Hermione joined Harry and Ron after morning break to go to their first Potions lesson without Snape breathing down their necks. Harry was very happy indeed, but Ron was dubious.
"I'll bet you anything Snape got to choose who filled in for him," Ron said. "Ten to one it's Lucius Malfoy."
"Don't be silly," said Hermione. "Lucius Malfoy, a teacher? Honestly!"
Ron stared at Hermione. "I was joking."
Hermione turned bright red, but luckily for her Ron wasn't watching. He, along with everyone else in the corridor, had turned his attention to a wizard that none of them had seen before. His robes were long, green and flowing, with minute, actually leaping frogs, hopping from one sleeve to the other. His hat, unlike the standard black pointed wizards hat, was as well green, it had something that looked like blue tinsel shining on it. His glasses, green as well, were twice the size of his head, magnifying his eyes so they looked bigger and rounder than Dobby's. Bright red hair, even louder than the Weasley's stuck out from under the glowing hat, and on the wizards feet were two jingling shoes.
"Gingle," muttered Hermione.
"Excuse me?" Harry said, his eyes still on the green wizard. He looked like an overgrown Christmas elf.
"Professor Gingle--the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
"Looks like he needs some Defense Against Bad Fashion lessons, if you ask me," Ron muttered as the jingling wizard quickly turned around the corner.
When they entered the dungeons for their Potions lesson, Harry felt a wonderful thrill go up his spine as he thought of half a term without Snape--half a term without someone to criticize him nor remind him of his "arrogance." Harry looked about eagerly, wondering who the new replacement was but the only new face he saw was that of a girl that couldn't be older than Harry himself. The Slytherins were already in the dungeon, muttering mutinously in a corner. Harry grinned broadly--the Slytherin's of course, must be furious that their favorite teacher was gone.
The bell rang, but the teacher was not to be found. The Slytherins began grumbling even louder, when a small voice peeped up.
"Excuse me! Let's take our seats then!" Harry whipped around. There was no Snape, no Lucius Malfoy--it was the young girl, with a nervous smile and an Austrailian accent. She had bright pink braces on her teeth.
"Hullo," she said, smiling even more nervously, as she looked at the Slytherin's glares. "I'm--I'm Gwyn--I mean, I'm Professor Fidel. I'm, that is, I'll be teaching you until your, um, Professor Snap?"
"Snape," came a drawl from the corner. Harry didn't bother to turn around; he knew that bored voice all too well--Draco Malfoy. "It's Professor Snape, not Snap."
"Oh," the girl said, her smile fading a bit. "Yes, of course."
She took another bold stab, by grinning but only the Gryffindor's smiled back.
"Well then," the girl took a deep breath and looked about. "I suppose you want to know more about me. My name is Gwyn Fidel and I graduated from Auspull--that's a school in Australia--"
"A Muggle school?" came Malfoy's voice.
"No," said the girl, rather taken aback. "No, of course not. I'm a witch."
Malfoy exchanged glances with Crabbe and Goyle, who looked confused.
"Well I thought we could start with a review--er where did you leave off then?"
Hermione stood up. "Please Professor," she said with the same dignity as if addressing Professor McGonagoll. "We've just finished antidotes only last year."
"Antidotes--yes, yes, that's very good," said the girl, biting her lip. "Professor Snape wrote me, saying to start love potions this year--"
A general outcry came from the Gryffindors.
"Love potions?" Seamus Finnigan, a sandy haired Gryffindor fifth year said. "That's girly!"
"You're sick!" said Dean Thomas, Seamus' best friend.
Hermione stood up yet again. "Professor, students at Hogwarts don't do love potions. It's against the rules--it's unfairly manipulating people. And what's more, love potions are very difficult--you'd have to be at least in seventh year to understand the concept!"
"Professor Snape said to start this. You'll have half a term under my supervision to learn a Love Potion and when Professor Snape returns you'll be starting something else. Anyway we won't be testing these potions on people, only flobberworms. I'm sure you'll be able to master them." The girl smiled. "Obviously Professor Snape has great faith in you."
This caused most of the Gryffindors to snort into their cauldrons.
Leaving, Harry could hear Malfoy muttering, "She has a brace on her teeth, really. As far as I'm concerned that Austrailian trash is Muggle."
