The spell fire was a dizzying array of colors, sickly yellow to neon purple was being thrown about the room in an erratic manner, then everything stopped and silence reigned over the area. "Well done. Bravo! I must say quite the talent for acrobatics you have there. You dodged all the spells our examiners used, including some of the wider and more powerful ones. Yes you will do nicely, you may leave and go about your business, we will owl you the details of your assignment when they are completed, understood?" the lights increased by half and revealed a young man breathing slightly out of breath, and a nod form the mans head and headed towards the door. The man in front of the younger man called out "Don't forget your new toy, it would be bad manners to the creator to not display such a fine creation." The door closed silently.
2 months later
The Dark red paint of the Hogwarts express was a welcome sight to Harry, he had spent his most of the beginning of his summer at the Dursley's doing chores, staying away from Dudley and when he could doing what summer homework he had to do. The rest of the summer was spent cleaning the house of the Black house. Most noble and old his ass he silently mussed, his fears the Sirius was dead had been abated when he found out that he was not dead but in what seemed like what the draught of living death produced. If he were kept watered and fed Sirius would not die. The sight was painful however it was better than him not being alive at all. Harry stopped his thoughts and turned his attention to the 5 people in his compartment at the moment, Luna (loony) Lovegood, Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom, his inseparable friends, the few friends he had hat helped him save his godfather from the merciless torture of Lord Voldemort in the halls of the Unspeakables.
Harry's eye caught a glimpse of a man with jet black hair not unlike his own, turning to look he found himself, unable to see where the person had gone, curious he poked his head out the compartment window only to have Hermione ask him what he was doing looking around he sighed and said" nothing, just trying to see if any of the order were in the crowd", Hermione nodded as if in agreement that he should be on his guard and that she approved of his efforts to be more self aware of the situation. Ron had gone and was patrolling the hallways and Hermione was just about to leave when Harry caught a glimpse of the same black hair right outside his compartment. Quickly excusing him to go to the washroom. Harry began to quietly follow the boy with black hair, he carried a black duffle bag about ¾ as long as he was, and he had a wand in his hand a pale kind of wood. Harry decided to stop when he turned around to find the boy standing in front of him. "Why are you following me?" the boy asked in a low tone, the voice felt smooth like silk, but had the tone of a confident person in the abilities. Harry reacted as quick as he could " I've never seen some one like you here before and your too tall and old to be a first year, which means your either a transfer student, which is rare or you work with Dumbledore and are part of the security on this train. Am I correct?" Harry watched as his opponent face changed form expressionless to a small smirk, "Seems your not as oblivious to the world as people are lead to believe Mr. Potter, I am a transfer and I am security for the train and the castle. How ever, I would assume it does not take 10 minutes to go the bathroom and I'm sure your friends are about to come looking for you in a few moments, which means this conversation is at an end, I will see you later Mr. Potter, don't forget that." With that the boy walked past him and entered the last compartment and locked the door. Harry hurried back to his compartment stopping by the food trolley to buy as much candy and snacks he could carry. Entering the compartment was a astonishing, everyone was talking or eating or in Luna's case reading an upside down magazine. Sitting beside Luna Harry offered he r a chocolate from, which she gladly accepted. And ripped its legs off. Harry watched in morbid fascination as she devoured the frog bit by bit.
