DADA - Lesson 3 (Years 6 & 7)

After the awkward situation with camping, Tess couldn't help but hope that they would be working as individuals. DADA was one of those classes that she truly enjoyed, not just for Jake as a professor, but the subject and how it interested her. Giving herself a once over in the mirror, Tess was off towards class, trying to get there on time and not have the stairs magically switch on her.

Finally reaching the second floor, she swiftly walked towards the classroom and pushed the door open. At first she thought that there would be no one there, that is until in on one wall was the professor, and on the other Josh. She smiled shyly towards the professor and walked towards the other side. She felt awkward standing in the middle between the two of them. For some reason a sense of tension was felt, but it was probably from the silence. Putting her books down, she clasped her hands in front of her and waited patiently for others to arrive.

After what went on for the first two lessons, Thana was less than excited for the third. Her first school year was almost at an end, and her freedom for summer was coming. It couldn't get here quick enough in her opinion.

Walking in she noticed one if the few people she somewhat liked, Tess. She acknowledged her before greeting the Professor, " Hello there Sir" she said before leaning against a wall she read . Boggarts on the board, " This is going to be one hell of a lesson" she thought to herself.

Shiva wasn't late which was a good thing, she had forgotten her book for DADA in the common room and had to run back and get it. when safely in her bag she made her way back towards the classroom and was now entering the class. DADA was a good and helpful class. The Hufflepuff saw a lot of familiar faces and none were from Hufflepuff like her, now all she had to do was wait.

DADA was a class that she was used to by now and decided to attend it since this would be her last time there and all that. The Hufflepuff made her way inside and took a seat, everyone knew how she was by now when it came to actually talking to others unless she really had to that is. Now all she had to do was wait.

Mavis made her way to DADA, she was too tired to actually care if she went or not but this class didn't annoy her as much as the others did. Mavis entered the class and took a seat where she wouldn't be disturbed, she didn't greet anyone but that is what she usually does anyway so she could careless. The Slytherin took out her wand because she knew she'd need it and waited for the class to start so it could end.

Joe hesitated outside of the classroom, completely tense as he stared at the door. He was still nothing short of embarrassed about his first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson; fainting in front of his entire class wasn't something that he would admit to feeling great about, but the boy figured that if he were to shy away from everything that he failed at, he would be shying away from almost everything.

With a breath to settle his stomach, the Hufflepuff pushed the door open and held his other arm tight against his body, avoiding his professor's eyeline through embarrassment and stood against the wall near the door, ready to literally boot it out of the room if he felt a wave of panic and deemed such an action necessary.

His bag fell to the floor with a soft thump as he read the board. Boggarts he thought to himself, shoving his hands in his pockets and balling them as hard as he could. Fear.

Thana listened as Professor Jake started the lesson. When he asked a question, still leaning comfortably against the wall, and noticing no one else had answered yet. Thana spoke up, and gave the first answer.

"A boggart is an amortal shape-shifting non-being" Thana replied, remembering what she had remembered from her textbooks. She left her answer there, instead of giving all of what she remembered.

The Hufflepuff looked to the Ravenclaw girl as she answered, tempted not to speak up himself but knowing it would only do to draw attention his way. He thought for a few seconds, trying not to paraphrase what the brunette had said, and after knotting his fingers behind his back, he let out the words in a soft, but not quiet tone.

"The boggart takes the form of the person's biggest fear," he said simply, looking at the piece of floor just in front of his professor's feet as the words tumbled from his lips. This was just textbook stuff; no real history or impressive fact, just words that he knew. Which was strange, really, because words weren't usually Joe's forté.

Who would like to go first?"

Thana quietly moved to the front of the room, more-so out of curiosity than interest. She wanted to know what her fear was.

She nodded to Professor Jake and he opened the trunk, Thana readied herself and waited. Soon enough the boggart came out, Thana waited for her fear to take shape. It took a while, she didn't know what she was scared of.

Finally, her fear came into view. It took its shape and...It was Tom Riddle, but in his older form. When he was known as Lord Voldemort. The boggart went and started to move, briefly Thana was scared it was the real thing. The boggart made mouth movements, no sound came out but Thana knew what the boggart-Voldemort was saying.

"They will know soon enough my daughter" the Boggart mouthed, Thana steadied herself and cast the charm. "Riddikulus!" she said, casting it. The boggart turned into a Voldemort with drag makeup up on. Thana couldn't help but laugh, it was genuinely funny. She laughed and moved aside for the next person to have a go.

Hoping no one would notice what had really happened, Thana went and sat at the back of the class. Not on a chair or anything, just against the wall and the window. She pulled out a book and started drawing in it. Waiting for the lesson to finish.

Tess wasn't too happy about this exercise. It made everyone vulnerable in front of this classroom. Usually she was happy to volunteer first, but in some part of her mind, she wanted to make it clear what fear would appear. Would it be her brother? Her father? Her mother? Something bigger? She had no idea. She didn't want to embarrass herself, she didn't want to seem weak. As Thana volunteered, she leaned back against the wall. Somehow it felt intruding to let everyone see their fears, so she instead took advantage of how people circled around, blocking the view.

As Thana moved on, they looked for a new volunteer. Was she going to do it? She pressed her head against the wall, mulling over it. She knew it had to happen anyways, either she was going to be the middle person, or the last. She couldn't think of anything more. But she figured, if she started now, then her fears could be forgotten. Taking a deep breath, she raised her hand, and passed through the people nervously. Walking to the middle of the room, she found herself wondering if she could take it back.

