Lesson Four - Combined

Briony had thought that it was time to merge all of her classes together, there were enough students so she could handle them all, and she couldn't really bare to face her class more than she had to, after the loss of her child Raven, she had hardly wanted to return to Hogwarts at all, but knew it was her duty to take care of the other students in the school, not just her own self interests.

It was because of this that she was sitting here at her desk now regretting that choice at all, she had hoped the busying herself with work would distract her, but it hadn't worked like that, it had merely made her more aware when she wasn't busy of the thing that she was missing most of all. In the back of her mind she wondered if this might be the last straw for her and her husbands marriage, it was strong, but they had been through so many trials already, could they take any more?

Staring into her cup of irish coffee, Briony sighed deeply, and waited.

Airen Auditoren had missed this class. He had missed the excitement it would always give him. He had a reason, but it was one that he would rather not share due to a personal view of unwanted attention. He looked up at the professor. She seemed tense, and he could guess why. He heard of the virus. He hoped those he cared about were spared.

He took a seat at the front of the classroom. How he had missed his old life, when he and Charlotte were together. He was sure he sounded pathetic for holding on for so long. And yet, he didn't dare stop. He winced and clutched the area where a scar resided over his heart. Ghost pains, nothing he could do. He sighed and bid the pain gone. A small sacrifice to save a treasured life.

"Hello, Professor," he greeted, the words tasting as sweet as honey. He hadn't spoken those words in forever. It felt good to say them again.

Naomi didn't like the fact that Professor Romain was forcing herself to teach again. It wasn't fair on her. The blond heard about little Raven's passing and she was upset and angry. Upset because little Raven didn't deserve to die because of the Virus and angry because the Healers didn't do enough to save the young girls life.

She slipped into her seat at the front of the class and looked at the Professor.

"Hello Professor Romain." She whispered softly.

"Hello professor,"Melody said before sitting down.

Haley walked into the classroom with a serene face. She didn't get how Briony could be back to teaching already, not to mention still being the headmistress. But Haley knew that she was strong. And though the pain of losing her child was probably killing her, Briony was still alive. Even in her time of dying, she was sitting behind her desk, looking strong enough for the world.

She sat down in the front of the classroom, looking at the others there. Then she leaned on her hands, her elbows propped at the table desk. She didn't want to say anything to Briony, because she was afraid that compassion would only make it worse. Haley would've hated compassion. She had hated it when it came to her parents, she hated the very thought of it. But Briony might not be the same, so she would just have to wait to see what Briony would reply to what the people in the class had already said.

Briony sighed lightly when some of the students obviously looked at her like she was going to burst into tears any second since she was back teaching so soon, and to be honest it wouldn't be so far off what she was feeling. But there was no way she was going to allow herself to behave in that manner.

Standing up she noticed that there were more students in the combined lesson and this was good, it put her in at least some semblance of an enthusiastic mood.

"Hello class, I hope you all had a pleasant holiday." she stated in what was her now normal, matter of fact and rather emotionless tone "Today the sixth years are going to be using muggle firearms, in a shooting range, and the third years will be learning the spell incendio."

Humming a little she wrote this on the board so people could see it in case they forgot;

"Now, can someone from the sixth years tell me an advantage of using a muggle firearm opposed to a spell, and can someone from the third year class tell me what the spell incendio does?"

Naomi listened with rapt attention to her Duelling Professor. She liked it that they would be using muggle fire-arm. When Briony asked about an advantage of using muggle firearm Naomi nervously raised her hand.

"Umm.. Could it be because it's faster to use and you don't have to say anything when firing it?" She said, biting her lower lip.

Nicholas was, to be quite honest, rather intrigued by Professor Romain's idea to have a combined leasson for their last day. He was quite excited to see if the people in the year above him were able to offer him something closer to a challenge.

Of course if he was allowed to use dark magic then he would win without a question. When Professor Romain gave assignments to the Sixth and Third years he blinked slightly and raised a hand,

"Professor Romain?" he asked her quietly, "What am I supposed to do then? Can I join the Sixth years on the firing range?"

"Incendio creates fire,"Melody answered.

Lucas hurriedly entered the classroom, quickly muttered "Hello professor, I'm really, very sorry I'm late," and slipped into a seat beside the young Ravenclaw girl. They were rather a lot in this class, unlike the other classes he had been in.

As professor Romain finished giving out instructions to the others, he wondered what he was supposed to do.

END OF LESSON

Points at the end of lesson;

Gry - 20
Rav - 15
Huf - 5
Sly -