Lesson Three (First years)

Cobalt sighed a little and walked into his classroom with a small frown in place. Sitting down heavily in his chair, he placed his wand in the centre of his desk and practiced glaring a hole into the door that the students would come through.

Valerie walked in the door, ready to explain her and her sister's absence of the last class, when she spotted the professor and the dark look he sported registered.

"Um, sorry, Professor- um, my sister and I- um, a seventh year's potion... um..." She squeaked and darted to hide behind her twin, hoping Becky could explain sufficiently.

Damian nearly ran into the Ravenclaw twins as he entered the Defense classroom. The boy frowned a bit as he noted that Valerie was hiding behind her sister. Noting the professor's seemingly black mood, however, he supposed he didn't blame them.

Nonetheless, Damian gave the man a small smile. Last class had been eventful and interesting. Taking a seat near the front, the boy pulled out his supplies.

Flora noticed that Professor Smith seemed to be in a dark mood. She decided to keep her mouth shut, nodding to the professor, she took a seat.

J. J. hesitated only a moment at the door as she noticed the Professors expression. That probably didn't mean any thing good for this class. This time he would probably make sure he hit a few students.

Not wanting the Professor to realize that she was slightly terrified of her she walked on and sat down at the closest desk, trying to act as if there was nothing up at all.

Aquila was already in a grumpy mood as it was, at the thought to be going to Defence against the Dark arts. He had already decided he wasn't the professors biggest fan, and finding that the Professor seemed to be sharing his mood didn't really help.

Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, was his first thought but he was quite smart enough to not say it.

Instead he nodded at the professor slightly and then took a seat beside Flora. For once he didn't speak - just nodded.

Rebecca pretended to roll her eyes, but inside she was worried. Even with the most irate of people, Valerie did not get timid. Was there something she saw in the man's aura?

"What my sister means to say, Professor, is that we ran afoul of a seventh years' experimental potion, and that we were in the medical wing for the last lesson. We are truly sorry we missed it." She bowed quickly. Then grabbed her sister's hand and lead her over to a table, all the while noting the trembling fingers in hers.

Cobalt looked out over the students who had bothered to show up to his lesson before shaking his head in disgust. He took out his wand and held it loosely in his right hand. Anyone who knew anything about Cobalt knew that just because he didn't appear to be ready to kill, didn't mean that he wasn't. He moved to the front of his desk,

"You sicken me." he told them with a scowl, "The world around you is changing so that a war with the muggles is almost an undeniable fact. And you people?"

He spat at the floor,

"Not one of you would last a day." he declared before frowning a little, "Except Damian. Damian, as he is, would last a couple of days."

He waved his wand and the desks and chairs, even those with students sat at them, moved backwards until they were all pressed up against the walls of the classroom. Cobalt stood in the centre of the room,

"This is an exercise you will do often from now on until you graduate." he told the class with narrowed eyes, "Your aim is to kill me. And you'd best aim to do it because I swear to god I'll be trying to do the same to you. Now... begin!"

Flora's eyes widened and narrowed. She knew a few things about surviving in the wizard muggle conflict. Her magic was what made her a target in the orphanage, yet her magic was the thing that kept her alive. But here, she was the weak one, in every aspect.
'We better go at it as a team, individually we won't stand a chance.' Flora whispered to Aquila urgently.

Aquila startled and then reacting jumped off his desk as started to move back.

This act seemed to be cementing his opinion that this teacher was completely insane; but he was trapped in the room now.

He nodded at Flora and muttered, "Tag-teaming seems as good a bet as any - I saw until we get a plan past teaming up I'd say we attract as little attention as possible." He start walking, pulling Flora with him so that they weren't standing still, "I'd also go we try our best not to be easy target."

J. J. sat blinking in shock for a long moment; she jumped when her desk started to move back, but it took her until it was almost at the back of the wall to have the presence of mind to jump off of it.

She knew that this black mood of the professor's wasn't going to do anything good for the class; she also knew he was right - she wouldn't survive a minute in a battle. She had no idea what to do right now. She knew a grand total of about six spells and none of them were very offensive...

Or defensive for that matter.

Okay, she thought, No point in standing around like a sitting duck.

Keeping low for a reason unbeknownce to her - possibly because she saw it on televison - and keeping her eye on the -possibly deranged - Professor, she quickly but carefully made her way across the room until she found a nice little shetler behind one of the desks. It wasn't perfect and she was sure the professor would pick on her hiding spot soon, but she need a few moments to think.

