Resistance

Chapter 2 - Hogwarts' New Chapter

King's Cross Station was heaving with people, some of them dressed rather oddly and carrying bizarre luggage. Muggle commuters looked with passing curiosity at the strange people moving through the station, before they set their minds back to the day's business.

It was the first time for many years the Weasleys had needed only one trolley to carry their luggage as they approached the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Ginny was accompanied by her parents and a surly Ministry wizard who had arrived that morning and insisted on travelling with them. The Ministry were out in force around the station, looking more eager and alert than normal, as though they believed they had a really good chance of catching Harry. 'You don't honestly think he's going to appear with his trunk on his way back to school, do you?' Ginny asked their escort contemptuously.

He ignored her. Ginny felt a pang of sorrow - after all, wasn't there a part of her that hoped Harry would appear, with his tousled hair and round glasses, Hedwig in a cage beside him, smiling his shy smile and getting onto the train as though nothing had happened. She was overcome momentarily by a wave of longing so intense she didn't think she could bear it.

'Hello, Ginny. Mr and Mrs Weasley. Have you got stomach ache, Ginny?' It was Luna, also accompanied by a frowning Ministry enforcer, and her father. The Ministry had obviously kept its promise to keep an eye on those who attended the wedding.

'I'm fine,' said Ginny sadly, forcing her thoughts away from Harry. 'I do have a pain though,' she added. 'He's just there.' She jerked her thumb to indicate the Ministry wizard.

Luna cast a vague look in his direction. 'Oh dear, it looks like you've got some Nargle bites on your face,' she commented in her sing-song way. 'You ought to put some cream on those.'

'Is that what they are?' he asked, sounding rather alarmed. It was the first time he'd spoken. 'Those little buggers have infested my tent, they're everywhere. Can't get rid of the blighters.'

'Oh no, once they've set up home it's very hard to get rid of them,' said Luna sweetly.

They pushed their way through the barrier and emerged onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters. It was full of students and families, but somehow the mood felt more subdued than usual, and there were noticeably fewer people. A line of Ministry enforcers stood along the back wall, watching sternly. Everyone gave them a wide berth.

'Why don't you go and join your friends?' asked Ginny nastily of their escort. 'I promise that Harry Potter isn't going to jump out of my trunk.' She watched him walk away, still rubbing at his Nargle bites.

'I didn't think Nargles were real,' she said to Luna.

'Oh yes, they're attracted to plants, especially hanging ones.' Her friend smiled at her in a rather meaningful way, and after a moment a suspicion formed in her mind.

'Luna... that daisy chain...' she began, and Luna smiled again. Ginny returned her grin, and squeezed her friend's arm. 'You're a genius!' she whispered, delighted.

Luna turned to her own escort, whom Ginny realised for the first time was carrying Luna's owl in a cage. He looked rather baffled about the whole thing, as though he wasn't quite sure how it had come about. 'Thank you so much, Philips,' she said graciously, as though he was her butler. She hugged her father tightly. 'I'll miss you, Daddy.'

Ginny turned away from her friend's leave taking to hug her own parents. Her mother had tears in her eyes and even her father looked rather choked up. 'I hope we're doing the right thing, sending you back,' said her mother fretfully, looking over at the Hogwarts Express as though Voldemort might burst out of it at any moment.

'It'll be all right, Mum. Hogwarts is important to them, remember. And even if Snape's Head, McGonagall and Hagrid and lots of good people are still there and they're not going to go down without a fight.'

The whistle sounded behind them. 'All aboard!' shouted the harassed looking guard, checking his watch. People seemed more reluctant to board the train than usual, students hanging back for one last hug, and there were more tears than she'd seen in any other year.

When the train finally pulled out of the station, Ginny and Luna remained at the window to wave until the Platform was out of sight. As the train gathered speed they noticed the Ministry enforcers leaving the station, looking disappointed that Harry Potter had not shown up.

'Let's find somewhere to sit,' said Ginny gloomily, dragging her trunk along.

'Ginny! Luna! In here!' A compartment door had opened and Neville Longbottom was sticking his head out. The sight of his familiar grinning face made even Ginny smile.

'Hi Neville.' She gave him a brief hug, almost crushing Trevor.

'Let me help you with your things,' said Neville, brandishing his wand with a look of intense concentration. 'Mobilius! I came of age this summer,' he added, as the trunks made a very wobbling journey from floor to luggage racks. One of the boxes in Ginny's pile let out an alarming yowl at being moved, causing Neville to jump and the trunk to fall several inches.

'Sorry, that'll be Crookshanks. It took me half an hour to get him in there in the first place,' Ginny explained.

