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17
Nearly everyone was up early the next morning, as many people hadn't done much homework the previous night. Hermione however got up after barely three hours of sleep, at five o'clock and took her books down to the common room where she sat doing her homework until seven o'clock, which is when others started coming down the stairs and interrogating her about Krum.
Then to avoid the crowd, she went to the library to finish her homework before breakfast, people there did not actually know her but they did know of her. People were whispering behind their hands, pointing and sneering at her, all of which Hermione tried to ignore.
After rushing her way through her Arithmancy homework, Hermione made her way to the breakfast, where nearly everybody was in a good cheery mood.
Hermione took a seat next to Ginny, who was having a whispered argument with her brother. When Ron saw Hermione, he got up and left with out saying good-bye, or giving others time to stop him.
"Sorry about him, he's acting really stupid and insensitive about the whole Krum thing," Ginny apologised on behalf of her arrogant brother.
"How much does he know?"
"I think he talked to Amanda last night, who I think told him everything she knew," Ginny said in the most reassuring way she could manage.
"Considering I like him and I know he likes me, I must of screwed things up pretty badly to get to the stage in which he is avoiding me."
"Are relationships really this complicated, or is it just us?" Ginny asked, referring to the fact that she still won't go into the same room as Harry, as when ever she sees him she turns a brighter scarlet the her Gryffindor Quidditch robes.
Amanda and Harry arrived a few minute later looking wide-awake, as though they had had a satisfying amount of sleep. Due to their arrival Ginny left to avoid Harry, and Hermione left to avoid Amanda.
Harry had never felt so confused by his emotions, he never had any more then friendly feelings for Ginny. He hated the fact that Ginny was ignoring him, but he wasn't going to ask her out just so she'll speak to him again. In fact over the summer Harry had pretty much given up on love, as nearly everybody that loved him has died because they loved him, Sirius, his mum and dad. If Voldemort found out he had a girlfriend he would surely hurt them, to try to get to him, and it would work. Harry's main weakness is after all trying to always save the day.
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"Defence Against the Dark Arts, I believe you have had five teachers in the last few years," Harry snorted quietly as if Snape hadn't watched each of those teachers come and go and hope he'll be next!
Harry was sitting next to Hermione and Neville, who was sitting next to Ron, as Ron reserved the seat furthest from Hermione. Amanda however sat in the back row with the Slytherin's including Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson and a big guy who held a resemblance Crabbe and Goyle, who obviously failed Defence Against the Dark Arts.
"There are many dark ferocious creatures and spells out there, like many headed beasts, which ever time you cut off a head, a new head grows back stronger, smarter and more ferocious then the previous one," Snape paused with a thin smile on his face as everybody in the class stared at him.
"These pictures show us some types of Dark Magic, the woman in the first picture is obviously being tortured by the Crucio curse," Neville's red little face quickly lost its colour. Draco looked at Amanda out of the corner of his eye, but she still saw him, "I'm fine," she whispered. Draco believed her, as he knew there was no way she was going to cry, or show any sign of weakness in front of Snape.
"Can any one tell me what potion is being used in the next picture?" Snape asked inclining his head towards a picture of muggle who seemed scared and frightened as a wizard in robes poured a bright red potion down his throat, which made him squirm in agony, then he stopped dead, the picture kept repeating its self like a movie on repeat.
"As I assumed none of you know what this potion is, well not only is it well before your time it is an extremely dark potion that has not been used for over six hundred years and it is thought that there is no longer a copy of the potion in existence," Snape paused in surprise when he saw Torque with her hand lazily in the air.
"Yes, Miss Torque?"
"Flamaringsola, otherwise known as Soul Burning Potion because when it is drunk it burns your soul, leaving you hollow, worse then dead. It was invented on accident in the ninth centaury, when a homemade potion was drunk by family cat. Ravenclaw, who later became a founder of Hogwarts, invented Flamaringsola. She knew the potion was dangerous so she kept the list of ingredients and instructions hidden, until one day her house was robbed and the potion was used on three occasions and has never been used since."
