So IF the fight took place in a Mattress and Pillow Factory he should use the pillows and cover their faces with them until his attacker passes out from lack of air got it. Tory smiled and nodded at the Mister Professor's answer. That'll help should he ever need to go Bed Shopping and an Enemy attacks him.

"Punch them in the Kidney." Tory said loudly. "A lot, like loads of times, more then you probably should." Kidney punches hurt like hell. Not that he knew, well he knew. Both Uncle Vance, and Uncle Saul have told him stories where they had to punch someone in the Kidney.

Cool stories actually. He would get into them if he wasn't actually fascinated by this class. The Mister Professor had his very hard to obtain attention.

OHHH, Ariadne got a reply of hand clapping for her answer. THANK YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. But the hand clapping was followed with a question about something she hadn't really thought about. Would she hide, or would she be tactical? Hmm. Tacti--...NO, hide! She would definitely hide! Why run out and put yourself in danger when you just don't have to?

At first, she had no idea why they were considering an unarmed attack. Why would she NOT have her wand? She'd waited for eleven years for it! It was pretty much stuck with her! But...the Muggle world! Ohhh, yeah! She couldn't exactly whip out her wand in the Muggle world, could she? Point made, Professor!

She followed along the best she could until the question was asked. What in the world was a pressure point?! A weak point was all she picked up on. She shrugged and raised her hand. "I'm honestly not really sure, Professor, but what about the jaw? I know in all the Muggle fights I've ever heard of, people just reach out and punch their appointment in the jaw," she explained. She reached out an made a punching motion with her fists. "They really let 'em have it!"

Katerina bounced on her mat. The professor liked her throwing things idea? Awesome. She beamed. That's exactly what she was thinking. Throw something to throw them off or knock them out whichever one worked or was more effective.

Wands were amazing right? And she would have not been able to do the magic she'd already without. Yes. She loved her wand and never let it out of her sight. Pressure points? Say what? "There's one behind your knee, it can take anyone down in a matter of seconds."

Azura didn't like it when the professor frowned at her!! He said that everyone had it in them to fight, but she didn't think she would be able to manage physical fighting! She was very clusmy! She'd probably just fall over if she tried anything! Stealth was her best option. She looked down at her feet and bit her lip a little. She was clever enough! She was a Ravenclaw after all!

If her life depended on it, she wouldn't make any stupid mistakes. Still, she didn't like the frown!! She tried not to let tears come to her eyes, she felt like she had been chastised!

She also noticed that Garreths perfectly valid run option hadn't been taken well either! She would have mentioned that, but she was terrible at running!

At his question though, she raised slightly watery eyes to look up and raised her hand. "The temples are one sir. A person can even be knocked unconscious if struck there hard enough."

She lowered her eyes back down to her feet again.. biting her lip slightly, she turned her head to look at Garreth and bit her lip again..

If he had to be perfectly honest, Garreth was a little perplexed by the professor's 'meh' attitude to his answer. 'Avoid conflict type of person'? the boy went over the professor's words a few times in his head. Garreth wasn't the sort of person to seek out conflict, but one thing he most certainly was, was an 11 year old boy. What was the professor expecting? The boy shot a glance over at Azura and almost spoke up at the sight of her watery eyes. Instead, he gave her a sympathetic half-smile, figuring she was thinking the same thing he was. They weren't exactly a battle-hardened warriors. Of course they'd try to hide! And then the professor had even written the words "the best defense is a good offense" on the board! 'What better defense is there than disappearing completely?' the boy thought to himself, rather displeased. Maybe he was just upset that he hadn't manged to impress the professor with his quick thinking.

He took a deep breath and looked up at the professor again. Maybe he'd do better on the second question.

Seizing a silent moment, he raised a hand and spoke his answer. "The jugular, I would assume. If your windpipe is damaged, you might even die." he ran a finger across his adam's apple. "Aren't the temples also pressure points? And the knees, maybe?" the boy genuinely wasn't sure about the last two, but he thought he'd read about pressure points at some point. That, and then there was the fact that he couldn't possibly imagine being struck in any of those places would be comfortable.

