Everyone I know knows I'm not JK Rowling. Do you? I'm not :)
This chapter, like all of those before it, has been edited as of the 2nd of August, 2013.
BlueberryQuill
"Thank you for arriving, Miss Maver. Five minutes late, I might add." Professor Ridley's eyes glossed over Sirius, without noticing him. Sirius breathed a sigh of relief at not getting caught, but could only imagine that this was Kora's luck coming into play. Kora murmured an apology, and stood back against the wall, her small figure vanishing into the shadows where the rest of the class were now standing.
"What's going on?" Sirius muttered to Peter, who jumped a little at his friend's voice so close to his ear.
"Seating plan."
It took all of a few seconds for the class to certify that the new professor, Professor Ridley, was a stickler for law and order. He began by quickly pacing around his form room, tidying up the chairs where the previous class had tucked them in at a slightly wonky angle, before turning to face the new recruits. The first row was made up entirely of volunteers, mainly Ravenclaws for the sake of gaining more classroom knowledge, with the remainder of the seats fill with Hufflepuffs, who had worked out that if you volunteered, you could sit amongst friends. The raucous Gryffindors and sly Slytherins were under no delusion that they wanted the teacher to see any of their goings on.
"Alright," said Professor Ridley. He was a tall man, with crinkly eyes and wavy brown hair. Kora was instantly reminded of her mother's Simon and Garfunkel records, although whether he represented Simon or Garfunkel, she couldn't say, nor cared enough to remember. He spoke with a rich, almost creamy voice, that boasted of years of study. Sirius hazarded a guess that he had been a Ravenclaw.
"So, Mr Snape, we'll sit you here." He gestured towards a seat by the window. "Miss Maver can join you here, and Mr Potter, if you could take the adjacent seat. Mr Tarpeius, if you could be so kind," as he sat a kindly looking Hufflepuff down next to James, "Miss Turner," completing the row.
Severus "Slimy" Snape looked distastefully at Kora, and went back to perusing his hefty copy of Defense Against the Darkest Magic, although if given a guess, Kora would have assumed he was more into learning the dark magic in the book, as opposed to learning to defend himself from it. James turned immediately to Oscar Tarpeius, who he had never before so much as given the time of day to, and struck up a conversation. She buried her head in her hands.
The third row was also filled quickly. "Remus Lupin, please, and Mr Black, here, if you don't mind."
Sirius took the seat directly behind Kora, who turned around, groaned in exasperation, and then began rummaging in her satchel.
"Glad I'm with you!" Remus leant across, and they quickly high-fived. "Where were you for free period?"
"Just around the Forbidden Forest, and all that," said Sirius quickly, ignoring the guilty flush that turned both his cheeks and - although he could not see it - the eavesdropping Kora on the second row's cheeks a violent red. "Nothing special!" Remus looked knowingly at his friend, and smiled - guessing which student Sirius had been visiting in the Care of Magical Creatures class.
By this time, Professor Ridley had decided that the rows were perfectly symmetical, that he could see everybody and that there was an even enough balance of house ties everywhere. Satisfied also, that no troublemaking friends were free to scheme together, he turned to the class.
"Today will be a practical lesson," he began, in his knowledgeable, quiet voice. "But I just wish to check you have your textbooks."
There was a general flurry of pages, as everyone began to look through their school bag for the books, simultaneously stowing their parchment and quills away for another lesson. The entire mood of the class lifted, as well - practical lessons were always far, far more interesting.
"No, it's quite all right. Let's just pick a few names at random..."
Please, not me! thought Kora desperately. I must have dropped it with my stuff for the Malaclaw practice! She continued to grabble through her bag, and could find - to be fair, very little in it at all.
"Dava Sobel?" Dava lifted her book up for him to see, and then, clumsily, dropped it back on the table. Professor Ridley winced at the noise. "Very good. Oliver James? Well done. Kora Mah-ver?"
"It's Maver," Sirius automatically corrected. James, Remus and even Kora turned and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm sorry," began Kora, regaining her senses. "I must have dropped it with my things at Care of Magical Creatures."
