The Snake and the Eagle

Chapter 2 - The New Teacher

It was the 1^st of September, hundreds of students were scattered all along Platform 9 ¾ of King's Cross Station where the Hogwarts Express was waiting to take its excited passengers to Hogwarts castle. The entire Weasley family was gathered around Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, saying goodbyes and making last minute reccomendations to stay out of trouble.

"Oh Ginny! It seemed yesterday you first took the train with your brothers and this year you are going to take your O.W.L.s," Mrs. Weasley whimpered, almost on the verge of tears.

"Don't worry mum, I'll do fine. I'm not a little girl anymore," Ginny said, a little bit embarassed by her mother's fussing.

"I know it dear, but you kids grow up so fast!" she sighed, whipping an eye with the corner of a tattered handkerchief.

At eleven o'clock the train slowly began moving, leaving behind London and the Muggle world. Harry and his friends took seat in an empty compartment, later joined by their fellow Gryffindor, Neville Longbottom. The trip was pleasant and carefree for our friends, they spent hours chatting, sleeping, playing wizarding chess and someone reading a book. That someone was obviously Hermione Granger. At a certain point, their happy trip was disturbed by someone opening their compartment door. It was a pale, blond, irritating Draco Malfoy accompanied by his faithful sidekicks Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Now that his father was finally out of Azkaban and his reputation cleared by a generous donation of his beloved wife, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Draco was his usual haughty, unbearable self again.

"Hello, Potter!" spat the blond snobbish Slytherin.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Ron shouted defensively, ready to throw himself at the hateful boy as soon as something unpleasant came out of his mouth, expecially something against his dear friend Hermione.

"Manners Weasel! What's wrong with someone wanting to greet his school-fellows?" said Draco with a false innocent expression on his face.

"Anything having something to do with you is wrong, Malfoy!" Harry said, staring defiantly at the other boy. Draco Malfoy was not the slightest impressed by their behaviour as that was the typical Gryffindor vs. Slytherin attitude. He lifted an annoyed eyebrow but did not moved from the doorway.

"By the way, did anybody hear the rumours about Professor Flitwick? He's leaving Hogwarts and we'll have a new teacher this year, but nobody knows who's going to be. Father says it's a former student. I hope it was a Slytherin!" After saying that, he went back to his own compartment, satisfied to have been the first to tell everybody the news. At least his presence did not pass unnoticed.

"Did you hear what he said?" said an alarmed Hermione Granger. "I have already finished my essay for Flitwick. What if we haven't the time to hand it in to him before he leaves?"

"Come on, Hermione! Don't worry, they'll have found a substitute by now," Ron said laughing.

"You two don't get the point!" whispered Harry, gently elbowing Ron in the ribs to calm him down. "Why is he leaving? He is a member of the Order and we didn't hear anything about it from Dumbledore, Remus, Ron's father or anybody else!" he axiously said.

"Don't you all panic! Maybe he's simply going to retire. He is quite old, you know!" Ginny wisely said putting an end to the matter. The train was getting nearer and nearer to Hogsmeade Station. All students changed into their school uniforms, put back their belongings in their bags and prepare to get off the train.

***

Students arrived to the castle at night; and the majestic building all aglow. It was a very amazing sight, expecially for first years who reached it on boats across the still surface of the lake. They passed the great oak doors which led into the Entrance Hall, and moved into the Great Hall. They took seat at their own house tables, and assisted to the Sorting ceremony, before the beginning of the Start of Term Feast. Dumbledore stood up for his annual speech.

"Welcome, welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" he cheerfully greeted them. "Another year is about to begin and I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. I have an important announcement for you," he went on, "this year, our dear Professor Flitwick will temporary leave his teaching post for some important researches he's been working on. A substitute teacher has been appointed and will soon join us," he said arising a cloud of muttering among the amazed crowd. He then gave his usual information about the Forbidden Forest, Filch's long list of forbidden items and some other school rules. He clapped his hands once and food filled the golden plates.

"Tuck in!" he shouted and the feast began.

Students sat eating, chatting merrily about their summer holidays and making comments on the news. At the High Table the faculty was chatting too, occasionally throwing a glance to the noisy crowd of students below. Professor Flitwick was still there, sat between Professors Snape and McGonagall. He wasn't going to leave before the new teacher and new Head of the Ravenclaw arrived. The pleasant meal was suddenly interrupted by a silver shape coming in through one of the side windows. It began whirling around the hall, over the heads of the puzzled students, someone even gasped in fear. Then the shadow revealed itself to be a small silver falcon and the gasps were soon replaced by exclamations of amazement. The falcon made two more circles, then focused its golden eyes on the silver white figure of Dumbledore sitting in the middle of the High Table. It gave a shriek and threw itself in a fast, arrow-like dive towards him. It landed just in front of the Headmaster's dish, stared at him scrutinizingly, not knowing whether to trust him or not. An amused Dumbledore stared back at it over his half-moon spectacles.

