…the Great Hall hummed with that peculiar intensity generated whenever a large number of wizards are all concentrating on the same thing…
It was a subdued group of students that straggled into the Great Hall that September, students who had spent the summer seeing the vise of the dark lord tightening on the Wizarding World, with the Ministry still denying everything. Rumors had spread that even Hogwarts was not sacred, that something unexpected had happened in the ancient castle. The school had been keeping extraordinarily tight security. Rumors on the train were along the lines of McGonagall dead, a secret Death Eater assault toppling the Astronomy Tower, or even the entire school now being a Dark fortress. Harry had dismissed the last when he spotted the draped form of Severus Snape shepherding the students onto the train with a dark scowl, but he was still extraordinarily nervous. This world was no longer a safe haven for him- there were evils more profound than the Dursleys', and while Aunt Petunia might compel him to weed the garden, she wouldn't try and turn his death into a spectator sport.
His eyes were, as always, drawn immediately to the High Table, but now they froze there. Looking far too frail and not at all at home in the throne of the Headmaster was Professor Minerva McGonagall, in emerald green robes and - his heart sank - wearing the chain of the office of the Headmaster. Headmistress, he corrected himself with a grimace.
He had known Dumbledore was old, but dead now, when they most needed him? Many of the students were only here because the safest place to be with Voldemort loose was wherever Albus Dumbledore happened to be.
There were new faces at the staff table too. A just-greying man who looked more than a bit like old Mad-Eye Moody was conversing amicably with a striking man who looked quite a bit like a, well, prettier Snape. Glancing at the people beside him, Harry winced inwardly. Hermione was almost drooling, while Ron had a star-struck expression on his face. Pausing only to snarl at Malfoy grinning gleefully as he looked at the chair that could not ever really be filled by Minerva McGonagall, Harry kept walking. The absence of Dumbledore hung heavy in the air.
Surprisingly, the student tables were not empty. Four students were seated at the four tables before the rest filed in, an auburn-haired Gryffindor studying something intently, a smiling, curly-haired Ravenclaw, a pretty Hufflepuff girl, and a dark-haired Slytherin boy who suddenly turned to look at Harry. Harry froze. Behind them there was a quiet squeak as Ginny ran into him, then a shriek as she spotted the Slytherin.
Harry managed to muffle her, but her brothers immediately surrounded her, demanding to know what was wrong. She was incoherent, shivering to herself. Harry drew her close, disregarding the glares from the three Weasley brothers. He helped her to the table. Ron sat on the other side of Ginny, while Fred and George took the seats opposite.
"Snap out of it, Gin!" Ron whispered, and then glared at Harry. "What did you do to her?"
"It wasn't me!" Harry hissed back. "It's sort of the whole deal of seeing Tom bloody-Riddle at the Slytherin table..."
Ron turned white, scanning across the hall frantically. "Him..here?"
"Who?" asked Fred.
"My scar's not hurting...and he's not paying me any attention...I think it might not be, well, him"
"Stop talking in riddles and spill, Potter" snapped George, losing patience for the first time Harry could remember. Ginny sniffled to herself.
"The kid over there - he looks like Lord Voldemort."
All four Weasleys winced simultaneously at the use of the name. Harry tried to refrain from rolling his eyes as prefect Hermione joined them after breaking up a little scuffle among the third-years. She slid in between Harry and the new Gryffindor, peering over the redhead's shoulder at the arcane scribbles. He looked up, nodded at her, and then returned to his work in an obvious dismissal. Hermione looked like she was about to say something, but stopped as the first years, led by Professor Snape, made their way in.
The Sorting began without much fuss, and Harry looked over the crop of new recruits. Nothing worth looking at, for the most part- a young black boy with Veela hair being the only one who really stood out. One of them, surprisingly, was already in Slytherin robes and peeled off to sit beside the Riddle-esque boy at the head of the table. Curious. Harry cheered when his table did, but he was hungry, slightly out of it, and trying not to think about how tempting a target Hogwarts was to the Dark with Dumbledore out of the way. He glanced up after a particularly enthusiastic round of cheers.
"Farryll, Christopher!" A boy even tinier than Dennis Creevy had been hoisted himself up on the stool and dropped the Hat over his head. It called "SLYTHERIN!" after a few seconds pause, and "Gordon, Damascus!" was called up to become a Hufflepuff. It all seemed less and less relevant to Harry, who stared at the dark boy at the Slytherin table- who looked over, meeting his gaze calmly and with no apparent antagonism. Those blue eyes became calculating as they passed over Hermione and the strange boy, before flicking back to his own table as another new Slytherin was Sorted.
Time passed. Pritchards and Saggs alike were sorted, but the whole hall looked up as Professor Snape drawled "Snape, Arete." A surprisingly pretty girl with braided black hair started towards the Hat eagerly, jamming it on her head. The resulting "SLYTHERIN!" surprised absolutely nobody, and young Miss Snape swept off to the Slytherin table amidst cheers, obviously trying to be 'grown-up' by imitating her father's stride and doing about the best an eleven-year-old girl could at it, which meant she looked a bit silly. Most of the Gryffindors looked thunderstruck.
"Snape has a family? Since when?"
Fred clutched his head. "Bad mental image!"
"Oh, ew!" piped up someone from further down the table.
"Shhh!" hissed Hermione.
Professor Snape smiled thinly at the thrilled-looking girl at the Slytherin Table, basking in attention she had yet to realize was not as much admiring as incredulous, and then continued.
"Snape, Lachesis!"
The Hat took a bit longer with this one, finally deciding, "RAVENCLAW!" The cheers from the Ravenclaw table were a bit half-hearted- besides the fact the oily shoulder-length hair was a nondescript brown and not black she looked amazingly like the Professor. Harry mentally filed the Snape girls under "off-limits", and stared at his plate, trying to will food into existence. Soon the Sorting was over, and Harry forced himself to pay attention as Professor McGonagall.shakily stood to give the announcements.
"Welcome, all, to another year of school at Hogwarts.I will try to make this brief, but there are a few major changes to the school rules that should be noted. First, the Central Common room will be re-opened this year for extracurricular magic practice. Similarly, the training rooms in the dungeons are open again. Please note that there is still no magic use permitted in the corridors, and students are entirely responsible for the upkeep of these rooms. Please note that their use is a privilege and not a right, and can be revoked at any time. The forest on the grounds remains off limits for unsupervised students.
The Weasleys were on their feet cheering, along with a good portion of the rest of the school. A glare from McGonagall caused them to settle down.
"We regret to inform you" McGonagall was trying to sound regretful with little success, "Professor Trelawney will not be teaching Divination this year. May I introduce Professor Lott, our new head of Slytherin House, who will be teaching Defense against the Dark Arts as well." The dark and handsome man who faintly resembled Snape stood, cold eyes sweeping around the room. Much of the female population and no small portion of the male one was trying vainly not to drool. Harry couldn't see the reason for the seeming magnetism himself.
"Also joining us this year is veteran Transfiguration teacher Adrastus Switch, who will be replacing me as the head of Gryffindor House. Please, a round of applause for our new teachers."
The feast started soon after, but Harry found himself unable to eat, despite being starving. No mention of Dumbledore in the entire speech. What had happened to him? Who were the strange prefects? He was still unsettled when he returned to his Hogwarts bed, staring up at the canopy well into the night.