Snape and Lily's daughter

Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts

It would be the first Defense Against the Dark Arts class that the third year students at Hogwarts would have, and as expected, another teacher had taken the place of Professor Remus Lupin. Grace already knew who it was, since the teachers always have their meals with the students. He was a strange professor, he could even be considered creepy. He wore a form of cane and had a glass eye. Grace also noticed that he always drank from a bottle that he kept in his clothes. What was that drink? It wasn't pumpkin juice...

The girls, as usual, woke up and got ready, went to the Great Hall for breakfast, and soon after left with the Gryffindors to take their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class in the third year.

All the students, including Grace, knew that Snape had always wanted to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and that he ended up losing that position for the fourth year in a row. Severus had hated all the other teachers who taught that subject, and it showed. But he seemed to be more cautious around Professor Mad-Eye Moody. Whenever Grace saw her father and Moody at meals, she could tell that Severus avoided Moody's eyes, both magical and normal.

The third graders, as had been the case with the students from the other years, were so eager to have their first lesson with Moody that right after breakfast they lined up at the classroom door before the bell rang.

Grace, Astoria, Ella and Ginny managed to get the four chairs near the professor's desk. Then they took their books, and waited anxiously. Soon they began to hear the teacher's footsteps approaching the room. Grace noticed that the professor had a wooden foot, which showed a little under his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

The students put their books away in their backpacks. Ginny and Grace were very excited.

Moody took out a register, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around.

"Right then," he said. "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling jinxes, Grindylows, Basilisks, and Acromantulas, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"This year you'll be learning Counter-Spells and protection spells. I have a year to teach all about it, and still talk about werewolves, red caps, goblins, and boggarts."

"Aren't you staying?" Ginny asked.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ginny, she was extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled — the first time Grace had seen him do so. Ginny looked deeply relieved.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's daughter, eh?" he said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago... Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"So — straight into it. Counter-Spells. What are Counter-Spells?They are spells where the primary effect is to inhibit, remove, or negate the effects of another spell. There are several of them. We will learn about all of them by the end of the year. Today you will learn how to cast Reflectus Petrify, the counter-spell to Petrificus Totalus.

Everyone loved Moody's lesson, since, unlike the other DCAT teachers, he used only the wands without even using books. That's what the students needed, Grace thought.

When lunch came, Grace and her friends went down to the Great Hall, but on the way, Grace was stopped by a certain person.

"Hey, Grace!" Draco Malfoy called her.

Grace pretended not to have heard and continued on her way.

Draco ran up to her and leaned on her shoulder, which made Grace pull back from his hand.

"What is it, Draco?" she asked coldly.

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday." he said.

Grace looked at him so he could keep talking.

"I was a jerk. I know that your brother and I and his friends never got along, but it must be hard to see your friends and a member of your family fighting. I'm sorry. I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Trying is not enough." Grace said, and then left Draco alone in the hallway as she continued on her way to the Great Hall.