"I would go straight for their eyes!" Kitty replied enthusiastically. "That would really hurt! If our eyes sting very badly just because a bug flew in them, just imagine what being clawed in the eye would be like? They might even go blind!"

Kitty loved it when the professor wrote down her friend Haddie's answer. She wondered privately if Professor Hirsh had ever been in a fight without his wand. No doubt he had lots of experience with this kind of thing, or he wouldn't be their teacher.

Not pushing people into particular answers, yeaaaaaaaah, but he still didn't like vague, there were TOO MANY answers, and if he couldn't give them man a whole list, then it seemed futile. FUTILE. Because at the end of the day, he looked out only for himself, if his peers knew things, good for them, they wouldn't be sitting his OWL's for him, so he wanted to give the answers, not just one of them.

Unfortunately it was a thing he would simply have to endure. A visit to the man's office was definitely in order post-lesson.

At least though, his answer had been one of the few to make it onto the board.

Zeke understood, of course, the whole point of this lesson so far (which was more than he could say for some of his other subjects). It was perhaps a blessing for him that he'd grown up muggle before realising his magical ability, that, and his challenged background. Every bit helped. He wasn't averse to physical contact, the opposite in fact, he actually preferred it. There was something more raw about it, that had his adrenaline pumping harder than it if he was wielding his wand.

... but pressure points. Weak spots.

Pleased with this question, Zeke's hand rose once again. "Like some of the others, I fancy a good throat jab," he mused, "though the shin's do pretty well."

This was a subject that she enjoyed going over with her father. Some of the best bonding time and memories were defense lessons. She smiled at the expression the professor gave her answer. Ah , pressure points.....would they get to spar maybe?

"There are thirty two major pressure points in the body, so we have a lot of options. The one that I would choose to strike would depend upon the size difference between myself and my assailant, their attack pattern, and where I could most quickly strike. My preferred point would be the temple, as it can easily render my opponent unconscious or more. The quicker that I can incapacitate them, the better." They can't hurt you while they are unconscious or you've hurt them so badly that they need medical attention. If they were going to attack her, it was at their own risk and they deserved whatever she gave them. No mercy for scum.

Merlin, they were all so terrifying and VIOLENT. Dot had caught the professor laughing at her answer, and it was comical, but she was also telling the truth. These people were murderous, and she didn't think she wanted to go head to head with them in a dark alley. Dot tried to catch the professor's eye, with a very 'do you see what I'm SAYING?' expression.

She'd taken years of karate before settling on ballet as child, a tiny ginger in oversized pajamas, so Dot had some idea what she was talking about. Maybe she should break out her old moves and see how much she remembered. "The nose, sir. Even a weak strike is extremely painful, because of the number of nerves in it. You have to be careful, though, because if you hit it too hard, you could drive the cartilage back into the brain and kill your opponent."

Well her answer got the approval of the professor which was a good start. "Thank you," she remarked quietly as he moved onto other students and their own answers. There was certainly a diverse array of them, from running to fighting to how to go about doing either to the best of their respective abilities. And even at least one person suggested playing 'dead'. Now that was a unique thought.

And then they were moving on. To talking of having the ability to defend oneself and being best friend's with your wand. Olivia absently reached into the pocket where she stashed her wand just to let her fingers wrap around the growingly familiar wood. She could see how people could grow attached to it, but she wasn't. Not really. Her hand slipping back out to rest back on her lap. She'd already had much more of her life without a wand as she had with it.

At the mention of martial arts, she thought back to her visit to the defense training room. That had to be the connection to what she had found...what Zeke had been working on when she and Arista had joined him. Now for physical weak spots. She was about to say eyes, but older Slytherin beat her to it, followed by a housemate. Head and neck certainly seemed like they got a lot of attention from the suggestions.

"How about the feet? Jab or step on them to cause a distraction by the discomfort, or trip a person up." That seemed like an acceptable alternative option.

So...this was NOT the lesson Scarlett had thought she'd be having in Defense class. True, it WAS defense, but she thought they'd start off with disarming or something super easy like that. She wasn't sure she was strong enough yet to do any kind of damage to anyone, no matter HOW good her technique was, but hey - it was good to know, she supposed.

