Class One

Candy couldn’t believe she had spent so much time in the library. This year was taking it out of her and the year was just getting started. So many essays, it would be the end of her. She thought last year was hard with OWLS, but this year had topped that one in half. She’d just apologized for being late without any excuses.

“Sorry I’m late Professor,” she announced as she came into the room. She quickly sat down and opened her textbook. She wasn’t going to make a big deal over being late; she hoped the professor wouldn’t either. It was embarrassing being late as it was.

Candy couldn’t believe she had spent so much time in the library. This year was taking it out of her and the year was just getting started. So many essays, it would be the end of her. She thought last year was hard with OWLS, but this year had topped that one in half. She’d just apologized for being late without any excuses.

“Sorry I’m late Professor,” she announced as she came into the room. She quickly sat down and opened her textbook. She wasn’t going to make a big deal over being late; she hoped the professor wouldn’t either. It was embarrassing being late as it was.

Destrey had perfect aim. She'd hit him in the head with a mandarin and pointed out their Defence professor at breakfast. She wanted to play The Game with a teacher... Shylock was immediately titillated and terrified.

He was also a teenage boy.

Shylock turned up to Defence wearing what could only be called school uniform because it was made of what had once been his school uniform. The Ashcrofts always did their homework, just not always as requested. A severing charm had disposed of the sleeves on his shirt. The tie he kept, stuffed into his pocket. Speaking of which, Shylock's trousers were suddenly a lot tighter than every other boy in the room's. That third year shrinking charm had come in handy for making them snug without losing length. Now he knew how rock stars felt.

As per instruction, he kept right away from Destrey, sliding in next to Amaris D'Eath.

"Hey Baby."

He snaked an arm around the backrest of her chair.

She seriously wasn't in the mood to be messed with right now. When the Ashcroft boy sat down next to her and spoke to her, her eyes narrowed and she turned her head to glare at him. "Don't "hey baby" me, you little worm." she hissed at him. When she was angry she was pretty damn nasty and rude to everyone. Seemed like a normal Amaris for everyone but she was even more on edge than usual now.

There was something she was hiding, even if she herself didn't know it yet. She saw his arm go around her seat through the corner of her eye and she frowned. "I suggest you take your arm away before you lose it." she warned. She wasn't messing around and if he continued he would be taught a lesson he wouldn't soon forget.

Molly stepped into the classroom, trying to hide the fact that she was out of breath for running all the way here. She hoped she wasn't late, at least she didn't appear to have missed anything as of yet. She slid into an empty bench and turned her attention to the class.

Molly's eyes flicked around the room. She recognised a few faces here and there, but nobody she was that close to. Then again, she told herself, she was barely close to anyone anymore. She sighed inside, wishing things had turned out differently. Still, she kind of liked Defence Against the Dark Arts. She disliked most subjects, but this wasn't too bad. Molly was a bit of a pessimist, especially as of lately.

One by one the students filed into her classroom. Some greeted her, some ignored her, some checked her out. She gave a small nod of acknowledgment to each as they arrived. From the rainbow of colors on their robes Jamie knew that somehow she had scored a very mixed group this time. Not that it was a good thing.. Too many different personalities tended to cause more fights. She spotted a few kids who belonged to the house that she had uncerimoniously been made in charge of. Jamie still wasn't sure how she felt about being Head of Hufflepuff and had decided to wait on making a judgement of the matter. But she still couldn't help but silently favor Ravenclaw, as they had been her house when she had gone here. 

"You're right on time." Jamie consoled a Ravenclaw girl who she vaguely recognized. Standing, the new Professer moved to the blackboard. With her back turned to the class she spoke in a loud, clear voice that could be heard across the room. "Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts, block four, NEWT level. I'm Professer Prophet and my job is to keep you from being killed." As she spoke she wrote 'Prophet' on the chalkboard in large letters. Turning to face her students she gave them a lazy smile that quickly became serious again. "But I'm also not your babysitter. Pay attention, study hard, don't be an idiot. Most of you are about to enter the real world where you won't have the opinion of running to Mommy. By the end of this class I hope to give you enough confidence to at least not wet yourself when you look danger in the eye." 

