Ryu was scowling at the wall. She had been tricked, and she didn't like it at all, in fact, she hated it. Shikamaru sighed as he turned his head to her. "Ryu-chan, would you please stop scowling?"

"Why should I?! You tricked me, you- you- argh!" Ryu threw her hands up and Shikamaru grinned, then walked over to her, sat down and pulled her in his lap. "Aw, Ryu-chan, it isn't that bad. You can humiliate them. Maybe even a little torture?"

She snuggled close to him and closed her eyes. "That's true, that's true… And it isn't as if we can change it now."

Shikamaru nodded and they both fell silent, enjoying the company.

~Flashback~

They were all sitting around the room they were provided with. It was a large common room, with two large rooms, one for the boys, the other for the girls. Strange ugly creatures called house-elves provided them with food and drinks. Shikamaru just came back from a last meeting with Dumbledore, and he was now telling them what had happened.

"…and he also asked for one of us as a assistant for the Defense against the Dark Arts lessons."

"Nani?!"

All the shinobi cried out at the same time. Neji glared at Shikamaru. "Why should we have to teach those little brats?!"

"Because then we can keep a close eye on that Umbridge woman. And you only have to teach the Fifth years and the Seventh years." Shikamaru sighed deeply. "It isn't my idea of fun, but we'll have to do it. The one to do it has to have a little experience in teaching. Which one of you has ever taught in the Academy?"

The room was silent until slowly Ryu lifted her hand. "I've had a mission once, we had to teach the Academy for two months, their teacher was sick."

"Good! That's decided." Shikamaru sighed happily and laid back. "That's all."

Everybody snickered at the face of Ryu, who was doing a great impression of a fish. She then glared at everybody, and started scowling at the wall while Shikamaru went off to Dumbledore to tell him who would do the job.

~End flashback~

Time passed, and soon it was time for the Weasly children and Harry to head back to Hogwarts. They all went towards the train station after they said their goodbyes to Sirius, who had been strangely happy for the passed time. As they boarded the Hogwarts Express, they found an empty compartment and immediately settled down. Harry was frowning. "I still don't know who Sirius' friend is. He doesn't want to tell anyone."

Ron sighed. "I know mate, I don't understand how he managed to keep it in. But the better thing is that he isn't as angry to be left inside anymore."

"Yeah, that's true." Ginny piped up. She frowned in confusion. "I heard him talk to someone over the Floo I believe, he at least was talking to someone. He was laughing and making the other person promise to visit him soon. It sounded like a young man."

Hermione looked at them al, then sighed deeply. "We will find out in time, guys. Just have some patience."

Ron and Harry grumbled, then sat in silence. The trip was quiet, until the door slid open to reveal Draco Malfoy and his lackeys. Malfoy sneered. "Not so tough now, are you, Potter? You will see that you made the wrong decision the day you decided to throw away my hand in friendship."

Harry growled. "Get out of my sight, Malfoy."

"Ooh, a bit angry, are you? Well, you'll end up just like that idiot Diggory, as dead as a stone." Malfoy sneered even more as Harry jumped up, followed by Ginny, Hermione and Ron. All of them had their wands out, a motion that was followed by Malfoy and friends. Just as they were about to shoot spells at each other, a cold voice stopped them dead in their tracks.

"No fighting on the train. Lower your wands. Now." The words were harsh and spoken with a strange sounding, heavy accent. A male. All the students backed off and put their wands away as a single, heavily cloaked person emerged from the shadows. They could see a strange white mask with red lines under the hood. A mask that vaguely resembled a raven.

Harry gulped. It was one of the guards, one of the people Sirius had told them not to cross. The masked person looked at them all, gazing over them with a chilling look. "You are warned."

He backed off, and merged once again in the shadows. Malfoy and his goons quickly disappeared, and Harry and friends sat back in their compartment. Hermione and Ginny were shaking, and all the others also looked quite disturbed. Ron swallowed. "Bloody hell! No wonder Sirius told us to stay away from them!"

"Yeah, that one was more frightening than a Dementor!" Ginny shivered. "I never heard or saw him coming."

Harry nodded gravely. "I think we have to keep a good eye out."

The others agreed with him and they went on with their own business.