Pressure points? She had no idea - she thought about what parts would hurt if she got punched by an attacker and used that to get her answer. "Um...your eyes?" she asked. If someone poked you in the eye that would hurt SOOOO bad.

Henric shook his head when she came to remark about him earlier." Its fine." He chuckled back a response. He didn't think it was necessary to tell her what was on his mind lately...not now when the class was in session. Then little Bella came over to them and waved back a greeting to her too. Small wave and a smile, yeah...his prefect smile as they called it. Soon, his thoughts wandered as he listened to his classmates answers. Oh...llia's level of participation was top-notch today! He had to give her that. So admirable...as he watched her silently by her side. Henric didn't feel like answering and was rather content to just listen. Honestly, his answer would be simple. Pressure points. llia was right.He learnt martial arts before. Strike them at the most vulnerable places so they could gain ad advantage over them.

What? He'd liked her answer, and it was even on the board as an example. Haddie didn't expect that, but once the shock wore off, she beamed, and looked proudly over at Rachel.

But now was time for the second question. "Their nose. It's easier to target than eyes, but being part of the sinuses, will still blind them by causing their eyes to water severely. Plus, it really, really hurts, and even without breaking it, bleeds easily and bleeds a lot which can be a very intimidating, which alone gives you a better edge in the fight. But with everything else, it'll take the person a bit to recover from it, and gives you an opening for more attacks."

Tenacius nodded his head enthusiastically at first, then started to slow down when he saw the look on the Professor's face. "Well yeah... Theres one near my house and I go there all the time..." pause. Wait not the one in Cumbria "My other house in Santorini I mean. And yeah its an active volcano, but it doesn’t spew out lava or anything." even he knows not to go near things like that "It has cranky days where it would fart really bad and we're told not to go near it and wear protective masks, but on other days its just fine, get to pick out nice glass stones and have a spa." really its awesome.

But yes back to Defense talk. And that list looked like a really awesome list!

Intrinsically Tenacius would know this, even if he wouldnt remember the list word for word. He was a fighter, which is a big reason why he wears the red robes.

And now as for pressure points? What is it about this big scary attacker that an ickle like himself can do to even up the playing field? "Uhm... Ears sir. And you go like this--" he demonstrated, smacking his palms against the side of an attacker's head where the ears would be. "The attacker would lose their sense of balance because its very painful, change of pressure and all that."

That smile? The loving one that he was giving students nearly killed Chloe. Her face got an ugly shade of red and she found herself really angry all of the sudden. Stupid perfect face and rumbly butterflies. How was she going to learn anything in this lesson with Hirsch's perfect...everything.

Sigh. Separating the men from the boys, truly.

The blonde managed to catch on to his next question so she didn't feel as hopeless as his last. Where she missed everything and had to sit there dumbly in utter humiliation. She raised her hand slightly and avoided staring at the professor's face (it was like staring into the sun: dangerous). "The temples, sir. It's the weakest part of the cranium. You can really, really hurt someone by hitting it."

Ailsa cringed a little bit as the professor seemed to dislike her answer. She hadn't meant to be sassy, though looking back she had to admit that she kind of was. OK, maybe not "kind of". Still. 'Assess the situation and apply general knowledge to suit the specific circumstances,' which was technically the only universally correct generalized answer, would have been even worse, and that had been what she'd been tempted to answer.

Oh well, press on and all that. She raised her hand for the next answer.

"The side of the neck, sir, where the brachial plexus runs past the hinge of the jaw. That can really disrupt someone for a bit if you position the strike properly."

"But if you can," Dima added helpfully, "it'd come in handy."

After all, that was what set them apart from Muggles, no? The magic coursing through their veins. Might as well put it to some good use, even without a wand to harness its power better. Maybe Hirsch would teach that one day.

Er... well, the neck, temples, ears...... all the other ones had already been said, and Dima had to pick his brain a bit before an answer came to him.

