A/N : Hey Guys. Sorry for the late update. Complete of lockdown restrictions has seriously messed up my time for writing. My updates might be even more irregular now that my college has started. Thank you everyone who showed the patience for a long wait.
This chapter contains minor Ron bashing. This is just for his character development in this fic and I don't have anything against him. If anyone doesn't want to read this chapter due to that reason, feel free to skip it. Please R/R.
News about the secondary sorting spread throughout the country like an out-of-control wildfire. Someone in their 'infinite wisdom' had decided to tell their parents of the proceedings and then all hell broke loose.
News articles about The-Boy-Who-Lived and Dumbledore being in Slytherin got alarm bells ringing in every 'light' wizard's mind while the ones from the 'dark' were in catatonic shock upon hearing the news. Comments about throwing Dumbledore out of his position and sending both Harry Potter and Dumbledore to either their deaths via the Veil or to Azkaban were circulating wildly, though they subsided somewhat when the Daily Prophet published that the children of both imprisoned and 'former' Death Eaters' (cough *bribed* cough) were put in Hufflepuff.
The situation in the school was also as bad as the outside world, if not worse. Many former housemates decided to force their entry into their previous common rooms only to find their locations changed and themselves teleported to the Great Hall without their clothes. The ones who were persuasive in their attempts were met by stronger rebuffs which included electrification, burning off their belongings, throwing them into the Great Lake which is supercooled for the Merman living in there, teleporting directly onto dragon dung reserves kept near the greenhouses, subjected to a variety of hexes and jinxes that left them unable to move for a week at the very least and so on with the added humiliation of teleporting them to the Great Hall yet again at random, discomforting moments.
Most notable persons who tried to force their way and faced the above calamities were Draco Malfoy's cronies: Crabbe and Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, Cho Chang, Theodore Nott, Marietta Edgecombe, Zacharias Smith etc. And they all experienced some of the above said punishments and suffered even worse.
Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson were thrown into the dragon dung pit from where they emerged all smelly when they were immediately electrocuted. They spent the rest of the term smelling like burnt fertilizer, swatting away flies every moment. Some of their body parts, including their arms and hair were also burnt from the electricity leaving them disfigured for a week despite the help of Madam Pomphrey's healing salves, which she reluctantly provided.
While Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe also suffered a similar fate, the outcome for them was far, far worse. Considering themselves to be the 'Greatest of the Ravenclaws' and thinking that they were being denied of their birth right, they tried to exert their family magics (by using their family Grimoires) onto Hogwarts which backfired spectacularly. When they were located, they turned into their true forms i.e. turning their faces to match the house they truly represent which caused snake like fangs to erupt from their jaws and their skins turning scaly like a snake and gaining a greenish skin hue, making them lose their fair skin tones.
Also, they babbled out truths (due to an enchantment put on them by the magic of Hogwarts) they had hidden deep in their hearts like stalking boys who may have potential to become famous and rich and feeding them love potions to use them and after abandoning them, once there was nothing more, they could get out of them. They also confessed to cheating and misleading others in academics, love interests while they gained much assets and joy from the chaos that occurred.
The teachers, at first were shocked on hearing this but soon reconciled themselves to continue the investigation. After sufficient information was extracted from them, they were transferred to St. Mungos for their treatment after which they would be expelled from Hogwarts, with their memories and magic sealed for breaking the school rules and their families were severely fined for knowingly lending them their Grimoires.
Draco, in a moment of using his own inborn wisdom had escaped the 'punishments' by ignoring what his father had taught him and had not tried to force his way into the Slytherin common room. He was also one of the few persons who was hit, less severely than others. So far, he tried only twice and when his trademark hair colour changed to Weasley red, he stopped his attempts. The colour stayed for a whole month. Harry could tell that Draco's mindset had gained a small but noticeable improvement regarding others compared to the previous year but room for improvement was still present.
The situation in Gryffindor was far more chaotic. Everyone behaved as usual outside but it was a mess inside a common room. Old friendships were broken, many persons became reclusive after the secondary sorting was done due to many of their friends shifting to other houses and them not letting go of their ingrained (read biased) ideas about House qualities.
