SugaBaby15: Alright, I have not written in a while and I think I have learned alot from my last story. Let me give everyone a little background before we go on to the story. I am starting in the fifth book of Harry Potter, The Order of the Phoenix. I will be changing some things that happen in the book, so if you don't like changes...get over it. If you want me to update you will have to review and tell me how I am doing! Thank you and enjoy!
The smoke billowed from the red train's stack and into the faces of the young students boarding its carriages. Young first years looked almost faint after walking through the wall to the platform of 9 ¾. A young girl with dark hair stood to the side watching all of the students pile through and rush onto the train. The woman's icy blue eyes passed over each one memorizing their faces in an instant. A small scar on her cheek tingled as a young man with black hair and glasses rushed past her. Her eyes darted to him immediately, a rush of pain shot up her spine and she gasped slightly. She lowered her head to avoid any eyes that looked her way. Blood dripped down her scar onto her hand; her sights fell onto her hand as she watched as the blood spelled out words across her palm then disappeared.
The train whistle blew and she turned quickly on her heel and boarded the train. Her hand quickly whipped away any blood on her cheek as she walked down the hallways looking for an empty compartment. Her eyes darted from one student to another as she passed through the halls. Many students were in deep conversations of the newest gossip, and seemed very displeased with her when she opened the door of their compartment. Finally she found a compartment with only a sleeping student and settled into the other seat. Her eyes passed over the child quickly and she could tell he was only a first year. She threw her bags onto the luggage rack above the seats. Her scar was still tingling, that meant the boy she was looking for was close. Sighing she closed her eyes and slid down into the seat and fell into a fitful sleep, she was awoken by the sound of boys talking.
"Who do you think she is?" one voice asked, it sounded high pitched and squeaky, like a young boy just hitting puberty.
"Probably another new teacher, but they don't usually travel on the trains." another voice, more adult sounding answered.
"Her baggage says Professor Jennifer Maddock. Though she does look better dressed than Professor Lupin, I wonder what she will be teaching." A girl's voice replied. Her voiced seemed soft, yet sophisticated and full of knowledge.
"Yes, my name is Jennifer Maddock and I am the new teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts." She mumbled sitting up and pulling her straight black hair out of her face revealing her distant blue eyes.
"Oh, Professor! We didn't wake you did we?" The girl jumped back as if startled.
"Oh no, I probably need to wake up, I don't think appearing in my muggle clothing would be very appeasing to Professor Dumbledore." The woman waved her hand with a slight laugh and stood to her fullest height and stretched slightly. Her youthful characteristics shown brightly and she could have very easily fit in as a student, except for her eyes, dark and mysterious as they were they seemed to hold a bit more wisdom that any student could have.
"Professor…how old are you?" The words slipped off the young girls tongue before she could catch them. The two boys sitting beside her gave her warning looks that made Jennifer smile.
"I'm twenty-one years old. Do I look old to you?" She smiled a warm smile. This giving her even more beauty.
"No, not at all." A young boy with red hair and freckles blurted out, then blushed slightly.
"Thank you. And you three would be students I am assuming?" Her eyes passed over each one noticing different things about each one, and then her eyes settled on a well known boy in the wizarding world, "Harry Potter, well this is a surprise. I was not expecting the pleasure of being able to teach you; of course I am sure you could do just fine without my help." Her eyes seemed to look into his sole as she watched him.
"I look forward to your classes, now excuse me and my friends while we get into our robes, we will be at Hogwarts soon." the girl smiled and stood to open the door.
"What are your names, I forgot to ask you two." her hands motioned for them to stay while she pulled her baggage out of the rack and onto the seat and began pulling her own robes out of the bags. The dark black robes were decorated with a midnight blue trim that made her eyes stand out more than they already did.
"My name is Hermione, and that is Ron." her tone sounded as though she was disgusted at the boy, but when Jennifer cast questioning glances toward them, Hermione smiled at him and stood up, "Well Professor we really must be going, we have to get changed and get the first years to Hagrid."
Jennifer merely nodded her head and turned back to her luggage. When the three of the students had walked out of the compartment Jennifer placed her hand over her throbbing scar and closed her eyes. Visions of flames, snakes and corpses filled her mind and she quickly opened her eyes again. Her lord was busy at the moment doing things she did not wish to see. Her eyes traveled down to her hand where a mark was engraved into her skin. It always burned red when her master called for her, but now it seemed like a dormant volcano waiting to blow. She could still feel the scar on her face throbbing; the boy she was hunting must have been close, very close. She sighed and changed into her robes and walked to the window of the train, her eyes watched the landscape change before her as it passed.
