Several things kept me from finishing this chapter when I really would have preferred to. Of which included, but were not limited to the following: a swim meet, for which we left at 5:30 AM, a brand new and highly addictive GBA game that was waiting for me when I got home, auditions at the local playhouse for my all-time favorite musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, and spraining my ankle during the dance part of said audition, putting me in a brace for at least a week, if not more. Ouch.

Disclaimer: I don't Harry Potter or the characters of Digimon Frontier. I'm just weird.

Chapter 14: And Classes, Take Two

The weekend seamed to go flying past. Before Harry quite grasped what was going on, he found himself sitting with Ron on Sunday afternoon, trying to get their essay for Transfiguration (one and a half feet on changing fish into amphibians) done early.

However, there were many distractions in the common room that day…the least of being the three transfers, who were sitting together on two armchairs and whispering in hushed voices. Occasionally, Harry caught bits of their conversation:

"…Takuya, you really think you'll try out for Quidditch?"

"Well sure, can't let Izumi have all the fun…"

"Just don't slide off the end…"

"That was my first time!"

Harry shook his head, blocking out their noise and tried to concentrate on his essay. But try as he might he couldn't ignore the talking, or the sunshine pouring in through the window, or the annoying itching of his scar against his skin…

"Harry?" Hermione's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Harry, are you all right?"

He shook his head. "I'm fine…Just a bit tired, that's all."

Hermione glanced over at the transfers, still deep in what was now a very serious conversation, then dropped her voice down. "You were rubbing your scar, Harry."

Harry snapped his hand down, fighting down the subconscious urge. "It's nothing." he insisted. "It's been itching since summer ended, that's all…"

For a moment he had the feeling that there was something his was supposed to tell them, something important…but nothing came to mind.

He blew back his bangs with a short puff of air, and went back to the foot-long piece of parchment.

. . . . . .

Monday's schedule called for History of Magic, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. The first class went as usual, in the monotonous blur of droning, snoring, and Hermione's note-taking.

In Charms, the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw group began work on a simple spell to clean up small but hard to get out messes, such as spilled ink on white cloth, grape juice on light colored carpet, or a miss-fired Bat Bogie hex that splattered against the wall. Prof. Flitwick, trying to help the transfers, explained that it was essentially the same as Soji Suru. However, they didn't do any better than the rest of the class (save Hermione), which baffled the little professor to no end.

"You mean you haven't learned it yet?" he asked in his high-pitched little voice. "But I was most certain…Mr. Kimura was in my class yesterday, and he had it on his first try."

"Yeah, well, Kouichi always was better at Charms than the rest of us." Takuya shrugged, and went back to prodding the grape juice stain in his square of carpet.

After a nice, semi-quiet lunch was Defense. As Ron predicted, the class would be quite interesting, starting right at the beginning when Kouji crossed the unwritten 'barrier' between Slytherin and Gryffindor to sit next to his brother. There was a slight rustling of annoyed whispers from the Gryffindors, and many of the Slytherins glared at him accusingly.

"What's with them?" Kouji muttered under his breath, matching Malfoy and Nott glare for glare.

Kouichi looked more than a little uneasy, but mumbled that he had no idea what was going on, not that Kouji believed him. But at that moment the teacher walked in, so the conversation was quickly dropped.

Today, Tonk's hair was waist-length and a striking shade of chartreuse, while her eyes were a normal blue. She gave the class a wide grin, dropping a stack of books on her desk with a crash.

"G'morning, class." she said brightly. "Welcome to yet another Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I suppose you folks must be pretty tired of getting a new teacher every year, eh?"

Most of the class mumbled their annoyed consent. Tonks chuckled. "O' course, I'm afraid you'll be one group to have a different teacher every year you're here. I'm an Auror by trade…don't give me those looks, we're not all like old Mad-Eye…And I'm only here as a favor to my old headmaster. One year for him to find another teach, and then I'm outta here."

