"Alright everyone, welcome," the Defense Professor said as the last of the class, a combination of seventh year Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, took their seats.

"Today we'll be working on creatively applying something I'm sure you're all fairly familiar with. Who can tell me what the incantation for a shield spell is?"

"Protego, sir," one of the students, Lee Jordan, if he remembered correctly, replied.

"Correct, five points to Gryffindor. Now, name something else you could do to defend yourself against hostile magic."

"Protego Maxima?" one of the Hufflepuffs towards the back of the room asked.

"Well, yes. Technically that's correct, three points to Hufflepuff, Mr. Briarson," Justin said. "But what about something other than shield charms?"

A sea of blank looks answered that statement.

Right, okay.

Not meisters. Definitely not demon weapons. Just, kids.

(Actually, the class was actually full of students the same age as him but...)

"If someone attacked you with something that couldn't be blocked with the protego charm, what would you do?" Justin asked, rephrasing the question in hopes that it might spark some ideas.

"I guess you could dodge," a Gryffindor said from her spot in the back.

"That's true, Miss. Spinnet. Anything else?" Justin said.

At least someone had stated the obvious. They weren't entirely hopeless.

More silence from the rest of the class had him mentally revising that thought.

The past few lessons had made it abundantly clear that letting kids shoot at targets was much easier than trying to talk to them.

"Alright then, how about summoning something to you," Justin said. "A killing curse can't be blocked by a shield spell but, something as simple as a book," he flicked his wand and one of the books on his desk appeared, almost instantly, in front of him. "Will stop it."

"You could also transfigure a wall in front of you," one of the Hufflepuffs said.

"Or levitate something," another replied.

Justin nodded. "Both good ideas."

At least a few people seemed to be getting it.

"You could always just apparate away," one of the Weasley twins, Fred, said.

And suddenly, it clicked. Answers started coming from all corners of the room.

"If you're a fast enough spell caster, a lot of curses have counter-curses."

"There are tons of defensive runes."

"A wall of fire might block some spells."

"You could set up a warded area and stay in that."

"Some plants absorb magic."

"Good, all of you take five points," Justin said. "I'm glad you're all starting to think about this because that leads us into our practical for the day. If all of you would come to the front, please."

The class exchanged excited looks and made their way to the front of the room.

The word 'practical' was fast becoming one of the more exciting ones around Hogwarts. So far there'd been one in every single of of Professor Law's lessons.

Their other teachers, even though they were really only a few classes into term, were already frantically drilling theory into their heads in order to prepare them for their NEWT exams. Which made the fact that there was a teacher on campus actively encouraging spell-casting instead of note-taking nice, if somewhat unexpected.

As they moved away from their seats, much like it had during the first lesson, the classroom began shifting. It stretched out into a large, circular, arena-like space, and the lighting grew dimmer as all but a single window disappeared. The different desks and tables, rather than folding themselves out of the way like they had before, instead split apart and scattered themselves throughout the massive area.

Professor Law's transformations were only getting more dramatic it seemed. The vast majority of the class couldn't help a small twinge of jealousy.

Transfiguration skills like that would get any of them an 'O' on their NEWTs.

"Alright, since this is only our second week of class, the objective is fairly straightforward," Justin said as the spell finished. "I'll be attacking you with the color-change charm, colovaria, if anyone is interested," he continued. "Your goal is to avoid getting hit. Anyone who isn't able to do so will be assigned a minimum fifteen-hundred word paper on what we've talked about today. However, if you manage to effectively defend against me, then you'll be excused from tonight's homework. And, please note, that any green sparks I shoot at you will pass through shield-charms. So, be prepared to defend yourself using more than just Protego."

He'd already measured their raw magical ability. Now he was interested in seeing what they could actually do with it. Even though he'd officially moved out of the 'pre-test' phase of his lessons, he was still working at getting a fully accurate gauge of his students' abilities.

Justin smiled. "Any questions?"

A few eyes widened.

George raised his hand. "Are we allowed to shoot back at you?"

"Of course," Justin said. "Fighting off an attacker if just as valid as defending yourself against one."