Opening Ceremony
Th sorting hat had just finished its song and Dumbledore had stood to speak "This year as you know Lord Voldemort has returned to power and now ahead of us we have turbulent times, but as our sorting hat was just saying we must all learn to work together, cooperate, and learn from each other. And now I must present our new Defence teacher a Mr Andrew Boggs, an expert in old curses and bloodlines, to those who wish to know he is from one of the oldest bloodlines in all of Europe, the line that created the Ravenclaw line. For that reason He has been given the special dispensation to wear a blade of honour on his person wherever he may go, for those thinking he may be weak I would advise you to reconsider. He is the head of many ancient and noble families. Also before his grand introduction, he will be with a few other people I have contacted be heading up a duelling and spell demonstration class after normal classes for those who wish to participate, at te end of the year there will be a tournament to see the progress made by everyone. Also there will be a prize for 1st 2nd and 3rd place. And now may I introduce your new Defence Against The Dark Arts Teacher Mr. Andrew Boggs. Head of the Most Noble and Ancient Houses of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, proxy, Maxwell, son of Atriums Maxwell, order of Merlin 1st class, twice received, for distinguished spell research and production of the standard guidelines by which spells are categorized" Dumbledore sat down and smiled lightly at the great hall entrance doors. The doors shuddered violently as student scrambled to getaway from the impending doom. The doors fractured and warped as if melting in an intense flame. In an instant the doors shattered into thousands of small pieces and fell to the floor and there was a large resounding gong and the student were searching around for the gong sound when a voice rang out that made Harry eyes widen in surprise, "What are you all looking around for shouldn't you be paying attention to your new teacher? I'm at the podium people." Almost as one, hundreds of head turned and faced their new teacher. "Impressed with the theatrics? I assure you I have more from where that came from in spades." A slight smirk formed on the lips of the black haired man standing with his back leaning against the front of the podium. "As I know ave our full attention, I would like to thank headmaster Dumbledore for this opportunity to teach you students a valuable lesson on winning duels, and the proper way to use spells." With that the young man vanished from sight leaving the entire great hall dumbfounded
Gryffindor common room
"Bloody hell I always thought the Maxwell line was dead." "Watch your language Ron" "ah sorry Hermione" Ron and Hermione bickered back and forth, while Harry stared out into the night watching the rain splash up against the window. Absent-mindedly Harry wandered over to the portrait door and stepped outside to find Neville sitting on the ground with a dejected look on his. Harry slumped next to him with enough sound to let him know that he was sitting next to him. "Harry the Maxwell line is back after a century and a half of obfuscation, no one knew if the line had died out or if they were alive, but now that the line is alive it means that things are about to get very very bloody and brutal, Once You-Know-Who…" "Voldemort Neville his name is Voldemort." Neville squeaked and twitched dropping his wand, which clacked, in the empty cavernous area. "The Maxwell line is a war mage line Harry, they are called warlocks for a reason, by the time they enter Hogwarts they can already do 6th year offensive magiks and 5th year defensive magiks. The Maxwell's are one of the most powerful Old families around in the wizarding world; they're on par with the Potters, the Dumberdores. They control the Malfoys, the Weasleys, The Longbotoms, the Lovegoods, the Smiths, the Umbridges, and the Mcaniars, not to mention countless lesser important pureblood families. Harry, our DADA teacher is the third most influential person in the wizarding world only behind you and Dumbledore. Even then he could probably have the headmaster removed with out a second thought if he really wanted it. If it's true he has studied old battle curses then he has to be incredibly powerful." Neville moved to get up and stretch when the shadows of the torch lit rippled and expelled the very man they were just talking about. "Well Mr. Longbottom I must say your grandmother has raised you well indeed, most of your information is quite correct, however I could not have Dumbeldore removed from the castle, even that is beyond my power, though I'm not sure why I'd even want to remove such a great man from his throne. Mr. Longbottom I have head of your exploits through various sources including what Mr Potter would know as the Order, and I must say your bravery suits you well, I ave come to honour your braver with the raising of the Longbottom standard beside mine at equal height." The shock upon Neville's face was enough to clue Harry that something impressive, something not done for a while or something very honorific was being said and done in this conversation. Neville merely nodded and bowed low "it would be my greatest honour" backing up while still bowing Neville spun and the portrait door quietly swung open. "Mr Potter, yes Mr Potter, you will see me every night between 6-10 for advance training in the magical combat artes, you do not have a say in this, Dumbeldore as asked of me to provide you with this training, choose who will fight beside you in this course, this will count as your DADA. You may use any of the non-lethal spells I teach you in the round robin tournament, so long as you let me be the final opponent at the end of this little game. Mr Potter I will teach you how to survive and win even with an overwhelming disadvantage, even if you are surrounded by 5 opponents you can still win and not have a scratch on you will become much more refined in your casting, no wasted movements, and I will train you in a more peculiar branch of casting and fighting. I hope you choose wisely in the upcoming days, you have till the beginning of the new week to either in writing submit me the choices or tell me verbally when ever you see me. I bid you a goodnight Mr Potter, as I must begin my patrol of the corridors of this enormous building." With that that shadows enveloped the new teacher once again leaving Harry Potter staring at a wall, alone in the dark.
