Disclaimer - I created Harry Potter! That's right! It was me! But I let someone else take all the credit (and money - and rights) cause I'm sooo nice. ----Or maybe not.

Harry Potter and Battlemage of Blood

Dumbledore sat in his office and thought at the same problem that confounded him for the past six years. He needed a good DADA professor - yet again.

There still were not many applicants for the 'cursed' position. Actually, this year, there were no answers to the ad in the Daily Prophet. There was no other alternative. He needed to send out requests. The old wizard pulled out a list and stared at the parchment of potential instructors. Dumbledore sighed to himself and stuffed a few lemon drops into his mouth, hoping that perhaps, just perhaps the situation wasn't as dismal as it seemed. A few hours later, several of the school's owls flew towards several remote destinations.

Only one returned with a positive answer.

"Him!?" Snape was outraged. "You obtained some very questionable DADA professors in the past few years, and I did not overly complain. But this is... this... unfathomable!"

"I have not agreed with Snape many times before, but on this, I am in complete agreement!" McGonagall stared at the headmaster through her glasses.

"I do not see what the issue is. Cadukus has proven himself against the forces of Darkness before." Dumbledore stroked his beard in thought.

"Proved himself!?" Snape shook his head slowly. "I watched once as he and a team of aurors encountered a group of Death Eaters. By the time the aurors pulled out their wands, he was beating the last Death Eater to death with a bloody severed ribcage of another and grinning like the maniac he is!"

"Didn't you switch sides shortly after, Severus?"

"That's not the point, Dumbledore! The point is that Cadukus is a complete and utter psychopath and should not be allowed near most mammals, let alone children!"

"This matter is not open to discussion. His entire family has been allied with the Light for as long as I remember. His father, a squib, cleaned out Wolfenstien Castle while we were preoccupied with Grindelwald. If it wasn't for his efforts, we would have had to face an unholy army of dark magic and science. And like his father, Cadukus, while being a bit.... extreme at times, has never harmed anyone good."

"What are you talking about? Half the aurors he went out with were so mentally scared; they needed oblivious charms placed on them just so they could go back to work! If I remember right, he was asked to retire early as soon You-Know-Who vanished from the wizarding scene the first time. And now you are asking that... monster to come back?"

"Yes." Albus said, spun around, and hummed as he left the meeting.

Everyone was gathered in the Great Hall for the traditional feast and naming ceremony, but all eyes were on the massive figure that sat next to the Headmaster. The man, introduced as the new DADA professor, was as tall as Dumbledore, but probably out massed him by a factor of two - maybe three wearing the black, red, and chrome battlemage armor. He could have been called handsome, in a rugged sort of way, had it not been for the maniac grin he wore as he scanned the students, though mostly the Slytherins, like a hawk stares at a mouse.

"You see that armor?" Hermione asked her two friends.

"It's kind of hard to miss, what with everyone else wearing a robe." Ron said.

"That is the armor of the old disbanded Battlemage Corps." she said, looking up as if remembering something she read.

"Why were they disbanded?" Harry asked.

"You know the Aurors are like muggle Policemen, right?"

"Yes. So Battlemages would be like muggle soldiers."

"No, Harry. Those are war wizards. Battlemages would be like the British SAS, or like the US Navy Seals or Rangers. True Elites. They got started back when wizards fought alongside armies. Battlemages trained so they could take on both at the same time."

"You sure know a lot about this sort of thing." Ron said.

"My father is a real Military buff. Once he found out about the wizarding world, he started asking me to bring him books on old wizard wars."

"The real question," Harry said, "is he better than last year's DADA professor."

Ron shivered, remembering. "Crookshanks would make a better DADA professor than Umbridge."

After the laughter, the rest of the feast went off without incident.

"Welcome, troops, to Offense against the Dark Arts." Cadukus glanced at the textbook. He snorted in disgust and casually tossed it through the window. The closed window. The shattering noise brought a crooked smile to his face.

"Shouldn't it be 'Defense against the Dark Arts', Professor Cadukus?" Hermione voiced.

Cage brought down a massive armored fist onto and through his desk, snapping it in half. "It's this preoccupation with the irrelevant in the face of actual threats that got the Wizarding Community where it is now!" He growled, and then stoked his short-cropped dirty blond hair. With a smile and a friendlier, yet more menacing, tone he said, "But please, no need to be formal."

"Call me Duke."

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