Lesson Three (Second 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.

Iris entered the class and noted with slight disappointment that there was no other student. "Good morning Professor, hope you had a good break," she greeted him and took a seat.

Crystal walked in nd saw only one other girl in there.

"Morning Professor" she said and sat behind the girl.

"Hello" she said to the girl she didnt really recognize her but she seemed nice.

"Hello, professor," Alicia said, pushing her hair out of her face and allowing herself to breathe a little heavily as she made her way to her seat.
She'd had to run from the Hufflepuff dormitory to the classroom, which wasn't actually all that far, but the stairs had made it more than a little extra exerting, especially with her bag.

Iris made it to class without difficulty and greeted the professor. "Good day professor." and seated with the couple of girls already there and grinned. "Hiya! Iris by the way. But call me Eye instead. All right Hufflepuff girl? Wood maybe?" She gave a concerned look when noticed Wood looking rather exhausted. She didn't have to wonder why though.

Alexis walked into the class. "Hello Professor." She greeted, waved at the others and sat down beside Iris.

She turned to the Ravenclaw girl. "Hello, I'm Iris." She introduced herself with a grin.

" Its nice to meet you, Im Crystal." she said "But you can call me Chrys."

Completely at a loss, Elizabeth slumped against the wall and approached the reading of her map a different way. She pulled out her wand and cast a small charm, showing her where she actually was. Tilting the map to the side, she put her current surroundings into perspective and ran to class.

She seemed to be doing that a lot today, Potions and Transfiguration were just plain terrible. She had missed out on most of the lesson because of her terrible way of reading maps, she was shy so she couldn't possibly ask for directions! As she found the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, she slunk in and found a seat towards the back. She'd go up to the Professor and apologise for her tardiness at the end of the lesson, she wiped the sweat from her brow and pulled out a note pad and quill.

Oh yeah, she was on a really bad roll.

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 coldly, "And that is unnacceptable to me."

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!"

Elizabeth didn't respond, only to that of defence. Pushing her bag away from her and the desk that had her pinned against the wall, she watched as the Professor seemed to glare at them and swore he'd try to kill them. Because she knew this was a practical exercise, she pulled her hair into a tight bun and took off her robe and sweater. Dumping them with her things, she drew her wand and raised it at him.

"So be it," she spat back, waving her wand and casting a familiar spell.

"Expelliarmus!"

Her mind began to flick through the charms and spells she knew, this is what she was good at. This is what her father had told her and trained her about.

"We could have had the exact same thing on our minds, Professor..." she said slyly, wondering if she'd get a rise out of him.

Cobalt lazily batted the disarming spell away with a duellist shield he'd formed on the back of his left hand with a non-verbal spell. He scowled and pointed his wand at the girl's desk,

"Less talking, more surviving." he advised her with narrowed eyes before announcing his neck spell to give her chance to react, "Confringo."

Alexis stood up and moved behind her chair, ready to use them as cover, if needed.
'Let's team up' She whispered to Eye. 'You try to disarm him, I'll keep him distracted. I'm good at dodging spells.'

Iris followed Alex's instruction yet very frightened. Her head throbbed after it hit the wall when the professor did his spell on them. She stood up, her wand tight in her right hand and looked at Alex, ready to distract the professor in seconds time. Iris was hardly breathing for the happening was too quick to catch: Professor Smith in front of her, terrible as ever (she sensed the horrible anger in him right when before he acted unexpectedly shocking in class). Her hand made a swift motion, eyes on the opponent's wand in hand and roared with all her effort, "EXPELLIARMUS!"

Elizabeth watched on in amusement, a smirk dancing on her features. She decided to be the little slytherin she was. The other girls seemed to be devising a plan amongst themselves but this Professor was set on setting a killing example. They didn't pay any mind to the confringo charm either.

