Chapter Four
Harry stopped immediately. Ron didn't notice and nearly ran into her. After noticing she was there, he gave a slight whimper and stepped back to Harry.
"Where on Earth are you two going? I daresay, you are not skipping Charms class, now are you?" She was using her harsh tone, and it sent shivers down their backs. A swift moving figure approached behind them, and they were overjoyed to see it was Professor McGonagall.
"Weasley! Potter! Come with me, please! Dear Acandra, may I please take them? I will punish them severely for their inability to follow directions." She seemed serious, grabbed their sleeves and practically dragged them out of hearing distance from Professor Darinsta.
"Potter, Weasley, are you two okay?" McGonagall's tone was nicer than ever before, and she seemed very concerned for them talking to Darinsta.
"Huh? What? Why wouldn't we be..?" Ron asked, staring at her with the utmost terror on his face. Professor McGonagall returned to her regular look, stern and strict.
"Professor Darinsta is pure evil. I tell you, stay away from her. I was trying to persuade the Headmaster from accepting her as the Defense the Against Dark Arts Teacher, but he wouldn't give up. Apparently, she has this effect on all men. I suppose she had you mesmerized in her presence?" Her eyes showed she felt sympathy towards them, and they were amazed by this new side of the strictest professor in Hogwarts.
"Well, yeah, I guess so. If you call it mesmerizing, we just-" Harry was cut off, yet again, by Ron. He seemed to develop the bad habit of interrupting people.
"We met her sometime before. I thought I heard Hermione's giggle, while talking to Snape, but it was..her..and then it was like we couldn't move until she told us to." He acted as if he wasn't afraid to share his feelings at all, which is very rare.
"My, my, my. I must go inform the Headmaster. How could he possibly have a cousin like this.." She mumbled, bid them farewell, and was off. Afterwards Harry and Ron decided to go to the lake and discuss this.
As they sat by the lake, a very strange and odd thing happened. The Giant Squid stuck a tentacle out and grabbed Ron by the throat. Ron nearly screamed in horror, but luckily, Hermione was on her way out to the lake to tell Harry that Prof. Flitwick was feeling cross by his lame excuse for skipping Charms. She pulled out her wand, muttered a spell that probably no body really knew, and the squid squealed and fell down into his lake.
Ron sat, lying rather, and rubbing his neck. He muttered a "thanks Herm.." and collapsed, apparently out cold. Hermione beamed, as she does when anyone shows their approval towards her, and sat down next to Harry.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" Harry asked, making casual converstion. Ron had awoken and was leaning on his elbows looking to the sky, although he did keep stealing glances at Hermione.
"In class. Hey, Harry, Flitwick was really angered about your excuse. He says if he saw you do it again, you would be given a detention. Professor Flitwick was quite nice to Harry most of the time, so this was very unusal.
"Ofcourse," Hermione added. "he was standing by that new teacher. Darinsta, is it? She seems to lay a strange occurrence while near any men, don't you think?" She looked to Ron, one eye closed because of the sun shining at her, which did make Ron look like an angel.
"D--Darinsta? She's evil! McG-" All of the sudden, Hagrid practically fell into the lake. They hadn't noticed he was there, but he was wrestling a Hippogriff. He had, apparently, been flying it until it decided to take a very steep dive.
"Hello, there, 'arry. Hermione, do yeh got a tell for me ter' rustle up Ol' Chestnut here?" He seemed very annoyed, and would never usually perform a spell on a creature.
"Hagrid! Good seeing you! Why yes, I do!" Hermione pulled out her wand, mumbled something that sounded like "togetherinfornee," but Harry wasn't very sure. Suddenly, Chestnut sat straight up, waddled over to the fenced area near Hagrid's cabin, hopped in, and calmly ate some oats.
"Thank yer! I been trying ter get him there fer a whole week! Odd, he is." Hagrid sat down, his gigantic mass of hair dripping with sweat.
"That's Chestnut? He's so much..bigger than before! Wilder too, he is." Ron was staring at Chestnut with a puzzled look on his face.
"Yessir! That there's a fine Hippogriff! Or he was fine 'till that new teacher appeared. Any of yer teachers said anything bout her?" It was odd, but it did seem like Hagrid's English had improved slightly!
"Actually, Prof. McGonagall was sayi-" Harry was yet again cut off, this time not be Ron, but by the actual Acandra Darinsta and Severus Snape.
"Why look! It's the Famous Two, skipping class. I believe this is...15 points from Gryffindor!" Harry seemed it was unfair for Snape to take points away, it wasn't even the year yet! No body had thought of this earlier at the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, where Darinsta took points from them.
"Dear Severus, do not be so hard on the boys. They're only maturing teenagers, what have they ever done to you?" This, of course, was a bad thing for Darinsta to say. Snape seemed to boil with anger, his face went stern, and Harry saw him going for his wand. As Snape pulled it out, he aimed it at Harry and Ron. They stood, quite still in fact, both wishing they had a wand, yet knowing Hermione did. Off to the west of the lake Hermione and Hagrid were poised, and Hagrid's big black eyes, not nearly as cold and empty as Snape's, were on Darinsta.
"What have they done to me?! They've caused me so much trouble, I could kill them here on the spot!" He was so angry, he was shaking. Darinsta made a move towards him, put her hands on his arm, and he slowly lowered his wand. Harry noticed, before anyone else did, that that was the arm on which the Dark Mark was.
"And yer better stay away!" Hagrid called, after they had left. He looked angry, but as Darinsta turned to look back, it seemed as if Hagrid, Harry, and Ron all were mesmerized by her gaze. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Honestly! What is the world coming to.." She got up, and walked towards the Quidditch Field. Harry and Ron stood up and followed her. Hagrid was staggering as if he had too much to drink earlier. Of course, he hadn't been drinking, it was just Darinsta's mesmerizing gaze that entrapped men in a strange stupor.
When all four of them got to the Quidditch Field, the classes had already changed and Quidditch players were running out, mounting their brooms and taking off. Hermione used the summoning charm to acquire Harry's broom, and off he went to play the game. Ron and Hermione sat in the stands, watching everyone play.
For their own astonishment, all of the professors had came out to watch everyone play Quidditch. Nearly everyone was outside either watching or playing the game, so only one professor had stayed in the castle. That was, apparently, Proffessor Binns, the History of Magic teacher, who was actually a ghost.
Professors Darinsta, Snape, Dumbldore, Flitwick, McGonagall and ever other were all sitting in the bottom most stands and pointing to players. As nobody but Hermione noticed, all the male teachers were adjacent to Prof. Darinsta.
