Chapter 9: The new Hogwarts

After casting some charms to amplify the sound, Flitwick tapped his goblet to draw the attention of everyone breakfasting in the great hall.

"Thank you all for your attention. I know that it's been a turbulent time recently, and I thank you all for not causing what remains of the staff too much trouble with the time the cancelled classes have freed up.

My first announcement is that after the wonderful exhibitions of skill we've already seen, the previously planned triwizard tasks will not be going ahead."

Here, Flitwick paused while the students got the groans and jeers out of their systems

"We will, however be hosting an interschool quidditch league. The details of how to form a team are posted on the great hall noticeboard as well as the noticeboards in your common rooms."

At this, Flitwick was drowned out by uproarious cheers.

"Although the tasks aren't going ahead, we do have several dragons visiting that were planned to be used in the first task, and all students will get a chance to see them.

Now I'm afraid there's a few less exciting announcements as well. First, I would like to offer my thanks and congratulations to Mr Bill Weasley for finding and disarming the curse on the defence against the dark arts position. With the curse gone, Amelia Bones has been kind enough to offer the loan of one of her aurors, and so it is my pleasure to welcome Professor Tonks as our new defence against the dark arts professor.

Her mother will be taking over as potions professor, and so I'm extremely happy to welcome the only woman that you-know-who ever feared, Professor Black"

The students took this as confirmation that they would never see Snape again, and the cheering was the loudest that had ever been heard in Hogwarts, or indeed any magical school.

"Hogwarts is still recruiting for a transfiguration professor, but for now transfiguration classes will resume with one of the unspeakables currently helping to secure the castle teaching it."

After mentally reviewing their schedules, Hermione turned to Harry and Luna and said "Luna has her first lesson with Professor Tonks this morning, and me and Harry have our first lesson with Professor Black. I wonder what they'll be like."

"We can swap stories about our first lessons with our new teachers at lunch." promised Luna. "Unfortunately, we have to split up and go to those lessons about now, if we don't want to miss them." The trio parted reluctantly, and their thoughts were on reuniting at lunch.

After their morning lessons, the trio rushed back to the great hall to reunite. Harry and Hermione would also admit, if only to themselves that they may have also been rushing to get away from the quietly terrifying Professor Black.

Luna sensed the mood of the pair, and deciding it would be best for them to get the recounting of their lesson over and done with first, immediately asked "How was it then? Did you find out why you-know-who feared Professor Black?"

"Yes, one of the slytherins told us about it whilst we were waiting for her. Voldemort tried ambushing her, and she killed two of his death eaters, broke his arm, and she's the reason Lucius Malfoy uses a cane. She left the country because Dumbledore tried to prosecute her for it." explained Hermione.

Harry the expanded on what had happened in the lesson itself "She absolutely radiated power and control. There's no way you'd go want go against her unless you were really powerful, especially since you get the impression the first spell from her would definitely be a lot more dangerous than a stunner. We didn't do any brewing today, she said she wanted to be sure our ingredient preparation and theoretical knowledge was acceptable before allowing us to do anything dangerous."

"Professor Tonks is rather different to her mother then. She gave us a short lecture on safety before she taught us all how to cast stunners. She was very impressed when I cast mine silently and managed to change the colour. Then again, whilst it seems she chooses to project a softer image, it sounds like the core of steel I can see underneath it comes from her mother."

Harry, are you going to enter the quidditch league?"

"Yes, the rest of the Gryffindor team found me just after potions and we're going to enter, we just need to find a keeper, and they have to be from a different house for the team to qualify."

"Can I try out for the position? It's been so long since I've been able to play with anyone."

"I'm sure it won't be a problem for you to try out, but you know that I can't guarantee more than that."

Luna smiled, and said "Oh, I'm sure that won't be a problem."

Hermione groaned slightly at having to put up with quidditch talk,, and steered the conversation back to academics. "Transfiguration with an unspeakable after lunch. That's going to be interesting."

"Be careful not to get caught up in the rotfang conspiracy!"

With those parting words, the trio separated once again and headed to their afternoon lessons, Luna skipping happily, whilst Harry and Hermione kept to a more sedate stroll.

When Harry and Hermione entered the transfiguration classroom, their attention was immediately drawn to the hooded figure at the front of he classroom, projecting a slightly menacing aura, which caused both of them reach for their wands. "Miss Granger, Mr Potter, whilst I congratulate you on your excellent instincts, I assure you that you are unlikely to come to any harm in my classroom. I'm afraid the aura is an unfortunate side effect of an experiment on a dementor that went wrong. Especially today, when we will only be going over theory so that I can be sure that there are no gaps in your understanding that might be dangerous."

Once the class had settled down, the unspeakable began the lesson, and despite it being only a theoretical lesson with no practical element, the vast majority of the class was fascinated by the way transfiguration theory was explained by the unspeakable. Several students in the class would look back on it years later as being the first time they had understood magic, rather than just following the instructions given.

Malfoy missed it as he had once again been stunned for interfering with the unspeakables' work.

After class, the unspeakable held Harry and Hermione back and said "Mr Potter, my colleagues have made some progress on the project that started when a most interesting sapphire showed up in our offices. I believe they would like to update you on their progress, and to so so they would like to meet you in my office after dinner today. You can bring along anyone you trust, or indeed choose not to attend. Whilst I believe it would be a mistake not to attend, the choice is yours."

"Thank you Professor, I believe I'll be there and hopefully Hermione and Luna will come along too"

Harry, Hermione and Luna had a quiet dinner, with all of them following Madam Pomfrey's recommendation and eating a double portion of chocolate cake. After dinner, all three of them headed to their transfiguration teacher's office, where an unspeakable was ready to give them the latest updates.

"We were able to extract a location from the man masquerading as Moody. Yesterday, a team of unspeakables and auror raided the location.

We found Voldemort in some sort of homunculus. The portion of his soul inside it has been destroyed, and so whilst some horcruxes still exist and we will continue to search, there is no longer an active threat. I believe that you will also be happy to hear that we captured Peter Pettigrew, the hunt for Sirius Black has been called off, and there should be announcement of it on the front page of the Daily Prophet tomorrow. We also found that the anchor for the curse Bill Weasley removed was a horcrux and also Ravenclaw's diadem, which we are currently in the process of restoring."

"Now that my colleague has updated you, I can tell you that I am very glad that you chose to bring Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood with you. Quite simply, we are interested in working with all of you, though from what I've seen you might only come us a package deal anyway. Now considering your history with the ministry and figures of authority in general, we don't expect you to be comfortable joining as a full member, but from time to time, we do work with independent consultants. As such, we're prepared to offer the three of you tutoring in magic outside the normal Hogwarts curriculum.

We don't expect you to decide right now. Discuss it among yourselves, come back to me with any questions, and try to decide reasonably soon."

That night, the three of them were cuddled up in bed, and Hermione asked "What do you think? Should we take up the offer?"

"I think we should, it will give us a chance to see if they can be trusted without commiting to anything."

"If you two girls want to take it up, I'll follow"

"I want to, so it seems we'll be learning some more magic."

The three students continued cuddling up to each other as they fell asleep.