Lily looked around the classroom. It was the same class, the same beguiling and enthralling people as she had spent the last six years with. The four front tables were occupied by the four boys Lily called the talent wasters- Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. All extremely gifted and magically able, except perhaps Peter Pettigrew who was rather stupid and clumsy. Sirius, James and Remus spent most of their time pulling pranks and harassing teachers and classmates. These were not their normal seats, but as this was their first Defence Against the Dark Arts Class, Lily suspected that they were planning to make it a memorable one for their new teacher. Behind Sirius was Lucy Carter, who was carving what looked like love hearts into the desk with a sharpened quill. Behind her sat Jake Samuals, staring at the back of Lucy's head. He noticed the hearts on the desk and smiled to himself. Lily didn't understand why Jake was so in love with Lucy, who was rather selfish and inconsiderate, although Lily did have a talent of seeing people for who they truly were. Conner and Simon were sitting behind James and Peter, chatting happily with their Quidditch captain. Behind Remus, Emily Saunders sat with her head on the desk. Lily wondered vaguely if she was asleep. Since the talent wasters had stolen their usual spot, Lily, Cathy and Judith were forced to sit in the last row.
Defence was the only class that all the Gryffindor seventh years had chosen, this meant they had been together, the same class in the same room for their whole time at Hogwarts. Coincidently, Defence was the only class that had had a change of teachers. In fact, the Defence position was frequently vacant and the teachers never lasted more then a year.
Professor Delonge walked into the classroom ten minutes late. "Sorry guys, I slept in, but it's not like you're expecting to do work on the first day anyway. Welcome to Monday period one, My name's Professor Delonge, but you can call me Mr D. Does anyone know this young ladies name?" The Professor's eyes rested on Emily.
"Emily Saunders." Lucy said in a savage tone. "Would you like me to wake her up?"
"God, no. Poor girl was probably up all night. Let her sleep. I was just going to draw your attention to her. This girl is smart. She obviously has the intelligence to know that she was not going to be doing anything so early in the morning when her teacher is tired and possibly hung over. Now, if anyone shows up to this lesson at all, then they are not expected to do any work and are welcome to do whatever the hell they want, as long as they conform to two simple rules. One- do not tell any other teachers that I am allowing these commonly dubbed "bludge lessons" and two- our Wednesday and Thursday classes take place in the afternoon, and I expect full participation in these classes. Is that cool with everyone?"
James and Sirius grinned at each other and Sirius slipped something into his pocket. "I think you're going to fit right on in here Mr D."