A/N: Last time I said that I didn't know for sure how to pronounce Munin and Hugin, but luckily my friend and languages expert Ricky read that and told me it's "Münin" and "Hügin". I've often heard that English speaking people can't pronounce the ü sound, but then why is it used for the first y in "mystery"? I think, if you give it a try or maybe think of it as "Mynin" you should be able to manage.

Chapter 45: Full DADA or Half DADA?

This time they weren't as late as they had been the day before and Draco got to see the wardrobe, or rather the crowd inside. It was impossible to see much of the room in the chaos of pushing and shoving kids. His cauldron proved to be an additional hindrance and he almost wished that he'd shrunk it after all.

He hesitated to leave his cloak unguarded, but really didn't want to drag it around in addition to the cauldron. A few guarding spells on it and the hook he hung it on should keep it reasonably safe, he decided.

After another trip to Cathy's locker they climbed up the stairs to the third floor where the DADA classrooms were right next to the Charms ones.

Draco saw Sammie in the group waiting outside Charms B and sent him an encouraging smile for which he got a nervous wave in return.

"You take full DADA, I suppose?" Charlie asked as they neared the classrooms.

"Full DADA?" Draco repeated. 'As opposed to what? Empty DADA? Half DADA?'

"Well, how many DADA lessons a week did you have at Hogwarts?" Cathy asked. "Two or three?"

"Three." Draco answered still a little confused. Every fifth year at Hogwarts had three. Why would some people have only two?

"That's full DADA." Cathy explained. "Squibs have only two, but have to add an additional elective in place of the third lesson. That means they have to either take Psychology or have one more lesson a week than the rest of us. Wizards and witches who take Psychology only have two DADA lessons as well."

"Does that mean that Charlie isn't in our class this lesson?" Draco asked once that had sunk in.

"I'm afraid so." Charlie confirmed. "I take Psychology, so I'm in DADA C."

"So we'll see you in Latin, then?" Draco suggested hopefully.

Charlie shook her head sadly. "I don't take Latin. It's an elective for squibs."

"We'll meet you at lunch, then and, if Dragon doesn't have Sports we have an hour to study together after that." Cathy stated.

The DADA doors were decorated with artfully drawn sketches of wizards fighting dark creatures. DADA D had the wizard standing over a defeated hinkipunk, while DADA B showed him just about to drive his stake into a vampire's heart and on the door of DADA A he was still sizing up the approaching werewolf wand ready in his hand, but not yet raised to fight.

Only DADA C was different. It showed a muggle picture of a man with a beard. Draco stopped to stare at it for a moment. No, it didn't move and there was no hint of anything dark either.

"That's Sigmund Freud." Charlie explained when she realised what had captured Draco's attention. "A famous muggle psychologist. The classroom is used for Psychology as well."

For a moment Draco felt temped to ask, if he could join the class for the lesson to find out what Psychology was like, but then he noticed that Charlie was carrying a DADA book, so she probably didn't even have Psychology today.

After a quick see you later to Charlie, he followed Cathy into DADA A. A first look around revealed surprisingly few familiar faces. Bubbles sent him a little smile from his place in the second row. Draco recognised his neighbour as Lisa's friend who'd gotten into trouble with the demons before Herbology, Curt, if he remembered correctly.

Two of the Demons were present as well, though surprisingly not sitting together. Amanda was sitting next to a girl who was busy painting her fingernails black and only looked up from time to time to scowl at everybody passing by her. Draco quickly noted the fact that everybody seemed to give that desk a wide berth. 'Better stay away from that one.'

The more agreeable Nico was sitting next to a lively blond boy Draco didn't know either, but at least he didn't look dangerous with his radiating smile.

"The Professor doesn't allow kids from the same gang to sit together." Cathy said suddenly. "She thinks that discourages talking in class. I usually sit with Cindy." she added with a slight nod at a tall brown haired girl.

"Dragon can sit with me." a small dark skinned boy with wild black curls suddenly said.

