A/N: Hey everybody! I just would like to send my thanks to those who read the story and to gackt groupie for reviewing. I appreciate the feedback! I hope you all enjoy the newest chapter!
The one thought that crossed Ginny's mind as she entered into the threshold was that Hogwarts was most definately not the same. Despite the thousands of candles flickering merrily above the four tables in the Great Hall, there was something subdued about the atmosphere. Normally, the feast to welcome back the students would be a jovial occasion, but tonight, the meal was eaten with more mumbling than talking and with more side glances up at the professor's table, most of which were directed towards the brother and sister, Alecto and Amycus Carrow.
Squat and lumpy Amycus sat, shoveling food into his mouth, spattering those unfortunate enough to be sitting near him. His sister Alecto, though she had much in common as far as looks with her brother, barely touched her food. Instead, she stared around the dining hall, glaring and smiling viciously to whatever student who was unlucky enough to catch her glare.
Most noticeably, in the place of their beloved headmaster sat the hook nosed and bat- like ex- potions professor, Severus Snape, surveying the students while poking stoically at his shepard's pie.
"It's toned down a bit this year, hasn't it?" Neville whispered to Ginny.
"Yeah, no kidding," Ginny murmured back, her eyes flickering up to the staff table then back down at her plate where her fork rested on her untouched chicken. The airtight atmosphere was tinged with anxiety and fear- much more than she was expecting. "Seems like we're going to have our hands full from the looks of the new teachers," she nodded up to the head table and whispered, "if anyone looked like a Death Eater, it's those two." Neville nodded in grim agreement.
"Yeah- definitely," the seventh year had known all too well the many faces evil could possess. As he stared down into his plate, memories of the battles with Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic began forming in his mind. That night, he met his parent's torturer and was tortured by her as well. Her cold eyes, the smile that only held the happiness she felt when she was slowly killing...
"Oy, Neville? You awake?" Ginny poked him in the arm with her fork.
"Ah- yeah, sorry Ginny," Neville shook himself out of the dark corners of his mind and asked her to repeat what she had said before.
"I said, do you reckon those coins we used last year still work?" Ginny asked casually, if a little impatiently.
"They probably do. We'll try them out later; although I'm not so sure it'd be a good idea to recruit any new people just yet. First years are too young, and it could get messy if word gets out we're starting up the DA again." The red head nodded.
"Yea- best to just gather all the veterans. Anyone else who wants to join will know probably about us soon enough."
At this point, the new headmaster stood and what little noise the room had ended in a hush.
"As you may have already realized," he began "Hogwarts will be undergoing a multitude of changes this year." He then gestured to the Carrow siblings and introduced them. "Professor Alecto Carrow will be overseeing the course of Muggle Studies while Professor Amycus Carrow will teach… Defense Against the Dark Arts."
A small smattering of applause- most of it coming from the Slytherine table- rose into the air. Snape did not have long to pause before silence ensued once more.
"Dementors," he continued "will be monitoring the grounds outside of Hogwarts. I will only warn you once not to leave the grounds, lest the dementors think you a threat and attack. Also," He said as he walked to the front of the head table, took out his wand, and waved it. With a whoosh, all of the candles above the students' heads went out and the only light that remained came from scarcely placed torches mounted on the walls. "because of new security reasons, any broken rules shall result in severe consequences. The Dark Lord is upon us; I daresay none of you should be very…careless," and with this, he slashed his wand through the air and the doors to the Great Hall opened with a bang. "You are all dismissed," he said in his monotonous voice.
Ginny risked looking up at the head table once more before getting up. Hagrid was absent, probably in his cabin, she thought assuredly. McGonagall looked tense yet angry at the same time. She took a moment to glare at Snape before turning her attention away to talk to Professor Flitwick. Snape shrewdly overlooked the student body as they filed out under his orders. With a sigh, Ginny got up and followed the rest of the students out of the hall.
"…can't believe it," came the complaints of a few second years, "we didn't even get to the dessert!"
"I reckon missed dessert won't be complained about for long," Neville said darkly to Ginny as Luna caught up to them. "Did you see him? The way he was talking?"
"It was quite threatening," Luna piped up "what do you suppose he meant when he was talking about severe consequences?"
"Dunno, but I doubt it's anything to be taken lightly," Ginny said, looking back and spotting the teachers beginning to leave the hall as well, "c'mon- we'd better keep moving."
The two Gryffindors said goodbye to Luna once they had reached the Fat Lady and climbed through the portrait hole. Once in the common room, Ginny flopped down onto an armchair and pulled out the gold coin used to communicate between all of the members of Dumbledore's Army.
"Well," she looked up at Neville who sank onto the couch beside her, "let's hope this works." She carefully inscribed a time and date for the first meeting and felt the coin become hot. Neville reached into his pocket and looked at the coin, smiling.
"Still works- brilliant!"
"So now that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are gone it's going to have to be up to us to continue the DA," Ginny said, her eyes blazing with determination. "What should we teach first?"
"I think we should move onto dueling," Neville proposed, "go over some basic spells first, then duel."
"I think that's a good idea. We'll probably start needing to know how to duel- even if it's just for our own protection," Ginny nodded in agreement, "then we'll go from there and take suggestions from other members to see what else we should do."
Flushed with excitement and determination, the two bid each other goodnight. Neither had any idea what this new year at Hogwarts would have in store for them.
A/N: So there's the end of the second chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! At this point, I feel as though it's going a bit slower than I want it to but I'll try to update as frequently as I can. Again, thank you all for reading and please leave a review! Any helpful feedback is appreciated! Thank you!
-shadowofnothing14