The 101 of Working With Your Enemy

Chapter 6

"Due to the situation that we are currently in, the faculty has decided to include something in the curriculum that isn't taught under normal circumstances," Professor Snape announced as he was striding inside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. "Before I tell you what exactly you will learn this year, I ought to emphasise that you must treat it with caution. It is not to be used on the school premises if not particularly asked of you or if the situation threatens your life."

"It must be really dangerous then," whispered Scarlet into my ear.

"Good observation, Miss Bancroft," Snape said, now facing the board, his back towards us, as he wrote something down.

Ears like a bat, Scarlet mouthed, and I snorted, quickly averting my gaze down to my paper, as Snape spun around and fixed his eyes on me.

"Something to share with the class, Miss Solace?" Slowly, I lifted my gaze up and met his, plastering a smile over my face and shaking my head. "I just said how excited I am for today's lesson, Professor."

He didn't buy it, but still went on with his writing. When he finished, I read the words in the same moment that Snape said them aloud: "Wandless magic."

The class broke out into hushed whispers. I was still processing his words when Snape silenced us with a sharp look.

Wandless magic wasn't taught at Hogwarts. There were few wizards and witches who were able to wield it at all, and I thought that the odds of me ever being capable of doing so were pretty slim. Seeing as I had the opportunity now, I was beyond stoked.

"Wandless magic is astonishingly hard to master. While in the process of learning, you will be utterly careful. A small mistake can have a dreadful outcome. That's why you are never to perform alone. You will be divided into teams of two, you will study together at any free second, and you will have the rest of the year to prepare yourself for a test that you will face at the end of this school year. The result you get in the test will make up half of your final grade."

This sounded too good to be true. At the same time, the Wizarding World must've been in greater danger than ever before. Teaching students how to wield magic without relying on their wands seemed like a last resort.

"You will do your research, which you will present in class, you will practice the actual magic, and you will learn to work with your partner."

"That shouldn't be hard for us," I whispered to Scarlet, and she gave me a smile in return. We've been inseparable ever since we met on the Hogwarts Express in our first year. We knew each other better than we knew anyone else. Trust was what was important here, and we had that.

"Why learn wandless magic at all? It's not as if we go around losing our wands," shouted a Gryffindor from the back of the class.

"You might not lose it, Mr. Thomas, but it could be taken from you," Snape said with a voice as monotonous as if he were talking about the best way to clean cauldrons and not about potential captivity or torture. "Thus, it is important that you can work together with anyone, not just your friends." He said the last word as if it were an insult. "Because of that, I will assign each of you a partner. You will become proficient in working with people whose strategies you don't know, their fighting style or how their mind works."

Scarlet and I shared an unsure look, but Snape was already whipping his wand in a quick motion, and papers fluttered from his desk into the air, a piece landing on each of our desks.

"You've got to be kidding me." I looked over my right shoulder, and it didn't surprise me this time when I found his eyes in less than a second. His expression was unreadable, leaving me confused and frustrated.