Disclaimer: I do not own either the Highlander or the Harry Potter Universes. I'd like to though.

Don't know what to say exactly. A big thank you to those that reviewed I believe is in order, so thank you.

Also, I might not be updating any time soon. A cute little stray kitten found its way into my heart; actually I was taking my dog for a walk when I heard, amidst a lot of barking a loud meowing. Turning around, guess what I saw? Exactly! This poor little thing, barely two weeks old, maybe even less, alone, in the middle of the street.

You should have seen it. And me. One hand clasping the dog's chain, on the other holding this tiny hairball. It actually was small enough to fit in my palm! Named him Isidoros, then figured out he is a she, so he became Isidora. And she takes a lot of time to please. I have to feed her milk – she can't alone yet – give her medicine – I really thought she was blind the first time I saw her. It took two baths to make her look clean.

Anyway. Add that to me trying to learn how to drive – I haven't hit anything or anyone yet – and I hope you can understand why my updating might be slow and forgive me.

Sorry for the blabbering. Do enjoy the story.

September 1st 1997, Monday

Platform 93/4 Kings Cross

He felt a bit uneasy around all these people. And it wasn't because he hadn't placed himself in the Wizarding world for a thousand years, neither was it that for the first time in as many years he was wearing again his set of rich blue-black robes. He felt as comfortable in them as he would dressed with his normal jeans and large sweater. And he could hide his sword far better in his voluminous black cloak than in any of the muggle coats.

No. He was feeling uneasy because for the first time in centuries he had allowed himself to be noticed.

Gone was the slouching – at least when he wasn't sitting down – and the bending of the head and shoulders to seem slender. Gone was the simple clothes and stance that made him look just like everyone else.

He was not every one else. He was Derian Deofol. A wizard of a very old and pure family. Wealthy as well. He smirked at the wonder with which the people around him regarded him – whether they were the students or their parents it didn't matter. They just had no idea who he really was.

He would have preferred to be at Joe's, drinking beer slowly, baiting the Highlander. Unnoticed by all, even his friends.

What the hell had made him to agree to this?

His swearing might not be able to be heard around him, but he kept it going as he walked inside the train to the front compartments to take a seat. At least it was empty for now. He took off his cloak and gently placed it next to him, obscuring his sword, but keeping it easily accessible. Not that he was expecting anything on the way.

There were very few immortals that knew of Wizards, and those usually were immortals that had some meagre ability to do magic. Weak magic.

He wasn't one of them.

He could hear voices all around him, goodbyes and laughter, and had the urge to get out of there. Why did he have to be a Professor in that damn school? Again? Last time he had promised never to return, but then again never was a very long time for his species.

The train whistled and slowly the Platform was left behind them.

Too late to change his mind now.

In any case, he did want to see his former student again. Derian smiled as he watched the scenery change from out side his window.

He had been surprised when he found the Owl waiting for him in his apartment. Well, the Highlander had been even more surprised, but he had managed to cover it up. MacLeod might be young, but he was an immortal. All immortals could see magic if they just knew how to look at it. MacLeod seemed to be able to do it. Koltec's and that other guy's quickening – hadn't he been Cassandra's student? What was his name? Ah, yes Kantos – probably had instigated that ability.

Methos, however, wasn't about to tell him anything of that world. MacLeod would be lost in it. He had no ability for magic, it was obvious from his quickening. At least not the serious stuff. He probably would be as good as an almost squib. Ok, maybe a tad bit better, but no more.

Severus' letter had been to the point, as the man himself was, when faced with important things. Lord Voldemort was back. He had been looking for his teacher the past 2 years. He need his help, a position was open in Hogwarts. Was he interested into teaching a bunch of stupid, slow and uninterested students the Ethics of Magic?

He had been pleasantly surprised to see that there was a class under that name. Salazar had wanted to create one when he had been at the school the last time, but…no. The evil, dark, Professor could not be allowed to teach the students of the Ethics. After all, how could he? He didn't have any. He would only corrupt them more.

"At least I am alive still, my dear Godric. Ain't I?" Derian whispered a malevolent smile on his lips. "And I am being offered the position that you stopped me from having. Ethics?" he snorted. "You wouldn't know what that means if it hit you on your thick head! Evil, my ass. You obviously never met Derian or Death. Even Merlin would have given Slytherin a run for his money, were they to be compared in Evilness. You sorry fool."

"Err, sorry, am I disturbing you?" Derian snapped his head around, to see a young blonde boy, tall and thin, looking at him curiously, if a bit arrogantly.

