I do not own Harry Potter…everyone does know that by now, don't they?

Harry couldn't wait to get out of the stuffy potions classroom and into the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, as he was enormously intrigued by taking a class on defense taught by a transfiguration professor. He had no doubt that McGonagall could defend herself, but he wondered just how good she was.

Slughorn had a disappointed look on his face when Harry handed in a putrid and purple bottle of what was supposed to be Felix Felicis, but Harry didn't spare the professor an apologetic smile as he turned and hurried out the door. Hermione had forgotten her DADA textbook, so she rushed to the common room, saying that she would see them in class.

On the way to the classroom Harry and Ron were joined by Neville, Cho Chang, and Michael Corner. This year the gryffindors were paired with the ravenclaws for defense instead of the slytherins, a change Harry had mixed feelings about.

He would have loved to show up the snarky slytherins in mock duels, but the fewer classes he had with slytherins the fewer chances they got to taunt him for one reason or another. If he made some sort of mistake, the slytherins wouldn't let it go.

But the ravenclaws had no reason to taunt Harry, and they would most likely be good dueling partners due to their general competence in classes. That would be a nice change from the surprisingly clumsy slytherins.

"What do you think McGonagall will be like?" Cho asked as they made their way to the defense classroom.

"I think she'll be very strict and won't allow any funny business." Ron said.

"Yeah, just like transfiguration classes." Neville agreed.

"I wonder who is teaching that. Whoever the professor is, he didn't show up for breakfast this morning either." Cho commented.

"Awfully funny, that. Why wouldn't the professor come to breakfast? Do you think he's even in the castle yet?"" Ron added.

"Who knows? If he is he must be some sort of recluse." Michael said, speaking for the first time. Harry didn't know Michael very well. From what he had seen of the other boy he was quiet, sarcastic, and had a reputation for being grim. He didn't seem to have many friends, probably from his reputation as being creepy, but he had seemed to get a little closer to Cho over sixth year.

"Maybe he's paranoid, like Mad-Eye Moody. Maybe he's holed up in his quarters and won't be seen except for classes." Ron said solemnly.

"Or maybe he just got delayed. That is a reasonable explanation." Cho reasoned. Harry shook his head in amusement. It could actually be quite entertaining to listen to a conversation.

"What about you Harry? Have any theories?" Neville asked. He must have noticed Harry's complete non-participation.

Harry shrugged and put on a mystified expression to convey his confusion over the whole thing.

"Wow. Talk about eloquence." Michael said.

"Michael!" Cho scolded. But Harry laid a hand on her shoulder and grinned to show he wasn't hurt.

"Ron, tell Michael that he's welcome to be sarcastic about me all he wants. It's refreshing." Harry signed quickly, facing Ron so that his friend caught it.

Ron shrugged, mystified.

"Harry says that Michael can be sarcastic about him all he wants, because it is refreshing."

Cho looked utterly bewildered, while Michael snorted in amusement. Neville grinned.

"That is not a typical reaction." Michael said.

"Tell him I'm not typical." Harry signed, and again Ron translated. Harry couldn't wait until he didn't need his friends with him to translate everything.

Michael raised his eyebrow at that.

"It's strange hearing Ron say things, knowing that what he is saying is actually your words." Michael commented.

Harry shrugged.

"Are you guys coming to the DA meeting tomorrow night?" Ron asked.

"Of course we are! I haven't heard a time yet, though." Cho replied.

"Tell them it'll be at five, and that I'm sorry for leaving out the time on my notice." Harry signed to Ron.

"Oh, that's why no one knows when to go? You forgot about what time it would be?" Michael said after hearing Ron's translation. Harry nodded abashedly.

"Harry has a lot going on this year! You can't blame him for forgetting a detail here and there!" Ron defended hotly. Harry made a calming motion with a hand.

"Why is it any busier than last year?" Michael asked.

"Well, he's got to organize the entire gryffindor quidditch team practices and try-outs, he's restarting the DA and planning what to teach all of us, and he's got to keep up research on silent magic and sign language in addition to the NEWT classes he's taking. Not to mention that he's got to deal with the slytherins and make sure that they don't attack him in some dingy corridor." Ron listed.

