Here is the next chapter. I hope you like it. There is a lot of dialogue in this chapter as it was necessary so please have patience with that if it becomes annoying at any point. Please read and review love Hermione xxx
As the train thundered on down the tracks Hermione and Harry had finished their picnics and the first two chapters of all of their school books in order to get ahead. It was imperative that you were always ahead in order to prepare for surprises which were indeed likely depending on what that Professor was feeling at the time. As they pulled into Hogsmeade Station Hermione idly wondered who their new headmistress would be. I mean Draco had said it wouldn't be who they thought so that did rule out Professor McGonagall. Whoever it was she hoped she was nice and competent at her job something Professor Dumbledore had failed at unfortunately. I mean last years DADA lessons had been a total and utter bust and she severely regretted how much she'd idolised Professor Lockhart because he'd been good looking. I mean she knew looks weren't everything and would never usually have acted like that. Her face paled as she had the realisation she might have been tampered with at some point.
"Harry I think I was tampered with last year. My infatuation with Lockhart was so unhealthy and not at all natural. Yes he did look good but I would never have such inappropriate thoughts about a teacher as I had about him. I mean I thought about what it would be like to kiss him and have him hold me for most of the year which only dissipated when I'd been petrified!" she said seriously as Harry put two and two together in his head.
"I think this might have something to do with the fact Madam Pomfrey wants to see us. We should wait until we talk to her and see what she would like to see us about. We can even ask her about it and she might be able to run tests on you to determine if you were cursed or not!" he said reassuringly as she smiled at him. He was so thoughtful and knew how to reassure her at any moment that she would be needing it.
They got into the carriages and headed up to the school. Entering the great hall they could see it looked much the same however there were new faces at the top table and the headmistresses chair was merely larger then the other ones instead of a throne as Dumbledore's had been. She wasn't there yet as she was waiting for everyone to arrive before making her entrances after which the first year students would be entering the hall to be sorted. They went and sat at the Gryffindor table and waited as she eventually came out and people gasped seeing Professor Vector there. She looked very proud wearing purple robes and smiling at all of the students. McGonagall came in with the sorting hat on a stool and the first years following behind her. It asked to speak to the headmistress for a moment about something and once done he was placed back on the seat whereupon he sang his song. All the first years were sorted and then Professor Vector stood up.
"Hello everyone and welcome to the school for the next year of education you will receive here. As you can see on the staff table for those of you who were here last year we have some new staff. The new head of Slytherin House and Potions professor will be Professor Horace Slughorn. Now he will say a few words and then we will move on!" she said as she stood back from the podium and he stood up to be greeted with loud cheers from every house but the Slytherin house. They looked dismayed to have lost their old head of house because now they wouldn't get any favouritism like they usually did.
"Hello all and thank you for your applause. Professor Severus Snape is currently on a sabbatical training programme as he forgot why he even liked teaching in the first place and that is no way to be. He was my best student in his youth so as you can imagine I was very upset he'd lost his way so much. Slytherin might be my house but all other students need to know that if they have anything they need to talk to me about they may do so even if it does include a member of my own house. Our aim is to be cunning and we have forgotten as a house how that works. I promise to ensure fun and enlightening classes for all and thank you so much for listening!" he said as everyone clapped and he sat back down. Professor Vector approached the podium once more.
"Most of you will be delighted to hear that Professor Cuthbert Binns has been informed he died and has now moved on to the other side. Our new resident teacher of History will be Professor Mora McKinnon. Please Professor if you will say a few words!" she instructed as a blond middle aged lady who was obviously married if her wedding band was anything to go by stood up. She had pale skin and bright blue eyes.
"Thank you Professor Vector and indeed thank you to you all. I know myself from personal experience how bad History classes here have been as I was a part of Professor Binns class in my own youth. As you can see he's been around for far too long. His classes were boring and Goblin rebellion based however there is much more to our history then that and I don't intend to teach you anything about the goblin rebellions as there is a chapter on it in the books if you really feel you need more about it. Our classes will sometimes combine some information you might find inn your DADA classes but that is only as a description of some things might be dark and we may need our DADA teacher on hand to tell you about it. Otherwise I am happy to do so myself. Let's make History fun again and prove that learning can indeed be enjoyable if done the right way. Have a lovely evening and I look forward to teaching for you all!" she said as they all clapped and she sat down.
