A/N – Sorry for not posting yesterday, but my Mam was taken into hospital over the weekend, and even though she is now home and slowly getting better, I've obviously had other things on my mind rather than posting stories as I've been looking after her. Hopefully I should be able to keep to the posting schedule now things are improving, but I can't guarantee it, so any days I do miss an update, I will post extra as soon as I am able. I am also hoping to soon be able to reveal how many chapters the story will finally have as I'm right near the end and only need a chapter or two to wrap everything up.
The lesson everyone was interested in upon their return to school was the newly branded Dark Arts. Even those students who were wary of having someone like Bellatrix teaching them were eager to see how she would go about being a Professor. Would she just launch into teaching the students of Hogwarts every dark spell she knew, or would she build up to sharing her dark abilities with the students she was tasked with teaching?
As it turned out she spent the first few weeks of her time at Hogwarts getting to know each year group and working out what they'd learnt before her arrival. A few times she'd appeared rather impressed with their knowledge, but more than once it was clear that she was unimpressed by what they'd been taught before her arrival. However, everyone was eager to move past the information gathering stage, and everyone was waiting for her to start her actual teaching.
For the sixth years the transition from information gathering to the new style Dark Arts lessons happened the third week back at school, when they arrived at their usual Dark Arts lesson to find the classroom had been totally transformed. All the desks and chairs were gone, and the floor space was covered in thick mats. Bellatrix was standing in the middle of the room, and ushering the students inside she made them line up against one of the walls.
"By now, I think I have a good grasp of what magic I expect you to be able to perform based on what you've learnt in previous lessons," Bellatrix began. "But there's nothing like seeing you in action, so today we're going to do battle. Two at a time you're going to take to the floor and show me what you're made of. Mr Nott and Mr Zabini, you two can go first."
As Bellatrix backed off to stand at the back of the classroom, Blaise and Theo stepped forward and took their places in the centre of the classroom.
"Begin when you're ready," Bellatrix ordered with a gleeful smirk.
"What exactly do you want us to do?" Theo asked warily, not entirely sure what he and Blaise were expected to do.
"Show me what you're made of, Mr Nott," Bellatrix replied. "You too, Mr Zabini. Now fight."
Eager to prove himself to his new favourite Professor, Blaise whipped out his wand and fired a stinging hex at Theo. Dodging the hex, Theo pulled out his own wand and sent a sunning spell at his friend. Blocking the spell, Blaise then fired a stunning spell of his own at Theo. Theo responded by parrying the spell and after a slight moment of hesitation he sent a hex at Blaise that would cause his friend's face to break out in boils.
"Thank you," Bellatrix cried, waving her wand to prevent Theo's hex hitting Blaise. "The pair of you are now dead."
"Dead?" Blaise cried. "How on earth are we dead?"
"Because I said so," Bellatrix replied with another smirk. "Now, please stand against the wall opposite your fellow students. Next we'll have Mr Finnigan and Mr Thomas. When you're ready, fight."
After watching Blaise and Theo, Dean and Seamus tried to be a bit more inventive with their spells, but they lasted no longer than the Slytherins before Bellatrix announced they were dead and pulled a new pair onto the floor to fight. A pattern quickly emerged and no-one managed to throw more than a couple of hexes before Bellatrix declared they were dead and moved them to stand with the other students who had tried and failed to impress their new Professor.
"Well, we're down to our final two," Bellatrix announced once Draco and Hermione were the only two students left to do battle. "I do hope the pair of you can perform better than your classmates, all of whom have died pitiful deaths."
"Hmm, I still want to know how I was killed," Blaise grumbled. "I would have gotten the better of Theo if I'd had more time."
"There was no more time, Mr Zabini," Bellatrix snorted. "Now be quiet and watch the final battle. Which will hopefully be longer than the others."
"Oh, it will be," Draco replied with confidence as he and Hermione took their places in the centre of the room and pulled out their wands.
"Or maybe not," Hermione replied with a sweet smile, before throwing a tickling hex at her boyfriend.
As he moved out of the way of the spell, Draco shot a stinging hex at Hermione. Protecting herself from the hex, Hermione returned in kind and managed to place a glancing blow on Draco's shoulder. The blow caused Draco to falter slightly, but he still had the presence of mind to return fire with a stunning spell. Draco's hesitation had given Hermione more than enough time to prepare for his attack, so she was easily able to shield herself before returning fire on her boyfriend.
"And that is enough of that," Bellatrix announced with a clap of her hands. "You're both dead, so join everyone else."
Grumbling to themselves, Hermione and Draco joined everyone else standing against the wall. Like Blaise they were not impressed to have failed the test Bellatrix had set for them, and like their friend, they weren't quite sure why they were dead.
"Now, can anyone tell me why you all died?" Bellatrix asked, moving into the centre of the room and twirling her wand in her fingers.
"You hate us?" Blaise questioned with a frown.