"Alright, I get it. He's busy." Michael conceded, holding his hands up in defeat. They had now reached the defense classroom, and Harry held open the door for the others as they filed through. Then he entered the room himself, and could tell that today would be a practical lesson because there were no desks or chairs in the room. Students had lined up against the walls, in no particular order, and McGonagall was standing at the front of the room waiting for everyone to get there.

Harry went to stand next to Ron, and they talked a little about what they suspected they would be learning in the class that year while the other students trickled in. Hermione eventually joined them, red-faced from running to avoid being late.

"Very good, now that everyone is here, please pay attention." McGonagall said, clapping her hands to emphasize the point. The conversations died.

"Thank you. Today, as many of you may have guessed, will be a practical review in which I will assess your skill levels so that I may determine what to teach for the proceeding lessons. I will be assigning everyone a partner, based on their reported skill, and the pairs will take turns dueling. Now, when I call out a pair of names, I want both students to come and stand together behind me, so that I may see who else is left.

"Cho Chang and Seamus Finnegan! Neville Longbottom and Lavender Brown! Padma Patil and Ronald Weasley!" McGonagall rattled off pairs until most of the students were behind her, and only a few ravenclaws, Hermione, and Harry were left.

McGonagall paired up two of the ravenclaws, leaving Michael Corner, and then pursed her lips.

"We have an odd number. Is anyone willing to duel twice?" She asked.

Hermione began to raise her hand, but Harry beat her to it. McGonagall smiled at him.

"Very well, Mr. Potter. You may duel both Ms. Granger and Mr. Corner. Now, is there a pair that wishes to go first?"

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and lifted both of their hands into the air eagerly. Harry rolled his eyes, but he actually didn't mind.

"Good. The only rule is not to use any curse that could in any way cause permanent harm. These are not malicious duels; they are tests of skill. Now, Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter, please take your places." McGonagall instructed, and Hermione and Harry stood opposite each other in the center of the room.

Harry drew his wand and held it at the ready; Hermione did the same. They both stood still, not letting their eyes leave the other, waiting for McGonagall's permission to begin.

"Let's see if you can beat me this time, Harry!" Hermione teased. Harry snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Begin!" McGonagall ordered.

Harry conjured a shield with a thought, knowing that Hermione loved to attack immediately in hopes of ending her fight quickly. True to her pattern, several minor jinxes slammed into Harry's shield.

Hermione paused, registering that her initial attack hadn't worked. Harry cocked his head and smirked, as if to say, you thought that would work?

She pursed her lips and then fired off another string of jinxes, ones like the jelly-legs jinx, laughing jinx, dancing jinx, and a tripping jinx to finish off. None of them penetrated, although they were powerful judging by the vividness of the colors.

But Harry's shield held, pulsing with power. It didn't even flutter under Hermione's barrage.

Hermione paused to catch her breath after firing so many spells, and Harry saw his chance. He dropped his shield and fired a jinx that sealed someone's lips shut until the counter-curse was cast on the victim.

Hermione didn't have time to say the incantation to put up a shield before Harry's jinx impacted her chest and dissipated into her body. Her mouth snapped shut, and Harry heard her too-late mumble of the word protego. A small blue shield came from her wand, spluttered, and died. She looked at Harry with annoyance. She could perform silent magic, but she hadn't practiced too many spells and now had her usable spell repertoire reduced to only a few charms.

Harry grinned teasingly.

Hermione furrowed her brow and sent a silent stinging hex towards him. It was a little dull, meaing it was low-powered, but he sidestepped it anyway while he cast a tripping jinx at Hermione. She dodged out of the way, just in time to avoid the spell.

Harry now began his own barrage. He cast multiple disarming spells, stunners, body binders, and tripping jinxes at her while she desperately dodged. He had to admit, she was fast.

Then he had an inspiration. What if he could cause a spell to home in on his target?

