"Padfoot, if you get hard for McGonagall—or anyone—while sitting on me, I will
show you just how sharp my real antlers are the next moon," James snarled.
Sirius chuckled, looking down at his friend. "Now who's flirting?"
With James recovered from the mild hex, and Sirius covered in a few bruises of
retaliation, the group made their way to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.
There they speculated on their new professor, who had not been announced the night
before. All of the Gryffindors were hoping that Professor Prewett would make a return,
but the rumoured curse on the position prevented any one professor from teaching for
more than a single year. They had barely taken their seats when a tall man with a slight limp
made his way down the centre of the classroom, his head of shaggy, tawny hair flowing
behind him.
Mia groaned at the sight and laid her forehead on the desk in front of her, silently
cursing fate as she wondered just how small the Wizarding world really was.
Sirius and James were audibly intrigued by the new professor after spotting the glint
of an Auror badge the man had pompously attached to his professor robes.
Remus patted Mia's shoulder and whispered, "Are you all right?" to which she
quietly groaned again, shaking her head as the new professor wrote his name on the
blackboard with a flick of his wand: Professor Scrimgeour.
"I've been informed that, while your class has been properly taught in the theory of
Defence Against the Dark Arts, you've had poor education in the ways of practical
application. The notes left behind by Professor Higgs say that at least half of you are lazy
when it comes to duelling."
"I bet I know which half," Sirius mumbled under his breath.
Scrimgeour narrowed his yellowish eyes at the whole classroom. "Since the man
was arrested in connection with the Dark Arts, I won't be taking his opinions into account.
You all begin this year with blank slates. That means that until you prove otherwise, you're
nothing but children who are incapable of protecting themselves in any situation, thus
putting the lives of others at risk.