Disclaimer: It all belongs to JKR, I'm just playing with parts of it
A/N: I originally started this story before DH came out and had up to Chapter 10 written, after DH came out I abandoned it but I've now decided to return to it and complete it.
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Prologue
It was September again, and September meant Hogwarts, and Hogwarts meant a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Not that Draco cared about Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was a rubbish subject anyway that he was only taking because his father had told him to. Lucius had, of course, been released from Azkaban thanks to his many bribes to Fudge. It had been one of the last things Fudge had done as Minister, and one of the reasons that many in the Ministry had been so egger to replace him.
'Spy on the new teacher,' Lucius had said, 'and give me weekly reports that I can give to the Dark Lord.' While Draco felt it was beneath him to report on the latest idiot's teachings, he was only too eager to do something to help the Dark Lord. It was a shame that he wasn't of age until March or else he'd have taken the Mark already. Unfortunately, the idiots at the Ministry could monitor underage wizards, so he was useless to the Dark Lord until the glorious day of March 20th.
So it was with much boredom that Draco collected Crabbe and Goyle before lounging gracefully in his seat at the Slytherin table. Only then did he spare a glance at the head table, his eyes pausing on the new teacher. She looked like she was barely any older then some of the students she'd be teaching. Dressed in robes of dark blue with silver highlights, she was looking around the Great Hall in abject fascination. But it was her hair that really caught Draco's attention. Barely longer then crew cut length, it looked like it had originally been blond, but was now streaked so heavily with blue and red that the initial colour was no longer easy to see. It also looked like it had never been acquainted with a hairbrush.
Professor Liz Xanders remained oblivious to Draco's attention. Instead her focus was on the enchanted ceiling, as she made an effort to determine exactly what spells had been used to make it like that. It wasn't until Headmaster Dumbledore introduced her that she actually looked down at the students. The students didn't appear to be anything special – besides being wizards and witches. Some were studious, some weren't, some were hard working, some weren't, some were powerful, some weren't. As she was scooping food onto her plate, part of her mind was figuring out which students would work together well regardless of house or bloodline. If they could only be convinced that such things were unimportant…
Then her eyes fell upon a boy at the Slytherin table, who was doing his very best to look entirely bored by everything. Curious, she turned to Professor Snape on her left, who might have been the best member of staff – save the Headmaster - to carry on a conversation with were he not angry with her for getting the position he coveted.
"Who's that boy?"
"Which boy?"
"The albino, in your house."
Snape arched an eyebrow. "I am assuming you mean Draco, who has fair skin and is most definitely not an albino. He is also Lucius Malfoy's son."
A Death Eaters son. Well that could be interesting.
***
Draco didn't have Defence Against the Dark Arts until Wednesday, and didn't give any thought about their new professor until then. In fact, he'd almost been ready to write her off completely until she walked into the room.
At only 5' 2" she was barely taller then many of the younger years, and hardly had an intimidating presence. She was dressed in Muggle jeans and a T-shirt with the words "live dangerously" printed across the front. Upon entering the room, she took a seat on her desk at the front and began taking role call, marking things down beside names using a Muggle writing tool.
"Right," she said once she was finished. "Unlike some of your past teachers, I'm actually qualified to teach this. I grew up in South Africa, studying under a shaman there, so I probably know a bunch of spells that you Brits have never seen before. Now, you're all here for different reasons. Some because you enjoy this subject, other's because you think you should take it, or your parents think you should take it, and some because you're going to spy on me then pass information to your Dark Lord."
Draco started in surprise, feeling sure that she'd been looking at him when she said that. She hadn't preformed Legilimency on him as over the summer, his father had taught him to recognise when it was being performed and how to occlude his mind. So how did she know?
"I don't care why you're here, nor do I care how you do in this course. Take notes if you want, or stare out the window, or pass notes to your friend, or even skip the class. I really don't care. It's your future, and your mark. I get paid no matter how you do."
All right, Draco thought as he studied her again, this could end up being interesting after all.