Chapter 1- Start of term

Harry and Ron wandered partway down the row of bench at the Gryffindor house table and found themselves space between Neville and Seamus. Ron fell almost immediately into a conversation with Seamus about the Quiddich cup, leaving Harry free to momentarily inspect the enchanted ceiling, which showed the twinkling stars. He tried to remember if he had ever seen the ceiling overcast. He supposed that gloomy skies where not part of the enchantment. He turned his attention to the head table, his eyes drawn to Hagrid first. Hagrid nodded his head, Harry returned the gesture, smiling. He let his eyes slide further down the table. Snape was looking as menacing as ever. Harry wondered if he had been passed over for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position yet again. He hoped so. Harry had no intention of continuing potions, but was certainly going to keep studying how to defeat the Dark Arts. The sorted new students were awkwardly answering the friendly questions of older students, scattered along the length of the table. Harry hoped there would not be another Colin Creevey in this lot. As he sat waiting for Dumbledore to give his traditional speech, he noticed a student sitting beside Professor Flitwick. She had a piteously short crop of inky black hair that was shaped into a mohawk which tilted forward, quite long in the front, ending in a shock of unnatural white which fell over one eye. He felt certain that some Slytherin (he knew she wasn't a Gryffindor, Ravenclaws were too smart to do something like that and Hufflepuffs wouldn't have dared to) had lost a bet and that she would be pointed toward her seat by one of the faculty as soon as she was noticed.

Minutes ticked by and no one else seemed to notice she was there. He looked around the hall. A few students were looking at the staff table, but they seemed more bored than amused by this very obvious prank. The rest were talking animatedly to neighbors. He looked down the staff table, where his professors were either talking amongst themselves or looking out over the assembled students. The corner of Harry's mouth curled into a half grin, sharing the troublemaker's victory, since no one else seemed to realize she was even there. For a second, her eyes met his and she flashed him a brilliant smile. Harry was so shocked when their eyes met that he gave a sort of grunt and quickly looked away. Ron gave him a curious glance and returned to fanatically praising Victor Krum. When Harry looked back at the prankster, she had her attention focused on her house table.

To Harry's great surprise, when Dumbledore did get to his feet, he not only failed point the Slytherin back to her seat, but smiled so warmly at her when he looked down the staff table, that Harry began to wonder if she could be a visiting relative of his. He quickly conjured a Dumbledore family portrait in his head with the headmaster in a hideous Christmas sweater with his arm around the shoulder of the unusual Slytherin who was adjusting holiday antlers atop her head. To Harry's even greater surprise, when Dumbledore announced the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, she stood. Evidently, she was there temporarily as a favor to the Minister of Magic to help with the preparations for the Triwizard Tournament that would take place that year. Even as the headmaster explained why she was there, Harry began to dislike her. Now the ministry was placing faculty members to gain information on the going ons of Hogwarts? He wondered if Dumbledore had been forced to let her teach this year after the minister discovered that Voldemort had loyal followers who were determined to help him rise to power. But the minister hadn't discovered that at all. He still maintained Sirius' guilt, since Pettigrew had escaped at the end of last year. Then again, maybe she was just helping with the tournament. Since one had not been held since 1792, presumably no one at Hogwarts or the other schools had been alive back then, they likely needed as much help as they could get to make it a success.

What was even more bizarre than the new professor was the reaction of several of the staff at the announcement of her name. Evidently, more than a few of the faculty had been shocked by their proximity to Professor Thanatos Kane. Several, including Professors McGonagall and Sprout, were nearly slack-jawed, staring down the table at the recent addition. They recovered quickly enough, but Snape became and remained downright murderous. He did not look toward the slip of a woman a few seats away, but at the table in front of him, boring holes through it with his eyes. Even when the feast appeared, Snape did not move.

Harry pointed out Snape's unusual behavior to Ron, who shrugged and suggested that he was just not hungry through a mouthful of potato. Hermione frowned at the projected potato bits that had landed very near Harry's arm.