Draco didn't particularly like the idea of sitting in the first row, but the kid seemed nice enough and he didn't notice any tendency to avoid the front in this class. Maybe the teacher wasn't that bad.

"Thanks." he said as he sat down next to the boy.

"I'm Curly." the kid introduced himself. "At least that's what everybody calls me. My real name's almost impossible to pronounce."

'Impossible to pronounce?' Draco thought. That was strange. Why would anyone give their child a name one couldn't pronounce?

Curly grinned when he saw the confusion on Draco's face. "My mother's from Kenya. She insisted on naming me after my grandfather there."

"Oh, do you speak Kenyan then?" Draco asked fascinated. He remembered the strange sound of the language spoken by the wizards in the African market in the film they'd seen in Herbology.

Curly laughed. "Oh no. My Mum speaks some strange tribal language and Swahili, but since there's nobody else here that understands them, she wanted me to grow up speaking English. She says it's good to live in a country where everybody speaks the same language. In Africa every tribe has its own and you need a translator to talk to people from another tribe. Even people who live in the same city sometimes have different languages."

"So there's no actual Kenyan language?" Draco asked even more fascinated.

"Well, most people in Kenya speak at least a little Swahili." Curly answered. "But in the small country villages they sometimes still know only their own tribal language."

Draco wished he could have asked more, but at that moment the teacher entered and even though he didn't remember hearing the bell the whole class got up to greet her. It probably wouldn't have been polite to dig into Curly like that anyway. After all he'd only just met the boy.

The teacher was a tall witch with long blond hair that made her look almost like a veela. Somehow she had none of a veela's attractiveness however. She seemed distant and cold.

They stood until it was absolutely silent in the class.

"Bubbles, put that gum away!" the teacher ordered. She continued to say something more, but her voice was drowned out by the bell.

So she made them wait until Bubbes was standing properly again.

"Vio, what is that nail polish doing on your desk? Is it a new weapon against vampires I haven't heard of yet?" the teacher continued.

"I'm almost finished doing my nails." Amanda's neighbour answered with a glare.

"Not during my lesson, Vio." the teacher insisted sternly. "Put it away."

The girl sitting on his other side seemed somehow familiar to Draco. He thought she might have been in his Herbology class, but didn't remember her name.

"We're all waiting for you, Vio." the teacher was still staring down the rebellious girl. "Put it in your bag. Now. Or else ..." She didn't finish her threat, but it wasn't necessary either.

Vio grabbed her book bag, slammed it onto her desk with enough force that Draco felt the vibration through the floor, threw the nail polish inside and slammed it back onto the ground beside her desk.

"I just hope you have a very good anti breaking charm on that bottle." the teacher commented.

Another glance through the room.

"You may sit down ... Quietly!"

As they sat Draco saw the sleeves of the girl next to him slip up to reveal the purple wristbands underneath. Now he remembered her. It was Nora who'd made the comment about apparition lessons.

He didn't get time to think about the discovery, though as the teacher was walking right up to him now. What had he done wrong?

"So, you're the new kid." she commented after an intense look. "They tell me you're called Dragon."

"Yes, Professor." Draco confirmed. Maybe he hadn't done anything after all.

"And you went to Hogwarts until now?"

"Yes, Professor." Hadn't the headmaster already told her all that? What did she want from him?

"Who was your Defence teacher there?"

"This year Professor Fletcher." Draco answered beginning to understand. She was just trying to figure out his advance knowledge.

"Fletcher? The artist Fletcher?" she asked a little alarmed.

"Yes, Professor. He's surprisingly good at it, though. I think he was an auror during the Voldemort war." Draco defended his teacher. Fletcher was a little strange as was probably normal for artists, but he did know his stuff and had managed to capture his students' attention.

"This year, you say. And who before then?" the witch demanded.

"Well, Professor Quirrel in first year. He was so afraid of his own subject that he couldn't even talk normally. Then Professor Lockhart in second year. He was simply incompetent. Didn't even know how to hold his wand properly, but he gave us a lot of fashion tips that the girls really liked." Draco smirked when he saw the teacher raise an eyebrow. "Professor Lupin in third year was really good, but unfortunately a werewolf and in fourth year we thought we had Professor Moody, but he turned out to be a death eater who'd escaped from Azkaban instead. Lupin was the only one who ever made it through the entire year, so we actually had exams in third year."

