Bellamy collapsed at the breakfast table. Mornings were not his friend and after staying up late the night before plotting out pranks he was exhausted. Thank Merlin wizards drank coffee he thought as he poured himself a mug. Breathing in the heavenly scent of his coffee he reached for some toast and started to butter it, Hogwarts really had the best food. As he happily prepared to eat his toast he found it suddenly yanked from his hand. He whipped his head around prepared to yell at whoever had dared steal his toast. Only to find his sister happily munching on it.
"Hey big bro, thanks for the toast." Octavia reached up and messed up his hair with a grin.
"I hate you." He reached for another piece of toast and started to butter it to his exacting standards, toast was important after all.
"Love you too," she grinned while sitting down next to him.
He grunted in response before drinking from his coffee. The bench shifted as Roma and Harper sat down by Octavia, Miller sat across from him. Monroe and Atom took seats next to Miller so that their section of the table was comfortably full. After everyone had sat down Bellamy looked up from his heavenly coffee, complete with two dollops of cream.
Glancing over at Atom he chucked a piece of toast at his head. "You ready for your job today?"
Atom glared at him before nodding and chewing on his sausage. Bellamy grinned in expectation for the day and went back to his toast. Glancing up at the teacher's table he watched Shumway, the ass, talking to Healer Jackson. Feeling his shoulder get grabbed he looked over at Miller who was looking at him knowingly. Huffing he got up throwing his book bag over his shoulder. "Well I'm off, double defense this morning. You lot coming?" He looked at the other seventh years. Last bites were eaten as the group got up and trudged to one of the more dreaded classes.
Bellamy found his heart lurching at the sight of a little Hufflepuff crying in the hallway. Before he could make for her to make sure she was alright Octavia pushed past him.
"I got this, someone probably just ran their mouth about blood." Octavia crouched down by the girl clearly preparing to help.
His fists clenched as he nodded sharply and continued on his way to class. He knew he wasn't the best choice for comforting eleven year old girls, but still it rankled him to see someone upset like that. It reminded him uncomfortably of another little first year only this one had been blond, he'd told her to slay her demons. Pushing down his guilt he walked into the defense classroom with his friends.
The Defense room was as orderly as always. There was an almost militaristic air to the place with its perfect angles and straight lines. There weren't any desks out today though, instead there was a dueling platform raised up in the middle of the room. The formal rules to a duel were written up on the board. Bellamy grimaced, practical lessons never went well for him with Shumway. Looking around he saw the same uncomfortable looks on his friend's faces. His face hardened as he looked back at the front of the room, he'd just have to crush whoever Shumway paired him with as a warning, rules be damned. Glancing round at the other students he wondered who Shumway would pair him with. He knew it would be one of his pureblood pets. Maybe Francis from Ravenclaw with his stupid inbred nose and encyclopedic knowledge of spells. He watched as a couple of Slytherins made their way in. Grinning to himself he wondered if he was going to get to wipe the floor with the princess, maybe make her regret sending vague warnings to Monroe just to freak people out, there hadn't been a random trunk search last night.
Before he could get too excited about the possibilities of crushing some snobby Slytherin Professor Shumway entered and the class fell silent.
"Welcome to your final year of Defense Against the Dark Arts. You will spend this year mastering the subject in an attempt to not embarrass yourself during your NEWTS," Bellamy glared at Shumway when his eyes flickered to him at that bit. "We'll be using a practical approach this year. Every class we will be having a practical demonstration or duel and then spend the rest of the class dissecting and critiquing the students performing in the demonstrations performances. Everything will go for these lessons, family magic, dark spells, as long as it is not specifically illegal it's allowed. Today we'll be having three duels before we critique them. Students not participating in the duel will have a foot of parchment due during our next class on superior strategies that could have been used. Learning of new spells will be done in your own time this year. Any questions?" He glared out at the assembled students from all four houses. "Good, first up Francis and Miller, get up there and show us what you've got."
Bellamy slapped Miller on the back, "Good luck, crush him yeah."
