After Dumbledore introduced Professor Norton, a wave of enthusiastic applause swept through the hall. Professor Norton, or Edward, seemed much more approachable than the old woman who had been teaching before. He had an innocent look about him.
"Does Dumbledore think I'll hex every Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher?" After dinner, Cohen didn't even go to speak with Edward. Instead, he hurried out of the Great Hall with Harry and the others.
"So now you admit you attacked Umbridge?" Hermione said with a sigh.
"I think it's good that Mr. Norton is here to teach us," Harry said. "He's a very nice person-"
"We have his class this afternoon!" Ron chimed in. "Cohen, what do you think of your dad's abilities? Like, has he taught you any tricks for dealing with Dark wizards?"
"I don't know what spells he knows, but you'd better hope he doesn't rope you students into a game of Dungeons & Dragons," Cohen said. "I bet the O.W.L. passing rate at Hogwarts is about to hit an all-time low."
"He wouldn't be that careless about teaching, would he?" Hermione was quite skeptical of Cohen's statement. "You have to take the exams too, so wouldn't he want the students to get good grades?"
"Sigh," Cohen sighed heavily.
Dumbledore had said he would "temporarily fill the position," and considering Dumbledore hadn't invited him or Rose to join the Order of the Phoenix, it was clear that Edward was just bored and wanted to teach for a bit. He probably also wanted to secretly check up on his son's studies at school.
It was truly a wicked plan.
This led to Cohen, who usually took a nap after lunch, being unable to sleep. He had no idea what the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson would be like this afternoon.
At half-past one in the afternoon, they arrived at the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Cohen didn't see Edward. He was probably redecorating his office—after all, it used to be Umbridge's, and that sickly-sweet pink cat theme was a bit unsettling.
"You're going to sit at the back for this class too?" Harry looked surprised as Cohen headed directly for the very back corner of the room.
"Don't be daft, I don't want to make a fool of myself in front of everyone," Cohen said, immediately refusing Harry's attempt to get him to sit in the front. "I've never wanted to skip a class so badly. I wish I had asked Fred and George for some of their tricks..."
The Skiving Snackboxes wouldn't work on him, but he could still use the stuff that faked a bloody nose on his face...
Harry couldn't argue with Cohen, but he didn't want to sit alone (since Hermione and Ron were already in the third row). So, he followed Cohen and squeezed into the back right-hand corner of the classroom.
Harry genuinely found it hard to understand why Cohen was so determined to avoid his father.
But he would soon understand.
As soon as the bell rang, Edward walked to the front of the class, carrying a cage full of white mice in his left hand and a bottle of milk in his right.
Cohen immediately put his head down on the desk, pretending to be asleep, trying to avoid Edward's notice.
But unfortunately, that didn't work. Edward found Cohen precisely in the corner. After placing the cage of chattering mice on the desk, he walked over to Cohen with the bottle of milk, all while the entire class watched.
"Here, Cohen, your mum told me to bring you some milk," Edward said, not only putting the milk on Cohen's desk but also "waking" him up with a pat. "Make sure you drink it after class. Hogwarts doesn't give you this, no wonder you haven't put on any weight..."
"..." Cohen covered his face, not wanting to deal with what was about to happen.
Edward turned and walked back to the front.
Cohen's worst fear had come true.
Dean Thomas, sitting in the row in front, turned around with a smirk and whispered to Cohen:
"Cohen, your dad loves you very much..."
"I can see that now—" Harry struggled to keep a straight face as he patted Cohen's shoulder.
"Just shut up, both of you," Cohen mumbled. "I'm going to start calling him Professor Norton."
This was pure revenge, blatant revenge!
Professor Norton must have been annoyed that Cohen hadn't asked him about coming to teach at Hogwarts after lunch, and that's why he'd delivered the milk in front of the whole class.
"Hello, we should have already met at lunchtime," Professor Norton clapped his hands to get the students' attention. "As Dumbledore said, I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the next term or two..."
Perhaps because he was used to hosting Dungeons & Dragons clubs, he settled into the role very quickly.
And with the rumor of Cohen being a "wicked half-Dementor," no one dared to fool around in his father's class.
After all, the rumor might be false, but Cohen was very real. He had even stolen sweets from most of the students and had publicly stood up to Umbridge and gotten away with it just a few days ago.
"From what I've gathered, you've already learned how to combat most Dark creatures and some dangerous Dark spells. All that's left for your O.W.L. standards are various counter-curses and a final review," Professor Norton said very seriously. "This term, I'll teach you some counter-curses, as well as a powerful defensive spell against those malicious curses—the Shield Charm. This spell isn't part of the fifth-year curriculum, so try your best to learn it. If you can't, it's not a big deal, just consider it a good foundation..."
Hermione raised her hand.
"Huh?" Harry was a bit surprised and whispered to Cohen, "What Mr. Norton is saying sounds good, so why is Hermione doing that?"
"I don't know, I'm trying to figure out how to get ten thousand points for Gryffindor from him," Cohen said.
"Ten thousand points? That's a bit ridiculous..." Harry said with a furrowed brow.
"Miss Granger?" Professor Norton asked.
"Do we need to order any textbooks?" Hermione asked. "The last one is clearly not suitable for this class..."
"No, you don't need a textbook to learn a counter-curse. You either know it or you don't," Professor Norton waved his hand. "You just need to take notes. Now, let's get back to it. For this lesson, I'm going to teach you the counter-curses for the Tongue-Tying Curse and the Conjunctivitus Curse. These two curses are commonly used in sneak attacks between wizards and have a direct impact on a duel. Think about it: if a wizard suddenly can't see or can't speak a spell, wouldn't they fall into a sudden disadvantage? Especially if they don't know nonverbal spells..."
After explaining the plan, he had the students get out their wands and get ready.
Next, he would give each pair of students a white mouse. One person would cast the curse on the mouse, and the other would cast the counter-curse he had taught them, and they would take turns.
"This is actually pretty interesting," Harry said, very much enjoying trying to cast a counter-curse on a white mouse that Cohen was holding, its throat gripped so it couldn't squeak.
"Yeah, yeah," Cohen said, thinking of a pen name for a pen pal and writing down "Butter Unicorn" on a piece of paper.