Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I certainly wouldn't waste my time posting transphobic shit online like some authors we know.
Rated T for language and drinking.
Severus Snape was sitting in Professor Dumbledore's seat.
That was the first thing immediately apparent upon entering the Great Hall. Michael led the pack of the eight Ravenclaws who still remained - the absence of Lisa Turpin and Stephen Cornfoot, the two Muggle-borns among the ten seventh-year Ravenclaws, feeling like a gaping void. Even without turning around, Michael could feel Morag MacDougal tense up behind him at the site of Snape, hissing out an angry breath.
"What the hell is that?" Her voice sounded like she was spitting fire. He could only imagine the daggers she was shooting up at the Head Table. Snape was flanked by a man and a woman, stocky with a strong family resemblance to each other. Both of them were unfamiliar, although something about their faces tugged at Michael's memory.
"Come on, let's just sit down. Don't draw attention, Mor." Padma, always the voice of reason. Michael sat between her and Morag, the others - Anthony, Terry, Kevin, and Mandy - sitting across from them, Su Li on Morag's other side.
The normal chatter of students filing into the Great Hall was subdued. Normally the first day back was raucous, with students cheerfully exchanging stories of summer holidays and catching up with friends they may not have seen in three months. With everything that had happened since May, there was very little of that; this year, it was hushed whispers as students reunited. More than a few students looked tearful, and nearly everyone looked somber. Even the Slytherins looked serious, for the most part. It didn't take long for the Hall to fall quiet when Snape stood up.
"Welcome back to Hogwarts," he said, his voice so dry that it almost could have sounded sarcastic, if the situation hadn't felt so dire. "If you had not known, I will be filling the position of Headmaster this year. Professor Horace Slughorn will be remaining to teach Potions. Two new appointments have been made. Professor Alecto Carrow will be teaching Muggle Studies, and Professor Amycus Carrow will be teaching Dark Arts, formerly Defense Against the Dark Arts. Both of these classes are now mandatory for every student, and your class schedules have been updated to reflect that."
There was a small murmur of chatter at that - including Padma's 'Oh, no, I don't know how I'll have the time for that' - but it again fell off quickly as Snape said, "Silence." Nobody seemed to know what to do other than listen; it felt like edging a single toe out of line could be precarious.
"Class times have been rearranged to accommodate the additional classes. If third-years and up wish to adjust their schedules by dropping an elective class because of these additional mandatory classes, you may speak with your Head of House. In addition, to accommodate the transitions and changes that we are making here, Quidditch has been canceled for the foreseeable future."
And on that note, he sat down. The food appeared on the tables without a formal announcement, but for a moment, it seemed like everyone was too stunned to eat. The tables erupted into chatter - albeit quieter than normal, but still chatter nonetheless. Su Li looked as angry as Morag had sounded earlier, after the Quidditch news. Padma looked worried. Mandy was paler than normal.
"Dark Arts?" Terry said finally, the first to break the silence in their group.
"Well, they're bloody Death Eaters, of course it'd be Dark Arts," Kevin said. His voice was low. "The Carrows - they're Death Eaters. That's why they're here."
"Oh, as if we don't already have one running the school." Morag's voice was full of barely constrained rage. "We need three?"
Padma looked between them all. "I wouldn't have these sorts of conversations here," she said. "We don't know anything yet. We don't know how people could be listening, or what they'll take as traitorous or offensive. We should know exactly what we're up against."
"We're up against bloody Death Eaters," Morag mumbled around a mouthful of food. Michael was pretty sure Padma didn't hear that.
Taking Padma's advice, the eight Ravenclaws quieted down. Michael could tell they were all rushing through their food, as if they couldn't wait to get back to the common room. He did the same, eager to escape the watchful eye of Snape, who seemed to be surveying the students like a hawk.
"Up to our dorm," Kevin said as soon as they entered the Ravenclaw common room. Nobody questioned it, just followed him in a pile to the seventh-year boys' dormitory. They spread out once inside, and Kevin rummaged in his trunk, emerging with a large bottle of Firewhiskey and a satisfied grin. "Oh, I was hoping they wouldn't confiscate this."