He pulled up an image of the disarming spell following Hermione as she dodged, then fired the spell. Hermione tried to dodge again, but her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the spell make a sharp turn and slam into her, hurling her wand towards Harry, who caught it with a triumphant grin. With a wave of his wand he lifted the jinx on her, so that she could speak again.

"Well done, both of you!" McGonagall praised. "I would like to point out a tactic used by Mr. Potter. Most witches and wizards cannot cast many if any spells silently. If you can manage to hit your opponent with a spell that prevents them from speaking, you will typically have a major advantage. This is also why it is a very good idea to learn a few combat spells to such proficiency that you can cast them silently.

"Also, Mr. Potter forced his spell to follow Ms. Granger. I have heard of spells that naturally home in on their targets, but they are very advanced magic and require a great deal of concentration on the intended target. If you don't mind my asking, Mr. Potter, how did you cause your spell to follow Ms. Granger?"

"Hermione, do you mind? Tell her that I focused on wanting my spell to follow you and it did." Harry signed.

Hermione explained to McGonagall what Harry's reply had been, and McGonagall pursed her lips thoughtfully.

"I see. Mr. Potter, would you mind going again immediately with Mr. Corner? I would like to observe more of your technique."

Harry shrugged, and gave Hermione her wand back. Then he took his position against Michael, and prepared to duel yet again.

"Begin." McGonagall said.

This time, Harry was the first to fire off spells. He cast a full body bind curse, a powerful stinging hex, a jelly-legs jinx, and a stunner, all aimed in slightly different positions. But Michael had been prepared; he already had a large, strong shield up.

The shield dimmed a little every time one of Harry's spells hit it, but it held. Harry decided to keep hammering at Michael until the shield broke, and fire off the spells so quickly that Michael wouldn't have time to launch his own offensive.

So Harry fired off a whole range of powerful spells aimed straight for the center of Michael's shield. Michael look a little strained from maintaining the stressed defensive spell, but he was keeping it up. It was getting dangerously dim, however, and Harry thought that with another barrage of spells he would break the shield.

Harry thought of the shield crumbling, and then felt his magic rush through him in a powerful wave and pour out his wand in a stream of silver light which cut into Michael's shield, causing it to crumble without a trace of resistance. Michael stared at Harry, dumbfounded.

Harry stared at Michael in return, a little confused over what he had just done. Had he just created some sort of spell that broke shields? It hadn't seemed to do anything else, because Michael seemed perfectly fine.

Harry had to focus again as Michael brought himself back to reality and fired a silent disarming spell straight for Harry. Harry dodged instead of placing up a shield, feeling a little tired. Had he expended too much magical energy with that last spell?

He decided to try to improvise a little more. Maybe he could get his magic to simply knock the wand from Michael's hand, instead of knocking it out and then bringing it to Harry. That should take up less energy, if Harry's silent magic textbooks were anything to go by.

Harry dodged a few more spells and then cast his own spell. Michael, who was at the same time casting a body bind verbally, couldn't change what he was saying in time to put up a shield. But Michael had some sense and dodged desperately out of the way, stumbling a little.

Harry saw his chance and cast a tripping jinx at Michael. It hit the other boy and Michael went sprawling, yet maintained his grip on his wand. But Harry could fire extremely quickly now since he only had to think of what he wanted to do, and so Michael didn't have time to defend himself as Harry cast his body bind curse.

Michael became rigid, and McGonagall called an end. Harry released his curse, and Michael got up with an expression on his face that reeked of injured dignity.

"That was very good, both of you. Mr. Potter, I would like to see you tonight at eight o'clock." McGonagall said. Harry made sure to appear confused, trying to get his professor to explain why she wanted to see him.

"You are not in trouble, Mr. Potter. I simply have a few questions." McGonagall explained, and Harry gave her a relieved smile to show he understood.

Through the rest of class Harry found himself yawning, and he felt weak. That one spell must have been very powerful, for Harry to feel this tired. He decided that he couldn't use any more high-powered spells that day, or he might be forced to go to the Hospital Wing for treatment of magical depletion.

Even though he felt lethargic, Harry was extremely curious about his next class, transfiguration. Who would the mystery professor be? Would he or she be a strict teacher like McGonagall, or a lenient fun-loving one like Flitwick?