Next Morning
Neville, Harry, Ron and Hermione, rushed to grab seats in the new DADA classroom, oddly enough it was on the first floor, close to the Great Hall and the entrance to Hogwarts. The class bell went and the new teacher was nowhere in sight. 5 minutes later the hurried and slightly out of breath man came storming into the room. "Right sorry 'bout that, hadn't finished eating or getting to know this place. Right onto to the work. Every one stand up, bow, now sit down, I ask you do that with every class you have with me. Yes ms.?"
"Granger sir"
"Yes Ms Granger?"
"Why are you having us perform a Japanese greeting, your obviously not of Asian decent. Are you?"
" Very observant Ms Granger, no I am not Japanese or any other Asian nationality, Mr. Malfoy 10 points from Slytherin for such an unsightly face you made at the mention of the Asians, to answer your question which you have not spoken but obviously want to ask, I studied in Japan spent my junior high and high school years in Japan, hence why the very different looking wands and my peculiar way of doing things. 10 points to Gryffindor on behalf of Mr Granger for a keen observation. Now once again stand up and now we leave the confines of this rooms to the outdoors, where we shall start by demonstrations of spell fire and the effects it has around you. I will divide the class into three groups; one will be half the class; one will consists of the remaining 2/3rds and the final 1/3 will be in for a very, very fun time."
Time wore on and the class soon found out the reason why te final 1/3 of the class was to be pitted against both half the class and the remaining classmates, however group a (half the class) was only allowed to use up to year 4 spells while group but the 2/3 of the remaining class) were able to use ear 5 spells and anything they could think of, that was non-lethal, and reversible in under 10 minutes. With a grin the new teacher fired red sparks twice then green and the firefight was on. The remaining group were allowed to use anything short of lethal curses, but it seemed to have very little effect 10 people fighting against 30 even with limitations seemed to have an increasing effect of complete disheartening and every group that tried their hand at being group c was quickly quashed in a mater of minutes. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville looked at each other and nodded and raised their hands asking if they could attempt he problem themselves, everyone gave them a nervous glance, while the teacher stared at them with an intense gaze. "Fine get in the middle of the arena, you have to last 5 minutes before I call time, understood?" They all nodded and the teacher nodded once and motioned for them to get going.
" Well if it saint Potty and his mismatched rabble, I wonder how long it'll take you to go down, I'm betting under 2 minutes." Malfoy jeered with an ugly smirk. Harry, Neville and Hermione ignored him while Ron's' ears went red, "We'll last longer than your dad that's for sure." The comment brought a pink tinge to Malfoys checks as he stormed off.
"On your marks …Go!"
A large timer appeared above hem with 5:00 and proceeded to count down. A large volume of spell fire became concreted on Harry as the four took a defensive stance and began to use shields and conjuring object (Hermione) to block incoming spell fire.
4:35.
Harry began o feel the presser of the spells pounding his shield and it began to falter flickering occasionally letting a stray spell swing past them causing Ron or Neville to dodge. 3:57. Hermione groaned in frustration as she cast a transfiguration spell to turn a pebble into a large door to block incoming spell fire. 3:30. Neville slumped forward in pain as a stinging hex hit his chest as his shield failed, Ron began to swear as Neville slumped to the ground out of exhaustion and pain form the multiple stinging hex and assorted spells being fired at them all. Ron was blindsided by a stunning spell and was unceremoniously flung outside of the arena from the power of the spell.
3:12, 2 of 4 down.
