Disclaimer-I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter One

Dumbledore looked at the young woman in front of him, then at the paper in front of him. He'd thought it had been blank when she was holding it, but that obviously wasn't the case. He sighed quietly. He knew he was getting old, but reminders like this were still unwelcome. The girl sat calmly, smiling slightly as he looked over her resume. He had to admit, the idea of having a living teacher teach History of Magic was appealing. When a class was so dull that even Minerva, the woman who'd once sat on a brick wall for twenty hours, was unable to stay awake through it, he was forced to conclude that it was no longer doing its job of educating students. After all, if a teacher couldn't pay attention during a class, how could a student be expected to? Admittedly, at twenty-two she was a bit young for a teacher, but he supposed that after Binns nobody would complain too much, and who knew? Maybe having such a young teacher would help make the subject more interesting.

"So Miss Evans, do you have any plans as to how long you'll be staying?" He asked, setting down the resume. The girl shook her head.

"Not really. I figured I'd stick with it for the rest of the year, and then see where we go from there." Dumbledore nodded. That was a smart choice.

"Well, everything seems to be in order. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I can safely say that you're hired." The girl beamed.

"Thank you sir, thank very much." She said, standing up. Dumbledore shook her hand, gave her back her resume, and then sat back down as she walked down the stairs and out of his office.

Six months later

"Who's that?" Hermione asked, looking up at the staff table. Harry and Ron followed her gaze, and saw a young woman with short, messy black hair sitting with the rest of the staff.

"Dunno. Must be a new teacher." Ron said with a shrug.

"She looks a little young to be a teacher though." Hermione said with a frown.

"Well, Dumbledore hired her, so she must be qualified." Ron said with a shrug. Harry opened his mouth, but promptly closed it again when the Headmaster stood up.

"Welcome!" said Dumbledore, the candlelight shimmering on his beard. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast…"

Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."

He paused, and Harry remembered what Mr. Weasley had said about Dumbledore not being happy with the Dementors guarding the school.

"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," Dumbledore continued, "and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises — or even Invisibility Cloaks," he added blandly, and Harry and Ron glanced at each other. "It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors," he said.

Percy, who was sitting a few seats down from Harry, puffed out his chest again and stared around impressively. Dumbledore paused again; he looked very seriously around the hall, and nobody moved or made a sound.

"On a happier note," he continued, "I am pleased to welcome three new teachers to our ranks this year.

"First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was some scattered, rather unenthusiastic applause. Only those who had been in the compartment on the train with Professor Lupin clapped hard, Harry among them. Professor Lupin looked particularly shabby next to all the other teachers in their best robes.

"Look at Snape!" Ron hissed in Harry's ear.

Professor Snape, the Potions master, was staring along the staff table at Professor Lupin. It was common knowledge that Snape wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, but even Harry, who hated Snape, was startled at the expression twisting his thin, sallow face. It was beyond anger: it was loathing. Harry knew that expression only too well; it was the look Snape wore every time he set eyes on Harry.

"As for our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued as the lukewarm applause for Professor Lupin died away. "Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at one another, stunned. Then they joined in with the applause, which was tumultuous at the Gryffindor table in particular. Harry leaned forward to see Hagrid, who was ruby red in the face and staring down at his enormous hands, his wide grin hidden in the tangle of his black beard.

"We should've known!" Ron roared, pounding the table. "Who else would have assigned us a biting book?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the last to stop clapping, and as Professor Dumbledore started speaking again, they saw that Hagrid was wiping his eyes on the tablecloth.

"And finally, it is with mixed feelings that I must tell you that, while you were all away this summer, Professor Binns was exorcised and as such, cannot continue teaching History of Magic. Taking his place this year however, is Professor Evans." The young woman stood up and received polite applause, though Harry noticed that some of the older boys (and a few of the girls) were more enthusiastic then their peers.

"Well, I think that's everything of importance," said Dumbledore. "Let the feast begin!" Harry and Ron began to dig in as the food appeared at the table.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, seeing the small frown on Hermione's face.

"She just seems really young. I mean, if it was something like Divination or Care of Magical Creatures, I'd understand, but History of Magic is a really detailed course that requires a lot of knowledge." Hermione said, still frowning.