'Hermione's cat?' asked Neville, tucking the last box carefully on the rack with a look of relief, and moving to shut the compartment door. 'Have you seen her? Where is she? Is she OK?' He paused in his eager questioning, and held up a hand. 'Wait,' he added, lifting his wand. He proceeded to cast muffling charms all around the compartment. 'Just in case,' he said grimly.

'I don't know,' replied Ginny. She hesitated. 'Are you sure these charms will hold, Neville?'

The older boy nodded. 'I've been practicing all summer, as soon as I had my birthday. Any sorts of spells that might be useful to protect ourselves or to fight. I had a feeling we might not get many chances to talk without being overheard.'

Ginny hesitated, then continued. 'Like I say, I don't know where Hermione is. Her and Ron and Harry have all gone off somewhere, on some mission, and no one knows where they are.' Seeing the alarmed look on Neville's face she added, 'The last we heard, they were all OK. And judging by the number of people looking for Harry, I think we can safely assume the Ministry or the Death Eaters haven't caught up with them yet.'

'Blimey,' said Neville. 'I mean, I assumed Harry wouldn't be coming back, but at the same time you sort of still expect it all to be the same as it's always been.'

Ginny nodded grimly. 'I know exactly what you mean. Listen, the story about Ron is that he's at home with spattergroit - obviously if the Ministry knew he was with Harry the whole family would have to go into hiding. We've even got the family ghoul pretending to be him for when they check up - which they have, of course.'

'Let me guess - Fred and George's idea?' Neville grinned. 'How are the gruesome twosome?'

'They're OK, same as ever. George got hurt quite badly in the summer, someone jinxed his ear off. He's OK, he's making a really good recovery, but it was a bit of shock, especially so soon after Bill being hurt.' Telling someone else about it made the horror of it hit Ginny again. So many of her family were injured or missing. How long before someone died? She suppressed a shudder.

'Things are bad,' said Neville, indicating the latest issue of the Daily Prophet where a photograph of a hook nosed man smirked beneath the headline 'Severus Snape Named Hogwarts Head'. 'I can't believe they've made Snape Headmaster - and after he killed Dumbledore!'

'I can believe it,' replied Ginny, her gloomy mood settling over her again. 'It fits right in with this mad world we're living in now.'

'Well, the only good thing I can think of is at least he won't be teaching us directly,' Neville shuddered. 'I gave up Potions thinking I'd seen the back of him and they made him Defence teacher! Well, if Severus Snape thinks he's going to have an easy ride as Headmaster, he reckoned without me.'

Ginny looked at Neville, surprised. She could see from his grim face that he really meant it. Somehow Neville seemed a lot older and more serious than he used to be. 'Well, in that case, I'm with you.'

'Me too,' said Luna at once. 'Why don't we bring back Dumbledore's Army?'

'I don't know, that was Harry's thing,' said Neville.

'No, it was our thing,' said Ginny, suddenly sitting up straight, her eyes bright again. 'It was Dumbledore's Army, not Harry's army - it was students who were loyal to Dumbledore and prepared to fight back. We can still be loyal to Dumbledore and ready to fight even with Harry gone.'

Luna smiled. 'I think Harry would want us to carry it on. We're his closest friends left at Hogwarts, after all.'

'Remember the fake Galleons we used to use to communicate? Do you still have them?' Ginny felt herself getting swept up in it, for the first time in weeks she had something she could actually do. To her surprise, both Neville and Luna immediately reached into their pockets and produced them. She looked from one to the other and realised what membership of Dumbledore's Army must have meant to them. 'I think mine's in my trunk somewhere,' she muttered, humbled. 'And Harry's - I've got Harry's too!'

'We might need to make more, especially if we can get new people to join,' suggested Luna.

'It's a shame Hermione has gone,' said Neville sadly, 'she was brilliant at that sort of thing.'

'I think I can work out how,' said Luna. 'I'm sure it's in a book somewhere. And Professor Flitwick will be on our side, I can get him to help without him even realising what he's doing.'

They spent the rest of the journey discussing their plans for re-establishing Dumbledore's Army. It was the best day they had spent for some time.

Hogsmeade station had almost as many Ministry wizards on guard as King's Cross. They clearly weren't taking any chances. Ginny was sure she recognised her escort from earlier and gave him an extra special glare. The three bundled themselves and their possessions into the nearest thestral drawn carriage. The skeletal winged horses stood eerily still whilst the students, who mostly couldn't see them, milled around.

They were joined by Seamus Finnegan, who was very pleased to see them. 'I was worried I'd be the only Gryffindor boy coming back,' he explained. 'Obviously Harry can't... and I heard about Ron having spattergroit, how is he Ginny?'

'As well as can be expected,' lied Ginny. She hadn't forgotten that during her fourth year, Seamus had staunchly refused to believe Harry was telling the truth about Voldemort's return.

