Unhappy Endings

1: The New Professor

"Have you heard the news that there is a new--" Rolanda Hooch spoke to Severus Snape.

"Defense against the Dark Arts professor? Yes. As there has been each year." He cut her off, wanting to end the conversation quickly. He wasn't one for small talk.

"If you would let me finish, Severus, I was actually going to say Ghoul Studies. And rumor has it that she's... a bit different." Rolanda giggled.

"How so?" Severus took the bait as it was imperative to know each and every person who stepped into Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"That's where I can't get a straight answer. Some say she's part Veela. Others say metamorphmagus. Some even say half-vampire or half-hag! Isn't that strange? To be compared to something of great beauty and then of great... ugly... I wonder what she really looks like."

"Is that all that women care about? How other women look?" He looked down his curved nose at her. "How... shallow..."

"It's not her looks, but her magical ability! Cor, Severus, you're terrible to talk to sometimes!" She exclaimed as she strode off towards the beginning of school meeting for staff.

I did not wish to speak to you in the first place. Severus thought to himself as he swished his long, black coat around his ankles. It was you who begun the conversation.

But despite the objections in his head, his mouth remained shut. In complete honesty, the magical ability of this new teacher also interested him. Would she be useful to him? Or in the way? It was an incredible challenge to get hired at Hogwarts; he knew that best. And in the year 1991, he knew that the witch hired would have to have a great power.

Meanwhile, you skipped along to the meeting in your best clothes; a black satin dress with a fur stole over it. Yes, it was awfully warm, but you felt absolutely fabulous in it. That's what mattered, right? And certainly, that confidence was going to be needed in the next few years-- nay, few hours.

Twenty-two and one of the younger professors to be hired by Hogwarts in quite some time. Did you have excess power? No. Strange and unusual talents that you could teach? No, again. So why were you hired?

A task. A task that Dumbledore had assigned you. But why you?

In complete honesty, you felt it had to be your bloodline. Daughter of Andromeda Black and Edward Tonks, you supposed the bloodline really only went one way. Your aunts; Narcissa and Bellatrix were big names in the wizarding world and perhaps Dumbledore wanted to keep one of the disgraced Tonks girls close.

Why not Nymphadora? She was busy.

She's always busy. You rolled your eyes before noticing that you were in a completely different form at the moment; so pink one might think you were made of bubblegum. With a shake of your body, you returned back to your normal form. Ah, the curse of being a metamorphmagus. That, at least, Dora understands.