"Have you learned about vampires yet?" the teacher demanded. "And I don't mean the quick overview you got in third year. I'm talking about more detailed lessons this year."

"We never got around to the vampires in third year." Draco admitted rather sheepishly. "Professor Lupin had to catch up with everything Professor Lockhart had left out and that means the entire second year curriculum. He managed to get us through that and about halfway through the third year curriculum, but the false Moody never picked it up from there. He lectured us about the unforgivables instead and Professor Fletcher has been teaching us about the other dark curses all year, probably trying to clean up after Moody, the way Professor Lupin did after Lockhart."

The teacher sighed. "That is a problem. I will ask my colleague, but I doubt even DADA D are that far behind. You don't know anything about vampires at all?"

"Only what I've read about them."

She sighed again. "I'll see what I can do. For now just listen and try to take notes of whatever you understand."

"Don't worry." Curly whispered. "She won't really put you with the squibs."

"Curly!"

"Sorry, Professor. I was just telling Dagon, that I'd help him, if he had any questions I could easily answer."

The stern teacher almost smiled. "As long as you don't miss anything over it."

"Of course. Professor."

Draco smiled. He liked Curly. If he'd gone to Hogwarts he'd almost certainly have been a Slytherin.

The class wasn't as hard to understand as the professor's words had led Draco to fear. He'd probably have been able to join in just fine, if they'd only just started on a new topic, but the fact that they'd been talking about vampires for two weeks already gave him slight problems. Still he thought he'd be able to handle the assigned homework, an essay about determining the age of vampires.

Getting a book about vampires from the library might also help with his other problems in this class, he decided, and he'd have time to read it over the weekend.

Curly stuck with Draco and Cathy on the way to Latin class and Draco soon noticed that Curt was trailing them, though he didn't seem sure whether he was welcome and stayed silent.

"What have you got against squibs?" Draco asked Curly as they walked. Of course a lot of people at Hogwarts didn't like squibs, but he wasn't used to it from the West Hogsmeade people and Curly was wearing gang colours, though Draco didn't know who had light green headbands, yet.

"Nothing." Curly hasted to say. "I just wouldn't like to be one. It must be odd not to have any magic. I'm never sure how to act around them, what might be insulting or when I'm supposed to help them."

It took Draco a minute to understand that Curly obviously didn't know any squibs that well and saw them as disabled. He'd gotten so used to being around Charlie and Matt, that it had become natural for him and he didn't even remember most of the time.

DADA A had finished a little early, so they were the first ones to arrive at the Latin classrooms. They were empty even though the bell had only just rung.

"There's no Latin class at nine today." Cathy explained when Draco mentioned it.

With only the eighteen students from DADA A around Draco had a free view of the Roman emperors whose faces had been drawn onto the doors of the classrooms. He was a little disappointed to see that Latin A had been decorated with Caligula instead of Caesar who had looked sternly at them when they'd passed Latin C.

Then again, it could have been worse. Latin B had been given Nero. Not that one madman was much better than another, but at least Caligula hadn't entertained himself by watching his own empire burn away.

There were only the four of them in the class for now and Draco had time to look at all the pictures on the walls. Obviously the Latin teacher disliked bare walls and had accordingly covered them with diagrams of declinations and conjugations as well as all sorts of pictures.

There were photos of ruins, pictures of emperors, sketches of generals and poets, drawings of buildings and a huge map of the world as the Romans had known it.

"Pst, there's Karen." Cathy's voice finally drew Draco away from the pictures.

Draco had been very curious to see the girl Charlie had mentioned the day before. Karen was a moderately pretty girl, dark haired with long eyelashes, but she didn't have Cathy's charm. Reminded of the people around him Draco looked around the class and noticed Curt now talking to Lisa and Keith with a girl wearing the orange scarf of the Lords of the market as well.

