Always the Fool (Sebastian Sallow x MC x Ominis Gaunt)

Introductions

Hurrying through the halls, Rosemary was following the golden magic trail of her field guide as it led her to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. This little book was extremely helpful in navigating the maze that was Hogwarts. There were so many interesting things to find in the castle that Rosemary was sure she could spend hours and days exploring.

She managed to make it into the DADA classroom with plenty of time to spare. To her surprise, there were already a large number of students gathered and when she peered past them she could see two people standing in the center of the room. They appeared to be dueling.

The one facing her was a red-headed Gryffindor boy. He sent out three basic casts at his opponent in quick succession. They were deflected fairly easily and his opponent laughed loudly. Rosemary saw that the other student was the handsome brown-haired Slytherin she saw in the Great Hall last night. He was smirking at the red head.

"Is that all you've got?" He teased, raising his wand and casting a spell she hadn't heard before. "Bombarda!"

Rosemary watched as the other boy deflected the spell at the last minute. Unfortunately for him, he had deflected it upwards into the large dragon skull hanging precariously above his head. Rosemary gasped and closed her eyes as the skull was knocked from the ceiling.

A shout of Levioso rang out and the dragon skull was stopped in its descent. Rosemary peeked to see an older grey-haired woman stepping out of a door at the front of the classroom. She heard someone call her Professor Hecat.

"Perhaps you'd be good enough to blast each other to pieces on your own time." Professor Hecat scolded. "I get new students every year but I only have one Hebridean Black skull."

Rosemary watched in awe as the skull was lifted back into its original position. She made eye contact with the Slytherin boy again who smiled back at her with a wink. Rosemary blushed and turned her attention back to Professor Hecat as she discussed the days lesson. Levioso.

"Levioso? A levitation charm?" whined the red-headed Gryffindor in disbelief. Rosemary wrinkled her nose at his complaining and was delighted when Professor Hecat turned upon him quickly and cast the charm.

"A surprised opponent is a weak opponent. Care to defend yourself, master Prewett? No?" Hecat smiled and gently dropped the embarrassed looking Gryffindor and turned to face the rest of her students. "One thing I've learned as an Unspeakable is the value of simplicity, especially in the heat of battle. Now, let's practice what we've just learned - starting with something small."

The students broke off to their desks where large feathers were waiting. Rosemary looked around, unsure of where to sit. A Hufflepuff boy waved her over. Arthur Plummly, if she remembered correctly. He had introduced himself to her earlier this morning in their common room. She hurried over and slid onto the bench next to him, mumbling a quick word of thanks.

Arthur smiled back kindly. "Us Hufflepuffs stick together!"

Rosemary took out her wand and practiced the incantation and wand movement Hecat had demonstrated to them. She was quite familiar with the levioso charm. It was one of the first spells her papa had taught her. Rosemary was still quite happy when the feather floated on her first go.

Professor Hecat looked around to see everyone had gotten their feathers floating. She then pulled over a practice dummy into the center of the room. A flick of the wand sent all the desks sliding over to the walls. Rosemary saw too late that the Gaunt boy was leaning against one of the desks. He almost fell over when it was suddenly pulled out from underneath him.

Without thinking, Rosemary grabbed his arm to help steady him. "Watch out now," she said quietly, "I don't think anyone else saw."

The Gaunt boy grunted in response, giving her a curt nod. Rosemary stepped back and joined the line of students who were ready to practice on the dummy. After everyone had taken a quick turn, Professor Hecat clapped her hands together.