Wizarding Royalty

Chapter 24: Afternoon

Lunch was fairly boring for everyone. Hermione stuffed down her food quickly and then quickly bounded off to the library. When Ron and Harry went to find her for Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins Hermione was surrounded by history books. All were turned to various pages. One book was labeled: Wizarding Families Through the Ages and Where They Are Now. 

That was the book Hermione was currently skimming through. Ron placed his hand on the Gryffindor girl's shoulder. She jumped slightly but looked up from her book. 

"Hermione, class will start soon," Ron stated trying to pull the girl up. 

"One minute. I'm almost done," responded the witch. 

"Yeah sure you are," Harry replied giving an unbelieving look. Both boys knew when Hermione was researching she would stay in the library for hours and if she wasn't dragged out for classes she would stay in the library until her research was done. 

"Come on, 'Mione. We have Professor Blofis next." Ron grabbed her by one arm. Harry grabbed the other. He gently pried the book out of her hands and placed it back on the table.

"You can come back after class," Harry promised. Silently the two boys counted to three before hauling Hermione to her feet. She followed them to the classroom, even if she was somewhat mad about being pulled away from her work.  

"Wonder what we'll be learning this year," Ron said breaking the companionable silence as they walked to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. 

"Every 'teacher' so far has had a different style. Lupin was the only good one of course," replied Hermione. She put quotation marks around the word teacher since two of the four had tried to kill Harry. One of the four had barely known anything about Defense Against the Dark Arts and had Obliviated himself at the year's end. Lupin as she had said had been the only good teacher the group had. 

Professor Blofis waited silently as groups wandered into the classroom. There was a clear divide between the Slytherins and Gryffindors. Most Slytherins ended up on the left side of the room while Gryffindors ended up on the right. 

Thalia and Nico had been the first two to arrive in the room and were silently chatting with the professor. 

When the last of the students arrived Sally started the lesson. 

"Hello, class," greeted Professor Blofis with a smile, "Now I know you are all tired from a day of classes and this is a double period but I would like to go over what you have learned in the past few years. I have seen the reports of past teachers and what you have gone over. I will assign you a pretest. There will be a written and practical portion. So quills out and wands away." 

The class groaned they never liked what came with the words 'wands away.' 

Sally laughed slightly, she knew the feeling very well. When a teacher had said wands away it usually came with a boring lesson.

"Do not worry this will be one of the only times you will not be active in my class." Her eyes twinkled with a hint of mystery. 

Her lesson plan consisted of some physical activity for the students since she had found as she got older and was less physically active along with the fact most Quidditch players were able to keep up spells longer had led her to the discovery that more physically fit wizards and witches had a better magical stamina and reserve. Some were also slightly stronger when casting spells. 

Professor Blofis started to hand out the pre-test. "As soon as you get yours you may begin. Take all the time you need and if you need any help with anything -besides asking for answers- please raise your hand."