"Who's Keith's friend?" he asked Curly with a slight nod towards her.

"Hester." Curly told him. "A rather quiet type unless she runs into one of the Angels. She can get more violent than Vio herself then."

"Small wonder." Draco decided. "I've seen the Angels." Then he realised something else Curly had said. "Vio's short for violent?"

"Actually her name's Violet." Cathy explained. "But the difference is marginal and the nickname stands for both."

Draco tried to match the picture of the scowling girl with black nails with the name Violet, but it was just too odd. He noticed Bianca had sat down beside Curly, but she wasn't even looking at him at all. Karen was talking to a dark blond girl with her hair in a bun that reminded him of McGonagall and Clarence was sitting alone staring expectantly at the door.

There were eleven students all in all in the class when the bell finally rang. The teacher arrived about two minutes later wearing muggle clothes and with a black briefcase in his hand.

He looked like an elderly muggle on his way to the office, Draco thought remembering some pictures from Muggle Studies at Hogwarts.

He greeted the class with a smile and a happy "Good morning, kids."

"Morning, Professor Magnus." the class chorused and sat down unasked.

"I have brought you another letter by Cicero today." the teacher announced to slight groans from the class. "Yes, I have noticed you don't like the man. I'm not overly fond of him either, but unfortunately he was very productive in his writing. I promise to bring you something more fun next week. Maybe a few of Catullus' poems? How does that sound?"

The class agreed to that and Professor Mangus pulled what looked like see through paper out of his briefcase and put it on the overhead projector. He bent down to switch it on when suddenly the door burst open and one of the outsider girls hastened in.

"So sorry, Professor." she panted. "I overslept."

"That would be the ... what? ... third? time this month that you told me that, Elly." Professor Magnus said standing up again with a sigh. "And considering that that's only a little over two weeks and that I only have your class twice a week in the second lesson of the day I'm beginning to think I should take some sort of action. What classes do you keep missing?"

"Oh, only DADA on Thursdays and Sports on Tuesdays." Elly told him with a shrug. "Totally unimportant."

"Knowing how to defend yourself against dark creatures and curses is very important, Elly." Professor Magnus said patiently after turning around and leaning against the overhead projector.

"Duh, I'm a squib. I can't defend myself, so what?" Elly shrugged. "I'm here now and I have even finished my homework for Tuesday already. Do you want it now or then?"

"Elly," Professor Magnus started. "Elly," He broke off again, turned and switched on the overhead projector.

Draco stared at the white rectangle of light that appeared next to the blackboard in fascination. Little green splotches in it slowly swam into focus and turned out to be words.

"Start copying the text, class, while I have a little talk with Elly." Professor Magnus ordered.

While Draco got out his parchment, ink pot and quill Professor Magnus pulled his chair over to where Elly was sitting next to Clarence.

"Now Elly, what makes you think that a squib can't defend herself?" he asked her patiently. "You may not be able to cast counter spells, I admit, but DADA also teaches how to recognise dangers and avoid them and then there are so many ways to fight without using magic."

"I can't fight magic, if I have none of my own." Elly insisted.

"I wonder what Charlie thinks about that." Draco whispered to Cathy.

"Not much." Cathy answered with a hint of a shrug. "She doesn't think much of Elly herself either. Elly is a very bright girl, if you ask me, but she's always late and doesn't care about her grades at all. If you talk to her about it, all you get is the 'I'm a squib, so what do you expect' routine. Makes you wonder why girls like Svenja or Sally bother being friends with her at all."

Once they had all copied the text, the rest of the class went much like Draco was used to from Hogwarts. Professor Magnus started at one end of the class and each student had to translate one sentence. What was different from Hogwarts though was that Professor Magnus could point out particular words or structures on the projected text on the wall and that he used a big muggle pen to write the translation on the blackboard.

So that was why there wasn't any chalk and why the blackboard was white. The blue muggle pen would probably have been invisible against a black background.

When he came to Draco Professor Magnus was a little startled at first, but then he remembered that he had a new student and just asked Draco's name.

