Hermione could not move from her seat. She felt dizzy and had no real idea where the dizziness came from. She hadn't felt like that before. She would talk to Madame Pomfrey if it got any worse. She looked up and down the Gryffindor table several times for Harry but did not spot him a single time. She did however spot Malfoy at the Slytherin table making fun of someone again. Hermione knew without a doubt that it was probably Harry that he had been making fun of because ninety nine time out of a hundred it's Harry; Malfoy is making fun of. Hermione had wished several times since meeting him that Malfoy would find a new hobby but the closest that he had come to that was making fun of her before she smacked him during their third year. Ron and Harry seemed to be proud of her doing that.
She turned to look at Ron who was talking with Dean and Neville about some professional Quidditch match coming up. Neville didn't seem to be as excited about it as Dean and Ron did. But Neville was in to growing and studying plants more than he was into sports weather it was watching them or playing them.
While she was with everyone else about being glad to be back at school Hermione was slightly depressed because she didn't have Sirius or Cedric with her but it wasn't like she could carry either one of them in her bag as she went to her classes. She really missed them both. She seemed to miss; Cedric more because all the girls kept asking her about him. She replied that he was doing fine and going to school. Hermione had left out that he was going to a muggle school because she didn't know if Cedric wanted people to know or not.
She was hit with another dizzy spell and Ron finally noticed her.
"Are you okay?" Ron asked her. "You were staring off into space."
"I'm fine." I was just worrying about Harry. He hasn't shown up yet and he was on the train."
"Neville said he hadn't seen him since after they left Slughorn's little party."
"He probably got stuck on the train." Hermione replied.
Ron gave her a nod and then turned back to Neville and Dean. It didn't surprise her that Ron hardly made any effort to help her. She had always felt he had the emotional range of a tea spoon. It wasn't until now that that range of emotion's for someone his age seemed too small but it wasn't like she could force him to enlarge his emotional range. If she tried that his emotional range would only get smaller.
Tired of thinking about Ron and his emotional range of a tea spoon Hermione looked around the great hall again. It seemed that everyone but her was talking animatedly with someone next to them. She would normally talk to Harry, Ron or even Ginny but they were all elsewhere.
"Are you alright?" Ginny asked.
"I'm fine just tired." Hermione said. "Also worried for obvious reasons."
"They'll be fine and I'm pretty sure Harry just got himself into trouble like he and Ron did my first year." Ginny told her.
"Well he doesn't have a car to fly and he made it on to the train so that limits his trouble making possibilities if he wanted to make it that is."
"Harry doesn't make trouble –well he did last year but there wasn't anything else he could do—any way Harry doesn't make trouble, trouble finds him anywhere." Ginny replied. "And your Dad and Cedric are bound to have long letters written for you waiting in the morning post."
"I know but it still doesn't help that fact that I miss them."
"Nothing will help."
"My mum feels the same way when ever dad has to leave for long periods of time." Ginny said. "I guess it helps that she has that clock."
"It doesn't surprise me." Hermione tells her.
Ginny turned to talk to someone else after making sure Hermione was okay. Hermione kept looking around. She soon found herself looking at the staff table. All the teachers but Hagrid and Snape were there the whole time. Hagrid arrived late for some unknown reason and Snape left shortly before Hagrid arrived. She wondered where Snape was and if he had indeed found Harry and punished him like he did in Ginny's first year. She didn't dwell on it much longer anyway because she didn't have the time to. Harry had come marching through the open doors to the great hall.
Hermione gasped in horror when she saw that her best friend was covered in blood. He looked at the Gryffindor table as walked faster than normal as he passed the other house tables. Passing the Hufflepuff table people started to stare at him, some even started to whisper to their neighbors as he passed them. Hermione had spotted him again after everyone started to stand up to get a better look at him. He sat down between Hermione and Ron. Hermione started to fuss over him right away. Ron was a bit blunter with his reaction.
"What's happen to your face mate?" Ron asked.
"There nothing wrong with is there?" Harry asked. "It thought Tonks fixed it."
"She did but she didn't clean it. Your face is covered in blood." Hermione said before she started to clean the blood off his face.
His face and himself looked much better now the blood was off his face.
"Is my nose okay?" he asked.
"It looks fine. Why should it be looking funny?" Hermione asked. "Where have you been we've been worried?"
"Later." Harry said. "I'll tell you about it later."
"Harry,"
"Hermione I said I didn't want to talk about it." Harry snapped.
