Ch. 2: Changes

Many things changed after the fall of Voldemort. Not that much for Hermione personally, since her parents were Muggles, although she did appreciate the feeling of relief that overcame her when she realised that it was over.

The most, things changed for Harry, because of Wormtail's trial. Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, was cleared of all charges and compensated for his time in Azkaban. Because Voldemort was defeated and there was no need for the blood magic to protect Harry, he was allowed to live with his godfather.

It always made Hermione smile whenever she remembered Harry's expression when he told her and Ron that he was moving out from his aunt's place. His Muggle aunt must have been pretty relieved as well, Hermione supposed. Not that she really cared about Harry's horrible aunt.

The Weasleys continued more or less in the same way. They were proud for not having anybody with a Dark Mark in the family, which was not a common occurrence in the pure blood families. Hermione still shivered at the thought of how many people were discovered to be Deatheaters. Some of them have obviously been evil, but some were complete surprises that only got revealed after the demand that every pure-blood proves their allegiance. Hermione didn't think it was fair to single out pure bloods, until she heard of the success that initiative had.

Professor Snape was spared because he was a known spy and he did inform the Order of the Phoenix about the mess in the Ministry. Hermione still blushed at the thought that they didn't think he understood Harry's message. Of course he couldn't have let them know that he got it because he would betray himself in front of Umbridge! How she could have missed that, Hermione didn't know. She wasn't sure if she will be able to face him on Potions.

Fred and George opened their shop in Hogsmeade, putting Zonko's out of business in a matter of weeks with one simple move of giving discount to all Hogwarts students for the first month of their existence. Hermione visited their shop a couple of times, profiting from the fact that the Burrow was directly connected to it by floo. Their products were brilliant.

One thing that hasn't changed, and Hermione was grateful, was that she spent half of holidays with Ron and Harry. This year they didn't stay in the Burrow though, but with Sirius, much to Harry's and Ron's delight. With the three of them, Hermione sometimes felt like a mother rather than a teenager but Harry's open delight was enough to pacify her. Harry deserved that strike of luck in his life, she thought firmly, and gritted her teeth at yet another prank the boys pulled on her.

It was with mixed feelings that she got onto the train to Hogwarts on the first of September, afraid to face the biggest change yet: the death of headmaster Dumbledore. Last school year, it happened so close to the end that she had no time for the news to sink in before she was back at home. Now, however, after two months of time to think about it, she worried that Hogwarts will not be the home it was anymore. That McGonagall would be the director she knew from the letter, as well as she knew that Snape took McGonagall's position. Who would take up the Transfiguration classes? Who would be their new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher?

Absentmindedly, she noticed that most of the students were subdued on the train. The Slytherins didn't look at the others and kept to themselves and, for the first time, Hermione realised that those Deatheaters rotting away in Azkaban were also fathers and mothers. It was not a nice thought and she chased it away, repeating to herself that they deserved their fate.

Even Harry, who was positively ecstatic during the summer, didn't seem eager to go back to school. As he sat with Hermione and Ron in the compartment, he only smiled at them sadly and Hermione could read the expression on his face: "how is it going to be possible without Dumbledore?" She looked away.

She caught a glimpse of snow-white hair on the platform and she wondered who it belonged to. It was not the sleek, yellowing-white of Malfoy – she saw Malfoy get onto the train already, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle as usual. No, that was unkempt and shiny and she was sure she would have remembered a person with a hair like that. However, she couldn't see it anymore and nobody like that passed by their compartment.

'Sirius said that he couldn't find out who the new teachers will be,' Harry said after a moment of silence. Hermione looked back at him and shrugged. She noticed that Ginny, Neville and Luna joined them as well and she smiled at them half-heartedly. 'Yes, I know that he doesn't need to be told everything, but I'm sure that Malfoy-' he stopped abruptly. Lucius Malfoy was in Azkaban and rumour had it that his wife was mad with grief. The names of the new teachers were probably the last of Draco's worries.

'Hermione, if you will start telling me how I should be sad for the Slytherins, I'll leave,' Ron said, probably noticing Hermione's expression. 'They had it coming.'

'The Deatheaters, yeah,' Hermione agreed. Not their children, she added to herself. She looked out through the window as the train started moving. Parents were waving and Hermione waved back to Mrs Weasley.

'If it was at least Sunday tomorrow, we could enjoy the nice weather,' Ron was saying somewhere in the compartment. Harry echoed his complaint, while Ginny told them that even a week of enjoying the weather wouldn't be enough for them.

'Besides,' she added. 'You spent the whole holidays lazing around so you should be ready to work now. Have you even opened the books once?' she asked. Hermione rolled her eyes, remembering the times when she tried to study while in Grimmaud's Place.

'Exactly,' she agreed with Ginny. 'I'm very happy that it's Monday tomorrow, so we will not have the time to think and worry,' she added almost angrily.

