The carriage cam at a slow pace up the long drive to the school. The three occupants shivered in the cold, rainy, night air. It was the threes' sixth year at Hogwarts, and they were looking forward to being back. As the carriage reached the entrance way they scampered out of the carriage and scurried into the castle with all their other classmates.
The silence that had enveloped the school at the end of last year was for the most part gone, with only small lapses of it now and then. When the students entered into the Great Hall it was filled with the usual amount of chatter and catching up chitchat that was always there at the beginning of the year. Harry, Hermione, and Ron took seats at the Gryffindor table and started to discuss the topics of the summer; also the ever-popular topic of the stranger now sitting at the Staff Table, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
The man was ordinary looking, and to the disappointment of some, he did not look to be a vampire, in fact he looked uninteresting and ordinary. There was no strange stuttering that they could see, no ratty clothing, no strange habits that they could detect like their past few teachers. There was something strange though, Professor Snape, who was notorious for hating the teacher in the DATD position, was actually having a seemingly pleasant conversation with the young looking man, for the new teacher looked to be only 24 or 25 years old. The new professor had brown hair that went down to his chin; it was a little scruffy and unkept looking. His robes were black just as the students were, and his face was cleanly shaven. Snape and him seemed to be getting along quite well, there was no glare from the potion's master to be seen, and the other teachers would join in their conversation from time to time.
Finally the first-years entered and the hall quieted to wath them be sorted into their respectable houses. Next, Dumbledor stood as he does every year with the few announcements to be made at the beginning of the feast:
"Welcome back to Hogwarts for all of those returning, though it seems we have lost our most mischievous pair of red-heads a year too soon. I would like to remind you of the rules of our school, and also of the rules Mr. Filch has just put in place this year, put for those, I'm afraid you will have to ask him. But onto other things, I welcome you all back to your studies, and I'm glad that all of you are returning to us safely for these are indeed troubling times, but the good news is, Voldemort had not been herard from. Though I'm sure many of you have heard about a few of his followers, the ministry has captured them and the ministry is always hunting more down. Indeed I hope that we all have a safe and happy school year, and to conclude, Plip, Plop, Rocket Socks."
(Hey I was bored, sue me)
With those last few words the feast of the beginning of the year began and all of the students dug in, though many of them found it strange that Dumbledor didn't introduce the new teacher, maybe he forgot, after all Dumbledor wasn't exactly a spring chicken anymore. At the end of the feast the students all started to head towards their dorms, filled with the cooking of Hogwarts and for many of them, glad to be back, but dreading the first day of school the next morning.
The next day was gray and over cast, the clouds from last night refusing to leave the school grounds, preferring to linger in place of the usual sunlight. The students all filtered into the Great Hall to get their breakfast and to receive the first mail delivery of the school year, children receiving forgotten books, socks, or receiving letters from parents already missing them. Many of the students were looking gloomily upon their schedules. Many of the first years were trying to figure out how to get from one class to the next one without being late.
"Oh great, we got potions first with Slytherin, just how I wanted to start my year," Ron said with a sigh as he plopped his spoon into the gray mush of his oatmeal.
"Come on Ron, at least we get it over with first, then we have Defense Against the Dark Arts with the new professor," Hermione said as she took a sip of Pumpkin juice.
"Strange how Dumbledor didn't introduce him last night, isn't it. I mean he usually always does, but I'm just thankful that Umbridge isn't back this year, I don't think my hand could take another detention, my skin is still healing from the last one, I think I'll always have that bloody scar," Harry grumbled as he rubbed his hand, both Hermione and Ron shook their heads.
"I think the ministry is too busy with other things than try to get Dumbledor to be normal, but it's good that they have caught three Deatheaters," Hermione sighed as she put some jam on her toast and took a bite.
"Yeah, but my dad said that some of the workers at the ministry weren't to happy about Fudge going out and telling the Prophet that they had caught the Deatheaters, he said that the ones who caught them want Fudge to stay quite about it," Ron replied as he scooped some eggs into his mouth.
