'This is it' Thought Blaire. She took a deep breath and collected all her notes. She tucked away the 'Prevention and Protection' textbook into her new black leather bag and heaved it onto her shoulder. She was on her way out the door when she suddenly heard a tapping on her window. Startled, Blaire jumped and all her notes fluttered to the dusty ground. Rolling her eyes and cursing under her breath, she put down her bag and went to open the window. The owl flew in immediately, dropped a note it had been carrying in its beak, then flew off without a sound. Sighing, Blaire examined the thick piece of parchment. It was grayish white and the seal was a black scull.

'Uh oh.' muttered Blaire, as her eyes grew wider. She had gotten threatening letters from Voldemort and his supporters before, but none bearing the dark mark. With shaking hands, Blaire carefully placed the letter on the small wooden desk in the corner of her room, drew out her want and muttered a few words under her breath. She braced herself. She had heard of letters sent by Death Eaters that killed people the instant they opened the letter. Better safe then sorry.

The letter slowly opened, revealing a note with two lines of writing on it, then a signature. Blaire took a step closer to the heavy piece of paper. She gasped as she saw what was written.

You think you are protecting him by being there, but you should really be looking after yourself. Accidents can and will happen.

The Risen Lord Voldemort

As soon as she finished reading the signature, the note burst into flames and burned into nothing in a matter of seconds. Blaire stared at the smoldering ashes until she remembered where she was supposed to be. She glanced at her watch, and found that she was already late. With an exasperated huff, she quickly scrawled what had been written in the note on a piece of loose paper. She would show Dumbledore later. Gathering up her stuff again, Blaire hurried out of her room, mind spinning with questions that she couldn't answer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom:

'Late on her first day, hmm. I do hope this new teacher is better than all the other ones. Except Lupin, of course. What's her name again?' Asked Ron of Harry and Hermione.

They were all seated at a table towards the back of the class. Prof. Falco was already 10 minutes late, and the class was getting restless.

'Blaire Falco,' said Harry immediately. Her name was still fresh in his mind after his chat with Sirius. Harry had sent him an owl questioning his knowledge of this new teacher, but had not yet received a reply.

'I heard she is an old renegade auror, and I can't say that's very comforting. We were suppose to have a real Auror last year and look how that turned out,' said Hermione with a knowing tone.

'What's a renegade Auror?' asked Harry and Ron together. Hermione sighed.

'A Renegade Auror is someone who refuses to work for the ministry and decides to take matters into his or her own hands. They are not looked on to kindly by Fudge, I can tell you that.' she said.

Suddenly the door swung open and a thin woman with golden brown hair and dark blue eyes entered. She had a scar on her neck and was wearing bright red robes. She carried a black leather satchel and looked very stressed out at the moment. She set her bag on the desk and sighed. She then glanced up at the rest of the room for the first time, with an amused look on her face.

'Gryffindor 5th years, I presume?' she said with a smile. Almost everyone let out a sigh of relief. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione. He looked like his eyes were going to fall out of his head. Harry smiled internally. Hermione was scrutinizing Prof. Falco's every move, as if she was going to curse them all any moment.

'Alright class, as most of you no doubt already know, I am Blaire Falco, Professor Falco to you. Or Blaire. I really could care less. Now, I assume everyone has brought their textbooks 'Prevention and Protection'?' She asked. The class nodded in union, and Prof. Falco began class. She was very aware that she was being watched, but she would never have guessed by whom...

TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N Ah, a cliffhanger, I'm mean;) anyways, Ya its gonna pick up right about now, and I'll have the next part up soon hopefully. Sorry it's so short but I wanna get a move on the next part.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Blaire and the plot.