Chapter 4- So Different

Quickie update but you guys deserve it! Hope your liking this story! Please review as I love getting feedback! Sorry about mistakes and own nothing still. As I said please review and enjoy this next chapter.

After another half an hour, they arrive at Hogwarts ready for another year which would most likely be their worst yet. Just from the outside, it looked different. It was dark and glooming with depression written all other the once beautiful feature of the old castle. It was as if the school had died along with its Headmaster and was now sucking away everyone's spirits. It wasn't a place you would like to see let alone live in for a year as the many students did. The once, colourful stained-glass windows were now smashed and battered along with the walls which bricks now seemed to have turned a cold, shocking grey, matching the clouds above their heads.

They all walked gloomily up to the strangely different castle as the carriages had now been reserved for Slytherin's. The hill they were so used to riding up seemed so much higher and steeper when you were walking or climbing it. Ginny was no happy about this at all. These were completely unnecessary changes that did not need to be made and were effectively, ruining many people's lives. She had large blisters on the back of heals as she finally reached the large oak doors of her once beloved school while still accompanied by Neville and Luna who were looking as equally irritated.

The eventually filed into the hall which was the same as the rest of the castle; Dark and lifeless. There were no chairs or tables anymore. Everyone had to stand, even staff except for Professor Severus Snape. Snape was now head master and now sat in the seat where Dumbledore had sat for so many years. He sat in this large, golden chair as everyone stood; waiting to see the outcome of brilliant, evil smirk that mirrored the one Draco was also wearing.

"Good evening students," he said, his voice slowly lingering over every word as he spoke, "As you see, I am now Headmaster. You shall obey my every command and follow my every rule. You shall remain quiet or be punished brutally as you deserve. There shall be no need for magic in the corridors. No one shall leave the castle at any time. All Hogsmede trips have been here forth cancelled and no communication is allowed to be sent outside the building. You now shall venture to your dormitories. That is all"

Snape sneered as the Slytherin's smirked in approval. They all left the hall in great hast as to be gone from the man they now called Headmaster but is nothing more and a traitor's sight.

Fuming and tired, Ginny arrived at the familiar common room to see that it look almost the same except less well-kept and a few shades darker. The once blood red carpet was now a murky brown and the wallpaper had faded in colour. The seats were tattered and pictures torn. It had obviously been an intended attack.

Ginny and a few others brandished their wands and started fixing a few things, already breaking the first of many school rules. Soon enough, everything was back in order and it was just like old times. Times before the death of Dumbledore and the disappearance of Harry. Everyone was soon going about their usual business and heading off to bed. Ginny lingered behind when the common room was eventually empty, leaving her completely alone with herself and her thoughts.

Ginny stared absentmindedly into the flames of the dwindling fire that they had sprung in the centre of the common room. Her mind raced aimlessly as she watched the burning orange flames dance across the hot, blackened coals beneath it. The flames seemed so graceful a care-free unlike the mind of young Ginevra Weasley.

She couldn't help but wonder what it would be like right now if Dumbledore had still been alive. Would Harry have to have left? Would everyone be just as frightened? Would her and Harry be sitting here right now, holding each other in the other's arms?

All these questions would remain unanswered for all of eternity as there was no turning back time and undoing the past damage and destruction. She kept looking into the gentle flames as they died and she fell asleep on the fluffy red sofa instead of heading to bed. Her mind remained pacing as she closed her softening eyes, tears starting to leak once again as she fell asleep.

Hogwarts had changed, and certainly not for the better…