His response only lead to more confused looks though and several more hands went up.

Justin held his own hand up, an indication for them to pause. "Let me just say that there really aren't any rules to what you can and can't do. Form teams, draw runes, summon something, transfigure something else, use a potion, cast the most dangerous curses you know, whatever it takes. As far as I'm concerned, this is a life or death situation, so do what you have to do to 'survive'."

"But, what if we accidently hurt you?" One of the Hufflepuffs asked.

"I doubt that'll be a problem," Justin said, fighting off the amused expression that wanted to work its way onto his face with a polite grin. "In fact, I'll even make you all a deal. If any of you manage to hit me, with anything, I'll exempt that person from homework until winter break."

And that was all it took for the cloud of trepidation hanging over the class to fade in favor of excitement. Several of his students sent calculating looks his way and Justin couldn't help but smile at the rapid change in attitude.

"Alright then, if there are no more questions, begin."

Almost instantly, their teacher blurred into action and three of them turned orange.

The rest of the class ran for cover.

"One thousand, two hundred and twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five," Fred tapped his quill along his parchment to facilitate his counting. "Twenty-six, twenty-seven, damn!"

George looked over from his own homework and sent his brother an irritated look. "Keep it down George, some of us are trying to work."

"How am I supposed to keep quiet when we're being taught by a sadistic bastard?"

"Professor Law?" George asked. "I think he's pretty awesome."

"He assigned us a wordcount Fred. A wordcount!"

George laughed. "Well, it definitely makes all those years of perfecting giant handwriting useless."

"I know! It's ridiculous! Why can't he just say, 'eight inches', like he's supposed to?"

"Maybe it's an American thing?"

"Remind me to direct my holidays elsewhere then. They're obviously even crazier than we thought," Fred said, letting an annoyed huff escape afterwards.

"Just play the game, Fred. If he's going to inflate our workload, it's only fair the we reciprocate with inflated sentences. For example, my first line, 'The usages and applications of the Shield Charm, also know as the Protego Charm, Protego, Shield Spell, etc., etc., with variants such as Protego Maxima and Protego Horribilis, are large, wide, varying, and far reaching', even though, 'There are many applications of the Shield Charm', would do the job just as well."

Fred snickered. "Probably better, that first line is unbelievably pretentious."

George released a dramatic sigh. "I'm selling out for an 'O', brother. Apologies."

"An O? Do we care about things like that now?"

"Not really. I just want this stupid assignment finished already."

"Agreed," Fred said. "Besides, why assign a writing anyways? I'd much rather have him teach us how to do a backflip."

"Or jump five meters in the air?"

"Or how about finding people, even after a room is covered in Peruvian Dark Powder?"

"It's like he has eyes-"

"-with night vision-"

"-in the back of his head," the other twin finished.

Fred groaned. "I used almost half of my stock trying to tag him with something...and Peruvian Dark Powder is expensive," he finished with a mutter.

"More than half for me," George said, pulling a few fleshy strings out of his pockets. "The only thing I have left are extendable ears."

"What? You're serious?"

"Unfortunately. And he still got every single person in the room."

"Where did Dumbledore find this guy?"

George laughed. "He is a bit more interesting than expected."

"Well, that settles it then."

"Oh?"

"Well, I was just thinking that, seeing as how the good professor heavily emphasizes practical defense skills, it's only fair that we make sure he's practicing what he preaches."

"A religious joke, I approve. Of it, and your train of thought, Gred."

"I was turned fuschia today, Forge."

"I don't think I've seen Professor Law wearing anything other than gray."

"Well, you know what they say about turnabout."

A few rooms over, Justin sneezed.

Strange.

It'd been years since he'd last had a cold.

It had to be all the people. Crowds of teenagers tended to moonlight as cesspools of disease.

"Are you feeling alright, Professor?" Madame Pomfrey, asked.

"Fine, yes, thank you," Justin replied. Perhaps it hadn't been wise to take his grading into the staff room. (Trying to be social had the tendency to do him more grief than good.)