"Come off it Hermione, Dumbledore wouldn't hire someone that couldn't teach the subject." Ron said, rolling his eyes.

"Lockhart." Hermione said simply.

"That's different, nobody's been able to keep that job for more than a year for forty years now, he had to take what he could get. He exorcised Binns so he could hire her, and that's not an easy ritual to do." Ron said. Harry and Hermione looked at him.

"How do you know about how difficult it is to exorcise a ghost?" Harry asked, surprised. Ron shrugged.

"Fred and George saw some muggle movie called Ghostbusters and they liked it so much they actually did research to see if they could become real ones, but they decided the exorcism ritual was too complicated to be worth it." He said. "I mean, it is Dumbledore, so he probably had an easier time of it, but still." Harry shrugged. He didn't really care one way or the other about History of Magic, since, while boring, it at least gave him a relatively free period with which he could do last minute homework, or just goof off with Ron. Worst case scenario, the class was still utterly boring and he got to sleep through it again.

Sixteen hours later

"Hello, I'm Maria Evans, you can call me Professor Evans, Miss Evans, or 'That annoying woman who won't shut up and let me sleep'." There was some scattered laughter throughout the class, and Maria smiled. Hermione raised her hand. "Yes Miss…?"

"Granger Professor. And I was just wondering what you wanted us to do with our essays." Maria blinked.

"Oh right, those things…I think he mentioned them somewhere in his notes." She said, turning and picking up some papers from her desk and flipping through them. "Ah yes, here it is. 'Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless — discuss.' She stared at the paper for a moment, then crumpled it up and tossed it over her shoulder. "Okay, be honest here, who actually did this?" Only a few people, including Harry and Hermione, raised their hands. "Okay…um…50 points to Gryffindor for the five of you who actually did the homework I guess." She said with a shrug.

"But…" Hermione started, actually looking disappointed.

"Miss Granger, there are two reasons for me to not take those essays. First of all, we're not covering the Witch Burnings of the Fourteenth Century at all this year, and secondly, you wrote that essay with another teacher in mind, so it wouldn't be fair for me to grade it as I'll have a different set of standards then Professor Binns. Understand?" Hermione nodded reluctantly, and Maria smiled.

"Good, now, on to teaching. Quite frankly, at this point in time, you don't really need to know about the Witch Burnings. Muggles don't try and burn witches anymore, they'll just shoot you and then dissect your corpse, but that's for any of you with a Muggle Studies class. And all you really need to know about the Goblin Rebellions is this- keep happening because Goblins have a bloodthirsty nature and Wizards keep trying to subjugate them, such as the Wand Ban of 1631 which prohibited any magic creatures other than witches and wizards from using wands, although that was probably a reaction to the 1612 Goblin Rebellion that took place in Hogsmeade. Be careful of Goblins, they're intelligent, ruthless, and control the money supply. No, you're at that point where you're too young to need to know all this (we'll be saving that for the O.W.L.s) and yet old enough to know, I hope, that some history is important. So, we'll be talking about more relevant history. Specifically, the recent war with Voldemort." All the students except Harry flinched and/or gasped.

"Really? Just…really? Bloody hell, you lot are 13!" Maria said, staring at them in disbelief. "You're not even old enough to remember what it was like when he was in power." She sighed and sat down on the edge of her desk, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I forgot about this." She muttered. There was an awkward silence for a few moments, then Maria stood back up, clapping her hands together. "Right. Well then, I guess we'll just have to start from the beginning. Well, not the very beginning, but I'll have to humanize the twatwaffle…fun word, twatwaffle." She paused. "Well, anyway, back to my original point. I'm afraid I can't tell you much about Voldemort's parents…you know what, no, I'm not calling him that. I'll never be able to get through class with your constant shuddering, and it defeats the purpose of humanizing him if I call him by his little nickname.

"From now on, I'm going to call him Tom. You see, while there's not much known about his parents, we do know where he was raised."

Three hours later

Maria walked into the Staff Room and considered the wardrobe. "Professor?" She asked, turning to look at Lupin, who was nursing a cup of tea. "Are you done with the Boggart?" Lupin paused thoughtfully.

"Yes, I suppose I am." He said finally. "Why? Is it bothering you? I suppose I should have thought of that before bringing it in here. I can move it." He said, starting to get up.