"Of course I don't hate you," Bellatrix chuckled. "I'm trying to teach you. There is an art to fighting, and I intend to make sure you all learn it. And you all failed at step one."
"What is step one?" Draco asked his aunt.
"Never give your opponent an opportunity to get the best of you," Bellatrix answered. "Step one is to keep up a constant attack. The one mistake you all made was allowing your opponent the chance to hit back. I want to teach you how to fight, not how to partake in a wizard's duel. In a duel you take turns in throwing spells and hexes, but in a real fight, you don't give your opponent the time to hit back. Draco, come up here and assist me."
"What do you want me to do?" Draco asked warily, not keen on the look in his aunt's eyes.
"Why, fight of course," Bellatrix replied with a smirk as she spun on her heel and shot a stunning spell at her nephew.
Draco barely had time to deflect the spell before Bellatrix was throwing another in his direction. And another, and another. With each spell, Bellatrix was twirling around her nephew, and Draco was barely able to deflect her blows, let alone throw any hexes of his own. Finally she stopped and allowed Draco to rejoin the other students.
"See, by constantly keeping up a rapid succession of spells, I gave Draco very little chance to fight back. I didn't focus on what he was doing, I focused on what I was doing. So step one is keeping up a constant attack. I also demonstrated step two, did anyone pick up what that was?"
"Dancing?" Theo ventured, recalling the way Bellatrix had been twirling around Draco.
"Not quite," Bellatrix chuckled.
"Constant movement," Hermione offered.
"Exactly," Bellatrix declared, flashing Hermione a dazzling smile. "Constant movement. If you stand still, you give your opponent the perfect target. Make sure you give your opponent a moving target, it's much harder to hit."
"What about the spells we used?" Draco asked. "Wouldn't we fight better with dark magic?"
"Before we learn any darker spells, I want to make sure you have all mastered the basics of fighting," Bellatrix answered. "But for the record, dark spells don't win you fights. You can beat an opponent with the most simple spells if you keep up a constant flow of spells and keep moving. However, I will acknowledge that darker spells can give you an edge, especially if used correctly. My advice is never to start with a dark spell as it's what your opponent will expect and will be waiting for it. Instead, throw in a dark spell when your opponent least expects it. But we'll deal with that when the time is right. First of all, I want you all to master the art of keeping up a constant attack and keep moving. Moving is the easiest part, but keeping up a constant attack is harder as to truly do that you have to master dozens of spells and be able to fire them off without thinking. Pausing to think can be deadly. Now let's give this a try."
With a wave of her wand, Bellatrix produced four dummies which she placed beside the wall where everyone had started the lesson. She then explained that in groups of four the students would work their way across the room, firing a constant stream of spells at the dummies while advancing on them.
"This is what I want you to do," she explained, before launching into a demonstration. With each spell, she jumped forward and within half a dozen spells she was standing right in front of the dummy. "Now notice, there was no hesitation on my part. Each spell came one after the other, and the movement came with the spells. Anyone who hesitates or forgets to move, will be returned to the start. Let's see who can cross the floor in one go. And to give you all a helping hand we will all start with a simple 'Stupefy'."
Draco and Hermione were in the first group with Blaise and Theo, and on Bellatrix's word they began moving across the floor. All of them made it to the end without Bellatrix sending them back to the start, although it was a close call with Theo as a hesitation at the end almost cost him, but he responded just in time to pass the test.
"Good start," Bellatrix said with a nod. "You all have potential. Now let's move onto the next group."
Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, the entire class made their way across the floor. Not everyone made it across the first time, but much to Bellatrix's delight everyone made it across the floor on their second attempt.
"Not perfect, and I did give you all some leeway, but so much potential," Bellatrix announced with a gleeful clap of her hands as the final group of students reached the end of the course. In a few weeks, we'll be ready for some real fighting."
"And then will we learn some dark magic?" Hermione asked. She was loving gaining some insight into the art of fighting, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't looking forward to learning some spells that had been prohibited at Hogwarts before her father took over as Minister of Magic.
"Once I am confident you have all mastered steps one and two of fighting, we can move onto learning some new spells. Spells that would have been forbidden before I arrived here. But before that, we also need to master spells you already know. So be prepared for some hard work over the coming weeks. If we're not going over spells, so you've perfected them, we'll be doing physical training. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll be some of the best fighters our world has ever seen."
What Bellatrix didn't say, but Hermione hoped she meant, was that they would be fighters on her father's side. With any luck, Bellatrix's lessons and the power in the dark spells she would eventually be teaching them, would help lure people to her father's side, and if any fighting was needed, the students of Hogwarts would be on their side. Although even if the other students weren't on their side, Hermione knew she and her friends would be there to fight alongside her father and his supporters, and the lessons Bellatrix would be teaching them would give them an edge over their enemies. Even if Harry and Ron were being taught how to fight, it wasn't coming from someone as ruthless as Bellatrix. And Hermione was confident that any lessons Bellatrix would teach them would be better than anything Harry and Ron could learn at the hands of the remaining Order members.