Chapter Eleven
It was strangely cold for the beginning of September when Harry stepped off the train. He shivered and pulled his robes tighter around himself.
"I'm really sorry for earlier guys." Harry said as the next empty carriage pulled up and they all scrambled to their seats.
"Seriously Harry, you can stop apologising any time now." Pansy said though slightly gritted teeth. It must have been the tenth time that Harry had said he was sorry for using them to get close to Slughorn and it was starting to grate.
Harry smiled, "Sorry…"
"Harry!" Draco laughed, "What is up with you today?"
Harry lent his head against the wall of the carriage, he wasn't sure how to explain the horror at his manipulation, "I just felt I was using you guys."
Hermione shuffled closer and put her hand on his, "Most of us had been invited anyway. And there is nothing wrong with us helping you out, we all always want to help."
His other four friends nodded and smiled at him.
"Besides, having lunch isn't going to kill us." Daphne snorted.
Harry nodded as the carriage pulled to a stop.
"We're ages away from the castle still!" Neville said in confusion, looking out the window, "They're all stopping at the gate."
Harry opened the door and climbed out. They were only a few carriages from the gates so Harry started forward to see what was going on.
"Harry wait!" Pansy hissed, grabbing hold of his arm, "What if it's something bad."
"I think there would be more screaming." Harry said honestly, with a shrug.
Pansy conceded the point. They waited for Daphne, Neville, Draco and Hermione to also climb out of the carriage before moving forward. All a long the row of carriages stretching back to Hogsmead station.
"Back to your carriages now!" Filch snapped at them, and the other students walking up behind them.
He was standing, guarding the gates of Hogwarts with a long shiny rod, grinning madly.
"What on earth do you think you're doing?" Tracy Davis demanded, snatching her school satchel back from Filch where he was jabbing it with the rod, and raising her hand as if to slap him.
"Yeah what's going on?" someone called from further down the road yelled.
"I said get back in yeh carriages!" Filch yelled at them all, jabbing the tip of the rod in their direction, "This is a Ministry approved search."
"Touch my things again you pathetic little squib and I will blow your stupid rod up!" Tracy snapped.
Filch glared at her, a mixture of annoyance and outrage. He passed the rod over Tracy and her bag once more before moving over the other members of the carriage.
"You're free to go!" Filch announced, giving the Thestral a pat on the rump, sending it trotting through the gate.
Harry shook his head and climbed back into the carriage, it would be easier to find out what on earth was going on when they could talk to Filch without yelling.
They waited a good ten minutes before Filch ripped open their door and ordered them out rather rudely.
"I'll thank you not to talk to me, or my friends, like that again." Draco hissed.
Filch ignored him, grabbing their bags off of them and waving the golden rod, which was letting off a small humming noise.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked, as politely as he could.
Filch ignored them still, moving to waving the rod over each of the students.
"It's a dark magic detector." Pansy said loudly, "He's looking for dark artefacts."
"You seriously think that any of us would be trying to smuggle dark magic into Hogwarts?" Neville scoffed.
"Ministry orders." Filch said simply, continuing his search.
"Not for us I would imagine!" Hermione snapped, "Especially Harry!"
"Ministry said everyone needs to be searched." Filch said bluntly.
"Can we hurry this up a little?" Tonks's voice asked, ringing through the darkness, "I know we have to be thorough but there is a queue almost back to the station, you've only gotten though a couple of… oh, watcha Harry!"
"Hi Tonks." Harry grinned, "Fancy filling us in on what is going on?"
"The Ministry wanted to add some extra security." Tonks sighed, rolling her eyes and making them change from brown to green to blue.
"You know this is never going to work?" Daphne said quietly to her, "There are other ways of getting things in."
Tonks nodded, "Tell me about it! Nikka and I had so many conversations about this but mostly…" she leaned in closer, so that they wouldn't be over heard, "they just wanted to be see to be doing something. It's getting bad out here, kiddos."
Harry felt his stomach knot with worry and gave her a small nod.
"Are we all done here?" Tonks asked, turning to a rather annoyed Filch who had spread everything in their school bags out over the ground.
Filch grunted and gave her a single sharp nod. Tonks rolled her eyes and flicked her wand over the scattered belongings. They flew back into their respected bags before the bags flew back into the carriage.
Harry gave her a quick hug goodbye before climbing back into his seat.
"Take care of yourself kiddos!" Tonks told them, waving them goodbye as the carriage started to move.
"Do you think they'll find anything?" Draco asked, brushing some dust of the sleeve of his robes.
Pansy shrugged, "Depends on what exactly the detector is tuned for. But to be honest I doubt they'll find much, if anything at all. Anyone trying to get anything serious in would be smart enough not to just put it in their school bag."
Everyone in the carriage turned to face Draco.
