Chapter Fifteen
Neville and Daphne forced themselves not to look at the carriage pulling up behind them. It looked empty but they knew it wasn't. Right now, Pansy would be hidden under the Invisibility cloak, about to travel from one side of the forest to the other, the forest that they were specifically told to stay out of by Hagrid only last year.
They couldn't worry about that now. They wanted to of course, but there was nothing that they could actually do that would help, so what was the point?
"See you when we can." Neville said, taking his brothers' hands.
Daphne gripped Astoria's hand and nodded.
They lingered by the steps, giving themselves a few more minutes together before splitting off to walk with others from their own houses.
The castle felt cold as they walked through the huge doors. Many of the paintings were missing, leaving the walls painfully bare and while the light poured from the Great Hall as it always did, this year however, it only seemed to highlight the shadows.
Daphne and Astoria moved quickly to the Slytherin table, looking for the best place to sit. The table that had been her home for the last six years suddenly felt even more hostile than the rest of the castle did.
Corvus spotted them walking in and carefully patted the seat beside him. Daphne slid into the seat, Astoria sitting across from her, pressed up against the wall as much as she could be while still able to reach the table.
Gemini and Rodolphus were sitting at the head of the table, closest to the teachers' table, where there wasn't normally even chairs, laughing loudly and very clearly holding court with their friends.
Currently the teachers' table was empty, the places set neatly as always but the teachers were no where to be seen.
The last of the students in years two through seven sat down and looked around in confusion at the lack of teachers.
There were noticeably less students than there normally were, with several friend groups still muttering in confusion at the fact some of their friends them were missing.
Daphne wondered if she dared to risk a quick look to Neville, to see if he had any ideas of what was going on.
She was just about to turn to look for him when the large doors to the Great Hall burst open, making her and many others jump.
Snape led a long trail of teachers behind him, and Daphne felt her stomach tighten painfully. The regular staff took their seats at the table, looking awkward and less than impressed at the spectacle they'd been forced to take part in; it was not the way things were done at Hogwarts.
Snape waited for all the other teachers to be seated before standing up from the Headmasters' seat with a lazy smirk, he swept his eyes around the room and glared down at the students.
"Things have changed." He said, his low voice filling the Hall, "You will know that most of you are, at least, not completely, stupid. Let us start with from now on when a teacher enters the room, you will show them the respect that is due and stand."
Daphne felt an electric shock race through her chair, causing her and nearly every other student, to jump to their feet. She noticed the shocks had not effected Gemini or Rodolphus, or a few others who were known Death Eater children. They stood far more slowly than the others. Gemini looked over joyed at the shrieks of pain and shock from the students around her, laughing loudly at the other tables.
"Better." Snape drawled, "Don't worry, you will learn. You may all sit."
The students, rather nervously sat back down, every eye in the room turned towards Professor Snape. He gave Professor McGonagall a sharp nod.
She walked around the table and back out of the Hall, her face painfully ridged. She returned a moment later with a trail of first years behind her. Hagrid walked carefully around the wall of the Hall and took his seat at a small table away from the rest of the teachers.
Professor McGonagall made sure all of the first years were gathered where they always were and placed the three legged stool with the old sorting hat in front of them.
The old hat moved slightly and stretched open the old tear that made its mouth.
"Once… long long ago…" it croaked out the first line of this years song.
Snape flicked his wand and the hat croaked for a moment before falling silent again, "There will be no need for tiresome songs meant to 'bring us all together' any more. Now that we have removed the cancer that was infecting us all we will have no issue with being together, as one, as it always should have been." the practised words burned at his throat as he spat them out, it was working though and that was all that could matter right now, "You will notice that magic thieves no longer sit with us, reducing our power with every moment. Mudbloods are no longer tolerated to take what does not belong to them."
Corvus picked painfully at his nails, trying not to let the words find a space in his mind. It was all he'd heard since leaving Malfoy Manor, and all he'd heard before he'd gone there. That they were simply protecting what was theirs and he hated it.
Professor McGonagall looked a little confused now the hat wasn't allowed to sing its song. Snape glared down at her and she quickly pulled out the scroll and began read off the names.
