Here we go again...
“Wow…” Megan sighed, her one good eye struggling to focus in on the faculty table, with the other, hollow socket hiding beneath a pirate’s patch. “He’s bloody fit, isn’t he?”
The sky clouded overhead, an event which occurred only one other time: when Professor Moody stumbled in from the rainy night. That man was revealed to be quite the fiend in disguise. Just like it was back then, the new professor, much more beautiful than Moody, entered the room and lightning shot across the enchanted ceiling. I heard thunder outside rush to meet it.
“He is,” I said, as if observing passively, but, truthfully, I was quite engrossed. Even from my vantage point at the Hufflepuff dining table, I could see he was handsome. He must have been in his early twenties, black hair swept up in gorgeous waves, and a face that could put James Dean to shame. He was tall, lithe, not bulky but he somehow radiated power, even from his distant position on the raised platform with the rest of the professors.
“Oh, God…it’s like Professor Lockhart all over again,” Justin lamented, gripping his dark brown hair in exasperation. “All the girls are going to be swooning.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“What?” He snapped defensively. “You never had to deal with that kind of competition. It’s easy for girls.”
I barely heard him complain some more as I continued to unabashedly stare at the new professor. Quite unlike me, what was I doing? It was rude to stare, and inappropriate. The man was a professor. I did it anyway. There was something magnetic about him, but also…dangerous? For a split second, I thought he looked back at me, and I felt like prey being gazed at between reeds in a field. A shiver went over my shoulders. I turned away and never looked back at the head table for the rest of the dinner. Yet, the goosebumps remained. Something primitive in me said I was still being observed, but I refused to give in and look about.