After being healed of the now mundane burns the next morning, Harry quickly settled back into Hogwarts. The School was abuzz with the various announcements that Dumbledore had made after the Welcome Feast – Harry gleaned them quickly, although no one bothered to tell him exactly.

The upper years were all excited about the theatre which was being built in the mostly-unused West Wing of the castle. House elves were busily rerouting enchantments on the building and knocking down walls, reconstructing them to create a stage, a fly gallery. They were creating magical lights, expanding space to give a fly rail, creating seats to view plays from. Construction was estimated to be finished in time to hold auditions for the currently undecided play over Christmas break, and it would be preformed at the end of the year. Harry overheard a sixth-year Ravenclaw speculate that in future years there would be two shows each year – after all, they wouldn't have to build the theatre anew and would have the first half of the year to practice as well. The whole thing was being overseen by Professor Snape, who was in high spirits.

That was probably because of his lessened duties. As Draco told Harry at breakfast, Professor Snape was appointed the playmaster, so his other duties were mostly relieved. There was a new Head of Slytherin and another Potions Professor. Neville's mother, Alice Longbottom, was the Head of Slytherin and the Potions Professor for years one through four. That was, Harry mused, why she couldn't clear the rats from her greenhouse and Neville had had to do it.

And yet, even how most students had escaped from Snape's class wasn't the biggest news on the grapevine. The new Defense Professor was. Galloway Lockhart, a former Unspeakable, was now a bestselling author. His books were short and plainly written, each concisely explaining a single complex of spells. The Force Complex, for example, was all about Accio, Garluma, and Shealbumach, the Summoning, Banishing, and Holding charms. On top of that, Professor Lockhart was apparently very, very handsome. It only took Harry until lunchtime on the first day of classes to discern that most of the female population of the school was in love with Lockhart. Thankfully, he would be able to judge for himself – his first class with the man was right after lunch.

"He's so dreamy," Ginny sighed from across the table, ignoring her salad and staring up at Lockhart's place on the head table. Harry sighed too – the exasperated sigh of someone who's heard it all before.

Harry filed into the classroom and wrinkled his nose. This year, he shared Defense with Slytherin. Should he sit with Ron or Draco? After a moment's hesitation, he realized that neither had arrived from lunch yet, and sat at one of the odd triangular tables which had no one in it.

Each table had a small black sphere sitting in the middle, about the size of a tennis ball and resting on a silver stand with three prongs. The chairs too were triangles and had three legs each, and their backs came to a point to make themselves be triangles as well. Glancing around the room, Harry realized that there wasn't much in the room which wasn't set up as threes – the black spheres seemed to be it, in fact.

The other students slowly filed in, glancing around and looking for Lockhart, but he was nowhere to be found. Ron came in and sat one another side of Harry's table.

"Hey Ron."

"Hey Harry." Ron paused. "Who are we sharing this class with again?"

"Slytherin."

"Damn," Ron cursed. "I just hope Neville gets here before–"

Draco entered.

"Damn."

Draco glanced around, spotted Harry, and walked over. "Hey Harry."

"Hey Draco."

Draco glanced at Ron as he sat. "Weasley."

"Malfoy," Ron said coldly.

Harry rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Guys, please, can you not? I have a bad feeling about this class as it is without you two fighting."

"Fighting?" Ron asked. "We're not fighting. We're being perfectly polite."

Harry fixed him with a cold glare.

"Okay, okay…" Ron muttered.

Harry turned to Draco, who shrugged. "I can get along if he can," said the blonde.

Harry sighed, then turned to face the door, where the professor had just entered.

Galloway Lockhart was, indeed, very handsome. He had silvery blonde hair, similar to Draco's or Lucius Malfoy's, which was pulled back into a ponytail. His slim face was accentuated by an elegant goatee, and his eyes, which seemed a little bit too large for the rest of his face, were a startlingly bright blue.

"Hello, class," he said calmly. "Wands out, please."

Everyone took their wands out excitedly. Wandwork on the first day? How exciting!

"Please point your wands at the black spheres in the center of your desks and say Revelio Libros," Lockhart ordered, stepping up to the front of the room.

Harry did so and felt a slight spark of connection to something deep within his bones. A slight green light sprouted from the center of the black sphere and shone on the desk in front of him – a moment later, there was a screen on the table in front of him. In one corner was a little icon that looked like a sheet of paper, and another corner had an icon that looked like a book. Harry glanced around and saw that all across the room, more screens had appeared as people activated the black spheres.

"Put your wands away now, and tap the book icon," said Lockhart. Harry tapped it, and the screen flickered and displayed a bookshelf. He glanced over the titles sitting in it. The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Two, the complete library of Lockhart's own books, something called The White Encyclopedia "These books are what we'll be using. Open The White Encyclopedia by tapping on it and read the first chapter, on the spell ventoservi. You should be finished well before the end of class, and I'll take questions then."

Harry sighed, as did most of the class. It seemed that they wouldn't be casting any spells today after all. He began to read anyway, though Ron had apparently decided to doodle something instead. No, no, it looked like he and Draco were arguing about something using a piece of parchment. Harry decided to stay out of it and do his reading.

Ventoservi, the Young Wind Charm.

One of the most useful and versatile spells there is, ventoservi allows the caster to create and control a small gust of wind, which can be manipulated in many different ways. Ventoservi can be easily used to clear away dust, to dry ink or hair, or to keep a conversation private. These are, however, simple uses for this widely-underestimated charm. Using a little bit more power, Ventoservi can move larger objects – it can do everything that accio (the summoning charm) or wingardium leviosa (the levitation charm) can, and can even mimic volo (the flight charm) with greater effort. Ventoservi is a spell that every wizard should know.