She looked towards Jake, feeling no need to hide her expression of nervousness and fear. Closing her eyes, she began to compose herself, her shoulders were pushed back, her expression of nervousness dissipated and her cold eyes staring at the box. She signaled Jake to open the trunk and soon enough, the monstrous thing appeared before her.

It stared at her, if it even had eyes; looming over her, studying her and figuring out the fear. She herself had no idea what it could be, but the faster that she got things in control, the quicker she could get out of the area. Immediately it began to shift, from someone short, for a moment it looked like her, she was confused and it began to shift to a taller person, and it keeps growing taller. Her eyes followed and when it happened, she knew who it was. His hair was slicked back, the man in a suit, power radiating off of him and a cold smirk on his face. His blue eyes shined, at her, those eyes didn't belong to him, those were Mycroft's and somehow it seemed, the two people had merged into one. The hair was her fathers, the eyes were her brother's. The suit belonged to both, but the posture was her brothers.  She felt her legs shake a bit, and slowly those eyes glittered to the gray she knew. It immediately walked forward and bent down against her ear. She shivered and closed her eyes.

"Failure" it hissed. "Failure!"

She took a few steps back as it looked over her. He seemed so much taller than in person, and the fact that he was speaking made her begin to blush horrified at all of this. The dead eyes is what frightened her, it was so accurate that made her grab her wand tightly. Slowly she lifted her wand, trying to compose herself. She lifted her head to look right at it's eyes. And immediately the U shape began to take form on her wand, determined.

"Riddikulus!" she cried out.

"Accident!" It yelled out before the spell it.

Slowly it began to shift, the color of his hair shifted to a glamorous blue, his suit slowly being ripped away, and a matching uniform to hers was applied. The skirt let out his very pale legs, and the shirt was tight around him, letting his midriff show, and in his sparkling blue hair was a green bow, one he would make her wear as a child.

Then she did something she hadn't done in public ever. She giggled, she covered her mouth in surprise at her outburst, but soon enough it wasn't helped. Such a powerful man, turned into nothing but a school girl, and it brought her some kind of glee. A lightness on her and her cheeks flushed in surprise that she had done it.

Once the boggart was safe in the box, she smiled shyly at Jake and walked towards the end of the classroom, hiding against the wall, her cheeks still pink, and waited for the rest to go.

October watched as her fellow classmates did this assignment. October was afraid of what hers would be, it wasn't fun having a fear. When Jake asked for someone else, she stepped forward with her wand in hand. "I'll go" she said. Jake opened up the trunk and out came... herself. She was afraid of herself? Well that made sense to her. Her other self opened her mouth but she spoke. "Riddikulus" she watched as herself was no longer there. October stepped off to the side to where she once was.

Joe watched some of his classmates do the exercise, softly laughing along with the others as they changed form and felt his hands become gradually more and more clammy. Fears weren't anything new to Joe, of course not. He'd become quite well acquainted with most of his, as it went. Knowing which one would appear was what terriffied him, and to be honest he would much rather not end up passing out in front of his whole class again. But he could do this, he told himself, because he would be okay. He would do the spell properly and it would disappear just as soon as it arrived.

Because he could think of her and everything would be fine.

After a saddening display from his professor - a young girl with a striking resemblence to the man himself - Joe moved to the front of the group stiffly. He gave Jake a nod to show that he was ready and held his wand tightly in his hand, staring at the trunk with a new, dark colour to his soft blue eyes. He watched as the trunk clicked open and the creature came out, swirling in the air for a few moments before three semi-translucent, black, scarlet eyed figures met his eyes.

They started to laugh and float around the boy's head, Joe's own voice leaving their lips. Demons? he asked himself, swallowing sharply as he held his breath.
"Who the hell could ever love you?" the beasts asked, shaking their heads and glaring at him. "Why would anyone want to be close to you?" He felt his stomach tighten and his arm seemed to not want to work, but damn he was going to make it.

"Brooke," the prefect murmured, taking a steadying breath. "She does." They were still ranting at him, laughing at his imperfections, telling the secrets from his childhood that he had never told anyone. How he couldn't ride a bike until he was nine, how he didn't grow out of wetting the bed until he was seven, how he was scared of taking the bus, where the scar that his hair only just covered really came from... He tensed his arm, pulling both his lips between his teeth.

"Ridikkulus!" the Hufflepuff said, the ghostly figures retreating backwards and falling to the floor. Their eyes were the first things to change, glowing bright pink, before the ghostly figures turned into fluffy, pink clouds that seemed to be raining sweets. He wasn't sure why it was suddenly so feminine, but he didn't mind, because... Because he actually did it.

His arm fell to his side as he stared at the clouds for a moment, trying to process the idea that he wasn't totally hopeless anymore. I did it he thought, trying not to smile to show how excited he was but failing miserably and inevitably letting the grin take over as he stepped back, still trying to make sure he wasn't being deceived by the demons that liked to retreat sometimes, as if to throw him up in the spirit of clowning, before consuming him all over again.

They stayed fluffy, though, and the boy looked to his professor for confirmation that it actually had happened, breaths not leaving his lungs just in case he was seeing things.

Inside, though, pride burst through Joe incredibly, making him feel that much better about being him.