Chapter 18

Back in Hogwarts:

Ever since he had been eleven years old, Harry had always looked with anticipation towards the beginning of school. Yet this time, his excitement had been drastically dampened. Snape had not been caught again and since his escape from Azkaban one week ago, he seemed to have vanished from the face of earth. The Daily Prophet had published a long article, in which they talked about the possibility that Snape himself had constructed this plan for escape as a precaution, even before he had been arrested, and that an unknown collaborator had sent the false document to Malfoy.

The latter had, of course, in an interview expressed his sincere apologies and regret that he had unwillingly helped a dangerous criminal to escape. He had even donated a generous amount of money to the ministry's Auror corps as a sign of his willingness to help recapture the man as soon as possible. After that, nobody even looked the wrong way at Malfoy anymore and the ministry even made an official apology to the man for having been pulled into this affair.

Upon hearing this, Mr. Weasley had railed loudly about the officials who would not even see a bribe if it did a belly dance in front of them.

Mrs. Weasley, however, had determined not to let any of this spoil the mood of everyone and had therefore never mentioned Snape's escape again for the whole week, acting as casually as possible, even if Harry caught her throwing him worried glances every now and then.

"I expect you all to study hard so I will not be getting any owls with complaints from Dumbledore", she now demanded sternly, with her arms braced against her hips, while they waited at Platform 9 ¾ for the Hogwarts express.

"Mom, you're mistaking us for Fred and George", Ron pointed out. "And they're not even at Hogwarts anymore."

Mrs. Weasley took a deeply relieved breath, as if this was a thing to bless every deity for. The twins had graduated last year. Harry only feared for their mother, that, contrary to what she seemed to think, this would not be the end of complains about them. The two had, with help of the money Harry had given them after the Triwizard tournament, loaned a small shop, where they followed their dream and hobby of inventing and selling new joke articles.

"At least with those two I only got complaints about damaged school propriety or upset students and teachers. With you, all I get regularly are letters telling me that you have been threatened, hurt or kidnapped," she answered with a reproachful look.

"As if it's our fault", Ron muttered.

"Ron, Harry, Ginny", someone called them over from the train. Hermione waved merrily to them from the inside of her compartment through an open window.

"We have to go now, Mom", Ron said with a grin. "See you in a year." He planted a fleeting kiss on his mother's cheek, gripped his trunk and disappeared in the crowd without any more delay.

"That Boy", Mrs. Weasley sighed with a shake of her head. "Well then, you'd better get going as well, or the train will be leaving without you in the end."

Ginny hugged her mother tightly, before she followed her brother. Mrs. Weasley turned to Harry. "Please take good care of yourself, Harry. You-know-who is still after you and Snape's escape is perturbing too. I am very worried about you all."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley. Nothing is going to happen to me and I will also have an eye on Ron and Ginny."

The older witch smiled and hugged Harry briefly, like she had done with her children, while she planted a kiss on his cheek. "Be careful, dear."

Harry quickly found the compartment that Hermione had reserved. He pushed his trunk under the seat besides Ron's and lifted Hedwig in her cage onto the shelf above the window.

He had barely taken a step back when he found himself engulfed by the arms of a frizzy-haired Gryffindor girl.

"It's so great to see you again, Harry", Hermione laughed. She held him at arms length and looked him over critically. "Are you all right?"

Harry nodded. Right after the article about the jailbreak had been published in the Daily Prophet; she had contacted them to ask if Ron's father would know more and if the news were true in the first place. Hermione, like them all, had learned the hard way that Rita Skeeter had a strong tendency to embellish her articles, not being very exact with the truth whilst doing so. Harry and Ron had answered her letter by telling her everything they knew.

"I'll be perfectly fine, once Snape is caught again, Hermione," he answered bitterly. "And I hope that this time he's getting the kiss for his escape."

Hermione nodded sadly. The fact that she didn't contradict Harry showed how worried she was about him.

Arrival at Hogwarts was no different than every other year, mocking the events that had happened there only a few months ago, by its normality. Hagrid gathered all the first years around him, while the rest of the students climbed into the horseless carriages that would bring them to the school.

Like every year, the Great Hall was adorned by thousands of candles, floating in mid air and the teachers were all sitting at the head table, with the exception of McGonagall, who would bring in the first years. A short, white-haired man, looking even older than Dumbledore, sat at the left side of the table, where up until now Snape's place had been. His face was wrinkled and his pose slight bent over, testimony of a spine bent under the weight of many years. To Harry's astonishment, Arabella Figg sat between the headmaster and Remus Lupin. Harry had, since a year ago, guessed that the old woman was part of the order. Yet seeing her here came as a surprise nonetheless.

