The Never-Ending Sky

THE NEVER-ENDING SKY

~Chapter 1~

Hermione looked outside. She was happy; her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had begun, she was with her two best friends on the cheerful, noisy train to school, and the sky was a wonderful blue outside. Harry and Ron were nearby, chatting happily and trading Chocolate Frog cards with pictures of famous witches and wizards on them. The lady pushing a cart around with wizard candy inside had just stopped by and sold the trio Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and other delicious sweets and candies. Hermione was munching on a particularly good chocolate Botts bean, and after looking outside for a bit longer, turned to look at Harry and Ron. They stopped trading, packed up their cards, and turned to her.

"So what's up, Hermione? What sort of adventure do you think we'll have this year? I sure hope it'll be fun. I just don't want people to die, like what happened yesterday. But I think we'll be fine as long as Dumbledore remains headmaster for this year. He is getting old, though," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Yea, I guess. By the way, Harry, have you heard from Sirius lately? How's he doing?" was Hermione's reply.

"You mean 'Snuffles,'" Ron put in.

"Yes, whatever," said Hermione. "Anyway, Harry, so has Snuffles written to you recently"

"Yea, he's staying with Lupin and they're all fine. They say they're going to try and get the Ministry to believe that Sirius is innocent, and they're sending a letter and everything. Now that Voldemort's risen to power again, someone's bound to find out that it's not Snuffles supporting him, it's Wormtail. Somehow people need to realize who Snuffles really is, who really turned in my parents, and then get Snuffles' name cleared. I can't wait until I'll get to leave the Dursleys and live with him instead!" Harry answered.

"Hey, look! I can see the castle out the window. We're almost to Hogwarts!" started Ron, and immediately after he said that, the train speakers announced that the train would arrive in Hogsmeade in about ten minutes.

"We'd better change into our robes," said Hermione briskly, grabbing her own out of her bags and walking swiftly out of the compartment. Harry and Ron quickly followed.

The trio entered the Great Hall, and each one of them gasped at the sight of it. They'd been inside the Hall thousands of times, but never had it looked so magnificent. Dumbledore and the professors lined up in the front of the room as always, and the four house tables lined up in the middle. No, wait, there weren't four, there were five! One of them turned out to be for the new house, Arborline. More and more students were enlisting in Hogwarts, and a whole new house had been titled after a famous witch Auror, Aya Arborline, became both the new Defense-Against-the-Dark-Arts teacher and Dumbledore's head secretary. In the front of the room, she sat on the left of Dumbledore and McGonagal sat on the right. They looked very similar; Hermione thought they might even be sisters.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down at their house table and watched the new students getting sorted into their houses. Sixty-five students, a lot more than usual, had enlisted this year: fifteen ended up in Gryffindor, twelve ended up as Ravenclaws, twelve became Hufflepuffs, ten joined Slytherin, and sixteen got into Arborline.