"Didn't have time to search all the trunks, I guess," Anthony said. "Or they know you're seventeen, so they don't care."
Kevin shrugged, cracking the bottle open. "Sorry, I don't have glasses," he said, taking a long swig from it. "But anyway - to repeat earlier assessments, what the hell has this school become?"
"I can't imagine Muggle Studies is going to be anything but propaganda," Terry said. "I mean, a Death Eater teaching about Muggles? It's going to be absolute shite, there's no way it's anything but." Kevin passed him the bottle, and he took a small sip. "I don't know how she'll even have enough material for a year's worth of class."
"Oh, don't underestimate the rants of bigoted people," Su said.
"Fair point," Terry conceded, offering the bottle to Padma, who waved it away. Michael had never seen her touch anything harder than Butterbeer, even during the last year when all of them turned seventeen at varying time points.
"And Dark Arts?" Mandy's voice was quiet. She was sitting against Stephen's empty bed, knees pulled up to her chest.
"I don't exactly think of good things when I think of Dark Arts, either," Michael said. "I mean, Merlin. It'd be one thing if it was just studying it, but the practical aspect..."
Anthony shook his head, running his hand through his dark curls in frustration. "I know. I want to be a Healer, dammit, I want to help people. The only reason I would want to know about Dark magic is to know how to help people who've been struck by it. Somehow I doubt this class is going to take that approach." He took the bottle from Terry.
"I never thought I'd want another Umbridge, but honestly, I'd take that shite," Su said. "At least she was boring. I'd take boring." She let out a harsh laugh. "Didn't think I'd say that ever."
"We don't know what it will be like," Padma said, but she didn't even sound like she was convincing herself, much less anyone else. "Maybe they won't expect us to cast anything, maybe it will just be mindless lectures again." She sounded much less sure of herself than she normally did. Michael could see the cracks in her logical, stoic facade.
Mandy had fully buried her head in her knees.
Michael took the Firewhiskey from Anthony, savoring the burn as it slid down his throat. Maybe drinking on the first day back at school set a bit of a degenerate tone, but with everything going on, he couldn't bring himself to care. The school which had become his second home felt cold and alien; hell, the world felt cold and alien, and the warmth of the bottle was a vague, tiny relief. "Speaking of fifth year," he said, "I'm wondering if Dumbledore's Army will form again."
Padma looked doubtful. "Without Harry, Ron, and Hermione? Who would even lead it?"
"Ginny's still here," Michael said. "Wouldn't be shocked if she took over."
"Sign me up." Morag tugged the bottle out of Michael's hands. "You lot do whatever you can to get me in this time." She drank deeply, her eyes blazing. "I want to be a part of it."
"You wanted nothing to do with it back in fifth year," Michael reminded her. "In fact, I seem to remember you calling me a bloody idiot for it."
"You never called me an idiot for it," Padma said.
"Well, you went to keep an eye on that lot," Morag said, gesturing to Michael, Anthony, and Terry. "Anyway, that felt different. You know? Like now I understand, the Ministry was sticking their nose in places it didn't belong, and they absolutely fucked up with claiming He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named hadn't returned, but at the time I didn't really know what to believe. It didn't seem worth it to me back then." She took another sip. Kevin stole the bottle from her, just to drink an equally large amount.
"Oi," Michael said.
Kevin capped it and tossed it at him.
"Oh, please don't start throwing that," Padma said, sounding so much like an exasperated mother that Michael had the irrational, inappropriate urge to burst into laughter.
"Anyway," Morag continued, "this feels real. This is real. I'm done keeping my head down, I've done that long enough. I want to do something. None of this is right."
Michael had never seen her so heated. He knew her parents worked at the Ministry, and she had always kept her nose out of anything remotely political. She wasn't necessarily a quiet person, but she had stayed coolly neutral about many things that had otherwise polarized the student body - Harry Potter being the Heir of Slytherin in their second year, You-Know-Who's alleged return the end of their fourth year, the Umbridge fiasco of fifth year.
