After leaving Dumbledore's office, I went to the Room of Requirements. As I reached it, I closed my eyes, thinking, I need a place to practice magic.

The next moment when I opened my eyes again, an enormous door had appeared before me.

Smiling uncontrollably to myself, I opened the door with one hand as the other held on tight to my wand.

I felt an exciting shiver rush down my body when I entered the room. As soon as I asked for an opponent to practice on, a wooden dummy appeared in the shape of a wizard with a wand in its fake hand.

I had come here last year with Fred and had tried the Disarming Spell on this same dummy, but of course it hadn't worked. But I knew this time it was going to be different.

Raising my wand towards the wooden wizard, I gulped as I stared at it intently, feeling my heart throbbing against my chest.

And at last, I opened my mouth and cried out, "Expelliarmus!"

Not a second later, with a jerk of a red light, my spell hit the wizard's wand, it snapped away from its hands, and so I caught it in mid-air.

Well, this is going to be fun, I thought to myself and smiled, raising my wand again.

***

I don't think I got to sleep more than two hours that night when Hermione woke me up for breakfast, saying that she was meeting Harry and Ron down in the common room and asked me to join them.

       I hadn't got the chance to greet Parvati, Lavender, and Kathrine last night so I waved at them all, smiling warmly.

      Lavender and Parvati waved back, muttering a quiet 'hey' as they left the dorm together.

      But Kathrine kept her blue eyes on me, as if I was suddenly the most curious thing in the world.

      Growing slightly uncomfortable, I took Hermione's sleeve and dragged her down to the common room, where we were joined by Harry and Ron.

We started walking down towards the Great Hall, whispers following us as everyone stared at Harry wherever he went.

"It's rude to point," Ron snapped at a first-year boy, who had been muttering something about Harry to his friend.

"I love being a sixth year," Ron went on. "And we're going to be getting free time this year. Whole periods when we can just sit up here and relax."

"We're going to need that time for studying, Ron!" said Hermione, as we set off down the corridor.

"Yeah, but not today," said Ron. "Today's going to be a real doss, I reckon."

"Hold it!" said Hermione, stopping a passing fourth year, who had a lime-green disk clutched tightly in his hand. "Fanged Frisbees are banned, hand it over," she told him sternly.

The scowling boy handed it over, ducked under her arm, and took off after his friends. Ron waited for him to vanish, then tugged the Frisbee from Hermione's grip.

"Excellent! I've always wanted one of these."

Hermione opened her mouth to retort, but it was drowned by Lavender Brown who giggled at Ron's remark as she passed by.

As we sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall for breakfast, McGonagall came forward to give us our schedules.

"You did great on your theoretical exam for Transfigurations, Hooper," said McGonagall as she reached me. "And I expect you to try your best at my class this year now that... things are different."

I caught her half smile as she walked away to the next person, feeling rather happy at her tone and excited at all the possibilities that awaited me.

      Although I started to get anxious when I remembered how hard this year was supposed to be. And while everyone had five years of practice for these classes, I was trying them out for the first time.

After breakfast, Hermione went to her first class, but I returned to the common room with Harry and Ron as all three of us had a free period that morning.

But not too long after, we had to go to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, which was taught by Snape this year.

We met Hermione when we reached the class. She was carrying heavy books in her hands as she went on about how much homework she had received already.

"You wait," she said resentfully. "I bet Snape gives us loads."

The classroom door opened as she spoke, and Snape stepped into the corridor and silence fell over the queue immediately. "Inside," he said.

The classroom was gloomier than the past two years as the curtains were all drawn and horrifying pictures of suffering people were hung around.

"The Dark Arts," Snape started, "are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible."

His mere presence had managed to reign a deadly silence around the room as no one dared to speak.

"Your defenses," Snape went on, a little louder, "must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. Now..."

He set off again around the other side of the classroom toward his desk, his dark robes billowing behind him.

"...you are, I believe, complete novices in the use of nonverbal spells. those who progress to using magic without shouting incantations gain an element of surprise in their spell-casting. Not all wizards can do this, of course."

By that his eyes traveled around at us as he went on, "You will now divide into pairs. One partner will attempt to jinx the other without speaking. The other will at- tempt to repel the jinx in equal silence. Carry on."

I paired up with Hermione as she tried to jinx me nonverbally and I awaited to defend myself.

It seemed highly unfair to me that I had been practicing magic for less that twenty four hours and now I had to do them nonverbally.

But seeing as everyone else was still struggling and no one had yet managed to do anything, I decided to let the matter go and keep on practicing.

"Pathetic," said Snape, after a while of watching Harry and Ron struggle. "Do you remember me telling you we are practicing nonverbal spells, Potter?"

"Yes," said Harry stiffly.

"Yes, sir."

"There's no need to call me 'sir,' Professor."

Several people gasped, including Hermione. But I was having a hard time holding back a snort of laughter.

"Detention, Saturday night, my office," said Snape. "I do not take cheek from anyone, Potter... not even 'the Chosen One.' "

He then turned and walked through the class again, stopping as he reached me and Hermione.

By the sneer on his face as he looked at me, I could tell that he was still not over the Professor Snappy prank which had taken place two whole years ago.

"Now, Hooper," he started, smirking down at me. "Let's see how you're doing."

By that, he drew out his wand and pointed it at me and so I did the same, afraid of what was to come.

"Prepare yourself," said Snape, raising his wand. "And remember, no speaking."

I pursed my lips together, determined to at least try and attempt to do a nonverbal spell, even though I knew there was no way I could fight off Snape's jinx.

I clenched onto my wand as I tried to steady my breathing, waiting for Snape's spell to hit me.

But the moment I saw a jet of light leave his wand, in the exact second I thought firmly to myself, "Protego!"

I awaited the spell to hit me, but the pain never came. Instead, a loud bang erupted the place.

   A few people gasped and when I opened my eyes, I saw that my Shielding Charm had hit Snape so hard that he had hurtled backwards and was slammed onto the desks behind him, knocking them over as he fell down as well.