A Little Knowledge

The next day at breakfast the girls all sighed as they looked over their schedules again: nothing like Herbology - and Professor Sprout - to start the day off. Martin, on the other hand, simply looked from the word Potions on his schedule to the dour-looking professor that taught it. This did not seem to bode well.

"At least we get a bit of relief after that," commented Sissy with a slight smirk.

"If you call Defense Against the Dark Arts relief ..." rebutted Olivia, who liked other subjects much better than defense. It simply wasn't her best subject.

Martin noted that he did not have defense class until later that afternoon ... right after transfigurations. He wasn't sure what that was going to be like ... having his father for a professor. It was sure to be awkward, but a little terrifying as well. He was good with transfigurations, although he would be loath to admit that his mum and his tutors had allowed him to practice a few basic ones and to read literature on the subject. His mother excelled in that area of magic and truly loved teaching what she knew of it to her son. It was one of his favorite things that they had shared. But his father? Martin winced internally. His father was probably only slightly aware of his interest in transfigurations.

Of course, before then he would need to get through the potions class and history of magic, which was rumored to be insanely boring, thanks to its professor. That was a shame, in his opinion, because he enjoyed history, magical and muggle alike, almost as much as transfigurations, and to have a dull professor in the subject seemed to be quite a loss.

"Who thinks up these schedules? And what did we ever do to them?" asked Olivia crossly, contemplating the horror that was Herbology.

"Can't say," mused Corinna, who had already put her schedule away.

"Oh, it's fine for you! You like Herbology!" accused Olivia.

"Perhaps a bit, but I get good marks and Professor Sprout seems to like me," she shrugged. Both statements were true, but all of the girls, except perhaps Sissy, got along well enough with Sprout, despite the fact that she was the head of Hufflepuff house.

"Any complaints, Martin?" asked Sophia, who was taking everything in stride as always.

"Not really," he shrugged, turning his full attention to his breakfast.

More than an hour later the quartet walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom after having Herbology with their Hufflepuff year mates. Sissy felt a bit grimy after handling plant specimens and so forth, but nothing could take the edge off her excitement as she entered the classroom.

Professor Knowles, an almost middle-aged wizard with dark brown hair that hung nearly to his waist and a little pair of spectacles that constantly slid down his long nose, was shuffling through some papers, possibly his plans for the lesson, at his desk while the students all found seats. Sissy glanced around and noted that they appeared to be having their defense lessons alone. The previous year they had been thrown together with the rowdy Gryffindors of their year, much to her then displeasure.

"Good morning, class, have you your text books?" Professor Knowles asked after checking an odd sort of watch that he kept in the pocket of his robes.

Sissy, rather familiar with his teaching style, had already removed the book Simple Defensive Spells, volume IV from her satchel. She had read most of it already either on the train to Hogwarts or in her spare time since then and had found it rather wanting or at least too simplistic for anyone with a good grasp of the basic subject. Nevertheless, she appreciated the fact that Knowles was listed among the book's many editors.

"Turn to page three hundred and ninety-eight," he instructed them. "Today we will be discussing simple disarming spells and how to block them."

Sissy raised her eyebrows slightly at that. Why was he starting the term off with something so, relatively speaking, advanced?

"I imagine that none of you have read this material yet, therefore you have the next twenty minutes to familiarize yourselves with the first two disarming spells and the preferred method of blocking them, all of which are found on the page in front of you," he told them.

Sissy glanced at her friends and noted that they too seemed puzzled, but none of them wasted any time before they began following instructions. She glanced down at the materials and chose to peruse the text again, just to be safe, as there could be no doubt that Knowles would have them try out the spells and techniques before the lesson ended. Thankfully, she already knew that her partner would be Corinna, just as Sophia and Olivia would choose each other. Glancing at the four boys in her year, all of whom were reading the text, she was privately quite glad that she wouldn't have to cross wands with them. One of them had dueled with a Slytherin second year the previous term ... and won. The other three were unholy terrors with wands, not intentionally, of course.

"Has everyone finished?" asked Knowles some time later, leaving his desk and removing his wand from his sleeve.

There were nods and murmured replies in the affirmative as he walked down the row between the desks and tables that form two columns on either side of the room. He paused next to where Sissy sat in an aisle seat. She looked up at him.

"I would like two students to help me demonstrate the techniques before we begin," he said with a smile tugging at his lips, momentarily marring his serious expression.

