Allen set his small suitcase on the four posted bed in the room he would be living in for the next year. Maybe more, depending on how this year goes. He looked around his room, feeling strangely comforted. The room was not overly large but a huge room would make him feel rather small, the four post bed was big enough for him to thrash around as much as he liked. The walls were painted white with black swirls for variation, rather like a music score. The room had a dresser, cabinet, closet, and chest at the foot of the bed, much like the student rooms but he had the room to himself. He liked it better. He still preferred being on his own, old habits from his years of wandering. He looked out the window facing the front of the school after he was done packing and saw that the students had begun to arrive. Riding in carriages pulled by strange hairless black winged horses that looked like skeletons with skin stretched over their bones. Allen almost clapped his hands in glee. Almost. He had read about thestrals in his monster book and wanted to see one. He raced out of his room, leaping over the stairs in his hurry to get to the thestrals before they were gone. He was so excited he shot past the carriages up the path they came, where there were thestrals still waiting for students to leave the train. Allen pulled his hood up as he approached a thestral that swung its skull like head towards him, puffing its warm breath into his face.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

Harry was chatting with Hermione and Ron as they approached the carriages when he looked in front of him and halted. He stared at the strange black horses who stood calmly in front of the carriages.

"What's the matter mate?" Ron asked him. He couldn't tell what his best friend was looking at. All he saw was a man in a black cloak standing near the front of the carriage they were approaching. "You lookin at that bloke over there? He is right weird isn't he? Wonder who he is."

"What?" Harry asked. He hadn't noticed the man petting one of the weird horses. He couldn't see the man's face from under his deep hood but saw a flash of white when the man was nudged back by one the horses who was trying to get him to pet its throat. "No I was looking at the things pulling the carriages. They sure look strange."

Hermione and Ron looked where Harry was but all they saw was empty space. "There's nothing there Harry. The carriages are pulling themselves like usual." Hermione told him. He looked at her strange but guessed there was some reason they couldn't see it.

"You're the only one who can see them." A soft voice came from the front of the carriage. Harry looked to the front. The man scratching the horse was talking to him. How did he know what I was thinking? Wizards can't read minds!

"I'm not reading your mind boy. Your thoughts are written all over your face. All children are as easy to read. It's hardly a challenge for me. I've lived long enough I'm able to read anyone." He still was not looking at them but stepped away from the horse as it moved towards the castle. He leapt up and landed lightly in the carriage, barely making a sound. He sat next to Harry who withdrew a bit, this stranger was too strange and he had a weird feeling about him. The man slumped forward with his elbows on his knees and looked at the floor of the carriage for the remainder of the ride. He quickly exited the carriage the second it had stopped and stalked into the front corridor, he paused when he saw the crowd of students in the entrance. He scowled to himself before lightly jogging towards the group before leaping clearly over the whole group easily and continued down the hall. The students at the entrance stood slack jawed at the steadily retreating man, even McGonnagal looked surprised at the relative ease the man had shown.

Hermione was increasingly shocked, "he didn't even use his wand! He did that without a spell! Who is he?"

Harry could only shrug his shoulders before following McGonnagal to the dining hall and sitting at the Griffindor table with his friends while the first years were sorted. Harry noticed that there was an extra seat at the main table and was empty. Once the first years were sorted Dumbledore stood at the podium and waited for the room to be silent.

He got it quickly and dove into his usual speech at welcoming the students back and the new ones and what things were not allowed in the school this year to prevent problems. He introduced the new D.A.D.A. teacher as "Alaster Moody." The man surely looked moody, with his scraggly hair and one eye moving frantically in his right patch. "We also have a new addition to the staff to teach a new course to those who are interested. Professor Walker will be teaching Muggle Tactics, a class for practical skills such as etiquette and self defense should you have to defend yourself from muggles or without using your wands." The Hall doors swung open and a figure strode forward, whispers breaking out as he reached the first table. "I am pleased to introduce our newest teacher and teacher of Muggle Tactics: Allen Walker."

