The Great Hall overflowed with energy on this September 1st. Harry's class and the ones on either side had been rather small due to the war of the time. Not many wanted to start families when Death Eaters attacked almost every night. However, the night of October 31, 1981 changed all that.
The people of magical Britain threw a party unequalled in centuries with the announcement of the fall of Voldemort. The large amounts of alcohol and recreational potions consumed probably explained why nine months later, a baby boom started. The first of these baby-boomers were born on July 29, 1982 and the boom continued to run for the next five years. Ironically, where Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter were the only magical children born on July 30th and 31st in 1980, two years later over twenty magical children were born each of those days. The incoming class Harry's Third year was seventy-five per cent larger than Harry's cohort. This year's class was half as large again as the one before it. Where Harry's cohort was forty students, there were now seventy Second years and 105 new First years waiting to be Sorted.
"Bloody hell! Look at all of the little gnomes!" Ron groaned. "It will take forever to Sort'em all! I just want to get to the feasting!"
"Easy there, Friar Tuck," Harry reassured him as they watched the First years enter behind McGonagall. "Here, I saved this from the train." He handed his red-haired friend a chocolate bar.
Ron took the candy and ripped off the wrapper. "Cheers, mate. You're a lifesaver."
Harry shrugged. "Not a problem. I think the twins left it for me to find." Dean Thomas screamed like a little girl when Ron suddenly spit out the chocolate straight into his face.
"Merlin, Harry! What are you doing giving me that? Who knows what crazy shite they did to it?!"
Harry made a play at patting his pocket before pulling out an identical candy bar. "Oh wait, this is the one the twins left. My bad." The Gryffindors started to laugh at the glare Ron was giving Harry. Harry simply smiled unrepentantly.
"Cruel, that was just cruel, that was," Ron complained. "Waste of a perfectly good piece of chocolate."
"Oh, would you two grow up," Hermione huffed. "Look, they are almost done the sorting so you two can stop playing."
Harry and Ron turned just as Dumbledore stood to give his welcoming speech. It was fairly standard until the Headmaster announced the new Defence Professor had been detained but would be joining them shortly. Not ten seconds later the huge doors to the Great Hall slammed opened and in stomped the ugliest man Harry had ever seen.
"I'm here, Dumbledore. Some wanker Dark Wizard tried to get the best of me. Had to deal with the mess," the scared man announced as he stomped up the aisle with his peg leg. The man had a large blue orb where his right eye should be. More than one student felt vaguely nauseous watching it swirl as it seemed to search the room for something. Some students noticed the orb seemed to pause several times on their most famous (or notorious) student, Harry Potter.
Dumbledore ignored the other wizard's language and simply said, "Welcome, Professor Moody. Please take your seat." The former Auror merely grunted and stomped over to the indicated chair. His blue eye seemed to be searching the chair and everyone around it for threats.
"Off his rocker, that one is," Ron whispered to Harry. "Dad had to go out last night to help the DMLE settle things when Moody destroyed his Muggle neighbour's garden. Claimed a Dark wizard attacked him then too. Supposed to be a total nutter but a great Auror."
Dumbledore was just restarting his welcome speech when the doors slammed open again. Only this time they admitted an enraged and crying caretaker.
"Who did it?! I want them DEAD! Send the little creeps off to Azkaban!" Filch screamed. He focused on Harry. "Was it you, Potter?! Trying to finish of what you started yer Second year? I'll kill you!"
"Argus!" Dumbledore shouted. "What is the meaning of this?"
"He kilt her! He did it! Wanted to finish the job 'e started!" The caretaker held out a bundle he had clutched to his chest. "He kilt Mrs Norris!" The students and much of the staff drew back in disgust at what was inside the thread-bare blanket the old man held out. Some of the students were already throwing glares in Harry's direction.
For Harry's part, he felt sad at the news of the cat's death. While Mrs Norris had a disposition to match her owners, he'd respected her as a something of an honoured opponent. The devil-cat tried to get him in trouble while the Beast played at evading her while trying to sneak up on her in turn.
"Mr Potter has been here or with his classmates since arriving on the Express, Argus," McGonagall was saying. "There is no way he, or any other, student could have done this."
Dumbledore nodded agreement. "Quite so, Professor McGonagall, quite so. Hagrid, would you please escort Mr Filch to my office? We can deal with this once the students are dismissed."
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