The suits of armour, all of them clearly frustrated that their efforts were now being thwarted, clattered around noisily and the remaining beachballs stayed well out of the way, those that did get near the sharp edges were so well shielded that they simply bounced away.

"Alright we've run out of time. Well done everyone." Truebridge waved his wand at the suits of armour and they all froze, standing at attention. The beach balls disappeared.

"Twenty points to slytherin for having the most balls remaining, fifteen each for Hufflepuff and Gryffindor and ten for Ravenclaw. Also, 10 points each to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff for particularly excellent teamwork and respect for the conjured creatures." He vanished those remaining lizards, birds and caterpillars, all but Mrs Sommerfield, the lizard which somehow managed to escape Truebridge's notice.

"It looks like most of you need to be cleaned off before you leave. The homework will be up on the board shortly but in the meantime, if you need help with cleaning charms I am happy to oblige. Also if anyone wishes to practice any of the spells covered in this lesson, you are more than welcome to make use of the duelling arena. If you haven't signed up for Duelling Club yet, please be sure to do so by tomorrow as I will be closing sign ups in order to begin scheduling duels. Class dismissed."

Class over?

Nuuu.

Gold had been enjoying herself! She frowned slightly, as she lowered her wand. It sucks, sometimes, that all good things must come to an end. Straightening up, the sixth year pointed her wand at her robes, to clean them of any mess. Then she directed it at her shoes.

Egg-mesh and seeds and meh.

"Thanks for the awesome lesson, sir," she said quietly, as she looked at Mrs. Sommerfield. Who was still asleep on her shoulder. "What should I do with Mrs. Sommerfield, professor? I mean -" She bit her tongue. Oops. "The lizard you conjured?" Her eyes went back to it.

"If anyone wants a hand with cleaning spells, I'll be more than glad to help." If, you know, someone was scared of Professor Truebridge. Not that that was likely. He was nice.

Generally.

It seemed like the suits of armor were getting frustrated as Evelyn felt. However, she let out a relieved sigh once she heard Truebridge say that they were done.

And it was only when the suits of armour froze, and the beach balls disappeared, that she realized her heart was racing rather quickly, as well as she was breathing too heavily as if she ran a mile. Ugh. Stupid eggs and caterpillars making her slip and trip. How come no one else had this problem hmm?!

Looking down at herself, her expression turned to one of disgust. Eggs and seeds...alllll on her sweater, skirt, shoes, legs, and... in her hair!! GROSS! But that didn't stop the glare she made towards Riddle and Lufoy. Pssh.

Taking a step away from the Slytherin group, trying to get all the STUFF out of her HAIR, and off of her wand, Evelyn looked up in surprise at the Professor when he said he would help with cleaning charms. Really?! Oh thank Merlin, since she didn't know any. Well, she did, but she couldn't remember. And she doubted they would work with the condition her wand was in at the moment. So, walking slowly up to the Professor since she didn't want to make a bigger mess on the floor then there already was, she paused a few feet away, with a giant frown on her face...

...and still trying to get the stuff out of her hair. Just...gross.

"You are welcome Gold. Well done on your shielding, I noticed your casting got stronger as you practiced, it won't be long before each one of those shields are instinctual for you. As for the... err... lizard, I suppose... you can keep it. I'm not sure how long it... Mrs Sommerfield... will last as I have never experimented with the permanency of that particular conjuration, but as long as... she... it... wishes to stay, I suppose she is yours." Unless Gold simply wished for the lizard to be gone, that could be arranged.

"Quite the mess there Evelyn." Truebridge stepped closer to the young Slytherin and began siphoning the gunk off her hair and skin with his wand, then quickly scourgifying her robes and shoes before vanishing the remainder of the... eggs and all.

"Well done with your shielding Evelyn."

Maddie smiled and waved her wand over herself
'Scroungio!' she muttered, and her robes were instantly clean again. Much better
'Thank you for the lesson, Professor' she said, picking up her bag and waling towards the door.