"As you may or may not know we have had problems throughout the years of ever being able to keep a DADA teacher for more then a year. We discovered a curse on the room that class is taught in and it was removed at once. Your new and permanent DADA teacher is Professor Remus Lupin. He is also a werewolf however that should not impact his teaching too much. He will need a few days each month off probably around four days each month. This is good for you as you will all have those days free of your DADA classes too. We have calculated that this will be roughly thirty nine days in total. He is perfectly safe and should not be feared by anyone as he would not have been hired if he were actually a danger to others. We felt his experience as a werewolf and how badly he was treated in our world would make him the best candidate to teach it. Professor Lupin the stage is yours!" she said smiling at him as he stepped forward to make his speech.
"Hello everyone. I understand how awful your previous DADA classes have been and I can only say that they will get better for sure from now on. Forget all you have learned as we will all be starting from basics all over again. We need a good solid foundation to build upon which none of you currently have if your old teachers was anything to go by. If you ever need help or a listening ear I am always here and my door is always open. I don't discriminate against others from any house I might not like as that is not fair at all so everyone should be treated equally. I know myself how tough it is when you're not treated equally. Thank you all so much and I look forward to teaching you everything I know!" he said as everyone clapped for him and few students made an ooh sound at him being a werewolf because at the end of the day they were kids and to them it was indeed cool.
"Now we have some new classes being added to curriculum and one being removed. Divination class has now been removed as it is not practical to have that class when so few people ever have the sight which is needed to perform it. In it's absence is an art and music class of magical proportions. Our new professor of the arts is Professor Hannah Dendani. Hannah please say a few words if you will!" she said addressing her old friend with a smile.
Hannah was a young highly attractive lady with sallow skin, brown eyes and brown hair in her twenties much like Professor Vector. A lot of the men in the room eyed her up and she noticed it too but she didn't take nonsense either and she wanted them to see this.
"Hello everyone as Septima here said this class will replace divination so all of you who selected to do divination will now be taking my class. My classroom is a serene and peaceful environment where various different types of magical music and art will be discussed and indeed enjoyed by all. Each year there will be two exams in it, one at Christmas and one before the summer holidays. These are not major state exams though so you don't need to worry so much. Also if you are an older student and wish to elect to take my class a sign up sheet will be on the wall outside the Great Hall this evening and you may sign up to my classes. When you sign the parchment please also state your year so I will know what to do. There will be four classes a week for each year. As you can see I am well turned out and I present myself very well. I expect the same kind of respect from you. Do not disrespect me by turning up to my class less then good looking. I encourage personalising your style in my class however it must still look presentable. Thank you and I will see you in class!" she said as all the boys wolf whistled at her until Professor Vector set off a loud alarm stopping them.
"Professor Dendani might be young but she is married and a dear friend to me. Have as much respect for her as you do for the other staff despite her age. Now Caring for Magical creatures will be taken by Professor Rubeus Hagrid as we feel his talents are currently going to waste on the grounds alone. I can see some of you are apprehensive about this position being filled by him based on the sorts of animals he has needed to deal with in the past however I can assure you all the animals he will be teaching about are Board of Governors approved. Despite his appearance being more casual then ours you are expected to take him seriously. If you do not listen to him and get hurt as a result in his lesson you are solely to blame and not him. You will be healed and given a warning to pay more attention to what he says in class. Professor Hagrid please say a few words!" she said as he stood up knocking into the staff table and knocking everyone's glasses down and blushing.
"Er yeah um thanks Professor. I am mighty excited to be teaching you all and I've got great lessons planned for ye'. Let's make caring for magical creatures a fun and exciting lesson. Enjoy yer feast tonight and I'll see you in class tomorrow. Thank you!" he said sitting back down and knocking into the table once more throwing their glasses back down as the staff exhaled in annoyance.
"Now we here figured that Muggleborn students who come into our world are unfairly expected to just get on with a fit in no matter what. If they don't understand something they are branded stupid and a liability. No one ever thinks to teach them about our world so they know why we do what we do and so on. We have crafted a class called Magical Studies 101 and is compulsory for all first years who are muggleborn to take. If older years of muggleborn students wish to take this class they can. Professor Charles Weasley will be the new teacher of this new subject. He is very qualified in this area and was a perfect choice for the role. Now Professor Weasley please say a few words" she instructed as he stood up smiling at everyone. A lot of the girls were looking glossy eyed at him as he was rather handsome with his long ginger hair and dragon fang earring.