"Do you take Care for Magical Creatures?" Curly asked Draco on their way out.

"No, why?" Draco asked surprised.

"Because, then you've got Sports with us." Curly grinned.

"Not necessarily." Cathy pointed out. "He might just as well have it tomorrow during Arithmancy."

Curly shook his head. "Our class's the smallest of our year. Dragon must have been assigned to us. Anything else would be illogical."

"Well, I guess that means I don't get to see much of Charlie today at all then." Draco concluded resigned. "At least I'll finally find out what Sports is."

"You mean you don't have Sports at Hogwarts? It's the best subject of all. Meet me in the lunch hall after lunch and I'll show you the way to the gym." Curly promised.

"You'd better leave everything in the locker." Cathy advised him once they'd fought their way down and to her locker. "The changing rooms aren't locked."

"My cauldron won't fit in there with everything else." Draco told her once he'd stuffed his backpack inside.

"Then shrink it." Cathy shrugged.

"Can't. Uncle Severus says that'll ruin it and it's his cauldron."

Cathy thought that over for a moment. "All right. I'll take it with me to the library for you."

Getting to lunch was easier today since they were rather late and very few people were headed in the opposite direction now, but the line for the food was much longer as well. When they finally got their food Draco realised that there would be no time left to visit the library today. Either he had to find a book on vampires at home, or he'd have to get it tomorrow. He'd have a whole hour to study then.

Curly sat with a small group of only six kids somewhere in the back of the room. Draco should probably have guessed that he belonged to a small gang, if there were no squibs in it. He also noticed that when it got time to go Curly didn't come over to their table. He just walked to the door and waited there patiently until Draco got up and said his good byes to his friends.

Was that because he was afraid of the Rakers or was it part of normal gang etiquette? There was still so much Draco didn't know about these things. He knew how the gangs interacted at home in their own territory, but their behaviour at school where so many gangs were mixed together in every class was still mysterious. It was obviously okay to sit with members of another gang in the library, but not in the lunch hall and now Curly wouldn't approach the Rakers' table end.

He didn't mention his thoughts to Curly, though. It was probably better not to let the other gangs know how much he didn't know.

Curly led him to the end of the corridor where Cathy had her locker. There were two doors there at about the same height where the Herbology classrooms were at the other end of the school. One was marked with a little picture of a girl, the other with that of a boy.

Draco originally thought that they must be bathrooms, but when Curly opened the door with the boy, it revealed a line of hooks, many of them broken or torn half out, similar to the one in the wardrobe and Clarence who was just pulling a muggle t-shirt over his head.

Clarence blinked stupidly at them as they entered. "Who's there?"

"Just us." Curly told him.

"Who's us?" Clarence continued to blink.

"Your classmates, stupid!" Lenny hissed from right beside the door.

"Just put on your glasses, Clarence." Evil Eric advised him a little more kindly. "Then you'll see."

To his surprise Draco found nobody in this class that he didn't know. There was Clarence, who was now feeling around for his glasses, Eric who finally gave in and pushed them into his hands, Lenny and Nico talking in their hiding spot behind the door, Jim whom Draco remembered from Charms class, Noel from Transfigurations and the lively blond boy who'd sat with Nico in DADA.

Considering what Sarah had told him about Sports class eight was a really small number indeed, Draco thought. Or were there some girls in the other changing room? The very high laughter they heard through the thin wall didn't quite seem to fit in with that idea. It sounded more like a bunch of first or second years, than fifteen year olds.

Draco quickly slipped out of his robes and seeing what all the others were wearing quickly pulled on his jumper over the muggle t-shirt he'd been wearing under his robes all day.

"This is boring." the blond boy from DADA class said suddenly. "Lets go inside and warm up a little."

"The bell hasn't even rung, yet." Clarence pouted. "Lets wait for the teacher."

"Oh, come on Clarence!" Jim grabbed his arm. "You don't even have to do anything except walk into the gym. You can just sit down against the wall and watch us play."

The blond boy was just about to open the second door in the small room when the first one opened again and the Shark twins came in.

