IT WAS TIME.... for DADA.

Zeke was prepared, as he always was, but this time with he flexibility of NOT needing to wear robes, which was good because they were plain stupid. He'd never liked them. That being said, he wasn't sure he really approved of Sabel teaching... so far this whole THING had been an interesting affair... and he didn't much fancy abiding by the mans rules... and he STILL didn't know what this one strike business was about.

"Heeeeyyyy... Professor Sabel," he greeted testing out the title a bit more, and yes, no, he was NEVER going to be able to shake the SABEL bit. So there. And look! Patronus!

The crates and walls and stuff looked fun, could he climb on them yet? Did he have to ask for permission? Were those TREEEEEES in the classroom? How odd, but okay.

He wasn't going to say any more at this stage, he needed to spend some time carefully observing this one, or else it was highly likely the man would prove to be his nemesis more than anything else. His strike, he wanted it back.

This was the class Beverly always looked forward to for reasons. The material taught was great and all, but that wasn't where her spotlight shone one. Nope nope. It was on the professor of course. Beside his good looks there was that thing about a cult she read about in the Prophet. Her dad had ranted about how Professor Dakest was allowed to teach and blah blah blah. Kennedy didn't seem to worry, simply gave her the usual 'keep vigilant and don't put your wand away' talk. She trusted her brother seeing as he's the one working in the DMLE. Her dad was, as always, over protective.

Wand in hand already -- besides Kennedy's words of advice, she wasn't going to forget the Headmistress' own words from last term -- Beverly strode inside the classroom, taking in the different sight, studying the shadows and all that. They were going to do something fun, weren't they? She hoped.

"Hello, Professor Dakest," she greeted, admiring the silvery otter bounding around. Oh. Ohhhh. A patronus. Oh.....

Upon entering the classroom, Lux's first thought was to wonder where all those crates, trees, and bushes came from and what they would be used for. Then she remembered that there were other people in the room. "Hello, Professor! Hello, Zeke and Beverly!" She liked this professor so far because he liked s'mores, wasn't big on robes, and actually remembered her name despite them not having talked too much so far.

Taking a seat on the floor, she contented herself with watching the otter Patronus. She would love to be able to perform one and wondered what shape it would take on if she managed to do it. One day she would find out!

Another DADA class! Adi wasted no time in making his way to the classroom. Whaaaat would be the subject of their class today? "Hello, Professor!'' the Puffer greeted the man perched on the crate. Oh looky! An otter! And it was a Patronus! "Can you teach me to how to do have create a patronus someday, Professor?" Please? He was SUPER interested in what form his Patronus would take.

Anywayy, who had already gathered there? Zeke, Bev and Lux were there he noticed. Smiling broadly at Zeke and Lux, Adi lightly shoulder bumped Bev. "Hi!'' He was going to keep Bev company for this class, alrightey?

Having left her robes in her dorm room like the notice said they could Hady gladly made her way into the DADA room. Just what was going on in here though? Crates and trees and where was the Professor?

Lifting her head slightly upwards she grinned a little to herself when she saw he was sat up on a crate. "Hello Professor," she greeted with a small wave. A slight smile was given to each one of her friends as she passed them taking a seat on the floor near Lux her gaze shifting towards Zeke a moment to see if he'd take a seat near her today or somewhere else. Either way she was good with it.

That's when she saw it...the otter? Or uh well an otter patronus! Her eyes continued following it dart about the room as she wondered if this had something to do with what they'd be working on today? Could she learn how to cast a patronus? Please!

Norah's hazel eyes widened as she entered the classroom, swiveling her head around so enthusiastically that she had to stop and rub her neck so it wouldn't fall off. Or something. You never knew what a neck could do when it got mad. She kept on hand on it as she leaned backwards to look Professor New Guy all the way on top of a crate. He HAD been here for an entire month and stuff, but he was still a new guy if y'asked her which nobody did but she thought it anyways. "Hi, Professor," she said with a wave of her free hand.