Ron tried to ignore Harry, Hermione, Ginny and the twins because of the sole fact that they 'betrayed' him by being sorted into other houses, leaving him alone. But he was mostly angry that he had befriended Harry who was 'dark' and tried to attack him. The only problem was he tried to do it in broad daylight while Harry was discussing something with Fred, George, Daphne and Ginny. After a brutal beatdown by the group where Ron had gained a black eye from Harry's fist, bogeys attacking his face from Ginny, vanished clothes from the twins and a concussion from Daphne via a tripping jinx, was Ron finally willing to listen.
Harry, appointing himself as a spokesperson for the group, basically told him to get over whatever he was feeling right now and that they didn't ask to be resorted into other houses. He also told him to just think about how they spent the previous year, making friends and that he wanted to be friends again even if they were in separate houses. Ron at first, scoffed at Harry's speech but started thinking about it after Ginny and the twins shot him looks that promised pain if he didn't lose his jealousy and pettiness over the matter while escorting him to the Hospital wing. Ron and the others then found out about another new rule that was implemented the previous day.
All points, detentions were to be given individually irrespective of the house the students were present in. The issuing or cancellation of detentions and addition or deduction of points were to be recorded by the magic of Hogwarts itself and the ongoings were also to be noted in a newly created book. The House Cup was no longer valid due to many students changing houses mid-term and a personal cup was to be given that year since there were members present in dual houses. This gave an advantage and provided relief to the professors (save one fraud and an old headmaster), who could now know who created the mess and whom to punish.
Other changes occurred as well. The castle, seemingly started repairing itself. Rooms possessing both normal and dangerous artifacts started popping up all over the place. The dust and grime accumulated for hundreds of years on the walls and floors vanished and they became sparkling. Objects belonging to Hogwarts also reappeared in their original places and would reappear again if they were taken again. The ward that prevented boys from climbing up to the girls' dorms was also replicated and put on the boys' dorms as well. Many unused rooms were being sealed shut and even the headmaster's commands could not open them by his authority
Speaking of said headmaster, he was suffering more than others. Being in several positions of power, his office (which was shifted to a room near the other teachers' rooms when the Griffin refused him entry into the room and cast him out with his belongings into the Great Lake) was wholly filled with paperwork and complaints about the workabouts in the school and what he was doing to avoid it. He had to consume 2 headache potions, every quarter of the day to just focus on working through his paperwork. He felt that he couldn't test Harry's resolve that year, owing to his sudden increase in work and headaches. His many positions of power, were demanding his constant attention, not leaving him sufficient time to form a plot to test Harry.
After a month or so after classes started, Gilderoy Lockhart seemingly disappeared with no trace that he was inside the castle but his personal belongings were left untouched. Many started to search for him but came back with little to no result.
When news broke out that he was missing, all of his fan club members and acquaintances rioted. Students in Hogwarts were already planning to self-study, witnessing Lockhart's incompetency to teach when an unknown ghost like being appeared before them, explaining that she would teach them DADA. Harry recognised her to be the spirit of Hogwarts itself, a being created and nourished over a course of time by magic the students had casted in the vicinity of the castle.
On a side note, said defence teacher was imprisoned in the hidden dungeons of Hogwarts, utterly famished and to be executed on charges of multiple cases of harassment, memory wiping, sexual abuse on several female students etc. He confessed to all of the said crimes under influence of veritaserum and was now under the constant scrutiny of the Hogwarts elves.
DADA classes went through a dramatic change. Newer and updated materials on the subject appeared in the library overnight. Classes went from disinteresting to exciting. Even slackers like Ron were paying attention and even other arrogant pureblood supporters like Malfoy and Nott had grudgingly accepted that the classes were good.
Harry had a sneaking suspicion on whose money were the books being brought from and confronted Fawkes about it. The golden phoenix, who was unusually smug, just laughed off the matter and waved him off while giving him a letter which arrived from Gringotts.