"Well, if we're not meant to talk then why don't you teach us non-verbal?" she asked, tucking her wand behind her ear. Her father had taught her a basic protection spell, like protego but she didn't let it show. She pushed herself off the wall she was leaning on, circling him. Her eyes calculated him, wondering and trying to guess his next move.

She could use anything as long as it wasn't an unforgiveable... yes?

She let a smile come over her features, without even showing her lip movement a series of charms, spells and hexes was sent her Professor's way.

"STUPEFY!" Breath. "CONFUNDO!" she dashed out of the way and took safety behind a desk, she pulled her wand from her ear.

"Expulso!" she said, running across the classroom and firing another curse. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Alexis kicked her boots away and darted to the other side of Iris. Keeping her senses open for anything coming her way, she fired in rapid succession, 'STUPEFY! OBSCURA! IMPEDIMENTA! STUPEFY! INCARCERUS! STUPEFY! PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!' she kept moving, ready to dodge.

Cobalt had to give Iris credit for being either brave enough or stupid enough to try and face him head on as what was obviously meant to be bait. He shook his head and slapped his disarming spell away with the duelling shield on the back of his hand, sending the spell back at her,

"Keep moving Miss Frances!" he instructed her even as he turned slightly and whipped his wand at the new girl, the deadly ribbon cutting curse slicing through the wall just above her head with careless ease, "I'm not teaching you non-verbal spell casting because none of you are strong enough magically, mentally or physically to do any example of this that doesn't fall under the category of accidental magic."

He moved his body ever so slightly to avoid her stunning spell and moved his wand to manipulate the ribbon cutting curse so that it sliced through the confundus charm and dispelled it. Cobalt frowned a little and brought up a powerful protego shield to block all of Alexis' spells with no real difficulty. Dispelling the banishing charm from Elizabeth with careless ease, he let his protego shield absorb her petrifying spell as well. He paused and tilted his head to the side,

"Finished girls?" he teased them lightly, "Is it my turn yet?"

Iris yelled out the first spell that came to mind, which was 'Expelliarmus.' She tried her best to keep dodging. "Stupefy! Protego! Expulso!" Without taking into consideration that it was not a killing spell, she shouted, "Incarcerous!"

Elizabeth growled with annoyance and fired off every single curse she could remember. Thinking about protecting her fellow students, she cast a protego and with quick wand work, attempted to break his sheild.

"Together, work together." she said to the other girls. "Stupefy! Confringo! Expulso! Incarserous! Flipendo! Impedimentra! Stupefy! Experlliarmus!" why wasn't his sheild breaking? What was she doing wrong?

"Far out!" she muttered, wiping sweat from her brow. Sickeningly enough she was thoroughly enjoying this class.

"Petrificus totalis!!!" she said, centering her wizard core, her mind set on breaking that damn sheild. "Confringo!" quickly followed but it was misaimed. "Oh crud,"

Alexis had a sudden idea. It was wild no doubt. But she had to try. She produced a blueball frame which licked harmlessly at the outer surface of the shield of the professor.
She aimed at a nearby desk, and muttered,'Confrigo' keeping the force control. The desk blasted into large wooden planks. She threw them like a javelin and just before they reached the shield she aimed her wand and muttered with determination and focus, 'Reducto!' the planks bursted into tiny sharp splinters and headed streat for the professor in a volley.

Iris moved once again after she picked her wand, only in the opposite direction of Alex. She shouted different spells while running around the room, shooting at angles aiming at the opponent. "EXPELLIARMUS! STUPEFY! IMPEDIMENTA!" She stopped facing the wooden splinters and cast one Banishing Charm she knew, pointing at them, "DEPULSO!" and sent it flying towards the professor. She made Alex's work easier in one direction and waited for the effect, getting ready to shield herself.