Except holy guacamole. HOLY. GUACAMOLE. An otter patronus oh man oh man it was so CUTE. Norah stood and watched with her mouth even wider than her eyes, so wide that her mum would be scolding her if she were here but guess what. She wasn't here. Y'knoa what was? AN OTTER PATRONUS. Were they going to learn patronuses? Pretty please with chocolate frogs on top?

Tora enjoyed DADA, and the weeks of review classes certainly helped with her middling fair aptitude in the course, but she was ready to do something new. She meandered into class, still with plenty of time, and paused. Alright so they were definitely doing something different today judging on the state of the room. Good! But what was it? She spied the patronus swimming about in the air and thought she might have a good idea. Though she had practiced a patronus charm a couple times before, she hadn't quite gotten her full patronus yet. Usually, even though she was a seventh year, she only got a mostly formed whispy thing. So far, hers looked like a fox or maybe a cat? Perhaps she would find out today!

"Hello, professor," she waved towards the front of the room. "Patronuses today?
" she couldn't resist adding on.

She wasn't really super great friends with anyone there, so she just went to sit down in the middle. "Right, hello everyone," she said.

Skipping, Marsha moved through the hallways until she got to the correct first floor corridor and then found the DADA classroom. SSEEEE, she was learning! Wasn’t that awesome. Hehehe.

The twelve year grinned as she pushed open the door to the classroom and smiled to anyone who looked at her. ”Good morning, Professor Dakest!” She said happily as she sat down on the floor. She did love classes that let her leave her robe in her chest. She kept getting her legs tangled up in the material and it was super long and yeah- she didn’t like them very much.

As she picked a spot on the ground, she grinned at the Otter which had moved in her direction. ”Hi, hi there.” She held out her hand, letting it come closer if it wanted to. She loved animals of all kinds, and this just meant that DADA was even betttter as she got creatures too. Hehe. OH! ”Professor?” she asked, looking up at him. ”Do people name their patronus’?” She hadn’t know that was what the otter was until she had asked PRofessor Dakest in their last class. Hehe, see? She was learning!

Defense Against the Dark Arts class..

The Korean boy wondered what would Professor Dakest teach today. This man taught more in practice rather that in theoretical method which was exciting. He entered the classroom and no desks were there. Spotting the Professor man was there, he smiled and greeted him. "Good day, Professor Dakest!" Oh look... A patronus! Were they gonna learn about that today? Also, good that his patronus wasn't a butterfly. Wait...

If they're gonna learn to cast patronus today, he REALLY hoped that nobody's patronus was butterfly. NOPE.

Hugh, for face reasons, really liked going to Professor Dakest's class. He wasn't one to subscribe to the general philosophy of beauty-- mostly because that topic was still up for debate as to what made beauty, etc.-- but Dakest was nice to look at, yo. Like, Hugh was a fan. ISH.

He would need to stare at it more to get a really good solid opinion on it.

AND THAT WAS WHAT HE WAS GONNA DO.

Swag.

Swaggy entrance. Mostly. Save a little trip on entrance.

He staggered to his seat just staring at Dakest. But since the seat was the floor he wasn't expecting there not to be seats, so when Hugh reached out for a chair and found none...he hit the deck.

Smooth.

It has been a week since his birthday, and Ethan still felt weird. He was officially no longer a kid because, surprise surprise, the Trace is finally broken. Seventeen, ladies and gentlemen. A grin was plastered on his face as he made his way to his DADA class. Well, Defense is always an interesting class, except for...probably the lecture part, but as a whole, it’s a fun class. What made it even better was the fact that they get to have an Auror to teach them things.

And...what will Professor Dakest teach them this time? Ethan stepped inside the classroom and found...patronuses. The grin on his face turned into a smile as he eyed the silvery otter, then to the man up front. “Good day, Professor.” With a polite nod, he turned towards the back of the room, leaned on the wall and crossed his arms as he watched the silvery things while waiting for the rest of the class to arrive.

