September 1st arrived and the morning was rather hectic as everyone was getting ready to leave for King's Cross Station. At one point, Fred and George accidentally knocked Ginny down a flight of stairs when they were magically transporting their trunks downstairs, and Mrs. Weasley yelled at the twins about how they could have seriously injured their sister. Finally, however, everything was settled down and with Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks (in disguise as an old lady), Sirius, and Remus as escort (in addition to the parents), the teens took the relatively short walk to King's Cross Station.
Good-byes and admonitions to be careful (and in the case of Fred and George, to not get in too much trouble) were said and soon the Hogwarts Express was on its way. Ginny and David quickly met up with the rest of the Ravenclaw quintet, and Jonas with the rest of the Slytherin quintet.
"We know that You-Know-Who is really back, and not the rubbish that the Ministry and the Daily Prophet is saying about how it's just the escaped Death Eaters causing trouble," Astoria said solemnly. "Anyway, Alex, while my family is officially staying neutral like they did in the first war, I just want you to know that I side with Jonas, and by extension your entire family."
Caleb and Ethan said that they did the same, and Esther added, "Mum doesn't like what's going on, but she told us that she doesn't want us cowering in fear and that we are free to fight against Tom Riddle like our father did."
"Wait, your mother knows what's going on?" Hermione asked, blinking in surprise. "I didn't tell my parents about Riddle's return, since I was afraid they'd withdraw me from Hogwarts."
"Mum would never do anything like that," Adam said. "Besides, we're not the ones to tell her about Riddle's return." He took Jonas, Beth, and Alex aside later and revealed to them (as it was safe for the Romanov-Petrov clan to know) that Professor Snape had been the one to tell Mrs. Rosenberg. It turned out that Professor Snape had tried to break up with her, and when she wanted to know the reason why, he finally explained it was for her protection since he had to resume his duties as a spy. Mrs. Rosenberg wouldn't have any of that, pointing out that her father had courted her mother even though he had been a spy for the French Resistance, and convinced Snape to not break things off.
"But you can't tell anyone else, since it's even more imperative that their relationship stays secret," Adam said firmly. "I know your friends are trustworthy, but the less people that know, the better."
Well, the warning was technically useless for Beth and Alex, since Ron, Hermione, and Neville knew that Mrs. Rosenberg and Professor Snape were dating. On the other hand, the other three already knew to keep it secret, and they might have even forgotten about it, as the subject hadn't come up since the first mention of it right after Adam and Leah's Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.
Hermione and Ron had gone off to the prefects' carriage for the meeting and returned a couple of hours later. Ron immediately reached for the pile of food that Alex, Beth, and Neville had bought, while Hermione reported who the other new prefects were. Ravenclaw's were Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil and Hufflepuff's were Ernie McMillian and Hannah Abbott, all of whom were good choices, as they were pretty nice people. Slytherin had Draco Malfoy, which wasn't too bad since he had the truce with the Gryffindor quintet, but the female prefect was Pansy Parkinson.
"She's a complete cow," Hermione said in disgust. "I don't know how or why she was made prefect instead of Daphne Greengrass or Tracey Davis, and we know Pansy's on Theodore Nott's side."
The others agreed with her, since both Daphne and Tracey were rather decent, especially Daphne, who had no problem with her younger sister being friends with Jonas and Esther.
"Cedric's Head Boy though, so that's good," Ron interjected. "He asked me to tell you, Alex, that he's still on your side, no matter what the Ministry says, and will do what he can to help you."
The rest of the train ride passed without incident, other than Hermione and Ron getting up once so that they could do a patrol of the train and Theodore Nott dropping by. He started to make a scathing comment about how Alex and Beth were little better than Mudbloods and that You-Know-Who would soon kill them, but Ron quickly interrupted.
"I, unlike you, am a prefect, Nott. So unless you want me to report you to Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape and give you detention, get out of here and leave us alone."
"Don't forget, I can report you too," Hermione added. "I'm a prefect as well."
