The Intelligent Potter

*** Present, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

It may have been a hectic couple of days outside of Hogwarts, but inside the ancient institute of magic, school plodded on at it's usual pace.

That isn't to say that Hogwarts was boring, of course, but it was for the most part sticking to its usual routine.

Whispers of fear were starting to invade the castle, slowly, but for the moment, the threat of Voldemort didn't quite seem real.

The clique of Slytherins who Harry had mentally dubbed 'The Death Nibblers', made up mostly of Death Eaters' kids, had been acting strangely, but Harry wasn't surprised, what with the return of the Dark Lord and all.

It may not quite have sunk in for a large amount of the population of Hogwarts, but Harry was sure that Voldemort's return was almost too real for the Death Nibblers, considering how intimately most of their parents were involved with the Dark Lord.

The previous day, they seemed more skittish than usual, and the next morning, Harry finally found out why.

As he usually did, Harry woke early to exercise, he met up with Hermione in the common room, and the two best-friends made their way to the Room of Requirement, outside of which, Daphne Greengrass was waiting for them.

"Finally." Daphne said, somewhat impatiently.

Harry focussed less on the sentiment itself and more on the fact that she was comfortable enough to show any emotion in front of him and Hermione at all, feeling happy at the realization.

The group entered the Room of Requirement and exercised for about an hour, Harry leading, as the most experienced with the routines they were following.

After their exercises, they made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

They were relatively early, as they always were, but there were usually at least a dozen or so early birds who came down for breakfast early to enjoy the silence, as well as Albus and Arcturus who were always down early, having discussions over coffee and newspapers, sometimes accompanied by McGonagall, who also made a habit out of coming early to breakfast.

Knowing this, Harry and Hermione were surprised to find that neither Arcturus nor Albus were in the room.

All of the early birds, who were usually divided over their house tables, more often than not, most of them from the Ravenclaw table, but today, Harry found them all huddled at the Hufflepuff table in the middle, sitting together, extremely unusual behaviour.

With a frown, Harry made a beeline for the Hufflepuff table.

"Terry," Harry greeted one of his yearmates in the huddle, "Where're Dumbledore and Black, and what's up with the huddle."

Terry Boot's face was unusually white and he simply handed Harry a copy of the Daily Prophet.

VOLDEMORT ATTACK LEAVES MINISTER FUDGE AND 6 AURORS DEAD, ICW MEMBERS INJURED

Harry didn't bother to read the rest, racing over to Hermione and Daphne, throwing the newspaper at them, "We have to go to Iliad's quarters." he said, as he rushed in the general direction of the Greengrass Lord's temporary room.

His two friends followed him to Iliad's room.

Giving the password, Harry rushed in but found the room empty.

It now seemed obvious that Albus, Arcturus, and Iliad had all gone to deal with the situation.

With a sigh, they returned to the Great Hall, and started eating breakfast, morosely.

As more people filtered in, obliviously happy until they read the newspaper, Harry felt the atmosphere at Hogwarts change.

Voldemort was back.

They knew it before this too, of course, but it had set in.

They were in a war.

The mood continued through the rest of the day, Harry and Hermione went to their classes, and the Professors definitely made an attempt to remain cheery in the face of this disaster, but for the most part they were having a hard time of it, with all the students obviously distraught and unable to really focus on any classwork or anything not related to the Voldemort attack.

Binns seemed to be the only Professor entirely unaffected by the news, continuing to drone on. The only difference was that there was nobody in the class sleeping, everyone using the time to contemplate more recent history.

Snape seemed to be more grim than usual, but continued teaching in his usual style.

McGonagall took one look at the class and her eyes softened.

"Transfiguration," she announced, "is an art which requires a large amount of concentration to do safely and accurately, and I don't think any of us are in a frame of mind to concentrate on it, so we're going to have a different kind of lesson."

"Nym!" McGonagall called a house-elf, "Get a cup of hot chocolate for all the students."

The house-elf did as instructed, and within a quick couple seconds, cups of hot chocolate and biscuits popped in front of all the students in the room.

"This is your chance to speak your mind if you want," McGonagall said, "Whatever it is you want to talk about, although I suspect there is only really one subject we will be encroaching today, just raise your hand and speak, we will all listen and no-one," at this she looked at the entire class warningly, "will judge. If you wish to just contemplate on your own, you are not required to contribute to this discussion, but I'm afraid school rules require you to stay inside this classroom." the Professor finished.

The rest of the class passed by, as people spoke of their fears and insecurities, a large amount of them, Harry found, had been affected by the previous war, whether it be the loss of a family member or simply something as simple as a family property which had been destroyed by Voldemort.

More still were terrified of wartime, from the stories that they had been told of the horrible times by their parents who had lived through it.

At the end of the lesson, McGonagall looked around at all her students, "I hope you're feeling better now," she said simply, "Chapter 12 from your textbook is for homework."

*** End of Chapter