Lesson Three (Third 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.

Karma felt herself grinning at Cobalt as she walked into the classroom, his hat firmly on her head. "Hi Cobalt." She greeted with a huge smile. She slid into her seat, finding it hard to sit still, she pulled out a piece of paper and began to doodle with her quill. She loved experimenting with the amount of ink on the quill and how the thickness of whatever line she was drawing changed. She spun the paper as she added a shadow here, and a swirl there. She was completely immersed before another student walked into the door.

Arsen took a deep breath as he entered the DADA classroom, he was still not over the professor spilling his secret but he wasn't going to say anything, he had enough problems to deal with now that his father had shown up. He was on the verge of snapping any day now and that would definitely blow his cover.

Ignoring both the professor and Karma he silently moved over to the desk in the corner and sat down. He closed his eyes and rested his hand in his hands as he waited for the others to arrive and the class to start.

Ethan had been in most excellent mood today so he was humming as he entered. See 2 oter students he said "Hello" and took a seat

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 Karma. Karma, as she is, would last about a week."

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!"

He sighed and gritted his teeth he'd been fighting in this war for weeks now and he was pretty sure he was still alive so that was his assumption out the window. This man knew nothing yet he pretended he knew it all. Oh yes Karma, of course Karma would survive she was his apprentice and he had to make himself look good didn't he? He thought rolling his eyes because none of his apprentices would ever fail not when they had his training.

He quickly got to his feet as his chair began to move and immediately his eyes brightened at the thought of killing this man. He'd thought of nothing more than hurting this man for days now because he couldn't keep that big mouth of his shut. Without the slightest bit of hesitation he sent a cutting curse straight at his professor aiming to do more than just scratch his skin, he was after limbs and limbs only. He was just pleased he'd spent two years at Durmstrang before coming here.

Once he'd fired the spell he got moving to make sure Cobalt didn't have an easy target, because if there was one thing he had lots of it was energy. He had enough energy to do this all day and maybe night if he didn't need to heal himself. He smiled before firing another three spells at him one after the other, all aiming to cause permanent damage rather than just hurt. "Diffindo, Sectumsempra, Flipendo."

Karma glanced up at Cobalt's voice, then looked down at her doodle. It was the younger him. weird.

She folded it and placed it in her pocket. A week. Well, it was six days longer than the rest of them, that was sure. When the desks began to move she stayed still, listening. Aim to kill? Challenge Accepted.

Karma braced her feet on the seat beneath her and waited. Her hands going to the two daggers that would be hardest to get during combat, the ones in her boots. Using the chair as a step stool, she ran along the desks, throwing one of the daggers in Cobalt's direction and lining it up so that just in case he turned intangible the dagger would imbed itself in his desk, so she could get it later. Then, dodging Arsen's curse and using his desk as leverage she leapt from it, spinning in the air and firing two more daggers at Cobalt, aiming for both his head and his heart. The second her feet touched the ground she went into a barrel roll and fell into a stance on one knee, one foot, and one hand, ready to go into any direction.

Cobalt grinned internally. The two students he held the most hope for had attacked first, as he knew they would. Arsen because he'd stung his pride and Karma because he'd played to her's. Externally his scowl lifted a little.

Without a word, Cobalt snapped a quick protego up which blocked Arsen's cutting curse, the shield rippling like water before he dropped it immediately. There was no use in wasting energy on keeping a shield active when it the students were going to go around it anyway. He saw Karma take to the tabletops as Arsen moved away from his first firing position. Reaching out, he caught Karma's knife in his left hand, ignoring how it cut his palm slightly, before throwing it at Arsen as he began his spell casting chain.

He turned his body to the side to avoid being hit by Arsen's first cutting curse and spun around to the left to avoid both of Karma's thrown knives and the darker cutting curse Arsen had sent his way. Deciding to go on the offensive to get them back on their toes a little bit, Cobalt waved his wand and dispelled Arsen's knockback jinx with a flick of his wand before he smiled thinly,

"Exuro." he said calmly, an arrow of fire shooting from his wand travelling fast at Karma before he pointed his wand at Arsen, "Aqua bombardis."

