Wednesday, 28th June, 1995. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"Mate, it's not even seven yet."
Ronald Weasley cracked one groggy eye open, squinted at the clock, then squinted even harder against the morning sunlight already spilling through the dormitory windows.
"What…" He mumbled through a yawn and hauled himself halfway upright, blinking sleepily at the culprit hopping around on one leg and wrestling the other into his trousers in a frantic attempt to get dressed.
"…what's going on?" Rubbing the sleep from his face, he glanced around and realised he was the only one still in bed. Neville, Seamus and Dean were already gone, their beds neatly made.
"Did you forget we've got breakfast today?"
He turned back towards his best friend's hurried voice — Harry had thrown on his robes and was now standing before the tall mirror, straightening his uniform before finally looking back at his still half-asleep friend.
Ron cocked his head at Harry. Breakfast? They had breakfast every day, didn't they?
Then halfway through the thought it finally clicked him. Right, Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Caesar had apparently returned to Hogwarts rather late the previous night, and the prefects had indeed passed along some message about everyone being expected at breakfast on time.
He… uh, it seems he forgot.
He glanced at the clock once again. There were still about ten minutes before seven, which was plenty of time to clean himself up with a bit of magic, put on his uniform and make his way to the Great Hall.
He sighed and turned towards Harry again, only to find his best mate pointing his wand at him.
"Wait, wait, what are you—"
In the next instant, Ron's bedsheet flew clean off him, folded itself neatly in midair and settled back into place as the rest of the bed made itself up around him. He, meanwhile, was yanked bodily out of bed and left staggering on his feet, barely catching himself before pitching face-first onto the floor.
"Bloody hell—" Ron wanted to curse, but as soon as he raised his head, he saw the tip of Harry's wand glowing in front of his face again.
"No, wait! I can do it myself—" He quickly raised both hands over his face, bracing himself, when the dormitory door was abruptly pushed open with a loud thud.
Hermione stepped inside, took in the scene before her, and for a moment was entirely lost for words.
"Hermione…" Ron's face brightened, and he immediately reached for his own wand to sort himself out before Harry could cast another spell. For once, he was glad Hermione hadn't bothered knocking and had simply barged straight into their, a boys' dormitory.
What are you two doing… and why are you just getting out of bed?" Miss Know-It-All finally asked, giving Ron a pointed glare.
Harry ignored Hermione's question and instead asked, "Has everyone already left?"
"Yes. We're the only ones still in the common room." Hermione crossed her arms. "Why are you still standing there?"
"D'you want me to strip with you still in the room?"
Hermione finally realised, grabbed Harry by the robes, and dragged him out of the dormitory as well.
A couple of minutes later, the three of them hurried through the castle's empty corridors and made it into the Great Hall with moments to spare. The hall was packed, every seat filled, which was unusual for an ordinary mealtime. Normally, unless there was some ceremony or event on, students never gathered all at once like this, each mealtime ran a good two hours or more, and students drifted in and out on their own schedules.
"Feels like forever since we last saw them..." Harry cast a quick glance toward the staff table and dropped into a seat at the Gryffindor table, murmuring the thought half to himself. Up at the staff table, every chair had been filled today: Professor Caesar, Headmaster Dumbledore, Headmistress Olympe Maxime, all of them present at once.
Karkaroff had returned to the school two days before as well, from wherever he had vanished off to right after the Triwizard Tournament had ended.
"D'you reckon they're going to cancel the exams this year?" said Ron. To his credit, he had managed to pull himself together remarkably well in those last few frantic minutes, not looking like someone who had been dead asleep not ten minutes before.
"Please." Hermione rolled her eyes from Harry's other side. "If anything, this'll just be some sort of precaution, an announcement about everything that's happened these past few days. Nothing more…"
---
The world might as well have turned upside down, but Hogwarts remained Hogwarts, and its students still had a school year to get through. As Miss Know-It-All herself had said, not even the end of the Statute of Secrecy was reason enough to cancel their examinations.
Headmaster Dumbledore stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat, his signature smile already in place and that familiar twinkle shining in his eyes.
"Good morning…"
He let the greeting linger for a moment as he looked across the Great Hall, "I suspect there are rather a great many questions on your minds after the events of the past few days... however, before we turn our attention to those matters, I believe there is one rather important thing we ought to make clear, concerning the final examinations of this academic year..."
He paused again. The students perked up, more than half were watching him with expressions of barely concealed expectation. It did not require a particularly gifted Legilimens to guess what many of them were hoping to hear.
Too bad though, "your final examinations this year shall proceed exactly as planned from the beginning of the academic year. They will commence one week from today, on Sunday, the ninth of July."
