Lucy Jones 3: Blackbird

5 DADA

Harry, Hermione and Lucy miss the sorting ceremony. Lucy sits next to Hermione, opposite Ron. The headmaster stands up and speaks: 'Welcome! First, I want to do the announcements. One of them is rather serious.' He pauses and looks around the room: 'You may have noticed an extra stop on the way to the school. This was to allow the dementors to go through the train. This is on order of the ministry. The dementors will be positioned at every exit. They will not be fooled by any trick, spell, or even an invisibility cloak. They will also not listen to excuses of any sort. Do not give them a reason to harm you.' The room falls silent. 'On a happier note, I would like to announce we have two new teachers this year. First, there is Professor Lupin, who will fill the seat of defence against the dark arts teacher.'

The man from the train stands up. The students clap. The ones who were on the train with him clap the loudest.

'And there is a new teacher for care of magical creatures. Hagrid will take this position aside from being the groundkeeper.' Again, applause. Lucy knows he wanted it for a long time; you can see it in his reaction. The opening feast is as impressive as last year.

They get their schedule the following day, and Lucy starts with ancient runes. It's like she expected. The Professor goes over how she teaches. First, they'll start with vocabulary. When they know their first words, they can progress to translations.

She hears about a prediction that Harry will die this year in transfigurations. She cannot believe how many people got worried about it.

After lunch, they have their first lesson, care of magical creatures. Hagrid shows them hippogriffs. He tells them how to approach them. Harry has to introduce himself and gets to fly. Lucy knows how much he likes to be in the air, but it must differ from a broom. Malfoy doesn't listen and gets injured. First, she doesn't know if she needs to be worried. It doesn't turn out that bad. Malfoy does sound like his arm fell off. She glares at him while Hagrid guides him to the hospital wing. Lucy feels this might have been their best lesson this year. Hagrid did an excellent job, and she hopes this will not have too many consequences. The book is a bit funny, though. You have to pet it, so it won't try to eat you.

They wait impatiently at their first lesson, DADA. 'Put your books away. In today's lesson, we will only need your wands.' It's Lupin's first sentence, and Lucy is curious.

'Does someone know what a boggart is?'

'It is a shapeshifter who takes the form of the person's worst fear.' Hermione answers.

'The way to defeat a Boggart is with laughter. You must think of something that can make your fear funny and use the spell: "Riddikulus". Neville goes first. The boggart will move on to someone else when he uses the spell. Is everybody ready?' Lupin says.

One for one, the students call: "Riddikulus". When it's Lucy's turn, she doesn't know what to suspect, a pair of eyes and another and another.... She holds up her wand and says: 'Riddikulus.' The eyes get covered by different funny masks. Then it's Harry's turn. Or she thought so, but Lupin jumps between them and ends the lesson.

Professor Lupin's lessons stay as impressive as the first one. In care of magical creatures, they must feed little worms after the Malfoy incident. Lucy must say she enjoys potions, even when Professor Snape is in an awful mood. Harry says it's worse than before. She gets the highest grade with every potion.

Ancient runes take a lot of time to get the translations right. There are a lot of details that can change the entire meaning.