"I was having a discussion, but seeing as my audience isn't that attentive – in fact I'd say it's rather dead – I don't believe you do." Derian replied, his eyes travelling up and down appraising the young student. He nodded with a smirk for him to come in and sit down, when he felt that the boy had become nervous enough. It didn't do to be arrogant in front of Professor Derian. "So, who might you be?"

"I am Draco Malfoy." The young man said proudly enough, even if with a bit of sorrow in his voice.

"A Malfoy." Derian narrowed his eyes in thought. "A Slytherin, right?" there was no badge in Draco's clothes, but a Malfoy would be nothing else.

"And Prefect." He said proudly.

"Good. There was some story about your family, right? In the end of June? Someone found in league with Lord Voldemort?" Draco twitched a bit at the name. "A fool."

"The Dark Lord or my dad?" Draco said a bit angrily. Red colour had spread out on his cheeks.

"Ah, he was your dad? I am sorry then." And he rather was. It was never good to lose your father in such an embarrassing way. Any of your relatives, really. Though, sometimes it did prove better in the end. He hoped this would be one of those times. "Your father."

"Because he was in league with Lord Voldemort?" Derian felt the urge to smile. The boy was fishing for information on what his beliefs were.

"Because he was caught. Follow any one you want, but never get caught." He added. "It's one of the great lessons in life."

"So, you wouldn't mind following the Dark Lord?" Draco said trying to make sense of his words.

"I am being followed, my dear boy. Never the other way around." Even if some never understood it. Like a certain Scott he knew. And a dead poet. And a dead nightmare named Kronos. He should stop going down that line of thought, or he would get broody. And he didn't do broody.

"Who are you?" Draco asked after a minute. "To follow no one, you have to be very powerful and rich." That last was said with doubt. Well, he wanted to appear important, but not blow up his cover. His powers were his own to know just how enormous they were.

"Maybe I am. Or was, in a previous life." He smirked at Draco. "For now, I am your new Ethics of Magic Professor. And if you are lucky enough to be a sixth or a seventh year, then you'll found your self in one of my classes." He paused thinking a bit. "Not that I will be having lots of them. In fact only two, thank the Gods. One for each year. And just two hours per week, each!" he smiled a truly happy smile. "Now, if only they are not in the morning, it will be awesome." He didn't particularly enjoy waking up unholy hours. In fact he hated it.

"You are weird." Draco said and immediately blushed.

What had made him say that to a Professor. Mind you, the man looked awfully young to be offered such a position, somewhere around in his early twenties. But he was weird. His long robes were a clear indication that this man was rich - one just couldn't afford robes made of silk and velvet. The charms weaved in them were notoriously expensive and difficult to place. He bore his dark, not quite straight but not wavy either, hair long. He couldn't be certain but it probably fell bellow his lower back. He had them clasped with a silver ring low on his shoulders, allowing some strands to fall around his pale face, uneven.

He looked like a wizard taken out of a book! That was how Slytherin or Merlin would look like. Not to mention the eyes! Not even the Headmaster, that fool, had eyes as playful as this man's. Hell, they had changed colour five times in as much minutes they had been talking!

All in all, very interesting, indeed. He would have to keep an eye at him. And he still didn't know his name. And he said so.

"Sorry, I got distracted." The man answered. "something about someone being weird." Draco blushed again, Derian noticed satisfied. At lest the boy had forgotten all about his father at the moment. 'Give them a mystery and they forget their mind!' he thought amused. In this case he would be the mystery. "My name is Derian Deofol. But you can call me Professor Derian, as I suppose all of you will. No doubt just Derian would be a bit strange, though preferable." He mused.

"Derian Deofol?" Draco frowned in thought. "Wasn't there a Dark Lord in Wales named as such?"

"Very good!" Derian was impressed. This young man knew his history. Then again it might be that Derian was a Dark Lord, and Draco was a Malfoy. And all Malfoys had an interest in Dark Arts. "He was indeed." His Wales' accent intensifying a bit. Let the boy think whatever he wanted.

"I see." Draco's eyebrows couldn't have climbed any higher on his forehead.

The silence that spread since that discovery, was interrupted when the door opened wide and three students peered inside.

"Oi, Malfoy, how come your goons are not next to you?" a redhead asked.