Once inside the school Harry found Ron and Hermione and found a seat in the Great Hall. The usual ceremony of sorting the students into their houses passed without any unusual interruptions, once the sorting was over Dumbledore stood and spread his arms in warm welcoming to all the students who had come back to the school. His eyes peering over his half-moon spectacles as though he was looking for someone but then turned his attention to the staff table where Professor Maddock sat in all her beauty, the youngest of the teachers by far, and the most interesting. She did not wear a witch's hat like most of the female teachers did, but left her hair down and let it dangle in her face. Her eyes swept over the hall as the students all turned their attention to her.
"I am pleased to announce we have a new staff member for the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Professor Maddock will now be our Defense Against Dark Arts Teacher, and she will make a very good one at that. Her skills I have no doubt, are the best I have seen so far." Dumbledore turned and gave a warm smile to his new staff member and she returned on and stood and bowed her head and sat back into her chair. Her eyes did not change; they still swept across the tables searching for a face.
Dumbledore smiled and clapped his hands once and the feast began. The students were eager to eat and did not spend too much time lingering on the astonishing looks of their new teacher. The girls of Griffindor seemed to burst with gossip about this new teacher, though Harry could tell no one really knew anything about her, or why Dumbledore seemed so fond of her.
After dinner there were a few more announcements and then the students were sent off to their dormitories for a good nights sleep.
The next morning Harry awoke to Ron's loud laughter. His eyes opened lazily as his hand fumbled around for his glasses. Ron was perched on the side of his bed talking to Neville about his classes; apparently Neville had gotten stuck with having Potions first class. Harry sat up slowly and picked up his own schedule. His first class was Transfiguration, then he had Herbology, and after that he had Defense Against the Dark Arts with the new teacher he looked forward to learning more about. He dressed quickly and joined Ron as he walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Transfiguration and Herbology were uneventful other than the fact that they already had homework. Harry walked along side Hermione and Ron who argued about something that Harry had not even bothered to pay attention to. His mind lingered on the fact that he had not heard from Sirius all summer. He wondered if maybe he had been caught and imprisoned again but he knew if Sirius had been caught it would have been in the Daily Prophet. So his mind raced about what the fate of his god father was. He snapped out of his daze when they walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts class room and looked around to find the room looked nothing like what they had seen before. Instead of stone walls that had always been barren, great tapestries of mythological creatures now covered them. Candles light up the room to the point it looked like the Great Hall, and in the front of the room, Professor Maddock stood in all her glory in her black and blue cloak.
Her hair was pulled back today into an elegant bun and her eyes shone brightly. Harry noticed a scar on the side of her check and wondered how she had gotten it. She wore dark blue gloves that covered her hands but showed the ends of her fingers. The class had already filed in and Harry noticed a lot of the boys sitting in the front seats, he smirked when he saw Draco Malfoy in the front and center seat. He shook his head and walked over to the seat where Ron and Hermione sat, still in deep conversation, as if not noticing the change in the room.
A loud sound disrupted all the talking in the class room and everyone looked up front to see Professor Maddock with a long slender stick against the desk. A smile crossed her face when everyone looked up at her and she set the stick against the wall and walked in front of her desk.
"I'm and Professor Maddock, I am sure you have heard of me," she smiled at Harry and Ron and walked to the other side of the room, "But I would like you to get to know a few things about me, and I would like to get to know a few things about you all. So we are going to play a little game. Each person will have a number, I will go first and say something about myself, then I will call a random number and the person with that number must stand up and say their name and something most people in this room would not know about you. Nothing immature like 'I have black hair' it's pretty obvious you know." she smiled; her accent was different from the other teachers. She quickly assigned numbers and then sat on her desk and crossed her arms, "Alright, let's begin, My name is Jennifer, and I was born in England, but raised in America." she smiled as the class began to whisper, "Now I call on number twenty-three."
Hermione stood up and looked around the room, " My name is Hermione, and I have a cat named Crookshanks." her eyes seemed to hold doubt but Professor Maddock took interest in what she said and smiled and nodded for her to continue, " Number thirteen." she called sitting down quickly.