Allen was certainly a surprising sight. He must have been the one at the carriages, I don't see anyone else new. Harry decided. He understood why he had kept his hood up, he certainly attracted attention.

Allen Walker was not overly tall, rather average if not slightly under, but he radiated pure power and an intense confidence, like he could hand le anything thrown at him without being in the least surprised. His skin was such a milky white it almost seemed transparent, still it was slightly darker than his hair. His hair was pure white, entirely the color of freshly fallen snow and reached his shoulders, there was no variation in the color which made it seem natural but that was impossible, right? His soft face was gentle but he had a hard light in his endless silver eyes. He looked young, as if he was no older than twenty, which seemed much too young to be a teacher. He was dressed as if he was going to a ball, black suit pants, crisp white button down shirt with a red ribbon tied around the collar. He was also wearing white gloves on both hands. The only thing marring his almost angelic appearance was a red scar that went through his left eye down to go horizontally until it reached his cheekbone where it sloped to frame the shape of his cheek.

He strode forward, easily ignoring the loud whispers behind him, he didn't seem to care in the least. He stood in front of Dumbledore and bowed slightly to him, Dumbledore bowing much lower than he had, a sign of utmost respect that seemed odd directed towards the man who clearly looked younger. He whipped around instantly, fixing the whole hall with his gleaming silver eyes. Eyes sharp as blades swept across all four tables, effectively silencing all of the gossip. He frowned slightly and his eyes were like a sheet of ice that could slice you to ribbons without a care.

"I am Professor Walker. I will be teaching the Muggle Tactics class. It will be a class to learn how to respond in any situation and will involve many practical exercises including fighting. If you don't think you are up for learning how to seriously fight do not bother signing up for my course. I will only teach those who are serious about the class. If you are not and intent to simply interrupt my class I will use you as a practice dummy. I do not pull punches. Take my class to learn how to survive the real world without your wands and magic so that you can actually deal with problems without getting in trouble for using magic when you are underage. My class will also go over proper etiquette so that you may learn how to be proper when necessary. I will not tolerate a mockery of my class. Dumbledore created the class solely for myself so if you do not want to learn do not bother coming." His voice was no longer soft like in the carriage, it was echoing and cold. He went to his seat at the end of the table and sat next to Hagrid, who looked slightly impressed as well as afraid of the new teacher. The food appeared on the tables and Allen's eyes shone, he immediately tucked in. The students stared again as he cleared plate after plate after plate of food and still showed no signs of slowing.

"Albus how much do you think your cooks can dish out? I don't want to eat everything." The new professor asked the Headmaster, strangely on a first name basis already with the most powerful person in the school.

"No worries Allen. Our house elves are quite good at cooking quickly. Eat as much as you desire." The Headmaster seemed strangely respectful to the younger man(as far as everyone else knows), everyone found this strange.

Allen kept eating, Hagrid had to turn away so he didn't lose his appetite from watching the younger man inhaling his food at an extraordinary rate. He finally paused when he inhaled through his nose. He turned to Hagrid slowly, silver eyes curious. "You are the gamekeeper." It wasn't a question. Hagrid nodded mutely and Allen let out a small smile, nodding to himself.

"I can tell. You smell of earth and of hay and meat. Most common two diets of magical creatures. I'll come down at some point and see what you've got. I memorized the monster textbook I bought. Love it." Allen nodded once more, finished his plate and stood. Hagrid turned to ask him something but the man was gone, he hadn't used a spell but there was no sign of him.