Malfoy of course wouldn't let Harry have his peace. Instead he of course preformed an exaggeration again about what happened. Hermione ignored what he was doing and kept her attention on Harry.
Harry had gone to grab some food but it had disappeared. Instead he grabbed a bit more of the pudding than he normally would have.
"They've done the sorting." Ron said.
"What did the hat have to say this year?" Harry asked.
"Oh you know the same. That we should unite with our enemies, not much else though."
"Any mention of Voldemort?"
"No." Hermione said. "But Dumbledore hasn't made his big speech yet. So he could do it."
"Snape said Hagrid—"
"Hagrid arrived late but there wasn't any particular reason why, not that I could tell anyway." Hermione said. "He's waving you now."
"Where'd you run in to Snape?"
"When I was getting off the train." Harry said.
She could see Hagrid greeting Harry and Professor McGonagall scowling at the enthusiastic greeting next to him. It was also quite a shock to her to see her former Divination teacher sitting on the other side of him. The woman hardly ever ate with the rest of the school claiming that coming down into the school clouded her eye. Hermione preferred to thing she was a fraud and said that just to add to her mystic –for lack of a better word—along with the beads, shawls and glasses that made her eyes look ten times larger than what they really were. The overall look was more like a fake gypsy psychic at a town fair but then again there really wasn't any uniform look for physics' so you could never be sure who was telling the truth and who wasn't.
She knew that Harry was glad that he would be able to drop the class this year because of the heavier work load they would be given. A lot of the older students were relaxing a bit before the term started. Draco Malfoy was doing so by miming what he did to Harry once again much to the delight of his Slytherin class mates. Harry's gazed dropped to his plate.
"What did Professor Slughorn want with you?" Hermione asked him.
"Just what happen at the Ministry," Harry replied.
"He's not the only one that wants to know. Everyone else here does too." Hermione said. "We had people stop by are compartment to ask us went on but we didn't tell them anything."
"It's true. They all wanted to know if you were 'the Chosen One' of course we told them to leave."
Nearly Headless Nick had taken that time to come over and talk with Harry but left not long after for the end of the Gryffindor table. Hermione only listened part of the way. Instead she was looking at Professor Dumbledore as he began to stand up behind the Hogwarts Staff table. He was wearing dark blue Robes lined with silver stitching. Once he was standing all the way up the chatter died away pretty quickly.
"Good evening to you all!" Dumbledore greeted the students.
His arms were thrown open wide like he was trying to hug the whole room. The sleeve of his robe slid down his arm revealing his blackened hand.
"What's wrong with his hand?" Hermione asked Harry.
Hermione knew she wasn't the only one to notice Dumbledore's now dead-looking right hand. The murmurs of wonder spread like wild fire across the great hall. Hermione looked toward Harry but he just shrugged his shoulders he didn't know what happened to Dumbledore's hand either. Dumbledore just smiled as he looked out at all the students. He ignored the murmurs and slipped his blue and silver robes over his hand hiding it from the view of the students below. The student's however still continued to whisper about his hand and what might have caused it. He held up his hand like he was telling them to stop speaking.
"There is nothing for you to worry about." He said with an airy tone worthy of Luna Lovegood, before he continued on with his speech.
"His hand was like that when I met with him this summer." Harry told Hermione. "I figured he would have fixed it up by now though."
"Maybe he can't. It kind of looks like it died." Hermione said. "You can't always fix an injury like that with all the old curses and things out there."
The continued to listen to Dumbledore's speech, he wasn't as flamboyant with his hand movements as previous years because of his right hand. He talked about the new products that were banned –anything from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes— from the school to the team try-outs for the house Quidditch teams. They only really started paying attention when he started talking about Professor Slughorn.
"I am pleased to welcome our newest member of staff this year, Professor Slughorn."
A rather big bald man stood up and waved slightly to the students.
"He's an old friend and Professor and has kindly agreed to resume his old post as potions master for the year."
"Potions," Several people including Hermione mumbled.
It moved across the great hall like an echo in the mountains.
"You said he was going to teach us Defense." Ron said.
"Our Professor Snape has kindly offered to take over the Defense Against the Dark Arts job."
There were shouts and groans of distain that Snape had gotten the Job that he had longed for. Harry seemed to be the loudest one near Hermione. He had shouted out 'no' causing several people to turn and look at him. Hermione wondered what made Dumbledore give the job of defense against the dark arts professor to Snape after all these years. What made him so trust worthy after all these years?
"Harry you said Slughorn was taking the DA position." Hermione exclaimed.