'Dean's gone on the run,' he continued grimly. 'He owled me to let me know, obviously being Muggle born he can't take any chances. That was weeks ago, and I haven't heard from him since, I really hope he's OK.'

'So do I,' said Ginny fervently. Dean was her ex-boyfriend, and she was still fond of him.

'And I wasn't sure if you'd have gone off somewhere too, Neville, with Harry,' finished Seamus. 'I guess it's going to be just us. Who'd have thought our last year would end up like this, more than half of us gone?'

'There might be new students,' Neville suggested. 'They've banned British kids going to overseas schools, so there might be some people joining from there.'

'I doubt that,' said Seamus. 'They'd have to be mad to come back here at the moment, if you're safely installed overseas somewhere you're not going to want to come back to war torn Britain, are you? Anyway, most kids do go to Hogwarts, it's only small numbers that decide to go to other places.'

The Great Hall was emptier than usual when they sat down for the feast. Hermione and Dean were among those missing from the Gryffindor table, and Neville was surprised to find himself sitting next to the Creevey brothers. He greeted them warmly. 'I thought you were Muggle-born?' he murmured to Colin, the elder of the two.

'Turns out our Mum was a witch,' he whispered back. 'Me and Dennis never realised what was going on, we don't get the Prophet at home - owls coming and going would be too obvious where we live. So first we knew was when we got this letter summoning us to a 'Registration Committee'. I thought it sounded fishy so I wrote to Professor McGonagall - she turned up on the doorstep the next day and she and Dad spent ages going through Mum's stuff. She left when we were kids, you see. McGonagall came with us to the Ministry, and convinced them we were half-bloods. It was pretty awful though. They weren't happy to let us go, not at all.'

Any further conversation was cut short by several sharp handclaps. They turned to face the high table, where Severus Snape stood in the centre, in front of the grand throne-like seat once occupied by Dumbledore. His promotion didn't seem to have improved Snape's dress sense; he still wore black, bat-like robes and his hair hung limp and greasy around his hard face. But he had a triumphant gleam in his mean eyes. Neville felt a red hot surge of intense dislike. He had hated Snape from his first lesson, but now he knew the man wasn't just a bully, he was also a murderer of the very man who had trusted him and given him a second chance.

'Welcome to Hogwarts,' he said, his voice soft yet somehow audible throughout the hall. 'As Headmaster, I would like to welcome those of you who are returning, and those of you who are new. As you know, at Hogwarts we have a proud tradition of dividing our students into houses, which reflect their abilities and their aspirations for later life.' It may have been Neville's imagination, but he was sure that Snape directed a scathing glance towards the Hufflepuff table at that moment. 'Therefore, before we proceed any further, let the Sorting commence.'

Professor McGonagall appeared, carrying the three legged stool and the battered form of the Sorting Hat. Neville caught a glimpse of the queue of first years, waiting anxiously in the corridor leading from the hall. He felt a pang of anxiety and responsibility; these kids were so young.

McGonagall placed the stool on the dais and the Hat upon the stool. As always, the Hat took a deep breath and began to sing.

In times of war divisions grow

Between friends and...

But the Hat got no further. Snape had risen to his feet and spoke again. 'Yes, thank you, whilst I'm sure you have composed another fascinating rhyme, I think we can all do without hearing the opinions of an old hat. Perhaps you would get on with the task in hand, and Sort these students.'

For a moment there was stunned silence, though a couple of Slytherins giggled, and McGonagall gaped at her new boss with her mouth open. Then she pulled herself together and called out the first name. Neville wondered if the hat would refuse to Sort, but it went ahead. There were fewer students than ever before, although a couple looked like older teenagers who presumably had come from other schools or home schooling. Only seven students instead of the usual ten got placed in Gryffindor, and although he cheered and shouted and greeted the newcomers enthusiastically along with his housemates, his heart wasn't in it.

When the Sorting was over, McGonagall removed stool and hat. You could measure the Transfiguration teacher's anger levels by the thinness of her lips, and judging from the barely visible line of her mouth, she was close to explosion point. Snape seemed unremorseful and was back on his feet. Dumbledore had always waited until after the feast to address the school, but Snape was no Dumbledore. Neville remembered with a sinking heart Snape's fondness for making speeches, even when he had been an ordinary class teacher.

'Once again, welcome all, at this most exciting point in our school's history. Those of you who are new here, should already be familiar with our school's fine reputation and place at the centre of British wizardry. Hogwarts has a proud history, and now we begin this new chapter for Hogwarts, the future too is bright.

There have been changes, of course. Some of our students have chosen not to return,' he looked meaningfully at the empty spaces on the Gryffindor table. 'Sadly, not all students of Hogwarts have made wise choices and some of our former pupils find themselves at odds with the rule of law. I am sure you are all aware that one such pupil, Harry Potter, is wanted for the murder of my predecessor, Albus Dumbledore.'

