Defence Against the Dark Arts
Chapter One
The twelve students for Advanced 7th Year NEWT Defence against the Dark Arts filed their way into the small classroom designated for their use on the third floor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There was much talking, laughing and joking among the students of all four of the school houses as they perched on desks and chattered as they waited for their Professor to arrive. They had reason to be cheerful as this was their last day of lessons, they were reminiscing about their last seven years at school, friends, enemies, Quidditch rivalries, favourite teachers, least favourite teachers, gossip. The talk soon turned to the inevitable: leaving school, though the subject of NEWTS was not raised by mutual understanding that they were all worried enough about the upcoming exams without discussing them further.
"I'm going to miss this place…" Anna sighed wistfully, looking out of the window with a sad smile, seeing Hagrid terrifying a group of First Years in Care of Magical Creatures.
"Me too…" Josh replied, though his face was an exaggeration, as he teased his best friend, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her up and spinning her around in a circle. Anna squealed with laughter much to their friends' amusement.
"Put me down Joshua!" She giggled.
"You need to lighten up Anna. It's not like you're never going to see anyone again, and we've still got the exams to go…" He said with a grin. She gave in and smiled, but thought privately that it wouldn't be the same once they were out in the real world, away from the safe cocoon of Hogwarts.
Her thoughts were disrupted again though as Lu Chang charmed Anna's hair bright pink. Anna laughed at her Hufflepuff friend and returned the favour with a charm turning Lu's usually black hair to a vibrant blue. Soon the five girls in the class sported hair all colours of the rainbow and all were sitting and chatting.
Tom watched them with a smile, knowing his Head Boy credentials would be met with giggles and amusing hexes if used in this particular room of the castle. Josh took a seat next to his friend.
"You know, Anna's not the only one who's going to miss being here…" Tom said sadly. Josh noticed that his friends eyes lingered on the enigmatic figure of Lu, not sitting cross legged on a desk, laughing, her head thrown back with laughter. There was no doubt that Lu was beautiful, as was proven by her name written all over the notepads of many second and third year boys throughout the school, but Josh knew it wasn't just Lu's looks that had Tom enthralled.
"Just tell her Tom. You know you love her, and how many times have I told you that if you tell her you'll soon find out she feels the same. Even if she doesn't it's not like you'll lose her friendship…she's just not like that. I mean look how she is with Jack and they dated once, they're just friends…" Tom nodded and turned to Josh with a grin.
"You know, you've been saying these things to me for nearly six months, and I'm finally going to put you out of your misery…" Josh grinned excitedly waiting to hear Tom's plan, but they were interrupted as the door to the classroom and Professor Granger walked into the room. She stopped, looked around at them all and laughed. She walked to the front of the room, placed her bag on the desk and drew her wand as they all made their way to their seats.
"Well, looks like I'm the odd one out today…" She said, but with a flick of her wand her hair no longer fell in brown ringlets around her face, but was now golden blonde and perfectly straight. The girls clapped with delight and the boys wolf whistled teasingly as their favourite teacher sat on the edge of her desk to begin their last class at Hogwarts.