Author Notes: ohh wow, it's now four years since I posted anything and this chapter was mostly written a while ago. Sorry this one is really short, but I try to get back into the saddle writing wise.
Fair warning, this chapter wasn't beta read and I can't make any promise in regards of posting more.
Chapter 8
Finally, it was September the 1st. The last two weeks before the start of the new school year had been hectic for everyone.
Flitwick had to stem the workload of a Giant with all the changes the Board had in mind for Hogwarts.
Luckily the Board had decided to give McGonagall a last chance after they had reviewed her complaints that the former board member Lucius, then still Malfoy, never brought to their attention and even more luckily in his opinion was that Minerva had agreed to stay. The only thing he hadn't understood was the comment from Lord Black of 'One more strike and she is out'. He was a bit confused by that. Minerva would never strike anyone.
With her help and that of Lord Black and Lady Longbottom they finally finished all the preparations and thanks to Lord Black they even had all the books that were needed for the new courses because by then it was far too late to let them be bought by the parents of their students, especially if you considered that quite a lot of them weren't available in the magical world of Britain.
The only thing left for him to do now was to wait on the arrival of his students and then to greet them for the first time as their new Headmaster. It's was unbelievable how nervous that thought made him.
+E+
(King's Cross Station, Platform 9 ¾)
The group arrived early and they were nearly the first ones. Hermione looked around and smiled. "Finally, we go back to Hogwarts and this time with Dumbledore and Malfoy gone we will have a quiet year with no trouble on the horizon and we can study like we want."
The whole group fell silent at once and all, Harry, Ron, Neville, Xander, Faith and Luna starred at her in horror. "No…," they all said in perfect union and Harry continued. "Now you have jinxed us to another year of dangers and horrors of all kind."
Hermione looked at them in confusion for a moment until she thought about what she had said and then said, "Uppps…."
"Too late now," Xander said with a smile. "Luckily you have some people to ask for help now if you find trouble again Harry."
"I don't find trouble," Harry grumbled. "It tends to find me," he added.
This time the whole group looked at Harry in disbelieve and then they all smiled at him.
Harry looked at them and grumbled, "I think it's time to board the train."
Hermione smiled at him and took his arm. "Of course, my Lord. Please show us your carriage."
And so, they all boarded the train with laughter and fun and for the first time they had a completely uneventful journey towards Hogwarts with no Malfoy trying to annoy them, no Dementors to scare them and so on.
+E+
(Hogwarts, Great Hall)
Shortly after the friends had taken their place at the tables in the hall and after the new First Years where sorted Professor Flitwick stood up and started his speech. "My welcome to Hogwarts to our new students and welcome back to those who rejoined us for the following year. A year of change I must say. For the First Years it will be easy because they only start, but for everyone from year two upwards it will be a lot harder because you all will have a lot of new classes to attend, but more about that later, for now enjoy your meal."
With those words the food appeared on the tables and all enjoyed their first meal of the new school year. After the meal was finished the Head of Houses went around and gave the lesson plans to all the students.
"What nonsense is that? Why should we study all that muggle crap?" the voice of Draco sputtered in annoyance.
"That will be 10 points from Slytherin thanks to you Mr. Draco," a voice from the teachers table said.
Fuming, Draco looked at the new face and recognizing the man as 'Lord Black'. He said in a seething voice. "And why should I care what an American upstart and mudbloodloving wizards says?"
"That will be 50 more points from Slytherin and three weeks of detention with your Head of House for the use of the word mudblood, Mr. Draco," Lord Black added.
Draco laughed as he said, "Professor Snape will return the points to us quite quickly and I will enjoy my detention with him and that will be Mr. Malfoy for you."
Now Lord Black smiled. "Mr. Draco, for that is your name now since your father stupidly brought the name of Malfoy, at least that of the British cadet line, to an end. I don't know and don't care where you spent your last two weeks since we met at Gringotts, but it seems that you aren't up to date very much, because Mr. Snape is no longer employed at Hogwarts." Turning to Flitwick he continued. "Headmaster maybe you should take over from here?"
Smiling Flitwick stood up and addressed the students again. "As most of you know, at least those who followed the Daily Prophet in the last two weeks, Hogwarts changed a bit for this year." Pointing at Lord Black he said, "Let me introduce to you Lord Alexander Harris-Black, your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Head of the House of Slytherin for this year."
Xander bowed and smiled to the student body, noticing with a smile how Draco lost all color to his face.
After the applause quieted down again the Headmaster continued, "Let me also introduce Lady Longbottom, she will be your new Potions Professor, Miss Lehane which will be your Professor for physical education and Ms. Emma Granger who will take a break from her occupation as a dentist will teach non-magical history. More teachers for several new and old subjects will join us in the next several days and will be introduced to you then. Now enjoy your evening and we will see us for breakfast."
