The Sun, Moon & Stars

71. Enter: Alastor Moody

The entirety of the students were soaking wet when they finally got inside the familiar castle. The rain had become increasingly heavier since they departed from Kings Cross earlier that morning, and had morphed into a raging thunderstorm that made it quite difficult for Hagrid and the first years to sail across the black lake.

The Great Hall was still a sight to behold as always though. Decorated for the start of term feast; it was finished with golden plates, goblets and hundreds and hundreds of candles floating in the sky. The four long, wooden tables were filled to the brim with chipper students and the staff were already at their separate table with smiles plastered onto their faces (except Snape, naturally).

It was much warmer in the Great Hall than it was outside in the raging storm, so there wasn't much to complain about, except that the beginning of the feast seemed to take forever to start. Nearly Headless Nick made his rounds and said hello to his fellow Gryffindors, Collin Creevy had come over to inform Harry his brother Dennis was being sorted today, and Draco had time to squeeze in a sneer and a insult on his way past them to the Slytherin table.

"They don't seem to have a replacement for Dad, yet." Ophelia frowned, eyes on the staff table as the others chatted amongst themselves, eager to see whatever no-doubt awful replacement they had put in his place.

"Maybe they couldn't find one." Hermione said thoughtfully, all of them now peering in the direction of the teachers.

Professor Flitwick sat on the very end of one side of the table. He looked the same as he did last year; youthful, chipper and tapping his toes even though there was no music playing. Hagrid was next to him, then Professor Sprout, the astronomy teacher Ophelia never did get the name of and then Snape; whom looked greasy and miserable as per usual. Next to Snape was the empty seat typically occupied by Professor McGonagall, who was presumably still with the first years who were yet to enter, and then the other empty seat that Remus Lupin had sat in for the first time a year ago today — which was yet to be filled by his replacement.

And then there was Dumbledore, the man that didn't seem to ever change. His silver beard was the same length as it always was, he wore the same periwinkle robes, had the same half-moon spectacles on the bridge of his nose and that same twinkle in his eye he so often seemed to have.

She must have been staring too long, or too intently, because eventually his lips quirked into a small smile; eyes twinkling a little more.

She bashfully looked away after returning the smile, feeling bad for staring, and not even a second later Ron let out a groan, "Oi, could they hurry this up? I could eat a freaking hippogriff."

"You ate the whole way here, Ronald." Hermione reminded him, "In fact, you were in such a sour mood you spent more time shoving your face with cauldron cakes than talking to us."

Ron chose not to reply to that, which was good, since at that very moment the grand wooden doors opened and Professor McGonagall strode in, the line of tiny first years following behind her.

Ophelia flashed them warm smiles as they passed, and the occasional wave, remembering how it wasn't all that long ago she was in their position; terrified, homesick and unsure of what was to come.

Professor McGonagall ceremoniously placed the wobbly wooden stool down in the same place it always sat for the annual sorting ceremony, and after a moment the torn and patched hat broke into song as per usual.

The song was always different, but it seemed to get progressively weirder each year. Still, everybody enjoyed it, or pretended to, since Dumbledore seemed to enjoy it so much — tapping his toes and snapping his fingers as if it was a David Bowie hit and not some random rhyme that hardly made sense.