Ridley's kind, crinkly eyes turned steely and stony once again, as he looked at her. "Normally, I would let you off, considering that it is in fact your second lesson of your first day. But this is in fact, your second offense, already. So, ten points from Gryffindor, and I'll see you in detention tonight."
That seemed a bit harsh to all of them, all the Gryffindors sighed and the Slytherins grinned - but to Sirius, this seemed particularly unfair. He doubted though, that Kora wanted any sort of help from him now, and the Marauder's wouldn't appreciate it either. After all this time, he couldn't be going soft for Maver, the girl who had made it incredibly clear that she wanted nothing to do with the Marauders.
"And, Miss Maver, I'm sure you can help us with this little demonstration. Down the front please, you won't need your wand. Today, class," he said, addressing the room in general. "We will not be using magic. Instead we will focus on a discipline equally as important, for defending oneself against the dark arts. It could be," he began, and Kora got the impression that this was a well polished, well rehearsed speech. "The difference between physical fitness, and lack thereof that get's you kill."
He whipped his wand out of his pocket, and sent a stunning spell at Kora, who ducked, the spell flying throw the strands of her hair as they gently cascaded back to her shoulders.
"Very good, Miss Maver. Ten points to Gryffindor. Miss Maver here," he addressed the class again. "Can think on her feet, can dodge -" He threw a book at her head, and she jumped aside. "Anything you throw at her, it seems. The disarming charm, is in fact one of the most dangerous charms that there is. It renders you wandless, unable to defend yourself." He paused, although evidently only for effect. "Or does it? As far as I can see, Muggles manage pretty well. Or, some of them do. Sometimes dodging a hex," - a whip of blue light whistled over Kora's head - "Is not enough. Sometimes, you need to fight back."
"Sorry sir," said Thomas Boot, who had been keeping meticulous notes of everything that Professor Ridley had said. "But what is the point of this? Where is this going?" Thomas was one of the school's most gifted scholars - at magic, at least. The thought of muggle combat was one of the scariest things that he could fathom.
"Yeah!" said Avery, a hefty Slytherin student who lolled across two seats in the back row. "No offense sir," he drawled, in a tone that insinuated that much offense was about to follow. "But we're school kids. I'm pretty sure most of us," he sneered at the female population of the class. "Most of the boys, can defend themselves." There was general assent from the male, Slytherin crowd. Snape nodded his head, and along the row, James resisted the temptation to smack his greasy head onto the desk.
"Mr Avery, is it?" said Professor Ridley, in as cool a tone as it was possible to use. "Would you come down the front for me."
Slowly, painfully, Avery dragged himself up from his seat and waltzed down the aisle, as though he owned the place. The class trembled in anticipation - Kora was truly dwarfed next to him, her eyes widened in fear.
"I'm sure, Mr Avery, that you could," he coughed, conspicuously, "'Beat up' Miss Maver here?"
Avery looked down at her, shrugged, and then nodded. Remus glanced curiously over at Sirius, to see Sirius completely engrossed in the demonstration at the front. The muscles in his arms were so tense that he snapped his eraser in half, and didn't even notice. Whilst Sirius' reaction was by far the most noticeable, it was also not particularly strange. Most of the Hufflepuffs, notorious for disliking conflict were anxiously watching the front, and the Gryffindors were all but outraged that such a practice looked set to continue.
"But Mr Avery! That is not the point!" continued Professor Ridley, alive in his talk, either not noticing or not caring about the class' reaction. "We need to make sure that little Miss Maver, here, can defend herself from y- a Death Eater, of your size. Give me your wand please?"
"No way!"
Professor Ridley looked at him, using the same, cold steely gaze he had used on Kora earlier, but intensified a thousand times. "Expelliarmus!" Avery's blackthorn wand came soaring into Professor Ridley's hand. The professor caught it deftly, and looked thoughtfully at Avery. "Twenty points from Slytherin for insolence. So, Mr Avery. How tall are you?"
"Six foot four," Avery scowled at Ridley, and then down at Kora, who threw her hands up in despair and irritation at the teacher for making her participate in this demonstration.
