Chapter 2
Chapter 2:
Draco threw the letter across the room in frustration and then took his wand off the desk and cast a quick incendio at it. He immediately regretted his actions, but that was always his MO, act first, think later. That’s exactly how he landed here, applying to a job on a whim to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at fucking Hogwarts and getting accepted? What a joke! He blames Theo and Blaze, it was their bloody idea to apply after he expressed his utter boredom with his quiet life to them. Theo had his work as art curator and Blaze couldn’t stop opening wineries if he wanted to, they had little time for Draco, and Draco had too much time. He thought the height of leisure was to do nothing as his ancestors have, to relax. He wanted to do nothing after the war, nothing at all, but here he was, bored as ever, without a friend in the world. He may have removed the dark mark from his left arm, but what good is that when everyone looked at him like it was tattooed on his forehead still. Becoming a hermit recluse wasn’t on his to-do list, but neither was becoming a goddamn professor at the very place he once hated.
He spent years regretting the role he played in the war, years ashamed of what his father and aunt had done and forced him to do, years regretful that his mother died with that shame and the burden of knowing he was living with it. So, he used his free time to study, earning degree after useless degrees from every top magical institution. It overqualified him from every job and now he was done collecting degrees just for sport, he missed being around people. He loathed to admit that, loathed to admit he needed anyone at all, but his cowardly heart betrayed him.
Maybe McGonagall thought it was a funny joke, or perhaps the letter was a prank sent by Theo or Blaze, or perhaps McGonagall mistook his name. There had to be a better explanation. Now Draco wished he hadn’t burned the letter after only just reading the top line. Would they send another? Draco paced in his rooms, wand scratching at his temple, but no sooner did he work him into a frenzy when an owl tapped at his window, a letter in its talons, he chucked, when he saw the unmistakable seal.
“I guess I have to pack my trunks!” he said to no one in particular. Draco was off to be the new DADA Professor at Hogwarts, stranger things have happened indeed.