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Hogwarts 2022 - Practical Defense Against the Dark Arts

“Are you serious?” Burke muttered to nobody in particular as the last of the students scurried from the room. “I block the most obvious direct attack spells, and everyone runs?” Then he chuckled and shook his head. “Still, running away is often the strongest defense.”

Shaking his staff and causing it to vanish up his sleeve, he stepped backwards off the platform. The still-active spell on his shoes allowed him to drop silently and safely to the mats beneath. A brief skating motion took him over and away from the mass of tar he’d transmuted. “That,” he declared as he tucked his wand away, “is that.”

Turning slightly he addressed the only other person in the room. “I think you’ll have your work cut out for you, Mina. These students were not ready for this exercise.”
 
"Well no Edmund, they were not ready for that lesson." She sounded slightly annoyed with him but then began to laugh. "But you haven't sent quite all of them scurrying." She said proudly as she spied young Charles laying low but still braving the lesson. "You can come forward Charles, I think Professor Burke has made his point." She gave him several claps of her hand. "Good show young man, 10 points for Ravenclaw." She told him as she mussed his already messed up hair. "I hope you didn't mind the vines." She said with a bit of a smirk as if she was pretty sure he hadn't minded one bit. Even if she had lashed him to what was probably a bit more girl than he was prepared for, but everyone needs a challenge now and then. "You should gt going, it is late. But I am very proud of you." She gave him a brief hug as she dismissed him from the lesson.

Alone now with Professor Burke her mood soured a bit. "It is hardly surprising, you know what the training has been like here. The limitations they put on you, and now me." She laughed recalling the lesson itself. It had been interesting. "You might have started off a little less...intense." By her standards it was a minor rebuke, but their history together was not always the smoothest.

@Silverbird @TheCorsair
 
Charles was beginning to wonder if he should be listening to this conversation — or if the professors even knew he was still there — so when Professor Augsburg suddenly called him out by name, he shot immediately to his feet with an almost guilty look on his face. “Um, right!”

He hadn’t been eavesdropping on purpose, but the vibes between the two professors were weird enough that he’d have been happy to avoid getting dragged in between them. Still, it wasn’t like he was going to ignore the professor, and at her urging he stepped awkwardly forward to join them. Her praise, and her fingers through his hair, had him blushing furiously; he wasn’t sure he’d really done much to earn it, and he was certain Professor Burke agreed, but he felt some small measure of pride at her words all the same. Of course, his embarrassment only grew when the professor brought up the vines.

“Oh, not at all, it was… fine…” The young wizard tried to play it cool, but the hesitation in his voice — and the fact that he was looking anywhere but at his professors — kind of gave the game away, if the redness of his cheeks hadn’t already. He practically let out a sigh of relief when the professor dismissed him a moment later, and once he was free of her hug he hurried to retrieve his robe and get out of there. He only paused when he reached the doors, and then only to call back a quick farewell.

“Good night, professors!”

By the time he made it back to the Ravenclaw common room, Charles’ mind was a blur with the events of the night. He collapsed into bed with his heart still pounding in his ears and stared up at the ceiling as it replayed in his mind: Augsburg and Burke’s defence, his charge forward, the Slytherin girl’s hand on his pants and her soaked blouse pulled tight against her skin…

It took him a very long time to fall asleep.
 
“I did start off less intense,” William laughed. “I cast nothing exotic - no elemental conjurations, no area-impacting mental commands or transformations. There was nothing they couldn’t have handled with their current level of education, had they simply taken the time to assess the situation.”

Still chuckling, he looked around the Grat Hall. Slowly, the laughter died as he took in the mess. Tar coating the floor. Windows blown out by the overpressure from his thunderclap. Pieces of dueling stage scattered about, and pools of water covering the flagstones. “Of course, we may have created an excessive amount of work for the house elves.”

He shrugged. “Ah well. One can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. What do you have planned as a follow-up for their education?”
 
"You mean besides a critical incident stress debriefing for some of them?" She laughed at the idea though, feeling some were borderline cowardly in their reaction. Not having children herself, she tended to think most parents were over-protective of their progeny which didn't help them reach their full potential as young adults. As a muggle born, she needed to learn to navigate the wizarding world without her parents help. She had relied on some professors and more than a few classmates, though she wondered how well they would have fared in such a lesson as this one. "How does one teach courage?" She asked, sharing a knowing look with Edmund, despite their frequent friction they had shared enough near death experiences to have a special bond as well. "I was pleasantly surprised by a few of them", she thought of Charles among one or two others, "but dreadfully disappointed in them as a class."

"I won't leave it all for the house elves, I had prepared a substitution charm to swap out this, wreckage." She surveyed their handiwork, well mostly Edmund's and a few students. She held out her wand but waited until they were both in the large doorway and clear of the great hall itself. With a flick of her wrist and few magical words the hall was returned to its normal state. She would need some time to reset the substitution before their next lesson. She was reasonably sure there would be a next lesson, no one was taken to the hospital wing, at least that she knew of.

"But first I need a bath, that damn tar of yours..."
 
“I guess it would be rude to leave it all to them,” William agreed, drawing his wand. He waited as Mina’s stored spells triggered, cleaning away most of the debris and damage. Most, but not all. The pool of tar he’d transmuted remained stubbornly behind.

Raising his wand, he made a counterclockwise gesture. “Negate muto,” he declared, and there was a popping sound as the tar puffed and transformed back into a gym mat. Then, with another flourish, he jabbed the wand like an epee while uttering the command “fieri ventus!” The mat shuddered and vanished, becoming a breeze that tugged at his hair and jacket.

“There,” he announced, tucking his wand away once more. “You should probably give some thought to how you want to grade this as well. I could…”

“But first I need a bath,” Mina interrupted with a note of disgust.

William continued, mouth running on autopilot as he finished his sentence before registering what she’d said. “I could help with that.”

“That damn tar of yours..." she finished.

“It’s…”. He blinked as he realized what he’d said. Well, fuck. How was Mina going to take that?
 
"Yea I bet you could." She gave him her usual half disgusted half interested look that she usually offered when a man made some sort of sexual innuendo. But as she thought about the context of their discussion and how the two of them had a habit of talking at each other rather than to each other, she realized it might have been an honest mistake. They had, in her opinion, always been more physically than emotionally compatible. There were few she would rather have at her side in a fight than Edmund Burke, she was less proud to admit their sharing a bed from time to time, but couldn't deny it had always been satisfying, at least in the moment.

As he blinked she could tell he was bracing himself for her response. Historically he was more likely to receive a wicked retort (or worse) than an invitation. But the mock battle had gotten her blood up and with its rather unsatisfactory conclusion, she knew she needed an outlet for the adrenaline that was still in her veins.

Her look softened a little and she actually smiled. "Well it does seem to need your special attention to be rid of it for good." She wasn't the type to make too open of an invitation, especially here at Hogwarts. Then remembering they couldn't just discreetly apparate to her quarters, not in Hogwarts she sighed resignedly. "I want to use my bath." She said firmly, she did love her forest pool charm and didn't want to be caught in a staff shower by Mr. Morehead, the creepy old janitor that had replaced Mr. Filch. "I do NOT want this being the talk of the school, so give me 15 minutes and be discreet." Her eyes bore into him to make her point. She was far from in love with Edmund Burke, but she had an appreciation for a good booty call when she needed one, and she definitely needed one tonight.
 
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