And as she did think an idea came to her.

It was probably stupid, and it probably wouldn't work, but it was the best - and only thing she had.

Taking a deep breath she peaked under the desk she was half huddled against. It didn't offer the best view, but it was something. She could see the tip of his wand, and the rest she would just have to do with her imagination.

Taking another deep breath and wondering what she would do if this didn't work - what she would do if it did work - she moved her wand, and whispered as quietly as she could, as to not attract attention, "Wingardium Leviosa."

Valerie's first thought was something her mother would have washed her mouth out with soap for. Her second was to protect her sister.

She and Becky hadn't lived in the muggle world as half-blood witches, hiding their magic from their classmates for so many years, only to die at the wand of a teacher. She refused to let that happen.

But as she was, her arsenal paled in the face of a man trained for years. She glanced at Becky, waiting for her sister's reaction.

Cobalt broke the levitation charm on him with a mere wave of his empty hand. Sighing a little, he put his wand away into it's secure holster at his hip and stood with his arms wide open,

"I'll give you a chance..." he smiled a little, "I won't use my wand."

Flora accompanied Aquila around the floor, after whispering a quick Serpensortia.
'Go get the elder male.' she commanded the fanged cobra.
She copied the action twice around her movement.

Damian had taken up a position behind a table, simply observing for a moment. To be able to take down another being, it was helpful to know their strengths as well as their weaknesses. Obviously, Professor Smith was far more skilled than Damian, having had many more years to practice spells.

The man had already put his wand away, so expelliarmus would benefit the boy little at this point. The levitation charm had had little effect on him. Lumos would do nothing, and Merlin knew Professor Malfoy hadn't taught them anything new. Damian frowned a bit at the man's smile. He had a feeling that being wandless wasn't much of a disadvantage for the professor - he probably knew wandless magic.

Limited in the knowledge of useful spells and knowing that levitating the man himself was pointless, Damian decided to try a slightly different tactic. His first priority was to level the playing field as much as he could. Wolves maimed and/or cornered their prey. Damian wouldn't be doing any maiming, but if he succeeded, he imagined it was liable to hurt. He grew momentarily faint at the idea of how very much trouble it could get him into - and not necessarily with his master, the headmaster, either.

"Wingardium Leviosa," he incanted, the words all but inaudible. A chair that was sitting behind the man rose quietly into the air. With focused determination, Damian then sent it towards the back of the man's knees.

Becky nodded at her sister, and sent wordlessly over their link, "No wand, but I wouldn't put it past him to be able to go wandless. Tactic 7?" Tactic 7 was simple, evade, divide, and conquer. But they would need more help. A girl had sent conjured snakes at the Professor (with Parseltongue? Interesting...) But they needed something more concrete, more... organized...

She almost jumped when a chair began flying towards Professor Smith's legs.

She looked over to the boy who had enchanted it.

"Valerie, you head towards the girl hidden behind the desk, the snake tongued girl and her partner. I'll make my way to the boy who just weaponized the chair. NOW!" She ordered, then without another word she dived off to the side, ducking under a chair and presenting herself as a smaller target to whatever the man had up his sleeve. Crawling over to Damian, she planned as she went.

Cobalt knew that the children were only 11 and so their strengths were much less even than his weaknesses but still, he was already beginning to get bored. The snakes would have been a problem to anyone else but Cobalt simply wasn't intimidated by snakes. He stamped down quickly and savagely on the lead snake, crushing it's head instantly. It took only a few seconds to do the same with the others.

He frowned a little as Damian sent a chair flying at his legs. Taking a striding step towards it as he kicked out with his right foot, Cobalt shattered the chair easily without breaking stride,

"Next!"

'Damn!' was all Flora could think. What to do now? Getting desperate she levitated the professors' desk up in the air. Merlin! It's heavy. She thought and dropped it on his head.

With no real response from the students who were focused on 'defeating' the man, Rebecca frowned and just shouted, "Valerie, change of plans! Tactic 27!"

Tactic 27 was something they weren't used to, as they more often liked to stick to the shadows, but it may have been their only real chance. It was an actual physical attack that relied on the two being in sync with each other. They had hoped that they would be... a bit bigger, when they had to employ this tactic for the first time, but desperate times (and crazy teachers) call for desperate measures.