Harry and the others were silent as soon as they stepped into the Great Hall. On both sides of the head table stood a masked person, and in one of the chairs at the table, the one next to a woman that looked like a toad, sat another one. That person was more visible than the others, as she wore no cloak. It was a woman with long brown, a bit shaggy, hair and a mask that resembled some sort of serpent with blue lines instead of red as the others. Her clothes were black with some sort of armor on her rump and lower arms for as far they could see. She seemed to be studying everybody who came into the Hall, and Harry shivered as her eyes passed over him. Everybody took his or her seat, and the feast started. Halfway through, Hermione let out an irritated sigh. "I can't even see that woman eat!"

"Huh?" Ron and Harry reacted at the same time. Ginny rolled her eyes and pointed at the masked woman. "What Hermione means, that we haven't seen her lift her mask once during the entire feast. Doesn't she eat?"

"She eats." Hermione nodded. "I've seen her take some food, and it disappeared from her plate."

"Oookay…" Harry scratched his head. "Well, I guess that Professor Dumbledore will introduce her some time. She is sitting at the teachers table, after all."

Hermione sighed, then started eating again.

It was the end of the dinner, and Dumbledore stood up, smiling. "Welcome back, students, for another year at Hogwarts. As you might have noticed, we have some special guards to protect the school. One of them will also be co-teaching Defense against the Dark Arts to the Fifth and Seventh years, together with Professor Umbridge. Please give a warm applause to Dragon."

Harry, Hermione and Ron gasped at the name, as the woman stood up and made a small bow to the Hall as they applauded politely for her. Dumbledore smiled at her with twinkling eyes, but she threw him one glance and he immediately adverted his vision, once again looking at the students. He smiled again. "As Lord Voldemort has once again risen, we must work together, and be able to trust each other. I know that you are more than capable of working all together and I-"

"Hem hem."

Dumbledore looked in surprise at the toad like woman next to Dragon. He tried to continue with his speech, but the woman interrupted again. "Hem hem."

The students started talking with each other, and Dumbledore sat down, surprised. The woman stood up, looking over the heads of the students. "Hem hem. Thank you for your kind words, Professor. Well, children, my name is Dolores Umbridge, and I am your new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, one that is authorized by the Ministry. Now, I have-"

This time Umbridge was cut of by a low growl from the woman next to her. Her voice was a low drawl, with a strange accent to it. "Never heard of manners, woman? Dumbledore was still speaking, so you shut your mouth. You don't have any permission to speak. Sit down, and keep quiet."

Now the entire hall was quiet. Umbridge turned red, then white, then sat down with a thud. Dragon looked at her for a while, then nodded at Dumbledore. "If you would continue, sir, the attention is all yours now."

Dumbledore smiled a sparkling smile at her, then stood up. The other teachers also looked a bit like a mix of contend and shocked, but settled for smugness as Dumbledore spoke again. "Well, that was interesting. I think you all have heard enough speeches for now, so hop hop, off to bed!"

He clapped in his hands and slowly the students started to fill out of the Great Hall, whispering under each other about the two new teachers, and what had happened.

Shikamaru sighed as he looked at Ryu, who had a satisfied grin on her face. "Did you see her face, Shika-kun? I just couldn't resist!"

"Yeah, yeah." Shikamaru rubbed his head. "You do know you just royally pissed her off, don't you?"

"I know." Ryu smirked. "But she can't do anything about it. The Fifth-years have two hours of DADA a week, the same with the Seventh years. She gives one lesson, I give one lesson, we can't interfere with each other, but we do have to be present for both the lessons. I can piss her off as much as I want. She holds no power over me. Not now, not ever."

Shikamaru smirked and pulled Ryu close. The were sitting in one of the large chairs that were place in front of the fire in the common room. All the shinobi except three of them were all scattered around the room. The three that were absent were on patrol duty. Ryu tucked her head under Shikamaru's chin, sighing happily and curling herself around him. Shikamaru responded by wrapping his arm even tighter around her. Naruto, who was sitting close to them reading a scroll, looked up and grinned. "You know, I have trouble seeing where Ryu ends and Shikamaru starts. If Ero-sennin were here, I'm sure he would get plenty of inspiration from the two of you."

Ryu didn't respond, but Shikamaru threw such a dirty glare at Naruto, that he flinched and started mumbling under his breath. "You've been practicing Ryu's glare…"

Shikamaru smirked. "I heard that, Naruto."

Naruto swore, burying his head once again in his scroll. Sasuke and Hinata, who were both also sitting in the room, both respectively snickered and giggled because of Naruto, then silence fell once again over the room. After a while Ryu shifted. "Hey guys?"