Miller just nodded before stepping up on the dueling platform and drawing his wand. The two boys bowed and prepared for the duel to begin. At Shumway's mark the two both launched disarming jinx's at each other. Miller made an impressive dodge while casting a blasting hex at Francis. Francis had already pulled up a shield charm though that easily absorbed the hex. Several more low level hexes and jinxes were exchanged before Francis sent a freezing charm at the platform. Miller who had pulled up a shield expecting another hex slipped on the suddenly unstable ground. It was impressive they had done all the spell casting silently, a result of Shumway's habit of taking points when a spell was spoken after fifth year. While Miller's arms suddenly pin-wheeled while he tried to get his balance back Francis cast a tarantallegra jinx at him causing Miller's legs to suddenly start uncontrollably dancing leading to him face planting on the platform and ending the duel.
Bellamy and Roma helped Miller up and checked him while Shumway congratulated Francis, the ponce. Crossing his fingers he hoped he got to go next, maybe one of his spells could 'accidentally' hit Shumway. It was a pleasant thought at least. Miller seemed slightly dazed and grateful when Roma cast the counter to the jinx that was causing his legs to continue to jerk uncontrollably.
Shumway didn't even give a pause to check on Miller, causing Bellamy to almost growl. "Monroe, Albert you're up. Try not to embarrass yourself like Mr. Miller there."
A firm hand on his shoulder from Miller was all that kept Bellamy from saying anything. Monroe winked at them before jumping up the stage. It was a cruel matchup. Monroe wasn't to be sneezed at power or skill wise while Albert was a quiet Hufflepuff who had problems with silent casting.
Sure enough the match didn't take long. Monroe threw several silent blasting hexes in a row while Albert pulled up a shield that shivered in the air and then faltered letting him be thrown against the wall. His friends quickly collected him while Monroe jumped down. Bellamy patted her on the back briefly while he glared at Shumway daring him to call him up.
"Well let's bring up some people who can actually duel. Dax, Griffin, show them how it's done." The condescending look he gave the class was enough to make Bellamy's blood boil.
He watched as Dax leaned over whispering something into Griffin's ear before swaggering up. Griffin seemed to roll her shoulders while removing her school robe before stepping up. He wondered idly which one of the two stuck up snobs he wanted to lose more. The look on Griffin's face was annoying, it would be nice to watch her calm mask get wiped off.
The duel began in a rather startling manner. Griffin transformed the robe she had been holding into a shield that she used to absorb a sickly purple curse Dax had launched at her. A flaming whip came roaring from the tip of her wand that she sent flickering towards Dax whose eye's widened as he brought up a shimmering shield that rippled as the flames washed over it.
Harper spoke the group's opinion going "Holy shit."
As the flames died slightly Dax dropped his shield sending a powerful cutting hex across the platform. Griffin dodged while throwing a banishing hex at him in one smooth motion. Dax seemed to catch the banishing hex and returned it with a full body swish of his wand. Griffin caught it with her transfigured shield although it caused the shield to shatter. Not wasting time with any of the superficial cuts Clarke transfigured the shards of her shield into knives before sending them flying at Dax. Cursing under his breath he brought them to a stop with a silent immobilizing curse that prevented him from returning fire before Griffin could twirl her wand sending a shining yellow curse at him. Dodging he turned the knives that had been hanging in the air around and back at Griffin. They harmlessly turned back into the pieces of her robe with flick of her wand. Both students sent red curses flying at each other that seemed to implode as they collided. Using the slight distraction, Griffin threw a disarming jinx with a sharp jab that hit Dax before he could pull up a shield in time. She caught his wand easily with her left hand while sending a stunning charm with her right.
Bellamy stared as Griffin calmly walked back to her place by the wall accepting congratulations from her Ravenclaw friend. "What crawled up princess's ass?" He looked at Roma. She was an endless supply of gossip.
"Griffin and Dax had a falling out over a rejected marriage proposal this summer." She hissed back at him while Shumway stepped up on the stage after taking care of Dax who was glaring darkly at Griffin while moving back to his position.
"Excellent job you two, truly a credit to your house, ten points to Slytherin to each of you. Now who wants to tell me why they were the only one's to perform adequately?"