"No!" Maria said quickly, wincing inwardly. She'd forgotten about his guilt complex. "It's just that, well, I'm unhealthily curious, I'll admit it, and I haven't faced a boggart since I was thirteen myself. So, once you're done with your tea, would you mind if I finished it off?" Lupin looked at her, surprised. While Boggarts weren't a particularly threatening creature, the average witch or wizard wouldn't normally volunteer to take one on unless they had to.

"Of course, feel free." He said finally, nodding. Maria smiled at him, then walked over to the stove and began making herself a cup of hot chocolate, occupying herself until Lupin left. Once he was safely gone, she shut the door and began silently casting spells-one to alert her if anyone came down the hallway, one to seal the door shut, and a third to make sure nobody would hear anything. When that was done she turned to face the wardrobe, took a deep breath, and waved her wand once more, opening the doors. There was a pause, and then suddenly there were multiple people in front of her. Well, there were four corpses laid out in a circle, with one living person. Standing in the middle of that grisly ring was herself, with a Time Turner encased in a locket that was emblazoned with the Hogwarts Crest resting around her neck.

"You poor fool." The boggart began, smiling patronizingly. "How many times have you saved these people," It gestured at the four distinct corpses, "And how many times have you been hurt regardless of that fact? Perhaps it's time to admit that the universe simply doesn't care about your pathetic efforts and try something different."

"I'm pathetic?" Maria scoffed. "You're the one that decided to work with…him!" She spat, pointing at the Time Turner with her wand. "What you fail to understand boggart, is that while turning into…that is what worries me the most, it's not my greatest fear, because nothing scares me at this point. I've seen everything there is to see." The boggart considered her for a moment.

"No, that's not it. You're terrified of becoming me, I can tell." It said after a moment. "The only thing is, you're one of those people."

"One of what people?" Maria asked.

"And if Harlequin shall steal your Columbine, Laugh, Pagliaccio, so the crowd will cheer! Turn your distress and tears into jest, your pain and sobbing into a funny face - Ah! Laugh, Pagliaccio, at your broken love! Laugh at the grief that poisons your heart!" The boggart quoted.

"Oh, you think I'm one of those Sad Clown types, the kind that makes jokes to hide their pain and fears. Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you're wrong. I really am this happy all the time." The boggart gave another patronizing smile.

"You can lie to everybody else Maria, but you can't lie to yourself." It told her.

"I can and I am." Maria growled. "And besides, what does that have to do with anything? Your territory is fear, not sorrow."

"Perhaps not, but the thing is, what terrifies you most is you. I become whatever I turn into mind, body, and soul. I am you now, and I must admit, after so many animal forms this is refreshing. I've never taken a form so old or so…complicated."

"Well that's good." Maria said. "As long as you're entertained."

"And yet, in the end, you are merely another witch." The boggart said with a smirk.

"Oh, you poor boggart, I am far more than just another witch." Maria said, solemn for once. "Goodbye." She raised her wand and pointed it at the copy of her.

"What happened to the girl that set out with the goal of only ever killing Death Eaters?" The boggart asked, sounding scared for the first time.

"I got old." Maria said simply. "Avada Kedavra."

Fifteen minutes later

Maria walked into her office, cast the same spell she'd cast in the staff room, and then walked over to the red telephone booth in the far corner. She opened the door and walked into a whole different room. "You'll never become that." A kind female voice said as she walked to her bed.

"Were you spying on me?" Maria said in a mock accusatory voice.

"Of course." The voice said unapologetically. "How else would I know when you were in trouble?"

"I don't get in trouble that often." Maria said, grabbing a hip flask from off of the night stand and downing the contents, then sitting down and taking off her boots, then removing her contacts and putting them away.

"Yes you do." The voice said, exasperated. "And forgive me for being nervous, since you've already decided to make this far more complicated than it needs to be."

"I'm trying to limit my impact, you know that." Maria said, climbing under the covers. "Goodnight Dear."

"Goodnight Thief." The voice said tenderly.

Author's Notes

Sorry if that's not how boggarts work, but I reread the third book and I couldn't find anything to contradict what I wrote.

Thanks for reading guys! Please review! See you next time!