Here we go chapter 10! I hope you like it! Enjoy

Chapter 10 – The New Teacher and The Dementors

Wednesday 1st September 1993

I woke up early and quickly got dressed before making sure I had everything. I walked out of my room and bumped into Hermione and the two of us walked downstairs together. I liked Hermione, she was nice, easy to talk to and really smart. We both took seats next to mum as our breakfast was brought over. Dad was ready the Daily Prophet as usual. Hermione and I started talking to mum about school and then she told us about a Love Potion she had brewed when she was in school. The more she told us about it, the gigglier we became. The twins walked down the stairs and a minute later Harry and Ron had emerged as well followed by Percy.

After breakfast there was a lot of fussing as we heaved our trunks down the narrow staircase of the Leaky Cauldron and piled them up near the door, along with Hedwig, and Hermes perched on top. A small wickerwork basket stood beside the heap of trunks, spitting loudly.

"It's all right, Crookshanks," Hermione cooed through the wickerwork. "I'll let you out on the train."

"You won't," Ron snapped. "What about poor Scabbers, eh?" He pointed at his chest, indicating the lump. I don't think having a rat and cat among two friends was a good idea but if I had to choose, I'd pick Crookshanks. I love cats and he's so cute. Dad had been waiting outside for the Ministry cars and suddenly stuck his head inside.

"They're here," he said. "Harry, come on." Dad marched Harry outside. Hermione, Ron and Percy followed. I walked out with mum and the twins and got into the second Ministry car with them. The cars were dark green and were driven by a furtive-looking wizard, who was wearing an emerald green velvet suit. The journey to King's Cross didn't take that long at all and we arrived with twenty minutes to spare. The Ministry drivers found us trolleys, unloaded our trunks and after saying by to dad they left.

"Right then," dad said, glancing around. "Let's do this in pairs, as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry." Dad pushed Harry's trolley for him and the two of them leaned forward and disappeared through the barrier. Mum told me and Percy to go next and we decided to run at the barrier and we arrived on the platform panting slightly.

"Ah, there's Penelope!" Percy said, smoothing down his hair and going pink. I looked up at Harry and caught his eye and then we both turned away to hide our laughter as Percy strode over to his girlfriend with his chest thrown out, so that she couldn't miss the shiny new Head Boy badge. Once everyone else had joined us, dad and Harry led the way to the end of the train, past packed compartments, to a carriage that looked quite empty. We loaded our trunks and stowed Hedwig and Crookshanks in the luggage rack before going outside to say bye to mum and dad. Mum kissed us all and then Hermione, before turning to Harry.

"Do take care, won't you, Harry?" Mum said as she straightened up. She opened her enormous handbag. "I've made you all sandwiches. Here you are, Ron ... no, they're not corned beef ... Fred? Where's Fred? Here you are dear ..." Mum distributed out sandwiches as Harry walked a little away with dad. Once mum was done she started to tell the twins to behave as usual and for us to all take care of ourselves and each other. I gave her a big hug as I noticed it was nearly time to go. Mum hugged me back and then started shepherding us all onto the train. She realised that Harry wasn't with us and looked around, noticing dad talking to Harry.

"Arthur!" she called loudly. "Arthur, what are you doing? It's about to go!"

"He's coming, Molly!" Dad said as we all got on the train. Fred and George disappeared to find their friend Lee Jordan and Percy went to the prefect's compartment.

"Arthur, quickly!" I heard mum cry. The train started to move, Harry ran to the compartment door and Ron threw it open, standing back to let him on. We leant out of the window and waved until the train turned a corner and blocked mum and dad from view. Harry muttered something to Ron and Hermione as the train picked up speed.

"Go away, Ginny," Ron said.

"Oh, that's nice," I said huffily before stalking off. I wondered down the train looking for my friends. I passed few compartments until I finally found the one with Allison, Sarah, Natalie and Nikki in it. I walked in and all the girls greeted me happily. I sat down and we all started talking about how our summer had been. They were all interested in my summer and wanted to know more about what I did in Egypt.

