Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling, the only characters I own are Katia Lockston and Ophelia Adams, etc.

Another chapter should be coming soon, please let me know what you think so far!

I arrived at the Great Hall early, but it looked like some of the parents were there already. A few had their children with them, but it seemed the majority had prefered to stay in their dorms.

I went to sit down at my table, and looked around at everyone else. Very few of the other teachers actually had parents talking to them; most of the parents seemed more happy to be looking around at everything that was in the hall; I guess most of them had come to this school at some point and were keen to see what had changed, and some of them were definitley muggles that were interested in everything they came across.

It was a while before I saw anyone I recognised, until I looked at the far end of the hall to my side, and saw Draco Malfoy standing impatiently in front of his dad. I would have known that this was his dad even if he hadn't been with his son; long blonde hair, the same pale features, long black robes. He even stood the same way that his son did. I couldn't see him properly, but from what I could guess, he was looking at the food set out on the table in front of him in what could only be disgust; the children who were in the Cooking Club and had made the food were looking very miserably up at him.

At around that moment, his father felt my eyes on him, and turned to me, a curious frown on his face. He whispered something to Draco, who looked at me as well, before turning back to his dad and muttering something in response. My guess was that he was telling me his name. His father nodded and began moving swiftly towards me, his son trotting along behind him, looking slightly embarrassed.

I noticed instantly as he approached, that Draco's father wore the same self-satisfied smirk, and the same glittering grey eyes.

"Lucius Malfoy," He told me in a some-what sinister voice, holding out his hand for me to shake. I took it, and smiled at him.

"Katia Lockston." I said in response, and he nodded, his smirk turning into more of a proper smile.

"I've heard a lot about you from Draco." He said, his voice getting slightly lighter. "He thinks very highly of you."

"Oh...that's um...thanks." I said in confusion, looking over at Draco who was blushing furiously.

"In fact, I dare say you're his favourite teacher. You've even triamphed over Snape for the title of that, you know." He said, his eyes staring at me. I nodded briefly, not knowing what else to do under his strong gaze, and deciding to look at Draco instead, who instantly turned away, his cheeks still flushed. I gave up and looked up at Lucius. It was hard to look away once you had begun; there was such a sense of power within his eyes that you couldn't help but be drawn to them. There was also something else hidden deep inside of them, but I couldn't work out what it was. I looked away quickly, worried I was staring.

"Well, you know, I'd love to talk to you more, really I would, but I know you've got a lot to do here. Maybe when term has ended, you'd like to come and have dinner with me and Draco at the manor?" He asked, glancing over at his son, who was still facing the opposite way. I laughed slightly at Draco, before responding to Lucius.

"Sure, sounds good."

"We've had many of the other teachers over, though only one before you, Snape, has been there for a GOOD reason." Lucius chuckled. I smiled weakly at him and nodded. Lucius Malfoy was well known for being - well - a complete bastard, and I wasn't really sure that I wanted to be around someone like that. There was no denying that I found him incredibly good looking, and there was something in him that attracted me to him, but the rumours that I'd heard about him were just too much to put up with.

"Well," He whispered, looking around at the other teachers. "It'll be a bit suspicious if I hang around here for too long. So, tell me, how has Draco's performance been this year? And don't worry if it's bad, I want to know your honest opinion. Afterall," He muttered, grabbing hold of Draco's arm and viciously swinging him around so he almost lost his balance. "In the short while I've been here I've talked to nearly all of the teachers, and not one has had a good thing to say about him. Infact, they never have, so don't worry, it's not going to be a big deal anymore if he gets any bad marks." I glanced briefly at Draco, who was staring miserably at the floor, though I guessed that was more because of the pain in his arm than anything his dad had just said. I got the feeling that he had been forced to come tonight; though he had always spoken so very highly of his father, so the chances of that were actually quite low.

"Nah, no worries in this subject, he's fine." I told Lucius. "He's not the best in the class, and he does have slightly violent tendancies at times," I said, pausing as Draco looked up at me, a small smile on his face, his eyes shining. "But other than that, he's doing fine, all his test marks have been above average, and he gets on very well with the creatures we've studied." I smiled at Draco, who smiled back, and then at Lucius, who smiled briefly.

