𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂 | 𝐀𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐔𝐂𝐄𝐘

𝐈𝐈𝐈

     They were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore, apparently too appalled to speak.

     Dumbledore continued, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teacher's time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts —"

     But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder, and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

     A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black travelling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swivelled towards the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling.

     He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark grey hair, then began to walk up towards the teachers' table.

     A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right and limped heavily towards Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling.

     The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief, and it was a face unlike any Melanie had ever seen. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces were supposed to look like, and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and a large chunk of the nose was missing.

But it was the man's eyes that made him frightening.

One of them was small, dark and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue.

The blue eye was moving ceaselessly, without blinking, and was rolling up, down and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye – and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head, so that all they could see was whiteness.

The stranger reached Dumbledore. He stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbledore shook it, muttering words no one could hear.

He seemed to be making some enquiry of the stranger, who shook his head unsmilingly and replied in an undertone. Dumbledore nodded, and gestured the man to the empty seat on his right-hand side.

The stranger sat down, shook his mane of dark grey hair out of his face, pulled a plate of sausages towards him, raised it to what was left of his nose and sniffed it. He then took a small knife out of his pocket, speared a sausage on the end of it, and began to eat.

While his normal eye was fixed upon the sausages, the blue eye was still darting restlessly around in its socket, taking in the Hall and the students. Melanie shivered slightly when the blue eye met hers, a second longer than the others, before the eye fix at other students again.

"May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," said Dumbledore brightly, into the silence. "Professor Moody."

It was usual for new staff members to be greeted with applause, but none of the staff or students clapped except Dumbledore and Hagrid. Both put their hands together and applauded, but the sound echoed dismally into the silence, and they stopped fairly quickly.