A rustle of whispering greeted this announcement, along with some distinct hisses from the Gryffindor table. McGonagall's lips had gone so thin they had vanished altogether. Hagrid's giant fists were clenched in front of him on the high table. Next to Neville, Ginny was trembling with rage, and Neville himself had to suppress visions of getting up and wrestling Snape to the ground there and then.

'Until this year, Hogwarts had accepted students from all backgrounds. This, we now realise, has been a mistake. New research has shown, as some of us had suspected all along, that so called 'Muggle born' witches and wizards are nothing more than thieves of magic. As such, we no longer have a place for Muggle borns in this school.' Snape paused dramatically.

'In light of recent developments in the world, we have also decided to enliven the curriculum. Defence Against the Dark Arts has been broadened into a more varied subject, to cover more than purely defensive magic. As such, it has been renamed simply 'Dark Arts'. I am sure that many of you will welcome this opportunity to learn different and exciting magic, including some of the most complex and powerful spells known to wizardkind.

To lead you on this journey of discovery, it is my great pleasure to introduce our first new staff member, Professor Amycus Carrow.' At this, a squat, Trollish man seated to Snape's left stood up and leered round at the students. Neville felt physically sick at the sight of him. The last time he'd seen that face had been when a Death Eater's mask slipped away during a battle in which Neville had almost been killed. He sensed Ginny tense up beside him, and saw her exchange a horrified look with Luna on the Ravenclaw table. 'This cannot be good,' muttered Seamus, seated on his left.

'We have also decided that in this time of increased threat from Muggles, it is important for all students to understand the Muggle mindset and the danger posed by the non-magical squatters of this land. Therefore, Muggle Studies is to be compulsory for all students as a non-examination subject, and will be taught by our second new arrival, Professor Alecto Carrow.'

A female version of the Dark Arts teacher, seated on the other side of Snape, rose to her feet. If anything she looked more solid and threatening than the male Carrow, whom Neville assumed was her brother.

'As well as teaching, Professors Carrow and Carrow will be assisting me in ensuring that discipline is strongly enforced in our school. For many years I have taught at Hogwarts and watched students get away with behaviour that is not only forbidden, but that places themselves and others in danger. As a school, we have a duty to instil a sense of responsibility and duty in our pupils, for them to grow up to be fully functioning members of society. Therefore I advise you all,' again Snape seemed to look directly at Neville and Ginny, 'to act in a manner which befits the venerability of the school you represent.'

'I think I'm going to be sick with rage,' whispered Ginny, and she did look rather green. Neville couldn't even find the words to respond, he was dumbstruck with horror. But Snape was still talking.

'Now I ask you all to think for a moment, of the gift you possess. Every one of you is a witch or wizard, the latest in a long line of magical folk. You are the most powerful, most worthy species. You have the potential to learn knowledge and skills which most can only dream of. You are privileged to attend the oldest and most respected school of magic in the world. Hogwarts is here to give you the skills you need to carry on the traditions of wizardkind, to increase the influence and strength of the wizarding community. I advise you all not to waste that opportunity.' He paused dramatically and looked around the Hall. 'Because those who squander their gifts are not worthy of the name 'wizard'. Every one of you here, you have a responsibility to the power you have been given - ensure that you do nothing to jeopardise that.'

Snape finished and sat down to enthusiastic applause from the Slytherin table. A few people at other tables clapped rather less excitedly. Neville saw Draco Malfoy, his and Harry's arch nemesis, joining in, although his pale face was less animated than he'd have expected.

Food appeared on the plates in front of them, but Neville had lost his appetite. 'I can't believe he said all that,' whispered Ginny. 'They're not even trying to hide what they're doing!'

'They've got no need to,' replied Neville. 'The Ministry is part of 'them' now - their word is law.'

'McGongall looks like she's going to kill somebody,' added Ginny.

'She's as powerless as we are,' said Neville, looking back at the Transfiguration teacher, who was saying something to Hagrid.

'They're going to teach us Dark magic,' said Seamus. 'And Muggle Studies, what a weird combination. You'd think they'd want us to stop studying Muggles.'

'You heard what Snape said, it's to warn us of the dangers posed to us all by them,' snorted Ginny. 'Wait till Mum and Dad hear about this - they'll go mad.'

'It's a declaration of war,' said Neville quietly.

'What?' asked Seamus, who hadn't been part of their earlier conversation.

'A declaration of war, by Snape.' Neville looked back at the new Headmaster, sitting smugly at the High Table. 'Well, if it's war he wants, he's going to get it. I'm going to fight him every step of the way.'

Ginny corrected him. 'We're going to fight him every step of the way.'