OOC: For those unfamiliar with my lessons, please post as if you have been present from the beginning, unless you have a valid, and pre-discussed plot reason for announcing a late arrival.

PMing me is encouraged if you'd like me to be aware of something character significant for the lesson, ta. I don't deduct housepoints for non attendance, I do add them for participation, interesting, plot furthering or amusing IC reactions, and especially for balanced character abilities. If you can't join us, may be to your advantage to drop me a quick note.

Last lesson before lunch on the Friday of the first week

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The last of the half-foot tall sandtimer ran out on the desk beside Professor Storm. 
"Quills down." He instructed sharply, raising his wand and plucking quills from a few hands. "I will mark these for Monday, and anyone who has scored less than half will be in detention that evening."

The Fourth years were only in their second lesson of the year, but Professor Storm had already launched a surprise test on the previous year's work, posing questions on everything from dealing with boggarts to counter curses and jinxes. Sunlight poured into the classroom, reminding the students of the summer holidays now a distant memory, replaced by oversized brand new school uniform and text books whose spines creaked as they were opened.

The student slips of parchment shot up to the Professor's hand in a neat pile as he turned the wrist of his wand hand, walking between the columns of desks. Ambrose Pepper's quill blotted across his page, and the Professor gave the Gryffindor a look of disgust.

"I can see detention already Pepper, on the spelling alone." Depositing the parchment at the front on his desk, the Professor turned, and addressed the class.

"The most fundamental part of Defence has always been the shield. Whether a physical barrier, such as rock, or a building, or magical. You will need to be able to demonstrate and maintain shields under assault throughout your life, particularly if you want it to be any decent length. For your OWL, the Ministry only requires you to perform a very basic, catch-all type of shield, though those of you progressing to NEWTs or taking up employment in riskier fields will want to have a good working repertoire of several more."

Flicking his wand, the chalk lifted, poised by the board, which simultaneously cleaned off the questions from the surprise test.
"Will anyone name a shield spell they are aware of?"

He didn't need to remind them to raise their hands... well, that was what the silencing charm was for, wasn't it?

With a french braid loosely weaving her hair down her back, a green Slytherin cloak hugging her body once more, a white blouse wrapped around her torso with a green tie hanging from it, and a long grey skirt with the practical addition of leggings and high-rise boots beneath the skirt, Naomi felt like she was had been engulfed by Hogwarts again--uniform and all. Storm's exam on the second day of class only sealed that wonderful feeling of nostalgia. She almost preferred being lost in the underground world of Ancient Egypt. Almost.

Naomi hadn't stopped using counter curses, curses or any of the like over the summer, making Storm's lessons stick in her brain with relative ease. It was one of the benefits of not having to live around hordes of muggles all the time. And, of course, her and her brother's fighting hadn't slowed down any either, so the test felt rather natural to her. The only issue was the fantastic depth and detail Storm always demanded, and Naomi had been going through and adding more to her answers when Storm ordered their "Quills down."

The Slytherin straightened herself help as her parchment slipped away into Storm's palm, pursing her thick lips into a contemplative pout as the professor started to go on about shields, and then raised a long arm in the air to answer, "'Dere's 'di Patrocinor family, wit' Expecto Patronum," she answered. It was one of the few spells she actually knew from an adult rather than years of sibling rough-housing. In the thick foliage of the Cockpit Country in Jamaica, where some living shroud made their home, that shield spell was essentially a witch's or wizard's third limb, "It's base is Patronum[1]"

1.	the base isn't listed in the AO Lexicon so I am just making things up now.

We'll make it Patrocinor so it matches the others, where the base spell is also the name of the family, I've added it into the Lexicon.

---

'Dere's 'di Patrocinor family, wit' Expecto Patronum, its base is Patrocinor."

Ah, thank Merlin, one of them was awake and with brain cells. Storm was almost pleased to have Foley back in his classroom, though his face didn't hint it.

"Good Foley," The Professor praised, and uttered the rare "Point to Slytherin for the reference."

