Hogwarts : A new mystery

The Great Hall

Authors note: The whole universe belongs to JKRowling and not me !!!! This is my first ever attempt so any criticism would be appreciated !!
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What a grand start to the year?

After the disastrous events of the previous school term and the still suffocating smog of grief surrounding the vast premisses of Hogwarts, the hall had a sullen atmosphere, tense in nature. All the students had heard of the slander towards Dumbledoor's name, so publicly vocalised by the Daily Prophet - despite false accusation and the concrete denial of 'He who must not be named' recent reappearance. The school was unbalanced and uneasy, teetering on a edge. Many students had not returned this year, forbidden by their parents, many had been threatened with not returning and seeing their friends and some just didn't know what or who to believe. The hall was divided and anxious, the Slytherins were relatively relaxed and unaffected,  the Ravenclaws just sat in tense silence or speculating amongst themselves, the Gryffindors throwing occasional dirty glares towards the scar struck boy, and the Hufflepuffs were still mostly crying over the loss of ... Cedric.

The room was lit as usual by the soft lightings of the suspended candles, flames high with anticipation, or perhaps warnings of dangers - beacons to all to beware. As the last few students piled into the hall, a quiet chatter settled as friends began to reacquaint with friends after their separation over the summer months. However for the usual band of misfits, they were chatting quietly about nonsensical topics - dreading to even begin thinking about the harsh truths they would have to face in the coming year. They knew there was no way it would be carefree with the information the Order had made them privy too and so they just had to wait for their lives to be endangered once more, frozen and vulnerable like a deer in headlights.

For one particular chosen one, he was rather out of sorts, sat whilst Hermione conversed with some fellow Gryffindors about the multitude of books and extra reading she had completed. Ron was equally as distracted discussing new Quidditch tactics. Harry's eyes were unfocused, yet his casual gaze trained upon one of the slightly tarnishing goblets on the table, the reflection making a mere mockery of him - darkened and sullied. His mind was pre occupied with the dangers to come as he smiled politely at a few other house members voicing their hopes he had a nice summer - the ones who had obviously not had their beliefs and opinions manipulated by the wizarding media.

Minutes passed with the ease of conversation slowly returning, before Dumbledoor, in all his grandeur stood to speak from the ornate podium, rising out of his seat and making his way towards the front. His voice almost comforting and soothing despite his authority, as it washed over the young students, anxious to dig into their meals. As he gives his usual annual greetings and the proceedings for the sorting of first years took place , the hall erupted into bouts of cheers as each table became rowdy and cheered loudly at all the appropriate times. The chatter and amusements muted once more as a pink, rather embellished woman stepped forward uninvited and began making her own speech - eliciting little response from her audience.
"Progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected and prune practices that ought to be prohibited. " She was already off to a great start - met with silence as she stared into the bored, empty gazes of the students polluting the room. Seemingly disinterested in the attention of the crowd she continued her imposing remarks until the great hall doors were burst open. In fled the caretaker of the school, his appearance as dishevelled as ever, flanked by one blonde Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood who, as sad to say, had her absence go unnoticed. She waited, almost anxiously in front of the carved masses of wood as she tried to slow her breathing to come down from the fuel of adrenaline flowing around her body, as if mechanically pumped. She had decided to forgo the start of the year interactions and had wandered outside to walk around the grounds and just listen to the natural world around her. As Finch urgently made his way towards the high table not only drawing the attention of the curious students but also the equally stimulated professors who were sat conversing quietly during their fellow colleagues public ramble.

A solemn look, perhaps worry or stress, marked its way upon the headmasters face before the presented creases were simply upturned and ironed into a pleasant smile as he walked a few paces behind to urgently confer with his most trusted advisors and friends - leaving one Miss Umbridge smiling predatorily over the students crowding the room.

After a few minutes of hushed discussion between both Mcgonnogal and Snape, the two rose from their chairs, the deputy summoning a patronus to send messages to the medics while Dumbledoor consoled the students and quickly summoned the food for them to begin. The three stood quickly, robes billowing behind them as they left.

Hermione, as curious and knowledge hungry as ever turned to her flanking friends and pulled them out of their seats quickly before they even got a chance to dig into the newly present food - much to the annoyance of a certain ginger. Summoning Harry's invisibility cloak once the trio was concealed from the rest of the school and quickly hiding themselves inside - they took off in the direction the teachers had embarked upon.

"Bloody Hell, can't even wait a day before dragging us into something could you Hermione? We're already likely to get in trouble before the first day is even over! Mum'll kill me at this rate. And I never even got to finish Dinner, really what could be that urgent, Dumbledoor probably just had some teaching changes. Maybe he listened to the waffle that toad was sprouting and is regretting his decision." Ron huffed, annoyed at being dragged into some other thing that caught the brunette beauties curiosity. "And the mud out here is slippery too, if I fall on my arse I blame you 'Mione." With a quick hit to his chest, the bookworm silenced her friends "Shut it Ron or you'll be the one to get us caught". Harry simply shook his head at their antics as they grew nearer to the huddled group of professors.

"Minerva, do you have any other explanation? She cannot be a muggle surely and all the students are accounted for. Although it is practically impossible to even see her with all this dirt, we had better hurry her along to Poppy and have her taken care of. This must stay in complete confidence Severus, Minerva. We are putting ourselves, our reputations and potentially the school in quite a bit of danger here -  this must be a secret kept in complete confidentiality."

Snape sighed deeply and quickly placed a charm upon the girl as she levitated in the air - she would simply sully their clothes if the professors were to attempt manually moving her - and who knows the extent to her injuries. As the professors quickly marched their way from the dark moss invaded embankment, the trio turned to each other with sobered looks upon their faces - was even more trouble coming to Hogwarts?
"Boys .... this seems .... suspicious." She whispered solemnly.

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Thank you for reading ! I hope it was okay, feel free to criticise 💜
Who was your least favourite character?
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