The last year

Since Soisen had to do all the cleaning work near the bridge by himself, it took him quite a while to notify Minerva to repair the structure. It wasn't that he couldn't do it himself, but he felt mentally exhausted from being too meticulous not to leave anything behind that might scare the students once the new school year started.

What reason would they have to go to the bottom of the bridge?

We're talking about Hogwarts students, remember?

They are capable of getting to some pretty crazy places during their explorations, it was best to play it safe and not leave anything that might cause trauma behind.

Hagrid returned just in time to see McGonagall wave her wand and rebuild the precariously looking wooden bridge.

-I've checked the surroundings thoroughly and there's nothing, Fang didn't find any problems either," he reported with a look that conveyed the need to hear that he did a good job.

-Thank you, Hagrid," Soisen told him as he patted him on the arm and held out a necklace with a horse shoe on it, "I'm not sure how things will go this year, so carry this with you at all times and if you encounter danger, break the shoe so you can escape. It will take you to safety.

Hagrid took the necklace and seeing that it was a bit small even after enlarging it, he used it as a good luck bracelet.

Horseshoes are lucky charms, aren't they?

As for where Hagrid would appear, it was naturally inside Hogwarts. He wasn't even worried about someone else taking the horseshoe and using it to infiltrate, he made sure he only recognized Hagrid's magical signature for its operation and wizards didn't have enough brute strength to snap the horseshoe like a dry twig.

And if even Hagrid himself doesn't know where it will end up, how could anyone else ever know?

Clearly, Soisen took into account the half-giant's sometimes carelessness with confidential information.

Trusting but not knowing was safer in his case.

Once the entire castle and its surroundings were back to normal, everyone returned to their homes after resetting the alarms once again.

Seeing the pitiful results of his probe, Voldemort did not send any more Death Eaters to die for the rest of the summer, but there was still the possibility of using the children of his followers to wreak havoc with evil intent.

Just remember what Carrow did at the time.

(Not the twins that he has a marriage debt that he may or may not decide to use, but the other one, I don't remember the exact name. I think it was his cousin or something?)

Soisen got a good four-way lecture when he returned to the bastion and had to make a lot of promises to be forgiven. To everyone's good fortune, the alarm didn't go off again and the new school year arrived without too much incident.

Too quiet in fact.

Soisen met with McGonagall and the other teachers, who were astonished that they hadn't found out until that moment about the early graduation and that he would become this year's Potions teacher.

They told them about the attack that happened over the summer, the enchantment cast on the front door, and what their plan was for dealing with the students this year.

Hooch sighed in defeat, being dean of Slytherin right now was holding a hot potato that no one wanted.

-How effective is the incantation? -Flitwick asked, trying to understand the scope it would have.

-It should be enough to deal with most students with dangerous intentions," Soisen explained, including its expected shortcomings, "But, those with a good grasp of Occlumency and whose actions are driven more by fear than loyalty will be able to pass the enchantment.

-That's actually a pretty big loophole," Flitwick reflected, "If they manipulated his memory temporarily, could they also pass the incantation?

Soisen nodded since the enchantment relies heavily on subtle mental probing, but he wasn't worried about that specific approach.

The only way anyone would do that expressly is if they knew there was going to be a test this year to examine the students and the few people who knew that were the ones here, all supporters of the Light side and who Soisen knew for a fact were reliable for that purpose.

-How do you plan to carry out the separation? We can't ask them to go through in groups, it would be too dangerous if they become aware of the situation and we don't have time to act.

-That's where my magical prowess will come into play," said Soisen as he altered the environment to give an example, "I will use illusions to separate all the students and make them go through the enchantment one by one without them being aware of it, if they are repelled, I will pretend in the illusion that they collided with another student accidentally before entering the Great Dining Hall. At the end of the screening, only those who actually passed the enchantment will actually be seated in the Great Dining Hall while the others will be put to sleep by the teachers and temporarily moved to the Dungeons.

-And what will happen once House Selection is over? We can't keep these confused students asleep for too long.

Confused students, a rather unique way of looking at their devious behavior, but not necessarily wrong as ultimately it is their families' upbringing that turned them this way.

-I thought about sending them to the Ministry of Magic to be taken care of," Soisen stated with no intention of getting his hands any dirtier.

Almost all the students who are rejected by the enchantment have reached a point where only by undergoing a long intensive voluntary rehabilitation, they could leave behind the crazy dark ideas that their families planted in their little heads. But they'll be too arrogant and proud to do that, so, yeah, it's sad and all, but he's not a saint on a mission to save humanity.

-We can't do that," McGonagall interjected, "According to the information we have, the current Ministry of Magic has fallen into that person's hands, and we don't know what they might do to the students.

-That is precisely why they will be safe if we send them to the Ministry," Soisen pointed out the important point that everyone seemed to be overlooking, "The rejects will all be descendants of the families working for him, willingly or not, so doing anything to them would only be counterproductive to his future plans.

The professors looked at each other with expressions of dismay, because what Soisen said actually made sense. Voldemort may be ruthless, but he is not a hair of a fool. If he really tries to take his anger out on the children of his "loyal" underlings, he is only stoking a blood-debt rebellion among his ranks.

But even with the whole process in mind, it doesn't take away the uncomfortable feeling that they could do more for those confused students. After all, they've been a docent for years and one of their greatest joys has always been helping young wizards and witches better themselves and get on the right path.

-I'm not saying you're happy about the situation, I just hope you understand.