Harry Potter Hogwarts Caretaker

Chapter 4: Lavender

Minerva left the first years in the same room Harry remembered from his own first day of school and led Harry towards the great hall. When they passed the stairs that led down towards the dungeons Twichy suddenly jumped off his shoulder and raced down the steps. Harry looked after him with a touch of regret. It would have been nice to face the teachers and students with his little animal friend around, but the ferret seemed to have different ideas.

'He must be a Slytherin's pet.' Harry thought. 'He's gone down there looking for his owner. Hope he doesn't get worried when he doesn't find anyone home yet.'

Minerva showed him his seat in the great hall and Harry sat down and watched the students arrive. There were fewer then he remembered from his own days, but they were just as noisy and excited. Greetings and friendly banter were exchanged between the four house tables more frequently than back in Harry's time and the Slytherins mixed freely with the other houses. None of the houses seemed to be avoided the way Slytherin had been back then. Or maybe Harry was just overlooking small signs of resentment after all this time? Maybe he didn't remember correctly?

While Harry was watching the students the other teachers began to arrive. Harry cast a guarded glance around hoping not to be noticed. They'd know that he was coming wouldn't they? He hoped that nobody would be surprised.

McGonagall was at the moment the only one of his old teachers there, but he also saw Madam Pomfrey and Madam Pince and several suspiciously familiar faces.

The seat at the head of the table was still empty. Harry looked around for Neville, but didn't find him anywhere either. He and Dumbledore were probably still talking. Severus Snape walked in accompanied by ... That had to be Draco Malfoy. He still looked like a younger version of his father. Hard to believe that the two were actually that different. Snape sat down in his old chair to the left of where Dumbledore would sit. Opposite from him to the headmaster's right McGonagall's chair would remain empty until after the sorting. Draco sat down next to Snape with Madam Pince on his other side and said a greeting to somebody Harry couldn't see as Pomfrey was sitting right next to that person obscuring his view. Harry leant over slightly and saw a young woman with bushy brown hair smile back at Draco.

'Oh, no! Hermione!' He hadn't expected to find her here at all. Well, when he thought about it it made sense that she'd become a teacher. Harry quickly turned his attention back to watching the pupils before she could look up and notice him staring at her. He just couldn't deal with seeing an old friend right now. Neville had been bad enough even though he hadn't made any unpleasant remarks. Harry suspected that meeting Hermione again would be very different. Remembering how she'd always admonished them to obey the rules he shivered uneasily.

Still his attention was drawn back to the table as more and more teachers took their seats. He winced when he recognised Remus Lupin and Sirius Black beside Pince and Pomfrey. He concluded at once that Lupin was back to teach DADA once again, but what the hell was his godfather doing at Hogwarts? Sirius was pretty much the last person in the world Harry wanted to see right now. Luckily a pretty redheaded woman was sitting next to Sirius taking up all his attention. Harry gasped softly when she turned her head slightly to say something to the dark haired women facing her thereby giving him a first chance to see her face.

Ginny Weasley! Could it get any worse? Yes it could. The dark haired woman she was talking to turned out to be none other than Cho Chang Harry's first love. Beside her Charlie Weasley gave him an encouraging smile. Harry stared at the empty seat beside him hoping that somebody would finally come and sit between him and Ginny. But what if his neighbour was somebody he knew as well? Harry turned to Charlie.

"Whose chair is this?" he asked fearing the worst.

"Neville's I suppose. Lavender or Michael could claim it as well, but I don't expect they will. Neither of them shows up down here very often."

"Lavender or Michael?" Harry wondered.

"Oh Michael is the astronomy teacher. You don't know him. Left Hogwarts before your time. You won't really get to know him either most likely. He's a bit of a loner. Always has his head in a cloud and as I already said he barely ever leaves his tower, just like Lavender."

Harry was just about to inquire deeper into the subject of Lavender when another redhead showed up claiming the chair facing him. He was obviously another Weasley. But which one?

'Oh please don't let that be Ron. Spare me having to meet Ron again.' thought Harry.

