Snape, as usual was intolerable. Harry was sure that had he been watching the Gryffindor points he would have been blinded by how fast the numbers dropped. There was no way they were still in positive digits. After Double Potions with the Slytherins, sixth year Gryffindors were praying for a miracle. This miracle occurred in the form of Defense against the Dark Arts with Professor Black, Lupin, and Potter right after lunch.

Gryffindors and Slytherins sat in the room and waited for their professors. After five minutes of waiting, the Slytherins began talking amongst themselves about how useless the teachers this year were. Harry said nothing; feeling a tickling on the back of his neck.

"Ten points from Slytherin," Sirius snapped as he, Moony, and Prongs appeared in a swirl of smoke before the class.

Harry knew they had to have planned a big entrance.

"For what?" Malfoy asked, outraged.

"For speaking during class," James answered smugly.

"What?" Malfoy demanded.

"Ten more points, Mr. Malfoy," James said coldly.

"Don't make us pull a Half-Blood Prince on you," Sirius said gleefully.

Lupin rolled his eyes as Sirius and James sat down with their feet propped on the desk and their hands behind their head. "I'm sure you remember me," Lupin said. "But for those who don't: I'm Remus Lupin. These are professors Potter and Black."

"I don't like that look on your face Ms. Parkinson. Get rid of it before I hurl," Sirius drawled.

Lavender and Parvati giggled. "Professor?" Parvati called raising her hand. "That's the way her face looks!"

This resulted in laughter amongst the Gryffindors and glares from the Slytherins. Sirius leaned forward in his seat to get a better look at Pansy. She blushed under his gaze. "So it is," Sirius murmured. "Ten points to Gryffindor for pointing that out."

Ron shot Harry a grin that Harry returned. Hermione wasn't sure whether to laugh or be outraged at Sirius' audacity.

Remus sighed. "Will you all stand?"

The class stood rather reluctantly. James waved his wand and a wall of cubbies appeared. "If you would stash your dung in the cubbies that are labeled with your names, we can get on with the lesson," James said lazily.

The students shuffled around to dump their stuff. The Slytherins glared and occasionally rammed themselves into Gryffindors. Finally, all of their items were put away. Sirius and James stood along side of Remus, who vanished the cubbies, while Sirius expanded the room. James made bleacher-like stands on opposite sides of the room.

"Take a seat, take a seat," Sirius barked.

"Today, we will cover the basics of dueling," Remus said.

"Do we have any takers to judge off of and ultimately talk about to the other teachers about how horrible you are while lying to your face about how bad you are?" Sirius asked in one breath.

Hermione raised her hand shyly. "Professor Black?"

"Ah, Hermione, wonderful witch, eh?" Sirius asked of James and Remus who nodded enthusiastically. "Reminds me a bit of Lily, you know, without her throwing something at your head when you say she's gained weight. But you noticed it, didn't you, mate?" he asked James.

"Do you seriously think that I'd admit if my wife gained weight?" James asked. "Don't answer that," he hastily added when Sirius opened his mouth.

"If we could answer Hermione's question," Remus hinted.

"Oh yeah," Sirius said. He turned back to Hermione who was beet red, along with Harry. "What's poppin?"

Harry groaned. Did Sirius just had to take on an American accent at that moment?

She raised an eyebrow but shook her head. "Do teachers really speak that way of students?"

"How would I know? I'm not a teacher," Sirius said.

James rolled his eyes and smacked Sirius upside his head. "Just nod your head, Padfoot."

"Any takers?" Remus asked loudly.

No one raised their hands.

"Ooh," Sirius whispered ominously. "Choose, we get to."

"Stop talking funny!" Malfoy shouted.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. He smirked. "Yo mama." He even did the Wilmer pose.

James roared with laughter while Remus chuckled.

"Okay, Neville Longbottom- knew your parents; good people-and Theodore Nott," James commanded. "Front and center."

Nott smirked. "Against this squib, no problem."

Harry smirked and pulled Neville down to whisper something in his ear that made his grin broadly.

"What'd you say, mate?" Ron whispered.

Harry smirked again. "You'll see."

They bowed to each other and barely a second later Nott shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

"Protego," Neville said lazily. Nott jumped out of the way of the curse. "Tarantgella," Nott cried. Neville carefully stepped to the side and dodged the curse.

Nott cried out more spells and Neville just walked out of the way or put up a shield. Within minutes, Nott was sweating and tired from jumping around to dodge rebounding curses. He grew desperate, "serpentosia!"

Neville merely smiled and murmured something under his breath. A dictionary popped in the air and Neville grabbed and flipped and found a page. He hissed hesitantly, and the snake turned on the caster and hissed loudly.

