Hogwarts' house system has been in place for a thousand years.

Whether it's classes, breaks, or meals, almost everything in this ancient magic school is arranged and planned based on houses. For example, the previous classes were taught in groups of two houses.

In some ways, this simple and easy-to-understand approach does save Hogwarts' teachers and students a lot of energy.

Peers from the same house are natural friends, and those students from different houses, except for a few special cases, rarely have much interaction with each other. In the corridors of Hogwarts, you always see blocks of color gathering and flowing, rather than a chaotic scene of four colors.

This ancient and beautiful, clear-cut order can be said to be one of the most fascinating landscapes of Hogwarts.

Except...

Dumbledore paused and looked around the hall with a serious expression.

For a long time, the barriers between the four houses of Hogwarts have been like a persistent ailment in the school's shadow.

Prejudice, conflict, indifference... the consequences of these negative emotional confrontations have inadvertently planted too many dangerous sparks. Over the years, he has witnessed too many similar regrets. Undoubtedly, the house system of Hogwarts is destined to divide students, but Dumbledore does not want the tragedy between the founders to continue to play out.

The old man's kind gaze swept across the Hogwarts hall like a spell, gradually dissipating the whispers in the air. Finally, everyone fell silent again, looking up at the old wizard standing at the front.

...

"You are already the greatest headmaster in Hogwarts history, Professor Dumbledore..."

Looking at the young faces in the hall, Dumbledore vaguely heard a girl's voice in his mind.

"Choosing to maintain those ancient traditions, you can continue to enjoy people's love and respect without worry, and then retire gloriously at some point in the future. This is the simplest and most stable path. Just like countless headmasters and professors of magic schools have done before – passing on the torch, the sparks never die, that is the meaning of education."

Dumbledore's gaze slowly swept around the hall, looking at the house banners fluttering on both sides.

Before his eyes, however, a girl wearing a robe adorned with the four house emblems faintly appeared, and the girl stood in the Hogwarts headmaster's office, with her back to the shimmering lake, vying for small fish with the phoenix, while saying those words.

"Or..."

"As a pioneer of the new era, hold up the torch and break through the thorns, to see what more wonderful scenery there is in the distance—bet on the reputation you have accumulated over nearly a hundred years of teaching, and make the light of Hogwarts and magical civilization shine a little brighter."

"Dear Miss Kaslana, what if it fails? What if those changes are proven to be wrong and reckless?"

"Then, I will carefully avoid the mistakes you have made..."

"And when the reputation and praise you have accumulated over nearly a hundred years collapses, I will step on the steps you have paved, point out your recklessness, and become the next headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the 'Guardian' of the next era."

"One last question, just a little brighter?"

"In the vast starry sky, the sun is just a star that is not so dazzling... If the future world leads to the endless sea of stars, then from a rigorous point of view, it can indeed only be said to be a little brighter."

"I understand."

...

In the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

Except for a very few wizards, not many people noticed Dumbledore's slight absent-mindedness.

After a brief pause, Dumbledore quickly continued.

"In short, from today onwards, Hogwarts will implement a teaching method that combines [Class-House]."

Dumbledore looked around at the bewildered little faces in the hall, raised a finger, and said seriously.

"As for the specific class assignments and course arrangements, they will be distributed to everyone after dinner—perhaps you will be temporarily separated from your friends, but I believe that friendship will not disappear because of the separation, but will become more abundant. By the way, whenever you move up to the next year, the classes will be re-assigned once."

"In addition, in the middle and senior years, we will also take into account your course selection and areas of expertise."

"I hope that the prefects and our newly elected head boy and girl can set an example, take the initiative to guide everyone to integrate and adapt to the new system of Hogwarts as soon as possible, and take the initiative to become good friends with students from other houses and classes..."

Cross-house... friends?

Accompanied by Dumbledore's voice, George Weasley subconsciously turned his head and looked at the Ravenclaw table next door.

Sure enough, his lovely "Peach Girl" was proudly puffing out her chest and nodding seriously—the "P (prefect badge)" that Meriel wore on her chest last year had been replaced with the head girl badge.

If talking about cross-house friendships, the relationship between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw in the past year can be described as quite subtle.

Since Gryffindor lost to that group of girls in the "Vegetable Garden War", the little lions who were reduced to free labor in the orchard have become increasingly tense with the Ravenclaw boys, but on the other hand...

"What, George, are you thinking about Peach again?"

Fred Weasley nudged his twin brother with his elbow, grinning.

"Stop looking, you should think about how to deal with the upcoming duel—since Meriel announced her relationship, there are quite a few Ravenclaw boys who want to duel you. I've helped you share at least a dozen glares these past few days."

"So... that's George's girlfriend?"

Charlie Weasley curiously followed the gazes of the two and glanced over, nodding quite approvingly.

"The newly appointed Hogwarts head girl this year? Mom should be quite happy. Although you two have been making trouble at school, if she knows that you've found such an excellent girlfriend, then—"

"Oh, Charlie..."

George Weasley turned his head with a bitter face, "Bro, please, don't tell Mom. Otherwise this year's holiday—"

"I've already written to Mom."

Before George could finish speaking, Percy Weasley's calm voice directly shattered his luck.