But she was right. This - You-Know-Who not just returning but effectively taking over Wizarding Britain, the Death Eaters' grip on Hogwarts, and everything that came along with it - was a completely different caliber of awful than anything that had happened previously. The Muggle-born Registration Commission and the removal of Muggle-borns from Hogwarts was cruel and absurd. It made the situation with Umbridge look like child's play - and in a way, it felt like it had been. And suddenly, with a fierce longing, Michael missed even the weirdness that had been fifth year. Poking fun at Umbridge behind closed doors, the dumb things she had said - he never thought he had felt nostalgic for that time, but he did. Maybe it was the Firewhiskey, maybe it was the hell they were living in these days.
Su took the bottle and held it up. "To Lisa and Stephen," she said, her mouth set in a thin line. "You should be here."
Mandy let out a stifled sob, lifting her head from where she was still curled up just long enough to take a drink. Padma moved and sat beside her; Mandy leaned into her and buried her face in Padma's shoulder. Su looked like she was either going to cry or punch something or possibly both. Michael knew Lisa had been closest to Su and Mandy, out of everybody, and the two of them would of course take her absence the hardest.
Michael even found himself missing Stephen. Stephen had been part of their group by proximity, but Michael wouldn't say he was particularly close with anyone. He had been raised Muggle-born with absolutely no knowledge of magic and had been prepared and raised to attend prestigious Muggle schools before being thrust into a world that took some adjusting to. He spoke with the most posh accent Michael had ever heard and was even more proper than Padma, to the point where he had alienated some of the others on occasion. But he had been a fixture in their lives for six years before this, and his absence - especially when it was for a reason as stupid as the circumstances of his parentage - was unexpected and uncomfortable.
"I'll join too," Mandy said after the bottle had been passed around, her voice so quiet that Michael was sure he had heard her wrong at first.
"What?" Kevin stared at her.
"D.A." She stared back at Kevin, daring him to question her.
"Me too." Su's hands were balled into fists. "For Lisa. She deserves to be here. This is..." She let the sentence trail off, but the meaning was clear.
Kevin looked around. "Well, I suppose if everyone here is joining, I might as well cast my lot with the rest of you. I'm in." He shrugged.
"We don't even know if it's actually forming," Padma said helplessly.
"If it is, are you in again?" Michael said. "Gotta keep an eye on the rest of us, right?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "I didn't join solely to keep an eye on you. And yes. As much as I would like to keep my head down to finish this year, I can't let everyone I care about risk themselves for a cause I also believe in, without doing the same."
"United front," Kevin said.
Michael looked around. They were. This was a family. Sure, they had their closer friendships within the group, among each other, but for years they had been able to count on each other. What had started in the beginning as eager Ravenclaw first years agreeing to study with each other had turned into a genuine bond between them all, formed not just by proximity but by the utter chaos that had been their time at Hogwarts, chaos that they had been mostly removed from but always witnesses to. Chaos that had escalated now into disaster.
And if they were forced to be in such a disaster, he supposed these were the people he wanted to surround himself with - people who would stand by each other and stand by what was right. He held up the bottle. "To our last night before it all truly begins," he said. He felt the Firewhiskey hit him this time and blinked in surprise.
"To the end of the world as we know it," Morag said dryly, and held it up to toast the air before her own lengthy sip.
"To the end of the world as we know it," Michael echoed, and tried not to think too hard about everything that could come their way.
A/N: So, this kinda came out of nowhere. I did make brief reference to a night like this before in 'Confinement', another DH-era Ravenclaw fic, but I've known for a while in my DH headcanon for the Ravenclaws that a night like this kicked off the '97-'98 school year. I've always seen this group as very tight-knit, and seventh year truly solidified those bonds in my headcanon. Also, I'm posting this on Christmas Eve night, so a very merry Christmas to anybody celebrating 3. I had some inspiration for this one, but as per usual, my posting will continue to be very sporadic as I'm really only writing here and there these days. But, if you enjoyed this, feel free to check out my other work, as minor characters and DH-era/post-war-era is most of what I post about. Reviews are always greatly appreciated!