Part 1
The sorting ceremony is as ordinary as can be expected in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is to say remarkable in every possible way. It would be disappointing if everything went according to plan (and perhaps a little bit worrying).
The professors arrive first, as planned. First, Headmistress McGonagall takes her seat in the middle, then the other teachers file in. the regulars sit where they are expected to of course, but then, they are not the wild cards. The three new ones are. Professor Jurgen, an ex-Auror known for dueling three death eaters at once, sits in the place reserved for the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He wears a reinforced leather coat where his robes should hang. The headmistress sighs and lets her head fall into her hands for a moment. "Albus," she cries internally, "why did you leave this mess to me?"
Professor Cornell enters next, and slips into his seat apologetically. The new transfiguration professor, he twists his wand between his knobby fingers with a kind of nervous energy. A supposedly reformed death eater who used transfiguration as a tool of torture. McGonagall is sure he will get along famously with the ex-auror, but at least he probably knows his trade.
"Where is our potions master," the headmistress wonders. Professor Alice is the one she is most worried about, and that is in a castle with both an auror and a death eater. Hagrid opens the great magical door, ushers in the errant professor, and leaves to escort the first years.
"Sorry," professor Alice calls, scurrying between the long house tables. "No-one told me I needed magic to get through the fuck-mothering gate." She manages to make 'magic' sound like a curse.
"Language!" the headmistress snaps, and is tempted to add "thirty points from Griffindore;" the potions master is a tiny slip of a girl, maybe five feet tall if McGonagall is being generous in her estimations. This "Alice" has an oddly charming little grin, which is how she got the job in the first place, and a shockingly foul mouth, which is how she almost lost it. She looks much too young to be a Hogwarts professor, and at least a little too innocent, but the headmistress knows she is at least three centuries old… somehow…
Alice collapses into her seat right as the older students start filing in. McGonagall gives a tiny sigh of relief. Relief that is destroyed when the first years somehow get lost crossing the lake. They are not delayed long though, and as far as mandatory mishaps go, it is not so bad. An odd ringing comes from the potions master's pocket during the sorting, but she does something to make it quiet, and all things considered, it is really not that great a disturbance. The Weasly twins certainly managed worse. Finally, the moment she had been dreading arrives; announcements. She stands.
"May I have your attention please," she begins. "I would like to take this moment to welcome our three new professors. First, our new transfiguration professor, professor Cornell." He stands briefly, and there is a smattering of polite applause, but it is drowned out by booing. The headmistress sighs. This will be a long year. "Next," she calls, once the transfiguration professor takes his seat once more. "Our new teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts, professor Jurgen." He doesn't bother to stand, and is met with sweeping applause. "Let us hope he lasts longer than our last few. Finally, our new potions master; professor Alice." The girl gives a small naïve wave. "I ask that you all give her the utmost respect. I assure you, she is the best who applied for the job, but she is a muggle, so let's all see how welcome we can make her!"
The headmistress is met only with shocked silence which, on the whole, is better than she expected. She decides not to tell her students that Alice is the only one who applied for the position.