For once, Harry didn't care about what Malfoy was saying. He and the Gryffindors were too shocked by the fact that they'd be expected to brew a Love Potion by the Christmas holidays. Most of the boys thought it was rubbish--though Lavender and Parvati were giggling a good deal after Potions. However, everyone agreed that love potions were the most difficult things that Snape had ever wanted them to brew, and that was saying something.
"Can you imagine flobberworms kissing?" muttered Ron as they walked to the Great Hall for lunch. It was all they talked about as they ate, until Ron dug out his schedule and announced that the next class was double Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Is the teacher that one all in green?" asked Ginny, who had just sitten down at the table.
"Course he is," said Ron. "Besides Miss Love Potions, he's the only new teacher, isn't he?"
"I don't have him till Friday. You'll have to tell me all about him," Ginny said to Ron, her brown eyes wide.
"I already can tell you about him, Ginny," said Fred. He and George must've just entered the hall--they looked tired and out of breath.
George pulled up a chair. "Weird," he said, "Incredibly weird."
"But---but is he a good teacher?" asked Hermione nervously.
"How should I know?" Fred asked. "I was just looking at his robes--bright green they are!"
"And his glasses..."
Ron sighed. "We're going to have an interesting afternoon."

The Gryffindor's lined outside the classroom before the bell even rang, not because the were eager to learn but they wanted to glimpse Professor Gingle. They'd all seen him nearly skipping through the halls in his livid green robes, and Parvati Patil said she heard him singing a Celestina Warbeck song as he climbed a staircase.
It was five minutes after the bell rang, and still Professor Gingle did not show up. Ron and Harry exchanged confused glances.
"You reckon he's skivving off?" Ron asked.
"Well, if he is!" Hermione said. "I mean, that's awful, he's a teacher, he's supposed to--"
But what Professor Gingle was supposed to be doing they did not know because suddenly a loud bang errupted from the classroom and Professor Gingle, in green robes and all, emerged with a lopsided grin on his face.
"All right class! Class class class how are you? Very well, very well."
He looked even stranger up close--Gingle's face was long and angular. He kept moving; he was snapping his fingers, tapping his foot, looking this way and that. Behind his bright, enormous green glasses were two wide eyes that kept blinking. Harry looked at Gingle's hat--the blue things he had mistaken for tinsel appeared to be electric blue pixies. Harry had known of fairies being used for ornaments, but pixies were seldom used for decoration. He wondered if Gingle had made a mistake.
"I am--" Professor Gingle said with a grin. "Your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Now, now, what did you do last year?"
To no one's surprise, Hermione raised her hand. "Yes?" barked Gingle with such enthusiasm that Hermione took a step away from him, as she stood up. "We learned the Unforgivable Curses." She looked as though she thought Gingle might devour her at any moment.
"Ah, yes, yes. Very good, very good. Nice curses they are. Nice nice nice."
Harry wouldn't exactly called the Cruciatus Curse "nice."
"This year I think I'll teach you countercurses. Any objections?" He spoke as if the class had a choice of what they would be taught.
"Countercurses?" said Seamus Finnigan loudly. "What's the use of them, we can just dodge them!"
Gingle smiled and began walking around Seamus, rather like a shark circling it's prey. "Don't know," said Gingle airily. "Might be useful . . .if some one does this!" He had leapt behind Seamus and shouted out, "Stagorgio!"
Seamus' head began to shake--Harry at first thought he was being tortured in some sort of way, but then saw that Seamus' neck was swaying side to side--it looked like the jelly legs hex, but instead Seamus' neck was wobbling. Gingle looked quite pleased with himself, as he muttered the counter hex under his breath.
"That's why," he said shortly. "Now who here would like to tell me the difference between a hex and a curse?"
Once again, Hermione's hand shot into the air. "A curse is the broad category of enchantments--a hex is the same as a curse but usually on a smaller level--like the Jelly Neck Jinx," she nodded towards Seamus who was looking rather dizzy. "A curse, such as, well, the Cruciatus, would not be considered a hex or a jinx because it's such a difficult and dangerous curse."
"Good, good, very, very good." Gingle was now twisting his hands. "Fifteen points, fifteen points. This'll be fun, this'll be fun fun fun!"
Harry hated to remember Lockhart's idea of fun. Fun, he repeated to himself. Fun.