After Flitwick ended his speech, the buzzing of talking teenagers went up all over the hall for a while until the Prefects started to direct their fellow students to their Houses common-rooms.
+E+
(Dumbledore's home, Godric's Hallow)
While the kids were enjoying their first meal of the new school year, former Headmaster Dumbledore sat fuming at his desk in his small office. After the news about his dismissal and the reasons why he was fired had gotten out, each of his tries to turn the tide against him had failed.
Especially the reports about what he had done with Harry Potter since that Halloween night had turned the opinion of the Wizarding World against him. It even went so far that currently he was the only member left of his Order of the Phoenix. In the two weeks since he was fired, every single member of the Order had sent him a howler which ended with them quitting the order. His ears were still ringing by the howler Molly Weasley had sent him. He feared the whole town of Godric's Hallow had heard what Molly thought about his actions and about him personally.
So for know his only option was to wait until they all came back on their knees to beg for his help as soon as Voldemort starts his war again.
+E+
(Goyle Manor)
Lord Voldemort looked down from his throne and inspected the row of kneeling Death Eaters before him. Since his return his rank has swelled with a lot of pureblood wizards which disliked the changes that had happened in the last months, especially the ones at Hogwarts with all the new classes their children were will be taught.
He smiled and enjoyed that those changes have played right into his hands and now he was ready to start his plans.
He let his gaze linger for a moment on his most favorite minion. "Bella… would you come here for a moment? I have some orders for you," he said with a sinister smirk on his face.
Bella stood up and with a smile went over to her Lord to take his orders.
+E+
(Hogwarts, next day, classroom of Professor Granger)
"Welcome to the first class of History," Professor Granger said. "As a non-magical with a daughter in this school," here she looked smiling at Hermione which was sitting in the first row right beside Harry, "I look forward to getting to know all of you and teach you about the history of our world."
"What do we care about muggle history?" Draco mumbled loud enough, so that everyone could hear him.
Ignoring him for now the professor continued. "Since Lord Black and Headmaster Flitwick asked me to teach here two weeks ago, I spent a lot of time reading about the history of the Wizarding World and with Lord Blacks help we designed a lesson plan for the year where I will teach you an integrated history of the mundane and the magical world. We will start with the Roman Empire and how the Roman Wizards have brought wand magic to Britain and the so called "Druid War".
In the end the next two hours were the first History lesson in ages where not one student fell asleep and even Draco stopped mumbling to himself after a while, 10 deducted house points, and some glares of his housemates later.
The next few weeks went relative smoothly for everyone. The new things and the changes to current classes were introduced slowly and without much trouble.
The only lessons over which the students, except Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville, complained were the lesson hold by Professor Lehane, but even those died as soon as most students had built up their endurance through the training Faith was giving them.
Harry and his friends sat in their common room as Hermione said with a smile, "I can't believe that tomorrow is already the first Hogsmeade weekend. I really look forward to a quiet day outside of the castle."
Harry only moaned at that and looked at Hermione, but didn't say anything. He was looking forward to spent the day in Hogsmeade as well and hoped nothing out of the ordinary would happen, but now he feared Hermione had doomed that hope.
+E+
The next morning in Hogsmeade
All the young wizards and witches enjoyed their break from school in the small village. For them it was a day of relaxing and spending some of their money and for the villagers it was a day to earn some money and enjoy the chaos the young children are bringing to their village.
So all in all they could all have enjoyed this beautiful and sunny day, but suddenly Harry and his friends, which were just on their way from Zonko's to the Three Broomsticks, heard a painful whimper out of a small alley which lead away from the main street of the village.
Quickly they all drew their wands and moved quietly to the entry of the alley. Harry threw a careful gaze into the alley and saw a young witch with torn robes cowering against a wall several feet into the alley. He signaled to Hermione and Ron to watch his back and then he careful moved into the alley to the young witch who only could be a first year.
He couldn't remember seeing her at the sorting, but if he thought back to it he didn't really spent to much attention to the sorting at the feast.
As he reached the girl, he knelt down at the girl's side, noting the ripped clothes and wounds on her which suggest that someone has put a lot of effort in hurting the poor girl.
"Shhh, Miss, what has happened to you?" he asked in a quiet voice.
The girl looked up with tear strained eyes and looked fearfully up at Harry. "I… I….," she stumbled a bit around then suddenly Harry noted a cruel smile on the young girls face.
Before he could react in any way, he heard her say, "Avada Kedavra!" and then everything went black.