"Hm?" Was the overall response.

"I have not a single clue what I should teach those kids."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

Naruto frowned. "You can't teach them anything about chakra or our jutsu's."

"Yeah."

"What about physical training?" Hinata spoke from her couch.

"Physical training?"

"Yeah, you know, dodging and stuff."

"Oooh. Well, that's an idea."

Sasuke looked up from whatever he was doing. "You could make them run around the castle."

Ryu's eyes started glinting dangerously. "It starts to sound even better. Oh yes, I can definitely do something with that. Those wizards are way too slow and lazy. I will do something about that."

Shikamaru stared at Hinata and Sasuke with an accusing glare. "See what you have done?! Now she is in her torture-students-mode again!" He threw his arms protectively around her. "I will protect you from those evil thoughts, Ryu-chan!"

Ryu giggled and snuggled back into Shikamaru. "Oh, don't worry Shika. I've already got some ideas, and I've got even more time to think about it during that woman's lessons. Yes, this is going to be fun…"

With a last evil giggle, she and the rest of the shinobi once again fell in silence.

Ryu looked carefully over all students. It was breakfast time, and most of the Great Hall was filled with soft chatter from the students. Several times they threw cautious glances to her. Ryu smirked under her mask. Nothing was better than scaring little kids. Of course, the fact that those kids were only a few years younger than her didn't matter.

"Hem hem."

Slowly, Ryu turned her head to face Umbridge, who flinched under the gaze of the seemingly black eyeholes. "What?"

"Today are the first lessons. I will teach today, you teach the other lesson." Umbridge tried to sound brave, but utterly failed at it.

"I know that, gama-onna. I will be on time." Ryu scowled at Umbridge under her mask, satisfied with the puzzled expression because of the name she called Umbridge. The woman shifted, then stood up. "Well then…" She wandered off. Ryu chuckled darkly. Oh, how she despised that toad-like woman, even after only meeting a few times. She was pompous, stuck-up, and a suck-up and loved using her power over the powerless. Ryu's head snapped up as a voice spoke in the radio-transmitter in her ear. "Dragon! Keep focused. You can scare her some other time."

Ryu grumbled, then nodded curtly, so Shikamaru, who was hiding in the shadows, could see her reaction. Not too long after that, breakfast ended and the students scurried off to their first lesson. A devilish smirk found it's way to a masked face. 'It is time to have some fun…'

Harry, Hermione and Ron quickly entered the DADA classroom. It was mostly decorated with pictures of kittens and the large desk in front as also decorated with pink things. Umbridge was already sitting behind it, with a large smile on her toad-like face.

In a dark corner was another desk, one that drew more attention. It was dark, with a few closed off boxes on it and a few smudged books and scrolls. Behind it sat Dragon, with her feet propped up on the table and with a scroll in her hand, which she was obviously reading. She sat entirely still, not moving a muscle except for the occasionally twitch when she rolled the scroll further to read the contents. Hermione nodded towards her, and softly spoke with Ron and Harry as the class filled up with people from various houses. "See that? She looks just like some statue, sitting so still."

Immediately after those words, Dragon lifted her head and stared straight at Hermione, who stifled a gasp. After a few moments they got the impression the person smirked behind her mask, and then Dragon looked back at her scroll.

"She heard me!" Hermione was shocked.

"Nah, that can't be." Ron tried to be reassuring, but it didn't help much. After some more time in which Hermione was freaking out, the doors closed and Umbridge stood up. "Now, all of you, children, welcome at the Defense against the Dark Arts class. I am Professor Umbridge, and I will be teaching every first lesson of the week. You will be reading from your book. The second lesson will be taught-"

"by me."

Umbridge looked cross at first for being interrupted, but soon sat down as Dragon placed her scroll on the desk and walked in front of the class. They got their first good look of her. She was wearing some sort of sleeveless uniform with light armor, arm guards and leg guards. Her long hair was pulled in a high ponytail and she wore some sort of long black gloves. On her left upper arm was a strange tattoo. Dragon peered around the room, quieting it at once. "As an opposite of Umbridge here, I will be teaching you the more… physical… ways of defending yourself against dark arts. I expect nothing but devotion for my lessons and respect for my person, or you will face severe punishment. I do not take being insulted lightly. I never warn twice after an offence. You are warned." She stalked back to her desk in the corner, picking up her scroll and ignoring the rest of the lesson.