"Solar plexus, sir?" he offered, hand up. "It's a bundle of nerves behind your stomach. If you hit where someone's ribs join the abdomen, you could cause serious damage to their diaphragm." Among other things which he... either couldn't remember or didn't care to.

Looked like that forcible dueling camp target lesson had actually been useful. Thanks, dad.

Not.

Rachel smiled at Hirsch and nodded to acknowledge that she appreciated his complement. She smiled even more when he got to Haddie's answer. Rachel looked over at her best friend to see the girl already glancing at her. "Excellent, Haddie,'' she mouthed. Still smiling, she began to make her notes in her neat handwriting.

Notes done, Rachel looked back up at Hirsch. She liked the way he encouraged them about defending themselves no matter what they may find themselves up against. The man seemed very happy and excited about this lesson, didn't he? The eleven year old had not missed how widely he was smiling.

Oh, pressure points. She knew there were quite a few of those in the human body. She listened to a few responses before raising her hand. "The neck,'' she said, inclining to agree with a Slytherin boy (Dante) and Ailsa. "If air supply is stopped, the person can be rendered unconscious.''

Melbourne Johanson was mad. Well, not fully mad, she was just irked right now. Tenacius Salander was going to get it…maybe she’d have to hex him later? Maybe she could hex him later the thought just made her grin a bit.

“Tenacius” she hissed at him under her breath…”if I had my pirates black-spot card you’d be getting one.” She hissed at him and nodded. The game was on Salander and he probably didn’t even know what he had done wrong.

Taking her quill and writing things down she slipped he note over to him.

SPOILER!!: ”notes”

Don’t point out the name thing. I was distracted by the Professor’s Face Ace…okay? And if you tell anyone that I will hang you out of the Gryffindor tower by your big toe.

There. Her note was written. Casual threats out of the way. When Professor Hirsch brought up movies she just grinned, “I’ve seen some…but I’m a comedy fan actually” she admitted because really, she was. “but most of the guy’s in my family are either on sports teams or Aurors” she admitted with a big old grin. She had tough guys in her family like Charlotte then eh? “Whatever I want? Really?” She thought of all the weapons she had at home and grinned though right now anything would be a small thing.

“Thank you sir,” she added with a beam her blushing finally getting a bit better but still somewhat there…more because of the smiling and his face and he had complimented her and he was perfect. Oooooh she liked all of those ideas and added them to her notes…her real notes.

Mel raised her hand again, “there’s one on the elbow I think Professor?” She half asked and then took her hands and squeezed lightly on the crevice of her elbow. “but I think its hard to do? The collarbone one is probably more useful” she added a little nod and gave Ace another look.

He'd had every intention of answering this question too. Honest, he had. Jaemin had been prepared to throw his hand up in the air to mention, as others had, that the temple was a great thing to hit to make someone go down really fast. It had been the reason that he'd been disinvited to his karate class after two lessons, though he hadn't been at all bothered about that at the time.

He'd been all set to mention this, but the thing that came out of the girl prefect from his house had the little boy stunned before he could manage it. Jaemin turned himself around to look at her, a rather audible "What?!" escaping him as one small hand covered his own nose as if to protect it. You could kill someone with their own nose?! You could push their nose into their brain?!

Jaemin looked at the professor, torn between absolute horror and the need for confirmation. Surely that wasn't a real thing that could be done!

"Thank you!" Carl grinned back at Yoongi, but could not say much more - like how he liked his new Common Room, or the Puffer Paint Party on the first night at Hogwarts - because the lesson was in progress. He turned his attention again to what Professor Hirsch was saying.

'Interesting approach, Mr Leonard.' Carl smiled at the Professor's reply. Despite his confidence, he was expecting some sort of reprimand at what his primary school teacher would call 'silly answer'. With a warm fuzzy feeling inside his stomach, he jotted down the answers from the board and thought about the question. He had never heard of pressure points, though he could think of several weak spots in the human body.

"The side of the head!" Carl pointed at his cheek. Once he was hit straight in his face (unintentionally, by a basketball) and that did hurt quite a lot. Hmm, all this talk about attacking people was making him feel queasy.

MERLIN!

