DADA, Lesson 2; First Year

Certh had his wand secured in his robes as he walked down the Corridor leading to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. He had been looking somewhat forward to this class, seeing as how he did fairly well with the first lesson. He pushed the door open with his right hand and entered, being the first one there - again, he took his seat on the side of the classroom again.

Vivian waltzed into the DADA classroom feeling confident. She saw Certh there, one of the boys she had met before, and waved at him before sitting down in a random desk in the middle of the room.

"I hope I see someone else I know," she thought to herself, laying her head on her hand and propping her elbow up on the desktop. "Gabrielle or maybe Gil and Charlotte."

Jessica strode into the classroom with her usual air of cockiness and confidence. She very nearly tripped on nothing, but managed to make it seem like a hop by coming back to the ground with some form of grace. "Freaking ninja skills," she thought, sending the thought to Certh with a grin.
"Hey Vivian," she said, sitting on the same desk she sat at last lesson. She looked over at Certh to see his reaction to her message.

Annabell walks in calmly and sits down at the desk right in the middle. She sighs and lays her head on the desk still slightly tired.

Vivian looked over as Jessica walked in and grinned. "Hey, Jess, how are things?"

She then spotted Annabell and asked with concern, "You okay, Anna?" Usually the girl was infectiously peppy and Vivian couldn't help but miss her optimism.

Sergiy Made his way towards the class room. Back pack, over his back, wand under his right hand side of his sleeve. And he made his way towards the Classroom. Upon entering it he saw the same children that were annoying in potions class. He made his way to sit by himself. Got a book out, and begun to read it.

Certh's head remained facing the front of the classroom with his wand in his hand that was resting on the top of the desk. He had began to wonder how long it would take for the professor to arrive this time, when there was a noise behind him - sounded like someone was falling, but then a thought appeared in his head. His question had soon been answered, Jessica's voice narrated the thought and a small smirk came over his face as he glanced over to see her sitting across from him - the exact seating arrangement they had during their first class.

Annabell nods and keeps her gaze down, "Yes, I'm just following grandfather's orders. I gpt yelled at over beak for silly things."

She winces slightly at the memory, Warum bist du nicht machen die besten Noten der Klassen? Sie werden am Ende einen erbärmlichen Versager, die das Leben als Schmarotzer leben werden. ein niemand gerne. Ich erwarte, dass Sie aufhören, sich wie ein Idiot stümperhaften und halten sich selbst, bis du der Beste bist.

Those words hurt her, "Until I'm the best." She mutters and looks to the front at the board.

"Oh..." Vivian let her sentence die out, feeling sorry for Annabell. It wasn't her place to ask what had happened but she could understand how she felt a little. "I get it. My break was pretty bad too. My brother... well, let's just say he's kinda moody." She laughed to hide the pain, thinking back to the letter again. "Still, I hope you don't get yelled at anymore."

Charlotte walked to Defence and was a bit surprised to see there was already reasonably large group of students there.

She smiled and waved at Jessica as she passed her and muttered a small 'hello' to Sergiy before sitting on a seat beside Annabell and Vivian.

"Hey girls," she said with a small smile.

Annabell nods to the newcomer and looks back at Vivian, "I'm sorry to hear that. Mine's mainly my grandfather being a jerk." She smiles lightly, "I guess that shouldn't matter though. He's been like that since I was five." She looks at Charlotte "So how was your break?"

He looked around and saw Anne, Vivin the loud mouths from the potions class. And other people he shook his head and simply sighed before speaking."Hello there." He said towards Char, before slowly going back to his reading. He saw two others. A Boy he did know. And a Girl?

Vivian nodded in gratitude to Annabell. "Thanks. We all have famly problems don't we?" She added wryly. She then turned to Charlotte and grinned, "Hey, Char. How's it going?"

Charlotte caught the last bit of the conversation between the girls and smiled sympathetically, "Family problems?" She could relate. Thankfully, that was all in the past and everything was great now.

"It was pretty good, I guess," she said with a small smiled, "I got to see my family again, I was really missing them."

Vivian nodded in response, saying swiftly to Charlotte, "Brother problems for me. You have any? If you don't, count yourself lucky."

"That's nice," Vivian smiled at the other Ravenclaw. "I wanted to visit it mine but there were..." she searched for the right words before settling on, "complications, you could say."

He looked up from his book and scanned the room again. It seemed no one payed any eyes towards him. Which was a good thing, the the conversation they were having was peaceful so that was better then nothing. And they were not loud like they were in potions class. he smiled slowly towards himself and simply shook his head before looking at the book again and slowly beginning to read again not uttering a single word to them.

Annabell smiles, "Well atleast we actually had a family to go to." She shrugs, "No matter how horrible the times are. My brother visited and he kept telling me how he was such a popular person in school. I honestly wanted to hex him," She laughs lightly. "But that's brothers for you I guess."

