Chapter 3
Harry and his friends reached the entrance hall and headed for the large doors on the right that led to the great hall. Most of the students were already seated, waiting for the arrival of the first years and the traditional sorting ceremony. The great hall was up to its usual standard. It was lit up by thousands of bright, levitating candles, and the ceiling mirrored the night sky; there were enchanted silver stars and yellow three quarter moon. The room was full of loud chatter and excitement, everyone was no doubt happy to be back in Hogwarts, and certain they could be safe, finally.
Harry, Ron and Hermione said goodbye to Luna as they reached the Ravenclaw table and went to sit next to their fellow classmates on the Gryffindor table.
"Hey, Harry!" called Seamus Finnigan.
"Hi, Seamus. Have a good summer off?"
"Hell yeah! None of those rumours and rubbish in the Daily Prophet or magical shields, all back to normal, eh?"
"You can say that again." said Ron, "Get up to anything good?"
"Yeah, we went on holiday to the US. It was a blast! We went to this awesome water park in California. I charmed the water on one of the slides to throw some smart ass, who cheeked me in the queue, out of the slide and into midair!"
They all burst out laughing!
"Seamus, that was wrong of you! Magic is not supposed to be used for such purposes!" complained Hermione.
"Aww, cool it Hermione." Seamus answered.
They went on talking like this for another ten minutes or so before the great hall doors opened and Professor McGonagall strode in with a line of first years behind her. They all looked in awe up at the heavens in the ceiling and the spectacular magical atmosphere. They had forgotten for the time being that they had yet to be sorted into their houses. Harry reminisced how he had been sorted into Gryffindor seven years ago, for about the tenth time. He saw the little, chubby boy called Wally stumbling again as he went past the Hufflepuff table. Harry also spotted the mean boy who had been teasing Wally. Harry was pretty sure that this boy would end up in Slytherin.
"Okay first years when I call your name come and sit on this stool, I will place the sorting hat onto your head, and you shall be sorted into your houses."
Professor McGonagall took out a long roll of parchment, unravelled it and chanted out the first name. Harry had thought that someone else would take up the duties of bringing in the first years, since Professor McGonagall was the new headmistress. Snape had of course resigned, if he hadn't there would probably have been a massive postage block because of parents complaining.
The sorting took about half an hour. One child had sat on the stool for at least five minutes before the hat had finally made its choice, which was Ravenclaw. Harry wondered why the Hat had not sung its special song, which it spent each school year composing, maybe it hadn't had any inspiration. He was also wondering where on earth the new students that they had seen were. They had not turned around after passing Snape at the front door, where were they?
The sorting ended. There were eight new Gryffindors, six new Hufflepuffs, eleven Ravenclaws and only three Slytherins. Harry's intuition had been correct; the bully had been sorted into Slytherin. Wally was now a Hufflepuff.
"Attention, students!" said Professor McGonagall. "I have some announcements and introductions to make before we begin the feast."
Ah, finally! Thought Harry, an explanation!
"As you all have been made aware via letters, there will be a new style of teaching this year at Hogwarts. There has been a failure in assigning a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, so we have requested some rather unique people to help fill in the gap."
Everybody looked confused and chatter began. Harry and his friends knew of course what was going on, but wanted further explanation. They were annoyed at the clamour that had caused Professor McGonagall to stop speaking. One thing was still stuck in Harry's mind: why were the people they had seen so young, and why were they addressing each other by ranks, like captain?
The teachers called for silence soon and the talking died down. Professor McGonagall continued.
"The people that are joining us are educated in very different ways to us, however they still use a form of magic that we can relate to. They are from a secret location, just like Hogwarts, called the Soul Society. You will learn beside youngsters from the Soul Society and will taught by some of the more experienced members."
The general clamour began again. Hermione who seemed to be absolutely bursting to speak now rained her knowledge on them.
"I've read about the Soul Society, from a book in the library. They're an elite set of wizards that call themselves Shinigami or Gods of Death."
"Gods of Death??" burst out Ron and Harry together.
"Well, they aren't really Gods of Death, they're famous for their special skills in traditional fighting. They use actual weapons instead of wands, like swords." said Hermione.
"Hang on," said Ron, "they're famous? I've never heard of them."
"Yeah, me neither." Said Harry
"Well, I just mean they're really unique. I haven't got much information on them though, apart from one book called "Magic from the Past" I have seen any mention of them at all."
"I'll bet you Dumbledore had some kind of connection with them or something, and that's how the school knows about them." said Harry.
They were called to silence once more.
"We will now be joined by a few of our guests. Allow me to make some introductions."
Harry noticed that the staff table had been extended by magic to make place for thirteen extra people. How many people from the soul society would be arriving?
Professor McGonagall pointed her wand to a door handle at the back of the room, bright red sparks shot out from the end and the door sprung open to revel the largest man Harry had every seen in his entire life. Not as wide as Dudley, but twice as tall and very muscular. His hairstyle consisted of black, foot long spikes arranged into eleven columns. Each spike had a small bell on the end of them that jingled as he walked. He had an eye patch fastened over his right eye and scar down his left. He was wearing black robes and a white robe over the black ones, just like the child with white hair. The man stepped onto the platform, grinning broadly down to the crowd.
The man had a frightening atmosphere around him, Harry could see a great blood lust in his eyes, the kind of wild eyes that Bellatrix Lestrange had. He was also reminded of Mad Eye Moody. They both shared the same weather beaten face and intimidating presence.
Harry turned to Ron to whisper is opinion of the man, but found that Ron was flat against the dining table, right into his plate.
"Ron, what are you –?" But before Harry completed his sentence he saw that it was not just Ron but everyone in the entire hall, including the teachers, but not Hagrid, who was just as surprised as Harry.
"Sorry, guys." bellowed the huge man. His voice was commanding, deep and utterly terrifying. "Apparently my presence has that effect." He let out an ear shattering laugh that shook the hall. He then saw that Harry hadn't been affected, and grinned even wider.
"Please, stop." managed Professor McGonagall, who was kneeling on the floor, quivering, desperately trying to get up.
A second later the entire hall let out a gasp and everyone lifted themselves from the tables, breathing heavily.
"Didn't you feel it?" asked Ron, now shaking.
"Feel what?" said Harry.
"That guy! As soon as he walked in, I felt I was being crushed or something."
"H-he was feeding out some k-kind of immense magical p-power." Hermione stammered.
Why hadn't Harry felt a thing?
Now back to normal, more or less, Professor McGonagall spoke,
"This is Zaraki Kenpachi and Kusajishi Yachiru."
There was no second person. A few mumbles of 'where' and 'there's only one' broke out.
The large man called Kenpachi reached behind him and pulled out a something, which turned out to be a small child with bubblegum pink hair.
"Hello!" she shouted in a squeaky voice, and went to sit on the large man's shoulder. She seemed totally immune to the Kenpachi's power. She was dressed simple bleack robes.
Now a few more guests had arrived at the back of the hall. Five of them were the youngsters Harry and his friends had met, and also two others.
"These are Abarai Renji, Madarame Ikkaku, Ayasegawa Yumichika, Matsumoto Rangiku, Toshiro Hitsugaya, Unohana Retsu and Isane Kotetsu" said McGonagall pointing out each of them in turn.
The woman called Unohana Retsu was wearing the same uniform as the child and Kenpachi. What was the meaning of the white robes? Both of them stared at Harry for second and looked away.
Harry met the eyes of the child called Hitsugaya. The boy was still frowning and had bright green eyes, just like Harry.