Butterflies stirred in Valkyrie's stomach as the footsteps on the other side of the door increased. The clock had just struck 10 am, and their class was waiting outside. Skulduggery had come up with a minor plan – introduce, speech, demonstration, teach. That was about it.

Valkyrie inhaled deeply and walked over to the doors, opening it widely and stepping out into the corridor. There were two separate lines, one line of red and yellow ties, the other of green and grey ties.

"Come on in." Valkyrie smiled, pushing her nervousness to the back of her mind as she walked back into the classroom. She had her jacket on, but it was unzipped, and her fingers itched to zip it up and hide her away. Skulduggery had put his jacket and hat back on too.

The two lines walked into the classroom after Valkyrie, who walked up to where Skulduggery was standing next to the blackboard. The two lines merged into one mass of students in black robes and grey jumpers, all looking up expectantly.

"Welcome." Skulduggery started "My name is detective Pleasant, this is my partner Detective Cain, and we will be teaching you how to physically protect yourselves in the need should arise. Before we begin, are there any questions?" He looked expectantly around the crowd, before people slowly began to put their hands up. Skulduggery nodded at the closest one.

"Why are you a skeleton?" She asked. Skulduggery cocked his head to the side, and didn't answer for a moment, as if he was processing it.

"Because I died and had unfinished business to attend to." He answered eventually. A few more hands went up. Skulduggery sighed.

"I will not answer any questions to do with my death or how I came to resurrect myself into my current state." The hands went down, all except for two. Skulduggery pointed to the closest one, a boy with brown hair.

"Yeah, sorry" He said in an accent Valkyrie immediately recognised "but don't I know you?" He looked to Valkyrie, who smiled.

"Finnigan?" She asked. He nodded.

"Seamus." He smiled slightly.

"Yeah, we live in the same town. I used to baby-sit you." Valkyrie smiled. Seamus looked taken aback for a moment, before his eyes widened.

"Stephanie?" Valkyrie grinned and nodded slowly.

"Cool." Seamus grinned.

"Ok, you and me will catch up later." Valkyrie said, gesturing between them both. Seamus nodded, and Skulduggery, after a moment of looking at Valkyrie who smiled back at him, pointed to the other hand. The owner stepped forwards. It was a girl with tanned skin and plaited hair.

"Why do we need to do this? I mean, it's not like anyone in Hogwarts will attack us. And even if they do we have our wands." She said.

"Wands can be broken." Skulduggery answered immediately "And you won't always be in Hogwarts. If my information is correct, then if you are under seventeen you cannot perform magic outside of Hogwarts, and therefore you are vulnerable."

"Vulnerable to who?" A voice from the back piped up.

"Anyone and everyone." Skulduggery answered. Valkyrie clenched her fist, feeling the scar that Billy-ray Sanguine had left with his razor. She remembered how many times punching and blocking had saved her life, and found it both stupid and amazing that these people, who were not much younger than herself, were so naïve towards the outside world. Valkyrie relaxed her hand and smiled.

"Right, shall we begin?" Skulduggery asked. Some nodded, some muttered, and all the while, Valkyrie smiled.

"We'll be learning the basic defence first, and then how to attack in later lessons. Right." Skulduggery clicked his fingers an one of the dummies came to life and walked forwards.

"Val." Skulduggery gestured to her. So, she had to block, and only block. How annoying. The dummy and Valkyrie faced each other, and Valkyrie found herself being unnerved by how much these dummies looked like Hollow men.

She pushed her leg backwards and raised her arms, flexing her muscles and taking a deep inhale. The dummy took a swing at her face, and Valkyrie blocked it with her arms. Again at the face, then the chest, both sides, even taking a swipe at her legs. Valkyrie blocked them all before the dummy could touch her. She could feel the tension in her arms, the memories of how many times she'd had to do this for real beginning to astonish her, before the dummy finally stopped and crumpled to the ground. Skulduggery had called it off.

"Thank you Valkyrie." He said. Valkyrie stood up straight and nodded, walking back to Skulduggery's side. They continued like this a few times, Skulduggery talking through how to block the face and torso, and Valkyrie demonstrating, sometimes without the dummy, sometimes with. Eventually, the students were lined up and practising how to block their faces, without anyone punching them of course. Valkyrie noticed that two separate groups had scowls on their faces the entire time. The first was a group of about 4, maybe five students with green ties, seemingly being led by a blondish boy who looked as if he was outraged by it all. Valkyrie watched him closely to see he wasn't really doing anything. The second group was mainly Hermione and two other girls. One of the girls was the one who had spoken up earlier. They weren't talking to each other, but all seemed unhappy to be there. Valkyrie made a mental note to talk to Hermione about it later. Hermione seemed nice enough, and Valkyrie wanted her to enjoy learning to be protected. It was a very important lesson after all.

"Eventually, 11 o'clock sounded, and Skulduggery dismissed the class as Valkyrie picked up the dummy and put it back in its original position.

"What now?" Valkyrie asked.

"According to the time table they have a half-hour break, and then third lesson."

"Oh, ok."

"Are you alright?" Skulduggery asked. Valkyrie sighed.

"I guess so. It's just kind of scary that these guys have never even known of the danger they could be putting themselves in every day without even knowing it."

"I know. But, that'll change now we're here."

"I hope so. But we're not teaching the younger kids, are we? They still won't know. And we haven't planned to teach next year."

"I wouldn't worry about it Val. The wizards in this school get taught to magically defend themselves. It should be enough for the time being."

"I hope so." Valkyrie muttered, looking at the scar across her palm. How old had she been when she'd gotten that? Younger than the one's they'd just taught? Probably.

Valkyrie sighed and looked at the class list, comparing it to the timetable. Then she smiled.

"What is it?" Skulduggery asked. Valkyrie turned to him and grinned.

"We have the Weasley twins next."