The Ace of Wands

Professor of Divination

"I am pleased to welcome our new Divination teacher. Professor [last name]" The Headmasters voice echoes through the Great Hall. Bouncing off the walls and back toward the staff table.

This moment had been years in the making. Your soul ambition as a young witch was to become a professor and aid young witches and wizards on their journey of discovery and learning.

You thought perhaps your ambitions would lead you further afield than the school where you yourself had studied in your youth, but Hogwarts is as good a place to begin your career as any.

You didn't quite anticipate that Divination would be your specialised subject. It was something that came to you only in your later years of education. The sight had erupted within your mind like a dazzling blaze of all-seeing, all-powerful knowledge. It was something you never expected but embraced none the less.

Years of study and spiritual awakening lead you here and now finally to be introduced to a room of hopeful youngsters as Professor of Divination is a proud moment indeed.

You rise eagerly from your chair, knocking against the table in the bustle. You catch sight of the other staff members seated beside you in the corner of your eye. Each of them reaching forwards to steady their goblets as the table rocked for a moment and threatened to spill their beverages across it.

You feel your cheeks glow momentarily crimson with embarrassment. -Great start [first name]...- you think to yourself before allowing a sigh to escape your lips as you turn your attention to the headmaster and the students that are seated at long tables before you. You smile brightly and nod towards the headmaster who smiles welcomingly at you. His aged face beams through his half-moon spectacles and long, well tamed beard as he nods happily to you.

You return his smile before turning to the rest of the hall's occupants. You raise a hand in a small wave at the students. Some reciprocated the welcoming atmosphere that Dumbledore offered, but there is a long table on the right side of the hall who remain quiet. You hope you are wrong, but you are sure a few of them even sneered as you rose from your seat. You knew this table to be the designated bench for Slytherin house.

You follow their eyes which gaze away from you to the other end of the staff table. They look to be admiring the figure in their line of sight. A look of arrogant pride smeared across their faces.

Your gaze is directed to a dark silhouette, a person you had somehow yet to set your eyes upon, but now you can't see how you could have missed him. He stands out like a sore thumb from the rest of the staff seated at the table. He stands out from every witch and wizard in this entire room in fact. He is facing the students, only his side profile visible to you.

Even though he is seated, you can tell that he is tall... slim. His face is angular, his nose is large and hooked. His eyes dark, much like the depths of the black lake that caressed the foundations of this very castle.

As much as is visible about this man, there is still much left to be desired. His hair was long, black, and rested softly atop of his shoulders. It concealed half of his face and his ears, allowing only the very tip of his elongated features to be visible.

There was something else. Something about him that set your mind's eye astray. A sort of strange un-spoken light amongst the darkness of his aura. It danced, trying to dodge your detection, skipping this way and that and you couldn't pin it down, no matter how hard you might try. Something was blocking you, something nigh impenetrable, something you suspect, this man has put in place himself. -A powerful wizard indeed.- You think to yourself as you are unable to assess his aura in its entirety, a talent you have mastered over the years.