Anteros smiled broadly as he set his books down onto his desk. "My name is Nathan Clarke, and I'm the newest professor to be appointed to this allegedly precarious position." He surveyed his class with confidence, hands on his hips. In his late twenties, he had shaggy black hair, sharply defined features, and a mischievous glint to his grey-green eyes. He was strikingly handsome, and well aware of the fact, though he wasn't arrogant about the knowledge. Unlike some people he knew…

He came around the front of his desk and sat on the corner, thinking quietly to himself for a moment. "The Dark Arts is a very practical subject, so much of my material will be hands on. You will all need to be prepared for what you may face in the coming years. So, today I will assign partners, and we will practice dueling and defense in pairs."

Mallory and Aiden glanced at each other and shrugged in shared confusion. Hermione, Ron, and Harry exchanged pleased and surprised looks, hoping that their teacher would be as brilliant as he promised. Even Draco was a bit excited at the prospect. Everything was looking up, until Professor Clarke got a ways down the list of partners.

"Granger and Malfoy. Brown and Parkinson. Weasley and Crabbe. Blaise and Potter…"

Gasps of astonishment and outrage immediately filled the air, dirty looks flying across the clearly segregated room. Aiden tried his best not to grin outright. Anteros was planning on helping him, it seemed. Good. He could use the assistance, and a staff member that was in on the game was the perfect thing.

"Kensington and Brant."

"Excuse me?" Aiden snapped, eyes locking on the softly smiling face of Professor Clarke.

"Pair up," he instructed calmly.

"Bloody hell," Crabbe muttered, glancing over at Ron with his lip curling in disgust.

Ironically, Ron had just mumbled the same thing.

Hermione's hand was immediately in the air. "Professor Clarke?"

"Yes, Miss Granger?" he asked, with a look on his face that suggested he already knew precisely what she was going to say. It didn't really take rocket science to figure it out.

"Students from opposing houses usually face each other in dueling exercises," she informed him, trying to keep her face from showing her distaste at the particular Slytherin she had been assigned with. 'And Malfoy and I are not exactly on the best of terms."

"I am well aware of both the interhouse rivalry, as well as you and Malfoy's personal distaste for one another," Clarke stated with perfect equanimity. "I also want you all to realize that one day you may be required to fight alongside someone who is not your best friend, or even someone you remotely like. But it will be vital that you work together, that you learn to put aside prejudice because the life of the person beside you, and indeed your own life, rest in the balance. Each one of you has been paired accordingly.

Now, if some of you think that you're above this, and that you will not or can not defend your partner, I have this to say: this is a graded exercise. This is not optional, you are required to do this. If you are willing to sacrifice yourself in order to take your partner down with you, know that he or she will be graded based solely on their singular effort, not on your success as a pair."

Nearly every student in the room groaned at that news. Nathan Clarke merely smiled benevolently down at them. "Shall we?" He gestured them all to rise. "Come on, up, up, up. Don't have all day to waste grumbling and mumbling about the cruelties of life."

Draco stood sharply, folding his arms across his chest. At this point in such circumstances, he was accustomed to simply whipping out his father's name and waving it threateningly around in the air. That wasn't particularly an option anymore, and there was little he could do about the matter. He needed this class for his N.E.W.T.s, and it was his best subject (naturally).

His breaths were clipped as he glared at the supposed authority of the class, struggling against his pride on both ends of the argument. He didn't want to back out of an assignment, vehemently didn't want his grade to take a hit, and especially didn't want Granger to score better then him in her one less then exemplary subject. But to work with that mudblood, to shield and defend her… he fought back the urge to snarl.

"Is there a problem, Malfoy?" Clarke asked, raising one brow in silent challenge.

"No," Draco ground out, stomping forward to join an equally sulking Hermione.

Aiden offered Mallory a clearly fake smile as he stood beside her up front, but she only sighed with a noble air of longsuffering and found better things to observe besides his face.

Crabbe and Goyle, seeing their leader subjecting himself to this ordeal, elected to begrudgingly join in.

