Defense Against The Dark Arts

Yes, We All Know Pens Were A Genius Invention

31st March 2022

None of you answered when I asked for suggestions to the plot :( But anyway, here's the next chapter. I've created a timetable, that follows canon as closely as I could get it.

Percy walks over to the door and opens it, letting the students come in. I perch on the desk at the front and watch them as they sit down, schooling my face into one of boredom and coldness.

Slytherins are the quiet, plotting ones. Often they are portrayed as evil, but that's just because they often think more ruthlessly than the other houses, The portrait had told us last night. If you unfairly punish one, the whole house will treat you as an enemy, and a Slytherin enemy is the most dangerous enemy to have.

"Uh, hi class. I'm Percy, and this is Nico, and we're your new defence teachers." Percy says "You won't need those books in these lessons," he adds when they pull out a book from their bag and sit down. It's a fairly small class of ten people, five girls and five boys, all of which are staring unimpressed at Percy.

One of them puts up their hand. "Are you aware of the curse on the defence position? No Professor has lasted more that one year."

"I guess we are now," Percy mumbles at me in Ancient Greek.

"I sure hope it doesn't kill us." I laugh.

"We weren't planning on staying more than a year, anyway." Percy replies.

None of the students outwardly comment on the language change, but by a few disgruntled faces, I can tell that it's annoying most of them that they don't know what we are saying.

"Why won't we need our books, Professor?" The girl with the green nail varnish asks.

"Because I hate reading? And also marking work and writing, so there probably won't be anything to do with paper in this lesson. Also, you don't really have to call me professor, or I'll feel too old. Just call us by our names"

The kids (I probably shouldn't call them that, they are almost my age) still don't seem very impressed, so I clear my throat. Two jump at the noise, I find with amusement.

"You won't be needing books, because this class will mostly be practical work. We've decided on a curriculum based on physical training and exercise. The physical training mostly being self defence and combat in case you are ever without your wand, and the exercise because the only sport you have here isn't even played by the whole school." I say.

"So we're going to learn how to fight?" The quiet boy at the back asks, interested.

"Eventually. First we need to do the register, though," Percy says, and grabs it off the desk. I chuck him a Biro, and he grins his thanks.

It's rather quiet, as there aren't many people, and the only name I remember is Selene, the girl who was painting her nails earlier. As soon as Percy puts down the completed attendance list, it disappears, although I'm not sure where it went. None of the kids look shocked at its disappearance, so we both just ignore it.

"What's that quill thing you're using?" One of the girls asks, "It doesn't have any ink."

Percy looks at her in bemusement. "It's called a pen? Haven't you heard of them?"

The girl frowns.

"It's made by muggles," The girl next to her explains. "Professor Burbage was talking about them last lesson. It's like a quill, except all the ink is already inside it."

"Lovely. Now that we all know what a pen is, can we continue?" I interrupt. (I wonder whether now would be the right time to deduct points, although I'm not really sure what to say. How do the points disappear when someone speaks? Does it matter about intention? What about if you didn't take a whole number of points away? Would it let me say something like 3.45 points to Slytherin? What if I gave points to a house that doesn't exist, or if I said it wrong?)