This class has been one of his favorites during his three years at Hogwarts, even though he wasn't the best at it.

Hugo made his big entrance which constisted of stepping into the room and greeting the professor. "Hey professor Dakest, what's up?" he expected a weird answer like every professor has done it. They should not take it literally. Adults....

After that, the boy looked curiously at the room. They were going to do something cool today! Great. Hugo sat down and waited for the class to begin. He was eyeing at the otter patronus. He wondered what his would look like.

The thing about Defence Against the Dark Arts was that it had a tendency to focus on the negatives, because it was all about... what to do if you were attacked and that. So negative. Toby actually knew for sure that the likelihood of something like that ever happen in real life was like 0.0000000000000001%. The only danger in the world came from ICE CREAM, okay?

STILL, Toby was a pro at finding the positives in a situation. Like that he'd managed to get an O in his DADA OWL a couple years back by mostly blowing up the obstacles in the practical. That grade had been a wonderful surprise, and so Toby could continue to make positive associations with the class.

"Hey, Professor Dakest."

He entered the classroom and took a seat on the floor. At first he watched the patronus frolic around, mildly amused, but after a moment or two he started to wonder if this was maybe a hint as to what was coming today. Were they going to be learning patronuses? Toby chewed at the inside of his lip but otherwise kept a straight face, though he was a little worried. He didn't want to try and cast one, for reasons.

But maybe it wouldn't be that. 'Cause that was like super ADVANCED magic, right? Nah. Toby was just jumping to conclusions. And how would that explain the weird maze thing? So he relaxed a little, and continued to watch the silvery otter. Thinking about GOOD THINGS. One good thing being that the guy's patronus was suuuuuuuper cute, okay.

What a beautiful day.

It was a beautiful day.

Eden's weekend had been fraught with good news. She'd spoken to Emmalee, who was...well. Emmalee was someone Eden just....loved. She loved her a lot, and she wished her mother was more like Emmalee. Her advice was always better, and she was so much more rational than Irene McGee. And on top of getting to talk to her...her grandparents wanted to meet her..and...this news just sent Eden over the top with happiness.

She hadn't felt this happy in so long...it was a welcome break to the mopes.

DADA could go either for the Ravenclaw, but today...she was confident that she'd be okay, that she'd LEARN cool things, and be good at whatever they did. Or at least have a good enough foundation to EVENTUALLY be good at whatever they did.

"Good day, Professor," she said with a smiley as she sat down, not noticing anyone really...she was still daydreaming about things....

Whoa.

Rowan's eyes widened as she entered the defence against the dark arts room to see all the walls and things. Wow. It was so cool! Magic was amazing.

She found herself a seat on the floor and waved at the professor, but her eyes focused in on the otter and she couldn't stop looking at it. She still wasn't used to all the cool animal things... would they teach her to do that..?

It was Henric's favourite class of the day and it was time for more DADA lessons with professor Dakest again. He wondered what would the professor had in store for them.While looking around the room, he walked in and greeted the professor with a smile,"Hello,professor...umm..what are those walls for?" he asked. He also noticed there was a patronus fleeting behind those walls and reappearing on the next. Were they suppose to learn how to cast a patronus? Are they dealing with dementors?!

Professor DaBest's class had quickly joined the ranks of her favorites early on in the term, and even though Soph had liked Romanos a lot, she LOVED her replacement. He was down-to-earth and really informational and helpful and he was a dynamite AUROR which probably won her over more than anything else, realistically. Just KNOWING he was so experienced and could take on a dark wizard and save them all was WAY cool.

Her wand in hand, Sophie entered the classroom with a spring in her step - always chipper to see what they would be learning about - and smiled at the sight of the otter patronus. So he really WAS an otter person, wasn't he? Soph shot the man a grin as she crossed further into the room, taking notice of the walls with some treetops visible over them. Curious... curious. She assumed they were NOT learning about patronuses because she couldn't puzzle together how the two were related, and rather, the professor was just amusing himself.