A solid ball of water shot from his wand tip at Arsen. Cobalt chuckled,

"You might want to work together..." his smile disappeared instantly, "Before I decide to see how far I can go before I get fired for child abuse."

He smiled and ducked out of the way of the knife, now this was what he was talking about. Free shots at a Professor he hated with no punishments attached, he could get used to this. He flicked his wrist so his own knife landed in his hand, he always felt better with it in his hand because it just felt right. It was forged with his own blood after all.

He growled, and conjured his own fiendfyre to evaporate the water, the fire itself coming from his wand hand so he could pass it off as wand magic. Sending water at him was below the belt. He shook his hand putting the fire out as his anger began to get the better of him, he needed to keep his head this could be his only chance where he could get away with it. "Sectumsempra." He said sending the curse towards his professor 3 times, two aiming for his neck whilst the other went for his wand arm.

Once he did that he took a quick glance at all the candles in the room and made them go out plunging the room into darkness, thank satan he had night vision. "All spells allowed yeah?" He asked making sure to stay on the move.

He smiled and shook his head, "I work alone now. I'm tired of relying on other people." He said grabbing the nearest chair to throw at Cobalt with one hand whilst casting crucio at him with his wand hand, he did tell them to kill him after all, he was just following instructions. He'd had enough of working with someone because you really only could rely on yourself, because everyone had the potential to throw you off a cliff.

Karma flew behind Cobalt's desk, dodging the flaming arrow easily, and smiling when the lights went out. Her eyes adjusted quickly, and she sprang up, throwing two more daggers at Cobalt's back before dodging low again, running quickly along the ground. She glanced at the Ravenclaw, before cocking her head and pointing her wand at her throat.

If reading the old spellbooks at her house had taught her anything, it was that a good disguise was nothing if you couldn't disguise your voice.

"G-g-guys?" She studdered in the Ravenclaw's voice. "Can... Can we work together?" She wanted to move so badly, her instincts screamed to do so, but she knew that the boy wouldn't have. "Guys?" She looked at Arsen, knowing he could probably see her, seeing as he was a demon and all, and mimed toward Cobalt, and mouthed to him. 'Night Vision?'

Cobalt smirked viciously as he saw Arsen scowl at his use of water. It had angered Arsen as he knew it would but he didn't expect it to be so much fun to get the boy angry at him. He poked his wand towards his left hand and a small duellist shield appeared on the back of his hand. Moving quickly, he dodged the first dark cutting curse, slapped the other away with his shielded hand and dodged just enough for the last one to clip his right cheek, splitting it open even as he laughed,

"Come of Salvator!" he goaded Arsen, "Even your second rate killer of an uncle can fight better than this!"

He raised an eyebrow as the lights went out at the entire room was plunged into darkness, causing him to close his eyes. The two daggers coming from behind him were quiet but he heard their flight anyway, easilly side stepping them before opening his eyes again, his eyes now accustom to the darkness. He knew spells to enhance his vision of course but why would he need to use them? Give the kids a bit more of a chance. He chuckled at Arsen's question,

"Any spell." he confirmed before tilting his head to the side and deciding to really get Arsen angry, "Although I haven't cleared the unforgivables with the headmaster so you might just get expelled. And what kind of work can a half-demon get without an education? You'll end up being put down like a rabid dog."

Cobalt ducked instinctively at the sound of displaced air when the chair sailed through the air, missing his head by inches. His eyes narrowed at the dark red torture curse that lit up the room. Without any viable option to block it, Cobalt dropped to the floor in a combat roll, emerging from it with a wave of his wand and a wordless banishing charm in Arsen's direction, based on his scent and not where he'd sent the spell from. He pointed his wand at his desk,

"Don't try and kid a kidder Karma." he snapped, whiping his wand to where he caught her scent in a flash and sending a wide area banishing charm, "Depulso."