"But why would they want to do that, wouldn't it be good for the ministry to tell us that they were doing something about the Deatheaters?" Hermione asked as she looked at her schedule and compared it to the two boys'.
"Yeah it's good for Fudge's image, but think of the people who are out there catching the guys. I mean even Moony and all of them haven't gotten any orders to go after Deatheaters; it's only the higher ups that are going after them my dad said," Ron smiled as he grabbed the last pumpkin pastry.
"What do you mean," Harry asked as Hedwig landed on his shoulder.
"The ones who you never hear about in the papers, they work in the shadows, they do more than just the stuff that Tonks and Mooney do, they work in all the hard core stuff, they're the best of the best.
"My dad says that they call them Protectors, if you ever meet one of them you are lucky. And their leader is the Head Protector, he has to be the best of the best. They are given other jobs at the ministry too, so you don't know that they are protectors," Ron stated matter-of-factly. "Also, a lot of those guys don't have families, they are too busy and all of the stuff they do is classified."
"Interesting as this is, we had better hurry or else we're gonna be late for potions, and I don't really want to get detention on my first day, "Hermione said as she packed up her stuff and stood up from the table.
"Yeah, I guys we should get going." With that the three headed into the stream of other students heading out of the Great Hall. They quickly made their way to the dungeons to begin their torture.
AFTER POTIONS"Man, I never thought that class would end," Harry said with a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, even I didn't think that Snape was cruel enough to give us a ten page assignment for homework on the origin of the daughter of death potion for homework, due tomorrow, and also make us make a shrinking potion all on the first day," Hermione sighed as she shook her head.
"It's Snape, what did you think he would do, give us a break?" Harry muttered as they headed up the Main Staircase and to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
"Yeah, guess you're right Harry, what was I thinking?" Ron sighed as they walked into the room and took seats towards the back.
"Geeze, this room sure looks different from the last time we were in here," Hermione stated as she looked around. The room's ceiling was enhanced to look like a night sky, and the walls were all a dark blue color, the mirrors of the year before were all gone. Instead there was a bookcase across one wall, all of it filled with books that were to numerous to count. The front wall of the classroom had a large cabinet with glass doors on it. Inside there were things that were on pillows and some of them seemed to shine like metal, thought the front of the room was too dark to see them properly.
"Yikes, this guy seems to like the dark a lot doesn't he?" Ron asked as he looked about.
"The ceiling is cool though," Harry supplied his input as he glazed up at it, "It's pretty neat with all of the starts and stuff, wonder if it changes..."
"Who knows, but where is the new teacher, I don't see him anywhere, and class was supposed to start a couple of minutes ago," Hermione stated as she looked around the room.
"Hello." All of the students in the room stopped talking as a figure walked up to the desk that was just before the curtain of shadows in the front of the room. "Sorry if I scared you," the man said chuckling. "I honestly didn't mean to, and I'm sorry I'm late, I had some personal business to take care of, I'll try not be late again. I will be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and my name is Anthony Johnson, it's very nice to meet all of you.
"This year I will be teaching you how to defend yourself against the Dark Arts without teaching you the Dark Arts. You will learn how to cast curses, counter-curses, and also you will be learning how to duel properly. Don't be afraid to ask for help in this class, if you don't understand something, tell me. I will help you all, all that I can. Now are there any questions?" Several hands went up,
"What kind of counter-curses will you teach us?"
"Will we learn any curses?"
"How old are you?"
"Did you go to Hogwarts?"
"What did you do before you came here?"
"Have you ever used any of the stuff you are going to teach us?"
"Whoa, guys, slow down," Anthony said as he chuckled. "Now, to answer some of your questions. You'll have to wait to find out, yes you will, that is for me to know, yes I did go to school here, I worked just like anybody else, and yes I have used some if not all of the things I will be teaching you. There, now anymore questions? No? Okay, Moving on...." With that class continued on and so did the next few months of school, the students started to take a liking to the new DATDA teacher and the castle fell under it's usual way of things.