The Giant Squid

Time was passing quickly and thankfully without incident. Harry was eternally grateful for this. He was no longer being plagued by visions of Voldemort's moods or activities and was enjoying not having to think about it. He also had a large amount of spare time on his hands because it was not being filled with an adventure or mounds of homework like the year before. Many of his teachers were not pushing so hard this year because they had no major exams. Harry, by the way, did exceptionally well on his OWLS earning 'E' in Charms, Transfiguration, and much to Snape's surprise, Potions. He even earned an 'O' in Defense Against the Dark Arts. He now was able to concentrate on the classes he needed to take in order to become an Auror, which he decided he was sure he wanted to do when he left Hogwarts. The only homework he ever seemed to have in any of his classes except Potions was practice of the day's lessons. Professor Fear never even asked them to do that. Snape on the other hand was handing out new essay's daily and had also promised to poison Harry three more times before Halloween instead of giving him a detention one time for speaking out in class. He had been very bitter ever since Fear decided it would be funny to "tar and feather"(the tar was actually caramel) him a couple of weeks back when he was leaving his office. He was still finding feathers in very strange places. Harry should have also been busy practicing for Quidditch but Angelina was in her Seventh year and was too busy to have more than one practice a week. Harry, Ron and Hermione headed for DADA one unusually warm October afternoon. They walked into class to be greeted by a strangely dressed Professor Fear. She was wearing gray jogging shorts, a white T-shirt, a blue hooded sweatshirt, and running shoes. "Today," she started when everybody had seated themselves," we are going to learn something new. It is a beautiful day and it would be a shame to waste it inside. I want you all to go change into some more appropriate workout clothes and meet me in fifteen minutes on the Quidditch pitch." The class just sat there and looked at her. "What are you waiting for? Go!" They all got up quickly and started off towards their dorm. "I don't even have 'workout' clothes. What am I supposed to wear?" Ron complained on the way up to their room. "Why don't you wear some pajamas?" Hermione suggested. "Not in public Hermione!" Ron looked offended. "Sorry" "Don't worry Ron I have some clothes you can wear if you want," Neville offered. "Thanks Neville that would be great" "I wonder what we're going to be doing outside," Harry thought out loud. "You got me." They changed and then hurried back down and out to the Quidditch pitch. Professor Fear was waiting for them there. "We are going to learn basic self defense," she told the class after they had all seated themselves into the grass. She looked around at the questioning looks on their faces and told them, " there may be situations in your futures where you must defend yourselves but magic will not be appropriate. You must be able to defend yourselves in these situations." Many of the students looked at her like she was from Mars. 'Why would we spend so much time on magical defenses if we can not use them?' Hermione thought to herself.
"Excellent question Hermione" Fear blurted out. "She wants to know why we have learned so many magical defenses if we can't use them," she explained to the rest of the class. "Did I say that out loud?" she asked Harry. "I didn't hear you." "Me neither" agreed Ron. "Well the answer is this," Professor Fear continued. "What would happen if you were walking down a crowded Muggle street, say in New York, it's a busy place, and get mugged. Are you going to pull out your wand and zap him in the middle of that street? You could but then the Ministry would be calling for your head. And you're not going to let him get away with your belongings. So what do you do? To put it quite simply, you kick his ass." "What about wandless magic?" asked a Ravenclaw girl named Charlotte. "You do not know enough now to defend yourself fairly and it is also detectable by the Ministry. You can still get into large amounts of trouble using it in front of muggles." "Oh" "Now I would like to introduce you to my lovely assistant ---- Severus Snape. He has agreed to be our scary mugger today." The class broke out in wild laughter as a very unhappy looking Snape stalked up wearing a black T- shirt and black shorts, which showed off his very skinny, very pale legs. Their laughter ended abruptly when he turned and glared at them. "Hello chicken legs," Fear joked. "Shut the hell up!" he hissed at her in reply. "I don't think our mugger is in a very good mood today class," they started to laugh again but quickly stopped because of the look on his face. You could tell that he was not participating in this demonstration through his own free will. "Okay then let's begin. I want you all to break into pairs. Professor Snape and I will show you what to do then you try. Okay Snape you ready?" "No," he answered simply. "Attack me!" "No!" "Scared, eh? How about this. If you don't attack me I'm gonna tell all these students what the marauders did to you in your fifth year. I'm sure they'd get a