"Mom asked you to see if you can invite her to our house as a guest during this year's vacation. By the way, if this Miss Peach is snatched away by that guy from Slytherin, you might be in danger..."

Percy nodded towards the Slytherin table not far away. This year's head boy fell into the hands of the Slytherin house.

Apart from Hufflepuff, who rose to prominence last year, Slytherin had previously won the House Cup for six consecutive years. If the House Cup recorded names, then everyone in Slytherin's seventh grade who is still in school has "five trophies", which can be regarded as the most outstanding group of students in Hogwarts.

Naturally, there would not be too much suspense in the selection of this year's head boy.

"Hmph, that guy..."

George Weasley carefully looked at the Slytherin table opposite and shook his head disdainfully.

"Maybe you saying that before would have made me nervous for a while, but Slytherin is now a notorious hell, not many girls can tolerate a boyfriend who likes to eat shit, right? Those guys with heavy tastes, heh—"

"But, durian is delicious. At least it's much better than potatoes..."

Ginny blinked and said softly, "Besides, that Meriel-senior is graduating from Hogwarts this year, right? Given her level of excellence, she will probably be assigned to the Ministry of Magic with that Slytherin boy? And George, your and Fred's grades probably won't meet the threshold for the Ministry of Magic, right?"

"Little girl, study hard! Don't get involved in adult topics!"

The smile on George Weasley's face gradually disappeared, and he glared at Ginny somewhat fiercely.

However, as a perennial negative teaching example at home, George obviously doesn't have much authority in front of his sister. Faced with George Weasley's gaze, Ginny fearlessly made a face, not afraid at all.

"Ginny is right, you and Fred's study habits really need to be adjusted."

Bill Weasley repeated, his gaze falling on the teachers' table, squinting slightly.

"At least," he said in a low voice, "at least, don't be abandoned by the new era, that one doesn't have much patience..."

Charlie frowned, he didn't understand what Bill meant, but he didn't ask further.

Because Professor Dumbledore started talking again.

"Alright, we have a very long time to discuss the matter of class assignments and courses. Now, I ask everyone to be quiet for a moment and listen to me announce the last two, um... perhaps it can also be considered the last thing."

Dumbledore cleared his throat, his eyes flashing with excited flames, as if a burning blue ocean.

"I am very sorry to inform everyone that from this year onwards, the Hogwarts class schedule will be expanded from the original five days a week to six days—but I believe you will get a lot of fun and, of course, enough knowledge from it—"

"What?!"

Fred Weasley gasped in surprise, opening his mouth wide and staring at Dumbledore in silence.

And almost at the same time, the air in the entire hall seemed to freeze, at least half of the students opened their mouths in disbelief, as if the old wizard not far away had suddenly turned into a devil.

"This is because we have added a large number of course content, filling the gaps in the previous school education."

Dumbledore continued, "In order to solve the contradiction between the ever-increasing knowledge needs of today's magical world and the unbalanced and insufficient composition of the school's faculty team, we have unprecedentedly expanded our professor team. Most of them are legendary wizards who have been famous for a long time, and I hope everyone can cherish this valuable learning opportunity—"

A noisy discussion broke out in the hall, and the students who were aware of it finally reacted.

Even Dumbledore's authority was not so effective at this time, and many students whispered and protested dissatisfiedly, the voice getting louder and louder, and the hall instantly turned into a vegetable market.

"Silence—"

Professor McGonagall picked up a spoon and gently tapped it on the edge of a cup, saying coldly.

Compared to Albus Dumbledore, the deputy headmaster was obviously more effective in dealing with this kind of chaos. With Professor McGonagall's voice, the protests in the hall instantly became half as loud, as if the air had suddenly dropped a few degrees.

Of course, one of the reasons for this may also be that many of the protests came from Gryffindor.

"Oh, Minerva, thank you..."

Dumbledore turned his head and nodded towards Professor McGonagall, then continued without changing his expression.

"In short, I am very happy to introduce to you the new professors who will be joining Hogwarts, and the subjects they will be responsible for teaching from now on."

"First, Professor Umbridge. She will become the second professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and will complete the teaching of the Defense Against the Dark Arts course together with Professor Lupin. Of course, Professor Umbridge will mainly be responsible for the school's lower grades, that is, the course content for first and second-year students—while the teaching content for middle and upper grades will still be based on Professor Lupin's lesson plan."

"In addition, as the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic, Professor Umbridge will also participate in the guidance of the written part of the O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts, as well as some career planning advice..."

A sparse applause rang out in the hall, and most of the students did not move except for a few upperclassmen.

"That's terrible, right? Not everyone wants to work in the Ministry of Magic..."

Fred Weasley whispered in George's ear.

And not only the Weasley brothers, but obviously a small number of wizards in the hall held similar thoughts.

They really couldn't understand why the school would make such a decision.

You know, not every Hogwarts graduate is an elite like Percy Weasley. Compared to vague and formalistic bureaucratic guidance, they would rather have more free time to tinker with the things they like.

"As for our second new teacher..."

As if he didn't see the commotion below, Dumbledore said calmly.

"In the following study, Sirius Black will serve as the second Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, sharing some of Professor McGonagall's teaching pressure—at the same time, Mr. Black will also serve as one of Hogwarts' castle caretakers, undertaking part of the daily campus patrol and supervising the campus duties..."