AN: Please review, whether you liked it or think it's a terrible story. I won't know any better until I see some comments :)

Chapter 3

Dinner was held in the great hall and it was the first time Cynthia opted to participate rather than have food delivered to her office by something called house elves. She hadn't yet seen one in person, but they never failed to leave plates of food outside the door 3 times a day.

Liyya met her friend outside the great hall 15 minutes before the meal started, looking concerned about something.

Before they could even exchange greetings, Liyya pulled Cynthia aside and asked whether she had received one of the Quidditch invitations.

"Actually I did," Cynthia answered innocently, "But I figured it was something I could worry about later."

Liyya shook her head, glancing suspiciously at the lines of hungry students that passed and lowering her voice. "No, this is bad."

Cynthia froze and concern overtook her face.

Liyya did her best to explain. "Dumbledore has decided it would be a good idea to hold a Quidditch match for the professors to take part in, as sort of a novelty for the students. As brilliant as he is, I'll admit he comes up with some ideas that make little to no sense sometimes..."

"And..?" Cynthia pressed, wanting to hear what was so bad about it.

"The game is played on broomsticks. You won't be able to participate."

"That's not really a big deal," Cynthia said. "I'll just decline; I'm not a sports person anyway."

"No" Liyya hissed. "if you turn it down without a good reason, it'll look suspicious. You can't afford to draw too much attention to yourself."

Cynthia was convinced Liyya's overly desperate attempts at being furtive would blow the cover more than anything, but agreed to let her friend come up with the perfect excuse.

"I'll think of something, I promise. We have until Friday, so let me take care of this one." Liyya cleared her throat and looked around again just to make sure nobody had overheard.

---

They were the last 2 professors to enter the Great Hall, finding that everybody had started to eat without them.

"We'll talk after dinner about the plans for your classes tomorrow" Liyya promised, taking her place in between Professors Flitwick and Sprout. To Cynthia's disappointment, the only empty seat left was conveniently sandwiched between Severus Snape and the far left wall. Given the choices, she supposed the wall would make better conversation.

Barely giving her a chance to sit down, Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement.

"Attention! before we continue, I'd like to introduce everybody to Professor Gray. She will be temporarily taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts, seeing as Professor Ingstrom will not be returning."

A pale, blonde boy in green robes nudged his friends and they didn't bother to hide their laughter at hearing this. The Headmaster cleared his throat and continued.

"I will make certain that your new professor is treated her with kindness and respect for however long she is with us at Hogwarts. That is all."

The chatter and noise resumed around the hall and Cynthia looked down at her plate. Glazed ham, potatoes, and some kind of salad. The ordinary food served as a reminder of the life she temporarily left and filed her with sadness. A familiar face surfaced in her mind and she quickly pushed it down; he was probably dead and not worth lingering on right now.

"Pass the pumpkin juice." The voice next to Cynthia pulled her back into the present, and she glanced at the two pitchers at the far end of the table, not sure which was which.

"Nevermind, I'll have to do it myself." Severus grew impatient and made a big scene of reaching over her plate to grab the juice, handing it to the older woman sitting next to him. Cynthia hadn't met her yet, but nodded when the witch acknowledged her with a friendly smile.

The eyes and whispers of several students were directed in her direction, and she knew the rumors had started early, though there was little to base them on at this point. She chose to ignore the attention and focus on picking at the food.

---

After dinner, it was all Cynthia could do to resist heading straight for her bed, with a brief detour to a fast disappearing bottle of Xanax. But Liyya was waiting for her outside the great hall.

"I'm really tired and since we've gone over the lesson plans at least 5 times, I think we'll be fine tomorrow."

"Okay," Liyya agreed. "you need to rest. But first, I have something important to give you." They descended towards the lower castle together, waiting until they were alone before Liyya produced a thin wand from inside her robes.

"Don't worry, it's just a prop" she said in a low voice. "Looks real enough, right?"

Cynthia nodded, never having seen a real wand up close and not really knowing the difference anyway.

Liyya again stressed her formula for success. "Appearance is EVERYthing. Okay, maybe 90% of it. Even you're a good enough actress to fake the other 10% though."

Cynthia took the prop wand and put it away, ready to get the first day over with already. Liyya promised to show up at the classroom at least 30 minutes ahead of time and they hugged each other good night, with Cynthia waiting until she was alone to walk back to her quarters.

On the way, Neville Longbottom came running through the door, nearly knocking her down. He picked himself up and sheepishly admitted that Snape had finally managed to get him after dinner.

"Said I'd be cleaning out rusty old cauldrons all night...without magic. At least Weasley opened his big mouth and said something, so I won't be doing it alone." He shrugged and continued to the Potions room.

Staring down the dark hall, Cynthia was suddenly overtaken by a wave of exhaustion and decided that maybe she wouldn't need the Xanax tonight.