"Well, why aren't you eating, Harry?" She asked looking pointedly at his empty plate.

Harry was pulled out of his musings. He began helping himself to the mouthwatering feast. The new professor was forgotten. Harry, Ron and Hermione spent the rest of the evening catching up with friends in the common room before making their way to their dormitories to turn in for the night.

The next morning, as Professor McGonagall passed out schedules, Harry nearly choked on his toast when he saw he had defense against the dark arts and double potions. After breakfast, he and Ron followed Hermione to the third floor to Professor Kane's lesson. The classroom had yet again changed to suit its inhabitant. None of the creatures Professor Lupin kept were there, instead there was a heavy curtain partitioning off a large section of the room. There were about a dozen chairs set up in two rows in front of a rickety looking blackboard. Harry and Ron took chairs in the second row, while Hermione sat in front of them, pulling out the assigned textbook, prepared to take meticulous notes. As the class trickled in, Harry noticed that they were all Gryffindors. When Seamus stumbled in and took the last chair, it occurred to Harry that he had not had a class without another house. They always seemed so intent on encouraging cooperation that he wondered why this class was different. Besides the eccentric-looking teacher.

Almost as soon as he had thought of her, she appeared in the doorway to the class. Harry had never seen anything like what she had on before. Instead of robes, she had on thick, worn leather pants and a leather vest. The sleeves of her grey shirt were rolled up to her elbows. Most of her lower arms were covered in what looked like vambraces. None of his classmates seemed to know quite what to make of her either. They simply watched as she walked past the front row, tilting her head slightly at the sight of Hermione with her book and parchment and quill balanced precariously on her lap.

"There will be no note-taking in this class. Please put away your books, they will only be used as a reference should you need it." Although Professor Kane had spoken kindly, Hermione sulked as if she had been scolded, grudgingly tucking her things back into her bag. "You had Remus Lupin last year, is that correct?"

As she asked this, she turned to face the class. More shocking than her clothes, was her face. Although her hair hid one, she had sharp, clear gray eyes. Harry could see this because she was looking straight at him. He felt keenly and perhaps irrationally that she could see every secret he had ever had, that every thought was exposed to those penetrating, peculiar eyes. He let his gaze slip to the rest of her face. She had smooth, fair skin and a straight, strong nose. The angles of her cheekbones were rather sharp, making her look severe, in contrast to her now smiling mouth. When he looked back into her eyes, they were gliding over the faces of the rest of the students. His classmates were nodding in response to her question.

"I understand that his methods were practical based as well," she paused looking for their nods of affirmation before continuing, "And what have you covered already?" Hermione's hand shot into the air.

"We have covered everything through hinkeypunks in the old textbook, as well as werewolves."

"We haven't done werewolves!" Dean interrupted. He looked around at the class who were shaking their heads. "Professor Lupin told us we didn't have to do that paper, so we didn't." Hermione huffed and rolled her eyes. She clearly expected the rest of the class to have at least read the chapter even if they didn't have to write the paper.

"Professor Lupin assigned a paper on werewolves and then decided against it? How odd." As Professor Kane spoke, she was half grinning, amused by the idea. Her eyes darted to Hermione for a moment before settling back on Dean.

"Snape was filling in for Lupin and he assigned the paper," Dean corrected.

"Professor Snape, Mr. Thomas. Yes, I see." The latter part she said almost to herself. "Very well, I will modify my lessons accordingly. Thank you, Mr. Thomas and Miss Granger." She spun around, drawing her wand. "Today, I will acquaint you with creatures known as Hairiri. Hairiri are typically found in burned places. They are a nuisance as they particularly enjoy fireplaces. The ministry has had quite a time keeping them from attacking muggle chimneysweeps." Harry frowned when she mentioned the ministry. As she spoke, her words scrawled themselves across the chalkboard, spidering out small and spiky, barely legible. "Now, if you will pull out your wands, the spell to deal with Hairiri is 'Eximo'." As she said it, she flicked her hand twice, quite quickly. She went on to show them the wand movement slowly, stopping to correct Neville twice. After ten minutes, when the rest of the class had gotten the motion, Harry looked around to see what else Professor Kane had to teach them, but she had vanished. He turned to Ron who was still practicing. A moment later, he saw her slip though the open door followed sheepishly by Neville. "Are we ready to face a Hairiri?"

