Diffindo
Latin for “to split”. A spell that rips an object in half or causes things to separate.

Hogwarts seems to have been hit by a diffindo curse. The hallways seem deserted. The common rooms empty. Yes, during the summer holiday it was always like that, but now, there's no longer much anticipation about the new class of first years but instead about when the death eaters will find a way to get around the school's protection charms.

But students still need to be taught and there are still a few professors left who are willing to teach them until the day that Voldemort walks up the school steps himself.

With the new school year about to start, the new headmistress needs to recover from morning over Dumbledore and the other many deaths that have happened since June and now put all of her energy into the school. It took some fighting to bring the ministry over to the idea of keeping the school open but once the minister agreed now all she has to worry about is finding new teachers.

The few students who refuse to be scared off by the threats of the Dark Lord will join the remaining devoted staff at the school along with new students and new teachers. Some students had to fight their parents to come and some had fought to stay away but lost.

No matter why they are back at Hogwarts, they aren't going to be getting out anytime soon with death eaters on the loose and Christmas holiday months away. All they can do is sit an wait, hoping that somehow that the Dark Lord will be defeated and things will go back to how they were before.

But will Hogwarts ever even be the same? Probably not but there are some people who will never give up hope to repair the damage of the diffindo charm that has it Hogwarts.