The whole class was staring at her, half in awe and half in fear, this potion sounded very dark, like a dementor's kiss.
"Very impressive Miss Torque, although I don't think it is a good thing for someone your age to know about one of the darkest potions in history."
"It's standard curriculum at Dumstrung, sir, we were taught in order to defend ourselves, you need to know what the other side can do."
"Ah yes Dumstrung, I should of known that's what Karkaroff was teaching you, he was recently killed by Death Eaters I believe."
"He is no loss Sir, I believe he was a Death Eater himself trying to escape on a close friends advice."
Snape continued on with the rest of the pictures, thinking how the hell can a sixteen year old know so much about Death Eaters. How can she know I told Karkaroff to flee, though Potter could have told her.
Harry was thinking along the same lines as Snape, how could she know Snape told Karkaroff to flee, he hadn't told her what he had overheard.
"Now I believe you have done nothing on non-verbal spells, which will be the basis of our learning for the first few weeks. Now get into partners and practise, one person tries to hex and the other tries to shield it with a shield charm."
Hermione quickly paired with Harry, as he was closest, so Ron was stuck with Neville. Pansy was about to pair to pair up with Draco till Amanda gave her a dark look, grabbed Draco's arm and lead him off to start practising non verbal spells. Leaving Pansy to practise with the Crabbe/Goyle look alike, Fred Fries.
Non-verbal spells were easy for Amanda, as she was always casting spells without talking, or with out using a wand for that matter. Draco had been practising non-verbal spells with Amanda over the holidays, it was her idea of security measures as both of them had some unusual, or two in Amanda's case, talent/s.
Amanda and Draco succeeded in their first attempt, causing Draco's leg lock curse to rebound of Amanda's shield charm and hit Pansy square in the back, which caught Snape's attention.
"Have either of you done this before?" Snape asked.
Both nodded, "yes sir."
Looking at Amanda Snape told them, "I assume you learnt at your previous school, but where Malfoy did you learn to cast non-verbal spells?"
"I found out about them while researching in the library last year, and I started practising for fun," Draco lied convincingly.
"Good idea, ten points to Miss Torque for her shield charm and twenty points to Mr Malfoy for his leg lock charm and forward thinking."
While Snape was dishing out points Hermione was thinking, that is a big coincidence both Amanda and Malfoy knowing how to do non-verbal spells. Hermione can't ever remember Malfoy ever being in the library, let alone doing extra work for the fun of it.
Snape finally stopped everybody after practising for a while, and only a quarter of the class had succeeded at the new skill.
"Now after practicing what can you tell me about the advantages of using non-verbal spells over verbal ones?"
Hermione's hand was waving in the air and as usual Snape ignored her, "that is not the text book definition!"
Hermione's hand fell and Amanda elbowed Draco, who put his hand up.
"Yes Draco?"
"Whoever you're hexing doesn't know what hex you're going to use against them, so it makes it harder for them to defend themselves."
"Correct, non-verbal spells give you the element of surprise, now for homework you are all to practise non-verbal shield charms and by the end of the lesson tomorrow all of you'll have to be able to produce a basic shield charm, so we can move on to more complicated spells. You're all dismissed." Every body was still picking up their books, Harry went to see if Amanda had finished yet so he could see if she was going to be walking back to Gryffindor tower with them, as they all had free next before break.
"Hey Amanda, are you coming back to the common room with us?"
"Umm actually Harry, Draco is taking me outside so I can see around the grounds a bit more, we can catch up at break."
"Okay, see you at break," Harry told her concealing the surprise in his voice. Wow maybe Hermione was right, and they are friends after all.
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Well that's a nasty little potion, isn't it? I hope you're like my story, I love reading reviews! A bit of a nothing chapter, but it leads onto next chapter.