"Mr. Roberts! This is not a first-year Charms class!" Professor Carter yelled at Ethan, who was brandishing a smooth, wand-like rod at his spinning quill. "Put your wand away or I will be forced to take points away from Gryffindor!"
Ethan smiled innocently at his teacher from the back of the room. He animated the quill a moment longer but then lowered his "wand" and willed the quill to stop moving.
For a moment Carter just glared at Ethan, his eyes nothing but slits. "I demand that you pay me the respect that you would give to any of your other teachers," the teacher insisted angrily. "I know more about the Dark Arts than any of you could ever imagine…"
Out of the corner of his eyes, Ethan saw Harry's face arrange into a doubtful expression. When Ethan saw Harry open his mouth to argue with the teacher, Ethan threw his arms back in a yawn, making sure to hit Hermione's large stack of books hard enough to send them sliding past the girl and into Harry's lap. One of the books nearly went flying into Harry's face, but Harry managed to catch the newly purchased copy of Hogwarts, a History at the last second.
Ethan brought his arms back to his sides, looking as if he had just made a horrible mistake. He bent down to pick up the textbooks, apologizing sincerely to Hermione. Putting his hand on the side of Harry's chair as if for leverage, Ethan left a folded piece of parchment for Harry to read. Once the class had returned to its normal state of calm, Harry opened the letter and read Ethan's explanation that Carter knew everything about the Dark Arts through the use of knowledge dust provided in the Citadel, the place where they are given identities for their missions. The note explained that they usually receive new bodies and new names with their doses of knowledge dust.
Harry scribbled a response onto the parchment and passed the note back to Ethan as soon as Carter's back was turned. Ethan opened the note and pretended to scribble on it as if taking notes. Harry had written, So are these your real bodies?
Ethan passed scribbled an affirmative answer and passed the parchment back to Ethan, hiding it inside of his textbook and giving it to Hermione to pass to Harry, who was sitting on her other side. Harry read the note and sent it back with another message: Why didn't you get different bodies for this mission? From what Hermione's told me and Ron about how you guys work—which is a lot, mind you—isn't it dangerous for you to go without aliases?
Ethan smiled slightly, wondering why Hermione hadn't asked that question already. Deciding that she must have already figured it out for herself, Ethan wrote back to Harry: It would be pointless to hide our identities from witches and wizards. A simple incantation would make our disguises disappear, and it would look very suspicious for us to have disguises in a time when Voldemort has just returned to full power. As for maintaining our true names, Isabel and I have read all of the Harry Potter books that have been published, and according to those books there is a truth potion called Veritaserum that makes the drinker tell the truth no matter what. So if we had been given new identities and then been made to drink this truth potion, we would immediately give ourselves away anyway, only it would look very suspicious for us to have been hiding our true names. Do you get it? Any more questions?
Ethan passed the parchment back to Harry, this time animating it to slide across the tabletop, stopping just in front of the Chosen One. Harry read the note and nodded slightly before dabbing his quill into his ink well and responding, sending the note back to Ethan behind Hermione's back. Ethan noticed that Hermione was beginning to look very agitated with the boys passing notes over, in front of, and behind her. After unfolding the parchment carefully in front of him, Ethan took Hermione's hand and gave her an apologetic smile.
Harry's reply read, So how long are you all planning on staying here?
Ethan scribbled back a response, We're staying until Lathenia makes her move; then we protect you and leave as soon as we're sure that all possible threats are gone. Whispering a promise of this note being the last one, Ethan gave Hermione the folded parchment for her to pass to Harry, and sat back to pay attention.
"… therefore it is not only important that you learn the magical means of protection," Ethan tuned in to hear Carter say, "It is just as important for you to learn the Muggle way of fighting. What if your wand is taken from you?" Carter's gaze seemed to linger on Harry for a moment. "What if your wand is broken?" Now Carter's eyes rested on Ron, who was sitting beside Rochelle on Ethan's other side. "What if you panic and can't remember an appropriate spell?" Finally, Carter looked at Hermione. It seemed as if Professor Carter had read the Harry Potter books as well, from the way he was talking. "This year we shall be practicing Muggle fighting as well as some advanced defensive spells. Some of the spells we shall be covering are Patronus Charms for protection against the Dark Lord's dementors, Shield Charms for protection against Death Eaters, and Stunning Spells for giants and other magical creatures of the like."
Ethan noticed a lot of Gryffindors and a few of the Ravenclaws in the class lean back in their chairs, looking smug. Smiling to himself, Ethan realized that these must be some of the remaining members of "Dumbledore's Army" from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It seemed that Isabel had realized this as well, because she had started bouncing up and down in her seat, looking excitedly at all of the relaxed people in the room. Even Hermione had stopped taking notes when Carter said what spells they would be taught this year. Ethan noticed Matt, who was directly in front of his sister, even looked enthusiastically at the people who were now falling asleep in class; Isabel must have lent him the books after she read them. I really need to train Matt some more, Ethan thought to himself. I'll ask Harry if we can borrow his invisibility cloak so we can sneak up to the Shrieking Shack to train one of these days…
Professor Carter looked pointedly at Ethan, who sighed inwardly but obediently closed his eyes to concentrate when Carter started flicking his fake wand. When Ethan opened his eyes again, he had created the illusion of a punching bag having appeared at Carter's command, swaying slowly from a chain hooked to the ceiling. Ethan had brought the real punching bag into the illusion, so that anyone who punched it would actually feel the gigantic mass. It was all a part of the plan; Ethan's part was to create illusions and animate objects for everyone when it came to casting spells, Isabel was here in case anything went wrong and someone needed to be healed immediately, Rochelle's presence was required for her truthseeing abilities, and Matt had come along for observation. Obviously they had needed someone of authority, in case some of the Hogwarts teachers started to doubt the new students; thus Carter had been sent along. Jimmy and Shaun had been sent to the two most popular shops in Hogsmeade so that they could be there to help if Lathenia decided to attack such a populated area. And Arkarian provided a quick escape that appeared normal to any given witch or wizard, especially if they needed to drag a younger student with them—like Ginny, who had been following Harry and Isabel since the sudden appearance of the three new Gryffindors. Ethan needed to get her alone so he could tell her what was going on, so she would stop risking the success of the mission so she could stalk her ex-boyfriend and his phony girlfriend.