kick out of that story." Snape turned a deep red at this statement. Harry was the only one in that class that knew what Fear was talking about. He had seen it in a Pensive containing Snape's memory the year before. His father and Sirius had hung Snape upside down outside one day showing many people his underwear and embarrassing him deeply. Snape did not want the rest of the class knowing about his incident and lunged at Fear, grabbing her around the neck from behind and trying to pull her to the ground. Professor Fear swung down her elbow and got him hard in the groin. He fell to the ground with a high pitched screech and lay there cradling his private areas. The class looked from Fear to Snape and back to Fear again with looks of amazement on their faces. "That is how you defend against an attacker that comes at you from behind. It is always good to remember that the elbow is the hardest part of the body. With it you can cause the most damage with the least amount of force, as you can very well see," she informed them smiling and gesturing at the wounded Snape. "When Professor Snape is ready we will show you how to defend against a frontal assault." As she was talking Snape slowly got to his feet. He was going to kill her now and they all knew it. "Feeling better?" she asked her, her eyes twinkling. She was completely ignoring the death glare he was giving her. He made a noise that was a cross between a growl and a scream and lunged at her again this time from the front. She thrust her hand up hitting him square in the nose with the heel of her hand. It broke with a loud snap and blood spurted in all directions. "Opps, sorry Severus. I really didn't mean to do that," Professor Fear apologized, although not sounding very convincing. "Come here" she gestured to him. "I don't bloody think so!" he replied backing away as she reached for him. The class watched the scene with mixtures of amusement and horror on their faces. They really didn't know what they were supposed to be doing so they made themselves comfortable in the grass and continued to watch. 'I wish I had some popcorn' Harry thought. He was definitely enjoying himself. "Come here!" Fear yelled at Snape again, sounding a little frustrated. She reached for him again this time succeeding in catching him before he could get away from her. With amazing strength she pulled him over to her and placed her hand on his nose. He struggled to get away but she held on tight. She closed her eyes in concentration. The class watched as a bright blue light came from under her hand. Assorted whispers came from the class. Snape stopped struggling and looked up into her face, which was now contorted in pain. The blood that covered his face evaporated. Professor Fear removed her hand and stumbled to the ground holding her own nose. Snape nose was completely healed. He held out his hand to Fear to help her up. She grasped it and got to her feet. "Thank-you," Snape told her, a look of pity on his face. Blood was seeping between her fingers, which were still covering her nose. "Don't mention it. Class is dismissed early. Take this opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather," she told the class her voice sounding strange due to the condition of her nose. The class scattered to various areas of the yard. Professor Fear watched as they spread off and started to play different games. She became occupied being played by some of the boys. She smiled as one of them scored a touchdown and did a dance, then she winced as pain flooded from her newly broken nose. "No it's okay. It'll heal itself in a couple of seconds. See there it goes," true to her word her nose straightened itself out and the blood on her face evaporated. "Thanks for the concern," she said with a wink. Just then they heard an ear-splitting scream. They ran towards the scream and found Hermione who was making her way towards them. "What happened?" Snape asked her. "The - the giant squid... it - it," Hermione was frantic pointing towards the lake. "Slow down, child," said Fear trying to calm her down. Hermione took a deep breath and continued, " the squid it attacked us. It grabbed Ron and Harry and pulled them under water. Hurry you've got to help them!" At this both teachers sprinted towards the lake. Many students had already crowded the shore. "Move out of the way!" Snape yelled at them. When the students had all moved out of the way Fear dived into the lake without hesitating. "Go get help!" Snape yelled at the surrounding students. Many of them rushed off to find someone. After what seemed like an eternity to the observers Professor Fear emerged from the water holding Ron and Harry. Snape, Dean, and Seamus helped her lift the boys onto the shore then went to help her out of the water too. She was not half way out of the lake when a tentacle shot up and wrapped itself around Fear's neck and cheat pulling her back under the water. The water seethed violently for several minutes. The students and Professor Snape watched in horror as the water calmed and turned crimson.

A/N: Eek! What a way to end a chapter! The next one will be up in a couple of days. Thanx for the kind words CapriceAnn Hedican-Kocur. I hope you continue to enjoy my fic. Tell all your friends!! I need Reviews!!! *sniff *.