Harry Potter and The Boy Who Had No Choice

Defense, Dueling and Detention

Chapter Four

Harry walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts the next day, his stomach filling with dread. During his six years at Hogwarts, he'd only ever had one decent teacher in the class: Remus Lupin. Of course, he'd liked Mad-Eye Moody at the time, but that was before he knew that his professor was actually Barty Crouch Jr. using Polyjuice Potion. And his other teachers consisted of Professor Quirell, a nervous, fidgety man who turned out to be serving Voldemort, Professor Lockheart, an idiot celebrity with no concern for anyone but himself, Professor Umbridge, a Ministry monster who enjoyed inflicting pain on her students, and Professor Snape, for whom Harry had a newfound respect, but who he never particularly liked as a teacher. Honestly, Harry would consider himself lucky if the new teacher was even halfway decent.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron walked into class and saw Professor Noble leaning back in her seat with her feet on her desk, filing her nails. When Harry first saw her in the Great Hall, he assumed she was the sort of teacher who sat frigidly upright in her chair and demanded order from her student. Based on her posture and the state of her classroom, Harry could see that this was not true.

Dean and Seamus were throwing paper airplanes and Zabini was lying across one of the desks, reading a book that he was levitating in the air. The Gryffindors and Slytherins shared this class, and they had clearly seperated by house. The Slytherins sat on the left and the Gryffindors on the right.

"Alright, alright," Professor Noble looked up from her nails and regarded the class. When they didn't respond, she raised her voice. "Shut up!" she shouted. Her voice was not angry, but it was loud enough to shock the class into silence. "Thank you. So," She put her feet on the ground and sat on the edge of her desk. "McGonagall introduced me as Professor Noble, but-." She slid across her desk, knocking over a candle and a few loose pieces of paper in the process. She landed squarely on her feet and did not bother to pick up any of the items on the floor. "I prefer to be called Valentine. Or Val, if you prefer. I don't really care either way."

Hermione sat frozen in her seat, wide-eyed. Harry figured she had never seen a teacher regard her students so informally.

"I'm also really bad with names, so I may just refer to you by some defining physical characteristic. For example, pretty boy," She pointed at Zabini. The book he was reading flew into her hand and she placed it on her desk. "Sit in a chair, will you?"

Zabini rolled his eyes and made a show of sitting himself in a chair beside Malfoy.

"Thanks." She nodded at him and he nodded curtly back. "Now, from what I understand, you all have quite a bit of experience defending yourself against dark magic. In fact, based on what I've heard and read in the Daily Prophet, I'm quite confident you know more about this subject than I do." Harry looked around the class and saw many astonished faces. He had never heard a Hogwarts professor admit that the students were more capable than they were. "Nonetheless, I am your teacher and you still have to prepare for your N.E.W.Ts. I personally prefer a more practical approach to Defense Against the Dark Arts; I find reading about defensive spells much less useful than actually practicing defensive spells. However, given your past experience, I would completely understand if any of you would rather take a more theoretical approach. I will try to give you a bit of both, as there will be both a written and practical portion of your exam."

Hermione had been taking notes the entire time.

"You, wavy hair, there's no need to take notes." Hermione flushed red. "Unless you want to, of course. But I'm sure you already know all of this information."

Hermione put her quill down and crossed her arms over her chest.

"We'll be beginning the term with a Dueling Unit. We'll be practicing simple, safe, defensive spells." She started to casually walk around the classroom. "I'll be putting you into pairs where one person will act as the attacker, and the other as the defender. You will switch positions periodically throughout classes, so you will each get an equal amount of practice." Harry thought of Lockheart's failed dueling club second year and hoped that Valentine's classroom duels would go better. "The attacker will be given a list of offensive spells they are allowed to use. Any other spells used will result in an immediate removal from the class and a subtraction of fifty points from the house of whomever violated the rules."