The chalk lurched into life squeaking across the blackboard enough for some of the softer girls to wince or clap their hands over their ears. It quickly scrawled out Patrocinor - Expecto Patronum.

"Another, even if you cannot name the incantation, speak up." He folded his arms once more and peered down at the fourth years with intent.

Blake had grumbled like most of his classmates at Storm's pop quiz, but the once uber studious Ravenclaw was fairly confident in his ability to fly by the seat of his pants. Afterall, that was how he had managed to get straight A's on all his previous year's exams with very little studying. All Blake was concerned about was that he got what he needed to pass. Why bother stressing out about tests until it counted?

Of course, the benefits of  being such a bookworm for his first two and a half years at school was that he could recall quite a bit of information that he had read along the way. Not that he had a photographic memory, but all the information was somewhere up in his brain. It was just a matter of getting it to come out in the right situations.

And one just so happened to present itself now.

After Naomi's answer, Blake raised his hand and politely waited to be called on by Storm. Then he offered, "Another family of shield charms involves the base Protego." Blake paused and his blue eyes darted to some of his classmates. "Not that I've had much experience using them, but there are a few different ones. Protego Duo, Protego Maxima, and....one that sounds more severe, Protego Horribilis."

Blake caught sight of his twin brother, Harold, mocking him for his encyclopedic answer and shot him a glare. Then smirking, he wryly commented, "Unfortunately Professor Storm, as far as I have read, there are no charms that permanently shield oneself from annoying family members...." Raising his brows and flashing the professor a cheeky grin, he asked, "You wouldn't happen to know one of those, would you?"

A surprise test from Professor Storm wasn't that much of a surprise to Zoe. She knew how it was, the nicer teachers wouldn't give tests reviewing the previous year's material, the stricter ones would. Storm was diffidently one of the stricter ones. She had done review on the subject over the summer, though not much since she had gotten back to school. It was lucky Zoe could get bits of information out of the most hidden parts of her brain if she looked at a test question and really thought for a minute what the answer may be. The test didn't worry her too much overall.

The Professor's voice came to her ear and she dropped her eagle quill onto the desk quickly, so it wouldn't be taken from her. She had finished the test and had only been able to check the first few questions before the time was called. She felt pretty pleased with herself, the fact she had finished the test at all was good. Zoe leaned back to allow her paper to be taken more easily.

The young witch gave Ambrose a look of sympathy. Already a detention, poor guy. He had seemed pretty nice when they had met in Diagon Alley, though now she felt embarrassed that he'd been in her classes all along and she hadn't know his name. Names weren't really her strong point.

When Professor Storm asked the name for a shield spell Zoe's hand was raised. She never shot her hand up quickly, which would make it obvious that she was very confident in her answer and, with all the times she raised her hand in classes, would make her seem like a know-it-all. She also never raised her hand too slowly, paused when raising her hand, or didn't extend it fully over her head as this would make it seem she was unconfident of her answer, second-guessing herself, or didn't want to be called on but wanted to act like she was participating. Though it might seem that she was reading too far into hand-rasing it was very important to Zoe that she was the perfect student. If a teacher liked her more and trusted her they were likely to give her more responcibility and flexibility.

Zoe opened her mouth to say the Protego family but was cut off by Blake, who said it before her. She shot him a look. Another look when he commented about protection against siblings. This wasn't the proper time for those comments. "There is also the Munio family," she chimed in. "With Munio as the base and Munium Muri Ilii as a variation."

Casey was confident that his written work was up to Professor Storms standards. He always kept constant practice at home over the summer, although his schedule had been thrown off by the constant St. Mungo visits. The only times Casey attack the written page was to analyze spells.

He didn't mind Foley giving a reply first, or the others. He certainly wasn't going to mention the Patronus until his mood improved. Casey gauged which of the dwindling pool of Seven Families of Shield he should mention. He knew about them although some were more difficult than others.

