Chapter Three- Dumbledore's Idea
The plates were clean and polished. A silence of excitement was filling the Great Hall. Dumbledore stood up and flattened his long, gray beard.
"As you all have heard by now, from rumours flying around, that Hogwarts will be taking on an extremely different kind of measure this term," Dumbledore said, watching the students whisper about.
"What exactly is going to happen?" yelled George Weasley in Gryffindor.
"Calm yourself Mr. Weasley. We must pace ourselves now and then. Now, I am very pleased to inform you all..." There was a pause in Dumbledore's voice.
"What the bloody hell is it?" Ron whispered to Harry.
"I dunno," Harry replied, who looked at Hermione. She was holding her chin with the palms of her hands, looking quite interested.
Dumbledore smiled and said, "To inform you all that we will be playing host to students from the United States and Canada."
Three-fourths of the students broke into a roaring applause. A few Slytherin and Hufflepuff students were looking anything but impressed. Draco smiled to himself again. Hermione was clapping harder than ever. Dumbledore rose his arms up for silence.
"I know Hogwarts has not had much luck with schools from abroad, but I assure you that whilst the new students are here, things will be much smoother. The students will be staying for the entire year. They arrive next Monday. Now, it's getting late and we've all had much excitement for one night. Off to bed now!" Dumbledore said. He stood watching the students scramble out of the Great Hall. Meanwhile, down in the dungeons, Malfoy informed his pals of the information hi father told him- but soon regretted it.
"Why am I tell you two? You'll forget it by morning," Draco told Crabbe and Goyle.
Up at the portrait of the Fat Lady, the Gryffindors all huddled together.
"Alpha pear," Hermione said the password.
The portrait swung open letting in the eager students.
"He's gone mad, Dumbledore!" Dean Thomas screamed.
"I second that one, mate," Fred Weasley spoke.
"Listen to you all!" Hermione said. "You can't let what happened two years ago stop you from letting this happen!"
Two years ago was when the Triwizard Tournament took place at Hogwarts. Harry remembered it all too well. The worst part was watching a good person, Cedric Diggory, die because of Lord Voldemort. Harry shuddered and lowered his head at the thought.
" 'Mione, have you gone mad? Look at what happened! Cedric died because of that stupid tournament!"
Everyone in the common room turned to look at who spoke. It was Ron.
"Bloody hell, who's the say something like that won't happen again?" Ron snapped again.
Hermione, who turned bright red, walked off to the girls' dormitory, followed closely by Ron's younger sister, Ginny; who looked frightened of her brother.
"Way to go mate," Fred told his brother.
"Shove off, Fred," Ron hissed.
"No problem there," Fred replied.
Ron turned to look at Harry who was sitting by the fire.
"You understand where I was going with that, right Harry?"
"What? Oh, yeah Ron," Harry said still looking at the fire. Sirius is gone, Harry thought, who am I to turn to if something goes wrong? With that thought, Harry and Ron walked up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. They got into their beds and fell asleep immediately.