Harry Potter and the Lighting Lord

Chapter 31

The weather was bad as they all climbed into the Thestral drawn carriages, but luckily it wasn't raining badly. Once they reached the castle, they entered the Great Hall and sat at their respective house tables. Soon, Professor McGonagall entered with the first years. The Sorting Hat sang the song as usual and the sorting went underway until –

"Greengrass, Astoria" said McGonagall.

Astoria nervously walked up to the stool. After a few seconds, the hat shouted "Slytherin!"

Harry smiled. Daphne definitely could take care of her sister better than he could, so it was good that Astoria had been sorted into Slytherin.

Once the sorting was done, Dumbledore stood up and said "Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. Now, before we dig into our magnificent feast, let us welcome Remus Lupin, our new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. Good luck, Professor"

There was a bit of applause, but more were curious about the man. He was wearing decent robes, but his face and neck had scars. Scars were very rare in the magical world, so naturally, many were curious as to what could have caused it.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued. "As many of you are aware, especially after the search of the Hogwarts Express, the school is currently playing host to some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business. I would like to warn each and every one of you not leave the school without permission. It is not in their nature to understand pleading or excuses. Therefore I must ask the Head boy, girl and the prefects to ensure that no student runs afoul with the dementors."

"Now, I'm also happy to announce the appointment of another member to our staff. Please welcome our new Care of Magical Creatures teacher, our very own Rubeus Hagrid!" announced Dumbledore. Harry looked at Daphne, their expressions mirrored. While Hagrid was a nice guy, was he qualified to teach them? Knowing the subject and teaching it were two separate things. Besides, who would recommend someone to purchase a biting book? When Harry had purchased it, he didn't understand the reason behind it, until he scanned the book. He then showed the shopkeeper the way to stroke the spine to calm the book down. The shopkeeper had given the book to Harry for free in gratitude.

After the applause stopped, Dumbledore said, "Let the feast begin."

The feast was wonderful, and Harry saw most of the first years helping themselves to more chocolate. He smirked; Dumbledore had not even bothered to tell the students that bit of information. He would have to go down to the kitchens later to talk to the elves. Clearly, they needed more chocolate on an everyday basis if they were going to survive the dementors.

After the feast, he went to Ravenclaw tower, while talking to his housemates. Harry could see that many of them were happy that he had not held a grudge because of the debacle last year. After chatting for more than an hour, he finally went to his room. He locked the door and cast an expansion charm around the room along with several security wards. He then changed the colour of the wallpaper to red and silver and stuck the picture of his family on the wall. On the other wall, he put up the big E-Mirror he had bought just for keeping it in his room. Harry was surprised how well the mirrors had been accepted by the public, but he wasn't going to complain. Serena had employed several people (with the standard secrecy oaths of course; she didn't want anyone to use her knowledge and steal her work) and this had helped with the rising demand since the branches in Paris, Berlin and New York City were to open in a month.

Harry changed his clothes and went to bed. He wondered what was in store this year.

HP*LIGHTNING LORD*HP

The next morning, after a rigorous workout (he had cajoled Daphne to join him for his morning workouts) and a bath, Harry entered the Great Hall for breakfast. He sat at the Ravenclaw table and began helping himself to food when Professor Flitwick interrupted him.