Harry and Hermione stood back to back trying to deflect as many of the spells as possible while trying to maintain a cobbled together defence, Hermione made medium sized spires of the dirt and placed them around them in order to concentrate the spell fire into corridors where they could be deflected. It worked for a time until the other students just kept adding the spells to the corridors instead of trying to destroy the spires. Harry turned his head to Hermione "think we should try for an do something else 'mione its getting too hard to keep casting a shield with all this spell fire around us." She nodded.
2:45.
Harry thought of the options they could do, they could start firing stunner blindly at the students they could try for another defensive trick or they could rush them and try and take as many as they could.
"Hermione close up your end and make it thick, I think I have an idea that could work." She nodded and spire appeared everywhere blocking her line of sight, leaving her breathing hard and leaning against Harry. "Done Harry, But I don't know how much longer I can keep going. It says we're at 2 minutes 15 seconds left, but I don't think I can keep going that long, I've used more magic today than I did most of last year combined." Harry nodded "then I'll make this quick." Harry jumped forward casting stunners and binding hexes in a blinding fashion and grabbed Hermiones had and dragged her beside him, most of the spells were bounding harmlessly off shields or conjured items, but slowly in ones and twos people began to fall.
1:39.
There was approximately half the class laying on the grass of Hogwarts either bound or stunned, the rest were taking pot shots at what looked like random spires of dirt and wood in the hopes of breaking them down. Random spells were being fired from behind spires then another spell then another all the time never from the same one twice.
"TIME"
"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger win this round, runners up Ron Weasley Draco Malfoy, Susan Bones and Neville Longbottom. Congratulations, your exempt from homework of this course for one month, I hope you enjoy your free time. Those that can please revive or unbind your classmates I would rather not have to explain to the headmaster why half my students are laying on the ground, while he might see the humour behind something like that. I highly doubt say Professor MacGonagal or Professor Snape taking too kindly to such antics. Seeing as this a double period and you all have a free period after lunch I suggest for those wo made quite the effort at dodging and such to look less like their a projects of professor Sprout and more a student of Hogwarts. Your all dismissed. On that note do the same as when I enter the class stand bow then straighten yourselves and leave. If you have any questions my office is next to the classroom just leave a note in the box attached to the door. And I'll respond to them as fast as I can." With that said most the students dispersed helping their friends up laughing and joking on how well or badly they had done. Some stole glances at the new teacher as he began to repair the ground of the recent spell work, reverting it back to its original state. Hermione was watching the new teacher intently with a glassed over look. Approaching him slowly Hermione stood a few feet away watching him work without uttering a single word while reverting the landscape back.
" Can I help you Ms Granger? You seem to be watching me fairly intently. I must say I haven't seen teamwork like that for a few years, not since my time in Japan not that its been a while only 3 years out and I'm already a teacher." Hermione smiled " You seem to be pretty knowledgeable about Defence Against The Dark Arts for some whose only 20."
"Of course, you know as well as I do that the Japanese mysticism is far more older than any thing the Europeans could ever imagine. So I learned as much of the Japanese mysticism as I could before I left, although I could still go back, but I won't not for a while, not for 5 years. It's a promise I made to one of my friends before she died, killed by Voldemort's scum, I swore that for 5 years I would roam the world learning and teaching, to help bring that basterd down even if I had to give my life, I will make sure he dies. Ahh sorry for ranting, I'm part of the order, as you could probably tell, I was there fighting in the department, I'm the one who pulled Sirius from the veil, although I'm not sure how much good it did him, still seems like he could die at any time. Im very sorry I've been rambling on. What was your question?"
" I was wondering Mr Boggs if you would teach me Japanese magic? Or if not the magic, anything of the Japanese mysticism." Hermione gazed at her teacher with a determined look.
"I don't see a problem with it 'cept for your wand. It's not right for the kind for the magic I would be teaching you. I'll have one of my friends form Japan come and craft one for you. And I'll teach a few tricks with out the wand, more fighting oriented, along with Mr Potter and who ever he choses as his partners for the defence training."