Harry had watched the whole discussion with Professor Walker and Hagrid and the Professor's instant disappearance. He had been looking right at the man but he had no idea where he'd gone. He turned to see that Hermione and Ron had been doing the same as him. They didn't even need to speak, they agreed they would be checking out this new teacher. They chatted idly until they were dismissed, Hermione actually wanted to take the Professor's class, said it sounded interesting. They all decided to sign up for the class.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x..x.X

Professor Walker stood at the front of his class, they were standing as he was, none of the chairs or tables had been set up. His class was a mixed bag, students from all four houses, though most from Griffindor and Slytherin. There stood two groups, the Griffindor trio of Potter, Granger, and Weasly and the Slytherin group of Malfoy and his cronies. These two groups glared venomously at each other and would probably have started a fight if the new strange teacher wasn't there. Dumbledore had told him about the two groups and he wasn't going to deal with it. Let us see how long they can behave themselves for.

I doubt it will be very long. Neah confided. They look halfway between wanting to tear each others' throats out and fleeing from you.

Allen grinned to himself, a little cynically and the students flinched, noticing that he knew what was going on. "You all have some stupid house rivalry going on and personal grudges clearly. I don't care about any of that as long as it doesn't come in here." The students were shocked that he knew so much without them even saying anything. "If you fight in my classroom there will be consequences. You will not enjoy it, which is all I will say. In my class you will act like civil human beings. I do not care if you like each other but you will be respectful, that is the point of this class. You don't need to like someone to respect them. For now we will do a bit of a physical test. I want to see how in shape you all are."

He led them all outside to the field next to the school. "You all will run laps, to the large rock in front of the Walloping Willow and back, five of them." The students stared at him as if he was mad it would be more than two miles total. He just stared at them before shouting impatiently, "Well what are you waiting for? Run! The sooner you start the sooner you'll be done!"

The students raced off, never having heard him yell before. He watched silently as the students ran. They are hopelessly out of shape. How are these kids supposed to fight against anyone if they have no stamina? It is good that I came. These kids need some serious training.

Be nice Allen. Not everyone has been an Exorcist for over 200 years like you have. Neah soothed.

No one has been an Exorcist as long as I have.

Yeah you are kind of an exception but don't take it out on the kids. You can go look at the animals after your class is over.

Allen sighed and seeing that even the fastest student was only on their second lap he took off his gloves and tucked them into his pocket and did a handstand on a slat piece of rock. He began doing pushups with only thumbs, his feet balance straight up in the air.

He was on three hundred when he heard footsteps coming towards him. He looked up at them, still balanced on his thumbs as he did pushups. The children were all starting at him as if they had no idea what he was doing. He pushed off with just his thumbs and flipped in the air like a cat, landing easily on his feet. All the children were breathing heavily just from running two miles while he wasn't even sweating slightly from his difficult pushups.

"Well I guess you all are too tired to continue the test?" He asked them, his face disappointed.

"There's more?" A student asked from the back. No one could tell who it was but Allen answered anyway.

"Of course there is more. The run was a simple warm up. Then we were going to do pushups and situps to see how much muscle strength you have. You all are in worse shape than I thought. We will fix it, do not worry."

"Why do we need to run and be in shape anyway? We can just use magic to get away." The Malfoy boy sneered.

Allen turned his icy eyes to the Slytherin boy and the students felt as if Professor was the snake trying to decide if he wanted to eat Malfoy. Malfoy paled and begun to sweat for a whole different reason. "Wizards need to be in shape in case they must flee an enemy without the use of magic. It is also important to know how to defend yourself against a foe without your wand, such as a muggle, which you are forbidden from using magic against. Wizards must be prepared for anything and be able to handle anything that comes at them." His stare hardened at Malfoy and the others almost thought he was going to flee under that fierce stare. "Class dismissed." Allen turned sharply on his heel before storming into the building, he needed to go to the ark and calm down.

Harry watched the Professor go, only flicking his wrist and the door slammed to hard he feared it would be blown off its hinges. Malfoy fled, the source of his fear thankfully gone and his cronies followed him.

"I wouln't want to get 'im mad." Ron said quietly. Harry could only nod. That would not be a good idea at all.