Defense Against the Dark Arts
Nerine was shocked to find herself awake the next morning, being shaken by Nelly who had climbed halfway up the ladder. She didn't change from her robes or brush her teeth. She had crashed out in her top bunk moments after climbing up to test its comfort.
A fourth girl watched Nerine jolt awake. She must have arrived in their room later in the night. She was blonde and had short braids with voluminous hair sprawling out. Phoena, Nelly, and the blonde girl all had their new robes on and Phoena even held a book.
Instinctively, Nerine grabbed at the pocket of her robe. The compass wasn't there, maybe it had fallen out under the bunk in the night. She popped up and practically pushed Nelly off the ladder.
“What time is it? Why are you guys ready? Why didn’t you wake me?” Once Nerine had landed, she went to the floor and started crawling to where the bunk met the stone wall, next to where the girl who she still didn’t know the name of slept.
When she looked back at the girls, each of them silently watching, Phoena stared her down and tapped her robe pocket. She had the compass, it was safe.
“What are you doing?” Nelly asked, her arms crossed.
“I… thought I dropped something,” Nerine slowly stood back up. Phoena and Nerine kept eye contact, attempting to mind-read.
“The house meeting for first years is in thirty minutes, we all woke up together and didn’t want to wake you.”
“Right…” Nerine let her guard down and rubbed her head. Her hair was all knotted from her slumber, the girls read, waved their wands, and arranged their things around in the room while she got ready. They heard footsteps banging outside from all the first years that indicated it was time for them to go.
First years trickled in sitting on the couches and regal chairs that juxtaposed their messy hair and childish demeanours. The fireplace roared on and waved with the breeze that flowed through the slightly opened windows.
In the meeting, they reiterated the warnings of the forbidden forest and confirmed the rumors of the abused Hippogriff. They explained the punishments for misconduct and how most of the time it will lead you to detention with Hagrid whose danger radar is not to be relied on. Before ending the meeting, they handed out schedules on old looking blank paper. When it touched their hand, it revealed a grid of time blocked out with their classes.
The first class that day for the Ravenclaw first years was Defense Against the Dark Arts, right after breakfast, which most of the students headed to when they were freed. Phoena and Nerine followed, Nelly had gone with Ben and Nerine’s bunkmate who she was introduced to named Rachel.
Unlike the fanciful dinner provided last evening, boxes of cereal and bottles of milk were seemingly scattered along the dining table. There was a variety of juices and brands of cereal, some “muggle” others were wizarding brands Nerine had never heard of.
“I know where the compass leads,” Phoena said, “Last night, after you had passed out, I grabbed the compass and said I was going to explore, it was right before curfew so I think Nelly may be onto me.”
“Phoena!” Nerine exasperated.
Before Nerine could protest at all Phoena grabbed Nerine’s arm and kept talking.
“Iago was there, at the fountain in front of the library, when he saw me, I don’t know what him and his Slytherin friends were doing, but he pushed one of them into the fountain.”
Nerine’s cheeks were puffed out from the bite of cereal she just took and her eyes were wide open, she looked like a chipmunk who heard a noise in the brush.
“He asked why I was out so late and reached out, I think because he wanted to see the compass. I tried walking away because I thought he would tell his friends but he followed me and when they all asked where he was going and who I was he ignored them.”
“Why did he randomly start acknowledging we existed?” Nerine managed to say through her chewing.
“I asked him, he didn’t answer, he only talked when we got to the restricted section of the library, where the compass leads.” Phoena swirled her spoon around in her half-empty bowl.
“What did he say?”
“Well, we both talked about how one would get into the restricted section, but it’s virtually impossible. To get in with permission, you would have to go with a teacher, or the teacher would go for you.”
“The teachers can’t know about the compass…”
“Right… so the way to get in otherwise would mean detention or expulsion… or a trip to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid.” Phoena’s head sinked further into her hand.
“Well… what if we aren’t caught? How would we get in?” Nerine asked, hoping that Phoena wouldn’t be offended by the thought.
