During the rest of the journey, apart from the necessary patrols of the carriages, everyone's conversation kept revolving around the attacked Moody and the Death Eaters.
They really wanted to know if this year's Defence Against the Dark Arts professor would be changed, or if Sirius would handle it alone.
If it was the latter, would Sirius end up being attacked too?
The train kept heading north, the weather still unpredictable, and it started raining again outside, the rain tapping lazily against the windows, lulling people into drowsiness.
Suddenly, the lights in the carriage turned on.
"We'd better get changed," Cho glanced out the window. "We should be arriving soon."
Fred and George began pulling on their robes, and Cedric opened the compartment door early.
Finally, the train started slowing down, a burst of noise filled the air around them, and everyone squeezed into the corridor to get ready to get off.
Because the Prefects had to maintain order, Kael and the others were the last to leave the carriage.
Someone was holding up an oil lamp, loudly calling all the first-years over, though the lamp seemed lower than in past years.
"Look, that's not Hagrid," Fred noticed something was off, and asked, "Do you know who she is?"
It was a witch, and unlike the unkempt Hagrid, her hair was neat and meticulously trimmed.
She was currently calling for the first-years to gather in front of her, her voice booming.
But none of them had any impression of this woman.
"That's Wilhelmina Grapple," Kael suddenly said, "A fairly well-known Magizoologist. She's published quite a few articles on Unicorns."
"Fantastic Beasts…" George couldn't help saying, "Is the school planning on replacing Hagrid?"
"I don't think so." Kael shook his head. "I think Hagrid just had something come up, so they asked her to help greet the first-years."
If he guessed right, Hagrid and Ms. Maxime were probably still in the giants' territory right now… trying to persuade them to join the Order of Phoenix instead of the Death Eaters.
But that is no easy task.
Giants are naturally violent, and the Death Eaters' ideas obviously match their temperament more… Of course, it all depends on whether Hagrid can persuade them or not.
Not paying any more attention to Grapple, the group moved with the crowd towards the carriages.
Along the way, Kael noticed that Conna kept sneaking glances at him.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It's nothing." Conna shook her head. "I just feel like you're in a really good mood. Is something making you happy?"
"Sort of… But am I that obvious about it?" Kael touched his face.
"Not really obvious, but I can tell," Conna said with a grin. "Plus, on the train you didn't slack off… You usually dump the Prefect tasks on Cedric."
"She's not wrong," Cedric sighed beside them.
"Don't worry, it won't happen again next time." Kael laughed awkwardly.
"That's for sure," Cedric said angrily, "This is my seventh year, I'm graduating next year, there's no way I'd come back just to keep order for you."
"That's a pretty good plan too." Kael grinned.
He really was in a good mood today, mostly because of last night.
After explaining to Newt in detail what he'd seen of Voldemort that day and how the Death Eaters took advantage of it to cause trouble afterward, Newt finally put away the parchment without mentioning writing to Dumbledore again.
Of course, Kael also promised him that unless he ran into the Death Eaters, he absolutely wouldn't let anything in the case out.
To be honest, that had always been Kael's intention, so he agreed very readily.
Now, you could say he had three trump cards, his safety off the charts. To put it bluntly, even if he ran into Voldemort, he could duke it out for a while and then calmly escape.
In these circumstances, it's only natural he'd be in high spirits.
Even though he'd tried hard to suppress it, he didn't expect Conna to notice anyway.
But Conna didn't press him further, and the group climbed into an empty carriage, rocking their way toward the castle.
Over a dozen minutes later, the carriage stopped in front of the stone steps leading to the oak doors, Fred was the first to jump off.
He glanced toward the grounds from a distance.
"There are no lights on in Hagrid's hut."
"Of course there aren't," Cho had also gotten down. "If he were here, Ms. Grubbly-Plank wouldn't need to be helping with the new students.
"Let's hurry inside, it's freezing out here."
"Oh, right." Fred hastened to follow the crowd up the steps.
They passed through the warm entrance hall, then headed right for the doors of the Auditorium, ready to attend the Start-of-Term Feast.
"See, I told you guys they'd make it here," the moment they entered the Auditorium, Kael pointed at the Gryffindor table.
There, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were waving like mad.
They were sitting right at the front, clearly arriving first.
If Kael was right, Mrs. Weasley must have used Apparition to get them to Hogsmeade, then from there to the school.
That is the fastest way, after all.
Fred and George immediately hurried over to ask the question they'd been obsessing over all the way here, and Cho headed for the Ravenclaw table.