"Okay," Sirius said loudly waving his wand to get rid of the snake. "As you can see, Neville wins!"

"What?" Nott shouted. "He did not disarm me!"

"Would you rather be disarmed or eaten?" James asked. "I don't care either way."

Nott glared at the professors before sulking back to his seat.

"I have a question," Remus said pleasantly surprised. "You are not a parseltongue, correct?"

Neville nodded fearfully.

"How is it you were able to communicate to the snake?"

"I can answer that," Harry said. "This summer, we were fooling around with a tape recorder, and Hermione had the idea to try to covert some words into parseltongue, so people could say simple phrases."

"That's kinda impossible," James said.

"Well," Harry said uneasily. "There was a charm involved in allowing a person to say it."

Sirius and James raised an eyebrow together. "Sure," they said together.

"Homework," Remus announced. "Write a six inch essay on what you learned in class. Mention spells and how the duel could have been better. See you next time."

At that moment the bell rang, and everyone left.

"Do you think your dad is suspicious?" Neville asked as he walked with the trio to Charms, the final class of the day.

"I think he's suspicious, but not in the way you're thinking," Harry answered. "He knows something is going on, but he doesn't know what. But, since I just met the bloke, I have no idea what goes on in his mind."

"So, mate," Ron began glancing at Hermione for a second before looking away quickly. "When does quidditch start again?"

Harry shrugged. "No idea. I do know that Katie is captain. She's the oldest."

Ron nodded. "Kinda figured," he muttered.

"Well excuse me," Harry mumbled before speeding up to the Charms door. Neville ran after him.

"What do you see in him?" Ron asked Hermione.

Hermione frowned. "I see kindness and a loving nature. I also see my best friend who would never hurt me. Is there a problem?"

Ron shook his head sadly. "No problem…just wondering."

"Then keep on it," Hermione snapped before she walked into the Charms classroom and taking a seat with Neville so Ron and Harry could sit together.

"We will be beginning silent charms this quarter," Flitwick began. "This is difficult brand of magic that combines occlumency and spellwork. Many won't be able to do it. Do not feel upset, many powerful wizards are unable to master this skill. Everyone can cast a spell silently, but in a duel your opponent may be able to see the spell you are about to cast in your eyes, thus making it useless. Please begin taking notes on the magic behind this," Flitwick commanded as he stood upon his desk with a stack of books beneath him.

"We will begin with a simple charm. Levitation, Wingardium Leviosar. Now silent spells are much less draining than the ones said aloud, however, verbal spells are much simpler to cast. I will demonstrate." Flitwick did the swish and flick of the levitation charm and said nothing. Hermione's book began floating in front of her. Many students craned their neck to see what was happening and gasped at the sight.

"That is a nonverbal spell. I expect that each of you should be able to cast a simple silent levitation charm by the end of next week. Now let's see. In order for the spell to work, you must find your magical core. We will not be attempting the charm today, or perhaps not even Wednesday when we meet again, however, I want each of you to meditate for half an hour nightly for the rest of this week.

"You must center yourself and find the core of magic burning inside of you. On Friday, each of you must come in and tell me exactly where your core is. Some may find it in their hip or perhaps in their neck. It is different for each wizard. And before you think of making something up, there is a way to test it and I will be checking. Now, I want you to try to center yourself for the rest of class."

As Flitwick indicated, they put away their books and sat upon their desk Indian style and began to meditate and search for their magical core.

When the bell rang, Harry had to poke Ron multiple times in order for him to wake up. H snorted loudly. "Wassamatta?'

"Class is over," Harry answered.

"Oh," Ron said. He stretched and yawned. "Lovely nap, mate."

Harry laughed. "I'm sure it was."

Ron followed Harry out of the classroom.

"What'd you think of the silent spell stuff?" Harry asked.

"Sounds cool," Ron answered. "But I don't think anyone will be able to do it. You have to be madly powerful. Even mum and dad can't do it."

"Hmm," Harry responded. He thought about that for a second. "I suppose you're right."

"'Course I am," Ron said jovially. "Now, I'm hungry. What's for dinner?"

FAQ/FYI:

You're quitting?!
Not anymore. Thanks to the nice little reviewers that continued to pester me to continue ;). I'll keep editing old chapters since the most awful part was the beginning...which will TOTALLY be re-edited. One day.

What's with the parseltongue thing?
Um. See, when I wrote it the first time I had an explanation for how Neville was able to do that parseltongue thing. Now...I don't remember. Um. So, for explanation purposes...let's just say that they actually did write a parseltongue dictionary. :)