"But just 'cause I'm only a temp doesn't mean you aren't going to learn anything useful." she gave a lop-sided grin, showing off quite a few sparkling white teeth. "Allow me a moment of lecture, and I'll explain exactly what we'll be doing this year…"

She waved her wand at a piece of chalk sitting on the edge of the board, which jumped up and began writing in her own wide, excited handwriting. Unlike Umbridge's neat and orderly instructions the year before, these moved slightly up the edge of the board and were so big that the bottom ones had to be scrunched together. The end result read:

DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS

Year 6

Semester 1

Strengths and Weaknesses -

- Personal specialties and magical element

- Using your advantage in a duel

- Magic Relations: You vs. Your Opponent

Common Black Magic Creatures -

- Dementors, Lethifolds and other Demons of the Night

- Judging for yourself if a creature can be trusted

Semester 2

- Finish up any Black Magic Creatures that were not covered previously

Advanced Spells Against Dark Wizards -

- Active Defense (shields, physical enhancements, etc.)

- Creating Scrolls and Protection Charms

- Honing Your Reactions

Once it was finished, the chalk slammed into the dustbin with a noisy clatter, sending a puff of white dust into the air. Tonks spun on her heel, sending her now-long hair whipping around and blowing a few pieces of parchment to the floor.

"Now now, Hermione, please put that hand down a moment." she instructed, motioning to the girl, who sheepishly obeyed. "And the rest of you…stop looking at me like I'm completely crazy and give me a chance to explain each part.

"Firstly, your strengths and weaknesses…A concept I'm sure our Transfers are rather familiar with, it's very oriental. We'll get into the details in a moment. The initial particulars should last for, oh, about two months…through October at least. But it's an idea we will be working with throughout the entire year.

"More on that later. Now, around November we will start a small course on creatures that commonly appear around and amongst Dark Wizards, as well as those that are not evil by nature, but may have tendencies to assist aforementioned wizards. And yes, we will be covering Dementors. You are sixth years now, you need to get used to some N.E.W.T.S.-level creatures. You should all know how to defend yourselves against the worst possible enemies.

"Alrighty then, back on topic. Semester 2: Spells Against Dark Wizards. Defense against Dark-Magic conjuring such as the Serpensortia. Fighting against some of the worse curses in the bunch. Establishing a shield to protect yourself against an opponent's assaults…We'll get to all of that in the next semester.

"Now then…are their any questions?"

Hermione's hand shot into the air. "How on earth are we going to study Dementors and Lethifolds? There's no way you can bring a Dementor into the castle!"

Tonks gave a wide, mysterious smile. "You just let me worry about that. Next?"

Takuya, sitting next to Dean and Ron, looked about to raise his hand when Kouichi caught his eye. The Slytherin transfer made a motion with his hand, slicing across his neck and shaking his head in a "Please don't ask" gesture. The brunet blinked curiously, but moved his hands under the table.

Neville lifted his hand a bit nervously. "What do you mean, the worse curses?"

"Everything less than the Unforgivables." Tonks piped brightly. Neville relaxed a bit. "I already said that I'm not Mad-Eye. I'm not casting any crazy jinxes on your likes for the helluvit. Anything else?"

No one moved. Tonk's grin widened. "Okay! Moving on to our first subject."

She spun around, snapping her wand out in the direction of the blackboard. With a sudden noise like a tiny explosion, the chalk flew off the board in a huge cloud and engulfed the young teacher. After a moment, it cleared, leaving a coughing, white-powdered Tonks in front of them.

"Well…that didn't go as planned." she laughed sheepishly, then shook off the dust and waved for the chalk one more time. "Now then: Your advantage is often based on your Magical Element…or in the eastern countries where the concept originated, Maho-Kiso. Can anybody tell me what this means? Ah, transfers, please, keep your hands down…I know you know. Can anyone else answer?"

Harry didn't have any idea, and when he glanced over at Hermione he was surprised to find out she didn't know either. She look rather worried about it, too, her forehead seaming to wrinkle to match the frown on her lips.

Tonks waited a moment for volunteers, then sighed. "I'm not surprised. It's not a concept generally thought of when teaching Western Magic." she looked back up, never breaking her grin. "Alrighty then, let's try again. Can any of our transfers tell me what the Maho-Kiso is?"

Takuya and Kouji both raised their hands instantly, while Kouichi had the look of someone who knows the answer, but doesn't feel confident enough to admit it.

"Oookay…" Tonks checked a piece of parchment, the looked back up. "You there, Mr…?"

