Chapter 12. Defense Against The Dark Arts

Pansy stared at the door, wondering what things she might find out about Lucas. She had already dropped off all her belongings inside her room, and had now come to Lucas’s room to drop off his things. However her true goal was always to snoop around, trying to find out his secrets. She took a breath to calm herself, before placing her hand on the metal curved handle, slowly turning it to let herself inside. She entered quickly to not be found out by the other boys, making sure to close and lock the door when she was inside.

The room was dark, yet proper. Much like her own room, his was almost identically designed. She placed the cauldron and potions book on his desk, making sure to check the rest of the books he had to see if he had anything out of the ordinary. To her dismay he only had year one books like hers. However she did notice something strange on his desk, a pot that was different from his cauldron. She checked inside, and it still seemed to be slightly wet. She ran her finger on the inside, and felt the liquid between her fingers. It was more slick than water, making her confused why he had this strange thing in his room.

She then saw a terrarium filled halfway with water, most likely used for housing fish, or perhaps a toad. However when she looked, she saw nothing alive inside. Pansy wanted to check for more things, but another bell reminding her that she had another class to attend soon made her escape the room, thoughts still filling her head of what the clues meant. ‘Is he harboring a snake under his robes? No, it couldn’t be that simple.’ She almost scoffed at the idea while rushing outside, however the feeling of how simple it might be, with his own intelligence, and a snake made her feel less on edge thinking about him.

I walked towards the last class of the day, Defense Against the Dark Arts. By the description it was a class that helped protect yourself from mostly violent magical creatures. When I first read chapter 1, I gritted my teeth at the idea of students feeling threatened and killing innocent creatures in fear, but to my surprise, most spells were just to disable, and not kill. Those few that didn’t fall in that category, were meant to scare off creatures. With a new understanding, I felt much better when heading off to class with Mr. Quirrell.

Going inside the room, I gagged from the reek of garlic, but focused on other students already waiting for class to start. Many of the Gryffindor’s gave me the side eye, already showcasing how much they disliked me from potions class. I then noticed all the other first year Slytherin’s grinning and nodding at me with praise. I sat down at the back of class in the corner, and took out my book, reading some more of the later chapters now. I had gained some respect for this book, and even noticed that some of the later chapters delved into the darker creatures that lived in this world.

After having only boring potion books to read for years, anything that had to do with magical creatures was a blessing. Especially the fact that they weren’t used as ingredients. However after reading about zombies, werewolves and vampires, I discovered the bad apples that I knew existed for wizards to hate. Beings that only desired to consume flesh of the living. Nothing truly whimsical, and magical struck me about them. I was about to read about the last page, until my thoughts were disturbed from the seat beside me being violently taken.

I looked over to see Pansy sighing in relief, clearly making it to class as the bell was ringing. I scoffed at her while she caught her breath from the running she had to do down the halls. “I’m glad you could make it.” I teased, causing her face to contort into a scowl. She opened her mouth, about to say something, but was stopped from the turban wearing teacher, clumsily entering the room. “Wel- Wel- Welcome Cl- Class. If you could p- please turn to chapter one!”

The man spoke with an impediment, but seemed like he was trying his best to instruct. I almost felt pity watching him try so hard to get just his name across. “My name is M- M- Mr. Quirrell! This is Defense against the D- Dark Arts, so we will begin on w- what Dark Arts are!” His stuttering made class go extra slow, hardly getting so far as a page in 5 minutes. I wondered how he was even picked for teaching, and the sidelong glance I noticed from Pansy made me understand she felt the same way. She looked at me with confusion, silently asking me if I understood something she didn’t. I shook my head, and shrugged before reading the book on my own.

I skipped past the beginning text that described dark arts, and began focusing on the first spell in the book. It was a spell that allowed one to change the sparks emitted to one of two colors, red or green. I read the spell, including the incantation for the slight changes needed to make the color green. Not very damaging, however I mostly wanted to scare creatures away rather than kill them. The next one I read was the spell that sent objects and people violently back. Another good spell to create distance before I might run.

I kept reading on my own, not paying much mind to class, rather using this time as self study. No offense to the man, but he was a poor teacher. “Mr. P- P- Peterson!” My thoughts were derailed, and my head shot up towards the front of the class where my name had been spoken. “Yes?” I asked, regaining my composure, avoiding Pansy’s goating look. “If you could p- please showcase the Incendio spell to the class.” I nodded, and moved to the front of the class.

I took out my wand from my waist, and pointed it away from the students, hoping to hide its majestic sheen from anyone who might snatch it. My wand’s coloring swirled as I felt my power flow through the wood. “Incendio!” I yelled, causing glowing red sparks to jet out from my wand, hitting the wall, and causing a scorch mark on the stone. I was astonished by the size of the sparks I made, and worried what might happen if I used this on someone. ‘It has it in the book that this is a dueling spell! I could catch their clothes on fire, or burn an arm!’

I looked over at the professor, his gaze was serious, and darkened as he stared at my wand. I quickly moved it back inside my cloak, making Quirrell glance at me for a moment, his gaze returning to its more clumsy form. “W- Well done Mr. Peterson! 5 points for Slytherin!” He cheered while pushing me back to my seat. I was glad to do so, his gaze had given me shivers down my spine when he looked into my eyes.

He told the rest of the class to work on the spell, exempting me from having to do it again since I already understood the spell. I was fine with continuing to read the book, hoping to remove the feeling of the professor’s gaze in my mind. “Incendio! Incendio!” I kept hearing Pansy beside me trying to cast the spell that was giving her some trouble.

I looked over to see a myriad of sparks that sputtered a few feet in the air. “Stop trying to force it, just let the wand work for you.” I spoke seeing the wand sputter in trying to release the excess energy she had forced in it to create her spell. Instead of creating a more powerful version, the wand, still uncertain of the correct feeling of the spell fought against her to not damage itself. ‘Why do most students not tell how much energy their own wand can handle?’ I was reminded of the Lumos spell I had to help a myriad of students with, most had much of the same problem, too little or too much power.

Pansy glanced at me with a frowning expression. “Easy for you to say when yours went across half the room.” Her sharp tongue cut me down, disallowing any help. I sighed, but didn’t want her to keep yelling the spell while I was reading. “Just relax, and use less power.” Pansy glanced at me, a frown still adorning her face while she thought. She then looked back at her wand, and recited the spell. To her surprise, she saw red sparks that looked much stronger, all of them going high in the air, before harmlessly falling back around her once the heat dissipated.

Pansy looked over at Lucas giving her a silent nod of congratulations before turning back to his book, looking ahead at the later chapters. She was reminded of the Lumos spell that he helped others with earlier in the day. Pansy had used that spell numerous times before school, so that first class and assignments would be child's-play for her. She assumed that Lucas was the same, noticing the problems others had because he used the spell many times before. Trying to fake how new he was to the spells to increase his fame and power in the house.

However he did the same thing with this spell that would be strange if he did practice it, and the way his eyes slowly moved across the pages with purpose proved he was reading, rather than skimming. If that were true, then he was probably new to the Lumos spell as well. Pansy was confused about what to think at this point. Part of her thoughts felt he was someone plotting things to gain power, but another part felt he was mostly what others saw. ‘He’s definitely hiding something, but he isn’t using the power he has been gaining in the house for anything yet. What is he thinking?’