The whole train ride passed in a rather gloomy mood and Hermione was almost relieved to be out in Hogsmeade. At least soon she would have answers to her questions. She would know who the new teachers were and how it felt to have McGonagall as the headmistress. She would be able to meet the friends she hasn't seen for the whole summer and maybe, just maybe, life could go on without Dumbledore and his silly speeches. She did feel sorry for the first-years who would be greeted in the castle by Snape.

That thought made her smile and remember her own first day at Hogwarts. It felt like it happened in a different lifetime and yet, when she entered the Great Hall this time, she felt very much the same. Uncertainty filled her as she looked at the table of the teachers and the sheer vastness of the hall overwhelmed her.

'Without Dumbledore, it's like a first day at school all over again, isn't it?' Harry muttered as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table. Hermione nodded. Snape marched in with forty, outright terrified, first-year students.

'Poor kids to meet that overgrown bat immediately after arriving,' Ron muttered after Snape passed by them. A couple of students giggled at the statement and Hermione grinned. Their Potions teacher might have been the good guy after all, but he certainly got a kick out of terrifying students.

The Sorting Hat was brought forth and Hermione was amazed at how familiar and normal the scene was, despite the surreal feeling of hearing Snape's voice read out the student names. She pretty much ignored the sorting in favour of looking around at the older students.

At the Slytherin table, Draco Malfoy was sitting stiffly, looking like he wished to be anywhere but there. Most of the students at that table looked uncomfortable, although the Phantomhive twins were looking simply bored. Hermione wondered how it was possible that they were twins when Ciel had the bluest of blue eyes and Nezumi's were steel-grey. In general, Hermione thought, yet again, they were not that similar to each other. Nezumi was even taller than Ciel which Hermione thought was not possible if they were twins. The only other twins Hermione knew, the Patil twins, as well as Fred and George, were basically identical to the point of being able to fool people into believing that one was the other.

Well, they are weird anyway, she thought, remembering how she witnessed Gratien threaten another Slytherin student to beat him up if he ever used his name again. Ciel stood next to them, seemingly amused. The student was twice the size of Gratien and yet, from that day on, everybody in Slytherin called Gratien by his chosen nickname, Nezumi. After that incident, the twins didn't do anything memorable, but somehow they failed to fade in the background, at least in Hermione's mind. She supposed that it was because of the mystery of their differing looks and the fact that they hanged out with Safu and Shion, with whom she studied.

Hermione's gaze shifted to the Hufflepuff table, where she knew the fewest students. In all honesty, she had to say that they were mostly the background for feasts and the nameless crowd in the corridors. The only exception was Elizabeth Middleford, who hanged out with the Phantomhive twins, Safu and Shion. Hermione suspected that it was the only reason why she remembered the girl's name.

As far as she could see, she girl didn't change much. She was nearly bubbling with positive energy, smiling at something somebody told her. Hermione remembered that she was one of the lucky ones, one of the pure-bloods that didn't have anybody in their family following Voldemort. She even asked Ron why his parents were not keeping some contact with the Middlefords, but Ron only told her that his parents didn't need to have stuck up friends. She didn't know Elizabeth too well, but sometimes the girl sat with her, Safu and Shion in the library, doing homework, and Hermione thought that she was anything but pretentious.

Finally, Hermione turned to the Ravenclaw table, where Shion and Safu should be sitting. Those two were the ones she missed the most during the summer. They were her "study group" since the first year. It started really innocently, with Hermione asking if she could join their table because everywhere else was full. They let her, of course, being the nice and friendly students they were and, the next time, Hermione actually went straight to their table. At that time, everybody in Gryffindor thought that she was an insufferable know-it-all, but the two Ravenclaws accepted her without a problem. Even after she became friends with Harry and Ron, Hermione often studied with them.

She spotted Safu fast enough, even though the girl was sitting with her back to Hermione, but she couldn't see Shion. It was weird, because they usually kept together and now there was this white-haired person next to Safu.

'Say, do you remember anybody with white hair attending Hogwarts?' Ron asked next to her, his full mouth making the words almost incomprehensible. 'Dean and Seamus pointed him out to me and I've been trying to think who he is,' he added.

'I don't think I remember,' Hermione replied, wincing at Ron's manners. 'I've been wondering if it's easy to dye hair to be this white,' she added, looking at the Gryffindor table for the first time in a long while. A good number of students were looking in the same direction as Ron.

'Why would you want to have white hair anyway? It just looks weird,' Ron commented, having swallowed the food he was eating. Harry, who was sitting opposite to him and Hermione, turned around to look.

'I feel sorry for him, with all the attention he's getting,' he muttered, turning back to his plate. Hermione could hear relief in his voice that, for once, he wasn't the focus of the whole school. At the same moment, the white-haired person turned to Safu and Hermione could see his profile.

'Shion?' she whispered incredulously.