Chapter 4: The New Professors
Plates of meat were accompanied by bowls of salads. Mouth-watering desserts added a lively color to the rather unadorned tables. Even after seven years the trio was still surprised by the Sorting Feast. After several minutes of Ron stuffing his face, and Harry and Hermione eating at a leisurely pace, Hermione released a deep sigh.
"WassupHerione?" Ron said with a mouthful of food.
Hermione looked up him with a small smile at his complete disregard for his manners. "Nothing's wrong, Ron. I was just thinking. This is our last year at Hogwarts. The last time we'll be at the place the three of us can truly call our 'home away from home.' This year is going to be great."
"Except for N.E.W.T's," Harry interjected, his voice sounded winy.
"Speaking of which, I believe that we should all start studying this weekend." She reached into her bag and pulled out a thick packet of papers. "I have already come up with a study schedule up until the date of the N.E.W.T's, already scheduling time in for Quidditch practices," she said as Harry opened his mouth to interpose.
"You must be bloody mad! There's at least TEN MONTHS between now and then!" Ron said, taking on a tone that he would use if Hermione had suggested that Quidditch be banned from the Wizarding World as a result of too many injuries.
"All the more reason to start studying now, Ronald, instead of trying to overwork your poor defenseless minds in nine months time," Hermione said smiling smugly at him.
"You make it sound as if I'm expecting a child with all this talk of nine months and being prepared," Ron said soberly.
"You're not, are you?" Harry said looking over at Ron with wide-eyes. "Because if you were, I'm going to start running now." He said and made it seem as if he were ready to jump up at any moment.
"Harry! Be serious! How could you even think something like that!" Ron stated, staring incredulously at his best friend.
"Well, you never know these days," Harry said casually.
Hermione just rolled her eyes, some things will never change, especially her two best friends.
From out of nowhere, the glass windows behind the professors' table shattered and five softball-sized orbs came flying into the Great Hall, spewing purple and green smoke. All of the students, including Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Had moved to see what was happening at the far end of the hall.
The smoke orbs had rolled down the five aisles between the House table before any student was able to turn and flee the advancing cloud. Soon the green and purple fog engulfed the entire Great Hall.
Slowly, the smoke began to clear and revealed the hundred of students and professors frozen in place. Only their eyes, that all faced the teachers' table were able to scan the Great Hall. The heavy wooden doors of the hall slammed open with a crash. Maniacal laughter echoed through the motionless room.
A grinning man in a purple suit made his way down the center aisle of the House tables. Behind him, a score of costumed misfits strutted. There was a lanky scarecrow with a ghastly burlap face and straw hair, a woman dressed in a jester's red and black leotard, there was even a man that appeared to be half crocodile, half man and a black and white suited man whose face was partly a deformed blue while the other side was handsome and normal.
Following the abnormal cast of freaks was a collection of men and woman in black robes. Death Eaters, Lord Voldemort's followers, all of the students could feel it just by their dark presence in the room. The most shocking emergence, though, was a hooked nose man with greasy hair. Severus Snape was once the Potions teacher at Hogwarts until last year when he had killed the well loved Albus Dumbledore. Now it was common knowledge of his allegiance.
The purple man had reached the front of the Great Hall and was surveying the paralyzed crowd. He had green hair, a chalk white face, and a wide smile that seemed to be permanently stuck onto his face.
"Hello, kiddos!" He gave a large wave to all of the students and bowed. His voice and attitude went right with his clown exterior. "You can call me Headmaster Joker!"
Harry stared disbelievingly at the party of people that had entered the hall so unceremoniously. How in Hell did a group of Death Eaters this large just walk through this door, and who were the oddly dressed people who were following the clown-man. Harry began to wonder whether or not this was a bad dream, or perhaps just a trick played by the professors. He ruled out the latter of the two, there was too much dark energy floating about to even consider this as a trick. If he could move any part of his body he would have a deep crease in his brow at this present moment as he contemplated the situation at hand.
"Yah see kids," the clown-man who called himself Joker began. "Me and my pals have been invited all the way from good old America to come here and teach you guys some good old fashion fun… And hold you all for ransom, but that's a different story! And right now, I'd like to thanks the one you all should know, Voldemort and his good lackey friends, the Death Eaters!" Joker's smile widened as the Death Eaters spread out amongst the students removing them of their wands.
Hermione was on the verge of tears. Having Hogwarts taken over being taken over by Death Eaters and some people that she didn't know wasn't her way to start off a new term. She felt a hand move her robe aside and take her wand from the inner pocket of it. To her right, she heard Ron groan inwardly, telling her that they took his also. Looking over at the Slytherin table, she noticed that the looks in the Slytherins' eyes said that they couldn't tell whether to be happy or mad at the matter at hand.
Joker looked at his watch as the Death Eaters finished removing every one of the wands. "Oh, deary me! Look at the time! I do believe it's time to show the old professors their new lodging! Deathies, if you would?"
The Death Eaters along with some of the costumed misfits approached the staff table and began to remove the frozen figures from their seats behind the table. Even Headmaster McGonagall was removed from her large seat in the center of the table and taken out of the room.
The trio stared in shock, the teachers were being taken from right under their noses, and they couldn't do anything about it. All of the students were beginning to wonder if the gas that made them still would ever wear off.
If Ron could've moved his eyebrow, at that moment he would've as he watched a Death Eater walk by Malfoy and give him a pointed stare, though Ron had no idea who the Death Eater was.
Joker looked around as the Death Eaters reenter the Great Hall without their charges. "Well that should do it. Now to the rules… As of right now, you all are permanently confined to this castle, and, being is that you all are without you magic sticks, I wouldn't advice trying to escape… My colleagues and I will be taking over you classes. We wouldn't want your little brains to shrink from lack of work now would we?" He checked his watch. "One final note before you all return to your dorms, or suffer the consequences. Any rule-breakers will have to deal with me in my own special way." He gave a honey sweet tone to his final words along with a devilish smile.
Around the Great Hall, students began to regain movement in their limbs. Slowly, they timidly began to file out of the Great Hall under the supervision of the Death Eaters.