"Hello Charlie! Hi, Harry! So how many first years do we have this year?"

"Hi Fred!" answered Charlie smiling happily. "Not as many as we'd have liked, but the numbers seem to be rising again."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Only Fred. But where was his twin? What had happened to their joke shop? He remembered that Minerva had spoken of rebuilding Hogsmede. Had the twins lost their shop in the war? That seemed plausible, but didn't explain the absence of George. He'd never seen one of the twins without the other before. Harry felt slight worry creeping up on him.

Suddenly his nose caught the smell of incense. He turned his head towards the door it was coming from and saw a mass of brightly coloured shawls closing in on him. For a moment Harry thought that it was Professor Trelawney come to predict his death once again. Then he noticed the woman's face and calmed down a little. She was much younger than Trelawney had been. About his own age to be exact. Once again a nasty suspicion crept up on him. Hadn't Charlie mentioned a woman called Lavender. But this couldn't be. Yes it was, he realised with a sinking feeling. Lavender Brown.

"Lavender, what a surprise to se you here." Fred greeted her grinning. "Can we expect Michael to grace us with his presence as well?"

"That I do not know. I only asked my tarot cards if I should join you for the feast this year. I did not check who else would be present."

Lavender moved towards the chair to Harry's right, but stopped short when she saw him. "You do not expect me to sit beside that fugitive from Azkaban, do you?"

Harry winced.

"I am not a fugitive!" he hissed at her with as much conviction as he could muster. "I served out my sentence and was officially released."

The whole table fell silent. Everybody was staring at Harry and Lavender. Had he been that loud. He ducked and tried to look as inconspicuous as he could.

"As if that makes any difference. I will not tolerate that criminal beside me." Lavender announced seemingly not having the slightest problem with being stared at.

Maybe teachers developed an immunity to that after a while? Or maybe Lavender just knew that she had every right to demand that. He was an ex convict after all. Why should they have to accept him after all that he'd done? Maybe he should go and eat in the caretaker's office? But Dumbledore would have to introduce him to the children. Or was that important after all? He was only the caretaker.

"Good idea, Lavender." said Minerva into the silence. "Go back to your tower and relieve us of your presence."

"I would love to leave this overrun place, Minerva. As you know it clouds my inner eye to be around so many hectic people, but I have read in the cards that I have to be here for the feast today or else a great tragedy will strike all of us this year."

"What tragedy?" asked Hermione sweetly. "That you wont get any of the pudding for desert?"

Several teachers laughed. The pupils next to the head table began to notice. They turned their heads expectantly. A fight between the teachers? That was too good to miss.

Lavender wrinkled her nose at Hermione as if she wasn't even deserving of an answer and turned to walk towards Fred.

"Alas, I shall take Michael's seat this year to avoid the criminal." she declared as she sat down beside him.

Fred rolled his eyes at her.

"I do hope she doesn't plan to join us for meals too often." he remarked to nobody in particular.

Lavender opened her mouth to respond and ... closed it again. She was looking at something behind Harry. He turned and saw Albus Dumbledore and Neville walking up to them and the way the headmaster was looking at Lavender was anything but pleased.

Harry remembered how McGonagall had asked him to call her Minerva. Yes, Dumbledore must indeed have asked his staff to be nice to Harry. He might not have heard the things she'd said, but he had obviously noticed her change of seat and wasn't happy with her at all.

Dumbledore showed Neville to his chair, greeted Harry warmly and then walked to his own place at the head of the table to announce the beginning of the sorting.

That surprised Harry. He hadn't even noticed when Minerva had left the room. It must have been the very moment Dumbledore had come in for she was already back leading in the quivering first years.