Draco Malfoy stood up from his chair to his fullest high, even though he was only fifteen he was tall and good looking for his age, his eyes passed over his teacher as he spoke, "My name is Draco, and I'm a Prefect for Slytherin." the pride on his face swelled as some of the girls around the room looked at him, but Professor Maddock simply yawned, "I call number five." he snapped seeing the look on the Professor's face put him in a foul mood.
Neville Longbottom stood to talk but the door slammed open before he could speak, there standing at the door was an excited looking man in is thirties. His gray eyes swept over the students quickly and caught on a face. Harry Potter stood up, his eyes almost popping out of his head. The other students moved away from the door and whispered warnings to stay away from the man, for he was crazed.
"Excuse me, Mr. Black, but I am trying to teach a class here." Professor Maddock's voice seemed rich with authority, her eyes on the man standing at her door.
"I am looking for someone; I will only need to speak to him for a moment." Sirius retorted.
"Well you can speak with him for a moment after class." she slid off of her desk and onto her feet. She may have been shorter than Sirius but she looked like she would put up a pretty good fight. Her eyebrows were raised daring him to question her. Sirius's eyes passed over to Harry and he nodded toward the boy, giving him the gesture to meet him outside after class. Then as suddenly as he had come, Sirius walked out of the class room.
"I'm Neville, and I'm afraid of that man." Neville's voice broke the silence and there was a slight snigger from behind him. Professor Maddock smiled and sighed letting her eyes fall to the floor.
"Yes, his reputation does make him out to be a brute." her eyes lifted and she smiled at Neville, "But I believe his reputation was wrong. He is no murder and you will find that out soon when you read the Daily Prophet."
Harry's eyes almost fell out of his head when he heard that, "So that means he is innocent?"
"Oh yes, quite innocent. They found Peter Pettigrew a little less than a week ago. Sirius, Harry, is now a free man." she smiled at him and walked behind her desk, "Harry, if you can have your god father speak to me after he gets done with you I would appreciate it. I must have a word with him about barging in on my classes."
Harry smiled and nodded quickly, then gathered his stuff when she dismissed the class. He was the first one out the door and quickly found Sirius looking out a window on the other side of the hall.
"Sirius!" Harry called running down to his god father, who turned and gave him a warm smile. He looked a lot better than when Harry had last seen him. His face was fuller and his eyes were brighter and livelier. His body was more muscular and his facial hair had been shaved off, though his hair was still down to his shoulders, now it was brushed and well kept. His smile was now whiter and friendlier.
"Harry, look how much you have grown!" Sirius smiled and hugged Harry. His embrace was warm and Harry knew how much he, himself had missed Sirius.
"So how did they catch Pettigrew?" Harry questioned. He had to know who helped Sirius out.
"They told me it was a random letter telling the exact address of his location. They took the hint and caught him!" Sirius smiled looking down at Harry, who wasn't much shorter anymore.
"Wow, so you're a free man now huh?" Harry wanted to know how free Sirius actually was.
"Well… the ministry wants me to stay here at Hogwarts with Dumbledore watching over me. I think they are more worried about you-know-who than anything. I am a threat to him after all." Sirius explained.
"Where will you be sleeping?" Harry thought for a moment that maybe Dumbledore might have placed Sirius back into his old dorm, but then again Sirius was thirty-six now and was a little old to be in a dorm.
"He has prepared a special room for all my needs." Sirius pointed down the hall to his room.
"I see, well Professor Maddock said you shouldn't barge into her room while she is teaching a class anymore." Harry smirked slightly getting to the reason Professor Maddock sent him out early.
"Yes, well I didn't have much choice, I didn't know when I would be able to see you again. So I thought I would warn you of my presence before everyone else began telling you that your murderer of a godfather was here." His eyes looked up from Harry to see his two faithful companions arriving.
"Hello there, Sirius." Hermione smiled as she turned away from Ron.
"Hello, Hermione. And Ron! Maybe we can get off on the right foot, or leg in your case." Sirius smiled. Ron snorted and smiled.
"Harry, Ron, Hermione! You should probably be getting off to class right now. You will be able to talk more later. Sirius, Dumbledore has ordered me to give you a tour of the castle, seeing as I have no class right now." Professor Maddock walked up behind the three students and tilted her head slightly in disapproval at their actions.
"She's right Harry, you three better be off. See you at dinner." Sirius nodded and his smile faded slightly, but he knew she was right.
Harry was almost dragged away by Hermione who began fussing about how Ron was almost drooling over Professor Maddock during class. Ron's only reply was, " her name is Jennifer, the name of an angel." He still seemed slightly dazed as they entered the potions classroom.