Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters are copyright of J. K. Rowling and Warner Bros. This story has no intention of making money and all credit goes to J. K. Rowling's hard work and ideals. I'm just a fan that wants to write about other Defense Against the Dark Arts Teachers who taught at Hogwarts.

Chapter One - Dr. Clara Cummins

A tall thin man, wearing a peculiar purple ensemble, which almost resembled a dress, walked swiftly into Witches and Wizards Institute of Technology (WWIT) in Cambridge. WWIT is renowned as one of the most prestigious four year secondary schools in America for young witches and wizards between the ages of 14 and 18. The elderly gentleman had traveled far in a desperate attempt to replace the last instructor for the defense against the dark arts post at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, who had mysterious disappeared the previous week. The man easily stood out among the crowd of American students with his long, silvery flowing beard as he roamed through the hallways in between classes. The dress code was notably much less stringent here than Hogwarts, as many of the students were dressed simply in jeans and t-shirts. It was nearing the end of May, and the students would be finishing up classes and preparing for final examinations soon. He stopped to read the placard on an office door:

Dr. Clara Cummins

Professor of Strategies in Defending Dark Arts

Ph.D. in Muggle Physics

The man chuckled at the sign, unable to recall many Professors pursuing degrees in muggle classes, invoking some admiration for this witch as she went above and beyond her education, advancing not only the wizarding world, but the muggle world as well. He lightly knocked on the door and heard a voice from beyond respond, "Come in."

The sides of the office walls were completely covered with thousands of books among each of them. Across from her large wooden desk were two comfortable looking sofa chairs. Behind the desk was a diploma from MIT for a Doctorate in Philosophy in Physics and below the diploma was a black plaque with gold handwriting, acknowledging her brave efforts in defeating the dark wizards from Salem known as Tituba's Troops of Transcendence. The man was only slightly aware of the ongoing affairs among the dark wizards from the United States, but he was more concerned with the state of affairs back in Great Britain.

The women at her desk had kept her head down and appeared to be busy grading papers. She looked quite young, mid 20's perhaps. She had long straight hair that appeared to be brown with natural blonde highlights. However, the light that was in her room also showed colors of red as well. She was wearing muggle attire including black heals, black dress pants, and a light blue blouse. She adjusted her glasses and looked up into the piercing blue eyes of an old man with half-moon spectacles as he approached her desk. Never meeting this man in her life she recognized him immediately in some of her readings. "Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, you're quite the legend even here in the United States, please take a seat."

Albus smiled modestly and gracefully sat on one of the sofa chairs. "And how may I be of service to you today Professor? It must be quite important if you've traveled all the way here to see an American such as myself. Did you apparate here?"

"Why yes I did," Albus responded.

"Quite a remarkable feat if you ask me, not many witches or wizards can accomplish apparition across the ocean. Anyways please go on." Clara said while she carefully gazed at his appearance to detect if he left any part of himself behind during his journey.

"Quite direct, aren't you my dear?" Dumbledore chuckled. "It seems that come next autumn my school will be lacking a defense against the dark arts teacher. This particular post seems to have a frequent turnover in faculty members, and I was hoping you would be willing to take up the position."

"May I ask why there is such a frequent turnover in your staff for this particular post?" Clara said with an apprehensive look as her hazel eyes, which appeared green near the pupils but faded to a dark blue, narrowed.

"I have pondered many theories as to why this post seems to be, how shall I say this, troublesome in the past few years; however I have no definitive evidence to validate any of my suspicions." Albus simply replied with a grave look on his face.

Clara was unsatisfied by this response. "Would you mind entertaining me with at least one of your theories, Albus?"

"I suspect the post is cursed. Many years ago a young wizard, Tom Riddle, interviewed for a position at my school for the defense against the dark arts job. I denied him that job and since then it appears that either by mere coincidence or a series of rather unfortunate events has led to the faculty members holding this position to last no longer than 1 year. Naturally, this has become an endless endeavor to try and find qualified teachers and I would understand if you are unwilling to take on the job." Albus leaned forward and gazed down with pleading eyes to Clara.

"Interesting theory Albus, and I'll assume you don't exactly know what type of curse this is, otherwise you would have done the correct counter curse to stop it by now." Clara paused for a moment and appeared to be deeply thinking about something before she responded "I…I suppose I could take a sabbatical from WWIT to help you out, Albus; however, I doubt I will be able to assist for more than one year."

"Thank you for helping out an old man Clara, on behalf of our staff and students. I feel you will make great contributions at Hogwarts. Now before I leave you to your work I was wondering if you had any Sherbet Lemon, they are quite delicious and would make my journey back home much more enjoyable." Albus said randomly as he began to stand up from the chair and shake Clara's hand.

"Sherbet Lemon?" Clara tilted her head to the side and questioned for a moment. But then, as if she could read Albus's mind, replied "Oh, you mean lemon drops. Sorry no, but I do have some muggle atomic fireball candies if you would like to try one." Clara used her wand to conjure a bowl that had little red candies individually wrapped and handed the bowl over to Albus.

Albus smiled after picking up a piece of candy and glanced up back at Clara saying "Thank you my dear."

"You're welcome Albus" Clara trailed off before she sat back in her chair and watched the old man leave her office. She couldn't help but have a strange suspicion that Dumbledore's plans extended beyond teaching. Then she sighed and resumed her grading.