The Gryffindors nodded timidly. Professor Kane padded over to the curtain in the back corner of the class. The cluster of fourth years haltingly followed. She began to draw back the curtain, but as the curtain moved, a wave of nauseating heat and acrid smoke billowed out. Harry suppressed a cough as his throat instantly went dry. It only took a moment for the sick feeling to subside. Behind the curtain stood a cage, taller than the professor and inside it was a shimmering black bird with a long, thin tail. The bird was no bigger than a fist, but its tail must have been four feet long. Its tail had a number of triangular fins that glowed like embers. The hairiri looked as though it might have been made of fire and smoke. It floated lightly about waist high, letting about a foot and a half of its tail glide over the base of the cage. When Professor Kane stepped closer, however, it smashed itself, spitting and clawing against the bars trying to get at her. It had been frighteningly fast. Her eyes did not leave the creature as she spoke to her class.

"You see now, why they are troublesome. Hairiri are fiercely territorial and their territory consists of about a two foot radius from wherever it happens to be located. They are wickedly fast and very vicious. Their claws are small, but very sharp and they use them to inflict whatever superficial damage they can before they use their tails." They all dropped their eyes from the frenzy of claws striking out between the bars to its tail which was flicking impatiently just above the cage floor. Harry didn't know if it was his imagination or if the hairiri's tail had become much more red, so much so that it and its fins seemed to almost be on fire. "When I grab it, Miss Brown, you will be the first to try your luck with the spell."

Lavender gave a small squeak and clutched her wand harder. Professor Kane opened the cage door and quick as a flash, wrapped her bare hand around the tiny bird. As her fingers curled around the tiny black body, its four feet of tail snapped around her forearm so quickly, one second it was silver from the vambraces, the next it was dazzling red. The tail had wrapped itself from her wrist nearly to her elbow in a blink. There were no gaps between the coils either. Harry was dumbfounded. The rest of the fourth years were equally so, judging by their open mouths.

"Eximo," Lavender's voice cut through the silence. Her wand sent a distinctly blue spark toward the creature, who hissed and shifted slightly on Professor Kane's arm.

"Good. Very good. As you get more practice, your spells will get stronger. Miss Patil, you're next."

They each lined up to have a go and even went two and three times. Even Neville got an affronted hiss out of the beast. As they came on an hour, however, Professor Kane waved them to stop, cast her own spell at the hairiri, which sent a dark blue orb of smoke that enveloped the creature and then dissipated, leaving no sign of the shimmering bird. She unbuckled the vambraces and pulled them off, setting them on one of the lower steps that led up to her office. Under the braces she had on some kind of knit sleeves. Turning away from the class who were in the process of resuming their seats, while excitedly discussing how much they had enjoyed the class, she pulled off the knit sleeves, and removed the vest. When she turned back, Harry noted that she had rolled down her shirtsleeves. He also happened to notice that she was more slender than he had originally thought. Without the bulky vest, she was- well, she was quite lovely. She moved to brush her bangs aside, but partway through the action, she froze. Her pause was only for a second, but he noticed it. He also noticed a pearly sheen to her skin sometimes when she moved. Harry decided that he must have imagined the pearly thing, maybe his eyes were adjusting funny to having watched the ember creature for so long, but the hesitation? That, he knew he hadn't imagined.

When she dismissed the class, Professor Kane asked Hermione to stay to talk with her. She smiled warmly at Harry as he and Ron exchanged glances and gathered their things to go. As they left the classroom, they saw Hermione and Kane start up the stairs, Kane stooping to retrieve her discarded vambraces as she went.