Lesson Two (First Years)

Cobalt yawned a little as he sat down behind his desk and put his feet up on the desktop. Pausing, he picked up a piece of parchment and transfigured it into a hat that he then pulled part way over his face to let him take a little nap.

J. J. slipped into the classroom; she was surprised to find it empty. She was going to call a greeting to the professor, but he appeared to be napping. Worried about what he might do if he was woken up - he seemed the tempermental type - she walked as quietly as she could to the desk she had sat in last time, and set up.
Looking around the room she gave a soft sigh. There was nothing left to do but sit and wait for class to start.

Damian happily made his way into Defense class. The previous lesson had been brilliant and he truly looked forward to this one, as well. He looked about the classroom, noting the relaxing professor and smiling at J.J.

The boy felt a bit disappointed when he didn't see Natil, but he supposed she probably wouldn't need to be to all their lessons - if any other than the first - anyway.

He took a seat and pulled out his supplies.

Flora sliped into the class and saw the teacher napping. She smiled inwardly, that's so...normal! She was seeing everything larger than life here.
She waved at J.J and Damien and took a seat.

Val dragged her sister in with a happy smile. They were on time for once! What a relief! Or maybe even early, as the teacher was currently... napping?

How odd.

Seth had just arrived to see a few students there already. He saw Damian and decided to take a seat near him. "Seems a few teachers are taking naps before class today," he chuckled.

Yawning deeply, Cobalt reached up and threw the hat across the room, letting it land on Damian's desk,

"Alright then!" he announced loudly, standing up slowly, "Today you get to see the real me kids."

He scowled at them lightly,

"And you're not going to like it." he promised them before pointing his wand at Damian, "You. Give me the name of a spell. Any spell at all."

Lucas dashed to his Defence class as fast as he could. "Professor, I'm so sorry for being late, I just signed up." He apologized. "Won't happen again." He hoped he would be let into the class.

Damian's mind went blank for a split second at being so abruptly singled out. A spell? Any spell? He blurted out one that had not too long ago made quite an impression on him. "Cruciatus, sir."

Cobalt gave Damian a sympathetic smile,

"Bad choice I'm afraid." he told Damian as he pointed his wand right between the boy's eyes, "I will give you one hint about what you have to do. You have to DODGE!"

The bright red light of the cruciatus curse shot from Cobalt's wand not a second later. However, the spell was not the torture curse, but instead a re-coloured stinging hex.

Damian's eyes went wide and he instantly dived under his desk almost before the professor had finished speaking, knocking the chair over in the process. He had to have picked a right nasty spell, didn't he?

Instincts honed over a year of avoiding being a punching bag had the boy quickly crawling under the desks to the back of the room, lest the professor take another shot at him. No way was he just sitting still - he'd seen what that spell had done to Bryce. He stopped behind a chair, heart pounding in his ears and wand finally in hand as he tried to locate the man's shoes beneath the tables.

Well, his education was certainly practical, even if the professor was nutty.

J. J. jumped as the professor shot a spell at Damian.
She watched as the other boy missed the spray by inches and crawled back to the room. She had no idea what a Cruciatus was, but from everyone's reaction it sounded something down right awful. What professor shot things like that at children?
She would remember if the professor ever said this to her to pick a simple spell... not that she knew many nasty ones anyways.

Cobalt chuckled as Damian neatly dodged the spell,

"Good work Mr Gray!" he commented, "Five points to Hufflepuff!"

He pointed his wand at Lucas Skywalker,

"Pick a spell."

Damian allowed himself a sigh of relief, tentatively assuming the five points meant he was in the clear, now.

Not that he'd be moving back to his seat any time soon...

Aquila knocked on the door softly.

He glanced around the room surpressing his look of confused shock. One student was hiding behind a desk to his left, and at the front of the room the Professor was pointing his wand at another student at the back of the room.
And he had been worried about Profesor Lewis!

"Perhaps, there is a better time for this," he said slowly, jokingly despite the danger he could possible be in, "But I never was good with timing."

He took another glance at the boy at the back of the room before continuing, "I was wondering if I could join; I'm aware that I'm late - parents," he shook his head a moment, "No excuse of course."

Damian couldn't help but laugh at the latecomer's expression. "Just don't pick any scary spells if he asks you," he advised quietly, grinning despite himself.

The boy turned, peering over the desk before cautiously rising to his feet. He debated just staying at the back of the room, but his stuff was still near the front next to Seth. Slowly he moved back to his seat, offering the professor a tentative smile, though his gaze stayed fixed on the man's wand arm.

Sophie walked into the classroom and up to Professor Smith's desk.

"Sorry I missed the first lesson," she said. "Please don't punish me!" She then turned and walked to an empty desk, unleashing the full power of her death glare on the people who were making her life at Hogwarts hell. She sat down and pulled out some parchment, ink, her quill, her wand and her textbook and waited for the lesson to begin.

Cobalt closed his eyes and rubbed tiredly at them as the two newcomers made their excuses and sat down,

"Why do I even bother to start these lessons on time if none of you show up when you're supposed to?" he asked the class in a long suffering voice before shrugging, "You've not missed much. Today you're learning how to DODGE!"

At the last word, Cobalt wand wiped round incredibly fast to send another of his modified stinging hexes, which were coloured to look exactly like the killing curse.

Mindful of the boy from the back of the room's advice Aquila made his way across the room to his seat carefully as the professor tiredly - and seeming more than a little upset - lamented that his students couldn't show up on time.

But before he got there, the Professor shot a spell out into the room. Not paying attention to what it was or who it was heading at Aquila allowed his instincts to take over and he immediately dropped to the floor behind the desk he was going to sit at.

Painfully hitting his knee as he did so. Holding back his gasp, he knew that that was going to leave a nasty bruise later.

Ignoring the pain, he looked back up at the room, noticing for the first time the colour of the spell and thinking for a brief moment it looked like the killing curse. He had read about it, seen some picture but...

A professor couldn't use that spell on his students could he? He'd definitely get kicked out.

Wouldn't he?

One minute the Professor was talking in a long suffering tone, the matron sometimes used and next moment a green spell was rushing towards them. Flora dropped to the floor immediately, knocking the chair back in her haste.