Luckily she wasn't, “Iago said that the lock could be opened by Alohomora, but neither of us know how to learn that… so we'll have to learn on our own, at the library.”
“So should we go between classes?” Nerine asked, pulling out her crumpled schedule from her robes.
Phoena nodded in response. An owl swooped in from a high window in the Grand Hall, carrying a giant package that was misshapen and oddly formed, it made an unsatisfying band as it hit the Gryffindor’s table and a murmur arose. One by one more owls flew in dropping off letters and packages.
In the chaos of it all, Nerine got two letters and Phoena got one. Nerine had almost forgotten about Callum in her new transition into Hogwarts. He wrote her a letter, drawing his school which looked just as boring as the one she had drawn for him. A classic muggle secondary school, he wore a uniform in the drawing that looked exactly like the one Nerine had found on the internet and replicated in her crayola art.
His return address was also different, it was sent to what looked like a school in France. She loved the back and forth of drawing and wondered if they could make a book together with them. She made a note to write back in her common room that night, and hoped her owl would be there to accept it.
The second letter was from her parents, but she knew her mother wrote it. They wished her good luck and made a quip about the reliability of the owl mailing system, hoping it would work to communicate. In the envelope was some wizarding coins, in case she needed them.
After breakfast, the girls headed to their first class, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Hufflepuff. The desks were slid around the room to clear a big arena-like space in the middle. Sophie and Teller stood against a wall with their arms crossed, watching the student trickle in. Nerine made her way over, them being the only ones she knew.
“Hey!” She said, Sophie nodded in response.
“What is your common room like?” she asked, genuinely curious about Hufflepuff's dormitory.
“Too many plants for my taste, but Teller seems to like it.”
“I think they open everything up and they are interesting to look at, I don’t know why you don’t think so…. We also have a very open room with our own bed and dresser.”
“We have bunks, and there aren’t many plants but there are some cool statues.” Nerine responded.
That's when the professor walked in, he had a couple of scars across his face, one big one along his eye. He had red hair that flowed behind his ears that made him look a little intimidating and wild. His robes were rugged and slightly frayed at the ends.
“Hello class!” He made his way to a back desk, but calling it a desk was generous as it was covered with books and mechanical objects, the professor slid things out of the way to place his bag.
“Todays the first day! My name is Bill Weasley, you will call me Professor Weasly, third year here, but I have graduated from Hogwarts myself.” He stood in the front of the room, the students were gathered in front in a semicircle.
“You may be wondering why this class exists…. You may think that there has been peace after the wars and no one would dare use dark arts after the catastrophe, but there are forces out there and there that are willing and capable of using the dark arts against Hogwarts students like yourself.” The room was eerily silent; kids holding their breath.
“We have all heard, I assume, of the poachers in the forbidden forest. We have lost many families to the wars and I want you students to know that there is a rise in crime because of that. I want you to be prepared because I know at some point, you will leave the safe grounds of Hogwarts for the cause of your little, important-to-you escapades, and it is very likely that you will learn the hard way that Hogwarts is the safest place for you to be as a student.” His speech engrossed the crowd, Nerine made eye-contact with Phoena from across the room.
Nerine thought about the compass and the restricted section, the restricted section in a wizarding school probably meant it had knowledge of the dangerous power that Professor Weasley warned about. Phoena’s mother disappeared from the magic that was in the compass, the compass that probably leads to its likeness. What if this was the “Dark Arts” magic that was used in the war? Did Nerine have that dark magic in her? Nerine was infused with a new motivation, she had to learn these spells if she was to investigate why the compass pointed to her and where it led.
“Now!” he clapped his hands, satisfied with the effects on the students faces his speech had left, Ben jumped from the noise. “I would like you all to pair up, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs… I will number everyone,” he walked around the room casting his wand at the students, a number appeared on their hand.
Teller and Ben were put together, Phoena was with a strawberry blonde girl, and Nerine was with a dark skinned boy with a scratchy and high voice, he introduced himself as Stephen.