Realising that both kids were using some kind of night vision, Cobalt flicked his wand up,

"Lumos maxima!" he declared, putting full power into this spell unlike the others, his eyes shut tightly. A blindly bright orb of light shot up into the centre of the room. Opening his undazzled eyes, Cobalt pointed his wand at Arsen, "Aqua bombardis. Aqua bombardis. Aqua bombardis. Aqua bombardis."

He growled and threw his knife straight for Cobalts eye. "Try saying that to his face, wetboy." He spat waiting for Cobalt to catch or dodge the knife, either way it would come back to him. It would just be a lot funnier if he caught it, for him obviously, he was sure Cobalt wouldn't like what he got.

He smiled. "I don't care about school, im just here to pass the time." He said before aiming another cutting curse at Cobalts thigh. "Someone ought to teach you to keep that mouth of yours shut." He spat, first telling Char and now the whole class. He couldn't let him get away with that, not this time. "Oh there's plenty of jobs out there for me as long as there's lots of fragile humans to turn to dust, i'll be just fine. Thanks for your concern though." He said spinning his wand around his fingers.

He laughed as he dropped into a combat roll, before combining two spells together to create four fire angry birds and sending them to target his head, chest and feet. He quickly side stepped the banishing charm, thanking satan he had quick reflexes because that was a close one. He turned to look at Karma and shrugged, how was he supposed to know he was her master he thought dusting his jacket down before casually sending desk after desk flying towards Cobalt. He just hoped Karma was smart enough to capitalise on the distraction.

He hissed, his hand automatically going to cover his eyes but even his reflexes weren't fast enough to save himself from being blinded by the light. Without a seconds though he ducked down and began to crawl to a safe spot using his other senses to find the way. A noise coming from the side of him made him panic.

He looked up blindly before rolling to the side only to get hit by the last two of the water spells, instantly drenching him in water. He let out a loud irritated growl and shot to his feet. "Idiot!" He shouted as his skin began to irritate, a feeling of a million hot and cold needles constantly stabbing into his skin immediately ran through him, it would take long dreadful hours now for his skin to return to normal.

"Let's play shall we?" He growled aiming his wand straight at Cobalt before beginning to circle him, "Avada kadavra, avada kadavra." He repeated sending the spell every few seconds until he had at least 7 AK's coming his way. Once he was done with them he pocketed his wand and flexed his fingers instantly making them spring to life with the fire raging to get its hands on the man that hurt its master.

Karma did not like where this was going.

Finally giving into her instinct to move, she dodged both banishing spells and ducked behind a desk, stowing her wand away and using Arsen's distraction as time to soundlessly move toward Cobalt. Not too fast, not too slow, she crept toward Cobalt, holding two daggers. Just as she braced herself to jump, she head the beginning of "Lumos..." and closed her eyes tight. The light branded the inside of her lids white, but she opened them and ran while Cobalt still had his eyes closed, throwing two of the daggers, barely dodging the chair Arsen had thrown, and pulling the largest dagger on her, the one at the small of her back, out. She ran forward, ready to stike, only to have to jump back and dodge behind Cobalt's desk when Arsen cast the unforgivables.

"ARE YOU BLOODY CRAZY~!" She yelled at him, her eyes glaring at him, even as she moved and threw another dagger at Cobalt, running along the desks. She pulled out her wand and aimed it at the desks behind her as she ran. "Wingardium Leviosa!" She yelled, jumping down onto a chair and continuing to run along the chairs. She focused on the desks in the air as she cast them toward Cobalt. "Bladisma!"

