Lesson 4 - N.E.W.T. Level

Wilson entered his classroom. It was empty, for now, but soon... his students will arrive, thinking they can do what they want, as it is with the majority of them. He had finally begun with teaching some relevant subjects, meaning he had finished with those boring and stressing introductory classes. He waved his hand, and text appeared on the board, with the usual not to copy it down. As soon as they were all present, he would start with the class.

Amelia had slept awfully the night before, so awfully to the point that when she was still awake at 4:30 AM, she had just decided to call off the idea of sleep entirely and had gone for a run. The run had not been the solution she had been looking for to clear her head, so her thoughts were still following her as she entered the DADA classroom.

As usual, the room was empty, but Amelia barely processed this fact because it was such a part of her normal routine by now. Typically, she would have taken out a novel or her textbook to pass the time before the lesson started, but being as tired as she was, Amelia merely resorted to staring at the top of her desk, marking time by the number of breaths she took.

Brienne was early this morning, that was a good sign. At least, she thought so. She went to the front row, and sat in the seat in the middle. She'd look like a better student doing this, right? She hoped so. She damn well better look like a better student. She would, right? That's what she kept thinking about the whole time. She wasn't the first there, but she was pretty close. She was used to being at least the second one in. She was never first because she didn't feel like it. Never did and never would. That was ass-kisser behavior.

She got her textbook and a piece of parchment out. She also took out a quill. The quill was soft in her hands aside from the center of it which felt firm and kind of plastic-like. It hurt her fingers. She could just get a grip for it, but they weren't that useful in the long run, and wore out with each use.

James Wake slipped in inconspicuously as he attempted to attend class as quickly and quietly as he could. It was a pretty simple procedure- DADA was a class he'd essentially been taking since he was 9. The less he said in class, the less he would offend the teacher. The Teacher in question would ignore him, and as such, avoid the student that has little say. James Wake was quite fine with being a transient existence in James Wilson's course. He already knew what he needed to pass. Technically, he could sleep in class, but then Alan would hear of it. That was NOT an enviable situation.

Jack slipped in, not exactly late, but not early at all. Good. She had never had a taste for being early, but she was also walking on eggshells in this class, being one of the only ones to openly argue with this professor. Not that her classmates were not used to this behavior in her... No they were all quite familiar that if anyone was going to say something... It would be her.

She veered for a seat in the back, picking one she did not always use. Jack was not one to sit in the same desk every day. She liked to mix things up any way she could, including in such mediocre, pathetic ways. Though, she did not really care as long as it broke through the mundane monotony that she usually had to deal with, otherwise.

''The number seems to increase with each second passing'', Wilson commented standing up. ''Last week, I did basic defense with your colleagues from the Basic classes. Protego went on quite well, but that is the simplest defense after jumping out of the way, so it shouldn't be a surprise. Today, you all are going to learn about advanced defense, meaning Protego Totalum and Protego Horribilis'', he started the lesson. ''Although these two spells have basically the same effect, there is a difference in the intensity of their effects. Protego Totalum is used by an individual to form a bubble around a small area in order to protect himself from harm. This spell is used in dueling to protect oneself from stronger spells. Of course, more skilled wizards can use even Protego to defend themselves from strong spells, but those who do not possess that skill and experience should always use Protego Totalum, hence avoiding any fatal experiments. Protego Horribilis is a spell that we shan't practice simply because it is still too complex for you to use. That spell is used to protect a large area from the effect of dark magic, but it requires a lot of skill, practice and experience to master and use. If anyone of you should ever need some extra lessons in my subject for their future careers, I will be glad to teach you, among others, this spell. Also, Miss Dyllan, do be careful for the forthcoming Triwizard Tournament, I don't want a person from my House to be last'', he said, tapping her on the head as he walked around the classroom. ''I remember, when I was in School, professor Filius Flitwick, our former Charms teacher, a brilliant wizard and one of the best duelists of his generation, used the spell to protect the school... successfully, I might add. Now, as for yout assignment today, you shall work in pairs. Wake and Ravenquist, and do not be gentle on her Wake, and Amelia and Jack. You shall practice both offense, as you will be required to use a strong spell, whichever you want, with the exception of all Unforgivable curses, on your opponent and his, or her, task will be do defend him, or herself using Protego Totalum. You can all start'', he said, sitting back at his desk.

Jack listened almost apprehensively to figure out what they would be doing for the day's lesson, and was heartened to know that they were going over more defensive spells. Of course, she would have liked some spicier sort of spells to learn, but she was dreading the day the professor said they would be going into unforgivable spells and said they would have to practice them. She did not know if it would come to that, but...

She felt a tap on her head and heard the professor's words. She could not help the small smile the slipped onto her face. She would not deny that she was very proud to have gotten chosen as champion. She was a person who was confident in her skills and she would not blink at the opportunity to show that she was not just a troublemaker. She was a troublemaker with mad skills.

She was paired with Amelia again and Jack was not sure whether to smirk or to sigh. Amelia did not rub her the wrong way or anything, they were just different. However, they both were smart- in their respective styles- and were sure to do well. She stood and strode over to Amelia, knocking her knuckles on her desk casually and then withdrawing her wand. "So, want to take a crack at me first, or you want to go on the defense?"

Amelia barely looked up when the professor spoke, her head rising only slightly higher to show that she was paying attention. She was taking in the words the professor was saying, but sort of like they were spoken in slow motion, from very far away. Knowing this was no way to go through the class, Amelia shook her head sharply to try to clear it, shifting in her seat to try to wake herself up. She could be tired later; for now, she had to focus.