"Awesome lesson Sir" Patroclus beamed at Professor Truebrigde as he holstered his wand.
"Truely, it was so much fun!"
He stared arround at the yolky students and was pleased he had avoided that particular section of the game.

Hehe, she didn't need to be told that twice. Or once for that matter.

Flicking a seed off of her hand, and face, she waited patiently and quite still as the Professor made all the bad stuff disappear. Except her hair was still messed up, even if there was no more egg or seeds in it. Meh. Where was a hair tie when you needed one?!

"Thanks, Professor." she mumbled, straightening out her sweater and trying to get all the invisible germs off of her wand. It needed some serious cleaning and polishing later back in the common room.

Looking back up to the Professor though when he commented on her shields, Evelyn smiled, a little more happier now. "Thank you. That was a great lesson by the way, Professor." Teehee. Truebridge thought her shields were good. Or great. He didn't say, but apparently she didn't fail at it. (which, of course she wouldn't)

Smiling alllll the way back to her bag, she picked it up and waited for Destiny. Wherever her friend was.

Arya was having a blast. Once she was able to stand properly, thanks to Cadence, she had been helping her house in protecting their beach balls. But before she knew it the balls disappeared and the armored suits stoped moving.

Class was over. Sadface.

First glancing around at the mess the surrounded her, she then turned her attention to the mess the she was covered in. She was wet and covered in egg along with a few unfortunate caterpillars. Poor babies.

Wiping her wand clean on the inside of her robes, she tried to recollect the cleaning spell she had learned from Raiden. After a moment of inspecting the wand, and deciding that she would give it another polish before heading to the great hall, she remembered the cleaning spell. "But where to start..." She mumbled to herself. Ah, best start at the top and work my way down.

Pointing her wand at her hair she said, "Tergeo." She then began to move her wand around her head, siphoning off all the gunk. Slowly she made her way down her body until she was as clean as when she entered the arena.

Arya kept the shields on her feet until she was on cleaner surfaces, pointing her wand at her feet and casting finite. Now for the shoes and sock. Arya scanned the arena looking for her shoe and sock she had givin the lizards. "That was a awesome lesson professor, really fun." She said absently as she searched, spotting her shoes and sock she retrieved them all and placed them into her bag. She liked being barefoot.

She slung the bag over her shoulder and strolled out of classroom, but not before sending a big grin the DADA professor's way. "See ya later, Professor Truebridge."

Dianna was filthy but who cares? She had Fun in this class.

"Bye Professor!" she said as she got her bags and scurried off.

Celandine looked around at all the muck, egg gunk still everywhere and seeds and bulbs and the water was making things kind of mucky. She rolled up her sleeves and began to get to work cleaning up the mess still left behind. Bits of frayed rope, feathers? All sorts of stuff. She cleaned herself up too of course and then approached the duelling platform.

Poor suits of armour were a bit tarnished.

She put her things to one side, disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a tin of madame glossy's polish and a few rags. She climbed up on the platform and got to work, buffing out the marks on the suits of armour. She'd make them shine.

"Thank you Maddie. You did well. Have a good day." Truebridge nodded at the young Ravenclaw.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. I'm also very pleased at how well you did in the lesson Patroclus, you are a credit to your house." Truebridge answered.

"Not a problem." Truebridge nodded dismissvely at Evelyn. Good student that one.

Good Slytherin.

"Good. Thank you for your enthusiasm Arya. Well done." Truebridge answered.

"Enjoy the rest of your day." Truebridge replied.

Ah. It looked as though Truebridge would not be left to clean up the arena on his own. Not that he minded of course, it was part of the teaching experience after all. He watched the head girl leave and was surprised to see her return not too long after.

Well now, that was useful and something to keep in mind for future... punishments.