The desks turned into twenty daggers each, all hurtling at Cobalt and all the areas he could dodge to. She jumped down at the end of the chairs beside Arsen and turned to him with fury in her eyes, heedless of his flames. "YOU ALMOST KILLED ME YOU IDIOT!" She narrowed her eyes at him and purposefully got in his personal space. "Come that close again, and I won't forgive you." She ran off in the other direction before he could do anything, too smart to stay still that long.

Cobalt smiled at little as Arsen's knife came hurtling towards his eye. The problem with aiming for such a small target, he mused as he moved his head to the side by about an inch to completely avoid it, was that it was so easy to miss,

"Oh I would..." he mused loud enough for Arsen to hear, "But your uncle isn't stupid enough to think he could beat me in a fight. It's why he always runs away after awhile. He doesn't like a challenge. It's why he 'hunts' muggles. Quite how you can hunt creatures as weak as them is beyond me..."

Cobalt batted the cutting curse to his thigh away with the duellist shield on the back of his left hand, ignoring Arsen as he'd gotten the teen monologuing as was his plan to distract him while he worked. Moving quickly, Cobalt executed a perfect spin kick, knocking both of Karma's thrown knives away from him. He frowned a little and doused the fire birds with strong jets of water from his wand. Quickly losing patience, Cobalt vanished each desk that came close to him with a savage slash of his wand. When he saw two of his water attacks land on Arsen he grinned widely. This was about to get interesting,

"Oh come now Arsen!" he taunted, "A little water never hurt anyone!"

He raised an eyebrow as the boy began to fire killing curses at him however. Using the killing curse in a classroom full of students? Most less capable than even Arsen? His eyes narrowed a little as he animated some of the desks to throw themselves in the way of the killing curses. Oh Salvator was going to experience some pain for that little stunt. The fires springing to life in Arsen's hands distracted Cobalt long enough for the knives racing towards him to actually be a problem. He frowned,

"Immoblious." he whispered, stopping the daggers that were going to hit him dead in the air before sending them after Karma with a scowl mixed with a smirk, "Attacking when an opponent is distracted Karma? I'm almost proud."

Reaching into his jacket he pulled out a desert eagle handgun with a grin,

"Let's up the stakes." he decided, firing five quick shots at Arsen before emptying the remainder of the clip at where Karma was heading in her movements. He followed up with a wave of his wand and a lot of concentration, causing a massive ball of water to appeared above his head ominously before he began firing banishing charms at the two of them.

Karma dove foreward, using her hands to reverse her direction as Cobalt shot there, but she wasn't fast enough. A bullet ripped through her left arm. She grit her teeth at the pain, but as she was otherwise unharmed, ran in the other direction. Favoring her arm, she accepted that she was in pain, and tried her best to ignore it.

She swore internally as her daggers headed back toward her. She raised her wand. "Protego!" The knives bounced off an invisable shield, but she began to sweat with the effort to keep it up as the banishing charms hit it. The last one shattered her sheild, throwing her backwards. Her back hit the wall, an audible crack filling the room as her head hit it. She heard a grunt that may or may not be hers fill the room. She to the floor in a heap, her vampire senses running rampid trying to heal her.

Cursing softly, she pulled herself into a standing position, swaying slightly on her feet. She honed in on Cobalt weakly. Only remebering she needed to kill him, but not really rememberinng why.

He has a gun... she thought. She needed to do something about that. With slightly shaky fingers, she picked two daggers off her person, and threw them at him, aiming her wand and muttering "Expelliarmus" a second later. She began moving, depending mostly on her inhuman senses to guide her, rather than her thinking, human brain. Her movements turned more animalistic, and instinctual, her speed going unchecked.

She used his desk as leverage, jumped over Cobalt sending daggers with her good arm. When she landed she reached for another one, did a mental count, and paled a little bit. She was almost out.

She took off again, running so fast she was almost a blur.

He shook his head. "You clearly don't know my uncle Professor." He said before laughing. "Muggles are purely food not fights, he has clients to send him on jobs." He smiled.

