One More Year

Chapter Five

Hermione walked through the front doors of Hogwarts and into the Great Hall with the rest of her fellow classmates, except for the first years who were waiting to be sorted. She took a deep breath and felt herself relax. The stress and worry she had been walking around with for so long, started to slowly dissolve as the scent of Hogwarts filled her lungs. It smelled like parchment, ink, old books and of the delicious feast soon to come. She felt at home. As she walked towards the Gryffindor table she looked around at all the returning students, the Great Hall was full yet seemed quieter than previous years. Students were whispering to each other but the usual laughter and yelling were missing. Occasionally a student would speak loudly to their neighbor before immediately hushing again and quickly looking around to see if anyone noticed.

She knew it wouldn't be the same this year. Everything would take time to return to what it was but still after such an emotionally turbulent summer she had hoped for some bit of normalcy in her life and sighed at the disappointment she felt.

Hermione took her seat between Ginny and Neville. Seamus and Dean sat down across from her.

"Looks like we're the only returning Gryffindor eighth years." Seamus said while looking up and down the table. "Or are Harry and Ron planning on arriving in a flying car again?" he smirked. They all chuckled appreciatively at the comment. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"No, they're not returning this year, they both have jobs," Hermione answered.

"Aren't you and Ron dating?" Seamus asked insensitively.

Ginny gave him a dirty look before glancing back towards Hermione with a quizzical expression. "Yes, we are. Two people can date and not be in the same place you know." Hermione huffed.

"Maybe we'll finally get some sleep without Ron's incessant snoring. Watch out Hermione, this year I'm liable to become top of our class now that I'll finally get a good night's sleep!" joked Dean. They all laughed again, especially Ginny and Hermione who had both had to witness Ron's snoring first hand.

"Well, I'm so excited you came back Hermione! This year we can share a dormitory. It'll be just like the summer." Ginny smiled.

"I guess the only other eighth year Gryffindor to not return is Parvati." The mood instantly shifted and became somber. The laughter they had been sharing only moments ago completely evaporated. They all understood why Neville had intentionally not mentioned Lavender.

The silence was broken by the sorting. Hermione clapped and cheered along with the rest of her house whenever a new Gryffindor was added. She tried to be enthusiastic. It wasn't the first years' faults that they happened to be starting school in this situation. When the sorting was complete Professor McGonagall stood and started her beginning of the year speech.

"Good evening students. For those of you who don't yet know me I am the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall. Before our feast begins I'd like to take a moment to discuss the events that happened at the end of last year. As I'm sure you're all aware Voldemort was defeated and, in the process, we all lost many close friends and family members." She paused before continuing, sounding rather choked up. "We will continue to honour their memories. No one who survived the last year is unaffected. We need to band together put aside our differences and start to rebuild our world the only way it should have ever been ... together. Voldemort may be gone but what he stood for, the hatred, anger and discord, unfortunately is not. Regardless of our past or parentage or what house we are in, we are one community and the only way to fight what Voldemort was trying to achieve is by standing together and putting aside our differences." Hermione snuck a quick glance at the Slytherin table and was surprised to see Malfoy sitting there paying close attention to every word Professor McGonagall said. "I expect you all to continue to be vigilant and obey the rules of the castle. Just because Voldemort is gone does not mean that there aren't other threats that are just as dangerous. The castle has been restored after the battle, with the exception of the fourth floor left wing which is still undergoing renovations. Please take care to avoid this area and the forbidden forest is, as the name suggests, still forbidden." She paused smiling, before raising both hands, "Let us begin our meal together. Enjoy. "

Hermione started eating a chicken breast and some mashed potatoes while letting others talk around her. She continued looking around the room trying to discover which students from her year had returned. Padma from Ravenclaw, and Ernie and Hannah from Hufflepuff were having a serious discussion together at the Hufflepuff table. She was surprised to see that Padma was back when Parvati wasn't. She noticed that a few of the Slytherins had returned. She groaned internally. It would have been nice to have a year that was Slytherin free without any comments about her blood status. Malfoy looked up as she was staring and caught her eye momentarily then quickly glanced away, looking embarrassed.

"I thought Malfoy had to stand trial for being a Death Eater. What's he doing back here?" she asked Ginny.

"He did stand trial Hermione, over the summer. It was right after you left for Australia. Somehow, he ended up being cleared. Ron thinks he managed to buy his way out." Ginny rolled her eyes at the last comment. Hermione refrained from joining her in rolling her eyes at Ron's comment. Hermione wasn't aware that any of the Death Eater trials had started. The Ministry was currently in a state of chaos trying to round up Death Eaters, follow-up on people who claimed they had been imperiused and trying to rebuild the Ministry. How could she not have known that the trials had begun. But since she spent the summer attending funerals, searching for her parents and in the waiting room of St. Mungo's she hadn't been reading the Daily Prophet. It was completely plausible that she missed a lot of news from the wizarding world during that time. "Who else has stood trial?" she asked.

"No one. Just Malfoy."

"Don't you think that's odd?" Ginny just shrugged and turned back towards Neville who was telling a story about his grandmother.

There was no way that Draco had bribed his way out of prison. Shacklebolt would be attending every Death Eater trial personally and would never have allowed it and she knew his opinion had great sway over the other ministry officials. If Draco was released it was for a good reason. She trusted Shacklebolt's decision.

As the feast cleared and students prepared to leave Professor McGonagall made one last announcement requesting all eighth year students to come speak with her immediately. Hermione approached the headmistress along with Neville, Seamus and Dean. Professor McGonagall waited until the remaining students left the hall and she had silence to speak to the returning students.

"Welcome back to all of you. It's good to see each of you again." The headmistress said this so sincerely and uncharacteristically with so much emotion behind her voice, that Hermione felt herself tearing up. "You will be taking classes with the seventh years to make up on the classes you either missed last year or were most likely taught inadequately. You may have noticed that none of you are prefects. We have left that privilege to the fifth to seventh years. As you are all of age and you have shown great responsibility and maturity in deciding to return to finish your education, I hope I can also trust in you to lead as an example that unity between each of the houses can exist," she paused and looked pointedly over all the students. Hermione straightened her posture and stared raptly at the headmistress. "As you are all returning students we have had a small problem in deciding where to board you this year. In the spirit of exemplifying unity between houses we have set up a separate dormitory that you will all be staying in together."

Immediately the students burst out in angry protest. Professor McGonagall raised her hand and waited for silence. Seamus was the last to quiet down by yelling out, "you want me to live with those Death Eaters?"

"That is quite enough Mr. Finnigan!" Professor McGonagall said in a voice which assured no rebuttal. "I personally trust every one of you students and you have proved you deserve to be here. If any of you can't trust that then I suggest you make other arrangements and return home," she paused as if waiting for anyone else to say something. She continued as if uninterrupted, "although you will be sharing a dormitory you will all continue to eat with your houses, take classes with your respective houses and you will still gain and lose points for your houses. I expect you to all be respectful and cordial when working together and demonstrate to the younger students that you can all get along. Mr. Filch will show you to your dormitory. The password is 'redire'. Now get some sleep, you have an early morning tomorrow."