The contents of the letter surprised Harry and the clone Snape who just arrived. It was about a curse that was embedded into the tiara of Rowena Ravenclaw. The goblins hypothesized that the curse was put there by Voldemort when he made it a horcrux. The curse was embedded into the wards of Hogwarts, preventing the Hogwarts spirit to materialize in the mortal world while weakening the wards around the castle. The side effect of losing Defence teachers every year was just a cherry on the top.
The Goblins theorized that the Headmaster of Hogwarts could remove it with some effort by calling upon his own magic aided with the presence of Hogwarts. The person would be bedridden for a few days but would gain their energy back a few days later.
The Goblins, who helped construct Hogwarts (by providing it with wards) with other magical species in conjunction with the founders were angered at the slight shown by the headmaster.
The wards surrounding Hogwarts were considered to be a masterpiece by the Goblins and were treated as artifacts. Tampering with them counted as sacrilege to them. The defect was visible from anywhere in the castle (to beings possessing ability to see and sense magic) and if a Goblin was bought into the castle, it would have solved the problem earlier. But Dumbledore decided to ignore their existence and just leave the wards alone causing more damage to them every passing year. The Goblins, at that moment had decided to get back at Dumbledore for his meddling.
(On an unrelated side note, protections on Dumbledore's vault were being overridden and the vault was being emptied far faster than being refilled. The objects he 'took for research from other families' were being restored to their rightful owners and compensations were being conducted. If Dumbledore ever stepped foot in Gringotts or were to make a withdrawal, he would find his vault emptier than his ideals and himself in such a massive debt that even selling Hogwarts would just barely settle it.)
So, after a long discussion, the goblins had decided to remove the curse from the tiara. But immediate removal would cause bursts of very dense magic which could, theoretically, destroy the protections of Hogwarts at the seams. So, the goblins decided to redirect the dense magic to the creator of the curse, namely Voldemort, whose condition as a wraith suddenly worsened, causing the animal he possessed to expel him from the body. The enchantments he cast to protect his horcruxes were also similarly weakened, leaving him more vulnerable.
Even the general society of the wizarding world was affected by the sorting hat's decision. Members in politics were breaking off older alliances in favour of newer ones based on the sorting. Some even went to the extreme and broke all alliances to other families and some, even disowned their children because they didn't get into a house they dreamed. Many politicians started searching family trees of all wizards and witches present in Hogwarts to find the founders' heir and sway him/her to their side and ideals.
Fortunately for Harry, Gringotts had taken care of the trouble and had locked away the details of all students attending Hogwarts presently, stating magical issues. Even if any witch or wizard were to gain the details of the students by sneaking inside Gringotts and escaping without decapitation, retracing the family trees without the help of goblins or specific enchantments available in the Black family library would be a tiresome task.
Speaking of students, after the excitement had died down (atleast partially), found out the classes to be more challenging than before. Not surprising as they advanced a year and had not cast magic for atleast 3 months. Harry himself was feeling the stress but due to working out and strengthening his body, felt less stress than his classmates.
Harry also felt his bond with Ginny growing. Whenever he was free and not spending time with his friends (including Ron, who after sometime had softened and 'forgiven' him), he went to talk with her. As far as her brothers could tell, she was a pro at subduing any of them if they irritated her too much, despite her small size, making her a force to be reckoned with. Her being a prankmaster as much as Fred and George were, and knowing how to ride a broom at such a young age on her own were even more supportive ideas of being her friend as he could discuss said topics with her.
But Harry could only know about her on the surface. He still sensed a wall of sorts that stopped him from truly knowing her. He also noticed her pulling away from him and others at times, even spacing out while talking which Harry filed away to investigate later.
Soon, Harry let his friends know about his exercise regimen and even let them in on it. Many faces started to turn sour on hearing about the physical exercise and some outright declined it. But Harry explained the benefits and they begrudgingly started exercising and the results were almost instantaneous. Members weak at practical portions, progressed at a faster rate than before due to increase in their physical resistance which led to higher magical reserves and control and Hermione conducted study sessions for the theoretically weak members of their group.
Everything was going perfect for Harry who was hoping for a quiet year unlike his last one. But alas, his sense of peace was shattered and he had to battle Voldemort again on Halloween, to reclaim his soulmate.