The year after her brother James graduates, Teddy Potter returns to Hogwarts for her final year. With the Marauders gone, it should be a quiet, peaceful year despite the mounting tensions in the world outside of school.
The problem, naturally, lies...
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THIRTEEN DEAD AND TWENTY-FOUR INJURED IN MUGGLE SHOPPING DISTRICT MASSACRE — SUSPECTED DEATH EATER INVOLVEMENT
The front page of The Daily Prophet flashes from practically every direction in the Great Hall at breakfast time. The quiet in the hall is loaded and tense, with people communicating exclusively in whispers and worried looks. The only people who seem unaffected by the news splashed across the front page are the usual suspects over at the Slytherin table — Crouch is laughing at some joke that Amycus Carrow has just told, and several places down the table Dolohov is quite cheerfully talking about his family plans for Christmas break at a regular volume.
Mary sits next to Teddy and Alice at the Gryffindor table, pallid and scared. The paper is spread out on the table in front of her, but she doesn't read it — she just stares unseeingly at the headline and picks compulsively at the corners of the page until they're shredded and ruined. None of the girls speak; in fact, the entire Gryffindor table is nearly unnaturally silent. It seems like no one knows what to say.
Teddy fiddles with the letter she's received from James — he had written to her about how his Auror training was going, how an up and coming star Auror named Alastor Moody had taken him and Sirius under his wing a little, how Lily was concerned for her parent's health. He worried about how Teddy was doing in Hogwarts, and wanted to know why she hadn't called him through the Floo network for weeks. Their parents send their love. There's no real mention of all the Muggle killings, or the attacks on Muggle-born wizards, other than the undertone of concern running through the whole letter. Teddy clutches at the parchment and feels so guilty for having avoided talking to him since the whole Regulus incident, especially when she can see how worried he's been about her, but she just knows that he'll be able to pick up that something has happened as soon as they start talking.
"Ewan May is thinking of going home," Mary breaks the silence with a whisper, "His parents are Muggles, and he's worried for them. He'll be the eighth Muggle-born to leave since the beginning of the year."
All three of them turn to look over at the Ravenclaw table at the same time — Ewan May is hunched over at the end of the table, though one of his friends has a supportive arm around his back. He looks like he hasn't slept in days; his hair is a mess, his eyes are shadowed, and he keeps his head bowed to avoid eye contact. All the Ravenclaws that sit surrounding him are shooting everyone mistrustful looks, as though they're getting ready to leap up and fight to defend their friend at any moment.
The girls turn back to their breakfast and lapse into silence once more — there's nothing to say.
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November arrives in a flurry of frozen rain and dark, stormy skies.
Though the castle is ancient and poorly insulated, there are enough warming spells to make it perfectly comfortable; despite that, most students begin to layer knitted jumpers under their robes as the weather starts to get colder. No matter how warm the castle itself is, however, there's no getting around the fact that the greenhouses are freezing.
