~ Chapter 42: Back to Classes? ~


 Thursday, 21st September.

Madam Pomfrey was giving the two students a last minute check up and pronounced that both of them could return to their dormitory but said in passing that they were not required to attend classes yet, but they could if they wanted to. Harry and Draco walked out of the hospital ward together and parted as Draco moved to a portrait that would lead the Slytherin straight down to the Entrance Hall while Harry went to a portrait that would lead him to the seventh floor.

The Fat Lady was waiting expectantly as she watched him trying to remember the password that Hermione had whispered to him yesterday. He grinned broadly and said, "Silver Wheel." The Fat Lady smiled briefly and swung open to admit him in. The common room was silent, as the students had gone off for their classes. He clambered up the staircase to his dormitory to pick up his towel and gave himself a bath. Feeling absolutely refreshed, he went back to his room to change into his school robes. He sighed when he tried to comb his hair but it just would not cooperate and he got out his gel. He spent several moments styling his hair and swiftly turned around when a soft tender hoot filled the room. It was Hedwig, gracefully perched at a chair's back. Harry went straight to her and scratched her neck fondly. He had missed Potions tutorial and thought he ought to go down for his Transfiguration practical that day. He lifted Hedwig from her perch and she carefully hopped onto his arm before placing her talons slowly on his shoulder.

He picked up his wand and tucked it into his robe, then carefully examined his bag. Finding that all his writing utensils and the books necessary for his classes for the rest of the day were in it, he zipped his bag close and lifted it to his left shoulder. Looking at his wristwatch, it showed exactly ten-fifteen and he decided to go down the library to kill time. "Hey, I'm going to the library. Why don't you fly back to the Owlery to rest? You can come find me in the Hall during lunch time later. Will that be all right?" Hedwig nibbled on his ear gently and he opened the window to let her out. Hedwig slowly edged her talons to the lower part of his arm and he gave a powerful toss and watched as Hedwig soared over the clear autumn sky. He watched his owl disappear from sight and closed the window back, then stepped out of the dormitory to head down to the library. He suddenly remembered that he had a belated gift to deliver to Hermione. He went back to his room and searched for the gift that he had kept in his drawer. He got out a slim black paper packet that contained his gift. It was one of Hedwig's secondary feathers that he had obtained when she shook the loose feather free from her wings. Without help from anyone, he had made a nice-looking accessory for his friend. With that packet safe in his pocket, he went out of the Gryffindor Tower and went down to the library.

He was a little surprised to see Draco in the library reading a book. Suddenly feeling awkward, he briefly nodded a greeting before choosing a table at a corner that was nearer to a window. He fished for Hermione's list of homework and scanned it. His eyes lighted up on an essay writing for Herbology and felt that he ought to spend sometime in the library to find information on how to grow and nurture the Magnolia Projectivilien. He got up from his seat and searched through the Herbology section, and finally came up with two thick books that seemed promising. He leafed through the pages of one volume as he went back to his seat.

By the time Harry had finished writing down some respectable notes, it was ten minutes to eleven. There was no time for him to look at the second book but jotted down the reference so he could find it again if he needed to. He packed up his bag and placed the books back into their shelves and unexpectedly bumped into the Slytherin.

"McGonagall's?" Harry asked the pale-haired Slytherin who nodded. They walked toward their Transfiguration classroom and Harry secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Hermione and Ron waiting outside the classroom.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted in delight.

"What are you doing here?" Ron queried and Harry chuckled softly.

"I've rested enough in bed," he informed them in a contrite voice. Ron was eyeing Draco suspiciously, who was gazing intently at them. Hermione was about to say something but Harry gave both her and Ron a look signifying, 'I need to inform you of something but later'. Then he pretended to check his robe for something but in actual fact he was fingering the Gryffindor crest attached to the school robe. His friends got the idea immediately. He finally got out Hermione's gift and she glowed that he had remembered her birthday. The door unlocked and Hermione was the first to enter and stood frozen in the middle of the classroom. Wondering what had caught her perplexity, Harry looked about the classroom. Professor McGonagall was already waiting for them, as a cat on her desk. However, she was the only thing that looked normal in the room. Harry caught sight of a brown rat but had the hind legs of a crow. He saw a statue but it had a pair of flapping winds.

"Bloody hell…" Ron muttered under his breath. The Gryffindors placed their bags to one corner and stared at the weird stuff placed in all directions about the room. Draco was peering curiously at a palm-sized mirror but when he flipped it to the other side, he gave a small gasp of surprise when he saw a mouse protruding out of the mirror. Professor McGonagall-- in her cat form-- was staring at Harry. She waited until all were present before leaping off from the table and transformed into her human self.

