Recovery
It was the end of September before things were back to normal at Hogwarts. A memorial service was held for the students who died in the attack on the Hogwarts Express, and the Daily Prophet began writing articles blaming the Ministry for poor defence and not taking the threat of dark wizards seriously enough. Much of the wizarding world read the prophet and soon the Ministry was bombarded with angry letters and howlers demanding the resignation of Cornelius Fudge at Minister for Magic. The pressure was mounting at the Ministry to do something drastic to placate the angry public. Rumours began to spread that a new Minister would son be elected.
Meanwhile, in Hogwarts the new school year belatedly began. A start of term feast was held on the first of October. The Great Hall seemed a lot emptier with students missing from every table, though significantly less from Slytherin than the others. The enchanted ceiling seemed to match the mood of the students beneath it. It was currently mirroring the dull grey of the evening sky, complete with rain falling from the pretend clouds and vanishing just before it reached the floating candles above the four house tables below.
"I feel like I haven't eaten all week!" Ron moaned, massaging his loudly grumbling stomach and staring hopefully at his plate. "You know" he added dully "I'm so hungry I could eat a whole - oww!" he scowled at Hermione who had just elbowed his sharply in the ribs. "Sssh Ron! Dumbledore's about to speak!" she nodded towards the head table where Dumbledore had just got to his feet.
The noise in the hall died down and the Headmaster smiled politely at the students. "The start of another year" he began, the usual twinkle fading from his eyes behind those half moon glasses, "and the end of thirty three lives of good people, people who you knew and loved. But we must put this behind us and look to the future rather than dwell on the past. We will all have a difficult year ahead of us, both academically and otherwise. As we have lost the first month of the term I'm sure you'll all be delighted to know that you will have to work extra hard to catch up on the time lost." A collective groan came from the students at this comment and Dumbledore smiled. "yes, I thought you'd be happy to here this! Now for other notices; the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all students, and this year I regret to inform you that a curfew has been placed on all students. All pupils must be inside the castle by 7pm every night, which is when all the doors into the school will be locked until 6am the next morning. So please be prompt to get inside, as I'm sure you wouldn't like to spent an uncomfortable night outside in the cold. All students are to be back in their common rooms by 9pm, and ghosts and Mr filch will be patrolling the corridors to enforce this regulation. I'm afraid that these new additions to the school rules are an unfortunate but necessary precaution and we will be very strict if anyone is found breaking these rules as they are here for your safety. One more thing before we begin our feast; would all 6th year students stay behind after the feast to sign up for their four subjects they will be taking at N.E.W.T kevel for the next two years. Thank you. Tuck in!"
At his last words food magically appeared on the plates on the tables and the smell of many types of hot food drifted into the air. With a particularly loud rumble from his stomach, Ron began heaving everything in sight onto his plate. Hermione tutted loudly at this and continued spooning potatoes and sprouts onto her own plate. "So Harry, have you decided what you are going to take yet? Will you be doing potions with me?" Harry finished a large mouthful of pork chop before replying. "Well I'm going to have to do potions if I want to be an Auror. Don't think Snape will be too happy though do you?" Ron snorted. "I can just imagine the look on his face when he sees your name on the list. I reckon Dumbledore will make him take you though. You did really well in your potions O.W.L. didn't you? So he can't kick you out because your crap can he? Naw, I reckon you're alright mate, though I dunno why you want to put up with that git for another two years though, I'm glad I'm not!"
At the end of the feast they made their way to the front of the great hall with the other 6th years and signed up for their N.E.W.T classes. Harry signed up for Transfiguration, Potions, Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts. Ron chose Transfiguration, Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts and Herbology. Hermione was only doing one subject more than everyone else this year, so she did Transfiguration, Potions, Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts and , to Ron's great amusement, Muggle Studies. Hermione had decided she wanted to be a Healer, after the Department of Mysteries she knew that she wouldn't be much good in a fight, she just wanted to run away and hide somewhere. A lot of good I am she thought as they headed back to the common room. After failing to keep Harry safe in June she decided that the only other way she could ever be of any use was to heal people after the fighting, that way she would still be helping, but not directly in a battle.
"Hermione? Hello? You listening?" she looked around and realised she'd been caught up in her thoughts all the way to the common room. They were outside the portrait of the Fat Lady and Harry and Ron were both looking at her. "What? Oh I'm sorry Harry, did you say something?" Harry patiently repeated himself for the third time. "Do you know the password 'Mione? 'cause I don't fancy standing out here all night." Hermione replied that she didn't, but at that point Neville arrived. "Oh hiya Harry! Hermione, Ron! Had a good summer? The password's Unity by the way, a prefect told me on the way here." they all went through the portrait hole into the common room, with Harry and Ron chatting to Neville about Quidditch. honestly! Hermione thought don't they ever think about anything else? she shock her head in exasperation and walked off to where Ginny was talking to another fifth year girl and Colin Creevy.
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The next morning at breakfast Harry and Ron were still talking about quidditch. This time talking about the changes to house teams and Gryffindors chances for winning the Quidditch cup. Just as Hermione was getting thoroughly bored, Ginny came and sat down opposite them, next to Dean Thomas and gave his a very warm smile, which made Ron spill pumpkin juice all over the table. Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry tried to cover up a grin by stuffing more bacon into his mouth. Ginny sighed and tossed three pieces of parchment across the table to them and handed one to Dean. "Your timetables" she said as they looked at her questioningly. "Its not fair! You all get free periods this year! You don't have five lessons a day!" she sighed and tossed her long red hair over her shoulder. Harry scanned his timetable and grimaced. "Look on the bright side Gin, you don't have two hours of Snape first thing on a Monday do you?" Dean looked over at Harry's timetable and grinned. "Hard luck mate! I've got Professor Vector first, two hours of Arithmancy. That's not too bad, Vector is ok." At this Ron muttered something inaudible and glared at Dean who had just taken Ginny's hand. Ron hadn't spoken to Dean since he started dating Ginny at the end of their fifth year. Ginny sighed and glared at him. "When are you going to grow up Ron? Don't be so immature!" she got up and stalked out the Great Hall, followed by Dean. Hermione shot Ron that disapproving look that she was so good at and said "She's got a point you know. You really are being stupid about this!" Ron was still watching Dean and Ginny walk across the Great Hall and replied distractedly. "Huh? Were you talking to me?" he turned back to Harry "Hey don't you think Dean Thomas has really changed Harry? He's really bad this year don't you think? There's just something about that boy." Harry just grinned at Hermione and shook his head. Boys! Hermione thought. Useless, the lot of them!
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