janus ~ hermione granger

lviii

"we have to go to defense against the dark arts," maddy informed the group as they walked out of the dungeon corridor.

the eight conveniently had a break at the same time, so they spent it down in the slytherin common room.

they all enjoyed their time, except for pansy, who complained anytime she opened her mouth.

"hold on, what n.e.w.t.s are you taking?" blaise questioned.

"defense against the dark arts, transfiguration, charms, potions and care of magical creatures."

"care of magical creatures?" draco scrunched his face up in disgust.

"phoebe asked me to take it with her," maddy shrugged, turning a corner, almost crashing into professor snape.

"did you cover it?" he raised an eyebrow, waiting until the slytherin group had left the corridor to speak.

"i couldn't—nothing worked."

"very well," severus sighed, "go," he nodded in the direction of phoebe, who was patiently waiting for her twin sister. "just—don't let you sleeve rise."

as the darker girl entered the room, she took a seat next to phoebe, too busy looking around the room to notice hermione staring at her.

"i have not asked you to take out your books," snape closed the door, causing maddy to look at hermione, who was dropping a book back into her bag. the moment the bushy-haired girl looked up, maddy quickly faced her godfather. "i want to speak to you, and i want your fullest attention. you have had five teachers in this subject so far, i believe. naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. given this confusion i am surprised so many of you scraped an o.w.l. in this subject. i shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the n.e.w.t. work, which will be much more advanced."

snape set off around the edge of the room, lowering his voice; the class struggled to keep him in view.

"the dark arts—are many, varied, ever-changing and eternal. fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. you are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating and indestructible. your defenses, must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. those pictures," he spoke as he handed them out, "give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the cruciatus curse"—he waved a hand toward a witch who was shrieking in agony—"feel the dementor's kiss"—a wizard lying huddled and blank-eyed, slumped against a wall—"or provoke the aggression of the inferius"—a bloody mass upon the ground.

"had an inferius been seen, then?" parvati asked in a high pitched voice. "is it definite, is he using them?"

"the dark lord has used inferi in the past, which means you would be well-advised to assume he might use them again. now, you are, i believe, complete novices in the use of nonverbal spells," snape glanced at his two goddaughters, "what is the advantage of a nonverbal spell?"

hermione's hand shot up, but snape ignored it, looking around the rest of the room before his eyes landed on phoebe and maddy.

"miss taylor?" he raised an eyebrow.

"your opponent doesn't know which spell you're performing-"

"-which gives you a split second advantage."

"very well," a hint of a smile appeared on his face. "yes, those who progress to using magic without shouting incantations gain an element of surprise in their spell casting."