Crowling set her standard when she lectured their second class of the year on the errors of defining legally restricted magic as 'Dark' and the true differences in Light, Dark, and Neutral magic. It was a good lecture and brought out a lot of discussion. As an example, Crowling used the Sonoma Ritual. The ritual placed the target into a coma and slowed the heartbeat down to nearly undetectable levels. It was used to treat victims of various poisons or curses to give time for a remedy to be developed. However, the Sonoma Curse did the same thing while leaving the mind active and fully aware of any sensations the body felt. The only difference between the two was a minor modification to the ritual. Yet one was commonly labelled as 'Dark' Magic when it was really legally restricted. True Light or Dark Magic, like a Patronus Charm or Killing Curse, included an emotional and/or physical cost to the caster. In some cases, that cost was transferred to a sacrifice (willingly or not). During the discussion, many of his classmates kept watching Harry for his reactions since most of them were convinced he was neck-deep in Light or Dark magic depending on their own point of view.
To add to the fun, the Daily Prophet broke the story of Harry's fight with Greyback and his new status as Alpha of the Marauder Pack. People didn't know if they should praise his killing of Greyback or burn this new type of werewolf at the stake. The fact that a garbled version of how Harry was infected was included in the story indicated someone in the Packs had talked. Harry had received several letters from other Alphas stating it had not come from within their pack. Harry suggested and Remus agreed that it most likely came from a former member of Greyback's pack or possibly a rogue. In either case, the wolf was out of the den.
Looking around the room at his classmates, Harry considered the first month back at Hogwarts. The attack in Diagon Alley still had many of the students in shock that first week back. The magical news services that had already appeared via the Mirrors had replayed the recordings of the fight in the Alley many times. Every aspect of the fight was broken down for commentary although some of the points of view were so wildly diverse as to make one wonder if they were watching the same fight. However, seeing the fight seemed to have made the return of Voldemort and his Death Eaters real to the rest of the students. As that shock settled though, the school settled into four camps.
The first camp was the 'Light-sided'. This group generally supported Dumbledore and/or the Ministry and were against the Death Eaters. However, many of them were uncomfortable with Harry and felt the 'needless deaths' reflected poorly on Harry's humanity. When Susan Bones made a comment that Harry should have captured the Death Eaters instead of the needless deaths, Harry responded that the only needless deaths were the two shop employees and the eleven innocent bystanders killed by the Death Eaters. This caused many of the Light-siders to label Harry as 'Grey' and vocally worry that someday Harry would be just as much a threat as Voldemort. Much of this group consisted of children of Ministry employees and Pureblood Light families.
Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Archibold Wiggins (7th Year Ravenclaw) and Robin Tanner (6th year Slytherin) were the particularly vocal members of this group. Susan's aunt was still running the DMLE but was the current favourite to replace Fudge when the Wizengamot got around to voting Fudge out. Wiggins father had replaced Crouch as head of International Cooperation department and was considered a rising star in the Ministry. Ernie had suggested that Susan's position against Harry was as much to protecting her aunt's position as it was towards concerns about Harry himself.
The next group were the Death Eater supporters. This group was fronted by Slytherins Peter Grayson (7th year), Pansy Parkinson, Ravenclaw Michael Corner, and Gryffindor Cormac McLaggen. All of them lost fathers in the attack on Diagon Alley although Corner's father wasn't actually dead but was in a secure DMLE facility. The elder Corner was the one who was bitten by Harry on the shoulder. His older brother also survived the attack but later died from a combination of blood loss and basilisk venom. McLaggen was a surprise to many. Sure, he was a loud-mouthed braggart but no one suspected him of having Pureblood extremist tendencies until his father's Death Eater-cloaked body was found torn to spreads by Harry's glass shard cyclone.
The third group were dubbed 'the Neutrals' by the other groups. They had no real spokesperson but generally just wanted to leave the war outside the school and get on with their studies. Some of this was cowardice but a fair amount was also the sentiment that students had no business fighting in the war. Much of the school, including the Neutrals, were shocked when Harry commented in the Great Hall that he felt they were the sanest people in the school. It also made them less antagonistic as a group towards Harry than even than most of the Light-Siders.
The final group was probably the smallest but no one took them lightly. This group consisted of Harry's friends and some other sympathizers. Including Harry's immediate circle, it was comprised of the most of the Gryffindor upper years (McLaggen moved out of the Gryffindor dorm after the first night) and a few from the other Houses including Daphne's cousin Tracey Davis. Harry pointedly told all of the Gryffindor of Third year and younger to stay out of it but come to him if they had trouble. Some agitated against that but most appreciated that Harry wanted them to be kept safe. A similar message was sent by Daphne, Padma, and Ernie to their respective Houses' lower years. Like Harry's comment in the Great Hall, this caused the Neutrals to trust Harry more (although they still stayed out of it) while the Light-siders and the Death Eater Supporters separately claimed Harry was trying to keep them 'sheep' and actively recruited from the younger years.
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