In the evening, Maka was still in his office doing final checks on the preparations for the new semester. When the setting sun slowly shone through the gaps in the curtains to the right side of the desk, he finally gently opened the notebook in front of him. Closed.
"... It's almost time. Let's confirm the last few aspects of the game with Professor McGonagall, and then we can go to the back door to prepare to welcome the new students."
After stretching casually, Maka stood up and was about to walk around the desk towards the door when she inadvertently caught a glimpse of a black shadow flashing past the window.
"What... a carriage?"
He stopped immediately, then took two steps back and opened the curtains wider.
Facts have proved that he was not wrong. From what he could see, a black carriage pulled by two Pegasus horses was gliding towards the castle in the sky. As for the "Punch of Earth" family emblem on the carriage, Maka knew who was coming at a glance. The identity was identified.
"It turns out that the talented girl from the Hohenheim family has arrived." He opened the curtains, turned around and walked to the corridor outside the door. "Since it's that little girl, let me go!"
Maka thought as she walked down the stairs to the foyer. But when he walked out from the main entrance of the castle to the front lawn, he found that the carriage did not come directly inside, but landed neatly outside the school gate.
"Miss Hohenheim, why are you so polite? Didn't I tell you last time? When we come to Hogwarts as guests on weekdays, we usually ask guests to park their carriages on the lawn in the front yard..." He rushed to the door and waved. After removing the defensive spell on the door, he opened the door and walked out, "Oh, isn't this Mr. David? We didn't see each other for a while when we said goodbye last time at Beauxbatons!"
That's right, sitting in the driver's seat today directing the Pegasus on the road is still the ghost gentleman who followed the fat man back then.
"Haha, yes -" Ghost David stood by the carriage, nodded towards Maka, and said with a cheerful smile, "Mr. McClain, from today on, our young lady will ask you to take care of her. It is a blessing for our Hohenheim family that she can learn magic under the guidance of you, a well-known wizard!"
"How can we talk about looking after you!" Maka waved her hand, "It goes without saying that Miss Hohenheim is smart, and her knowledge of alchemy is even more extraordinary. In the end, this must be a blessing to me and the entire Hogwarts!"
Both sides are very skilled in this kind of mutually flattering social rhetoric. You lift me up, I lift you up, but this living person and ghost have an expression that does not change, and a heart that does not beat, and is as thick-skinned as his hometown.
And just when the two were chatting happily, the carriage door was gently pushed open from the inside, and a cute little girl walked down to the roadside.
"Professor McLean, Sarah would like to say hello to you..." She tilted her upper body slightly and said in an authentic manner, "Sarah has been rude a lot in the past few times we have met, and I would like to ask the professor to forgive Sarah for her mistakes. Starting today. , Sarah will study at Hogwarts, and Sarah will definitely study hard with the professor."
As she said, the little girl today was indeed much more honest than the previous times. For a while, Maka didn't know what kind of evil idea she was thinking about.
"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what you say about forgiveness or not -" Maka said with a smile, "Come on, come in! In a while, the other freshmen will arrive, and then you will prepare to attend Hogwart with them. Here’s the sorting ceremony, and then you can have a good dinner!”
"Ah, no... no, Mr. McClain." Ghost David quickly refused, "I have to go back immediately. The owner of the house asked me to do something else early tomorrow morning! Sorry, sorry..."
"Are you really not going to stay and sit for a while?"
Of course Maka was being polite, she was a ghost, she was floating all day long, even on the carriage, so where could she "take a seat"? What's more, even if David stayed to attend the welcome dinner, he could only watch others eating and drinking, but he himself couldn't even smell it. Not to mention how bad it felt!
After watching David "driving" the carriage to fly high into the sky again and gradually go away, Maka returned to the main entrance of the castle with Miss Hohenheim, who was particularly reserved and polite today. Behind the two of them, a beautifully decorated small suitcase floated smoothly under Maka's control, moving forward little by little with them.
Although the suitcase has not been cast with a traceless expansion spell, it has undergone alchemical transformation. It is not like Alexander's one, which has the same volume and capacity on the outside and inside.