The first years had never looked so afraid walking up to sit on the stool as the sorting hat, glumly and reluctantly called out their houses.
'Anderson, Nicole' was the first to be called and she became a Gryffindor. The Gryffindor table started to clap, earning them another shock from their seats and glares from Snape and the 'new' teachers. From then on the only students who were celebrated were those who became members of Slytherin.
Daphne let the names wash over her, there was no one she knew coming to school that year and it wouldn't be long before she learnt their names anyway, if everything went to plan.
The last student was sorted and the Hall fell silent again as Snape stood to begin the feast.
"I shall be honest with you; Dumbledore was a pathetic example to you all. I will not tolerate one tenth of the nonsense he put up with and encouraged from you all. Now, to business. All students will take the following subjects, Astronomy, Charms, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration, Muggle Studies and Dark Arts. Yes there will be no more of the pathetic Defence Against the Dark Arts, you will be expected to learn real magic, magic that befits your heritage. We will no longer pander to Mudbloods." Snape sneered at them.
Daphne let her eyes flick towards the Gryffindor table, but she couldn't see Neville easily enough and couldn't risk staring at him.
"You will notice we have several changes to the staff this year." Snape continued, "Firstly, as I'm sure you all know by now, I have been promoted to Headmaster so you can be assured the many changes I have always promoted will be put into effect. Next I would like to introduce Alecto Carrow, who will be taking over teaching Muggle Studies after Professor Burbage retired."
He clapped pointedly at the students who all joined in on cue. A tall, stocky witch stood and gave the Hall a brief nod, her dark brown hair pulled up into a tight bun at the top of her head. Her robe sleeves ended at her elbows, she wasn't even trying to hide her Dark Mark.
"I would also like to introduce her brother, Amycus Carrow," Snape continued, "who has been given the task of attempting to bring you all up to scratch in the noble art of the Dark Arts."
Once again there was a weak round of applause, that seemed to scream with the desperation the students felt. The heavily muscled wizard glared down at them all, sneering nastily, his eyes lingering too long on certain students.
"And I'm sure most of you who were students at the time will remember our new History of Magic Professor, Dolores Umbridge." Snape said, barely managing not to spit out each and every word. He couldn't stand the woman and hated the fact she was going to teaching again, she'd proven last time she wasn't fit for the job, "They are all most excellent teachers and are a credit to the school."
Daphne felt the words burn on the back of her hand, the scars that still showed after over a year and a half. She knew it was her own anger and hatred causing the pain, but it still felt real enough.
"Lessons will be attended promptly, any absences must be satisfactorily explained or detention will be issued by myself. There are too many teachers who like to turn blind eyes to their students behaviour." Snape hissed, turning slightly to glare at Professor McGonagall who glared straight back at him, "Most of the after school activities have been cancelled. There is no more Quidditch until you prove yourselves to be responsible students and even then, an overall score will no longer be kept. It's distracting and you should all be turning your minds to higher endeavours."
There was a small groan from some of the students, but it didn't last long with Snape, Umbridge and the Carrows glaring down furiously at them.
"Hem hem." Umbridge said, clearly she hadn't lost that annoying habit in Azkaban, "Well said Headmaster. It's such a waste of time."
Snape gave her a small nod, "You may all begin." he said, clapping his hands together, as the dishes filled with food.
Daphne filled her plate, not sure she was actually going to be able to eat any of it her stomach was so full of knots. They'd known that Death Eaters would be at Hogwarts this year, and the Carrows had been on the list of suspects.
They hadn't guessed that Umbridge was free, however, and would be once again sitting up at the teachers table, smiling down at them like they were a dish filled with ants and she was wondering which one she was going to fry first.
Daphne kept her eyes flicking to the teachers' table, and it wasn't long before she spotted the Dark Mark on Umbridge's arm, just visible under her floaty, pink sleeve.
This wasn't good. This really wasn't good.
They needed to find out when Umbridge got released, or rather broke out of Azkaban. That would give them an idea of how long she'd been closely around the Death Eaters and how much she would of learnt from them.
"Was she at the house with you?" Daphne asked Corvus causally, forcing a chip down, "Professor Umbridge I mean. I've not seen her since she was arrested."
