Professor Snape entered the classroom quietly. His mantle and robes billowed like a Dementor's, but the silence he brought with his entrance gave everyone the desire to be silent, less they be dead. The Defense Against the Dark Arts books upon our tables were moved away, all floating off to the side together with the desks, and the chairs. This forced us all to stand up.
Amanda was trembling by my side.
"I will need a volunteer," professor Snape said, silkily. His eyes scanned the crowd of gathered students. "Someone brave, and thus inevitably foolish."
"Please don't let him take me," Amanda whispered under her breath, a constant mumbling that made me actually sigh in her direction. I patted the back of her hand, much to her surprise, and gave her a confident smile.
One should always give kindness to the poor unfortunate soul just about ready to be sent to the slaughter, after all.
"Miss Brocklehurst," professor Snape said in the end, freezing poor Amanda's heart in her chest. "Come forward."
"I'm going to die," she whimpered, but then courageously took a few steps forward. Hesitantly, she reached for the head of the class and swallowed. "H-Hello professor," she stuttered, trying to smile, "F-Fancy how life works, uh?"
"Silence, Miss Brocklehurst," professor Snape replied amiably. "Silence is such an important thing, that many a student forgets to use it when needed. That will be ten points from Ravenclaw," his eyes narrowed. "Now take a few steps away from me, and lift your wand."
Amanda did just that, her eyes seeking for aid and finding none. I made the sign of the cross, whispering an Ave Maria towards her.
"Non Verbal spells," he spoke. "The art of being deadly without uttering a single word, of throwing spells with the same ease as one's thoughts," he glanced at the gathered students. "Some of you," he looked at me, "Have taken to mastering the art. For those, I will have something else in reserve. For the rest of you, however," he flicked his wand, silently, wordlessly, and an Expelliarmus forced Amanda to let go her wand as she ended up flung off her feet and forced a few meters back. She actually kept her balance, swaying her arms wildly to avoid falling down. "You will practice silently casting an Expelliarmus and a Protego charm with a partner. There will be no speaking. There will be no needlessly silly throwing of other charms."
He then looked at me, "Mister Umbrus," he said in the end, "You will be practicing the same, but without your wand."
I blinked. "Just say it you want me dead too, professor," I said.
Professor Snape smiled thinly. "Come to the front," he extended a hand, and my robes were pulled forward by an invisible force. By the time my feet touched the ground, I was already in front of the man. "Since it would be preposterous to find you a suitable partner, I will take over."
Something told me it would hurt. "I will start with simple stinging hexes, easy to deflect, or block," he lifted his wand and his eyes shone with the triumph of a bully being told he had free reign of the playground.
What had I done wrong, professor Snape? Have I displeased you, sir? Why have you forsaken me?
By the time the lesson was over, I couldn't feel most of my skin any longer. Sure, the stinging went away with ease once a counter-hex was spoken, but it still hurt. Near the end of it I reckoned I had at the very least gotten used to the stinging, or somehow managed to form a barely acceptable shield to dull the blows.
"Did you anger him off more while I wasn't looking so he'd concentrate on you rather than on me?" Amanda asked, surprised she hadn't been flayed alive. I gave her a weak smile, and shrugged.
"Mysterious are the ways of the Professor Snape, what angers him one day is what pleases him the next," I said, imitating a wise voice.
"You should take that as a yes," Megan said in turn, appearing from behind us with a smile on her face. "We've got Potions next with Professor Slughorn," she added. "So I'll be stealing your white knight away like the wicked witch I am."
"Meg!" she hissed sharply, "He's not my white knight," Amanda huffed, rolling her eyes. "He's a twinkling archmage."
"That's because you haven't seen the armor and sword I keep hidden for the final battle against the forces of evil," I replied nonchalantly. "I even have a mighty steed to ride on."
Both girls blinked at my words, and then Megan sighed. "You didn't get rid of the dragon gargoyles, did you?"
"Why would I ever get rid of Shadowdrake and his brood?" I retorted, sounding honestly shocked. "They're the cutest little things ever."
"They pinned down and killed a real dragon, Shade," Amanda said in turn. "They're dangerous."
"To anyone but me," I huffed, rolling my eyes. "We nearly risked having to spend a year with Hagrid hunting for Manticores in the Forbidden Forest, and if that had happened, you would have cherished the added protection of my fully functional Draghuls and their deadly breaths."
"Breaths? As in, more than one?" Megan asked, sounding strangely intrigued. "Did you take a page out of the Advanced Potions' Book on how to create two Potions from the same cauldron by setting a thin air barrier between the two solutions?"
My smile blossomed into a bright, blinding star. "That I did! I even went as far as place a self-replicating Gemino charm to mass recreate from the original deadly concoction-since it's effects don't last for long, as long as the original remains in stasis, it can potentially keep on breathing fire, or ice, forever."
"But won't that diminish the efficacy of the potion?" Megan asked.
"Well, it would if the original particulate actually left the enclosed space. However, since the Gemino charm actually creates a duplicate nearby, but not necessarily formed from the original itself, all that one needs is to enclose the duplicate in an easily breakable small phial of glass, have it duplicate alongside the concoction, but keep the original one behind an enchanted wire mesh. Hence, the non-original one falls down and breaks in the stomach, unleashing the volatile gases or the magical release one-" as I babbled on, I dimly realized Amanda was looking at Megan with a strange, puzzling look.
Megan simply smiled back.
"I'll need to practice with the Non Verbal spells," Amanda said instead, interrupting me. "Want to practice later?"
"Sure," I said with a knowing nod. "It's hard only at the beginning, then it becomes relatively easier-"
"And what about the risk of a contamination from external agents?" Megan asked, abruptly interrupting me once more.
"Well, for that one needs a proper cleansing charm that-"
"Are there any books on Non-Verbal spells you'd suggest-" Amanda interrupted me.
I opened my mouth, but Megan hastily asked another question.
I stopped walking as I stared, dumbfounded, as the two girls asked questions towards me while still walking forward, glaring daggers at one another. I silently put a hand to my face, closed my eyes, then exhaled very loudly while staring up at the ceiling.
"Hey Shade," Wayne piped in, appearing from a hallway nearby. "Headed for Potions too?"
"Yep," I said, grinning at him. Then, I pointed a finger in the direction of the two girls that were ahead of us by a good distance, asking questions to a phantom-like existence that wasn't really there. "My shadow's gone ahead with the girls."
Wayne snickered. "Want a chocolate candy?" he extended one from his pockets, "None of that Weasley Twins prank stuff though," he added. "Now that they've opened their shop in Hogsmeade, you need to be careful about what people offer you."
I accepted the candy, and popped it in my mouth. "Thanks, Wayne."
"What else are friends for?" Wayne replied, and together we walked forward, headed for Professor Slughorn's classroom.
As I mulled over my thoughts while suckling the chocolate candy, I wondered what could possibly go wrong this year. Sure, Professor Lupin's mysterious disappearance could be attributed to some actual prior obligation of sorts, but I had a dreadful feeling that the fact it was coupled with Hagrid's own leave made things quite more complicated than they had been in the past.
If Hagrid had gone to the giants, then perhaps it came to term that Lupin had gone to the werewolves.
Even so, it meant that things were in motion behind my back.
Once I was done with taking a Slug by the Horn...
...I'd take a Dumble by the Dore.