*******

Cendre did the best she could to care for her tree placing it on the small terrace she had outside her quarters. She wandered the grounds after going over endless notes for lesson plans finding herself more and more anxious for students to arrive.

She had spoken briefly to Professor Sprout on having some room in the greenhouse for her tree only to be advised against it.

"Best not to bait the students." Had been the only remark made.

She was beginning to form the opinion that nothing had changed at Hogwarts particularly the students.

The forest was still nice but silent. She took some solace under a large ash tree near a creek. She felt safe under ashes in particular partly as they were the origin of her name though primarily because her own tree was an ash.

She mused that there was little else to thank her parents for besides the name and the tree. Thinking anymore on either one of them was too painful, so she brushed the memories aside.

What could one expect of a nymph as a mother though? She reflected closing her eyes.

"Hello there, lass," came a loud booming voice accompanied by the yapping of three gigantic….puppies?

She opened her eyes and jumped to her feet happily though reluctant of rushing over to him due to the large three-headed dog.

"Hagrid! Thank goodness for small miracles," she said brightly and giving him a hug after darting past the behemoth beside him who was busy itching away at gigantic fleas she supposed.

She smiled up at him. "You haven't changed a bit."

Hagrid chuckled and patted her head. "No. Not likely ter either. Have yeh?"

"Unfortunately no," she said softly. "I don't think so."

"I hear yer teaching now?" he smiled. "Brave of yer."

She chuckled. "Perhaps."

"I should think so. I remember yeh sittin' in that corner of the library all by yerself like yeh hadn' a friend in the world. An' I seem to remember yeh pinin' away over Severus."

She gasped and lightly hit his arm. "Now that isn't true."

"Says ye," the half-giant said ignoring her light swat as the behemoth dog curled up in a large pile to take a brief nap.

"Yeh seemed ter have moved outdoors now. That's a step in the right direction."

She sighed and chuckled. "Yes. That I have."

"Yer still jus' as lovely though. That never changed," he said a tad wistfully as he brushed some of the wispy white hair from her face...it was usually this pale, he recalled. In the winter and spring but it would change soon.

"Much good it does me," she replied looking at the trees the leaves just beginning to turn, summer was coming to an end.

"Yer jus' as bad as him ye know," he said smirking, giving her a knowing wink.

"You are as bad as ever, Hagrid," she said sighing lightly and giving him another hug. "But thanks just the same."

*******

Harry refused to join Ron in joking about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Hermione continued to glare at the both of them just the same obviously concerned that they were jinxing it for whomever the new professor happening to be.

Ron muttered something about him deserving a little fun if Draco Malfoy was allowed to have so much of it. Indeed, Draco looked like a cat that had not just devoured the bird and its cage but was making plans on eating the dog as well.

He sat down next to Ron and managed a shrug of sympathy or a lack thereof. It was too early on the first day of classes for much sympathy. At least sympathy directed towards anyone save the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

He yawned and glanced up at Hermione, nose buried in one of her other textbooks already. He worried about her sometimes.

The clamoring roar of students died off when the new professor entered. He didn't rightly imagine people had been prepared for her. He certainly hadn't been. She had soft hair that seemed to be turning a copper-blonde almost like the golden tinge on the leaves outside that flowed down her back into a loose ponytail and the pale white robe she wore struck him as being more like a kimono than anything else. Her swan-like grace and features were not those of a professor. A supermodel perhaps but not a teacher.

Draco seemed too perplexed by her to say much of anything even remotely negative. Crabbe and Goyle were blanker in facial expression than usual.

Hermione sighed putting down her book. "Honestly," she muttered. "We really need more female professors here if this is the reactions you are all going to have."

Ron was too dazed to chuckle. Harry nodded to Hermione, shaking himself from his reverie then in turn shaking Ron back and forth to pull him out of his.

"Good morning, class," their new professor said in a soft friendly voice. "My name is Professor De l'Enfant and it looks like I am to be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor."

*******

"Seems nice," Harry said over lunch to Hermione who was trying to figure out why Draco had been so simpering and civil in a classroom. Well, for the first time other Snape's Potions class of course.

Ron nodded, brains still pretty much muss. Hermione flicked her water at him but he remained indifferent still staring longingly at their new professor.

"And I get made fun of for Lockhart," Hermione said in disgust.

"Well, you have to admit, she's better than Lockhart," Harry said with a shrug.

"A dead mandrake would have been better than Lockhart as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Ron muttered with a small amount of interest.

Evidently subjects provoking his extreme disgust brought Ron around, Harry noted.

"It's only been one day," Hermione said a bit defensively.

"What does that say for Lockhart?" Ron said with a contemptuous snort.

"Nice new professor you three got," Fred said sliding into the seat next to Harry as George sat next to Hermione on the opposite end of the table.

Hermione snarled and seemed to be resisting the urge to clobber one of them with her huge textbook on the History of Potions.

"What's wrong with her?" George said inhaling his dinner.

"The nice new professor," Harry said with another shrug.

"Ah. Jealous, Hermione?" Fred said smirking that gradually became a cowering behind

Harry as Hermione raised her textbook above her head.

"As much as I wouldn't mind watching you smash the life out of Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, I guess you save the your book for studying."

Ron groaned softly going back to staring and muttered something about Snape.

Fred smirked a bit still maintaining a safe distance from Hermione who slowly put down the book.

"I'm sorry, Professor Snape," she mumbled sheepishly turning crimson.

"Yes, prudence and discipline are often tactful, Miss Granger. See if you can remember that," Snape replied icily before gracefully moving away from them.

"I'd thank him, but then again it is Professor Snape," Fred muttered to George.

George smirked and eyed Fred's plate with interest. "Going to eat that, then?"

*******