Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter four

September 10th – Defense Against the Dark Arts

Nephera left the Divination classroom after bidding goodbye to Ellie with a slight skip in her step, knowing that Defense Against the Dark Arts was next. She had always loved and excelled in that class, and Novak was actually a good teacher, compared to the idiot that Dumbledore had hired last year.

At first glance, Nephera didn't think much of the Professor. He was a short man, with greying hair and small glasses framing his eyes. All in all, he looked dull, there was nothing special about him. But from the very first class, the Slytherin knew that he loved teaching, and he wanted to make his class as interactive as possible for his students. Unfortunately, if the curse was, in fact, true, Novak would be leaving at the end of this year, and she could only hope that whoever was next was as good as he was.

She walked into the large classroom to find the tables rearranged in a long line in the center, with Professor Novak standing on top and the other students looking at up him expectantly. Well, all students barring a specific group of Gryffindors who were standing in the back, cracking jokes and laughing amongst themselves like usual.

"Mrs. Winchester! Perfect, now that everyone's here, gather around, I have a feeling everyone's going to enjoy today's lesson." Exclaimed the Professor, beckoning the students towards him with his arms "Today, we will be dueling. One person from Gryffindor against one person from Slytherin. Whoever wins, their house will be exempt from the essay on vampires that will be assigned over the weekend. After that duel is over, more students will duel with each other, for the sake of practice this time."

This caught all of the student's attention, as they started murmuring excitedly amongst themselves and volunteering to represent their house.

"The two people who will be dueling, will be chosen at random," continued the Professor, pulling out two boxes "All of your names are in these boxes, when I call your name, please join me on the table."

The students stopped talking and instead focused their eyes and attention on the man's hand, as it dipped into one of the two boxes.

"For Gryffindor house," he started "Sirius Black!"

The students clad in red all cheered, James clapping Sirius on the back before the boy climbed up and stood on one end of the table. The raven-haired boy was known for his talent at dueling, so the Gryffindors had already begun making plans for the upcoming weekend, and what they would be doing during their free time.

"Yes, yes, it's all very exciting. Settle down now," grinned the Professor "And for Slytherin house..."

Novak's eyes widened and his face visibly paled as he read the name on the paper.

"Right, well, let's not do that-" he mumbled to himself

"Come on, Professor, we know not many people are a match for Padfoot there, but you can't switch the names!" exclaimed James

The Professor looked at the boy, and then back to the name on the paper, seemingly trying to conclude whether or not it was a good idea to go through with the duel.

"Very well, on behalf of Slytherin house," he paused "Nephera Winchester."

The cheers from the Gryffindors stopped abruptly as the smile on James's face fell and all students took a cautious step back from the tables. Novak, much like his students, still looked concerned about the duel. Even though he had only been at Hogwarts for a short period of time, he had been warned by the other teachers, as well as seen for himself the feud between the two students, and he wasn't sure how far they would take it now that they were actually allowed to duel freely.