"Kanbara." Takuya took it she meant him, since Kouji and Kouichi were in the other direction.

"Mr. Kanbara. Please answer."

Takuya coughed once, clearing his throat, then started in. "Well…Maho-Kiso your magical element, the kind of spells you're best suited to casting. You can tell what someone's Kiso is by their personality, most of the time…"

Tonks nodded. "Nicely put. Five points to Gryffindor for that one." she waved her wand at the chalk and it flew back to the board, writing out what looked to be a diagram of sorts.

First it wrote out five words…Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood, with accompanying eastern (kanji) symbols…across the blackboard and connected them to make a circle. Then, inside the circle, lines were drawn across to connected the words a different way: Fire to Metal, Metal to Wood, Wood to Earth, Earth to Water, and Water to Fire, so that it made a star.

The chalk clattered to a stop and Tonks turned back to the class. "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

"It looks like Fung Shui." Hermione muttered to herself.

"Correct. Five more points." Tonks winked. "Fung Shui is, after all, the basis of all Eastern magic, including Maho Kiso. Every wizard in the world can be categorized into each of these five elements, depending on what kind of spells they find the easiest to cast. This diagram shows the relationship of each element to the others…The ones connected in the circle support each other. Within the star, the first element controls the second.

"This is a key point in Maho-Kiso. As each wizard in the world has their own elements, then there are other wizards who will either support or hinder their attempts. One powered by fire will almost always be at a disadvantage against those with water cores, but will have one leg up on the Metal elements."

Harry was a bit surprised. He'd never seen Tonks half this serious, it was really rather impressive.

"Now, the relationship between the elements and wizards under their power." She turned her eyes to the class coolly. "You might want to take notes. This is important."

There was a moment of pause as people scrambled for parchment and quills, then started again as the chalk wrote behind her in the remaining third of the black board.

"First off: Fire, or Hi in the original language. Fire comes from Wood and controls Metal. It is the feistiest of the Maho-Kiso, lending itself mostly to attack spells, and those that create warmth or light by means of energy. Also, people who have this type of element, at least the ones who focus on attack spells, have a knack for getting in a lot of trouble. Those that create light or energy tend to be calmer, but when angered, their temper is just as bad."

Ron slid his parchment over so Harry could see it. Across the top he'd written, Ten Sickles says we're both fire.

"Secondly…" Tonks continued, pulling them back into concentration. "Earth, or Jimen. It comes from Fire and controls Water. The most sensible of the five, it holds the most strength in protection and defense spells. Earth wizards can just as easily be trouble-makers, like their Fire supporters, but they tend to hang back and defend their attacking friends.

"Number Three: Metal, or Metaru. Coming from Earth and controlling wood, Metal is linked with intelligence and skill at specific spells. Metal wizards tend to be very clever, although not all of them want to show it, and are most comfortable someplace with a lot of books. You'd be hard-pressed to find one not carrying some kind of reading with them."

"Hermione if I ever heard it." Harry laughed to himself. Takuya had been right about pointing people out though their personalities.

"Element Four: Mizu, Water, which comes from Metal and controls Fire. It's a gentler magic, mostly associated with healing spells and recovery potions. As such, most healers are of the Water element, such as our own dear Madam Pomfrey. That's not to say that its users are oh-so-gentle, though…

"And finally, element number five: Wood, or Ki. Comes from Water and controls Earth. This is the magic for those that are Jacks-of-all-trades, skilled at many different kinds of magic and their uses, but doesn't have one prominent one. These are probably the easiest people to get along with, they like to make everyone happy."

She glanced up at the clock and raised her eyebrows suddenly. "That late already?!" she exclaimed, spinning back around. "I'm sorry, I've kept you all a bit late. Homework is a foot-and-a-half long list of your favorites, spells, food, color whatever, and another foot-and-a-half of your least favorites. Class is dismissed, see you next week!"

And she was the first one out the door towards the Great Hall.

TBC…

Heh. Hope the explanation on Maho-Kiso was thorough enough. All of the details (including Yin and Yang) should be introduced in chapters to come, so just wait! And a cookie for anyone who can guess the Digi-People's Kisos!

"…Like Soji Suru" - See Chapter 1