Everyone in the Great Hall turned to look at the stranger. Suddenly, forked lightning flashed across the ceiling, illuminating him.
He pulled back his hood, shaking out a long mane of gray-white hair, and began walking toward the staff table.
Thud, thud. Every step he took echoed hollowly through the Great Hall.
He walked straight to the end of the high table, turned right, and limped toward Dumbledore.
The lightning lit up the Great Hall, revealing the man's face.
Every inch of skin on that face seemed scarred. His mouth looked like a crooked gash, but most terrifying of all were his eyes.
One eye was small, black, and glittering. The other was large and round like a coin, a vivid bright blue.
That blue eye never stopped moving, spinning up, down, left, and right completely independently of the normal eye.
The stranger reached Dumbledore's side.
He held out a hand, which was as scarred as his face.
Dumbledore shook it and murmured a few words. Finally, he gestured for the man to sit in an empty seat to his right.
"Allow me to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore said cheerfully, breaking the silence. "Professor Moody."
Once Dumbledore had finished the introduction, Harry heard hushed whispers from the Young Wizards around him.
"You know who he is?" one young wizard said, raising his little head. "He caught half the Dark Wizards in Azkaban, but now he's always acting completely mad."
Hearing that, Harry turned to look at Mad-Eye Moody.
Observation Runes flashed in his eyes, and the true face concealed by Polyjuice Potion appeared before him.
The scarred Mad-Eye Moody instantly changed appearance in Harry's eyes, becoming a gaunt middle-aged man with pale skin and dry, tangled hair like a mess of licorice roots.
Harry