Cobalt pointed his wand at the lone gryffindor, shielding against her disarming and stunning spells with non-verbal protego shield, ignoring her shield, dispelling her banishing charm with a jab and twist of his wand before focusing on the Incarcerous jinx with his magic, dragging it through the air by focusing his magical control over her's, throwing it at Alexis' feet before flicking his wand at Iris Grayson,

"Expulso." he declared, sending a powerful banishing charm her way even as his first protego shield began to falter a little under Elizabeth's assualt. With a wave of his wand the shield thickened again, and poking his wand through it to fire at her, "Expulso. Reducto. Diffindo."

He dodged the petrification spell and raised an eyebrow at the over-powered blasting curse as it hit the wall a few feet behind him, showering him with dust. With a pulse of magic the dust blew outwards towards Elizabeth's eyes with a non-verbal wind charm. The other Iris, the Slytherin one, stopping all three of her first spells by moving his protego shield to block them. For the first time in the duel however his eyes widened minutely as the splinters of wood from Alexis went through the simple shield because they were physical objects and so not protected against by a protego shield. With very little time to do much else, Cobalt closed his eyes and winced ever so slightly as the splinters dug into the skin of his right arm. With a frown he broke the splinters out of his right arm with a wave of his left,

"Five points to Slytherin. Now it's my turn." he smiled with a cruel glint in his eye, looking over the girls, "Now who to pick... eeny..."

He looked at the Slytherin Iris,

"Meeny..."

He turned to Alexis,

"Miny..."

He grinned at Elizabeth,

"Moe!" he declared with a vicious grin before tapping himself on the top of the head and simply disappearing. It looked like he'd used a disillusionment charm but this was a much improved version. This was a true spell of invisibility, there was no air distortion or waves in the air. He truly was invisible. And as an assassin he was naturally silent. He sprinted over to Elizabeth in about three strides, faster than she could react, turning visible as he slammed his fist into her stomach, lifting her up off the ground with the force of the blow. He scowled a little, "You knew I was coming and you failed to react accordingly."

He threw her across the room with one arm, into the gryffindor Iris, before standing still,

"Well? What are you waiting for?" he scowled, "Attack again!"

Iris sighed very heavily and slumped back into her seat at the back. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and patted her partner Alex's shoulder. "Great teamwork! You go girl!" She watched the others fight off the professor intently.

Before Elizabeth could even blink, she was hit in the stomach. Feeling an all to familiar crack, she was lifted and thrown across the classroom. She was flung into the other Gryffindor girl, she couldn't breathe. One of the ribs she had broken over the summer had rebroken, she was winded and her stomach ached. So he really wasn't playing nice, time for a little something more sneaky perhaps.

"Aren't teachers supposed to teach?" she gasped, feeling a bit dizzy as she tried to correct her vision. "If it were real life, I'd be dead so thank god it's not real life right now."

"Girls, come here...." she wheezed, uncurling herself and pushing herself up off the ground. Transfiguring her clothes into that of something more appropriate than a school uniform, she was wearing black jeans and commando boots. Her hair was in a tight pony tale and her glare was menacing.

"Old magic," she whispered to the girls. "My momma and grandma always use it, they said its better to keep the old alive with the new." she glared at her Professor and turned back to the girls. "That was brilliant, the splinters. It went straight through his shield. I know a very very little bit of wandless magic but it's mainly protection stuff. I lost my wand a fair bit over the holidays." she chuckled, though pain crossed her features. She had to forget about her injuries.

"Since he has no issues with using wandless magic, blowing dust into our eyes and being a downright sneak... we should do something similar." she dropped her American accent a few notches for only their ears. She cast a protego around the small group.

"Any ideas?" she mused. "Our powers are strong against his if we work together.."

'We don't have time to talk.' Alexis said, thinking fast. 'He is invisible, thus at advantage. Eye, try to sense him. Iris, apply impervius at us and your self. Darcy, banish everything that he may parch on. Make him stay on the floor. Now!' with a wave of her wand, the floor turned into a gooyee puddle of mud and water, except for a set of feet seemingly at the middle of the puddle. 'There he is!'