Ethan laughed to himself, recalling all of the girls who were suddenly looking at Harry in a new light because of Isabel; their relationship was now considered the ideal relationship for any couple. Last night Lavender had pointed out that, for a couple so close that Isabel had actually changed schools to be with Harry, they never did more than hold hands. Isabel had laughed and, giving Harry an almost loving look, said dreamily, "I know, he's such a romantic… our relationship isn't at all physical, it's more of a sharing of emotions. I thought Harry would have a problem when I told him that was the kind of relationship I wanted to have, but he said that was the type that he wanted too." Isabel had sighed and rested her hand on Harry's, looking deeply into his eyes. Harry had played his part as well, covering Isabel's hand with his remaining one and grinning like an idiot. Ginny had run off angrily when Isabel added lightly, "It's like we're made for each other…"
Ethan looked to his right, noticing Ron and Rochelle's unease with each other. He nearly burst out laughing remembering what had happened when Parvati had asked what their relationship was like, since neither Ron never touched Rochelle and vice versa, and neither one ever seemed at all comfortable in the other's presence. When Parvati asked this, Rochelle and Ron had just looked at each other with helpless expressions on their faces. Then Rochelle had suddenly pounced on Ron, fixing her mouth on his in a very prolonged kiss. Ron had responded as any boy might, kissing Rochelle back eagerly. The kiss lasted for about two minutes before Rochelle pulled away, disgusted, and slapped Ron. "I told you never to think that about my body again!" she had yelled at Ron, who began apologizing confusedly while rubbing his cheek with an expression of pain on his face.
Everyone seemed to accept Ethan and Hermione's relationship as a general relationship; they held hands, looked into each other's eyes, found time to be alone together, always sat next to each other, and had even kissed once, although they had decided not to do it again when Ron had nearly compromised the whole mission by telling Ethan to go get a girl from his own time period. This had caused not only Ethan to blush, but also Rochelle. Many people had taken note of this occurrence, starting the circulation of many rumors that the group pretended to ignore.
"MR. ROBERTS!" Ethan tuned back in to the lesson when he heard Carter shouting his name and gesturing to the punching bag. "Will you please show the class what a Muggle fight is like?"
No one in the class seemed ecstatic about this idea, probably having all seen a "Muggle fight" many times in their lives. Nevertheless, Ethan stood and walked to the front of the classroom. As soon as he came within five feet of the punching bag, Carter heaved the heavy bag so that it swung up towards Ethan's face.
Immediately, Ethan swung around, bringing his right leg around in a clockwise direction until the foot collided solidly with the heavy leather punching bag. The bag swung around, coming up from the side. Ethan blocked the bag, bringing his left forearm up to protect his face, and then punched the bag hard with his right fist. The bag swung back, and then came forward again for another "attack." Ethan jumped into a flying front kick, using his left leg to propel himself into the air and then kicking out with his right foot. The blow should have caused the bag to swing back on its chain, but instead the bag simply disappeared.
The whole class stared at the spot where the bag had just been swinging, until Professor Carter finally broke the silence with an uncomfortable explanation: "Very good, Mr. Roberts. Five points to Gryffindor. Well now, you have just seen that this bag has been magicked, thanks to a friend of mine who used to work at Zonko's, to emulate human pain. When it has taken enough of a beating that a normal person would have been knocked out, the bag disappears." Ethan, although Carter had actually praised him for once, felt ashamed; he had lost his concentration, causing the illusion to fade. Ethan mentally kicked himself on his way back to his seat between Hermione and Rochelle.
For the rest of the class period Ethan concentrated on making illusions of punching bags appear and disappear for students to beat up or have beat on them. It was actually a very enlightening experience, seeing how out-of-shape a lot of witches and wizards were. But then again, all they had to do when they wanted something was cast a Summoning Charm and it would float right over. And many of them would be able to Apparate when they left school this year. But Ethan still enjoyed himself as he watched many of his new peers getting whacked with a punching bag, and imagining how they would manage if Lathenia decided to show up here and now.
When the bell rang for the class to end, Harry, Isabel, Ron, and Rochelle caught up with Ethan and Hermione. "I thought our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was a squib," Harry commented. "At least, that's what he told us yesterday, wasn't it?"
Hermione instantly had an answer, along with a scold: "Actually, some witches and wizards are considered squibs if they are able to perform only one type of magic," she explained. "Of course, you would know this if you actually read something other than Quidditch Through the Ages once in a while. Some wizards can only perform charms, and others are only able to brew potions. It all depends on the witch or wizard. Even Muggle 'psychics' are squibs who are only able to use divination."
Ethan looked at the girl pretending to be his girlfriend. "I could kiss you right now," he told her, looking at her admirably.
"It's true!" Hermione defended at the same time that Ron growled, "Please don't!" This caused everyone else to burst into laughter while Ron and Hermione went fairly red, looking anywhere but at each other.
Ethan looked up from laughing and noticed Ginny poking her head out from a corner farther down the corridor. Nudging Isabel and Rochelle to follow him, Ethan bid good-bye to Hermione, Harry, and Ron to go pursue Ginny; it was imperative that she understand what was going on, especially if she was going to continue to be such a nuisance.