The pile of homework in Professor Storm’s hand increased steadily as the first years filed in. It was nine o’clock on Monday morning, and given it was about halfway through their first year, the motley crew of eleven year olds were well versed in the routine. No homework, meant an interrogation the moment you arrived, while anyone holding a piece of homework (or something they risked claiming passed for it) handed it over and scuttled to their assigned desk.

While the Professor ‘greeted’ them half a dozen paces inside the door at the back of the room, the space between the desks in the centre of the classroom behind him was filled with a long, thin table full of unusual shiny brass objects. Some of them had eyes which blinked at the first years and inspected them.

Childs (more informally known to his peers as ‘Bean Bum Bobbie’) was towards the back of the line and fumbled with his satchel, shoulders sinking. As he approached the Professor, he opened his mouth vacantly like a fish. At once, a box of sneakoscopes erupted into life, spinning, whistling and flashing. The Deputy Headmaster hardly needed the intervention of the objects, but it provided an amusing punctuation before Childs could utter any excuse.

“Detention,” Professor Storm informed the first year smoothly, “three o’clock, here, this afternoon.” His unsettling knowledge of the timetable meant there was rarely an escape, and after this lesson there would be many fingerprints to polish off the metalwork. “Sit.”

The command was uttered to the lot of them, voice raised over the whistling. The sound promptly wound down and the Professor swept along the side of the table to the front. He took long strides, boots indicating the long strides beneath his long teaching cloak that pleasingly drifted in his wake. A moment later, it and the pile of pitiful homework found their homes on his desk and chair respectively on the platform at the front of the room.

“You observe several objects set out,” he gestured at the head of the long, thin table, addressing the whole class now. “They all belong to the same general collective term of dark detectors. But do any of you recognise any specifically?”

Gryffindor Albie Gawmdrey Archie Gawmdrey

Hufflepuff Tempest Malinov Natasha Pratt Aoide Shacklebolt Wesley Wold

Ravenclaw Atlas Oluwa Insert wallflowers

Slytherin Nicola Bagnold +2 Elaine Bellamy Robert Childs Contessa Clarencieux Bridie Lyons-St. James Sulwen Reid Feliks Spectre +2 Emrys Westhaven

He stifled a yawn as he took his usual seat in the middle of the class, not quite awake. Feliks anticipated he would feel less sleepy soon - Professor Storm's lessons had that effect, even with a heavy breakfast (of oatmeal and poached pears and toast and butter and raspberry jam) in one's stomach. As Bobbie passed by, he flashed his housemate a sympathetic smile. It was stupid of Bobbie not to finish homework for Defences, of all classes.

             “You observe several objects set out...” began Storm.

Feliks sat straighter, willing himself to be an inch taller so that he could catch better sight of the dark detectors at the front. He'd been too busy talking to Nicola and Sulwen, in whispers, on the way in, and hadn't looked.

The boy wizard raised his hand, dark eyes having settled on one of the objects, which looked like a twisting golden rod . A cold feeling entered his stomach.

"That's a Secrecy Sensor," he announced plainly. "It will shake and shiver if someone is hiding something. But it cannot tell you what they are hiding."

When he was younger, a Sister at the Cottage had used a Sensor on him when he was caught sneaking around - but only once, because sensors only knew if you were lying. It could not get the truth out of you.

Cole entered Defense class alongside Feliks and Sulwen as per usual. The trio had been talking in soft whispers to each other, nothing of consequence, just idle chatter, but they made sure not to be too loud as to draw ire from the old Professor.

She settled into her seat as Storm began the lesson and looked the various objects over. The box of sneakoscopes had caught her attention, and pretty much everyone else's, the instant they burst to life. However it was the Secrecy Sensor that had Feliks speaking up.

"The box on the end is filled with Sneakoscopes. Probably the most well known of Dark detectors but not exactly the most useful. They go off when detecting deceit but considering how often people lie to each, I imagined it'd be going off non stop at school."