"I believe your mistress gave you something for me," he whispered to the bird.

At last, the falcon seemed to have made up his mind that the old man was all right and stretched out his left leg for him to take the message. As Professor Falconbridge herself had told him during their first meeting, falcons were very faithful and quick, but sometimes they tended to be too possessive towards the message they carried and they were even ready to risk their own life to protect it against strangers. Dumbledore silently read the message while the falcon helped himself to Dumbledore's goblet and some meat he had left in his plate.

Many faces looked amazed at the whole scene. Nobody had ever seen owls behave like that and they wondered why the headmaster let the impertinent bird do so. As soon as he finished reading, the falcon took off with a screech, heading toward the window he had come through to fly across the starry night sky and back to its mistress. Before the Feast was over, Dumbledore stood up to announce that the new Charms teacher was due to arrive the following morning, just after breakfast. The hall slowly emptied as prefects led the new students to their respective dormitories and the faculty moved to the staff room to indulge into some after dinner chatting and a glass of firewiskey or brandy.

***

At nine o'clock the whole school was having breakfast in the Great Hall, while the sun warmly shone outside. There was great excitement among students and faculty for the newcomer's arrival. Teachers were particularly excited as bets had been made the previous night on the new member's gender. The bets seemed to favour a wizard over a witch. Obviously, those who had taken part in the job interview abstained from betting, everyone except Mad-Eye Moody, who was irresistibly attracted by the chance of an easy win. However, the others did not know he already knew that person.

Meanwhile, on top of a hill just outside Hogsmeade village, stood Alexandra Falconbridge mounting her gorgeous black Arab horse, Nabil. She wore a turquoise riding dress, black leather boots and a crimson travel cloak with the hood raised upon her head. Two wooden trunks, reduced to the size and weight of two small boxes, were tightly bound to the sides of the saddle. Silhouetted on the bright horizon, high on the cliff over the lake, stood the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts castle. Her heart filled with great joy at that sight. She still remembered the beautiful years spent there, all the amazing things she had learned and the many friends she had met.

The horse carefully trotted down the smooth sides of the hill, its hooves thundering on the ground, echoed by her heart beats. In no time she reached the towering ground gates. Dumbledore and the four Heads of Houses were waiting for her by the Entrance doors, surrounded by a small crowd of curious students and staff members. They were all surprised by the sight of that hooded riding figure, someone was also a bit worried when the black horse stopped just before the stone front steps.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Professor Falconbridge !" Dumbledore cheerfully greeted her, impressed and amused by such a flamboyant entrance.

"Good morning to you all!" said the figure lowering her hood, reveling a young witch with shining, dark, chestnut hair gathered in a long plait and two cerulean eyes.

The crowd stood watching her intrigued, and charmed by the serenity and kindness of her face. Many were taken aback by the nobility with which she sat on the saddle like an ancient Amazon. She was going to be the youngest teacher working at Hogwarts at the moment, and Professor McGonagall could not help wondering how the school would react to this stranger. In the middle of the excited crowd stood out the impassible figure of gloomy Professor Snape, who stared at her with a mixture of annoyance and suspicion, as it was part of his nature to mistrust strangers. Well, he had not much appreciated her spectacular entrance. He snobbishly thought she probably liked to show off.

"Let's hope she's not a silly goose too!" he thought, rolling his eyes to the sky. He could not stand all that fussing-about a new teacher. He was probably afraid of meeting another Gilderoy Lockhart. Hagrid moved forward to hold the reins while she gracefully dismounted.

"It's really beautiful, what's its name?" he said beaming lovingly at the beast. It seemed he did not love only dangerours, human-killing-eating creatures, after all.

"His name is Nabil, he's a pureblood Arab. He was a gift from my grandfather's friend Hassan Mustafa for my twenty-fifth birthday. He will give you no trouble, he only needs some food and fresh water. He's a very independent horse. Only never let anyone come too close to him, he doesn't like strangers."

Then she moved in front of the horse's head, she took it with an hand, caressing his forehead with the other. She sweetly told him to follow Hagrid, staring at him straight in his eyes. To the great astonishment of the onlookers, the horse seemed to nod and followed Hagrid to his hut like he was a mild puppy.

"Oh, that was so amazing! What spell did you use?" shouted a very excited Professor Flitwick.

"Oh, a very powerful one ... it's called tenderness," she answered with a sweet smile. Then they all went into the castle.