Dumbledore sat with his high held head and squared shoulders, portraying one of his eminent smiles as he warmly regarded the arriving students, who filed in whilst chattering loudly. He looked no different than ever, but Harry had the impression that he seemed kind of tense, when one cared to look closely enough.

Only when all the children were seated and Dumbledore had lifted his hand to silence the crowd, did McGonagall step into the Hall, wearing her usual stern look. A horde of insecure and slightly frightened looking children followed her, gazing in awe at the enchanted ceiling.

The sorting was also like usual, and Harry observed the whole thing with detached interest.

His attention grew only after the new students sat at their respective tables and Dumbledore rose to his feet.

"Dear students." The old wizard waited for a moment until the still continuing chatters died out and he had the complete attention of all the pupils. "I would like to welcome you all at Hogwarts. Especially those of you who are here for the first time." He glanced meaningful over the rim of his spectacles at the first years, which were sitting on the front-end of the long table.

"As the students who were here last year already know; we do have two vacant places among the staff. Because of this, I'd like to introduce you to Arabella Figg, who will be teaching defence against the dark arts this year, assisted by Remus Lupin, who will help her with the more taxing sides of the job, namely the use of bodily strength and magic which is mostly quite straining."

The older woman rose to her feet and greeted the students with a nod and a smile.

"Since some... unfortunate happenings last year, because of which our potions master and head of Slytherin is no longer able to fulfil his duty, I have been able to commit Professor Benjamin O'Malley on short notice. He has held that position at Hogwarts some seventeen years ago and has kindly agreed to help out until we have found a more permanent solution. He will also be the person of confidence for the house of Slytherin during that time."

"I sure hope that they will find someone else", Ron whispered. "That guy gives the impression like he's not even able to lift a cauldron without help. It looks as if they were roaming through England's retirement homes, to find new teachers."

Harry answered with a polite smile but didn't really pay attention to Ron, keeping his attention on Dumbledore who looked a bit tense and strained, especially when he mentioned his former potions teacher, even if he did hide it quite well. Harry decided to talk to the man as soon as possible about Snape's breaking out. It wouldn't surprise him, if the headmaster had more information than the general public did, and Harry was determined to do all he could for Snape to get his rightful punishment.

"Besides assisting Arabella Figg, Remus Lupin will also help Hagrid guard the forbidden forest. The times are very insecure and I prefer to have an additional pair of eyes around. For this reason I must empathize again that no student will go near the boarder of the school without a teacher."

Harry smiled inwardly. He had been in frequent owl-contact with Remus Lupin and had therefore known about his plans this school year. The werewolf had written that the headmaster was very worried about Voldemort, and feared that the dark wizard may one day even dare to tempt an approach on school grounds. Also, since the order was weakened because they had lost of two of its warriors, Dumbledore wanted to make sure that at least the students were safe and secure.

However, Harry had been able to read between the lines. Dumbledore was no fool. He must, like himself, have come to the conclusion that Snape had been freed by Voldemort and he was certainly worried about the information Snape could give the dark lord.

For the rest of the day, Harry tried unsuccessfully to catch the headmaster alone. After having settled into his dormitories again, he and his two friends went out to search for the man.

Their search ended by standing in front of the stone gargoyle, counting off the names of any candies that they could think of. Just as they were ready to give up, Nearly Headless Nick floated around a corner.

"Sir Nicolas!" Hermione called out.

The ghost approached them, smiling benevolently. "Hello you three. Did you have pleasant vacations?"

"Yes", Hermione answered without much interest. "Do you know the new password for the headmaster's office?"

"Certainly. ‚Peppermint drop' but at the moment, the gargoyle will not let you through, even if you know the correct password. The staff is in a meeting and the headmaster has left orders with the statue, not to let anyone in."

"That can't be real!", Ron shouted. "What if it's an emergency? The school could burn down for all I know and we couldn't even notify him."

"If it were an emergency…" The ghost of the Gryffindor house eyed the students sceptically, "…then he'd know about it, or you could send an house elf. They get around every barrier."

Harry sighed out loud, "We'll come back later then."

"That won't do any good. The headmaster has to leave for the ministry right after the meeting. You'll have to wait for tomorrow. Or why don't you go see professor McGonagall? She's your head of house, after all."

"Yes, all right. Thanks Nick." With one last disappointed glance at the gargoyle, Harry walked off with his friends.

At night, Harry lay awake for a long time, his thoughts roaming around Snape, the jailbreak and Dumbledore's eventual plans. With those thought still occupying his mind, he finally fell asleep around two o'clock in the morning.

T.B.C.

A/N: I know that this chapter was a bit lame. Lots of information and nothing really happening. Unfortunately this is part of the fic, where it can't be helped. There will be more action and Snape later on, promise.

Thanks to Slytherin silver Snake for betaing. Hugz