And who could the teacher possibly be? Most competent witches and wizards were tied up with the war with Voldemort. It was quite possible that the new teacher would not be very skilled. Harry just hoped that wasn't the case.

So it was with suppressed curiosity that Harry entered the transfiguration classroom with Ron and Hermione behind him.

But there was no professor there! Students had taken seats at their desks and were looking curiously around, vainly trying to find the absent mystery professor.

"Do you think that he really isn't even in the castle?" Ron asked.

"I can't imagine McGonagall hiring someone so irresponsible." Hermione commented, and Harry nodded in agreement. McGonagall wouldn't hire a teacher that wasn't even in the school when he should be teaching.

"Don't you think McGonagall would've been more worried if the professor hadn't arrived?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, good point." Ron conceded.

"Maybe he's just getting something ready in his office." Hermione reasoned.

"Yeah, that must be it." Ron agreed as they took their seats.

They waited another minute while the rest of the students filed in. They were paired with the slytherins for this class, and so Harry had to ignore their glares and sneers. They still hadn't come up with any ingenious taunts, but Harry knew it was only a matter of time.

Finally, the last desk had been taken and the door to the professor's office still hadn't opened. The students began to mutter.

"Are we going to have a surprise free period?" Ron asked. He didn't quite manage to conceal the eagerness in his tone. Hermione whacked him on the back of his head with her text book.

"Ronald! We need to take this class!" Hermione scolded.

"I hope it isn't another Lockheart type, who'll make a grand entrance and then bungle the class."" Harry commented, his eyes fixed on the office door.

Then the door opened, and a tall lanky young man rushed out. His long brown hair was tussled as if he'd been rushing through his morning, and he had ink stains on his robes and hands. He didn't look too responsible.

"Sorry, sorry! I was working on the lesson plan for the second years and I lost track of the time! And then my ink-pot spilled…anyway, welcome to transfiguration. I am Professor Tersias Blake. Just so you all know me a little better, I want you to know that this is my first teaching job. I was actually a shop owner in Diagon Alley, but the shop had to close due to the war. So please don't judge me too harshly; I have a tendency to over-do things.

"Now! Today we will be doing some advanced human transfiguration. This can be a very useful area of magic if you wish to disguise yourself. It requires more effort and is more risky than using glamours, but…can anyone tell me what the advantage of disguise by transfiguration is?"

Hermione of course, raised her hand immediately, and Professor Blake smiled.

"Ah, I believe you must be Ms. Granger, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"And you have the answer to my question?"

"Human transfiguration is more durable than glamours. While glamours can break under magical stress, any alteration to the human body by transfiguration will hold until it is voluntarily changed." Hermione said.

"Correct! Five points to Gryffindor. Now a very basic application of human transfiguration is to change the color of your hair. This application is harmless, and has been eagerly mastered by many witches who wish to grow their hair longer or change its color. For today, you will all attempt to change your hair so that it matches the hair of the student in front of you. For those of you in the front row, copy the hair of the student in your same column but at the back of the room. You will find a step-by-step instruction on page ten of your textbooks, along with diagrams. Any questions?"

Harry raised his hand, causing the other students to mutter.

"Oh, yes. Mr. Potter." Professor Blake said, looking a little startled and confused. Harry tapped Ron on the shoulder.

"Translate for me. Ask him if human transfiguration can be used to give a disadvantage to an enemy in a fight."

"Uh…Harry wants to know if you could mess up an enemy using human transfiguration in a fight." Ron said, looking awkward.

"Why yes, that is a more offensive use of today's subject. If you are at a disadvantage in a fight, you could transfigure someone's leg so that it is too long, thereby slowing his movement and dodging ability. It isn't very practical unless you can perform the spell quickly, however. Most advanced transfiguration spells are very complex and have multiple steps. Some of them take nearly half an hour to complete. That is why you almost never see human transfiguration used in duels. Now, any more questions?"" Professor Blake said, and no more students raised their hands.

"Very well. Turn to page ten and get started!"