Casey settled for simplicity to show his intelligence. "There is the Declino Family[1] of shields, with the base spell of the same name. In comparison to others they are the weakest in terms of strength, only able to deflect but not redirect a single spell targeting you in most cases. But if you aren't facing deadly magic, they are the quickest and easiest to perform."

Which was how Casey had hoped that impromptu sparring with Blossom would have gone, had the night not proceeded to go wrong at every turn.

1.	also in the AO lexicon

Professor Storm was a jerk! Honestly who made them do a pop quiz on the second day of class?!

Thankfully once she put her mind to it Ayla knew most of the answers to the questions on the quiz despite being so upset about having to take one. It suddenly made her happy she had made up with Dahlia over the summer. While she wasn't in her OWLs year yet she still had a feeling she was going to be needing her sister's help on a few things. The irony of asking a second year for help on fourth year material was not lost on her.

With quills away and Storm droning on Ayla had raised her hand to answer but as she wasn't called upon right away she found herself quickly distracted. Annoyingly her current distraction came in the form of one Blake Knight. Not only did the frustrating Ravenclaw steal her answer but simply speaking had caused her attention to be drawn to him. She had refused to talk to him all summer (not that she had really talked to him since Valentine's the previous year) and was promptly ignoring him now that they were back at Hogwarts.

His comment about family made her confused for a moment. She had been simply ecstatic when she found out her tormentor Callum Knight was not returning to Hogwarts that year that she had completely forgotten that the despicable Slytherin wasn't Blake's only sibling. Ayla dropped her hand and rested her elbow on her desk, her cheek cradled in her hand as she stared at Harold. A puzzled expression crossed her delicate features. Though the twins were fraternal, he looked a lot like Blake (enough to say they were brothers) but acted more like Callum, she supposed that was why she had never paid him much mind before. Now she found herself devising plots of getting back at Blake through his twin.

A misty expression clouded her eyes as Ayla was no longer present in the lesson but instead focused on the thoughts running through her head.

It was a welcome relief to Baxter to be back in class. Life felt like it was going back to normal, and even though he'd gotten a lot of comments about his change in appearance over the summer, things were relatively the same as they were last year. He wasn't sure why cutting his hair and bulking up caused such a stir, but at least there hadn't been many negative comments. He was beginning to look a lot more like his father, which was something he wasn't going to complain about.

The surprise test hadn't bothered Baxter. He had kept up with his studies over the summer, especially the last couple of weeks before school started so that he would be ready to start with new material. Though Baxter's father had talked him into dropping his least favorite electives (Divination and Care of Magical Creatures) in the hopes that Baxter's social life might improve, the young Ravenclaw still wanted to make school a priority.

He raised his hand after his housemates began to speak, ready to name his own shielding spell. "There is also the Adfirmo family," he spoke, his voice cracking in the middle of the spell name. He blushed, but continued on. "It strengthens your physical body as opposed to creating a shield or strengthening something you hide behind. The spell is controlled, however, because the Department of Mysteries hasn't yet discovered exactly how it affects the body long term." He swallowed after he finished talking, looking about sheepishly. His voice was still in the middle of changing- it hadn't improved over the summer, and it was cracking regularly now. Embarrassing.

Winifred was not happy about having to return to Professor Storm's class. She had hoped, however horrid it might have been, that perhaps he had been eaten by some kind of evil magical monster over the summer. Or, better yet, maybe he could have gotten sealed inside of a pyramid (had he gone to Egypt). But when she had returned to Hogwarts to find that not only was he still there, but now the deputy headmaster, her heart had sunk and she just knew it was going to be a very long, very terrible year.

But maybe, she hoped, maybe she would do a smidgen better now that she finally had a decent wand to work with for her spellworks. Winifred knew she would never be one of the best, but she could strive for average, couldn't she?

She immediately spied Ambrose when she came into the room, and plopped down in the desk next to him, flashing him a bright smile. Ambrose was one of her very best friends, and she had missed him a lot over the summer. She even waved brightly to Ayla when her friend came into the room. It had been a long week and she was glad that it was almost over...

