It was just before the summer holidays, and the Great Hall had a festive atmosphere, full of children laughing and chattering away. The staff up at their table looked out and remembered the year. And almost until the end, the dinner time was good.
Then the music started to whisper through the air, a light tinkling sound that swayed between giggling happiness and a gloomy, mournful sadness. Slowly the students began to notice and look around for the source of the music, and the members of the staff began to look around nervously. Slowly, a single flute joined in the tinkling, its airy notes dancing in and around the little bells and plinking strings.
Up at the high table, the staff turned to stare at a rapidly paling Dumbledore when he began muttering to himself and looking around in fright.
As the music got louder, and more and more mournful, the great carved oaken doors to the Great Hall began to groan as they oh-so-slowly swung open. Just before they were fully open, Peeves flew in through the doors, moving incredibly speedily, and was at the high table in moments. The poltergeist came to a dead halt before the headmaster, cocked his head, and shrieked "THEY'RE HERE! LET THE FUN BEGIN!" before beginning to walk in circles around the stunned headmaster.
A few circles in and he began to sing so the whole hall could hear, in an annoying high pitched chant, "Silly foolish Dumbledore, broke an old and ancient law... Now they themselves come here, at your heart they wish to peer... Because you're an old rotter, for those things you've done to Potter... But they come because they never forget, and maybe you'll become a funny pet..."
Peeves halted, looked at the open doors, and shrieked again "THEY'RE HERE!" before zooming out the side of the Hall.
Through the doors barking howls could be heard, loud yet distant, growing quieter even as they grew nearer. Then the quiet clicks of many boot heels striking the stone floor was heard just before a group walked through the now wide open doors. Not a one of the group was of average height – some were short, some tall, but they all strode with an aristocratic elegance, almost seeming to float over the floor. Around them all twined great white dogs, with red ears, moving backwards, forwards, around, and even between the legs of the moving people, yet never tripping them.
They strode up the gap between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, and spread out before the high table. They stopped, to stand absolutely still, and gaze at Dumbledore, who was now trembling and utterly speechless.
From the in between them one form limped out, moving without the elegance of the beautiful beings that surrounded it. It limped forward, and most of the hall could see that it was twisted and misshapen, hunchbacked and ugly. It stopped just short of the high table and waited. Suddenly, from behind it a quiet sussurating speech rustled from the group and the being grinned and started talking, in an oddly melodious voice that did not match his form at all. "Greetings, Dumbledore. Let me introduce myself. You may call me Caliban." Gasps from several people in the hall echoed clearly, and the being turned and leered a disturbing grin at some of them, before continuing. "Now, from this point on, I will be not be speaking my own words, but the words of my liege lord." Caliban turned and bent his grotesque body in a bow to the group behind him.
The sibilant words grew louder and sharper, and Caliban spoke. "Well, old Bumblebee. It took us a great deal of time, but I managed to find you, and that which you hid from us. Now, Bumblebee, I must ask, why did you do this thing? You knew what he was, yet you bound him in wards of blood and iron, and you marked it in his very flesh... Now, give us your answer, and pray that we do not strike you down."