The Sixth Year
Harry couldn't believe his luck. He had finally convinced Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia to let him stay at Diagon Alley for the last two weeks before school began. What was even better was that Ron and Hermione had convinced their parents to do the same. However, they weren't going to get there until three, and it was only twelve. He decided to go into Diagon Alley and see how Fred and George were doing with their shop. Fred and George had left Hogwarts early at the end of last year and opened up their own joke shop "Twin's Unite." When he got there it was crowded as usual, they had the most crowded shop in all Diagon Alley except maybe the Quidditch store. He spotted Fred and George lurking behind the counters watching everybody browse the store and letting their employees handle the customers.
Then the door opened and Ron and Hermione came in talking excitedly about something. Harry rushed over to them yelling over the noise "I thought you guys weren't coming until three?"
They stopped talking, Ron answered, "We weren't, except Dad got some news. So we rushed right over to tell you."
"So what's the news then?"
"A magic school is closing and the three schools that participated in the Triwizard Tournement (TT)are getting all of their students" Hermione called out.
"What?!?" Harry replied, "Thereare more magic schools? Lets go to the Leaky Cauldron so I can actually hear you."
They were all huddled around a table. "I don't know the name of the school but it wasn't that big, only about 150 students in it. So each school will get 50 new students for the next year" Hermione explained.
"I can't belive this. How many magic schools are there?"
"I only knew of the three in the TT but Dad said that over Britain there were about 10 magic schools."
"Why are only the TT schools getting kids then?"
"Nobody knows. They say it might be because they have the best teachers, or maybe its because they are positive that those three will not close down."
"Yeah,Mr. Weasleysaid some of the other schools are having problems too and might close down."
"Woh. Do you guys know who we're getting for our school yet?"
Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. "What? What is it?"
"Well," Hermione said timidly, "We heard Snape's whole family is coming to our school."
"Snape's whole family?" Harry said breathless.
"Yeah, it appears Snape has a wife, two daughters and a niece. Or that's what Dad said anyway."
"Poor Neville. Hey do we know who's going to be our newDefense of the Dark Arts teacher?"
"Snape's wife."
"What?!? How can Snape's wife get it? What is going on in this world?"