The next day, Dumbledore announced at dinner that a new professor would be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. Of course, everyone had already noticed the unfamiliar figure at the professors' table.
"Let's welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Professor Moody!"
Long, graying hair hung loosely around his shoulders. Beneath his thick, dark-gray hair, his aged face was covered in scars and looked as weathered as rotting wood. A large chunk of his nose was missing, and his crooked mouth resembled a gaping slash. His whole face looked rather fierce.
One of his eyes was small, dark, and bright. The other was large and round as a coin, a vivid electric blue. That blue eye moved without blinking, swiveling up, down, and from side to side, completely independent of the normal one. Then it rolled back into his head, leaving everyone staring at a great white eyeball.
Alastor Moody.
He was a veteran of the Order of the Phoenix, a wizard who had devoted his life to fighting Voldemort, and an old Auror worthy of respect.
Ordinarily, everyone would applaud when a new teacher was introduced. This time was different. No one clapped except Dumbledore.
A few students joined Dumbledore, but their scattered applause was drowned out by whispers. Most of the young wizards didn't know Moody and were badly startled by their fierce-looking new professor. Many simply stared at him.
Will narrowed his eyes at the man on the dais, surprised. Their new professor was Moody?
By his reckoning, Barty Crouch Jr. should still have been under the Imperius Curse cast by Barty Crouch Sr. That made it almost certain this Moody was the real one. Will had never expected Dumbledore to bring him in.
And even if Barty Crouch Jr. had somehow taken Moody's place,