This was turning out to be a very violent class. Would they be learning how to exploit each other's weaknesses during the lesson? And some of the students answers were rather graphic. Trixie had no idea where the Professor was going with this, but she raised her hand to give her answer.

"The ribs, Sir. Break a person's ribs and you render them in a weakened state." She imagined that it would probably hurt like hell.

The new Professor didn't seem too excited about his answer but he didn't care. Not everyone liked fighting and there was a big difference between a duel and fight. The part where he said that he WILL find out how his insticts worked made him shuffle on the mat a bit uneasily. Had he just threatened him? Did he have to go through the year looking over his shoulder AGAIN? Because the previous Professor had also hinted about surprise attacks to keep them sharp. It had never happened but he had no clue if this new one would actually go through with it.

He was brought back to the classroom when students around him started to answer where and how they would hit someone. Yoongi looked around in shock. So many of them had such violent imagination and he started to feel uncomfortable again. Were they really capable of...breaking someones ribs or...hitting someone's throat?

The Head Boy sat there, looking around to see who had said what before he turned back to face the front again. Not saying a word and writing things down in his notebook.

One thing Daxton had not been expecting out of the suggestions from everyone else had been the mention of his own name. He blinked the moment he heard it, proving that he still paying attention to everyone in the room.

It had been David Truebridge's voice; of course Daxton recognised it, what with them being in the same house and year, and essentially living in the same room together. However, he did not turn to look at dormmate, preferring to avoid any kind of accidental eye contact seeing as the other boy was almost certainly looking right at him, but kept his eyes trained on the professor. The downside of this, of course, was that Hirsch took it upon himself to presumably follow David Truebridge's line of sight, and ended up looking right at Daxton, discovering his real name in the process (not that it would have remained a mystery for very long, of this Daxton was quite certain).

To Daxton's relief, there was no further mention of his name, nor any looks or gestures towards him, as far as he could tell. Still the Ravenclaw remained silent as the lesson progressed, privately judging and mentally filing away the answers his classmates gave, but providing none of his own. But when it started to sound more and more like there might be some sort of physical practice component to the whole 'self defence' topic, Daxton's comfort began to grow once more. Would they be fighting each other? Practicing? He was wary, and not just because of his utter hatred for physical contact.

Predictably, he offered no answer to the next question, and instead just kept his calculating gaze on Hirsch. This time, however, he looked the man up and down, almost as though he was sizing him up, but in actuality Daxton was pinpointing the weak spots he himself found most advantageous in a physical fight. Eyes, temples, adam's apple, lower stomach, knees, feet... always depended on who you were up against, of course. Some were more likely to know how to defend themselves than others, and if they were not the type to know where to strike, they would not be the type to know where to defend, and would only attempt to defend the most obvious targets. If the opponent knew what they were doing, it was a case of being much faster, and much smarter, than them.

Even as he thought through it all, Daxton felt his discomfort grow. The probability of having to put all this into practice seemed to him to be growing too, and if that were the case then he would have no part in it. How soon was too soon to begin feigning illness? It was difficult to tell, as they might yet be moving onto an activity that could be slightly less like a personal torture, and maybe even interesting - this was Defence Against the Dark Arts after all. For now, Daxton simply frowned ever so slightly, and kept his eyes mainly fixed on Hirsch, though sparing glances around the room every so often.

Poor Professor, he had no idea what he was on about--well he did...but not when it came to him. Blaise never had his wand on him. He didn't feel lost without it and he didn't decide his life was over so he might as well lie there and take it. On the contrary, his wand brought pressure; the kind of knowing that you couldn't do a bloody thing with it and would probably have to chuck it off the cliff so it doesn't weigh you down.

Granted, wands couldn't slow a person down by THAT much but that wouldn't stop him. First chance he got that was remotely believable, he was getting rid of the thing.

Nonetheless, he sat there looking as attentive as he could.

"I don't know about pressure points, Sir but I reckon if you jab 'em hard enough in the eyes you'll still be plenty safe ad capable of making a grand escape."

He didn't study pressure points, never thought he needed to but perhaps it was something to look into with his unwillingness to draw his wand.