Nott looked outraged, but he apparently didn't think to make any nasty comments about blood traitors and Muggleborns not being fit to be prefects and stormed off in a huff.
When the Hogwarts Express arrived and everyone disembarked, the Gryffindor quintet was surprised to find that Hagrid wasn't there to get the first-years. Instead, Professor Grubbly-Plank, who had substituted for him the previous year, was in his place, calling the first-years. The five exchanged looks, wondering if something had happened to Hagrid, before recalling that Ana had said (in the beginning of the summer) that he was going on a mission for Dumbledore. Perhaps Hagrid's mission was just taking some time to complete, and that explained why he wasn't at Hogwarts.
When it was time for the Sorting, the students received another surprise. Instead of the Sorting Hat's usual song that was strictly about all the houses or the Founders they'd been named after, the song it sang this year (which was much longer than the previous years) carried a warning about how the four houses had to be united in the face of coming danger.
Though there was still the usual applause when the Sorting Hat was done, this time it was punctuated by muttering and whispers from the students, all of whom were questioning or discussing the song. None of them (especially the older students) could ever remember the Sorting Hat giving advice to the school. "I wonder if it's ever tried to give warnings before?" asked Hermione, sounding slightly anxious.
"Yes, indeed," said Nearly-Headless Bick knowledgeably, leaning across Neville toward her (who winced, as it was very uncomfortable to have a ghost lean through you). "The hat feels honor-bound to give the school due warning whenever it feels –"
However, Professor McGonagall at this point sent a very scorching look at all the whispering students, since she was waiting to read out the list of first years' names for the Sorting. Nearly-Headless Nick placed a see-through finger to his lips and sat primly upright again as the muttering came to an abrupt end. With a last frowning look that swept the four House tables, Professor McGonagall lowered her eyes to her long piece of parchment and called out, "Abercrombie, Euan."
A terrified-looking boy in the middle of the row stumbled forward and placed the hat on his head. He was Sorted into Gryffindor. The Sorting continued, but Alex didn't pay much attention as he suddenly remembered that his parents, Sirius, and Remus had told him that the Sorting Hat had given advice and warnings in a few of its songs back when they had been students at Hogwarts (during the first war). Alex began wondering if the second war would turn out to be as horrible as the first one, or even worse, or if things could be settled quickly without too many casualties. Unfortunately, since the only way the war could end was when he and Riddle had their final battle, it didn't seem likely that the war would end soon. At this point, Alex just didn't trust his magical skills to be good enough to defeat Riddle, so there wouldn't be any final confrontation until his skills improved.
Alex gave a start when he realized that the Sorting was over, and tried to think about how difficult OWL year would be as the food for the feast appeared and he began eating. Eventually the meal ended and Professor Dumbledore stood up to make the announcements. After introducing Stephan Romanov as the new Defense teacher and making the usual announcements about Quidditch tryouts, the list of banned items, the forest being out-of-bounds, and magic being prohibited in the hallways, he warned everyone to be careful and on their guard. After that, everyone was dismissed.
In the fifth-year Gryffindor boys's dorm, Seamus Finnigan revealed that while he believed what Alex had said about a Dark wizard thinking he was the Dark Lord had appeared, he sided with his mother in believing the nonsense about Dumbledore being senile or deluded for insisting that Voldemort was actually back. Alex became annoyed and snapped back, "Professor Dumbledore isn't deluded or senile! I was there when those escaped Death Eaters did a ritual to bring Voldemort back to power. It's just that the Ministry would rather believe that some madman thinking he's Voldemort has appeared and not that Voldemort has returned!"
Seamus snapped back that Alex was deluded then, or had been hit with a Confundus Charm during the so-called ritual, and it would have devolved into a fight if Ron hadn't stepped in and told Seamus to shut up or he'd be put in detention. He glared at Ron, but didn't say anything further and angrily went to bed, yanking the bedcurtains shut.
Dean quietly said that he believed Alex and would try to talk some sense to Seamus and then went to bed as well. Alex sighed, wishing that he had kept his temper rather than getting into an argument with his dormmate, and then went to bed.