No sooner had he said than the Great Hall erupted into a chorus of murmurs, mostly groans of resignation coming from the younger years, a few from the older students, even some of the N.E.W.T. students.
"Is there something amusing you see, Professor?"
Cough... The smirk vanished from Maverick's face almost instantly.
McGonagall had turned towards him, fixing him with a pointed glare. The stern witch looked ready to erupt.
Maverick just found the scene funny, that was all. His eyes followed the students landing on the Gryffindor trio, particularly the Weasley, who looked as though he had just received some dreadful news.
"I just remembered something funny, Professor…"
McGonagall gave him one last suspicious look before huffing and turning back towards the students.
Dumbledore, meanwhile, seemed entirely unsurprised by the reactions.
His grandfatherly smile remained in place as he continued, "I am pleased to see that, despite everything that has happened, the school's enthusiasm remains quite undiminished…"
Maverick wasn't entirely sure whether the old man was being sarcastic or genuinely believed that.
"...with that matter settled, let us now turn our attention to the rather extraordinary events that have unfolded over the past few days... since the conclusion of the Triwizard Tournament."
The hall fell quiet once again.
Dumbledore's tone turned serious as he recounted the course of events following the final night of the Tournament. Of course, it was not the real story, but rather the same carefully prepared version that had already been given to the rest of the world.
The students already knew most of it anyways, having watched the events unfold live through Magic Vision, so Dumbledore also did not waste much time repeating what they had already seen, instead giving only a brief telling.
The real purpose of his speech was to explain what those changes meant for the students, particularly with summer holidays approaching.
The old secrecy was gone. By law, at least, witches and wizards were no longer under any obligation to conceal magic from Muggles. But that did not mean they could wander into a Muggle street and start throwing spells around simply because they could.
Dumbledore considered it particularly important that the students understood that distinction, make that point especially clear.
There would undoubtedly be plenty of idiots in the magical world who saw the end of the old restrictions as a licence to behave however they pleased — the old Headmaster simply didn't want to see any of his students among that bunch.
No exaggeration, a certain pair of redheaded twins had already started planning their summer excursions into the Muggle world. With the old rules out of the way, their potential pool of targets had after all just become considerably more interesting.
And they would not be the only ones. Some might do it for a prank, others simply to show off, while a few might have far less innocent intentions.
The magical world didn't want any of that, at least not right now. For the immediate future, the ICW had instructed the magical governments not to put up with any bullshit, and anyone who crosses the line, even remotely, was to be dealt with.
For some people, saying it once simply wasn't going to be enough. That was why the matter had been brought to the students' attention as soon as the three headmasters returned, and why it would be reiterated once again before the final feast.
"...in summary, my dear children, nothing of consequence has changed for you. You remain students, and I suggest you spend your summer as you ordinarily would. Observe the rules you have already been taught, and leave the wider affairs of the world to those of us who are responsible for them."
Dumbledore paused one final time, his expression becoming noticeably sterner making even a few seventh years suddenly discover something very interesting on the tables before them.
"I shall say this once more, and I hope very much that I shall not need to say it again…" His gaze travelled slowly from table to table, lingering on each in turn. "And our guests from France and Germany, you are certainly not exempt..."
He paused. "The magical authorities are watching closely. Should any of you be found behaving recklessly, you may find that expulsion is the least of the consequences awaiting you."
"Tsk."
The Weasley twins sat together somewhere near the middle of the Gryffindor table, one leaned towards the other, his voice barely above a whisper. "Bet old Dumbles is just trying to scare us."
The other did not reply. Because Dumbledore had, at that precise moment, turned in their direction.
"Do not mistake my warning for an attempt to frighten you." His gaze settled precisely on them, almost as though silently saying, I heard you.
And then moved away. Both twins sat absolutely still for a moment, privately convinced that those words had been aimed with surgical precision directly at them.
Gulp.
Once, then twice, in different words but with exactly the same meaning, the Headmaster repeated himself, and only then did his expression soften back into something more familiar.
—————————
Hey guys,
I've posted an auxiliary chapter about the rewrite, so do check it out if you haven't already.
⚠️ If you enjoy the story, please donate your daily Power Stones. They are an essential nutrient for both this story and the author's survival ⚠️
If you wish to support me, you can visit my P@tr3on, where you can read 20+ extra chapters ahead!
You can find this story on Webnovel, Royal Road, and FanFiction, all under the same author name: RyanFic. Updates drop first on Webnovel!
PAT r30n [.] com / RyanFic
Thank you so much for your support. It means the world! 💙😊