"I've gotten permission to use the spare classroom for the task, so it's been cleared out for our use. I didn't want anything to get damaged in here in the process." Professor Clarke moved down the aisle dividing the classroom toward the door, his smartly tailored robed billowing out behind him. "If you would all follow me."

Mumblings and whispers of mutiny ran through the ranks as they filed out, slipping back into their natural groups briefly. The room had been completely cleared out, the windows flung open to admit what sunlight was to be had in the soggy weather they were presently coping with.

Professor Clarke directed them to different positions across the room, and they obeyed slowly, as if declaring their unwillingness in any way they could. Eros glanced across the room at Draco and smile. At least he would be consoled by the chance to stupefy his endearing bunkmate. He flicked his wand out and stood laxly at attention.

"We'll discuss positions first," Clarke was saying as he paced the length of the room in front of them, his shoes tacking out a brisk sound along the stone floors. "You must learn to accommodate the manner in which another person fights, to watch out for things they may miss. Yes, Mister Potter?"

"Will we be doing any personal dueling during class?" Harry asked, shooting Zabini a less then pleased look. It was quite apparent that he was less then thrilled at the aspect of being stuck confining his practical use of magic in defense to someone who would much rather be across from him on the dueling floor.

"Good question. Of course you will," Professor Clarke assured him, pausing and flipping the thin black chunks of hair that were currently obstructing his vision out of the way with a toss of his head. His eyes blazed with a keen interest as he spoke. "But I think teamwork is very important, and the division of this school is something that has been called to the attention of every professor here. There is a very real danger, here within these walls and not just out there in the world, and I will not allow your petty differences and rivalry over Quidditch endanger you or your fellow students. Understood?" he stared intently around the room, and nodded officiously.

"Alright, wands out and at the ready. Now, your beginning stance should…"

To say the rest of the class was a disaster was an understatement. Points were deducted from both houses present as complications between partners arose, and no student left the room without at least one bruise. Even Anteros' patience was being pressed a little thin as Goyle slammed into Ron for the umpteenth time trying to step in unison with the lankier red-head's offensive shot. Whether it was on purpose or sheer ineptitude was anybody's guess.

Draco was more then a little fed up with the entire exercise. It wouldn't have been such a bad idea if he and Blaise had been paired up to hex and curse the little gung-ho Gryffindors to kingdom come. But being forced to work with that little punctilious terror Granger? Insufferable. He growled under his breath as he collected up his bag and slung it round his shoulders.

As was her fashion, she wanted to do everything exactly and precisely as demonstrated and laid out. There was no room in her book for "winging it". They clashed again and again, but each hated the thought of accommodating the other. When she moved, she was exacting, but she tended to move slower. He wanted to get the forms over with so they could start flinging spells across the room at the other students.

Instead he had been stuck in an awkward, slow motion sort of dance with the person in the world numbered among his top five least favorites. Close proximity with a mudblood. The thought made him shudder even now. And it was required for his grade! He decided his was grievously to be pitied.

Professor Clarke clapped his hands together to get the attention of his disheveled and battered class, who had taken to whispering angrily amongst themselves about the grave injustices they had been subjected to. "Well, that was pretty much horrible."

Murmurs and groans of assent went up across the room.

"But that's perfectly alright," he continued with an enthusiastic smile. "Because we have all year."

If looks could kill, the glares being directed his way would have put Anteros' immortality to the test.

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Sorry that took so long. Things went kind of crazy with spring break and everything. Yeeeeah. Anyways, it has been brought to my attention that this story focuses way too much on Eros and I think I'm beginning to agree. I will attempt to work on it, but Draco is not much of an encouragement and Eros likes the spotlight. A lot. However, I will put some future chapters kinda more on Hermione and Draco's side.

I was going to make this chapter longer to make up for my absence, but 3 pages seems to be my wall when it comes to these things. Once again, working on it.

I'm sorry for dragging another god into it, for those of your that are touchy about OC, but I needed a professor for DADA and I love Anteros. I'll talk more about him and his relation to Eros... hopefully in the next chapter.

Thanks for all the feedback, it's been wonderful both as encouragement, and to help me realize what goes wrong.