"You wouldn't mind seeing to them all of course." Truebridge requested, raising his voice to get her attention. There were eight suits of armour, each needed buffing from head to toe, swords and shields too. Truebridge cast a few charms to blunt the swords just in case.

That was... a lot of buffing and polishing.

Celandine blinked at the professor. Now she'd have to do an extremely good job. Oh well it gave her a chance to talk to him a bit maybe.

"I have a question, professor." Cela ventured as she got a good smear of the polish and buffed at the arm of the suit of armor she was working on.

Actually, she had lots of questions.

"Alright." Truebridge agreed. She could ask whatever she wanted, though he wasn't entirely sure if she'd be asking about the lesson or something else. Odd really, he'd never done much talking to Celandine though she'd always been one of the brightest students he'd ever taught...

... but she wasn't one of his, she was Kazimeriz' student through and through.

Like he had once been himself, though he'd never managed to, or had any desire to charm the old man like this young lady had.

She reaaaally wanted to ask what Truebridge had done to earn the hate, disgust and wrath of Kazimeriz. It had to be something bad, Cela only saw Kazimeriz as the sweetest old man ever, even after he'd Imperiused her. She tended to see the good in people though.

Even, you know, teachers who'd been in Azkaban.

But...

"The reversion shield? I tried to.. well I tried to cast it around you sir, and I managed it but only for a little while, it was really hard. Is it something that will take practice or is it something that isn't really possible?" Cela asked and went on polishing, moving on to the armor's sword.

"Its possible, you proved that yourself even momentarily. The trick is to focus on a barrier, like a wall and not a bubble so to speak. Much like the focused shielding one can do with the Protego charm. Revertoscutum is one of those shields that you push out from yourself, that is why its difficult to incase someone else completely. You'll find it easier just to push at them and focus only on protecting the side of them that is open to attack rather than a complete, multi directional defense." Truebridge answered. That was a nice easy one. Nothing to do with difficult things like people, relationships or the lack thereof.

He nodded at a few more students as they left.

"That makes sense." Celandine answered thoughtfully and moved on to the next suit of armor.

She tapped it.

"You mentioned a self armouring charm? Will we learn that in the duelling club?" She polished for a few moments and then asked quietly, "How is Prof... Mrs.. Ms... Miss? Professor Bunbury?" Well nothing else quite fit did it?

"Yes we will. You'll find it quite simple I imagine." Truebridge answered with a nod though he froze and grew a bit silent when the Ravenclaw mentioned Annie. How to proceed here?

"She is well. I can tell her you asked after her if you wish... or you could write her a letter yourself, I'd happily pass it on." He thought about his answer and decided it was sufficient. Wouldn't want to say anything inappropriate about his relationship with Annie after all, not to a student.

"I might write her a letter." Celandine responded happily, conjuring a stool to step on so she could reach a mark on the helmet of the suit of armor she was working on.

"One day, when you and Professor Bunbury are married, and me and Copernicus are married, you and Professor Bunbury can come over for dinner if you like!" Not that she'd cook. Servants could.

Or Copernicus.

She scooped some more polish and buffed at the surface until it was shiny.

....

.............

..............................................!

"Ah..." Truebridge cleared his throat, not quite sure which part of that suggestion was more alarming. He decided to mentally block out the 'married' stuff and... yes he was done here.

"You wouldn't mind marching those suits of armour back into the corners of the arena when you are done would you? I thought not. Good day." Truebridge could move very fast when he wanted to. And awkwardly.

He left and took refuge in his office.

"Alright sir." Celandine blinked at the Defense professor as he scooted then went right back to the polishing and buffing. It took her about a half hour all told and then she charmed the suits of armor, one at a time, to march off the duelling platform and take up their positions around the arena. Once they were all in place she charmed them again so that they'd stay put and left the duelling arena, scooping up her things on her way out.



...................


Professor Note:

Lesson 2 of DADA can be found in the Practice Pitch thread for this term. It was a combined class with Flying.