One OTHER thing she noticed was the chorus of students already asking about patronuses and wanting to be taught how to conjure one, and Sophie's smile widened upon realizing just how interested everyone were, and directed her knowing grin at the professor again. "Hi, sir. Nice patronus you've got there." Ahem.

Hehehehe.

It was not a good day, or a good week.

Or a good year, but Damien was doing his best to avoid thinking about all this, but, he couldn't help that things kept reminding him of things, specifically of Rorie, which only lead to a weird, sad kind of frustration because things were still up in the air between them and Damien didn't know what to do about anything anymore.

So caught up in his thoughts was the American wizard, that he didn't see that the blue haired girl he'd sat next to; was actually Eden McGee, who... was a friend, a good friend, one of the first he'd had at Hogwarts and someone he had always been able to talk to, but knowing about certain things had colored his feelings and now it when he thought of her it only lead to murky thoughts and emotions he wanted to no part of.

"Hello, Professor." Damien absent-mindedly said, putting down his things and sitting back in his seat.

And still, he had not noticed Eden.

Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Kace was excited for this class. I mean he did already meet the Professor previously to discuss certain career options. As the big puff opened the door and realized he wasn't the only one who made it here early, he was happy to find his seat near the window. He saw on his desk his name engraving and he grinned and it brought back many memories. He got out his quill and paper out to be prepared to take notes. He didn't notice Cinna or Emmy made it here yet but he knew Lux was here. He gave her a friendly wave and then he noticed Professor Darkest was in here with his patronus.

"Hello Professor..." he greeted him with a respectful nod and then he noticed his patronus going around the classroom. "Nice Patronus you got there.." he smiled and still watched in awe.

Eden noticed Damien as soon as he took the seat next to her. But he didn't say anything to her...she...frowned a little. Did he not forgive her for...things? Phoenix/Rorie things?

But then...why did he sit next to her? Eden eventually nudged him lightly. "Damien...Damien?" Was he all right? He didn't look all right. She wanted to offer him some of her chocolate she always kept in her bag, but she didn't want to get in trouble...so...she just smiled over at him...

"You okay, D?"

Caleb still wasn't sure how he felt about this professor. It was...different, that was for sure, since he'd only had one DADA professor the entire time he'd been at school. But it was a nice change of pace too.

The first thing the prefect noticed as he walked in was the patronus. WERE THEY DOING PATRONUSES?! OMG THAT WOULD BE SO COOL. But what did that have to do with trees? Maybe this was a cool maze type thing. AH THAT WOULD BE COOLER!

Smiling and waving in welcome at the professor, Caleb sat down on the floor near the back, wanting to watch the lesson unfold from far away in curiousity.

Angel walked into the classroom and smiled as she saw the new Professor. "Hi Professor." Angel then saw the Patronus was they all going to learn how to make one, she hoped so because that would just be so epic, but would probably take her ages to master since wasn't it supposed to be really hard.

Jenna had found that she enjoyed DADA classes so far. She hadn't liked it much back when she was still being homeschooled, but here it was a bit more interesting. Whether that was the professor or being around other students or just being away from home, she wasn't sure - but at least it wasn't a class she found boring. Boring classes were rarely good for learning.

The first thing she noticed when she entered - aside from the different room style - was the patronus flying around. Was this an indication of what they were learning today or something else? It caught her curiosity at least.

After a moment of watching it, she continued on into the room, turning her attention to the professor. "Hello, Professor," she greeted him before taking a seat on the floor with the rest of her classmates.

"Sup, Professor Dakest?! Looking ready to ... do... stuff today!" Zahra shot little finger pows at him, sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid smoothly into a seat, and got out a piece of chewing gum.

Then proceeded to blow bubbles.