A/N - Part 2 of Chapter 8. I am now uploading my chapters in parts in order to upload faster. Chapter 8 - Part 3 coming soon.

Chapter 8 – First Day of Class [Pt.2]

As Antares and his friends entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, they were surprised to see that nearly all of the desks had someone occupying them. Being the last students to arrive to class meant that they had to sit wherever there was a free desk. Unluckily for them, this happened to be at the very front of the class. A place where there was no privacy from the ever-watchful eyes of their professor.

There was a reason he and his friends usually arrived to class before everyone else. Sitting in the back row of the room gave them enough cover to whisper amongst themselves, a luxury that wasn't available at the front of the class.

Seeing as they had no other option, Antares, Sophia and Xavier quickly and quietly took their seats at the front of the room.

The DADA classroom was both big and spacious, perhaps the biggest classroom that Hogwarts had to offer. The room was rectangular in shape, measuring about 40 metres by 15 metres. In the middle of the room were rows upon rows of wooden desks, numbering at roughly around 40 or so. The front of the room was made up of the teachers much larger mahogany desk, overflowing with various pieces of parchments and teaching apparatus. Behind the desk was a blackboard (currently blank) that took up a large portion of the wall. The room was illuminated by 8 large glass windows on the left side of the room.

It wasn't the room that currently held Antares attention, though. He had been in this room hundreds of times over the past 6 years. What held his attention was the man sitting behind the large desk at the front of the room.

Having only barely seen the new professor at the Hogwarts opening feast, Antares took his time to carefully study the man that would be teaching him for the entire year.

Judging from how he was sitting he was able to tell that Nathaniel Graves wasn't a particularly tall man, standing at roughly around five and a half feet tall. If he had to guess Antares would have assumed that he was perhaps 45 to 50 years' old, Antares based this upon the frown lines that were beginning to line his face. He had short brown hair, brown eyes and an oddly crooked nose. He was of average build, not being portly nor particularly slim, and wore a pair of expensive looking day robes of a dark burgundy colour.

Antares had to cut his analysis short because the man he was analysing had gotten to his feet and walked to the front of his desk.

"Good morning and welcome students of Slytherin and Ravenclaw, to your first Defence Against the Dark Arts class of the year. My name is Professor Nathaniel Graves and I am to be your defence professor for the upcoming year" greeted Professor Graves, his clear voice carrying itself to the very corners of the room.

The entire class listened intently as the new professor introduced himself, all of them curious to see whether or not he was a teacher that could earn their respect.

Seeing that he had their undivided attention, Professor Graves continued to speak.

"Seeing as this our very first class together and I am currently unaware of where you each are academically; I propose a duelling competition to showcase your magical defence knowledge."

As the professor said this, the demeanour of the students changed dramatically. The entire class went from being respectfully quiet to heatedly animated with the span of a minute. The excitement quite clear on the grinning faces of every student present.

Antares was one of the grinning students. The professor's announcement that they would be duelling one another had captured his undivided attention. If there was one thing that he liked more than learning and developing his magic, it was showing it off to those less gifted than himself.

In all his years at Hogwarts he had never been able to showcase his fully magical ability to his classmates, and this time, wouldn't be any different. To showcase his full repertoire of magic on something as trivial as a sixth-year defence class would be a complete misuse of his magic. Showing just enough to upstage his fellow students, however, was something he was completely looking forward to.

"Quiet down everyone so I can tell you how this is going to work." called Professor Graves over the excited chatter that his earlier statement had caused.

"Seeing as we don't have all time in the world, the competition shall follow the style of a single elimination tournament. Meaning that once you lose a duel you are unable to compete for the rest of the competition. Last person standing at the end of the lesson shall receive a prize worthy of the effort".

The mention of a prize seemed to only add fuel to the fire as the class became animated once more. So much so that the professor had to wait several seconds before he continued to talk.

"Duelling partners will be randomly drawn from a hat for the sake of impartiality. When I call your name make sure you remember who you are paired with as the first set of duels will occur simultaneously".

As he finished speaking he waved his wand and conjured a large black bowler hat, which he then filled with several strips of parchment. Each strip containing the name of one of his students.

Placing his hand into the conjured hat he selected two pieces of parchment. Pulling his hand back he read out the first pair of duelling partners.

"Xavier Nott versus Elliott Holland" Professor Graves announced to the awaiting class in a loud, booming voice.

Hearing his friend's name Antares couldn't help the smirk that made its way onto his face. Whilst the Ravenclaw prefect was no slouch when it came to magical knowledge he was less adept at actually performing said magic.

Xavier, on the other hand, was one of the strongest magic users in the school, second only to himself and perhaps the seventh year students. Antares had no doubt that this was Xavier's battle to win.

"Madison Clark versus Samuel Atkins" called out the professor after withdrawing two more pieces of parchment from the hat.

Antares expression became calculating as he tried to analyse this particular match up. Madison and Samuel were about the same in terms of magical power and magical knowledge. He based this on overall performance in prior classes they had shared together. Seeing as he didn't exactly know the two of them, he could only assume that this duel would be a fairly even match-up that either one of them could win.

This pattern continued for several minutes. Professor Graves would announce the names of the two students duelling and Antares would silently predict who he thought was going to win. Some of the match-ups were easy to predict, others were quite evenly matched and others he didn't even know where to begin.

It was only after Sophia had just been matched up with Alicia Moore (an easy victory for Sophia in his opinion) that his name was finally drawn.

"Antares Black versus Helena Greengrass"

Please Read and Review :)