And naturally Storm had to end it on a test. A test that she could barely remember any answers to. Detention? On Monday? Well, she'd probably have it.

Winnie couldn't remember any of the protective spells that Storm was talking about. Even when her classmates piped up, she wasn't sure that she actually recognized any of the ones that they were talking about. Her confusion was completely evident on her face, and she looked around the classroom, hoping to see at least one other student as lost as she was.

Kelvin had managed to make it to the last question on the quiz, though his detail on the other questions barely left him more than enough time for a couple of sentences on the last one.  He was definitely going have to get better at managing his time on tests and quizzes three years and he still hadn't managed to fully answer the last question on the quizzes in this class,  at least he had just finished his thought when he'd heard "Quill's down."

He listened to his classmates give examples of shield spells and the family those spells were from.  He caught Winifred's eye as she looked around, giving her a sympathetic shrug, it was obvious she didn't have a spell to offer the class. 

Kelvin raised his hand tentatively, "Aegis, from the Aegis family of spells," it had been in one of the old transfiguration books he'd bought and read over the summer marked by the last owner of the book as defensive, "Aegis spells conjure a physical shield"

"Another family of shield charms involves the base Protego. Not that I've had much experience using them, but there are a few different ones. Protego Duo, Protego Maxima, and....one that sounds more severe, Protego Horribilis." Knight offered. Meanwhile, his twin brother was attempting to get eye contact.

"Unfortunately Professor Storm, as far as I have read, there are no charms that permanently shield oneself from annoying family members…. You wouldn't happen to know one of those, would you?"

"Death." The Professor stated bluntly without a hint of humour.

With a flick of the wand the chalk began to write.
"Point to Ravenclaw., another?"

"There is also the Munio family, with Munio as the base and Munium Muri Ilii as a variation." Torret offered, and he gave a nod, the chalk continuing.
"Another to Ravenclaw, Torret."

Yet more hands up, dare he say it, this was pleasing to see.
"There is the Declino Family of shields, with the base spell of the same name. In comparison to others they are the weakest in terms of strength, only able to deflect but not redirect a single spell targeting you in most cases. But if you aren't facing deadly magic, they are the quickest and easiest to perform."

"Well remembered O'Doherty, point to Slytherin."

"There is also the Adfirmo family," Fox offered, a little embarrassed at his voice changing, but the Professor showed no sign of having noticed this quirk. His classmates would do all that without Professor Storm choosing to prey on it. "It strengthens your physical body as opposed to creating a shield or strengthening something you hide behind. The spell is controlled, however, because the Department of Mysteries hasn't yet discovered exactly how it affects the body long term."

"Very good Fox, another point to Ravenclaw." The chalk continued to squeak and write the answers from the students. "Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, come on now."

Another Ravenclaw hand, Professor Storm nodded.

"Aegis, from the Aegis family of spells, Aegis spells conjure a physical shield"

"Good, yet another to Ravenclaw." The chalk squeaked, "And finally, the Obex family, which lend themselves to protection against physical assault than magical."

Patrocinor - Expecto Patronum
Protego - Protego Duo, Protego Maima, Protego Horribilis
Munio - Munium Muri Ilii
Declino -
Adfirmo -
Aegis -
Obex -

"These are all summarised in your text book, and although you are not expected to perform every type of shield for your exams, you are expected to know a little history of their development and be able to understand which is best to use in a given situation on your written examination paper. The one, solid shield spell you must display in your practical is Protego." The Professor picked up the chalk and underlined Adfirmo.
"Homework for submission next lesson, a complete evaluation of this shield family. Its development, history, significant uses in history, when it is best used, and how to cast. Any subsidary spells you can find. Learn these as you research, I will test you on them."

The Fourth Years were going to hear that word many times this term - so that by the time it came to their OWLs, they'd walk through with E's at least.

Who was he kidding, everyone apart from a certain few would.

"For now, revision of protego. Roughly in pairs, test each other with curses, speed of delivery - then team up into larger groups to test the strength of several spells against one. Just the base form for this lesson please. We will investigate two common subsidiaries later."