A snickering Slytherin Parkinson raised his hand. "Well sir everyone else used jinxes and hexes any sixth year should know. you can't win a proper duel with school book pranks."
Bellamy shoved his hand up. "Griffin took him down with two third year hexes, the only difference is that they didn't seem to care about injuring each other."
Parkinson turned round towards him, "Like a banishing hex can't harm someone, idiot, not sure what else I'd expect from you though."
"In a controlled environment the worst a banishing charm should do is cause some bruising. Those severing charms could have killed someone!" Bellamy felt himself fuming. This was a class, deadly curses shouldn't be used.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, keep yourself under control Mr. Blake." Shumway turned to the Ravenclaw standing near Griffin. "Can you tell me why Mr. Miller didn't stand a chance in his duel Reyes?"
Reyes straightened up "He cast a targeted defense without knowing the spell cast at him. It was a wager that the spell would be a straight frontal attack. Typical Gryffindor mistake but a necessary evil in a duel when the opponents are this close to each other."
"Acceptable. Parkinson anything to add?" Shumway dismissed Reyes quickly as he turned back to one of his purebloods.
"His dodging was sloppy and mugglish, you should glide round a spell not throw yourself out of the way."
"Good, five points. Now moving on"
Bellamy clenched his jaw while Shumway's voice washed over him. It was a pattern he was used to but that never stopped to piss him off. Shumway would ignore correct answers from any muggleborn students while giving points to purebloods regardless of whether they deserved it or not. The class turned into a criticism of the muggleborn competitors and any mistakes of the half blood or pureblood duelists were ignored. By the time the class ended he could practically feel steam coming from his ears.
Leaving class he found himself wishing he had quidditch practice that evening to workout some aggression. As he left he noticed Atom leaving Shumway's office. With a vindictive grin, he made his way to lunch with his friends, that ass Shumway had a surprise coming for him.
At dinner Shumway showed up with his hands wrapped up in bandages courtesy of the fireworks left in his desk. Several low fives between potatoes and pie were had. That should teach the asshole. It was a good start to the year. Parkinson had it coming as well he mused as he listened to Octavia talk about her care of magical creatures class and how the nifflers had gotten loose, they'd spent most of the class chasing the little things.
The tower was welcoming as they all trooped up to the painting of the fat lady. One "Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans" later the portrait swung open letting them in. He came to a stop at the sight of Shumway standing at the foot of the stairs up to their dorms smiling at them. It was not a good smile. Seeing Dax and Griffin coming out of their respective genders dorms holding lists while walking with a teacher he felt his blood freeze. They had put their contraband back after the lack of a search the night before. Professor Vera from the arithmancy class was holding a large bag of contraband while Griffin and Dax were handing their lists to Shumway.
"Well is seems that we have some bad seeds here in the tower. Students found to have contraband in their trunks will report to the groundskeepers shack every night this week after dinner for detention. In addition Gryffindor is penalized 150 points. Lists of who will be attending detention will be found on the bulletin board." With that he walked over to the board and stuck the two lists on the board before making his way out through the portrait. Dax his faithful dog was quick to follow him while professor Vera and Griffin left at a slower pace. Bellamy found his eyes caught by a surprisingly vicious glare from Griffin before she left.
Walking over to the list he stared at the names. "This is bullshit! There isn't a single pureblood's name on this." The other members of the house started murmuring in anger. Bellamy jumped up on the coffee table by the fire making sure he had the rooms attention. "We aren't taking this crap this year. The prejudice of the fucking purebloods has gone too far. How many times have we been denied points only because of our blood status? And how many times have we lost points for things a pureblood would never lose them for? It's going to be worse this year too, after the death of that Jaha brat they're going to be seeking revenge. So I say we give them a taste of their own medicine. Let's make sure they know there is a price for abusing us. The damn bigots won't know what hit them! Let's give them hell!" He shook his fist with his last line his eyes flashing in resolve and anger.
His friends and a majority of the house started cheering their approval. He grinned while looking at his friends, let the purebloods know they were coming for them, it was war and he was going to win.