Becky began her ginga, though it was unpolished and unproffesional. She and Val had begun training in Capoeira when they started ballet (around four) but they were young yet. She hoped her sister had heard her and begun her own ginga.

They would move in for a few moments for each attack, then flip backwards. The style called for space, which the Professor had 'thoughtfully' provided, and they only had to keep in mind the other students and their various attacks.

The only problem with their chosen style was if their combatent figured out that they needed to keep moving for it to be effective, and they needed to keep their distance, else he could take them down easily. This would likely be nigh on impossible.

Valerie heard her sister, and spared no time to think about it as she began her ginga(1) at the exact moment as her sister. The other girl might have something planned, and she would go along. Becky had the tactical mind.

She spun and flipped lightly, her ginga a little more advanced than Becky's, but not by much. A few moments after the call went out, Valerie began her first Aú(2), moving in to aim a kick at the Professor's chest while Becky was supposed to be focusing on the man's legs and feet. With the fluid movements of Capoeira they would be able to dodge back quickly if he tried to return attack... hopefully.

(OOC: For those of you not in the know (or without google skills)
(1)a ginga (pronounced jinga) is basically the continuance of movement in Capoeira,
(2) an Aú (pronounced Ah-oooo) is an attack or defense pattern.
At least, that's what I think, I'm not the one taking Capoeira.)

Damian gritted his teeth as the professor easily evaded the chair. Not that the boy had really expected anything else; he had hoped a bit, though. In truth, Damian's greatest asset when it came to any sort of fight was his fists. Again, such a tactic would prove useless against the man, however - he was at least thrice Damian's size.

The boy took a quick look around to locate his classmates - their best chance as first years would be to work together, after all. He glanced up sharply as one of the Greenways shouted out to the other. They had started some sort of... Damian wasn't sure what it was, actually. Hoping the girls would at least distract the professor for at least a moment, he crawled hurriedly to where he had spotted Flora and Aquila.

Aquila looked up when one of the twins yelled something, and then watched as the did some sort of... it kind of looked like a dance to be perfectly honest, but whatever - they so far had done more then he had come up with, so he would give them credit where it was due.

Looking away from them he noticed Damian crawling over.

"Howdy Hombre," he whispered as a greeting when he felt the boy was close enough to hear him at a decible that the professor wouldn't, "come to join the dream team have you?"

He smiled but refrained from laughing for he wasn't completely hopeless in this regard.

"I hope you have some sort of plan, because I think the best I got is just chucking stuff at the man until he gets either tired of it, or someone else comes up with something better."

Damian glanced over to determine that the professor was still suitably out of hearing range before turning back to his classmates.

"We're first years," he whispered needlessly. "So, we don't know much. He's probably been using magic at least as long as we've been alive. Attacking him one by one isn't doing anything - he's too quick to defend himself. We have to attack him all at once from as many directions as possible.

"I'm going to talk to J.J., too. You guys spread out and when I give the signal, shoot everything at him - prank spells, charms, everything. Don't stop with just one. The more spells he has to dodge, the more trouble he'll have dodging them.

"Wait for my signal."

He continued to the edge of the row. J.J. was on the other side of the classroom, which meant Damian would have to cross empty space to reach her. The boy wasn't any too thrilled about the idea, but he didn't have any better idea. Rising up into a crouch, he gazed warily back at the professor. Drawing a deep breath, Damian darted across the aisle as quickly as he could, intent on making his way to his housemate.

Her one idea had failed, and like she had always done before, J. J. had left herself to huddle in her hiding spot and wonder what would happen next. It wasn't brave, and she wasn't proud of it, but... well she never signed up for a war, she was a first year Muggle with a forte for charms that so far had lead her to trivial spells and nothing more.

She watched as the other attemps failed. She couldn't do this on her own, but...

As she looked over she saw Damian leaving from talking to Flora and Aquila, to dash out across the room, in open space. She bit her lip worried about him attracting attention. He seemed intent on coming over to her.

The twins might be distraction enough but...

Looking around her she grabbed the first thing she saw, a pencil case and chucked it at the Professor. She chucked a few more things in the direction of the man, hoping to keep him slighlty busy, and then immediately slide away from her spot and crawled to a spot still sheltered but closer to Damian so he didn't have to move so far.