"Welcome back Mr. Potter and you too, Mr. Malfoy," Professor McGonagall greeted them slowly. The temperature suddenly increased but dropped back down instantly. Harry looked at Draco, whose eyes were glimmering with intense anger. "Well, class. Today we shall see just how good you are at figuring what had been what," she informed all of them with a faint smile hovering on her lips. Her eyes scanned the room quickly as she counted heads and told them to work on an object in groups of threes. Draco quickly took Crabbe and Goyle and that left Parkinson alone, who seemed to be still glowering at him about their breakup. Parvati and Lavender with heavy hearts accepted her into their group.

Harry, Ron and Hermione went off for the statue with the pair of wings. Ron was studying the pair of wings carefully. "Harry, what do they look like to you?" He pointed his chin at the wings. Harry went over to examine the wings while Hermione was carefully poking the statue and scrutinizing it carefully.

"It really looks like it belonged to a chicken, don't you think?" Harry answered Ron's question.

"It's worth a try…" Hermione shrugged and discussed with her group members the spells they should use. They had forty minutes to gain themselves some points for their House but it seemed that whatever the statue was, it was not a chicken.

Hermione was feeling very vexed. It so happened that her team had picked the most difficult object when Professor McGonagall happened to stop by their group. "It's not a statue, nor a chicken or a stone," Hermione whispered in frustration.

"How about an egg?" Ron suggested. Hermione gave a snort and they cast their spells. To Hermione's profound amazement, the statue with the wings was suddenly enveloped in a golden glow and it grew so bright that all of them were forced to turn away from the source of light. When the light dimmed, there, sitting on a red cushion was one chicken egg. Ron was staring at it stupidly. "That was just a joke!" He protested incredulously.

"Congratulations! Ten points each! Class dismissed!"

Harry and Hermione walked toward their bags and Harry lifted Ron's. His best friend was still staring at the egg. "Ron!"

"What? Oh… yeah… coming…" Ron shot a disgusted look at the egg before he retrieved his bag. Hermione was silent all the way. Only when they sat down at the table did she asked Ron why he thought of an egg.

"I dunno…" Ron said almost sheepishly. "It's just that you tried stone, rock and even limestone. So, the idea of egg just popped in my mind…" Hermione did not seem to be satisfied with his answer but dropped the subject when Neville came and sat down beside Harry, looking blankly at a cream puff.

"Hey, Neville. What's wrong?" Hermione asked him in a quiet voice. Neville did not answer. Fenix was suddenly there, as if she had just Apparated. Some of the students jumped; she however, took no notice of them.

"Neville?" Fenix laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. He looked up at her slowly; his eyes were still unfocused. "Come." He took her hand and they vanished.

"How come I'm having the feeling that something bad had happened?" Ron whispered uneasily. His friends did not know what to answer so they kept quiet, trying to gulp down the sudden feeling of alarm.

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Later that afternoon…

Hours passed and soon, wherever there were students, the place was surrounded by excited conversation. Harry and his group of friends were sitting around the Hall, surrounding Hermione who was holding a special edition of the Daily Prophet. They now understood why their friend had looked as he did during lunch time. It seemed that somehow the Dark Lord had found out about the transfer of the St. Mungo's patients and he had launched a surprise attack on patients and personnel alike. One Auror was down and several patients were killed; one of them was Neville's father, who had for a brief moment acted like the Auror he once was to protect his wife and killed several of the Dark Lord's followers with him.

Hermione was actually crying as she read it; nor was she the only one. There were some of them who were just too shocked to even let their tears flow. They seemed a bit surprised when they saw Fenix in the picture-- she looked a little strained, her face was displaying an expression of trying to suppress her tears as she helped to direct the volunteers about, and Healed those who had been injured. Harry wondered when on earth she had gotten there. They also saw several of the members of the Order. Moody, Tonks and several others were there in helping in the move and securing the area.

Those who had gathered about Hermione went and sat down on the nearest tables, looking silently at each other. Ron had one arm hugging Hermione and she wiped her tearful eyes. "What are we going to do? I mean… Neville will know that we already know… but I don't want to hurt him with sympathy." Harry closed his eyes and buried his face in his palms. Sensing that nobody would give them any kind of attention now, he decided to inform them of their latest addition to their family and also told them what Professor Dumbledore had told him about Professor Trelawney's prediction. Ron looked dumbfounded while Hermione looked at him with a terrified expression. She was repeating herself in a soft voice. "Four years…" Harry understood how she felt. Hermione had studied Muggle history too, and she probably understood the consequences of wars better than he could.