"What's up everyone? Listen this unity problem we have is because we don't understand each other nothing more. Things we do seem alien to the muggleborn students and let's face it if we went into their world suddenly what they do would be alien indeed to us. We need to understand this to move on. If someone asks you why you do something please explain it to them. Muggleborn students have a problem whereby they can get angry if they see us doing something they think of as barbaric instead of trying to understand it. This is where my lessons come in. By the end of first year I promise you will know the basics of our world and how it works. If agreeable with Professor Vector we might even take one or two day trips in order to fully understand this world. It is vital to our society that this lesson happens at all and I look forward to teaching you all. Thank you!" he said sitting down as Ron who was now back at the table looked at his brother in awe. He'd not expected his brother to be a teacher here. At least he didn't need to be in that class so all was well.
"Now that is not the only change we've made here. As Professor Weasley said if any of you who are pureblood went into the muggle world you wouldn't have a clue what to do so a compulsory lesson for first called Muggle Studies will be taught by Professor Penelope Clearwater and all purebloods up until seventh year must take this lesson. If you don't like it you are free to leave this school and be educated elsewhere as we really don't mind. Please Professor if you will!" she instructed kindly.
"I will responsible for the new and improved muggle studies course. There is no point learning outdated stuff which they don't even do there any more. That teaches no one anything and it's about time we all learned what they do there properly. With this course our aim is to educate ourselves so we don't all look foolish when they mention something and we don't know what it is. This is important and if you don't like that well suck it up buttercup or as they might say shut up and deal. I am not here to take abuse from anyone so if you don't like my class you are free to leave this school. Unity is our main aim and from time to time we may involve Professor Weasley's class with our own to show the differences in what we do. I hope to see you all bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning. Thank you so much!" she had been so blunt they were too shocked to even complain about it which had been her aim overall.
"Thank you Professor Clearwater. Professor Flitwick is our new vice headmaster and you may reach him at his office if you need to discuss anything with him. Lastly before we begin our speech some new rules for staff and students alike have been added to the school and they go as follows. Any and all house points which are removed or given are to be done so in a fair and concise manner excluding favouritism of any kind. This means house points may only be given or removed for legitimate reasons and not because the Professor teaching that lesson feels like it". Here she paused to see if it had sunken in before continuing.
"Any student who uses the word mudblood or any derogatory term on more then three occasions will find themselves expelled effective immediately without warning as we here at Hogwarts expect only the best. This means if you slip up three times or more you're out. I don't care how you were raise and neither does anyone else so save those terms for outside the school premises. These are old archaic terms and do not bear any relevance to the current state of affairs in our world. Basically stop it or else. Do you really want to be known as the student who got kicked of Hogwarts because they couldn't control their potty mouth? I didn't think so." She looked up seeing most of the student populous gasp aloud in shock as none of them had expected her to say anything like that although what they had expected at this point still remained a mystery. There was loud whispering all around the hall until she put her hand up silencing everyone.
"Moving on. Any detentions provided are to be of a safe nature and the Forbidden Forest is not allowed as a destination for a detention to take place. If you as a staff member give out a detention it should be for a reasonable reason and should take place in a safe destination of your choice. The truth is we don't yet know all of what lurks in the forbidden forest so unless you go there with a teacher for class reasons it is forbidden for all to go there". Once finished speaking she looked to all her staff to see they all agreed wholeheartedly with what was being said to them.
"From now on anyone caught in any way at all promoting this inter house feud we seem to have developed over the years will face serious consequences. All houses are expected to get on and if you dislike someone from that house simply ignore them and move on about your day normally. Disliking someone from another house is not an excuse to torture or in any way harm that person. If you know you strongly dislike someone leave them alone, ignore them and get on with your day normally. This does tie in to my last and final rule change. Self defence is acceptable only in situations where it can be proven that this course of action was necessary and then all suitable punishments will be handed out. If someone attacks you for no reason and you defend yourself ably and well you will be commended for doing the right thing in that situation. If you antagonise someone so much either verbally or physically using magic and they defend themselves you will be punished harshly for it. You don't get to complain when you caused the problem yourself as you will have only yourself to blame. Lastly the sorting hat has informed me that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger of Gryffindor house third year will be given their own living quarters together as it is required of them. I do not need to state why and they will be present in all classes as normal. Please treat them as your friends as you always have and may the feast begin!" she said as the food rose to the tables everyone hungrily digging in. It was an interesting start to the year for sure.