Kael, Conna, and Cedric went over and found a row of empty seats by the Hufflepuff table.
As soon as he sat down, Cedric's eyes darted to the staff table eagerly.
"Oh, thank goodness."
Sirius was still in his original seat, which meant this year's Defence Against the Dark Arts professor hadn't changed.
These days, it's hard finding a reliable Defence Against Dark Arts professor. Even if Sirius wasn't as good as Professor Moody, he was decent—certainly much better than the likes of Quirrell or Lockhart.
The only problem now was, no one knew how long he could keep teaching.
Cedric just hoped he would make it through this term. After all, he'd be graduating next year—whoever they got after that wouldn't matter to him.
That would be Kael's problem.
With that thought, he suddenly noticed Kael staring blankly at the staff table.
"What are you looking at?"
Kael shook his head.
He was just a little surprised not to see Umbridge, but quickly realized that was only to be expected.
Because of him, she was definitely busy dealing with the Wizengamot people right now—after all, his formal application had already been delivered to Amelia Bones of the Law Enforcement Department a few days ago by owl.
By Kael's estimation, the Wizengamot should be taking action soon. As someone mentioned by name, Umbridge wouldn't have any time to come to Hogwarts.
Wonderful. No need to deal with that idiot who's missing a screw.
Kael felt even better; even the Sorting Hat's song sounded pleasant to him now.
Honestly, this year's Sorting Hat's song was nothing special. It seemed to have been stitched together—some new bits wedged into the standard tune, all advice about solidarity for all the students.
Most of the students were whispering away, except for those who knew the truth: they knew this was the Sorting Hat's warning.
Once the song ended, Professor McGonagall stepped out holding a list of new students, glaring sternly at those whispering with each other. Everyone instantly fell silent.
Professor McGonagall glanced at the list in her hand and loudly announced the first name.
"Euan Abercrombie."
A nervous-looking boy stumbled forward and was sorted into Gryffindor in the end.
The Auditorium instantly erupted in applause.
Gradually the long new-student line grew shorter and shorter, until half an hour later, the final one was placed in Hufflepuff.
Kael and the others applauded with everyone else.
The feast officially began; delicious foods appeared on the tables out of thin air, and those who'd barely nibbled anything on the train didn't bother with more talk—they dove straight into the food.
Kael grabbed himself a beef rib and served Conna a piece too—it was a House-elf specialty; he'd tried it when getting extra dinner last year, and it was really good.
As usual, there were all sorts of desserts after the main course.
Kael tried the pudding Conna recommended; it had orange marmalade, sweet and tart, perfect for finishing off a meal.
Once everyone was stuffed, the food vanished from the plates as Dumbledore stood up. The Auditorium fell silent again.
"All right. As we digest that wonderful feast, I ask you all to listen quietly as I—just like every year—run through some start-of-term notices."
Dumbledore said, "First-years are not permitted in the Forbidden Forest—and neither are the older students."
"Secondly, we have two staff changes this year. First, Professor Moody, due to special circumstances, cannot continue teaching. However, Professor Black has kindly agreed to take over the classes for the final three years."
The Auditorium broke into applause immediately, except for the Slytherin table, which stayed silent.
They didn't want Sirius teaching at the school, just like Gryffindor wished Snape would get fired.
Dumbledore continued: "Also, I'm happy to introduce Professor Grubbly-Plank! Until our Gamekeeper returns, she'll be teaching your Care of Magical Creatures class."
Professor Grubbly-Plank stood up and nodded to everyone.
The Auditorium offered polite applause.
"And finally, this year's Quidditch tryouts will be held the second week after term begins!"
"Brilliant!" Cedric waved his arm in excitement.
He'd been waiting for this.
Because of the Triwizard Tournament last year, Quidditch was canceled—he'd waited a whole year, and finally the news was here.
"Kael, we're definitely winning the Quidditch Cup this year, right?" Cedric asked excitedly.
"Of course!" Kael said. "The championship's definitely ours—as your graduation gift."
"That would be fantastic." Cedric grinned.
"Since you're so happy…" Kael clapped him on the shoulder. "I'll leave the new students to you. No problem?"
"No problem." Cedric blurted out without even thinking.
But he quickly noticed the persistent clatter of chairs and buzzing conversations from all around.
Just now, Dumbledore had already announced the feast was over; everyone was getting ready to head to their dormitories.
And at this time every year, the Prefects of each House had to guide the new students and bring them back to their dorms.
Clearly, Kael had once again dumped his responsibilities on him, and he'd just blindly agreed.
...