The professor got through the lesson material quickly, and then make a quick comment about Jack’s newly appointed position as Hogwarts Champion. In other circumstances, this would have slid right off Amelia’s back, but seeing as it was part of the reason she had missed out on so much sleep last night, Amelia lingered on the words longer than she usually would have.

Amelia had not missed out on sleep because she was jealous of Jack winning, or because she felt as though she had failed to impress the goblet. No, that wasn’t it at all. Instead, Amelia had lain awake in bed thinking about a different type of failure, owed to a completely different person. Although Raoul had basically instructed her to put her name in the goblet again, to put herself back in the same position she had had only a year ago, Amelia had been too afraid. It was not the fear of the tasks or the attention – though both were intimidating, in Amelia’s case - but what had really kept her from entering the tournament again was the same thing that had kept her from doing most of the things she might have wanted to do in her life: her parents.

The last time Amelia had entered the tournament, it had been only a few days after she was announced champion before her mother had swooped down on Hogwarts, immediately pulling Amelia out of the tournament and even out of school. Her disapproval had been the worst Amelia had ever incurred from her mother, and although her father might have had other feelings on the subject, he had gone along with Antoinette’s fury and plan for Amelia’s rehabilitation into rule-following society. Amelia had worked her entire life to do everything her parents wanted, be the perfect daughter, and in that one gesture of entering the tournament, it was as if none of that existed.

Although Amelia had wanted to put her name back in the goblet – both to prove herself, as had been her reasoning last year, and to do what Raoul asked for once – the thought of her parents’ disappointment, the way they had acted toward her last spring… it was too much of a deterrent for a girl who had spent all of her life trying to be perfect in her parents’ eyes. And so when Amelia had been lying awake last night, it had not been jealousy that had been running through her mind. Instead, it was a series of what if’s, and the biggest question of all: what was she going to tell Raoul?

The shaking seemed to have woken Amelia up enough to be coherent, and when the professor paired her with Jack, Amelia harbored no hard feelings toward the new Hogwarts champion. The only difficult part was going to be dealing with Jack’s energy when she wasn’t feeling a lot of her own. Jack might not always have the most enthusiasm for the lesson or the professor, but she had a kind of energetic aura about her that Amelia didn’t think she would ever quite exude.

“I think I’ll start on the receiving end, if you don’t mind,” Amelia responded, standing up from the desk and pulling her wand out of the pocket of her robes. Jack’s words had confirmed Amelia’s guess that the Gryffindor’s energy level would be higher than her own. Although Jack seemed non-chalant in many things academically related, she was still talented, and Amelia wanted to start with defending so she did not waste what little energy she had this morning on an attacking spell, and then fail when it came to the actual point of the lesson.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Amelia prompted after backing up several meters, leaving herself and Jack standing facing one another in an aisle between the desks. Amelia placed herself in a defensive position and raised her wand at the ready, keeping her eyes on Jack in the hopes that when a spell came her way, she would know it early enough to defend against it.

Jack smiled at Amelia's words, really okay with either situation, though she knew she had more fun with hexes and the such rather than defensive spells. Perhaps it was because defensive spells were so straightforward and by the book, whereas hexes and jinxes could be combined and the such, though it was not always wise to do so.

Amelia began to move back and brace herself, pulling her wand to the ready as Jack, herself, backed up a fair distance and then conjured to mind the spell she wanted to use. She wanted to do something fun- not something expected like Stupefy or Expelliarmus- but nothing that if it got past Amelia's defense would be terribly uncomfortable.

She finally decided on one as Amelia told Jack that she was ready for her. Knowing full well she could make it more difficult my casting it nonverbally, Jack decided this was not dueling class. She flicked her wand, saying clearly, "Tarantallegra!

In spite of what she knew about Jack’s talent with a wand, Amelia was still relatively calm as she waited for the redheaded girl across from her to make her choice of weapon. Amelia was not a braggart in her abilities – she was actually quite annoyed of people that were – but she was quietly confident in her own ability to perform well, especially under pressure. She had been living with pressure her whole life: pressure from her parents, pressure from her music teachers, pressure from her professors. It had become so normal that Amelia sometimes wondered if she would be able to stay grounded if it all were to suddenly disappear, or if she could possibly float away without that weight.

But then she remembered gravity, and her logic kicked in and any imagination was quickly swept away.

When Jack spoke her spell, Amelia was surprised for a split second that the girl had not chosen to perform the spell non-verbally. It was what Amelia would have done if she had gone first, but that was no matter. For now, Jack’s words had given Amelia that half-a-second head start to block the spell effectively, and with a brandish of her wand, Amelia yelled, “Protego Totalum!”, keeping her eyes and wand trained on the beam of light coming directly at her legs.

It seemed for a moment as though nothing had happened, and a short burst of panic bloomed within Amelia before she saw Jack’s spell hit what seemed like an invisible wall, dissolving completely into thin air. Shortly thereafter, Amelia realized that what Jack’s spell had hit was a protective sphere that had been created all around the Ravenclaw girl, initially invisible when Amelia had looked, but now she could see the pearlescent sheen that gave its existence away.

“Well isn’t that effective?” Amelia mused aloud, looking around at the sphere and considering its properties and potential as a shield. Obviously, it had worked against Jack’s leg-tangling jinx, but Amelia had never actually seen this protective spell in action against any magic at all, so she could not help but wonder how it would fare under other conditions. She was so distracted by this line of thought that she had not yet thought to cease the protective spell around her, which was the source of her distraction.