Cole spoke matter of factly without a hint of malice. She hadn't been scorned or blighted by a friend or a loved one, she simply believed it to be human nature to deceive. Besides, after growing up with a brother like Kyson she was hard pressed to take anything at face value. Not to mention her own mother was the PR director for their family's company, she basically lied for a living.

“That’s a secrecy sensor,” Feliks Spectre offered, when called upon. He elaborated without prompting.
“… Sneakoscopes,” Nicola Bagnold offered after her housemate, “… I imagined it’d be going off non-stop at school.”

“They do,” the Professor returned, the briefest glance at the cardboard box. One of his predecessors had collected them. From inspection, he believed they must have been confiscated in past decades. Each had a different design and some from fashions past.

“Two points each for Slytherin,” he added without fanfare, in reward for them both correctly identifying and detailing further.[1]

“Every item on this table is a form of dark detector - magical objects which are used to detect three broad areas: the lying of others, concealment - put simply hiding, or disguise and foes. The last could be in the form of known enemies, or other wixes with potent intent to harm you. Often simplified as ‘dark wizards’.”

The Professor added air quotes, for while First Years were taught simplified definitions, he discouraged the narrowing of the mind when it came to possible sources of harm. “Several of you have not yet taken this down…”

He paused to allow a flurry of parchment and quills, and flicked his wand at the chalk beneath the blackboard. It began to etch out the main points: dark detector: magical object used to detect 1. lying, 2. concealment, 3. enemies.

With a further twist and flick of his wand, the assortment of foe glasses levitated from the table. Gently he sent them off, one to a pair, above the heads of the note-taking students, before they landed with a clunk on the desks.

“These dark detectors are foe-glasses. If you turn to page fifty-six of your textbooks you will see an annotated diagram of one and instructions on how to interpret the readings. A foe glass looks like a mirror but shows the reflection of the enemies of the person who gazes into it. The closer the physical proximity to you, the clearer the picture.” Across the room, first year faces were distorted like a hall of mirrors as they took turns to peer into the glass.

“You have five minutes to examine what you see, and then write five observations in your notes.”

1.	If anyone wants to name another there’s probably a Probity Probe

Lessons like this made Feliks grateful to be at Hogwarts - they didn't just get to learn about things like sneakascopes and foe-glasses, they got to see them! Even use them. He lowered his quill as one of the mirrors approached his desk. Feliks exchanged a look with his partner[1] before peering into the reflection with a solemn face.

"Oh," he said very softly as a wrinkle appeared in his smooth brow.

There were figures in the glass. One or two were very very far away, so they looked only like silhouettes. This did not surprise Feliks, who knew who his mother was and that maybe some people meant him true harm because of something she had done to them. But one figure in particular was closer than the others.

Feliks jotted down his observations, counting the distant enemies as one observation. He couldn't make out much about the closer figure but he described it as well as he could, and added a few other observations about the mirror before nudging it so that his partner could have a go.

"It's a little scary," he remarked frankly, fiddling with his quill.

1.

Anyone!

Aoide had scooted around the imposing Professor once her homework was handed in. She always spent longer on it than the other subjects because she feared she would be put in detention for anything less.

Once behind him, she gaped at the weird objects on the long table, and jumped at the whistling box. Aoide hurried once more to her desk once she heard Bean Bum Bobbie’s fate, keen not to join him.

She set out her quill, ink, parchment and textbook as quietly as she dared, heart trilling like a mouse under the gaze of a cat. Her classmates began to identify the unusual items, earning points for Slytherin. She scribbled down the names, leaving space for the title, learning from experience.

The flurry of parchment and quills from her other classmates earned Aoide a little smug smile as she continued with her notes. It was always better to be safe than sorry and take notes from the start in this lesson.