"Don't work too hard dear. If you need anything, just let me know."

Justin nodded. "Thank you, Madame Pomfrey. I'll be sure to do so."

Dear?

An obvious paradigm shift had occurred in the past few days.

Realistically, it had started weeks ago. Madam Umbridge's obvious dislike, and subsequent censure, of him had firmly placed him on the 'us' side of the staff. In the face of a Ministry Interloper, a young foreigner was the lesser of two evils.

And now, with a bit of positive feedback from the students, and a show of work ethic, after the hours he'd spent holed up in his office, or grading in the staffroom, he was garnering a touch of respect in addition to their sympathy. Faces that had previously doubted him, were slowly warming up.

'He can't teach! He's too young!' was rapidly shifting towards, 'He's young, but very mature. And the students don't have a single negative thing to say about him.'

The fact that he was obviously on their side, the fact that his lessons hadn't crashed and burned, the fact that he was polite and well-mannered, all of it was slowly bringing the staff around.

The most obvious result? Well, people who had previously dismissed him, even if he hadn't 'technically' been aware of it, felt the need to make it up to him.

'If you need anything, Professor Law, just let me know.'

'Professor Law, any advice I have to offer is yours.'

'Would you like to join us, Professor? We're having a meeting about extracurriculars and thought you might be interested, since you're new to Hogwarts and all. If you need any help settling in, we'd be happy to lend a hand!'

Etcetera, etcetera.

Obviously there were exceptions. He'd gotten along with Flitwick and Dumbledore pretty much from day one, Snape and he were still somewhat at odds, and there probably wasn't anything that could turn Umbridge and himself into allies, but, by in large, the staff was friendlier than ever. (Whether or not that was a good thing, remained to be seen.)

Most of the staff was in the staffroom. It was apparently the place to be late in the evenings for teachers. Even Umbridge was sitting at a table a few feet away from him. He was ignoring her though, with the hope that she'd do the same for him.

"I'll have to agree with Madame Pomphrey on this one, Professor Law," Professor Flitwick said, from his spot across from Justin. The two of them were sharing a table. "You do have a tendency to work too hard. I don't think I've seen you in here without a stack of paperwork since the school year started. And, even before that, you spent all your spare time in the library."

"I like to stay busy," Justin said, writing a comment on one of the essays as he did so. He hadn't really adapted to the use of quills so he was working with a red, ballpoint pen instead. "And I'm used to working. I tend to get restless when I'm not."

"Did you have a job prior to this appointment, Professor?" Flitwick asked.

"Yes," Justin replied. "I've worked with the DWMA's European Branch for the past four, almost five, years."

"Four years?" Flitwick said. "That didn't interfere with your schooling?"

"I'd already graduated at that point," Justin said, grabbing another essay from his pile. "So, not at all."

"What? Really?" Flitwick asked.

Justin paused his grading and looked up. Flitwick, and a few other staff members, were looking at him with somewhat surprised expressions.

"I, yes," Justin said. "Sorry, I suppose I'm somewhat used to it being common knowledge. Dumbledore didn't tell you?"

"No, he didn't," Flitwick replied. "Although, I suppose I understand why he hired you now. Obviously you're a very bright young man," he smiled. "And I do believe congratulations are in order. Graduating at thirteen, then? That's quite the accomplishment."

"It is, isn't it?" a high-pitched squeak joined the conversation. "Assuming the standards at your alma mater are up to par."

Umbridge, who'd stood up at some point during their conversation to leave, had reversed her path and was coming towards them. There was still enough time to power up a law-abiding-silver - but, no, that probably went against his mission parameters.

"Where did you study, Mr. Law?" Umbridge said.

Flitwick jumped to his aid. "The Ministry doesn't already know, Madame Auditor?"

"We're still waiting on the American government. They haven't transferred any of his records to us," she was obviously displeased by that.

(Was that the cover Lord Death had come up with? Something told him that Madame Umbridge would be waiting a long time.)

"It's not a secret," Justin said, in hopes it might diffuse the situation. "I studied at the DWMA."