"Miss Hohenheim, before your classmates arrive, you should take a rest in the side hall next to the auditorium! Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something..." Maka asked as she walked, "There are some on the train. It is our Hogwarts custom to sell snacks and desserts and share them with classmates in the carriage. If you have a chance in the future, I suggest you try taking a ride... Here we are, in the small hall over here."
"Thank you... but no need, Professor MacLean." Sarah followed him and turned around and walked into the side hall. "If you have something else to do, you can leave first - Sarah can just wait here."
"How can this be possible?" Maka took the lead and sat down on the chair, then said, "Oh, don't get me wrong, in fact, I didn't stay here because of you, it would be the same for other freshmen. You think, As a professor, how can I leave a new student here alone?"
After that, Maka sat with her in the side hall for a short while. Although the two of them didn't stop talking from beginning to end, what they said was purely nutritious nonsense. Whenever Maka wanted to ask her about her thoughts and opinions on something, no matter how trivial it was, she would avoid it without leaving a trace.
However, as they talked, Maka gradually got a taste of it - Sarah's attitude of "seemingly close but not close, seeming far but not far" when facing him now was not the same as when he faced him back then. The same feeling as Dumbledore
This is a state where one clearly knows that the other party is powerful and treats it with caution, but at the same time wants to get something from the other party. So much so that when dealing with the distance between the two parties, there is always a little bit of embarrassment, because she is not sure whether the distance is enough to keep her secrets.
"Oh, I think I should go to the back to greet your classmates." Although it actually had to wait a while, since Maka noticed the reason why she deliberately maintained a sense of distance, she naturally stopped embarrassing her. " Just wait, you will be able to see them soon..."
After leaving the side hall, Maka couldn't help but chuckle.
When I first met Dumbledore, the specific situation was actually similar to before. He focused on staying on guard, and even deliberately let his thoughts go. Thinking about it now, Dumbledore must have noticed it by then. It's no wonder that Dumbledore would directly mention the incident of his magic runaway later, indirectly allowing himself to put aside some unnecessary vigilance.
While Maka was recalling her ignorance back then, she walked along the corridor to the back door, then leaned against the wall and waited for Hagrid to bring the little wizards from the lake to the castle.
After a while, the sky outside was completely dark. When he heard the sound of messy and dense footsteps mixed with the hum of soft conversations coming from outside the door, he knew that today's batch of freshmen had finally arrived.
“Bang bang bang—”
Hagrid's fist was as solid and powerful as ever. Even though the back door was not much thinner than the front door, he could still knock the thick door loudly.
Maka waved her hand, opened the door, and then took two steps forward to reach the steps outside the door.
"Professor McLean, first-year student."
In order to maintain the majesty of a professor in front of students, Hagrid rarely called Maka by her last name plus her position. Somehow, Maka always felt a little uncomfortable coming out of his mouth.
"Okay, Professor Hagrid." Maka nodded and said, "Leave it to me—everyone, follow me and follow me. Be careful not to fall behind!"
When these little guys saw Maka, most of them secretly looked left and right in surprise. In fact, except for the small group of Muggle-born students whom Maka came into contact with, those who had never seen him were hesitant.
There's nothing I can do about it, Maka's face is really too "tender". Nowadays, he is well-known in the magic world, so he avoids a lot of such troubles, but these new students may not all know it.
Of course, freshmen are freshmen after all, and they are still in awe of this seemingly magnificent and mysterious Hogwarts castle. Even though they were somewhat suspicious of this surprisingly young professor, it was still more honest to follow him.
After Maka led them through the long corridor and into the small hall where Sarah was, he waved to Sarah who was coming this way.
"Like you, she is also a freshman this year, so get along well with her from now on!" He said, "Then... yes, welcome to Hogwarts! Maybe some of you have heard of it - before you enjoy a delicious dinner Before that, I need to help you find the college you want to enter. This is the practice of Hogwarts and the rules of Hogwarts."
"You will attend classes, do homework, eat, and sleep together with classmates from the same college. If the school is a big family, then the colleges are the families in the family. There are four major colleges in Hogwarts, and they are …”
Maka stood in front of the hall and calmly told about the sorting, and also gave some warnings to these little wizards.
Among the crowd, Alexander and Enns, the two children who had the most contact with Maka, also raised their heads. Although they looked at Maka with different eyes, they all carried a similar longing and desire.