Ric appeared without even the faintest of sounds. The only sign that he was the was a fainst black smoke slowly gathering together at the front of the class. After 3 seconds the smoke formed into the fully formed Headmaster. "Morning, i hope you all have a good Christmas but its back to business as usual. As you've probably notice, im not Miss Miller. From now on i will be taking this class, if you have any questions then remain at the end and ill see answer them the best i can." He didn't feel the need to waste time in saying all that so he quickly got it out the way and then moved on.

"Now who can tell me the most effective way known for wizards to protect themselves during a duel?"

Jessica turned her attention to the front of the room and racked her brain for the answer. She could have sworn that she had read this at some point, but it remained hidden at the back of her brain. She began drumming her fingers on the desk in thought, determined to bring that information to the front of her brain.

"Is it a shield charm?" she asked herself. "But they only work for moderate spells and hexes, at best..." she trailed off, realizing she had been speaking her thoughts aloud.

Vivian laughed and returned the smile to Annabell. "I know what you mean. Brothers are a pain."

She then looked up in surprise when the headmaster explained he was basically taking over the class. Vivian shrugged, she hadn't really seen the professor too much last time. Maybe that had something to do with it.

Vivian then thought about the question. Jessica was correct... or so she thought. The shield charm was the name for the spell, but wasn't it also called something else?

She raised her hand tentatively and added, "Umm... it's Protego, right? There are three versions, I think: the shield charm, Protego Totalum, and Protego Horribilis."

"Brother problems?" Charlotte smiled lightly and nodded, "I have them too. Well, had. Things are much better now."

She nodded again, "That's too bad. I hope you get to visit them for the next break."

Laughing a bit at what Anna had said, Charlotte shook her head, "Everybody has problems with brothers, don't they? But, really, you shouldn't let him bring you down. I think being popular doesn't matter, as long as you have real friends. Most of the time, it's just bull, trust me." She said as she remembered the perfect Sienna Campbell.

The Headmaster appeared out of nowhere and said he would be taking over the class, and Charlotte felt a bit . . . worried, anxious, nervous. She couldn't very well mess up in front of the Headmaster, now could she?

Before she had a chance to answer the question, though, Jessica and Vivian had already spoken and she nodded. That, at least, was what she thought was right.

He nodded in the direction of Jessica, unbeknownst to him the headmaster had appeared randomly at the front of the class from a pit of black smoke - which he had found rather brilliant. His eyes followed the movements of him - wherever he had walked, talked, or sung - had he ever done it.

After the question was asked, he was about to raise his hand - it was halfway in the air before Jessica shot out the answer, again, just before he was going to answer. But no matter, he gave her another smile, and waited for the answer.

"Correct. Protego will be the spell we learn today, we'll learn the others for later years." He smiled getting to his feet. "Right everyone on their feet, quickly come on!" He ordered and once they were all standing he magiked the desks away.

"To cast the spell move your hand in a waving motion like this." He said waving his wand like a lasso above his head. "And nice and clearly say, Protego!" As soon as the word left his lips a bright transparent blue shield surrounded him.

"Now you try. It takes practise to get a shield as bright as mine so don't be discouraged if it doesn't glow."

Charlotte stood up, grabbing her wand, and watched carefully as the Headmaster cast the spell. It seemed easier than in the book, but all the spells seemed like that to her. Books were way too complicated when it came to describing the wand motions.

She waved her wand above her head, exactly as he did, feeling a bit silly and reminded of the times when she was a little kid playing cowboy with her brother. "Protego," she said, but all that happened were some blue sparks flying out of her wand.

The Ravenclaw frowned and bit her lip, getting ready to try again. Repeating the movements, she exclaimed, "Protego!" A transparent light blue shield covered her front and she smiled, pleased.

While it wasn't bright like the Headmaster's and it didn't surround her whole body, Charlotte thought it was a nice start.

Certh nodded to the headmaster as he described how to do the shield charm - or whatever it was technically called, instead of using the incantation for the name. He remained sitting for a minute or two after he had finished speaking, and looked down to his wand. 'This should be an easy one - the wand maker said this wand was excellent for dueling' he muttered under his breath, and directed it to his wand. He shot a glance over to the ravenclaw, whom he had never seemed to have met before - except in a few of his other classes, as she conjured hers on her second try. He chuckled, lightly escaping his lips then pushed himself off the chair and stood, his wand in hand.

It was brought up, above his head, and waved around in a circular motion just barely missing his black strands of hair and exclaimed "Protego!". Nothing appeared to show, but in the change of light could be seen a glistening wall in front of him. It didn't look like the Headmaster's, nor was it as bright - as it just covered the front of him, and wasn't as bright - but Certh was rather proud, even if he didn't do it exactly how the professor did his.