As one of the items made its way to their desks, Aoide recognised what it was. Her mother had a foe glass at home, on her dressing table. It was nestled in amongst her mirrors, and she might examine it on a morning. Aoide had thought it was a magic mirror when she was younger. She had stood on the stool, braced, hands splayed on the cluttered top, surrounded by makeup bottles. There she had peered in and seen nothing than what appeared to be stormy clouds. Now, she felt a little trepidation as to what she might see. Who in the class had it in for her?

“Right, page fifty-six,” she spoke under her breath, prompting her partner[1] thoughtfully. The pages came open, complete with a diagram.

“Here goes!” She got to her feet and peered in, watching her own reflection vanish into shadowy dark clouds like those she had seen in her mother’s. Nothing? Was there, nothing? Then figures, indistinct, only roughly human by their outline. Aoide was relieved, though it gave her little to write down. Then, all of a sudden, a face loomed at her in the cloudy shadows, with a long nose and silver hair. Recognising the Professor immediately, she lurched back, her chair scraping across the classroom floor in her right.

“I must, I must have done the homework wrong…!” She whispered urgently, going pale.

1.	Figured I wouldn’t partner with Feliks to make it easier for others to join

Ivy jumped. Dropped her quill. "Aoide! What is it? What did you see?" Ivy was very concerned. "What homework?" Ivy asked that question frequently. But she had done it. Normally. Ivy quickly looked in. Wondering if she would see the same. Clouds. Lots of dark clouds. Then a flash of Slytherin robes. Ivy gasped. Quickly looked behind her. At all the slytherins. Suspicious. Worried. She bit the end of her thumb. This subject was an anxiety trip!

“The homework we gave in when we arrived,” Aoide replied in a low mutter, dread sinking into her stomach like ice water. Ivy had stretched forward to look in now Aoide had retreated, and suddenly darted back and turned on the spot to look at the row behind them.

“I saw the Professor,” Aoide explained, in yet quieter tones, fearing he might give her some kind of detention for seeing him in the foe glass. “But I couldn’t work out who anyone else was. What did you see?” She caught Ivy’s arm, keen to understand how it differed.

"Phew!" Said Ivy. She handed in that homework. "I saw Slytherin robes." Whispered Ivy. Glancing about. Her foe could be listening!

"I think I would prefer to see the Professor." Said Ivy louder. "At least I know exactly who he is." Well. She thought she did. Some of the older students had tried to convince them he was an escaped criminal. Another a vampire. Ivy's big sister had told her it was all made up. But she should totally fear him still. That had not helped Ivy's nerves!! "Are you going to write that down?" Asked Ivy. "What is he going to think if you write him down?"

Five minutes swept past, much like the Professor did around the classroom, his mere proximity ensuring no student had a chance to be off task. The first years dipped in and out of the foe glass lenses, and scribbled their attempts and descriptions down. The Hufflepuffs seemed perturbed by what they saw, the girls whispering to each other urgently and peering in with worried frowns. Spectre seemed in strange awe at being able to examine the foe glass closer.

"Are you going to write that down? What is he going to think if you write him down?" Ivy Abbott's whispers travelled further than she intended as she addressed Aoide Shacklebolt. It might be his imagination but both girls had paled several shades in the last few minutes.

"Worse than if you fail to write anything, Abbott," he interrupted them. The raise of his silver eyebrow indicating she better hurry to write something down.

"Beneath your observations," the Professor addressed the class, "a paragraph weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of a foe glass. What is the purpose of it, does it have any valid use or is it entirely useless to the modern mage?"

Silence fell across the room as the first years hurried to comply, though Childs seemed to be sucking on the end of his quill in absent-minded thought, much to the Professor's disgust. Given the boy had already been issued a detention, he elected to ignore this empty-headed behaviour and instead issued each pair with a slender golden rod.

"These are?[1] Correct, a Probity Probe. Work together to correctly locate concealment spells and hidden magical objects about the classroom."[2]

1.	Feel free to have your student answer correctly.
2.	There's an abundant amount of weird stuff in the cabinets down the side of the room, let your imagination run wild as to what he's randomly hidden/concealed.