He growled, the growl coming right from the bottom of his chest and up into his throat as he bared his teeth, they might not be as sharp as his uncles but he definitely had fangs. "One day old man, someones going to tear out that throat of yours and ill just sit back and laugh." He spat holding his hand open as his knife materialised back to where it belonged.

He laughed at Karmas words. "Probably." He smirked, the unknown often did that to a person and there was a lot about himself that he didn't know. And he wasn't willing to stay around his father long enough to find out. He growled. "Well watch where you're going then and come that close to me again and ill melt your feet to the floor." He spat letting the flames on his arms spread up his arms. The pain felt amazing. "I couldn't care less about your forgiveness."

He tilted his head to the side when he pulled out his gun, wouldn't be the first time he'd been held at gun point. "You going to shoot me Professor?" He asked with one side of his mouth pulled up into a smirked. He shook his head. "Resorting to muggle weaponry..." He clenched his teeth, not willing to let his pain show as three of the bullets hit him. He fell back onto one of the desks on impact and laughed out in pain. "Big mistake, i feed off pain." He laughed using his wand to summon the bullets out of his shoulder and arm, wincing slightly. Once all the bullets were out he let the flames spread to the injured areas so they could be healed.

"Lets see how good your water is shall we?" He said side stepping and dodging the banishing charms. One charm he had to deflect with a shield because he couldn't dodge it fast enough. His eyes lit up literally filling his sockets with flames, as he conjured the hottest most dangerous fire he could muster, fiendfyre. Once he'd gotten his temperature hot enough a great fiery snake erupted from his hands to slither around Arsen, locking him in a fiery circle. "EXSCINDO!" He yelled making the snake head dive forward whilst its body stay curled around him.

Cobalt noted, with a dry air even in his thoughts, that Karma had been hit in the leg by one of his bullets and was doing the sensible thing of trying to ignore the pain until she was in a position to do anything about it. He would have been mildly disappointed in how her shield buckled but she was only 13 and he had a number of years on her so it was perfectly understandable. The two daggers she threw were slow compared to the others as well as slow. He banished them to the side without much effort but allowed the disarming spell to hit his arm, throwing the empty handgun away from him.

Seeing the shift in her body language, Cobalt vanished the daggers she'd thrown at him before watching with an amused smile as she flew over him. Even at the speeds she was moving, it was only for the fun of it that he didn't snatch a leg out of the air or something. As she sped away, Cobalt switched his focus back onto Arsen,

"Who needs to understand a dog?" he quipped back, taunting him in a childish voice, "They have two settings... eat and kill. So your uncle does both at once? Oh no... whatever shall I do? Who will save me from the mad doggy? Maybe his little puppy of a nephew?"

Cobalt smiled at the growl and bared his own teeth, making them change shape into sharp points with a thought,

"Oh look at the puppy..." he cooed before grinning, "He thinks he's a big boy. When someone finally kills me... you and your uncle will be dust and memories."

Cobalt shrugged a little at Arsen's distaste for his muggle weaponry. Like he cared what the kid thought about it. It got the job done and it wasn't something that could be blocked by any of the magical shields, only conjured materials. It was because he could use more means than Aspen that people hired him for harder jobs. At the pain remark he couldn't help but grin,

"So what you're saying..." he grinned, "Is that you're super emo? Your power grows with you pain? Go slit your wrists in a corner, write some bad poems about your loneliness and you'll be a god."

His eyes narrowed a little. Fiendfyre was acceptable seeing as he'd asked the boy to try and kill him but he honestly hadn't thought the boy that stupid. Fiendfyre was one of the few things in all existance that could destroy parts of hogwarts. Cobalt sighed as the fiery snake reared back and attacked.

He was going to need a new office after this.

Squaring his shoulders he jabbed his wand sharply at the fiendfyre snake,

"Partis Temporus!" he declared, splitting the fiendfyre in two before forcing his magical control over the fires when Arsen's connection to the fire was split in two and therefore weakened. Without preable he sent the two streaks of fire out through the windows and out of the castle. He tutted, "Fiendfyre Mr Salvator? Are you trying to burn down the school?"