Sissy felt butterflies in her stomach at the notion that she might be chosen to assist with such a demonstration. She quelled them immediately and looked the professor in the eye.

"Miss Howard, would you care to volunteer?" he questioned.

No one knew into which house Cyrus Knowles had been sorted during his time at school, but Sissy rather suspected that it might be Slytherin, or else he was a Ravenclaw with a very amusing sense of humor.

"Of course, sir," she replied, leaving her seat and keeping her tone carefully even.

Turning toward the row where the young men in the class were sitting, he pointed to Li Chang, the young wizard who had won the duel the year before.

"Mister Chang?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Chang answered, wiping his palms on his robes before standing. He looked rather grim, but maybe a little nervous too. Or was that wishful thinking on Sissy's part?

She frowned. Her marks in defense had been excellent the year before. But Chang had proved the scope of his practical knowledge in that duel. None of the professors, as far as Sissy knew, had witnessed it, but word always got around.

Knowles motioned for them to stand at either end of the aisle, and as they took their places Sissy noticed the encouraging looks her friends were giving her and felt better for it.

"This is not a duel. One of you will try to disarm your opponent. The other will defend with a blocking technique. Any other conduct will result in a loss of house points, the number of which is at present undecided," Knowles warned them, moving out of the way.

Sissy knew her chances weren't bad. She would have put them at fifty-fifty in disarming Chang and the same at retaining her own wand.

"Miss Howard, you will defend first," announced Knowles. "On my mark, please," he said to Chang, who had his wand ready.

Sissy raised her wand and tensed. The look of concentration in the other student's eyes was intense. A hundred things passed through her mind as she waited for the signal and for Chang's disarming spell. And she knew that what she had read would only help her so much. She longed for practical experience, for anything that would make this easier or less nerve-wracking.

"Now!" said Knowles in a measured voice.

"Exarmo!" cried Chang with a wave of his wand.

The spell he had chosen was the most basic of those listed in the text they had just finished reading, but that did not mean that it wasn't a powerful spell too. It wasn't subtle nor particularly elegant either, but in that instant neither of those things mattered.

Sissy was aware only for a fraction of a second that a spell was whizzing toward her before it hit her full force, knocking her wand into the air and her flat on her back.

The breath was nearly knocked out of her, but she managed to sit up with a stifled sort of groan. She had not even had the chance to react, much less attempt to block the spell.

"Well, I hope neither of you plan to play for your house's Quidditch team," said Knowles dryly as he returned Sissy's wand to her and helped her to her feet with a look of the utmost displeasure. "Your reflexes, Miss Howard, are lacking in the extreme, and you, Mister Chang, should work on catching the wand once it has left your opponent's hand," he continued.

Chang, who fancied himself as having a shot at the position of Chaser, colored at Knowles' comments while Sissy merely tried to recover her breath.

"Now, Miss Howard, it is your turn to disarm Mister Chang," said the professor, stepping out of the way again.

"Yes, sir," she croaked, willing her eyes not to water.

"On my mark."

Sissy steeled herself and raised her wand. Her opponent, who was, like most of the boys of her year, nearly a foot shorter than her, looked very determined as he brought his wand to ready. She took a deep breath and waited for their instructor's signal.

"Now!"

"Expelliarmus!" she spoke as loudly as she could.

Sissy felt a thrill of delight as Chang's want flew from his hand, extracting a grimace of mixed pain and chagrin. She caught it deftly in her free hand.

"Well done, Miss Howard," commented Knowles, "and a valiant effort from you as well, Mister Chang."

Chang shook his smarting hand out before accepting the return of his wand, handle first, from Sissy, who politely refrained from smirking, although it required effort from every fiber of her being not to do so.

"Thank you, sir," they both told him before returning to their seats.

"That was brilliant," whispered Olivia with a grin as Sissy sat down.

"What? Getting knocked on my arse by a boy?" she questioned.

"I think she means the other part," said Sophia quickly.

Professor Knowles, who was leaning on his desk, cleared his throat to get everyone's attention before speaking again.

"I have come to the conclusion that we will spend our class time this week and perhaps the next studying blocking techniques. When both the student with the highest marks and the student with the most ... practical experience, fail to keep their wands in the face of a disarming spell, that is the only conclusion I may draw," he told them, giving both participants in the demonstration veiled compliments, which did not go unnoticed in Sissy's case. "Now, please find a partner for the rest of the class period ..."

