Disclaimer: Draco, Snape, and company do not belong to me. I am only borrowing them, and will return them in much the same shape I borrowed them in.
***
The students looked at the empty place beside Professor Snape as they shuffled in, wondering who their new DADA professor would be, and where the professor was. Whispered speculation made its way around the room as to why the new professor was absent, and what they would be like. In fact, the only one who seemed to be completely unconcerned about the absence of the professor, other than the headmaster was Professor Snape. Though perhaps unconcerned wasn't the appropriate word, so much as smugly gleeful, if one knew how to read his expression.
The sorting ceremony passed, and the feast had begun with still no sign of the absent professor. The speculation was beginning to escalate when the doors to the great hall opened, slamming against the walls, and focusing all attention on the tall, dark figure who stood there, something perched on its shoulder. It stepped forward, to an indrawn breath from the student body, and pulled back the hood that hid its face, resolving into a black-eyed, black-haired woman with an incredibly cold expression on her face. The creature on her shoulder was a dragonet, as jet black as her clothing, its tail curled about its feet, yawning as it stood up, surveying the room.
"Professor Byrne!" Dumbledore stood, a smile on his face as he greeted the woman. "I see you were able to make dinner after all."
"Headmaster. I do apologize for my late arrival. I was... delayed." She surveyed the staff table as she made her way up the center aisle slowly, removing finely crafted black leather gloves from her hands, an aura of absolute presence about her that made even the boldest remain silent. Her eyes fixed on Snape, and she paused, just shy of the end of the student tables. "What an unpleasant surprise. How did this piece of unmitigated filth make its way into Hogwarts?" Her voice was calm, even, and cold as ice.
The students drew in a collective breath, shocked at her words, and delivery. Even the bravest of them wouldn't risk Snape's wrath by insulting him to his face. They steeled themselves, anticipating the woman's summary verbal destruction.
Snape was silent a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was as cold, his remarks as cruel as the new professor's. "I thought Albus had done his worst with hiring riff-raff when he hired that idiot Lockheart. I see I am mistaken."
A slight smirk briefly crossed the woman's face, before bell-like peals of laughter rose, cold and frightening for all their beauty. "You are as much a fool as ever you were." Her mirth faded, and her expression became impossibly colder. "There are many things you may come to regret, and that remark is but one in a litany. I would suggest highly you do not cross my path again, Professor Snape, unless it is in the most unavoidable situations." With that final remark, she turned, her unmistakably arrogant and chilling attitude keeping the students remarks at bay as she headed back for the doors.
She paused before them, not bothering to turn as she spoke. "My regrets, Headmaster, but I fear I have lost my appetite for company. Good evening."
***
Draco watched the new professor leave, a slight, smug smirk on his face. After the feast, he waited only long enough to discharge his duty to get the first-year Slytherins to the dorms before he made his way up to the DADA classroom, and the office behind it. He knocked sharply, three times in rapid succession, then paused, knocking once more.
"Come in, Draco. And shut the door behind you." The cool voice of the professor was muffled by the door, but Draco heard her clearly anyway, only opening the door enough for him to slip through before closing it softly. The lock clicked as the woman who stood next to the window flicked her wand, then waved the sixth year further in, to the chairs that sat in front of the fireplace.
As she emerged from the shadows to sit in one of the chairs, her appearance was markedly different to his eyes from what the others had seen earlier. Her hair was not the inky black braid that fell to her waist, but a platinum blond mass now held precariously on top of her head by a pair of silver hairsticks, and her eyes were a pale, icy blue instead of the pools of impenetrable black they'd appeared to be. She smiled slightly, leaning back into the welcoming comfort of the chair.
"I am beginning to regret this venture, nephew of mine." Her voice was tired, with an underlying hint of strain. "I did not think it would be so hard to see that damned idiot again."
Draco shrugged, sitting at her feet instead of in the offered chair, looking into the fire as he leaned against her knee. It was a habit from when he was a young boy, and had sat at her feet to listen to her spin stories for him and his cousin. "And if he is the traitor the Dark Lord has been hunting for, you get the honor of killing him, Aunt Vicky." He paused, a slight frown on his face. "Though I will be rather annoyed if he is. I've had a rather privileged position as his favorite student, and I'm rather loath to give that up, even briefly, in order to break in a new head of house."
There was a soft chuckle from behind him, and Draco turned his head to look up at his aunt. She was looking down at him, her eyes a bit warmed by amusement as her one hand came to rest on his head, stroking his hair. "My dear nephew, you are still young. Politics can be played, and I rather doubt you'd be upset with me becoming head of your house."
Draco turned back to the fireplace, a smirk on his face as he shook his head slightly, just beginning to relax when there was a tap at the window, drawing a sigh of annoyance from his aunt. He looked up at her, and she nodded. He stood to go to the window, taking the message bound to the leg of the black owl just before it flew off again, and closed the window before returning to the fireplace.
Victoria took the parchment from him, and cast a silencing ward around the area nearest the fireplace before she opened it. Her eyes quickly scanned it, and she handed it to Draco to read after she was done, and he perused it as swiftly as she had done, before tossing it into the flame, and watching it burn. That had become habit and policy with most Death Eaters, no matter what the correspondence, even among family.
"That was certainly not what I was expecting. Truly, I hoped my brother would be a little more circumspect about what he does in front of the Ministry. It doesn't matter, afterall, that they are fools, they can still kill you."
Draco was still staring into the fire, standing there in shock. His continued silence drew a sharp look from his aunt, followed by a soft sigh.
"He will be fine, Draco. Lucius has always had an extraordinary amount of luck on his side. It's kept him alive so far... though barely."
Draco shook his head. "After he spend that month in Azkaban, before holding him became a serious political liability, he hasn't been the same. Mum's worried that even that short stint there has driven him over the edge."
His aunt indicated the empty chair. "Sit. I will get you a cup of tea." She paused as she summoned over the necessary items for tea. "There is a deeper plan here, I'm sure. I do not know what it is, as I am not privy to it, but I would well know if your father was truly insane. I wouldn't have this job if he was, because I'd be hard pressed to keep my own sanity." A wry smile crossed her face. "The disadvantage of being twins, you can say."
Draco nodded, accepting a cup of tea from her. He sipped the hot drink, the two falling silent as both drank, and enjoyed the silence. As he drained the cup, Draco glanced at the time. "I should leave, at least pretend to make my prefect rounds."
"Or someone might think something's amiss. Of course, nephew mine. Appearences do mean quite a bit. I shall be seeing you in class tomorrow, and remember that there I am your professor, not your aunt, not even someone you've met before."
Draco smirked. "Of course."
***
Author's Note: Please let me know what you think of the story. You can email me comments and questions at captainisabellaraven@yahoo.com as well as leaving a review here. And if you'd like updates on all my fics, or to get a chance to read the new chapters and stories before anyone else, join my mailing list at . Thank you! - Isabella/Morgyn