Harry remembered his own sorting and how he had feared that he might not be chosen at all. He remembered how he had always loved to watch the sorting afterwards. But not this time. While the sorting hat sang his song Harry wished he were somewhere anywhere else. After the ceremony Dumbledore would introduce him to the students. They'd all find out who he was. Had they heard of him before? They must have. Those that hadn't would soon find out from their classmates. Did they know what he'd done? Know about Azkaban? Of course they did. They'd all glare at him the way Lavander was glaring right now. Or they'd pretend that it never happened like Neville and Charlie. No, they wouldn't do that. They had never known him before, had never been his friends. Why should they pretend? They'd shout out their protest, write home letters of complaint to their parents. And what would Dumbledore do if they started pulling their children out of his school in protest? There were too few students anyhow. Dumbledore couldn't risk losing any more. He'd have to fire Harry. And what would become of him then? Where could he go?

The sorting proceeded mercilessly. Minerva called up name after name. The hat announced house after house. Pupils applauded their new housemates. Harry noticed that the applause from the Slytherin table seemed to be the loudest. Gryffindors seemed to get less applause than the others. Or was he just imagining that. Was it because he had been a Gryffindor? No, of course not. Why would they care about that. He wasn't important enough to be remembered like that. It must have been because of the traditional rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Everybody loved Slytherin so they disliked Gryffindor. Slytherin house of heroes? He still couldn't quite believe that.

Once all first years had been sorted the headmaster got up and gestured for silence. The sound of the students' voices trickled away slowly. Their respect for the headmaster didn't seem to have improved much over the last ten years. Dumbledore patently waited them out. Harry wondered how Snape would have reacted, but then again Snape would probably never have gotten that kind of reaction. Most likely the students would have shut up immediately if the potions master had had anything to tell them.

"Welcome back for another year at Hogwarts. Before we start on the feast let me quickly introduce two new members of our staff. Professor Sprout as you all know has retired and I now ask you to please welcome her successor Professor Longbottom."

The pupils applauded dutifully. Harry was getting nervous once again. What if the students got up and demanded he leave straight away? How would Dumbledore react?

"Professor Longbottom is one of the best known experts on herbology in all of Europe and also one of the brave men who helped with the defence of Hogwarts during the war."

"Ahhh!" and "Ohhh!" came from the students.

They were obviously very impressed with Neville's achievements. So was Harry.

"Please don't get the wrong impression." interjected Neville. "I wasn't a war hero. I only helped to hide and guard the children. I never took part in the actual action. I'm not much of a fighter, you know."

"Indeed, Professor Longbottom's role during the battle was one of the less glorious, but also one of the most important. The castle we defended could have been rebuilt as indeed it partially was. But the children were what we were truly defending that day. If they had been taken by the enemy all would have been lost. For you, the students are what makes Hogwarts so important and every single one of you is irreplaceable. That is why Professor Longbottom and some others stayed behind when the rest of us went into battle. To protect the most valuable thing we had. And believe me to those children that they protected that day they are the greatest heroes of all."

More "Ahhh!"s and "Ohh!"s were heard and the students applauded enthusiastically. No matter what Neville thought about his activities in the war, the children were impressed.

"We also have a new caretaker this year and I hope that you will show him some more respect than you did Mr. Filch. Yes, I know poor Mr. Filch was a squib and nearly deaf and couldn't keep up with you anymore, but our new caretaker is none of these things." Dumbledore admonished the children. "Please welcome Mr. Potter."

Some polite applause and a lot of whispering.

"Mr. Potter? Not that Mr. Potter, do you think?"

Harry tried to ignore it. At least they weren't protesting out loud.

"Mr. Potter, if you could please come with me to my office after the feast. There are a few things I'd like to talk to you about." Dumbledore added.

Harry nodded quietly. Things were going better than he'd feared, but he still didn't want to attract too much attention to himself.

Dumbledore smiled reassuringly and started the feast. Harry finally remembered how hungry he was. He hadn't eaten since the plane this morning and the Hogwarts food was still as good as it had always been. Harry tried some of every dish much as he had done back during his first feast so many years ago and tried to pretend that he didn't see how Lavender was still glaring at him over her plate.

In the next chapter: we talk to the headmaster, find out why Dumbledore made Harry come back and Harry wonders how one man alone is supposed to clean all of Hogwarts.