There was a clamor over the Hufflepuffs and others turned to look at them. Lee shouted, looking inquiringly at them, "Hey! What's going on with you?"

"We were just wondering if it would be better if we start training up for war," one Hufflepuff spoke up.

"Are you people mad? We could get killed, boy," a Slytherin lashed out suddenly.

"This is a school. Not some sort of an army," a Ravenclaw spoke up.

Harry stood up suddenly. "I agree with all three statements," he spoke up softly. "But we are not living in a century of peace right now. You have to be aware that the School may be attacked anytime now, since the Dark Lord's major opponents are present here. They have already attacked a helpless community-- injured wizards and witches. What makes you think they won't think of students as fair game?" The other students had no time to make any kind of rejoinder when Dumbledore's voice was amplified all about the school.

"Your attention please. Students and all staff. Please proceed to the Great Hall immediately. I repeat. Students and all staff please proceed to the Great Hall immediately." Silence descended quickly in the Great Hall.

"That sounded ominous enough," Ginny spoke up in a quiet voice.

The Hall was slowly filled with students and Harry finally saw the grim faces of the teachers. Neville still looked a little shocked and Harry was surprised to see that his grandmother was with him, looking very sorrowful. Harry's eyes scanned for Sirius. His godfather gave him a wan smile as he took a seat on the Gryffindor table, ignoring McGonagall's instruction to take a seat at the teacher's table. Fenix was looking really stressed; she kept rubbing her temple. Her partner and Snape seemed terribly worried about her and sandwiched her in between them, also ignoring some of the astonished looks that the rest of their colleagues were giving them.

The Headmaster walked unhurriedly toward the teacher's table. The Hall automatically fell silent as he moved but did not sit. Instead, he clasped his hands behind his back and looked gravely about the Hall, his eyes flashing with concern as his gaze rested on Fenix's head. She was the only one who was not looking at the Headmaster with curiosity, interest or trepidation. Dumbledore cleared his throat and spoke up in a soft voice. There was no need to project his voice out for the Hall was extremely silent. "I have requested all of you to assemble here for I have grave news that concern us all. I particularly have no wish to repeat myself and I apologize if I may seem to be blunt in addressing the current situation," his voice was dead serious. Everyone listened attentively.

"I am sure that by now, most of you have received the news about the attack on St. Mungo's Hospital," he paused for a moment and stared at the magical ceiling with a little frown. The ceiling was using the Headmaster's mood to create a gloomy atmosphere but at his determined will, and it took on a more cheerful scene. "I, as the Headmaster of the School and also the Ministry, had come to agreements that there will be no major exams. Also, I advise the students who deemed that studying in Hogwarts could be a little dangerous to submit their names to their respective Heads of Houses. I would not force any of you to stay behind the protection of the School any longer. But I would not deny that we are sorely in need of fighters." Professor McGonagall gave a little gasp and stared at the Headmaster in amazement. She did not realize that he would go that far to be blunt. The Headmaster continued speaking. "There is simply not enough of the… Old Blood to fight the Dark Lord and his mass of followers. You would be surprised to hear that he actually has three times of his followers than all of us put together. If you minus the students…" He let the students think about his assessment for quite some time before continuing.

"So although all exams have been canceled, lessons will be conducted as normal, but I could not promise you that you will graduate timely. We might have to retain you for a few more years…" Several students smiled faintly at his words. "Now as for the Quidditch matches this year," Everyone held their breaths. "We'll just see how it goes…" There was a chorus of disappointed sighs. "Professor Snape, McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick, will now pass around a parchment and those who want out, feel free to write your names."

The Potions Master quickly conjured up a parchment and a quill, and briskly moved off to walk around the Slytherin table. Professor McGonagall came down to pass the parchment around and it did get passed around. The first-year Gryffindors shook their head and Aiden McIntyre passed it to Colin Creevey who passed it to his younger brother and so on. Nobody had signed on the parchment and all stared at Neville and his grandmother who was looking at him sternly.

"Write your name on it," his grandmother commanded.

"No," Neville responded and calmly got out of his seat, exiting out of the hall without another word and so the parchment continued making its way down the end of the Gryffindor table. The Founders of the School looked fondly at the grim-faced Gryffindors.

"They're a whole bunch of fools…" Salazar Slytherin smiled sadly at them.

"Brave… and reckless to boot…" Rowena Ravenclaw observed.

"But if they could help the School…" Godric Gryffindor said mournfully.

"Then we just have to guide them properly, I guess..." Helga Hufflepuff concluded.

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