Return to Hogwarts

Author's note: Someone has volunteered to proofread this fanfic. I will continue to publish one chapter per day, and then when they are finished, I will republish the corrected chapters. Consequently, in a few weeks, a version with far fewer mistakes may be published. If the mistakes hurt your eyes, you have the choice to satisfy your reading binge without waiting or to wait a few weeks for a more qualitative version.Whatever your choice, I wish you a good read. And don't forget that every time you read a chapter without leaving a review, a kitten dies. It's not that it bothers me, but I'm starting to run out of kittens and the neighbors are starting to ask questions about the smell coming from my basement.

oOoOoOo

Harry was sitting at the Hufflepuff table and was starting to get impatient. It was the first day of school and a few hours earlier, Snape had Apparated him to the outskirts of the castle, ending their month of cohabitation (to the great relief of both of them). It hadn't been as horrible as he feared, but he wouldn't try the experience again for anything in the world.

After putting away his things in his dormitory, he had gone down to the great hall thinking that the other students would be there soon. But he had been waiting for at least an hour and the only notable event was the arrival of most of the teachers (Harry noted the curious absence of the house heads). Since he was alone, he went to greet Lockhart, whom he idolized less than before, since he had realized how bad some of his advice could be. He was just a man after all. An extremely talented man. As he reminded all his interlocutors, his presence at this event proved that he had managed to break the curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position by staying in the job for more than a year. But he was prone to error like everyone else.

Then he chatted with Hagrid until he had to leave for Hogsmeade to be ready to welcome the Hogwarts Express, while he joined the Hufflepuff table where he began to get very bored. His only distraction was Scabbers, who came out of his pocket and started sniffing the empty dishes and asking for pats. When he was with Snape, Scabbers was the only friendly presence, and he had ended up overcoming his fear. Although he hadn't been a very good master at the beginning of the summer, the animal was extremely affectionate towards him and was surprisingly clever for a rat. To his great surprise, he had ended up becoming very attached to the animal.

He had to wait a good hour longer before a crowd of dazed students entered the great hall. They were all as white as sheets, and most were still wearing Muggle clothes instead of their Hogwarts uniforms. Harry still remembered the joyful atmosphere and the chatter between friends who hadn't seen each other for two months. This time, it was with a heavy silence that the students sat at their different tables where chocolate immediately appeared. While nibbling, Harry questioned his classmates and listened.The conversations became more and more present as the students regained their strength. He understood what had happened. The Hogwarts Express had been attacked. Not by Sirius Black as he had first thought, but by the Dementors.

Lupin had talked to him about these creatures during his private lessons. They were creatures of darkness whose appearance had inspired representations of death among Muggles in the Middle Ages. Corpses covered with a black shroud of darkness that sucked all will to live around them.Long before seeing the Dementors, one felt an intense sense of cold, and as they approached, one lost all ability to feel joy. If you spent enough time near these creatures, you were left with only negative thoughts and the possibility of reliving your worst memories in a loop. Then the Dementor waits for its victim to want to embrace death to suck out their soul.

Normally, they guarded Azkaban prison, but the ministry had exceptionally authorized them to leave the fortress to pursue Sirius Black. Officially, it was a decision by the ministry to reassure the population. Unofficially, he had heard Snape exclaim that the Dementors had actually refused to obey the ministry's initial orders to stay in their fortress while the Aurors pursued Black. And that coward Fudge preferred to negotiate rather than start a war against the Dementors or have to do without their services to guard the prisoners.

In their frantic search for the only man to ever manage to escape their grasp, they had attacked the Hogwarts Express. And already the criticisms were flying. How was it that no adult capable of repelling these creatures was on the train? How was it that no seventh-year student had been able to repel the Dementors? Certainly, not all wizards had the magical power or talent necessary to produce a Patronus, but it was a spell in the sixth-year curriculum. Normally, at least a dozen students should have been able to fight them. Given their number, they wouldn't have been able to repel them, but at least they could have protected the weaker ones and significantly shortened their presence.

As a result, the students had been at the mercy of the creatures for more than an hour. During this time, they had methodically searched the train while delighting in the happy thoughts of the students (a royal feast for these creatures used to fighting for the few scraps of humanity from the prisoners of Azkaban). Several had ended up fainting or screaming in despair. But fortunately, no one had their soul stolen.

It was only once the creatures had left that the train conductor and the woman distributing the treats were able to contact the school, where they were starting to worry about the train not arriving.

Very quickly, all fingers pointed to a single culprit: Lockhart. Apart from the girls, everyone accused him of being an execrable teacher who had taught them nothing the previous year. This day, which should have been triumphant, was the beginning of troubles for the charming novelist.