Struggling Through New Beginnings

New Beginnings

Pansy Parkinson sat back in her seat and glanced around the Great Hall; her brain humming with all the thoughts in her head. There were, of course, the obvious changes, but so much had happened in the past year that practically everything looked new to her. Before the war she had never noticed the beautiful stones that made up the floor or the workmanship it must have taken to get them 'just so.' She hadn't taken the time to think on the amount of work the house elves did to make her life what it had become. It had never occurred to her that something as simple as smaller tables and sitting with new people could make a meal feel so differently. With a heavy sigh she took a sip of her water and slumped in her seat, her head on her fist.

To those around her, her dark blue eyes appeared bored, her impish features haughty. Her dark, almost black hair, had grown out and was now pulled back into a ponytail, and each flick of her head sent it sliding across her narrow back. The only thing about her that people saw as different was that she no longer held her small body so stiffly. She looked to them to be bored, but relaxed; something most had never seen. And, many wondered about the presence of the girl who had tried to hand Harry over to Voldemort.

"Cogle, Barkley," Professor McGonagall called out.

"Looks like a Hufflepuff to me," she murmured to herself as she watched the new Headmistress place the Sorting Hat on the child's head.

"Hey!" a voice snarled behind her.

Pansy turned in her seat to see Megan Jones, a 7th year Hufflepuff glaring at her.

With a sigh and a quick look of regret, Pansy muttered, "Sorry," and turned back to watch the rest of the sorting. She missed the looks of wonder and interest thrown her way from the rest of the table at her apology. None thought her capable of it and several wondered what was wrong with her.

"Hufflepuff!" the hat shouted. Albus Dumbledore nodded at the child and he ran to join a table where a chair glowed brightly for him. Megan sucked her teeth at Pansy's being right, and Pansy simply smiled to herself and took another sip of her water.

The reappearance of Professor Dumbledore had shocked almost everyone in the room. Most of the students and teachers present had attended his funeral and mourned his loss; had feared the future of Hogwarts without him to lead it. The entire student body still awaited an explanation. Pansy found herself smiling up at him, his presence providing her with a comfort she had never acknowledged before then. Next to him sat a pale, frail-looking Severus Snape; another shock for the room of students and teachers. Pansy made eye contact with her Head of House and smiled in greeting as he nodded a bit at her.

As the students continued to be sorted, Pansy got lost in her memories of her re-entry into the newly restored Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

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The only students allowed back into the school that year where those who had shown no loyalty to the Dark Lord, or who had, during the war, changed their loyalties and could prove it. Others, like herself, were allowed back only after extensive rehabilitation with Ministry professionals. There had been many interviews for the children and their parents with Ministry and school officials, some involving Veritaserum, to decide who would be accepted and who would have to find other means of schooling. The returning 6th and 7th year classes were noticeably smaller, but the other years seem to have doubled, as parents removed students from Durmstrang Academy and begged their entry into Hogwarts. The past year's 6th year students were now in their 7th year, but had to share it with the returning students from Harry Potter's class.

The train ride on the Hogwart's Express should have given all of them some idea that things were not going to go as they had in the past. There had been no separate small compartments, but instead each train car had been a complete compartment resembling the London Underground cars, but longer and a fair bit wider. The students had at first tried to find their peers and sit in the cars by house, but soon realized each car only allowed a certain number from each house and once you entered the car you couldn't leave again. The new, huge class of first year students were forced into one car at the front of the train, regardless of their high numbers.