Derian didn't need any more indication to realise that this was a Weasley. Something about the red hair gave the secret away. The tall boy was flanked by a girl with bushy hair that didn't know whom to look most disapprovingly at. The Red hair or the Blonde one. On the other side a short boy with black hair and green eyes looked down at Malfoy with something akin to hatred. Had he bet that the trio were Gryffindors and in the same year as the Malfoy lad, as well as 'enemies', he would have won a million. He smiled and then did a double take on the sorter boy. He had Lily's eyes. He could have never forgotten Lily's eyes.

"Do you have any relationship with Lily Evans?" he asked, startling them. They hadn't noticed him. Probably because they had their minds only in Malfoy.

"Me?"

"Who are you?" both boys asked at the same time.

"Weasley, I didn't ask you." Derian scolded him, again surprising them all that he knew him, while they had never seen him before. Also it might have been the fact that someone actually knew Weasley instead of Harry Potter.

"I am her son. Harry Potter. How do you know Ron? You knew my mother?" the short boy asked, a feeling of want spreading in the air. He doubted anyone else noticed it thought. Picking up feelings were not something such young boys would be interested at. Unless, of course, your name was Severus Snape.

"I haven't met a Weasley that isn't a red hair." Derian replied with a snort. "And since this is a train to a Wizarding school, it was a reasonable guess, I believe. As for your mother. Yes, I knew her. Briefly. Potter, you said your father was?"

"Yes, James Potter." Harry was surprised and very keen in learning something more about his parents. Since last year he had lost one more of his sources on them.

"That fool." Derian noticed that while Malfoy seemed very amused in the way this talk was going, the two boys, especially Potter, were getting very angry. Probably that was the reason Malfoy was smiling. At least the girl was looking at him in wonder and curiosity, rather than animosity. "He was a brave man, I have to give him that, but he rushed into situations without thinking. That caused a myriad of problems. And very protective of you mom. I wonder what she saw in him." He said frowning a bit. "She was a marvel, your mother. But if you want to learn more about her, I suggest you speak to her best friend, not me."

"Who would that be?" Harry replied. Not really knowing what to feel about that man.

"You don't know?" Derian said perplexed. This was interesting. "You attend Hogwarts for six years and no one told you who Lily's best friend was, until of course the day she married your father. Then he became your mother's hidden best friend. That's when I met them."

"No. I don't." Harry replied, feeling a bit annoyed. Just how much hadn't he been told of?

"Oh." Derian did some hard thinking. Truth was that although he had been in contact with this world, he didn't know all the details. Maybe this was something that the boy wasn't supposed to know. Severus had said that there were a lot of secrets around. And that his job was to mud the waters as much as possible, on all sides. Then he probably shouldn't tell them. "Lily was hanging around a certain Slytherin since their school days." He noticed all four jaws open widely. "But I think it's not my place to tell you his name. If he wanted you to know, he would have told you." Derian smiled inwardly at the stunned students. "From the little time I spent with her, I can't, by the life of me, understand why she was sorted into Gryffindor. I am telling you, Godric Gryffindor really messed up when he made that dratted thing. She should have been in Slytherin."

"But she was a Gryffindor!" "She was a muggle!" "Slytherins hate muggles!" "She married my dad!" four voices sounded together in a mix of words and levels of stunning.

"Ahm…will you be wanting anything from the cart?" An old Witch was standing behind the trio, looking at them with slight wonder and strictness. "If not, please do move, for I have to pass."

"Sorry, miss." Derian said with his most apologetic grin. "My fault I suppose. Yes. Just a moment please." He turned to the trio with a questioning glance. "Will you be staying with us? I still don't know who all of you are, by the way."

"Maybe we should…"

"We would love to." The bushy haired girl pocked Weasley on the ribs and told him with a smile. This was one curious girl. Already he could see that there was more to her than met the eye. And she was in Gryffindor? That hat was a lost case. Maybe he should have a talk with it.

"Good, good. Then do sit down, please." He invited them in, all the while noticing how the three boys were throwing daggers to each other. "My dear lady, could you give us from what ever you have in a quantity to satisfy five very hungry mouths?" he said very formally, gaining an amused grin from the girl and Draco, as well as a blush from the cart lady.

"Yes, yes of course." The lady said, getting his order. "You wouldn't be the new Professor, would you?"

"I am indeed. Professor Derian Deofol, at your service." He inclined his head, to hide a smirk. He did love to mock the others, without them noticing. Of course his audience always did, as it should.