"You're being serious, I hope?" He asked.

"Of course." I nodded. "I get the feeling Draco tries very hard in this subject."

"How come most of the other teachers haven't said that, Draco?" Lucius hissed at him. I was surprised at just how cruel Lucius sounded then, and even more surprised at Draco, whose face instantly shone with fear, his eyes darting to the ground, biting his lip hard.

"Well, I've seen Draco in other classes, and he does play around a lot." I admitted. "But in this class he has perfect attention." Lucius nodded. He was looking and speaking to me, but his eyes were still fixed coldly on Draco.

"Well, thanks for that, very good feedback." He said with a small smile, before turning his eyes to face me. "It's about time this school had a teacher who can actually make Draco work, you should be proud. Anyway, we had better go, the chances of Draco getting any more good reviews are incredibly low. I'll send Draco to get back to you when you can come for dinner, and I'm looking forward to seeing you." He said, before turning and walking off, catching Draco's ankle hard with his foot. I thought it was an accident at first, but as Draco let out a slight yelp, I saw the furious glance on Lucius's face as he turned to his son.

The rest of the night went pretty well, as in general I had good feedback for people. I didn't forget who anyone was like I was worried about, and after Lucius Malfoy, none of the parents were really very intimidating (although Ophelia Adams arriving with her mother and father, both of whom where just as gothic as her, was reasonably frightening)

The rest of the term went equally well (which was fair enough, seeing as there was only one week left). We were going to be moving onto some interesting creatures, and as I told the students the details of some of the creatures that were coming up, they seemed to be equally excited as well.

The last day of term brought me to my final class; the one that I had with the Slytherin and Gryffindor 6th years. The class went well enough, even if it was just another spell I was teaching them; today they were learning how to defend themselves against poisonous gases using a mixture of different spells similar to the Bubble Head Charm. There were 3 different types of these charms, depending on the properies of the gas, which was really the only difficult part about it. By the end of the lesson, everyone but Neville (who had forgotten the incantation very early in the lesson and was now in the medical room) had mastered the different spells, and a few people were remembering which properties go with which charm as well.

At the very end of the lesson, I was packing up when Draco Malfoy walked over to me, clutching a small bit of paper.

"Hi Drake." I said, absent mindedly to him, as I fought with my Defence book to get it into my bag. He remained silent for a moment, and handed me the piece of paper rather than talking. I glanced down at it; It was a message from Lucius.

"I don't know why he sent it to me, rather than you, but I figured I should probably pass it on." He mumbled. "But it's for dinner at the Manor, and you can probably stay the night if that's what you want to do, normally people prefer to stay." I nodded.

"OK, thanks."

"Yeah, and I'll be there too, so if you want me to stay out of your way when you're there, you can just tell me and I'll go." I gave him a strange look.

"Why do you think I wouldn't want you there?" I asked, my eyes fixed on his.

"Well, generally people don't." He muttered, forcing himself to stare at the floor. "Father usually locks me out of the house in advance, and if I'm actually there, people usually ask father to make me leave, so I just figured you wouldn't want me there either." He looked so miserable, that I very almost hugged him, before I caught myself. For starters, he would probably kill me if I touched him, and second of all, it just wasn't like me to want to hug people; I myself usually scream hysterically when anyone touches me, let alone trying to hug anyone else."

"Nah, I want you there." I told him. "There's nothing wrong with you, and I've never really had the chance to talk to you properly." He smiled slightly, but still didn't look up.

"Don't you want to spend more time with my dad?" He asked. "You know it's probably going to be all romantic or something." I gaped at him.

"Why would it be romantic?"

"Well, I expect that's what father would do." He murmered. "Just because he's never met you properly before doesn't mean he won't try to get with you..." His voice trailled off. I looked at him for a while.

"You better stay." I told him. "Your dad is frankly scary, and I need support from you." He laughed slightly. "You had better get going, unless you've already packed?" He shook his head.

"Nah, I've still got to...um...I'll see you in a few days then, yeah?" He asked.

"Sure." I nodded, wondering what exactly I was getting myself into.