Your student has already arrived, unless you PM me to arrange to arrive late (with consequences), thanks.

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Professor Storm had inwardly cursed himself when he realised he was first in the queue to teach the first years on September 2nd. Yesterday had been a long train journey, a great feast and their sorting, and last night had been their first in the dorms. They were a mixture of excitement, fear and lack of sleep at eight o'clock that morning as they made it to the first floor with some quick help from prefects. They'd only had to pull one out of the missing step on the stairs, and one had fallen flat on their face with the long robes.

Eventually they were all assembled in the classroom, clasping copies of the first year text book and their wands and fresh quills and parchments, their eyes wide, though a lot of them looked like they hadn't slept a wink. A couple of them looked like they'd had trouble dressing themselves...

"Here marks the start of five years at Hogwarts." He addressed the first years, his sentence beginning abruptly and sharply to get their full attention as his sharp blue eyes swept across them. "An unrelenting path of study in Astronomy, Charms, Transfiguration, History, Herbology, Potions - and the most important lesson of them all - Defence Against the Dark Arts. For, what use is brewing a potion, if you can't keep yourself safe from curses, the suffocation of a lethifold, the erasure of your very memories or the bite of an untempered werewolf, to keep your life?" He began a slow and steady route around their desks, his eyes keenly examining both their reactions and what they were up to.

"Some of you may have grown up in the Muggle world, where you may have felt relatively safe, while others of you may have grown up in the wizarding world with a polarised view of dangers. Here at Hogwarts your mothers and fathers are far away, and as close as the edge of the woods roam creatures that would gladly tear you limb from limb." As he said it, he drew his wand and aimed it sharply at a boy who had been fidgeting throughout his address, and with a sudden intake of breath, the Hufflepuff's arms and legs snapped to his sides and he toppled from his seat into the gap between the rows of desks.

This, pleasingly, caused a bit of commotion, and was rather telling in who would be scared to raise their wand in his presence, and who would brandish it willingly.

Professor Storm made his way slowly and purposefully down the row from the back of the room to a few feet from the student's back. All he could move was his eyes and they were darting around at the faces peering down at him, and then stared in fright at the Professor who peered down with indifference, wand in hand, giving the slightest of cold smirks before addressing the class, and stepping over the boy - boot grazing his nose.

"The next one of you who fidgets will lose their feet. Madam Nagde, our healer, can grow them back, but it takes time."

The first morning at Hogwarts had been just as exciting as the night before. Harri had sat at breakfast stuffing her face with eggs and sausages and let out a whoop of surprise and excitement when the morning Post arrived - via Owl! As she made her way to the first ever magical class of her life she soaked in all the information she could from her fellow chatty first years. Those that had older siblings were rife with stories about how horrible the Old Professor was. Harri wasn't like to believe any of them. She may have been from a normal family but she had come to expect the Wizard's flair for the dramatic. Everything they said seemed to be exaggerated ten fold.

Harri sat in class with her uniform as neat as she was ever to get it, her shirt buttoned all the way up under her knit vest and her tie knotted at her neck. She had been pleasantly surprised to find that it had been pre knotted for her when she woke up that morning (one of her dorm mates said that the elves had done it in the middle of the night, another Wizard exaggeration she was sure) The only thing not regulation was the knit cap she had shoved over her matted brown hair. She was getting used to tucking her wand up into it.

With rapt attention she listened to every word the Old Professor had to say. She briefly wondered if she should have been writing it all down, at least two of the blue and cream clad kids - Ravensomethings - were doing so, but then the Professor hexed one of the yellow and black kids and she figured moving probably wasn't a good idea right now. While her fellow classmates quaked with fear of being his next victim Harri's eyes widened with excitement and she had to actually bite her tongue to stop herself from asking the Old Professor to do it again.

When he was done with his speech she barely registered that her hand had shot into the air and without waiting for an invitation blurted out, "When do we get to learn that?!"

It had been a rush of a morning for Morrigan. She had got on well with the other girls in her dorm and they had all chattered away while they dressed. One of them had to do it twice because she had become so distracted. Morrigan had managed her mess of red hair in to a fluffy ponytail, stuffed her bag full of books, parchment, ink, and quills, and swept upstairs to breakfast with the others. The gaggle of Hufflepuff First Year girls had been knitted so close together, they had given other students the impression that they were all bound together with some invisible rope. Seeing as how her shoes had already become scuffed from the other girls pushing and walking on them, Morrigan had decided to break away from them. They were terrified, and the boys at breakfast had not been much braver.

The singular Hufflepuff did not feel brave as she made her way to the first class of the year. She was not terrified of bullies or getting caught up in the crossfire of older students hexing each other, like the other first years were. Her older siblings had given her fair warning of the practical things at Hogwarts. Thus, Morrigan gave an experienced leap over the vanishing step on her way to class. Angerona had warned her of the old coot on the first floor, their DADA professor, but over the summer the youngest Blackthorne had expressed this concern with Serenity. Serenity got along quite well with most of her teachers and gave her some sound advice.

When she entered the classroom and saw him, she honestly did not know what to think. She had almost sat down with her clump of fellow housemates until she spotted Harri Dursley and ran over to join her instead. The girl managed a brief, but excited "Hi" before the class actually began. His speech made her wary and once he fully paralyzed a Hufflepuff boy she had been talking to at breakfast, her eyes went wide. Angerona had been right! Did her other sister Serenity know what he was like? Morrigan reached for her wand tucked just inside a special pocket sewn for her by her mother and extracted it, but she paused with it halfway out. What would she do with it? She didn't know any spells!

Harri's hand shot up and the girl's question drew Morrigan's admiring gaze to her friend. Though, she was a little disturbed that Harri was asking when they would learn that curse. The red haired Hufflepuff sat her wand on the desk in case it was needed again and she put her own hand up.