“Today we will be learning the basic cast, it hits its target like a sting, and can shatter objects, so you will not be casting it on your partner today, but on…” He waved his wand around and a fleet of mechanical dummies rolled out of the closets that lined the right side of the room.
“When we learn protego, I want you all to be familiar with your partners, because you will be casting basic casts on them, and hopefully no one will be hit because you will be masters of protection spell.”
Stephen and Nerine looked at each other with a mixture of fear and politeness.
“Alright…” He joined the class in watching as the dummies moved around the room, joining the groups of two.
“All you have to do is flick your wand at the dummy, keeping in mind that spark, feel that little sting that you are trying to inflict. This spell is not picky, it’s most wands’ default when you try to cast a spell.”
There was a moment of silent anticipation.
“You can start.” he said, before the students started to work together to perfect their casts.
Stephen looked at Nerine, “You go first,” he gestured to the dummy.
Nerine didn’t argue, she looked at the dummy and imagined it was some ruffian from the forest, he had tattered closed and black teeth. He would make her disappear forever, he knew she had some sort of evil magic in her, he wanted it, he would take it.
She lifted her wand and slashed it like a whip, aiming at the dummy, a blinding light, one that reminded her of the floo flames but a bright blue color, burst seemingly out of nowhere. She couldn’t hear or see anything for a moment, then she realized she was on the ground, Stephen was too.
A couple of Hufflepuffs were at his side, the professor was at hers. There was a haze on all of her senses, but when Weasly tapped her temple with his wand, and muttered a word that sounded like “picky” she could hear and see. She sat up and felt a hot liquid running down her ear and on the floor was a small trickle of it. A couple steps behind, Phoena, Nelly, and Ben stood watching.
“We’ll need to appraise your wand again, I am not sure how you did that.” Weasley said, his voice was shaky and low.
He took her wand and put it somewhere in his robes with one hand and lent out the other so she could stand. Phoena looked at her in fear and confusion, but it wasn’t because of Nerine, she later found out, it was because her father sold Nerine that wand.
The Hufflepuffs made a group around Steven after Professor Weasley had treated him, and the Ravenclaws made another group in a far corner. It stayed like that while Professor Weasley wrote on parchment to other professors and the Headmistress. Nerine stood in front of his desk and in support, Phoena stood with her.
He told her to go to her next classes, but after lunch tomorrow she would go to Hogsmeade. He had sent a letter to Ollivander to go to his shop there and to see what happened with her wand. First years weren't allowed to go to Hogsmeade, but Suzie Carrol would escort her. Nerine asked if Phoena could come with, but Weasley shook his head.
All the students whispered as Nerine walked past them to her next class, History of Magic. She didn’t know how she was supposed to continue with school after she nearly blew up Steven and maybe the entirety of Hogwarts. She didn’t think she performed the spell wrong, Phoena said maybe the wand cast Bombarda, but that didn’t explain the flash of blue light.
When the girls walked in, everyone was already seated, leaving only the open spots separating the girls. One was near Nelly and Ben, and the other next to Iago and the Slytherins.
They looked at each other to try and mentally communicate about which spot was best for each of them. Phoena, to Nerine’s surprise, pushed her to the front of the room where Nelly and Ben sat, and made her way to Iago.
Occasionally throughout the class; taught by a ghost, which would have been a lot more of a shock to Nerine if it wasn’t for her mistake earlier, Nerine would look back at Phoena who viciously wrote, never looking up. Iago also wrote with his head down, seemingly writing notes, but the looks from the other Slytherins made Nerine think they were passing notes.
She couldn’t focus the whole class, was Phoena telling Iago that she was dangerous? Could she trust him? Did Phoena trust him? To add on to her anxiety, her Ravenclaw classmates, including Nelly, Ben, and Rachel, would whisper amongst each other and shift their legs away from her in their seats. Their mannerisms were the opposite of other Slytherin classmates who seemed to not know the news yet, three of them were sleeping on the desk when the professor raised his voice to a boom and they jostled awake. He took away five Slytherin points for each student.