Dose of Darkness | Tom Riddle |

Chapter Ten: The Odd Snake

||

"I suppose that's one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment."
--Charlie Chaplin

||

Friday October 23, 1944

"You would all think by now we would have learned to implement the skills we learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts. In the Muggle world, their draft prevents young men from even finishing school. They're straight off into the war. But we can do this differently, everyone."

Eleanor slowly paced around the renewed classroom, pale sunlight hitting around the room in all different angles through the dome glass ceiling. There were three groups of five spread around, each practicing what they have learned over their first week.

To say the least, she was impressed. Unfortunately for Julius, Marcella, Lillian and Cormac, they were the targets for their practices.

First they needed to disarm.

"Expelliarmus!" Saoirse called out, flicking her wand at Julius who lost his wand.

The girls curls bounced when she smiled.

"They think they're preparing us for what's out there but what is out there is already here and there is no way we can avoid it. To know spells for a grade is one thing, but when we practice these fundamentals, we become one step ahead of everyone else and therefore qualified to protect not just ourselves, but the others as well."

Then, as she crossed Marcella, she saw she was up against the Gryffindor Allan who she quite fancied.

"Locomotor Mortis!" Allan shouted, locking Marcella's legs to the ground.

"I can still use my hands you imbecile, pay attention." she snapped.

"Flipendo!"

Allan had at least learned something new.

A grin crossed Eleanor's face and she finally came to Cormac who was practicing with his love, Lillian. She had never seen the frail blonde girl hurt a fly, let alone her boyfriend.

"I'll go easy on you, darling." Cormac smirked, running a hand through his dark curls atop his head and then foolishly jumping into an offensive position where he over dramatically crouched down.

"Confringo!"

But to Eleanor's surprise, Lillian's wand was already pointed as he spoke the words and in her quiet voice unheard by anyone else, it was ultimately Cormac who ended up blasting backwards into the wall because of her defensive charm.

"We need this for the simple fact that our Aurors are not home, but abroad, while our real enemies continue to slip right through their guard and then it is us who stand in there way. But by our progress as of the first week, I'd say we'd handle a threat just fine if it hit us at the end of the month."

Eleanor made her conclusion to the session apparent when she then stood at the head of the room with her mother, nodding at her friends to join her at her side.

It's been almost a week since her evening in London and while she thought it would have distracted her from her duties this week but in fact, it did not. She had spent hours this week running her Resistance and everyone has been very cooperative.

"Same schedule next week?" Moira asked, standing at the head of the group.

Eleanor nodded. "If it works for you all then yes. Now Hogsmeade is in about five hours so I suggest you all rest up or get some work done before the weekend. Again, if I haven't said it enough, I am really proud of you all."