The Hogwarts Express moved steadily north and the scenery darkened outside as the clouds thickened. The witch with the trolley came round and we got a little something to eat. As mid-afternoon approached and it started to rain some of the boys in Gryffindor from our year came to say hi to us as well. As the train sped further north the rain outside started to fall heavily and the windows darkened, making the lanterns flicker into life all along the corridors.

The train suddenly started to slow down and I checked my watch looking confused and so did the rest of the girls.

"We can't be there already," I said.

"Why have we stopped?" Allison asked as me and Nikki looked out the window. Natalie got up and opened the door to look and by the sounds of it a lot of other people were doing the same. The train came to a stop with a jolt and by the sound of the thuds; I could tell that some luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then suddenly the lanterns all went out. I heard Natalie make her way back to her seat to sit down. I cleaned the window and looked out, I couldn't see anything properly but I thought I saw something moving.

"I'm going to see if I can find Ron," I said to the girls and carefully made my way out of the compartment. I walked a bit before I collided with someone and I let out a squeal of pain and so did whoever I had bumped into.

"Who's that?" I asked at the same time as the other person asked the same thing.

"Hermione?" "Ginny?"

"What are you doing?" Hermione's voice asked me.

"I was looking for Ron –"I started to say.

"Come in and sit down –"Hermione said as I walked into their compartment.

"Not here!" Harry said hurriedly as I attempted to sit down. "I'm here!" I blushed and was glad that he could not see that as I walked further in and stood on someone's foot.

"Ouch!" I heard a boy say.

"Quiet!" said a hoarse voice suddenly. I didn't know who that was but it sounded like an adult. I heard movements in the corner, there was a soft cackling noise and then a shivering light filled the compartment. I saw man wearing shabby robes holding a handful of flames. They illuminated his young tried looking face and his light-brown hair was flecked with grey. At the moment he looked alert and wary. "Stay where you are." He got slowly to his feet with his handful of fire held out in front of him. The door slid open before he could reach it. Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the flames was a cloaked figure and a hand was protruding from his cloak. The hand was glistening, greyish, slimy-looking and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water. The creature took a slow rattling breath and an intense cold swept over us all. I realised that this was a dementor, dad had told us about them and he always came back shaken whenever he had to go down to Azkaban for any reason. I started shaking as the cold consumed me and I couldn't remember anything good about my life. I saw Harry go rigid and fall out of his seat before he started twitching. The man stood over him and took out his wand pointing it at the dementor.

"None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go," the man said but the dementor didn't move, so he muttered something and something silvery shot out of his wand. The dementor finally glided away. I still couldn't stop shaking, even when the lanterns had come back on and the train had started moving again. Ron and Hermione knelt down next to Harry and started trying to wake him up. He had stopped twitching and Hermione was gently slapping his face to get him to wake up.

"Harry! Harry! Are you alright?"

"W-what?" Harry said, he had finally woken up. Harry opened his eyes and looked around. The man in the compartment and Neville, a Gryffindor boy in Ron's year were watching Harry. Ron and Hermione heaved him back onto his seat.

"Are you ok?" Ron asked nervously.

"Yeah," Harry said, I wasn't looking at him. I was huddled in the corner with my knees against my chest and my arms wrapped around my legs. "What happened? Where's that – that thing? Who screamed?"

"No one screamed," Ron said and sounded even more nervous. I looked up at Harry and looked back at me and Neville as well. Why did he think that someone was screaming?

"But I heard screaming –"

A loud snap made us all jump. The man that saved us was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.

"Here," the man said to Harry, handing him a particularly large piece. "Eat it. It'll help." Harry took the chocolate but didn't eat it.

"What was that thing?" Harry asked the man.

"A Dementor," the man replied, as he gave chocolate to the rest of us. "One of the Dementors of Azkaban." We all looked at him as he crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket. "Eat, it'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me ..." He strolled past Harry and disappeared into the corridor.

"Are you sure you're ok, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I don't get it ... what happened?" Harry said.

