The staff meeting.

Headmistress McGonagall cleared her throat and stood up, making the noisy staff room lapse into silence in a few seconds.

"Welcome," she said. "to Hogwarts. Your workplace from now on. And here, in this room, are your fellow workers. Maybe everyone can introduce themselves." She stopped and nodded towards Blaise.

"Right," he said, and pulled a negligent hand through his hair. "I'm Blaise Zabini, and before I pass the word to my left I can tell you that I'm the Potions master.

Draco shook his head; his friend was just too dramatic sometimes, it hadn't changed since their years at Hogwarts. He now showed his attention to the woman with long pink hair, who stood up and told them she was Nymphadora Tonks and was going to teach Transfiguration.

"...but please, call me Tonks." she finished.

Ginny smiled and glanced towards the person next to Tonks. It was a woman with glasses and curly brown hair; she looked a bit older than Ginny herself, but yet she knew she'd seen her before.

"I'm Penelope Clearwater," the woman said matter-of-factly, and Ginny had to cover her mouth with a hand to not burst out into laughter as a picture of her brother Percy and a young girl with glasses and curly hair standing in a corridor, moving on to second base came before her eyes. "and I'm the Charms teacher." She stopped and looked surly at Ginny.

"Justin," a tall man with curly hair said. "Finch-Fletchley. Muggle Studies."

"Concisely, Mr. Finch-Fletchley, just as before." the ghost, Binns said. He was still

going to teach History of Magic at the school. "And I guess I don't need to introduce myself."

Everybody's eyes was now fixed upon the woman with dirty-blonde hair and big blue eyes.

"Oh, hello," she said, as if she'd just noticed she wasn't alone. "I'm Luna Lovegood, pleased to meet you all. If there's anything, be pleased to come and visit me at the Astronomy tower."

"Well, I'll come and see you at least," the man at her side said, making Ginny pucker a brow. "I'm Neville, and I'll be the Herbology teacher. Not a big surprise,eh?"

Ginny sighed, but with a smile. She'd missed both Luna, Neville and Tonks during their long vacation, and she was so glad that she now was going to see them every day. "I'm Ginny," she said as she grabbed Draco's hand. "and this is my husband, Draco Malfoy. We'll be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and Flying, together actually."

Everybody looked at them, quite surprised. But also curiosity filled their eyes, and neither Ginny nor Draco could blame them for that. They had been gone for twelve years. A quiet moment came up, it was quite embarrassing actually, but eventually Draco, irritated, cleared his throat, making everyone come to life and realizing what they'd just done. "So," he said and glanced towards McGonagall. "what are we now doing?"

The old woman gave him an acidic expression, and cleared her throat. "Be patient, Mr. Malfoy," she said and took a seat. "and I will tell you everything you've missed these 12 years away. It started when the war ended, when it was decided that Hogwarts wasn't going to reopen. Of course, there were many protests, but they were all ignored and parents had to teach their children everything at home or put them in smaller study groups. And

That's how young witches and wizards, also Muggleborns, have been prepared for their NEWT's and OWL's the last 12 years. A quite poor educational system in my opinion, and as you know I've been fighting for Hogwarts since then. Finally, one year ago, the ministry gave me permission to reopen the school this autumn. And so, the work began. We've been restoring the school, worked out a plan for these first years, and of course, a lot of time I spent finding suitable teachers."

"So," Ginny said thoughtfully. "school starts one week from now. We will be teaching students from first to seventh years, but how will we know that they have the right knowledge? Especially in the later years."

"The term will begin with examinations." McGonagall answered plainly. All students from second years and up will be tested in their knowledge. Some students will not have the proper knowledge for their year, and then we'll have to accept measures, give the student a tutor or extra lessons. In some cases, there even might be necessary to transfer the student down a year."

"And next week," Justin Finch-Fletchley asked. "there will be a long sorting."

"That's right. But there's nothing we can do about it. The students have to be sorted into houses." The headmistress said content, as it lead her to new matters. "And talking about houses, this might be a good moment to tell who'll be the Heads of houses." She waved her wand, and four badges in different colours came flying

and landed in her hand. "It probably wont come as a surprise," she said. "For Hufflepuff, Mr. Finch-Fletchley. For Ravenclaw, Ms. Clearwater. For Slytherin Mr. Malfoy. And finally, for my own old house; Gryffindor, Mrs. Malfoy. I will send the four of you your instructions later."

Well, chapter 4.

It took me a while. I wanted it to be good, and I've also been occupied with the 16th and 17th chapter of 'the dare' (both ready, just waiting for cassie to edit them).

Oh, and yes, I'm changing the chapter titles, they were a bit too confusing I guess.

And now I've got a Beta on this one to. Thank you so much Peter-pan-equals-love (hope I got that right) for your job.

We'll see when the next one comes up, There's so much to do in school this week. But I have one day off, so maybe if I'm not completely occupied with the maths, I'll be able to finish another chapter. But no promises though.

Review.

/Honey