"Oh, about time they got someone with good manners in there!" the lady told him and handed him his order. 'Manners?' Derian smirked. 'That was a first'. Good manners and he didn't seem to be said in the same sentence the past few years. Of course he still owed Joe his tab money, come to think of it.

"My treat." He said to the students that had already taken out their money. "After all a new teacher must always bribe his students. Who knows, maybe I won't be finding any strange things in my classroom."

"This is Hogwarts you are talking about." The Cart lady winked at him as she left them.

"It is indeed." He replied and for a moment he looked to be in another world altogether.

"Er…Professor Deofol?" the girl shook him out of his memories.

"Derian. Or Professor Derian." He told her with a smile. "Never Deofol. And you would be?"

"Sorry sir. I am Hermione Granger. Me and Ron" she pointed at the Weasley "we are the Gryffindor Prefects. And Harry Potter's best friend."

"You say that as if it is something to be cherished." Draco sneered. He hadn't missed the way they were seated. He and the new Professor by the windows, Ron next to the Professor and Harry next to him, as far as way from the Slytherin as possible. Hermione was seated next to him, but not too close. There always had to be safety distance.

"It is." She scolded him.

"I disagree." Draco said in a whisper that only Methos heard. "He will get you killed in the end."

"What will you be teaching, Professor?" Hermione asked with interest. "Are you filling in for the DADA position?"

"The what?" Derian picked up a chocolate frog. It seemed that the children wouldn't start eating if he didn't. Stealing a glance at Ron he thought maybe he should have bought more.

"The Defence Against the Dark Arts position." Harry explained.

"No. I am your new EoM Professor."

"The wha'?" Ron asked, his mouth rather full from chocolate.

"He means the Ethics of Magic class, you fool." Draco said, a look of disgust planted on his face. And it wasn't about his class.

"Ethics of Magic?" Harry repeated. "Wasn't this the class with no book assigned to?"

"Yes." Hermione said knowingly. "I thought it might be some typo, I mean there can't be a class with no book, but in Flourish & Blotts they also said they had no assigned book ordered either. I did look around for a book on the subject, but there are simply too obscure to know what to buy. And there was mo mention of what the curriculum will be, so if you were to tell us what book to get, we should be able to order it, or…"

"Miss Granger, stop." Derian said amused at her. Her two friends were shaking her heads, clearly trying not to laugh, and Draco…well Draco seemed lost of words. There was a look of wonder and sympathy in his eyes. "There was no book because I was only hired three days ago."

"Three days?" Draco turned towards him. "Dad once told me that you have to meet with the board of School Governors, and the Headmaster about a month before the term starts. Then they have to test your abilities and knowledge. You can't have been hired three days ago."

"Clearly dear Daddy wasn't around much this summer, was he?" Harry said lowly, but not enough as not to be overheard.

Draco's face lost its entire colour and Derian could see that it was because of great effort that the boy did nothing more than send a deathly stare at the Potter boy. He could see his hand, clasping and unclasping next to his waist, as if he wanted nothing more than to grab his wand and hex Potter in the seventh layer of hell. Next to him Hermione came to her senses after the shock of hearing Harry saying something like this in the presence of a Professor, none the less, and prepared to take out her wand in case something happened. She shot a glance at him, pleading that he should do something.

"Not his fault, I am sure, Mr. Potter." He said with a voice harder than he had used the whole evening. Except perhaps when he spoke of that bloody of a nuisance Godric.

The trio looked at him strangely. His tone indicated he knew exactly what had happened, but whom he was voting for wasn't as clear. Draco on the other hand realised just how Slytherin this man was. 'Lie to every one, except you self'. That was among the rules of their House. After all, Derian had told him just earlier in this trip, that it was his father's fault that he had got caught. But the others didn't have to know it. He felt a smile climbing on his lips. He liked this new Professor.

"You are right, Draco. I think they couldn't find any one else and it took Professor Snape the whole summer to find me. In fact I am surprised he did find me." Another bit of info to feed their starved for news minds. "I haven't met one person from the school, yet."

"You know Professor Snape?"

"Yes, yes I do. And now do eat, or you'll never finish the food until we reach the School." They really didn't need any more intensive than that. Derian sat back relaxed, looking out of the window, hearing the trio talking about other things, like Quidditch – that was something that hadn't been around when he was – and classes. Draco had taken out a book and was pretending to read, but his eyes always travelled to the three friends and to him, whenever the boy thought he wasn't looking.

It wouldn't be long before they reached the school, now.

oO0Oo

I hope you liked it and might want to take some time reviewing.