Chapter Three: The New Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher

Tuesday had arrived at Hogwarts and Hermione, in particular, was not looking forward to it, for once in her life, because for some students, on other days, they took Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hermione knew she still had to do it, so she got up and met Ginny and Luna after breakfast.

The three of them reluctantly entered the classroom on the third floor and sat down at their desks to find spell books already all lined up. Hermione and Ginny sat at the same desk, whereas Luna sat next to Hannah. Hermione was starting to get nervous as to who the new teacher was going to be. Would this professor be true and stay to who they are? Would he or she stay in this position for more than just one year? They just had to wait and see.

Finally, it was now or never, the moment of truth. A woman was walking downstairs from the office to the front of the room: the woman was fair-skinned, had somewhat red hair, and had blue eyes. She wore a very casual, radiant suit; a black jacket, black skirt, and black shoes that looked like they sparkled in the night sky. "Welcome back to Defense Against the Dark Arts, seventh-years." She had a very sultry smile. "My name is Professor Periwinkle, and I am your new teacher for this term." Hermione raised an eyebrow as if this woman made a positive description on the post. Hearing the words "this term" was a little unsettling. Although under the circumstances, what other options did they have? Cancel the class altogether? Then again, it would be slightly safer.

"Since this will be your final year at Hogwarts, this will be your final chance to prepare yourselves and to perfect your revision for your N.E.W.T.s. Professor McGonagall had already given me the basics to this class, so I should know what I have to put up with. Now, since I'm new here," Professor Periwinkle went on, "I'd like to spend the rest of this time getting to know each and every one of you." "This is unsettling," Ginny told Hermione in a very soft whisper. Hermione was surprised. Ginny had read her mind.

The ladies all stood up, lining in a row. The chalkboard started to write on its own. One by one, Professor Periwinkle called them into her office. Hermione walked in and sat down. "You must be Miss Granger." Periwinkle smiled. "I am," Hermione told her. Periwinkle addressed her, "I understand you have quite a reputation of being the brightest witch of your age. Professor McGonagall really seems to think the world of you. I take it you're a very brilliant student in almost all of your classes." "Well, I wouldn't consider myself brilliant," Hermione felt herself blushing again, "I find myself to be more...highly logical. I mean, I've been reading these books since I was almost a first year." "Hm, I'll bet." Periwinkle seemed intrigued by this.

Periwinkle started to question Ginny next. "So, you are the youngest of seven and the only girl in the Weasley family. How do you feel about that?" "It's a mixed bag," Ginny answered. "It's not very easy to keep everything in order when you have a bunch of older brothers always hogging everything. Trust me, they can be a very big handful." "How was the death of your brother Fred for you?" "Terrible," Ginny replied. "Really, I don't know how we're ever going to move on from that. Especially George." "Hmm, well, you don't just like that overnight." Periwinkle was sympathizing with her just then. Ginny felt at peace.

"How would you describe your relationship with your father?" Periwinkle asked Luna. "Oh, what I have with Dad is unique. I consider him my best friend. We love a lot of invisible creatures and feel like all good wizards are created equally." "And I also know that he works with the Quibbler?" "Oh, more than works with it," Luna informed her. "He's the editor. Always up to the task and never backs out from a good story. If he sees something that needs to be the truth, he writes it. He writes it." Periwinkle smiled at these words.

"How do you think all this affects your family and your lifestyle?" "The darkness is gone now," Hannah was saying, "I feel like that should be enough to come back."

Outside onto the Quidditch grounds, the Gryffindor Chasers were handling the Quaffle swimmingly. However, the formation that was beautifully done in the previous session had somewhat turned a bit sloppy that passing afternoon. Robins kept hogging the Quaffle and when she did pass it, it would always hit Kirke's shoulder or Sloper's. Sloper threw the Quaffle with great force and it pounded Hooper's chest plate. "Ow! Hey! Be careful with how you throw that!" He hollered. Ginny was not pleased. She groaned and went flying up to them. "Hey, you guys, keep it together! You're playing like a bunch of mad Cricket athletes. If we're going to win this Quidditch Cup, you need to put in a better effort to not hog the Quaffle and do not purposely hit another teammate's shoulder, is that understood?" "Yes, Captain," everyone reluctantly agreed. "Good, now let's go through this again. More serious this time, and don't think too much."

A Bludger came whooshing past Hermione's head. She dodged. "Whoa! Geez." The Quaffle kept going back and forth. Kirke threw it upwards and hit it with his broom. Hooper missed it. "Aw!" "Good going, Kirke! That was a good shot!" Ginny called. Kirke beamed. Robins exhaled through her mouth. Hermione was not impressed, but she was pleased to see how well the team was progressing.

Ginny was addressing her team, "All right, that attempt wasn't as good as the first time. Looks like you're all a little rusty yet. Just remember that when we're all on the field during a match, you need to focus on each other, not on yourselves. And most important, destroy the Slytherins. Is that clear?" "Yes!" They all agreed. Hermione smirked. "Good, see you all again soon."

Back in the Gryffindor common room, Hermione was practicing her spells for revision before their next classes. "Wingardium Leviosa." A stool lifted up off the floor. "Incendio!" Fire restarted in the fireplace. "Accio!" A book zipped out of the shelf and into her hand. "Ha! Reducto!" The lamp broke and Crookshanks yowled. "Ooh. Reparo!" And the lamp fixed itself in two seconds. "Sorry, Crookshanks, I thought you were sleeping." Crookshanks hissed. Hermione exhaled. If she was going to give it her all this year, she needed to watch out for her cat.

Ginny walked in wondering what that noise was. "Hey, did I hear something in here?" "Uh, no," Hermione said, "um, I was just spell casting." "Right," Ginny wasn't surprised. "So, this Professor Periwinkle, what do you think of her?"

"Um...she seems a bit too curious for her own good." Hermione was reluctant to speak of the matter. "Well, she's a definite improvement on the Carrows." "I'll bet," Ginny went upstairs to bed. It was almost sunset by the time Hermione could wrap her head around everything that had been going on this term. As she was reading her books like she always was, she was thinking about what might happen after the holidays.

Why she would even think that far forward was beyond anyone, even by her standards. She knew that once the new year had arrived, nothing would change at all until the finals. It was the same old routine since Hogwarts had been around. Fortunately, however, she felt the need to investigate further into Professor Periwinkle just in case she might be like all the other dark arts teachers. For all she knew, she could've been another fraud, or werewolf, or an employee at the Ministry who didn't give a damn about anything. Periwinkle seemed definite, though, like she did give a damn. Whoever she was, whatever she was, Hermione knew she had to be careful and take caution, so as not to fall for any trickery.