Chapter 3:
"I'll be fine Pop, they've already gone through all the staff and faculty thirty times to make sure they don't have any sort of connections to the dark arts. Plus they've hired a bunch of aurors to work at the school full time to keep everyone safe." Danny stated as he slung his backpack over his shoulder, "I know you and dad are nervous-especially with my headache from hell-but I haven't felt anything since…"
Silas chewed his lip slightly, "Alright… but before you go I have something to give you." He held up his finger for a moment as he flicked his wand and a box flew across the room into his hands.
"What is it?" Danny asked as he glanced at the brown box covered in script in what he guessed was Japanese.
"It's a pager." Silas replied as he flipped open the top of the box. Inside was a small rectangular device with a green LED screen. "If you ever get in trouble just push the button here." He pointed at a large red button on the side of the device. "It'll send a message to your father and I that you're in trouble so we can find you."
Danny nodded, "I thought they only worked sometimes. Dad's always saying how his is never working right."
"Well, that's just your father's luck with electronics." Padfoot chuckled, "Besides, I did a little tinkering with it and made sure it was properly enchanted so it would work anywhere."
Danny tilted his head, "Since when are you good at enchantments?"
"Since always." Silas huffed as he checked the wall clock, "Now come on, you need to catch the bus in a few minutes."
"Alright. Thanks Pop."
"You're welcome Danny. Stay safe." The man hugged his son tightly for a moment before stepping back and waving as the boy stepped out the front door and waited for his bus.
**HP**
As the first years stepped off the bus and formed a line to the left of the school's double-door entrance Danny glanced at the crowd. Unlike last year, when he had been standing in line along with Chase and Alicia, he was able to take in the faces of some of the new students as he walked past. Most of the students looked nervous-and there were much fewer than there had been when he was standing alongside his friends and classmates. Professor Farrant, now Headmaster Farrant, was standing at the front of the line in dark navy robes trying to get the students to remain in order. While not exactly a push-over, he wasn't a disciplinarian by any means, which seemed to be causing a bit of trouble in having the students listen to him as he told them to get in order.
As his words faded with distance Danny turned to face Chase and Alicia, "Is it just me, or were there a lot less students in line this year? Couldn't've been more than seventy."
Chase nodded in agreement. "It did look a good bit shorter than when we went through, but I couldn't imagine why."
"I might have an idea why." Alicia commented as the three rounded the corner leading to the atrium, "Would you want to send your kids to a school where all the no-maj born students were kidnapped from their dorms the year before?"
"I suppose that could be a good reason why." Danny paused, "But with all the aurors around and the staff basically interrogated it has to be safe, right?"
"That's what we thought last year and look how that went." Alicia remarked as they sat down at their table.
The conversation soon shifted to discussing the upcoming school year and chatting with some of the other students they were friendly with. After a few minutes of sitting the lights dimmed as Headmaster Farrant led the new students through the side entrance into the atrium. He motioned for them to wait by the wall and approached the podium in the center of the stage.
"Hello and good morning everyone!" He smiled, anxiety evident in his strained features, "I wanted to welcome you all back for another year at Zauberei Academy. I know that last year there were some unpleasant events, but with the help of the Magical Congress and our private aurors we are confident that this year will be a safe and disaster-free one." At this some of the new no-maj born students looked confused, but before a question could be raised he continued, "I am proud to be your new headmaster and as such I have the pleasure of introducing the annual tradition of the quill to sort you all into your new houses." He paused as he removed a large book and quill from under the podium. "Alright, we're going to begin with our first new student. Mr. Kyle Abbot, please step forward and sign you name on the first blank line on page 901."
A skinny boy with reddish hair stepped forward, nearly tripping over his undone shoelaces as he climbed the stairs up the side of the stage. He blushed and quickly scribbled his name onto the sheet before he placed the quill down. A moment later it sprung back to life and added the house next to his name.
"Our first Muller of the evening!"
Danny and the others at his table clapped as the boy hurriedly left the stage and found an empty spot at the end of the table. Others soon followed, and before long the sorting was nearly over aside from a few transfer students. There were five altogether, apparently all of whom were siblings, and aside from the youngest who had been sorted as a first year into Muller and hadn't needed to be sorted as a transfer.
"Do we normally get transfer students?" Danny whispered toward one of the fourth-years sitting across from him, a certain Angela Littman.
"It happens every once in a while, there were a couple back when I was a first year. I know the one was from Ilvermorny, but I can't remember where the rest were from. None of them got sorted into Muller, so don't get your hopes up-we tend not to get transfers for some reason." She shrugged.
"Probably because the guys in Heimbach and Leichenberg always catch their attention. The quill knows where you want to go, even if you don't. They're the flashy ones, so they're the ones everyone wants to go to." Brett Carter, another fourth-year and Angela's boyfriend, added.
"Wouldn't see why anyone would want to go to either of those, we're the ones with the most house wins." Chase remarked as he took a bite of a biscuit.
"Yeah, but Heimbach hasn't lost the quittich finals in the last decade." Alicia noted sourly, having tried to make the Muller team last year along with Danny, but both failing to make the cut.
"Well either way they're doing the first one of them." Danny said as he nodded toward the stage.
Looking to appraise the boy on stage Danny was struck with how tired he looked. In fact, all the siblings bore quite heavy rings under their eyes and none of them seemed particularly well kept aside from the eldest who appeared at least moderately put together. They all had red hair of varying degrees of puffiness. The youngest, the only girl, had already been seated at the end of the Muller table for a few minutes. She had the straightest hair of the bunch, but seeing as she kept it down Danny couldn't well see much more of her face than occasional glances of freckles when she turned slightly. Danny had been looking between her and the stage for a few moments before the stage lost his attention. As if aware of the stare she turned around and Danny quickly averted his gaze.
Danny swallowed dryly as he tried to look like he hadn't been staring at the back of her head a moment before, and sure enough she turned back to the stage. Danny decided at that moment to continue looking up and away as the youngest brother was sorted into Muller. The boy walked down the stairs and sat beside his sister at the end of the table.
"Do you suppose they're twins?" Chase asked as he indicated the two transfers sitting at their table.
"I don't think so. The other two standing up there side by side are clearly, and according to my mom the chances of a family having two sets of twins is rare." Alicia responded. "Plus only the girl was sorted as a first year. The brother's probably in our year."
"Well either way, it looks like they're all getting sorted into Muller." Harry noted as the oldest brother sat down at the end of the table with his siblings. "Did anyone catch their names?"
"No." Chase shook his head as he took another biscuit. "I was too busy eating these. We never get breakfast here and these things are to die for!"
"Sorry, I didn't either. I had to make sure Chase didn't choke from inhaling his weight in bread." Alicia nudged Chase in the ribs.
Chase rolled his eyes. "Well we'll find out soon enough, they're almost done which means we'll be getting our schedules and be starting first period in a minute."
Chase was right and soon enough the tables were clearing out as students left through the atrium's doors into the hallways.
"Looks like we've got potions first off." Danny noted as he checked his flash paper.
"Professor Jennifer Whiting. I wonder who that is. Did you see any new teachers at the front?" Chase asked.
"No. But they don't require teachers to go to induction. Chances are she's still getting everything set up in the potions room." Alicia stated as they started up the stairs to the potions lab on the second floor.