"And you, please, Miss Maver."
"Four foot eleven." Delivered with no facial expression.
To be brutally honest with himself, Kora's answer was a shock to most of the Marauders. Four foot eleven was short, granted - but it wasn't the tiny childlike physique that they had imagined and teased her for. Wearing her battered Converse, she had to be about five foot. That wasn't that abnormally short at all. Sirius wondered whether or not she only seemed so tiny to him because he imagined her so.
She certainly looked very tiny next to Avery though. Sirius gripped the desk in grim anticipation. Truth be told, all the Gryffindors in the room, including James were glaring at either Ridley or Avery - in anger that Ridley thought this was a good idea - in anger because he was a Slytherin and because Gryffindors stood up for each other when united against a common enemy. The Hufflepuffs looked exasperated and concerned, the Ravenclaws were watching carefully, anticipating the lesson.
"In this situation," said Ridley calmly, blissfully ignorant of the high-running emotions in the room, "The smaller party should be using the opponent's weight to their advantage. Miss Maver, have you ever studied Martial Arts?"
Kora shook her head. "I used to play rugby, though. I mean, before I came to Hogwarts."
"What's rugby?" asked Thomas curiously, still making notes. Kora looked at him greatfully, as he stalled the lesson without meaning to. Sirius wished he had thought of it, but couldn't for the life of him think why.
"It's a muggle sport," said Kora quietly. She began to speak very quickly. "You run around the pitch with an oblong shaped ball and you can only pass backwards, and you try to score tries - that's like goals, and you tackle-"
"The players on the opposite team to gain possession of the ball." finished Professor Ridley. "Quite. How many years did you play this sport for?"
Kora looked away from the class, but answered anyway. "I started when I was six. I still play over the summer. I know it's a winter sport, but you would not believe the amount of community camps that run. I had a tryout for a women's team at Saracens this summer."
James turned around to Sirius. "What on earth does that mean?" he muttered.
Sirius shrugged. "Beats me!" All Sirius knew was that the longer Kora stalled, the safer she became. He was suddenly hyper aware of the ticking on Remus' watch next to him. "What's the time?" he murmured.
Remus showed him. "Half an hour left. Why are you so jumpy Padfoot?"
Sirius looked away, very deliberately.
"Come on mate!" Remus pushed. "We're best friends, aren't we?"
"Sure we are...don't give me the puppy-wolf eyes!" he joked. "Oh, for Merlin's sake! Fine! I may, or may not have got Maver bitten by a malaclaw, this morning."
"And that means what?" Remus looked blankly at him.
"She's got terrible luck for the rest of the week."
"Do I detect talking between you two, Mr Lupin and Mr Black? Ten points from Gryffindor!" Sirius and Remus snapped back to attention. "So, Miss Maver, I imagine you can perform a pretty deft rugby tackle."
Kora looked up at Avery, and then back up at Professor Ridley, panic evident in her gaze. Her hands began to tremble violently. "I mean, I can, but there is a huge height- er weight- er- strength advantage and I'm not sure I could overcome that and I mean, I'm not that good and in rugby there's not intentional violence, you're just trying to regain possession and I mean, I've never-"
"Just, give it a go." Ridley cut through her babbling. He waved his wand at his desk, and wordlessly vanished it. "Go on then."
Kora walked backwards across the floor, her bare feet padding softly. Avery widened his stance, and brought his hands up, balling them into fists. Kora was turning slightly green.
"Go on then, mudblood!" muttered Avery, too low for anyone but Kora to hear. "Tiny little mudblood. Calling to your muggle mother for help? Or your fath-"
As Avery moved on to the taunting her father, a slight change came over Kora, which no one, least of all Avery could have predicted. It was completely unprecedented to the entire form, that Kora should suddenly run at Avery, grapple her arms around his knees, knock him off balance, and drive her shoulder into his chest - sending the huge Avery tumbling over, and Kora falling on top of him. She stood up as quickly as she could, snatched Thomas Boot's wand from his desk and pointed it at Avery's neck.
"Never ever mention my fucking father."