Corvus looked up from his plate, surprised that someone was talking to him, and more surprised at how much that surprised him. It hadn't taken long for him to have become invisible again.
"Excuse me?" Corvus said, "I was in my own little world."
Daphne forced a smile, "I was just wondering if you'd seen Umbridge at your house… I've not seen her since she was arrested."
Corvus picked at his nails again, causing another long cut that stretched half way down to his knuckle, "I didn't see her, but I rarely ate in the dinning room. There were a lot of people staying with us so I mostly just stayed in my room."
Daphne nodded, that wasn't a helpful answer but she didn't think that Corvus would lie.
She forced down a little more of her dinner, ignoring pudding completely as even the smell of all that sweet, richness was threatening to make her throw up. She spooned a little custard into her bowl and spread it around with some crumbs from the apple crumble in front of her to at least make it look like she'd eaten.
Snape saw that most of them were finishing, at least on the Slytherin table, and stood up, the students stood as soon as they saw him rise and his gave them a cruel smirk, "Sit."
He walked down the long tables and tapped Daphne on the shoulder, "A word Miss Greengrass."
Daphne took a deep breath and wiped her finger tips on her napkin before standing up. Astoria stood as well.
Snape glared at the younger girl, "The room as not yet been dismissed Miss Astoria."
"I was just going to-" Astoria said, trying not to let her hands shake.
"That will not be needed." Snape said firmly, "I am quite sure that your sister can talk to me without you holding her hand."
Daphne forced a smile for her sister's sake, "I'll be fine."
"Charming." Snape hissed, rolling his eyes, "Now do hurry up. This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about earlier, a complete lack of manners and respect."
Daphne wisely said nothing, quickly following Snape to the end of the Hall. She expected him to lead her out, to a nearby empty classroom like he always used to but he didn't, stopping in the corner with her so they could still be seen.
She'd not seen him since the night Danica was attacked. He'd lost weight, not a worrying amount but enough to make his robes hang slightly loosely on his frame when they had always fitted him so perfectly.
His cheeks were also slightly more sunken in than they had been, and he was far paler than even he normally was, his hair hanging in a greasy curtain around his face. Daphne suddenly had the strangest feeling she was looking at Snape if he'd never married Lily, living alone all his life.
She made sure not to look at him too closely, so that she wouldn't look threatening or rude, a detention so early in the year wouldn't be a good start.
"Where is Miss Parkinson?" Snape asked quickly, loudly enough for the students nearby to hear, without drawing attention to them.
"I have no idea." Daphne lied.
"She is your friend is she not?" Snape insisted, "Did you not sit with her on the train?"
"We did." Daphne nodded, "And she got off the train with us, but there wasn't enough room in the carriage for all of us so Pansy got in the next one."
"You saw her get in?" Snape asked, glaring at Daphne.
Daphne nodded, "Just, as we pulled away. I have no idea where she went, I was really worried when she didn't show up, I am really worried."
"Sophia Rose McKellan got taken from our carriage as we pulled away from the station." a girl with bright blue eyes, one or two years younger than Daphne and sitting at the Ravenclaw table said, looking very nervous at interrupting Snape, "Could Miss Parkinson have been taken as well?"
Snape glared down at her, "Don't be stupid Miss Riggs, Miss Parkinson is a pure-blood, Mcellan is a magic thief, a mudblood. She broke the law that is why the snatchers took her."
The girl brushed fat tears from her eyes and turned back to the last of her meal.
Daphne forced herself not to try and reassure the girl, looking down at her neat, black court shoes instead. She'd gotten them new in the summer, but they had a heel on so no doubt Umbridge would ban them like she did last time.
"If you see Miss Parkinson around the school, you will let me know." Snape ordered her, "If you hear anything about her whereabouts, or that of any other student breaking the law by not attending school, you will inform me at once. Do you understand?"
Daphne nodded, still looking at the ground.
"Answer me when I ask you a question." Snape snapped.
"I will let you know if I hear anything." Daphne said, even managing to sound sincere.
"Good. Now go and sit down." Snape told her, giving her a slight shove towards the Slytherin table.
Daphne took a deep breath and sat back down at the table, it was going to be a long year.