"Why would I be trying to smuggle something in?!" he gasped with a smile.
"Not you!" Hermione said, rolling her eyes, "The Twins of Terror!"
"They've been locked up all summer." Draco said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I should know, I've had to keep putting up with them."
Harry leaned in closer, "Is there anything they could of gotten from your house? I know your parents still have some stuff tucked away somewhere."
Draco glared at him for a moment, "They got rid of… most of it. The few bits, and it's literally only one or two things, are locked away in a blood vault, there's no way they got anywhere near it."
"Why would they keep anything?" Hermione hissed, looking very betrayed at him.
"For times like this!" Draco hissed back.
Harry raised his hand, "Stop it, both of you. They were right to keep some bits Hermione, and I imagine they've been collecting more. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire."
"I wouldn't know." Draco said stiffly, "They don't want me to have to worry any more than I need to."
The carriage finally pulled up to the entrance to the castle and they all filed out. The other carriages weren't far behind them now, clearly Tonks had managed to stop Filch terrorising the students quite so thoroughly.
They hung back, never seeing the point of rushing to the tables straight away. They were also most intrigued by how they were going to search the first years, as they came by boat of course.
"Hurry up you six, why on earth are you dithering out here?" Professor McGonagall asked, pushing them towards the door.
"We wanted to see Matthew arrive." Neville insisted.
"What nonsense!" McGonagall chided, "In with you all. NOW!"
Harry raised his hands in mock surrender and rushed up the old, stone steps before she could say anything else.
"You'll get to see Matthew after he's sorted." Hermione sighed, "I'm sure he'll be a Gryffindor, like all the other Longbottoms."
"If he has any sense he'll break with tradition and be in Slytherin with all the other betters." Daphne said, pompously, sticking her nose in the air and smirking.
"Hey!" Harry laughed "My parents were in Gryffindor!"
"And then you came along and broke the tradition." Pansy said, sticking her tongue out, "Proving our point."
"Now now, I'm sure we can all agree that three of the houses are all equal, but Slytherin… is… clearly the best." Draco said, his voice slowing as the Great Hall grew silent as they walked in.
Harry took a deep breath and tried not to simply run away. He had a strong sense of deja vu as the silent stares turned to whispers and mutterings between the students.
Hermione and Neville looked helplessly between Harry and the Gryffindor table of the opposite side of the room from the Slytherin one.
Daphne and Pansy held tightly to one of Harry's hands each and guided him to his seat.
"Ignore them." Draco told him quietly.
"They just want to know for sure what happened in the ministry." Pansy said, sounding a lot more blasé about it than she felt.
Harry forced a smile, he was very grateful for their steadiness. He knew they were as shocked as he was, for a start, they were all as white as a sheet.
"Why… what do you think they want to know?" Daphne said after a few moments, straightening her not at all crooked cutlery.
"At a guess? I think they want all the gory details of what happened at the Ministry." Harry said through gritted teeth, "The over view isn't enough for them."
It wasn't long before the hall filled and a long line of wide eyed, slightly scared looking first years trotted in. Harry noted that it was a slightly shorter line than normal.
McGonagall also seemed to notice the shorted line, giving the students a quick glance before placing the sorting hat on it's stool.
The hall fell silent as the hat shuffled on its stool and looked around at the tables and sighed, before beginning its song.
"For not the first time,
But hopefully the last,
A great threat stands at our door.
All four houses,
Each unique in their design,
Must all stand together,
Let each of their lights shine.
Yes to protect all magic,
And those children in these walls,
Bring all gifts together,
To make what's broken whole.
For Gryffindor this is bravery,
They easily stand against their foe.
Hold the line beside them,
And let out the courage they all know.
For Hufflepuff this is loyalty,
To stand against those who hide alone,
With hearts of gold they protect their friends
And is where true honesty is shown.
Ravenclaw shows wisdom,
Their noses never far from the truth.
We will all be in need this,
For truly knowing one's enemy.
Is the key to saving the youth.
For Slytherins you also need,
Their need to win is great.
Have them on your side,
And your victory is secured.
Sometimes you are separate,
But now you must be together.
You may not want to listen to me,
A worn, tattered old hat.
But I have seen a lot young ones,
Make sure I can see much more yet…"
Harry clapped along with almost everyone in the Hall, but the Sorting hat had done nothing to make him feel better.
The song was sad, for the first time ever there seemed to be a wobble in the Sorting hat's confidence. Harry straightened his shoulders and looked at the nervous line of first years. He couldn't help let out a little snigger, it was a terrifying first message for them.
Professor McGonagall stepped forward and unrolled the long scroll.
"Avery, Matilda" became the first Hufflepuff of the year.
Harry zoned out as the names were called, it wasn't until, "Longbottom, Matthew." that he perked up again.