She walked to in front of her desk where she hopped up and sat. "I don't know what you're previous teachers have taught you but in my class we are going to be primarily focusing on the spellcasting aspect of defensive magic. Starting with basic defense methods and hopefully working our way up to effective offensive spells." Jamie paused to catch her breath. "I believe that in order to be prepared you have to know what Dark Magic looks like. For this reason I may preform certain spells in demonstration that would be considered dark. I will not be teaching you how to cast this magic but you will be required to fight it off as part of your grade."  

Jamie hopped back down from her desk and looked out at the crowd of faces. "Any questions so far?" She would rather continue but it seemed like a good time to ask. When she was in school her Professors allowed time for questions frequently. And that was all she had to go by. 

Splendid! Amaris reacted exactly as he had expected her to. A little more so, even, but that was only a good thing.

"Little worm?" he grinned. "Surely you jest?"

His hand slid up to her shoulder and squeezed.

"What're you gonna do? Bite it off?"

And 3, 2, 1...

Caiden rushed and crashed into the classroom with his books in one hand and his bag into the other. 'Sorry I am late, professor,' he managed to say through his breathing. 'It won't happen again,' he continued as he quickly took his seat next to two slytherin who seem to be flirting which each other. Caiden ignored them and quickly tugged his shirt into his pants, he was looking quite daggy. He couldn't believe he was late, he was almost never late. Especially on his favorite subject - defence against the dark art. Caiden had forgotten to turn the alarm on and accidentally slept in. Caiden pulled out his textbook, quill and ink and got ready for class, listening to what the teacher had to say

Yikes, this new professor seemed to be like Milo. It was nice to see that some of the professors wouldn't be pushovers for the year, it'd be almost too boring and that would possibly cause him to lose interest. But this? This was going to be a fun year, he could tell. Before he even had another thought though, he saw someone else burst into the class, his friend Caiden. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he looked towards the table...it seemed of character for Caiden to be late as usual.

Steering back to his previous thoughts, he hadn't been able to think of a single question at that moment. Everything seemed to be pretty straightforward in this class, he was just more anxious to get started than have to listen to another ten minute lecture about something irrelevant. So he decided to keep his mouth shut, most of the questions that would've been asked anyway already covered in her explanation.

When Jamie finished speaking most students stayed silent, although she noticed a boy was still chattering away to his lady friend. Sure, he had a world-class expression on but it still sorta pissed Jamie off. So she cleared her throat exaggeratedly loud and raised her eyebrows, staring over at the boy. She vaguely remembered his face from her own schooldays. No one important.. just a passing face in the hallways. He had been a couple years younger than her and, frankly, he still looked about the same.. just taller.

"Oy, you. Shrimpy." She didn't remember his name at all. Looks like her nicknaming all the kids as they came through the door was going to pay off. Score. Quickly Jamie glanced down at the attendance sheet on her desk and scanned it for something to help her remember. "Ashcroft." she guessed out loud, addressing him. She remembered he had had a sister. Ah, yes. There she was in this class too. Definitely Ashcroft. Jamie couldn't help but feel particularly pleased with herself. But she couldn't look too excited.

"Was that a question, Mr. Ashcroft? Or was that you just being annoying?"

She paused and looked around at the sitting students. "There won't be much sitting around in my classroom. But when I'm talking I need you to all shut up so you can actually hear what I've got to tell you. Imagine you meet a nice vampire on your next trip to London. Pasty skin, pointy teeth, very clique but also completely terrifying. You go to pick up your wand but then you realize, 'hey, I don't know how to repel a vampire because Shrimy was talking during Jamie's lecture.'" Jamie clapped her hands together.

"Well, enough of me talking. I can tell you don't really care. Today is just an assessment day. Pick a partner and come to the back. We are going to have little duels today.. Just so I can figure out what's in your dusty brains. If anyone doesn't have a partner I'll fill in." Jamie jumped off her desk and walked back to the open area in the back of her classroom. When she reached the back she turned to her students to watch them follow her.