Everyone climbed in from here. The circular common room still had the familiar furnishings, and a roaring fire was burning by the fireplace.
The boys all piled up the spiral staircase and headed to their respective dormitories.
Four four-poster beds stood against the wall, draped with crimson curtains, and each person's box had been placed at the foot of their bed.
"Good night." Fred was too full. He took out his pajamas from the suitcase, changed into them, and then lay down on the bed and didn't want to move.
"Good night." Albert also changed into pajamas and climbed into bed. Their bedding had been warmed by the charcoal stove.
Lying on the comfortable bed, listening to the sound of rain outside, Albert closed his eyes and felt that life in Hogwarts was very comfortable.