"Oh, and here I thought this class was going to be fun." escaped Draco at the sight.

Alex and Andy didn't look too happy either.

"What's wrong with them?" Lenny asked Draco with a slight frown.

"They're Sharks." Draco answered then added with a smirk. "They told the aurors on us, the little traitors."

The twins winced as all eyes turned to them.

"Hey, that wasn't us." one twin argued.

"Yes, it was Robin's bright idea." confirmed his brother.

"Yeah, and Mark decided to do it." added the first one.

"And it was Chris who went to the aurors." said the second.

"We had nothing really to do with that." both said together.

"Chris?" Draco repeated with a glare. "I should have known. I'm going to kill him."

"Won't Chris be happy to know about this." the first twin whispered to his brother.

The second twin gulped. "You aren't going to tell him that I told on him, are you?"

"And let you tell him that I told on the boss?"

By then the rest of the class had lost interest in the twins however and when the blond boy opened the door to the gym Draco followed the others inside.

The gym turned out to be a very empty looking room with a linoleum covered floor and wooden ladders of different sizes on the walls. There also were Soccer goals pushed against the walls and Basketball hoops, but Draco didn't know what those were used for. He had only a very vague idea what Basketball was, thanks to a description Sammie had given him once.

Clarence did indeed slump against the wall as soon as Jim had dragged him through the door, but the blond boy, climbed up a ladder backwards and announced: "Okay people, I know what we're going to do. We're going to play Tag!"

"Oh come on, Sparks." Lenny shouted up at him. "Tag's for children!"

"So what?" Sparks laughed back at him. "It's fun. Hey, Curly!" he shouted jumping off the ladder and hitting Curly on the back. "You're it! Catch me, if you can!"

Seeing that Curly did indeed take off after Sparks the rest of the class minus Clarence, who was still sitting on the floor by the door, and the twins, who were still changing, took off as well.

Draco had watched the little wannabes play Tag a few times and therefore had an idea what he was supposed to do. He just hoped there weren't any less obvious rules to the game.

By the time the twins finally arrived in the gym, everybody was laughing. Even Clarence seemed to have fun just watching.

"What's going on?" one of the twins asked Clarence.

"Tag." Clarence reported. "I think Noel's it right now."

Considering that Noel was currently chasing after a screaming Nico with his hand stretched out reaching for his victim, the twins didn't find it very hard to determine whether the information was correct and soon joined in.

Draco was surprised how much fun Tag turned out to be. It was such a simple primitive game, but still they all enjoyed themselves immensely.

It took a sharp whistle to alert them to the fact that the teacher had arrived.

Draco froze expecting to at the very least get detention, but his classmates just ran over to the teacher still laughing. It didn't seem like they were expecting punishment at all.

The teacher was a young wizard, or maybe squib, with short dark hair. He was wearing practical muggle clothes and a silver whistle on a chain around his neck.

"Ah, I see you're already warmed up." he commented with a smile. "Excellent." Then he turned to Draco. "You must be the new student, right?"

Draco nodded. "My name's Dragon."

"Ah yes, so I've heard." the teacher was still smiling. "You've been going to Hogwarts until now?"

"Yes, Professor." Another one. Well, at least he'd only ever had one Flying teacher so it wouldn't take that long to explain this time.

"They only have Flying lessons at Hogwarts, don't they?" the teacher continued.

"Yes, Professor." Where was this leading to?

"So what is your favourite Sport, Dragon?" the teacher said with a slight twinkle in his eyes.

"Soccer." Draco said without having to think about it. Quiddich was all very fine, but he'd had more success in Soccer.

"Ah, stupid question to ask a Raker, of course." the teacher's smile grew even wider. "So what position do you play?"

"Keeper." Draco declared proudly.

The teacher nodded. "All right then, lets play Soccer today."

Most of the students cheered. Only Clarence looked very unhappy. Poor kid, he really reminded Draco of Neville Longbottom. Was he as clumsy as poor Neville as well?

"Do you know all your classmates' names, Dragon?" the teacher asked.

Draco nodded. "I think so."