The wand motion is complex at first, but a little bit of repetition will embed it into muscle memory. It begins with a swish...

Harry finished reading about half an hour before class was due to finish, so he glanced at Draco and Ron again to see how they were doing. Their argument had clearly concluded a while ago, as they were both reading, but they were also turned pointedly away from each other. They couldn't turn completely away, as they had to use the screens projected onto the table, but each could probably only see a little bit of the other. Oh, wonderful, Harry thought.

After a few minutes more, most of the class had finished reading, and Lockhart snapped his fingers, sending out a wave of wandless magic which made Harry shiver and attracted everyone's attention. "Does anyone have any questions?"

Draco raised his hand. "I can see how this spell would be useful, but why is it being taught in Defense class? Isn't it more suited to Charms?"

Lockhart raised an eyebrow. "Well, as a charm it can pass right through many shield spells," he began. "And as it can carry objects with it at high speeds, it can function as a Banishing charm, yet is simpler to cast."

"Banishers send stuff flying faster, though," Ron volunteered.

"Ah, but Ventoservi can modify its trajectory," Lockhart countered. "That means that it can change directions partway through. You can, for example, send it through your enemies shield to their side, so they think you missed, then turn it to strike them anyway."

"Okay, so it can be useful in a duel," Draco admitted. "But I don't see how it's good it defending yourself."

"Catching objects thrown at you," Lockhart said promptly. "You can also use it to create a physical barrier or to create runes using patterns of air as makeshift wards."

Harry raised his hands. "Excuse me, Professor, but don't wards take time to set up?"

"Permanent wards do," Lockhart agreed. "If it's to last for very long, a ward has to be Arithmantically stable, can't interfere with local natural forces, and in most cases must be tied to a ley line. Then there are Deep Wards, which are tied to a bloodline as well – but we won't get into that. The point is that a shorter-lived ward doesn't need to be stable, doesn't have to be arranged around an area's natural magic, and can draw its magic from you rather than a ley line. Very tiring, of course, but more effective than a shield charm for as long as you can keep it up."

One of the Slytherins – Harry was pretty sure it was Blaise Zabini – raised a hand. "Wards are based around runes, right? I understand how you might bring a piece of parchment with the runes around to have a portable ward, but how can you cast one with ventoservi?"

"The runes themselves become very hot ad would burn parchment up, actually," Lockhart corrected. "Ceramic tile would work better. In any case, as runes can be made from nearly anything, a pattern of air create by ventoservi would work perfectly fine. And now I'm afraid that our time is up. Your homework is to practice casting ventoservi. Anyone who can cast it at the beginning of next class will earn their house 15 points. Now off with you!"

Over the next month or so, Galloway Lockhart continued to prove himself an effective teacher. He was happy to drift off of the main subject for several minutes at a time to discuss other, related magics, but always brought it back to the spell of the day. Lessons with him took on a pattern, as well – the first ten minutes were spent demonstrating the spell from last class, then they were told to read about a spell – usually from The White Encyclopedia but sometimes from one of Lockhart's books. In the last half-hour or class, Professor Lockhart conducted a class discussion on the spell, explaining its uses in combat both offensively and defensively, as well as giving examples of more esoteric uses.

But Harry noticed something rather strange about Professor Lockhart. Though he routinely used wandless magic to call the classes attention to him, to chastise a misbehaving student (sending an almost-painful chill up their spine), or to highlight a section of the books the screens showed, Harry had never seen him use a wand. Not only did he never demonstrate the spells himself, he never seemed to pull our his wand to erase a mark from parchment or other more mundane uses for magic. In fact, he seemed to be incapable of normal wand magic.

But that was something to be investigated later, if at all.

Meanwhile, Neville's mother was also a pretty good teacher, if less notable. She had no three-sided tables, no magical computers which serviced three students at a time. Professor Longbottom was a relatively conventional teacher. She would explain a principle of brewing, demonstrate it, then assign the class a simple potion which used the principle. Harry discovered that she had assigned course books which he already had and thus didn't purchase over the summer – The Ingredients Guide and Small but Important, the two books given to him by Professor Snape the very first time they met. Everyone seemed to think that she was a better teacher than Professor Snape. Percy Weasley insisted, though, that Professor Snape was not nearly as bad this year. "It's because he doesn't have to teach as much," he declared. "It's always been obvious he doesn't enjoy it. He seems to like the playmaster thing, though."

On that subject, the construction of the theatre seemed to be going well. Harry had taken a look a few times, and there were now enormous platforms made from what looked like slate attached to the walls, which seemed to be able to slide around to view the stage from any angle. Each had rows of chairs and was slanted down so that everyone would be able to see.

Professor Flitwick had taken to inviting Harry to lunch every Sunday – Professor Snape often joined them, as did Professor Longbottom. Professor Dumbledore had dropped in once with Healer Dane, who checked up on Harry's health before pronouncing him allowed to eat anything he wanted. "Your recovery has gone well," Dane said sternly. "Don't sabotage it. Be careful when you're playing Quidditch and don't get into any magical fights."

"Yes sir," Harry said agreeably. "Gryffindor doesn't play a game until December anyway."

Before Harry knew it, the first two months of school had come and gone. It was Halloween morning.

A/N: I'm sorry for the late chapter, but my life is becoming somewhat hectic. Schoolwork is taking more time, the show season is starting to ramp up, and I suddenly have a girlfriend and a social life. Updates will no longer have a schedule and will simple be whenever I've finished a chapter. I'll try to have one every week or so, but I can't promise anything.