With a flick of his wrist the ball of water rocketted forward, not intent on snuffing out Arsen's fires but instead wrapping around his head. The spell was a tricky one to do non-verbally but it was best that the students not learn that there was a spell that created the opposite effect of the bubblehead charm.

He shook his head with a smile, he couldn't wait for the day that he pissed his uncle off, he'd soon wish he hadn't because Aspen never let things go so if he wanted you dead he wouldn't stop until you were. "Sure keep telling yourself that professor if it makes you feel better, but you should never under estimate someone, it could get you killed." He said in a perfect imitation of Richard.

He smiled. "Nice teeth but i've seen better and mine are real, no cheap spells to make me look like a wimpy vampire. I've killed a lot more people than most adults, so i think i've earned my place with you 'big boys'." He said before laughing. "You keep reassuring yourself that but i can promise you i will out live you. I'll be around for years after you've gone and Aspen? He wont die until the big guy no longer needs him."

He narrowed his eyes. "Emo really? That's all you could come up with? Well im very disappointed professor, i mean i wasn't setting the bar high but come on, i at least expected you to reach it at such a low level. I don't need to slit my wrist that's what the flames are for. Its like a cycle, it burns away my flesh then it grows back, no harm done. You on the other hand, oh you would burn. I'd love to feel the life being sucked out of you whilst the flames turned you to dust, your screams would be like music to my ears." He smiled imagining the happy thought.

He growled and reached out to reconnect with the fire but it was too late. After a few seconds he made more only this time keeping it around him because he knew that water bubble would be coming soon. "Well if it takes you down with it then yes, yes i am." He said wiping a bit of dirt off his shirt, he was just glad he hadn't decided to wear his jacket today.

He gasped inhaling a lot of water as the bubble covered his head. Within seconds his body began to scream out in irritation, making thinking near impossible. His natural instinct would have been to move but what did it matter, the bubble would move with him no matter where he went. He blinked trying to think but the irritation on his skin was beginning to become too much, so much so he wasn't willing to risk putting his hands through the water to cover his face because that would cause more irritation. He choked, both from inhaling water and lack of oxygen.

(OOC damn you and your water *glare*)

Aireon was done for. He'd been kept up by Peeves. Why did these things seem to happen to him?

Cobalt, Arsen, and Karma were engaged in a heated battle. Cobalt's lessons seemed to center around the fact of fighting.

"My apologies for being late, sir," he said.

With that, he drew his sword, and stepped up into the fray.

Cobalt watched with grim satisfaction as the water bubble around Arsen's head stuck and began to drown the boy. Strangely enough seeing this student drown was something that made him feel much better. He cast another spell, solidifying the outer edge of the bubble so that it would only break when he chose to break it. There was no real danger, Cobalt knew roughly when a boy of Arsen's size and weight should die without oxygen so he was just going to keep it up till he passed out.

Seeing Aireon step into the battle, Cobalt grinned and parrying the boy's opening sword swing with a thick knife, he grinned,

"Alright!" he called out with a manic gleam in his eyes, "Someone with something other than cheap fire tricks!"

Knocking aside the first strike, one used to test his defences, he kicked Aireon in the stomach hard to give him some breathing room.

Arsen passes out.

(OOC im breaking my own rules and going for the short and snappy approach.)

"Cheap fire tricks?" Aireon smirked. He took the kick in the abs.

"Just missed the solar plexus, sir," he taunted. With that he began a series of slices and stabs with his sword. Cobalt was fast, but Aireon had had practice battling fast opponents. He noticed the blade seemed to have flames inside it, but paid it no mind. He fought on. Aireon sliced at Cobalt just barely cutting his robes. He then jumped and twisted in the air over Cobalt. He landed, and adopted a defensive stance. Know your enemy as you know yourself.