Chapter Six

New Class, New Teachers.

Draco twirled the quill in his long fingers. He missed Ginny. He had seen her that morning at breakfast, but with Potter in Slytherin and freely roaming the halls, he wanted her nearby to protect her. Not that there was anything to fear from the git, but he had managed to get himself quite a following. He couldn't wait for the next class, Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Ginny had gotten permission to move up into.

He looked at his paper and realized he had drawn a quick sketch of Ginny. He smiled.

The door to the room opened as the school bell rang out the hour, and in walked the object of his affection. Her crimson hair was mussed since that morning. Her freckled cheeks were flushed and he resisted the urge to smile. What was Ginn doing here? This was an advanced class. No one else from her year had even been allowed to sign up for this class. Not that she needed it.

Ginny walked by him to the front of the class and suddenly Draco understood. He grinned.

Ginny caught his eye and turned away, but not before Draco saw a smile steal over her lips.

She wrote her name on the board.

"Good morning class. I'd introduce myself, but doubtless you all know me from some various escapade over the three years I've been here."

This brought chuckles. Draco saw Ginny's shoulders relax into a more comfortable position and resisted the urge to cheer her on. She had to do this herself.

"As you may or may not know, I am an Animagus. I was born this way and have spent the majority of my life learning to control this. However, Only one in a million witches or wizards carry the gene that allows this let alone exhibit it. Both my parents were carriers but only I show the trait. Anyone know why?"

A scattering of hands in the group of thirty students went up, Hermione's among them. Ginny surveyed the crowd. She pointed to a Slytherin, Maxine Straus. "Max?"

"Um, Well, if you follow the rules of basic Chemistry, your mother and father were only carriers so statistics say that only one forth of their children would actually hold enough of the gene to be able to display the trait sufficently."

Ginny nodded. "Anyone know why of seven children, I was the only one to display it?"

This time she called on a Hufflepuff, Hector Drake, a seventh year. "Well, this branch of chemistry is based on probability, not fact, so it would be easy for the gene to play around as it pleased."

Ginny smiled. "Good. Oh and five points to each of your houses."

The rest of the class went pretty fine after that. The entire class didn't seem to mind talking about a single gene the entire class period and Indeed Draco barely noticed the passage of time until Ginny looked at her watch.

"Aie! Almost kept you too long. Off with you all." She made a shooing motion and picked up her books. The class left, still discussing what they had learned. Draco and Hermione waited for Ginny to lock the class room as was required and then walked to DADA.

"You were fantastic, love." Draco reassured her. He kissed her forehead as Hermione repeated the asurance.

The three met Ron outside the classroom. Ron breifly glared at the sight of Draco's arm around Ginny, but Hermione spirited him away.

Inside the class room they were met by their new Teacher. As the students sat down, he wrote his name on the board. "Hello Every one. My name is Daisuke Niwa. And I'll be your Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher this year."

Hermione suddenly blanched and put a hand to her head. Ron looked at her, worry on his face. "Mione? You Ok?"

Hermione didn't respond for a moment. Then she brought forth a smile and nodded. There was somthing she didn't like about this teacher. Something was off. Even so, why did she feel attracted to him?

(A/N: Brownie points to who ever can tell me where the teacher's name is from.)