Zoe smiled as Professor Storm accepted her shield spell family. All of them were quickly named by students, and soon they were all on the board. This class was going well so far.

She scratched down a note of the homework Storm announced onto the pack of her hand, as she had no parchment out and it was easy enough to just copy it over once she did.

Once the professor said that they were going to work on Protego, a smile came to the Ravenclaw's face. Good thing her father had taught it to her over the summer, though the fact was she was only able to cast a pretty good reflecting shield, Zoe knew that once they teamed up into larger groups and did more spells at once she'd have to work hard.

Removing her wand from a robe pocket, Zoe rose from her chair and walked over to Ayla. "Want to be partners? You can try and curse me first." Zoe wanted to have the first oppertunity to try and improve her Protego, or else she might get something done to her when tested in groups. With Casey in the room she didn't want to take any chances.

Kelvin had been without his wand since the last Transfiguration class on wednesday, and while it had been an annoyance so far, he had been able to make it work in the other classes, but they hadn't been in a situation when everyone needed their wand at the exact same time, and he wouldn't be getting his wand back until the beginning of the transfiguration lesson after lunch.[1]

"Professor Storm, Sir" Kelvin said, sitting up straight in his desk, trying to look more confident than he felt with his wandless hand in the air.  "I do not have my wand with me today.  Professor Sandusky confiscated it when I attempted to show that twirling one's wand, habitually, does not prevent one from paying attention by twirling my wand as I offered to give the opposing argument to a question I'd already answered in class when no one else would speak up."  He paused before adding, "So, I'm not sure how I will be able to participate in your lesson today."

1.	Leopold's Transfigurations 4nd Year - New and exciting [Wednesday]

Naomi nearly had to bite her tongue to prevent from laughing at Storm's response to Blake's answer. And she pursed her lips into a smirk as she saw the expression on his twin's face, before turning back to pay attention to Storm. He told them to split off into pairs and Naomi immediately went over to Blake.

With a hand on her hip, and her wand twirling between her fingers, the Slytherin slyly hummed, "C'mon let'g go, you won't get away wit' being lazy today." Even though Blake was determined to get straight A's again, Naomi was determined he didn't. Forget that she had forsaken Transfiguration--that class officially didn't count that year.

But then Kelvin didn't have his wand, and she heard why he didn't have his wand. Naomi's shoulders went limp and her slim  hand stopped spinning her wand, as she furrowed her dark brows and twisted her lips into a confused pout. Turning to Watkins she nearly fell on the floor, "You... you... he what?"

Naomi pinned the professor for a jerk, but she didn't think anything happened after she left the class. She heard something about wand twirling going around the Ravenclaw and Slytherin houses, but she thought it was a joke or something. Well, she obviously missed something after she abandoned class and kidnapped Blake on Wednesday. Now she almost wished she didn't walk out of the class... not really.

Blake half expected a harsher comment from the defense professor at his cheekiness, but luckily he returned with what might be considered humor for the old wizard.

Blake grinned at the notion of offing one's family members to escape from them. The Ravenclaw even turned to his brothers and wagged his eyebrows as the conversation continued around him.

Blake perked up at the mention of the impending homework and he scribbled the details in his notes. Then he listened to the instructions for the rest of the tasks for that class.

A bustle of noise ensued following Storm's wish that they pair up to begin work. Naomi was already on a mission to get him onto the right track that year and he was about to protest her jibe at being lazy when Kelvin's voice cut in.

The news that his dormmate was without his wand was new to him, as even if Blake had be more observant of its absence, he wasn't the type to press someone like Kelvin for what was bothering him. Well, unless he seemed like he might want to share. And that was always touch and go.

Blake just woefully shook his head, wondering the full scope of events that he had missed from being pulled away from the class by Naomi. Raking his hand through his dark hair, he offered, "You...uh....could work with me and Naomi and we could take turns sharing our wands?" He couldn't help feel a little guilty, even though he didn't know what had happened. "I mean...if that's allowed..."