He could see Neville and Thomas sitting across the Hall also looking eagerly at Matthew. Matthew squared his rather small shoulders and walked boldly up to the sorting hat, sitting down before the hat fell over his eyes.
It was only a few seconds, twenty at most before the call of Gryffindor rang though the hall. Harry and his friends clapped loudly as Matthew jumped down to sit with his brothers.
It wasn't long before the sorting was over and the tables filled with food. Harry dug in hungrily, loading his plate with chips, steak and ale pie and mushy peas.
"Finally! Back with house elves that can actually cook!" Rodolphus's voice rang clearly down the table.
"Was it awful over the holidays?" Millicent cooed over him, helping him fill a glass of pumpkin juice.
"It was. The place was always a mess, our rooms were so tiny and we were barely ever allowed out!" Rodolphus moaned, "The food was… well, lets just say that our mother got the better house elves. I'm surprised Draco didn't starve to death as a child."
"It wasn't that bad." Corvus muttered, pushing the food around his plate.
Gemini gave his ear a sharp nip with her nails, "Shut up!"
Corvus banged his hands on the table and stood up, grabbing his plate, "I'm not going to keep putting up with you!" he stalked off to the Gryffindor table, sliding into the seat next to Thomas, Thomas happily making room for him.
Harry watched in awe, "Did you replace him with a clone or something?"
"What's a clone?" Draco asked, looking confused.
Harry grinned, "It's a copy of someone or something living. I was just saying it was strange that he stood up to Gemini like that."
"Also weird that she hasn't gone after him…" Pansy pointed out.
Draco snorted a laugh, "Gemini, being weird? Never!"
They finished their meal and the plates wiped themselves clean. Harry, along with the rest of the Hall turned to face Dumbledore who had stood up and was smiling down at them.
"Welcome, welcome to another year at school. I hope you all had a restful and rejuvenating summer." Dumbledore began.
Harry saw his hand was still badly injured. It was no better than it had been when Harry had seen him over the summer, if anything it was worse.
Harry hadn't been the only one to spot the withered hand. Whispers filled the Hall, several students going as far as to point at Dumbledore's hand. Dumbledore waited for the noise to quieten down before continuing.
"Firstly I would like to inform you all that there is a blanket ban on any items purchased from a shop called, 'Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes', anyone breaking this rule will be answerable to our caretaker, Mr Filch."
There was an annoyed mumble around the Hall, and several glares at Filch who merely glared back at them all.
"As always," Dumbledore continued, "those wishing to try out for their Quidditch teams, please contact your head of house, we are also looking for a new Quidditch commentator so if you would like a shot at it, also contact your head of house or Madam Hooch. We are pleased to welcome Professor Slughorn as our new Potions teacher. I am sure you will all make him very welcome."
There was a round of not overly-enthusiastic applause as Slughorn stood up and gave them all a small bow, very few people knowing who he was.
Dumbledore waited until Slughorn had sat down again before turning to Snape, "I also want you all to congratulate Professor Snape, who will be taking over as teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts."
Harry felt a slight wave of annoyance pass over him as most people looked shocked and whispered to one another rather than clapping. Severus didn't bother to stand just raised his hand in a small wave before resting it back on the table.
Dumbledore once again waited for the noise to stop before talking, "Now, a more serious matter. As everybody in the Hall knows, Lord Voldemort and his followers are once more at large and gaining in strength."
Gemini's face flashed a smile before she quickly turned to face her plate. Harry glared at her, it seemed ridiculous that the Ministry had let her, Rodolphus and even Corvus come back to school.
"I cannot emphasise strongly enough how dangerous the present situation is, and how much care each of us at Hogwarts must now take to ensure that we remain safe." Dumbledore said strongly, looking over the Hall, "The castle's magical fortifications have been strengthened over the summer, we are protected in new and more powerful ways, BUT we must still guard scrupulously against carelessness on the part of any student or member of staff. There are those of you, who are torn, families who may be… confused. But remember while you are here, we are your family."
Gemini stood up, the whole Hall turning to face her. She glared briefly at Dumbledore before walking quietly out of the hall down the centre corridor, everyone watching her leave.
"Well, I guess she doesn't agree with that." Daphne muttered.
Dumbledore pretended that he simply hadn't seen her and continued to smile down at them all, several of the teachers, however, looked far more worried.
"I urge you all to follow any and all security restrictions that may be imposed upon you, however irksome you might find them. In particular, the rule that you are not to be out of bed after hours. I implore you, should you notice anything strange or suspicious within or outside the castle, to report it to a member of staff immediately. I trust you to conduct yourselves, as always, with the utmost regard for your own and each other's safety." Dumbledore let his ice blue eyes bore into them, letting his words sink in for a moment, "Now, your beds await, as warm and comfortable as you could wish them to be so I suggest we all say goodnight."