"Well – that thing – the Dementor – stood there and looked around (I mean, I think it did, I couldn't see his face) – and you – you –"

"I thought you were having a fit or something," Ron said. "You went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching –"

"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked towards the Dementor, and pulled out his wand," Hermione said, as they talked I replayed the whole thing in my head. "And he said 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' But the Dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, and it turned round and sort of glided away ..."

"It was horrible," Neville said in a usually high voice."Did you feel how cold it went when it came in?"

"I felt weird," Ron said, as felt the tears slowly form in my eyes. "Like I'd never be cheerful again ..." I suddenly gave a small sob and Hermione came over and put a comforting arm around me. It felt nice, like how mum usually comforts me.

"But didn't any of you – fall off your seats?" Harry asked.

"No," Ron said. "Ginny was shaking like mad, though ..." Professor Lupin came back and paused at the door.

"I haven't poisoned the chocolate you know ..." He said to us. I took a small bite from the chocolate piece in my hand and felt warmth spread suddenly to the tips of my fingers and toes. I quickly ate the rest and I felt a lot better.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," Professor Lupin said. "Are you alright Harry?"

"Fine," he muttered. Nobody talked for the remainder of the journey. We finally arrived at Hogsmeade station and everyone scrambled around to get their things. We finally stepped onto the freezing platform, rain was pouring down in icy sheets. I heard Hagrid calling for the first years and I found my friends, who looked relived to see me. They asked what happened and I told them as we trudged along with the rest of the students to get a carriage.

The five of us climbed into one and noticed that it was horse-less. As soon as we closed the door the carriage took off. We arrived at the castle in no time, although I had noticed some Dementors as we went through the wrought iron gates that were flanked with stone columns topped with winged boars, I felt a little uneasy. We got out and stepped through the giant oak doors and entered the cavernous Entrance Hall, which was lit by flaming torches. We walked through the door on our right, which was the great hall. The five of us walked to the Gryffindor table and sat down. I noticed that Ron was sat by himself with two empty seats, one on either side of him, I wonder where Harry and Hermione were. Professor Flitwick walked in with the first years and he was holding a stool and the sorting hat. Where was Professor McGonagall. Professor Flitwick put the stool down and placed the sorting hat on it. We all waited as the hat began to sing, a different song it had done last year, I didn't know the song changed every year. Once the hat was done Flitwick began calling out names. I clapped along with everyone else as students were sorted. Once the sorting was finished Flitwick picked up the hat and stool before walking out of the great hall with it. I saw Harry and Hermione making their way over to the table and I wasn't the only one either. They sat down in the seats Ron had saved them. Dumbledore stood up and called for attention.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it is best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast ..." Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued. "As you will be aware after the search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business. They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises – or even invisibility cloaks. It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the Prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs foul of the Dementors." Percy puffed out his chest again and stared around impressively. "On a happier note, I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year. Firstly, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." There was some scattered applause but those who had been in the compartment with him clapped hard, me along with them. "As our second new appointment, well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties." I joined in with the tumultuous applause, especially from the Gryffindor table, and Hagrid was red in the face looking down at his hands but he was smiling none the less. Harry, Ron and Hermione were the last ones to stop clapping, they did know him really well. Hagrid wiped his eyes on the table cloth as Dumbledore spoke again. "Well, I think that's everything of importance. Let the feast begin!" The golden plates and goblets in front of us were suddenly filled with food and drink. I was starving so I grabbed some food and started to eat.

Once everyone had eaten as much as they could of their dessert, Dumbledore gave the word that we could leave and we trudged off towards the common room. Me and the girls made our way up the marble staircase and through corridors until we reached the familiar portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.

"Password?" She asked as we approached her. We looked around at each other, we didn't know the password yet. Colin Creevey suddenly appeared by our side.