All the students left class wincing that morning. Sissy had finally managed to block a disarming spell decently, as had Olivia, but Knowles was right: her reflexes just weren't as fast as those of some of her peers. She had never had ambitions to play Quidditch as it was too dangerous and too messy, but there was a difference between lack of desire and lack of ability. It was disappointing to realize that she had the latter as well as the former.

"Can you manage a Cooling Charm?" Sophia asked as they left their desks and started to leave class. She was massaging her aching wand hand which had been subjected to one too many wrenching disarming spells.

"That bad?" asked Sissy, who had fully recovered from her ordeal.

"You had better believe it," said Sophia.

"I second that," mumbled Corinna, who was almost a disaster a defense.

Before Sissy could comment, someone called her from behind: "Hey, Howard!"

She turned to see Li Chang.

"Yes?"

"You did well in there," he said, nodding toward the classroom behind them.

"Thank you," answered Sissy, surprised by the compliment. "You too."

Chang smiled and said, "But you used a more complicated spell and managed to catch my wand."

"And you caught me off guard," she admitted.

"I'm quick, but not good. Not yet at least," he said.

"You beat that Slytherin last year," she reminded him.

"That was luck," he said with a sheepish look.

"That isn't what I've heard nor what Knowles seems to have heard either," she pointed out to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, you know ... rumors," he shrugged with a half-smile. "See you around?"

"Certainly," she nodded as he walked past to rejoin his friends.

"I think you have an admirer," Olivia teased with an enormous grin.

"I do not," said Sissy, drawing herself up to her full height. "But he does seem ... nicer than last year."

"Perhaps," chuckled Sophia. "Boys change so quickly."

"Don't they." agreed Olivia.

"Lunch?" Corinna reminded them impatiently as they lingered near the doorway of the classroom.

"That was awfully difficult for our first day of class, wasn't it?" Sophia asked the others as they found seats at their house table in the crowded Great Hall. The buzz of conversation around them seemed louder than usual.

As they had walked into the hall, she had spotted Martin, who was seated with his year mates at the far end of the table. He appeared to be having an animated conversation with ... Nathan something-or-other. Sophia smiled and gingerly picked up her glass of pumpkin juice with her still aching hand, using the glass to cool and soothe it.

"I don't think Knowles planned the lesson to be like that ..." mused Corinna, examining the contents of her sandwich.

Sissy looked mildly surprised, wondering if Corinna was having one of her flashes of intuition, and asked, "What makes you say that?"

"You didn't see the look on his face when you and Chang were giving that demonstration," said Sophia with a slow nod.

"Or when you ... well, wound up on the floor," added Olivia with a wince.

"Oh?" questioned Sissy.

"I think he was worried that one or both of you would get hurt," said Sophia seriously.

The look that had crossed Knowles' face when Sissy hit the floor should have been one of disappointment or annoyance in keeping with his character, but instead he seemed relieved that more serious harm had not been done. Sophia could have sworn that much of the lesson had made him anxious. Then again, Knowles was nothing if not unpredictable.

"He shouldn't have been," said Sissy. "I would never have intentionally injured one of them, and they would have at least tried to do the same for me," she added with a look of mild distaste.

Sophia laughed and said, "Those other fellows are disasters compared to Chang."

"Not that we would have been much better," said Corinna glumly.

Sissy raised an eyebrow and said, "Then I guess he made ... adequate choices."

That made perfect sense now. He had known from her academic record and from the fact that Chang's other 'opponent' had not gone to the hospital wing that they would be the least likely to injure one another. She felt a bit flattered.

"But it still doesn't answer the question of 'why'. Why did he have us do that if he was so concerned," said Olivia.

"Maybe it was because of ... it," said Corinna in a low voice.

"How so?" asked Sissy, knowing that she was referring to the vampire.

"I think they want us to be able to defend ourselves ..." she said, turning and looking up at the head table where Armando Dippet and Cyrus Knowles were having a very quiet conversation. The others turned as well, looking on curiously and wishing that they knew for certain ...

"Should we be worried or happy?" asked Olivia.

"Both, I should think," replied Sissy. "They appear to be taking the threat seriously -- unless we're all over reacting and imagining things -- but that also means that there is a serious threat," she added.

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