If there was one class that just about everyone agreed was horrible, it was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Quirrell seemed more frightened of his shadow than interested in teaching anything useful or having the shakes for seemingly no apparent reason.
During the first DADA class of the second week, it all came to a head as Quirrell just fainted away. Some of the girls squeaked in fear while the boys just looked confused.
"I'm going to go get a teacher!" Harriet declared. "Does any know First Aid?"
Ron Weasley looked confused. "What's First Aid?"
Dean Thomas nodded to Harriet, "I do. I'll see what we can do to help him."
Harriet took off running down the hall outside. "Hello! Anyone? We need help!" she shouted.
A door that she was just passing suddenly slammed open. "You! Girl! What are you doing?" an irate witch demanded. She had a severe expression, even is she was not that old. In the classroom behind her was a small room full of older students.
"I'm sorry, Professor, but Professor Quirrell just collapsed!" the distraught girl tried to explain.
"So why are you heading away from the infirmary then?" the older woman demanded.
"I don't know where the infirmary is yet! I just started here." Harriet hurried to follow the other woman back to her class.
"Ah! First year, of course. You won't have the chance to be in my class for another two years. Move aside, move aside I say!"
The First Years parted for her. Ron suddenly declared, "He said he was starting to feel better, but then just fainted again."
"This isn't very good." With a swish of her wand, she levitated him. "You all stay here until a Professor arrives to tell you otherwise." And with that, she disappeared.
Neville timidly spoke up, "He was sick at the breakfast table too. I heard this class is supposed to be jinxed."
"We should all study our notes until a professor shows up!" Hermione declared.
Seamus Finnegan rolled his eyes. "We don't have any new notes. What are we supposed to do, teach ourselves?"
The bushy-haired girl looked as if her pet had just been ran over at losing her class time. "I don't know, I guess. I really do want to learn everything I can."
Harriet sat back down after making sure she wasn't a mess from her dashing around. "Did you see in that part about Higglypunks about how you are supposed to use a repulsion jinx on them to keep them away?" she said to distract her friend.
Ron rolled his eyes. "We haven't learned any jinxes. Just reading books."
"Oh! They explain how to do that in a latter chapter. I think it was page 52." Hermione was smiling.
"You just want us to try to cast the spell on our own?" the red-headed boy exclaimed.
Harriet was studying the explanation of the spell very closely. She stood up and pointed her wand at a chair. "Renuo!" she shouted while moving her wand with half-circle swish that ended in a jab. The chair shot off at an angle, spinning wildly. "That wasn't quite what I meant to do!"
"Wicked! I've got to try that!" the Weasley crowed. "Remuo!" he said with a wild swish of his wand. The chair quivered, but did nothing else.
"No, no! It's Re-NU-o. It's a N, not a M. Like this! Renuo!" the black-haired girl cried with the correct wand gestures as the door opened to admit Professor Dumbledore. The chair went skidding away. "Professor Dumbledore!" Harriet suddenly looked very guilty.
"That was quite good. I didn't realize that Professor Quirrell was going to be teaching that quite so soon," the very old and quirky wizard said with a smile. "Now who was it that interrupted Professor Sinestra's class?"
With a very small voice in reply, Harriet spoke up while raising her hand, "That was me, Professor."
"And was she the first person to succeed at casting that repulsion jinx?"
The class nodded to the old professor. Ron suddenly piped up, "She just decided to start casting all on her on lonesome!" That earned him some dark looks.
"Incredible! Ten points to Gryffindor for quick thinking and another two points for some very fine spell casting. Remarkable initiative, I'd say."
All of the Gryffindors looked at each other in amazement. Hermione gave Ron a very smug look.
Harriet was smiling wildly. "Thank you, Professor."
"Now I will be handling this class for today. Professor Quirrell is improving, but is weak for some reason. I'm sure that Madam Pomfrey will be able to sort out his problems quickly." Professor Dumbledore walked to the front of the class. A swish of his wand put all of the chairs and desks stacked to the sides of the class. Cushions appeared on the floor with another wave of his wand. "Let's practice that Jinx now."
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Arthur Hansen
(Posted Sun, 07 Nov 2004 20:44)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.