"I know, I just asked a prefect," Colin said breathlessly. "It's Fortuna Major." The portrait swung open and we clambered into the familiar circular room. I walked straight up the stairs with the girls to our dormitory, which now read 'Second-years' and entered. I walked to my bed, opened my trunk and pulled out my long nightdress and changed into it as the girls did the same. We all climbed into bed and fell asleep instantly.

Thursday 2nd September 1993

I walked into the great hall with the girls and took we took a seat at the Gryffindor table. I pilled some scrambled eggs onto my plate and grabbed the ketchup. Professor McGonagall moved along the table handing out new timetables. I looked at my timetable, we had double Herbology with the Slytherins first thing this morning. I saw Harry, Ron and Hermione enter the hall and take a seat next to Fred and George. I grabbed my pumpkin juice and took a sip as Hagrid entered the hall, wearing his long moleskin overcoat and absent-mindedly swinging a dead polecat from one enormous hand.

"All righ'?" He said to Harry, Ron and Hermione on his way to the staff table. "Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five gettin' everythin' ready ... hope it's ok ... me, a teacher ... hones'ly ..." He grinned broadly and headed off to the staff table. I like Hagrid, he's a nice guy. I checked and watch and the five of us headed off to Herbology together.

We walked into the courtyard and sat down on a bench for break time.

"Is it me or do we always seem to have some really interesting way to start the term?" Allison asked us.

"No, you're right, we do," Nikki said as Natalie checked her watch.

"We should probably head to Defence Against the Dark Arts, now," she said and we all agreed. We grabbed our bags and made our way to class. We entered class and took seats near the front. I sat down with Allison, Nikki and Sarah were sat behind us and Natalie was sat on the desk next to ours with Michael Burrows a fellow, Gryffindor. The Ravenclaws entered and took seats as well before Professor Lupin came in and walked to the front of class.

"Morning class," Professor Lupin said and then took the register. "Take out your copies of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them' and turn to page 22." I took out my book and turned to page 22, Imps. He went through the section, as we read along. "The imp is found only in Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes confused with the pixie. They are of similar height (between six and eight inches), though the imp cannot fly as the pixie can ..."

We walked to lunch together talking about how good the lesson had been. Professor Lockhart was a really good teacher. We sat down at the Gryffindor table and began to eat our lunch. I checked my timetable and noticed that we had Charms after lunch with the Hufflepuffs and then they had Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws.

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First day back at Hogwarts had gone well; we didn't get any homework so that was a major plus. I was sat with the girls in the great hall for dinner. The Gryffindor boys in our year told us that Malfoy apparently got attacked by a Hippogriff in Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class. I looked down the table and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione looking worried and they kept glancing at the staff table. I looked up and saw that Hagrid wasn't there like he usually was. I hope he's alright; it was all probably Malfoy's fault. I bet he was trying to spoil his lesson.

We entered the crowded common room and sat down in a corner. We decided to play some exploding snap for a while and then we walked upstairs to our dormitory.

Thursday 9th September 1993

I walked out of the great hall after lunch with the girls and we headed off to Charms class. Malfoy was back from the Hospital Wing and had bandages wrapped around his arm and was being overly dramatic about how much it hurt. It was so obvious that he was faking it.

We entered our Charms class and sat down with our fellow Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs. Professor Flitwick entered the class and walked to the front, standing on a pile of books to address us. He paired us off and told us to practise the spell Immobulus. I was working with Nikki, Allison was working with Sarah and Natalie was working with Eliza Evans, a Hufflepuff girl.

The lesson had gone pretty well Nikki and I had managed to immobilise the other a fair few times. We walked to Transfiguration in high spirits, even though we had this class with the Slytherins. However Professor McGonagall taught this class and the Slytherins wouldn't dare to disrupt her class.

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When we arrived at the Great Hall for dinner, we found that the third years were talking excitedly about their Defence Against the Dark Arts class. They apparently liked Professor Lupin as much as we did. We were all in agreement that we had finally got a more than capable teacher, who wasn't a fake.

So what did you think? Also Ginny doesn't have much of a story in the third book, so any suggestions on what she should do during the year etc are welcome. Read and review please =] =]