"Today, students, marks a great day in the wizarding world. As your will have known, through various rumours and a confirmative interview with yours truly, the Elder Treaty has been signed, and the man who gave peace to us sits with us today. May I be the first to introduce to you the new defence against the dark arts teacher- who will go under his true name and not his feared, more famous alias- Mr. Tom Riddle."
All the students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly sat in silence. Fear and uncertainty consumed the room, as if expecting the new teacher to perform a curse that would kill all in sight.
Dumbledore cleared his throat to end the awkwardness.
"And with our usual tradition of stuffing our faces with as much food as humanly possible to begin the new school year, let us eat!" Dumbledore yelled joyfully.
The golden plates were suddenly piled high with food, the display shining gaudily, yet the students weren't so captivated as per usual. They had, of course, been warned that the most notorious dark wizard of all time would be teaching them. Several parents had protested against such an idea, but Dumbledore knew the only way to keep the peace was to keep Mr. Riddle under his nose at all time, ensuring that the new teacher knew he couldn't be the most powerful and could easily be destroyed.
The young witches and wizards finished their meals, but little food had in fact been eaten, their appetites snatched away by the overwhelming force of fear. The students watched Mr. Riddle out of the corner of their eyes, watching him eat small morsels of food suspiciously, feeding most to a large boa constrictor. After sniffing several pupils feet and talking with Mr. Riddle, Nagini curled up on the stone floor next to him.
The pupils went to bed as instructed by Dumbledore, and much whispering was heard by the senior authority as the children went off to their common rooms. Professor McGonagall was one of great authority being the deputy head mistress, and when the children of house Gryffindor awoke and wandering sleepily into the common room the next morning she talked to them, crushing worries and answering questions.
"Mr. Riddle has all Horcruxes under lock and key. When he wishes to die, he will destroy them himself. He has agreed by a sacred oath that he will not act in an unsafe manner. If he does, he will return to an inhumane form. Yes, Lavender? No, Nagini will hurt no one unless in self-defence…" She informed them.
Soon, their fears grew greater, more answers were demanded and worries became the seeds of complete and utter terror for the students until she raised her hand calmly to quieten them, and gave a final sentence on the matter: "If you want to defend yourself against the dark arts, and learn how to overcome dark magic, who better to teach you than someone who has experienced the greatest depths of dark wizardry?"
After a loud silence had followed her final statement, the student washed, dressed, grabbed their bags and headed off for breakfast. Nervous, but ready.
"Guess what our fourth lesson is." Harry said to Ron.
"I have to admit, "Ron began, "I'm not too worried. The treaty is done, and you've defeated him before, haven't you? If he goes all You-Know-Who on us, we can shove you in front of him."
Harry was about to shove Ron jokily until Hermione stepped in between them.
"Aren't I glad to see you taking everything so seriously. It'll be so interesting. The things he would've seen, would've done, the power he can unleash. It's fascinating. Of course I have a little knowledge of the background and obviously won't launch into questions about dark magic straight away, but-"
"What do you mean by 'background information'?" Ron started. "Do you mean the fact that he tried to kill Harry, most powerful dark wizard of all time-"
"I did some reading, thank you very much! And if you don't mind I have a Charms essay to give in." Hermione interrupted, obviously irritated.
"A Charms essay?" Harry questioned nervously as she was just beginning to run a few steps ahead of them down the Charms corridor. "Hermione, it's the first day of term!"
She huffed at Harry and murmured about 'getting ahead of work' and 'enjoying Charms' under her breath, walking away in the direction she was heading.
Harry and Ron laughed quietly about Hermione's crazy antics together, walking to Potions (their first class of the day) and discussing the dread they felt of their most hated lesson. It would be a long and interesting day indeed…