"And when will we be learning the counter-curse for that, sir?"

It seemed like a good question at the time. After all, this was a class to practice defending oneself, wasn't it?

"When do we get to learn that?!" One of them exclaimed, and at first glance, Ignan wasn't entirely sure it were girl or boy who had exclaimed beneath the mop of short hair - at this age they all had irritating squeaky voices.

"And when will be learning the counter-curse for that, sir?" A red haired girl echoed, their hands in the air.

The Professor turned back to look at them both, wand tip held between the fingers of his left hand as he did, accidentally-on-purpose catching the Hufflepuff on the floor with his boot.

"Sooner than you might think." He took a step back from the boy on the floor, and lowered his wand to point at him. The eyes widened in fear, and Professor Storm tried not to take too much pleasure out of it.

"Finite," he cast aloud for the benefit of these young ears, turning his wand cleanly.

The Hufflepuff on the floor blinked, wriggled his fingers and cautiously picked himself up off the floor while everyone else craned for a look from their seats.

"Next time your feet," the Professor told him, "and you can try walking without them." Without a pause he looked to Harri who had spoken first,
"Dursley! On your feet, out from behind your desk."

As Harri obliged, the Professor took his wand between the tips of the fingers of both hands.
"Your wands, first years, have a right and and a wrong end. The handle, shaft and the tip." He gestured to the elements of each. "They will only work if you hold your wand by the correct end. This will become clear in your lessons, but is far more important in mine. If you want to liquify your internal organs it'll almost certainly happen in this classroom."

Looking to Harri, the Professor turned his wand to point at her.
"Feet shoulder width apart, balanced weight, hold your wand firmly but not tight, enough not to throw it as you cast. Point it at your opponent, aiming for the chest, a nice broad space to target - Petrificus Totalus!" The spell, though invisible, hit Harri exactly as he had described.

"This is the full body bind curse." The Professor explained, leaving Harri on the floor for the timebeing. She could still hear him perfectly well. "And Blackthorne, the counter-curse - you heard?" He looked to the other girl, seeing if she would confirm it again to prove she had been listening, "finite is the general counter curse."

He twitched his wand and released Harri.
"Dursley, describe the effects of the spell to your classmates. Though wait one moment while they all make a horrific noise as they realise they should have been writing this down for the past few minutes, and find some parchment and a quill." He had raised his left hand palm towards her to indicate to hang on, while he rolled his eyes.

Once the worst of the rustling had stopped, he gestured to her to carry on, turning away to the board as she spoke, so as to write up the two spells upon the board. First years couldn't spell, some of them struggled to write their names.

Harri did as she was instructed, moving out from behind her desk and in front of the Professor. She briefly wondered if she had done something wrong. It was unusual for her to be called upon to help out in a class but not so much to be chewed out or disciplined. She barely flinched when he raised his wand to her, part of her was certain a Teacher wouldn't harm her while another part was still ignorant enough to not be afraid of a wand being wielded by a very experienced Wizard.

" - Petrificus Totalus!"

The Professor yelled some gibberish at her, there was a bit of a white flash and she felt herself fall down unable to move. There was a strange sensation washing over her but before long she was released and she got to her feet with a wide smile on her face no doubt making her fellow students think she was completely mental. This time around she wasn't about to ask him to do it again but she was still excited. She had seen real magic and he had used it on her and now she knew how to use it herself. She was going to love this class.

This time she didn't hide her chuckle as her classmates scrambled for quill and parchment just as he had predicted. She gave them as much time as she could manage, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She had never experienced being a good pupil before, being chosen for a demonstration, being the one her peers had to listen to and not about some lame apology the teachers were making her recite.

"It was wicked, it didn't hurt." She said quickly noticing more than one terrified face amoungst the students, "It was more like, you know when you're playing footie and the ball hits you right in the chest and knocks the wind out of you? It's like that but you don't move afterwards." She looked to the Professor wondering if he was expecting a little more out of her.

"Good Dursley, and did you attempt to move and resist the spell at all?" He asked, keen to encourage her to elaborate as the other first years gawped at her.

"Point to Gryffindor." He spoke eventually, uttering words that few students ever got to hear in that classroom. There was a muttering amongst the students, and he remembered of course that this was their very first Hogwarts lesson.

"Occasionally for fine work and demonstration," The Deputy Headmaster explained, "A Professor may award house points at their own discretion. Take your seat, Dursley, thank you."

He turned away and attended the blackboard at the front of the classroom, writing up Petrificus Totalus in as clear writing as he could manage - his quill script was often rather scratchy. He reached across to his desk and seized a well-eared copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection.

"Trimble, page nineteen." He flipped open the page in his own copy as the first years scrambled to grab theirs. "You will find a simple description of the spell, incantation, combined with this symbol here."

The Professor turned the book in his hand to show the first years and pointed with the end of his wand to the wand movement diagram on the page.

"Tell me what do you suppose this diagram is to represent?" He asked the first years, eyes sweeping over their heads to find a raised hand, or a victim to prey on instead.

The spell was in the first chapter but not the simplest in the book. Always more fun to throw them in a little deeper after all. Once he had obtained a correct answer from the students he moved on.

"Your homework will be brought to our next lesson on Monday, nine o'clock, and shall be four inches of parchment on the Body-Bind curse ." He tapped the book to emphasise he was referring to the spell in the book. "Your observations of the effects on others, and your observations of the effects on yourselves. Each of you will have experienced it at least once by the end of this morning's lesson. I will give you a moment to take that down."

He set aside the book back on his desk again and extended his wand to the board where the chalk hopped up from the bottom and began to scrawl for next lesson, 4" beneath the incantation.


End