"I thought he was. Dumbledore told me that he was coming back to teach in is old position. I assumed he meant the DA position," Harry said. "because that was the only one open at least I thought it was. Well there is one good thing about it."
"What," Asked Ron.
"Snape will be gone by the end of the year." Harry replied. "The job is jinxed. No one teacher has lasted more than a year doing the job. Quirrell even died doing it. Personally I'd welcome another death."
"Harry!" Hermione Snapped. "That is not a nice thing to say besides he might go back to potions."
"I agree with Hermione Harry. The greasy git just might go back to teaching potions." Ron said. "Slughorn might not want to stay after the year is done. Moody didn't."
"That wouldn't matter. Moody was trapped inside a trunk for nine months." Harry said. "And the one that actually taught us was a death eater that is now worse off than dead."
The buzz of conversation that had erupted after the announcement that Snape got his dream job died down a little bit when Dumbledore cleared his throat trying to gain the student body's attention. Dumbledore clearly didn't recognize the gossip worthy news he had just announced to his students. He didn't say anything more about the staff and waited for the students to quiet all the way down before he continued to speak. Hermione like everyone else wasn't surprised when the next topic he brought up was Voldemort.
"Lord Voldemort and his followers commonly known as death eaters are once again at work and gaining more as time goes on."
It seemed like everyone but those sitting at the Slytherin table were paying attention to Dumbledore and what he was saying to them even if it was all rather boring and heard it over and over again over the summer from their parents.
"There are only so many ways I can say how dangerous the situation is, great care must be taken to make sure Hogwarts is to remain safe in this time of danger. Our magical weapons have been strengthened over the summer holiday, more powerful ways now protects us, and we still must guard ourselves cautiously. So to you students I implore you to obey the restrictions put in place no matter how annoying you might find them. So no staying out late and report anything you may find odd to me, your head of house, or another teacher immediately. I trust you all to keep your safety as well as that as the others in mind and not wander around when you should be in bed."
Carefully Dumbledore's eyes moved over the faces of the students closest to him and smiled once again; the man just liked to smile it seemed.
"But now with you all warm, fed and watered it is time you go to bed and get well rested for you lessons tomorrow. Goodnight ladies and gentlemen see all you tomorrow."
The benches scraped against the floor as all the students made to leave at once. Slowly they trickled out of the Great Hall to the dorms. The prefects were calling for the first years to gather around and follow them. Hermione ignored them since she wasn't on first year duty this time around. She just wanted to get up to Gryffindor tower and to her door with her bed so she could sleep. The climb to the tower took Hermione no time at all after ignoring Lavender's questions about Cedric again. Lavender had asked her three times now about him and Hermione wasn't one to talk about that kind of thing.
It didn't take Hermione to fall asleep after her head hit the pillow; she was out like a light. She only hoped that she would wake up on time when the morning came.
Sirius walked into the room that his brother was sleeping in. His couldn't get over the fact that his brother was alive let alone the fact that he was home sleeping in his childhood bedroom. In the span of a year he finds that he has a daughter he never knew about and his brother –long thought dead—is alive.
"You still can't believe it can you?" Remus asked.
"No. By all rights he should be dead but he's right there sleeping." Sirius ranted.
"There is a reason he is here with us. He can't remember what he has done." Remus said. "But Severus did say it might take time for the potion to kick in fully."
"Still can't believe you are calling him Severus."
"It's his name and it's high time that we start calling him by it. At least call him Snape, which would be better than nothing."
"I can't promise you anything." Sirius replied. "But I can try."
"Come on leave him be. He needs his sleep. He got a lot of his memory back and is exhausted because of that. You need sleep too and if you can't get to sleep write to Hermione. She needs you right now too."
"I don't want to tell her about Regulus until we know he's okay. She doesn't need this on her too."
"What do you mean too?"
"Even thought I told her not to I know she is looking into a way to get my charges turned around." Sirius said. "You know get my charges turned around; clear my name and all that."
"She's bull headed like you." Remus said. "She doesn't do anything that she doesn't want to. After all she was the one to talk Harry into teaching that group of students last year."
"That was Harry too. He wanted to push that bi*ch's buttons." Sirius replied.
"And Hermione didn't? You heard Harry she was the one that came up with the idea. Hermione would have found a way to teach them if Harry didn't step up to the job."
"Everyone is Gryffindor is bull headed even Neville and some seemed to think he should have been Hufflepuff."
"That boy is worthy of being in Gryffindor more than anyone I know." Sirius said. "And it had not a bloody thing to do with what happen to his parents."
"I agree." Remus said.