"Good, then you'll pick the first team and ..." he took a quick look at all the suddenly raised hands in the class. "Lenny, you pick the other. Who do you want on your team, Dragon?"

"Curly." Draco chose at once.

Lenny frowned a little, then shrugged it off. "Nico." he chose predictably.

Draco looked over the rest of the class. He'd never seen any of them play Soccer before. "Eric." he finally decided. At least he knew the boy was from Merlin Park and he had shown that he could run when they'd been playing Tag.

"Noel." picked Lenny.

Draco watched the rest of the boys closely. He definitely didn't want either Shark on his team. "Sparks." He didn't even know the kid, but he'd definitely bring a lot of energy into the team.

Lenny's deep frown told him that he'd chosen well this time.

"Andy." Lenny finally decided.

Had he been trying to make up his mind between the twins? If so he was probably expecting Draco to take Alex now.

With a smirk Draco decided to surprise him. "Clarence."

"What?" yelped Sparks while Eric groaned and Curly just stared at Draco in confusion.

Clarence stood absolutely still for a moment until the meaning of Draco's choice slowly sank in. Then his eyes widened, he gaped at Draco and then suddenly beamed. He'd obviously never been picked before.

Draco smiled at him.

"Alex." Lenny said hastily, even though it was the last pick anyway.

Now only Jim was left and he trudged over to Draco's team looking a bit disappointed.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Sparks demanded. "Clarence can't even shoot straight. Isn't it obvious that he's the worst player in class?"

"I picked a worst player once before." Draco told him calmly. "And she won me the game that day. Anyway, we'd have gotten the last player either way and I was almost sure Lenny would pick Alex. And if he had picked Clarence, his team would only have picked on him all the time. I've got a use for him."

"A use?" Curly repeated.

"Yes, I've got a plan, you see." Draco explained. "But you'll have to help me out a little, because I don't know you that well. Which two of you are the best attackers?"

"Attackers?" Sparks asked confused.

"The ones who score the most goals usually?" Draco tried to define.

"Curly and me." Sparks grinned. "Nico, Lenny and the twins are good, too, though."

"Okay," Draco was smirking again. Curly and Sparks, you stay in their half the entire game. Your only function is to score. I don't want to see you in our half after the game starts. Once the ball is over here stop and wait till you get it back. Eric and Jim, that's your job. You can move in both halves, but don't get too close to either goal. You're only meant to pass the ball to the attackers, not score."

Eric, who'd seen the game against the Lions nodded. "Like Charlie and Sammie."

"Exactly." Draco grinned. "You might not see it at once, but that's a vital part of our strategy. You Clarence, are our only defender. You stick close to our goal and try to get in the way whenever the other team attacks."

Clarence stared at him uncomprehending.

"That way you're helping me to stop them from scoring." Draco explained. "If you're standing in their way they can't shoot easily."

It seemed Clarence understood now. At least he was nodding eagerly.

"Hey, team one!" the teacher called out to them. "We could use a little help here."

Draco looked up. The teacher and Lenny's team were busy pulling the goals away from the wall. They'd already set up one of them, but it appeared that the other one refused to move as easily.

"Sorry, just a little strategy meeting!" he called over. "We're coming." "Strategy meeting?" the teacher repeated to himself. Then he remembered the way the other Rakers played Soccer these days. Little Larry hadn't changed his ways much, but Sammie and Matt had been trying to talk their classmates into using teamwork manoeuvres and Jack the Ripper was actually leading his team whenever he played. Clever Mike hadn't changed any more than Larry had. He'd always been a great team captain. What was then to be expected of this Dragon? This game could get interesting indeed, he decided.

Together they managed to move the goal easily enough. It was mounted on little wheels, it turned out, but one of those refused to turn and that was the cause of the problem. They had to drag that side of the goal along by force.

A/N: Will Draco's team win the game? Will he be okay without his gang mates in Potions? And will he have serious problems in DADA?

In the next chapter: The Soccer game, of course! Then we go on to his first Potions class and search Sevi's bookshelf for vampires.