"Hem, hem," Umbridge paused to collect herself. He'd obviously surprised her.

She recovered quickly enough though, "Well, you mean to say that Dumbledore hired someone claiming to be from a school we've never made contact with? One that, for all we know, doesn't even have a Defense Against the Dark Arts Program? What have you been teaching then?" More screeching.

Her hand shot forward and she grabbed one of the essays he was grading. He probably could have stopped her, but he had a feeling that would only exacerbate the situation. The two of them both were watching each other with narrowed eyes, and Justin's posture was switching more and more into 'at attention'.

"Practical applications of the shield charm?" she asked. "This is not, Ministry approved curriculum, Mister Law."

"It's on the spell list for both the OWL and NEWT tests, Madame. I should know, it's only been a little over two months since I took them myself."

"Oh, I am well aware of that Mister Law," she replied, tartly. (His report card full of O's had been one of the reasons why she hadn't been able to force her way into the Defense position.) "That said, you obviously don't understand the tests very well, if you feel this is the best way to prepare the students."

"I'd like to think my scores say otherwise."

Cheeky, little, brat. This boy infuriated her.

"Mister Law," she said. "You are a child. Maybe a very clever one. Maybe even a very talented one. But still, a child and you should show your betters some respect. I have worked in this industry almost as long as you've been alive. Do not presume to think yourself more educated in the subject than I."

He bit back a retort. More educated? She worked a desk job. He'd spent years of his life studying combat. There was no question of who was more educated. But, he wasn't really allowed to tell her that.

He grasped mentally for his shield of niceties, a calm remark to pacify her, a polite phrase to make her leave - loud music.

At least then he'd be able to ignore her.

"Now that's enough, Madame," Flitwick said, coming to his defense again, much to Justin's personal gratitude. "That assignment is hardly out of line. I'm sure we can all agree that we've given similar ones in the past."

Several of the teachers nodded.

"The summer homework for the Sixth years asked them to write a paper about the uses of transfiguring inanimate objects to animate ones," Mcgonagall said. "I received answers ranging from increasing the ease of grocery shopping to Mr. Krum's battle against the dragon at the Triwizard Tournament last year. It was, in a word, quite practical."

The Auditor's smug expression was slowly turning sour. "Well, Professor Mcgonagall, Professor Flitwick, while I appreciate your input, I believe this is a private conversation between me and Mister Law-"

"-it's awfully loud, for a private conversation," Snape said, from his own spot towards the back of the room. "Some of us have real work to do, you and Law should move elsewhere if it's one you wish to continue."

"Apologies for disturbing you, Professor Snape," Justin said. "I have work to do myself. Perhaps another time, Madame Umbridge?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Of course, Mister Law. I'm beginning my classroom observations at the beginning of next month. We'll have plenty to talk about then."

And, with that said, she stalked out of the room.

A/N: So, in my outline, I actually planned for Umbridge and Justin to be fairly cordial towards each other. I assumed she'd be more interested in causing problems for people openly affiliated with Dumbledore, rather than a random stranger. And Justin's default reaction, my version of him at least, is polite apathy. There's a part of me that still finds my original plans more believable, however, this is infinitely more entertaining. Umbridge is a psycho, haha, but she's a 'very-fun-to-write' psycho.

On another note, I'm happy to finally get back to a normal wordcount, I like to aim for the ~2000-3500 words, 7-10 pages, range. So, with possible exceptions, that should be more the norm from now on.

As always, reviews are appreciated. And, if you're interested, I'm willing to send anyone who leaves a signed review on this chapter a copy of the deleted scenes for it. In this case, it'd be an alternate Fred and George conversation and a much angrier Justin during the Umbridge scene. Together, they're a little over six hundred words.

(I would offer them to anonymous reviewers too, but I don't have a way to get them to you. Sorry!)

In general, I have a ton of deleted scenes, about 1 page to every 2 that are published, so I figured some people might be interested in reading them and have been trying to come up with a way to incorporate them without disrupting the flow of the story. This is the only idea I could think of that would work, so, just let me know if you'd like me to message you the ones from this chapter.