Lesson One: Sixth Years (Sixth Years Only)

Ajax slumped into his spinny chair, book covering his face as he gestured for everyone to sit down in their seats. A quiet bark to his side made him look down, only to see his most favorite companion, Sam, looking at him with adoring eyes.
“Uh-huh. I know, class started.” Lazily, he stood up and stretched, mouth opening in a slight yawn as his spine cracked.
A few seconds later he straightened and shuffled in front of his desk, eyes lazy.

“Hello class.” He drawled out, apparently not really caring about who was there. “My name is-“ He paused, mid sentence to give a contagious yawn, before continuing as if he never stopped. “Ajax Hirsch. I don’t really care what you call me, though if you want to insult me.” He slipped his wand idly behind his ear. “You’d have to do it when not in hearing range of Sam here.” At his side, said fox growled threateningly, showing off rather sharp fangs.

"All right." He reached behind his self and pulled out a sheet of paper from his many folders. "When I call your name, I want you to say here, then tell us a fact about yourself. And I don't want-" Another yawn escaped him. "I don't want any ones like, 'I'm a pureblood.' I want something like, 'I watch mundane soap operas when my parents don't know.' that." He scratched his arm absently.

"Okay. First up is... Nina Arnaut." He cocked his head to the side, and blinked, trying not to fall asleep during class.

"Next is- Patrick O'Faylan." He checked the boy's name.

"Ashton Hunter." Another check.

"Anastasia Marwolathe." And another.

And the names continued well on into class...

Staz was always late for the first class of the year and sadly, this year her record streak had been broken. Ariadne had sent a carefully timed Howler so that Staz was forced to wake up but what for? To be greeted by a professor who barely looked awake himself. She had been extremely incredulous when she had entered the class to find it almost empty and the professor almost asleep. She was about to poke him or something to wake him up when a small fox, apparently the timer of the class had barked.

Rolling her eyes as she yawned, the result of the Professor's super contagious yawn, she glanced thoughtfully at the fox. When Professor Hirsch called out the names, even though hers was near the end, Anastasia was forced to answer, mainly because she was practically the only one around. "My name is Anastasia Marwolathe and I have this insane urge to crumple a piece of parchment and throw it, aiming at your yawning mouth. Just because I want to see if I can." She called out from the back of the classroom, her trademark place, her British accent easily differentiating her from the rest of the class.

Shit. Late for the first class! This hadn't happened--well okay, this always happened! It made everybody groan and hit their heads on their desks because of the questions asked just because of her not having been there for the first twenty minutes. This time, however, Nina was only three minutes late and the second she slipped into her seat somewhere in the middle section of the classroom, the teacher was saying how he'd like to know whether they were in and a fact about them. Gah. This was already so boring! Being the first really wasn't that good, since she didn't know how to answer him, but she'd do her best.

"Here," She grumbled unhappily at first, then paused for a brief second to think. "And I'm currently trying to figure out whether I can make it without falling asleep in this class, and debating on whether I think that is actually a fox or not. No offence." She squinted at the creature who didn't look much like a fox, and couldn't help thinking that it was going to start insanely barking at her if it thought that she had insulted it, before looking back up at the teacher, whom she'd decided she was simply going to call by his first name. It was easier than anything else. Besides, she had never really liked calling teachers 'Professor'.

Throwing a look around at the other students briefly, she couldn't help noticing that there really weren't many people that day. What had happened to everyone? There was basically just around four students watching Ajax curiously, and only one of those looked like they wanted to be here and learn. That, was definitely not her, and not the other girl sat at the back either. Ajax's yawn being rather contagious, Nina found herself yawning also, her hand covering her mouth as she shook her head and stole a glance at the window.

"You know what?" He pointed an accusing finger at Anastasia. "You're mean." Ajax pouted briefly, disgruntled to find he had two people in his class intent on disrupting his sleep time... though he wasn't suppose to be sleeping anyways. His pout grew. Stupid school. He shook his mood off and crossed his arms. An eyebrow raised at the last one. "Yes. Sam is a fox, though his ears make him look like Dumbo." For that, he received an irritated nip to his ankles, one that made Ajax laugh.

"Sorry. But you know its true." He grinned and reached for the lesson plan behind him, intent on getting this over with sooner, rather then later. "As I said before, my name is Ajax Hirsch." He scanned the room lazily, wand tapping against the folder. "Some people even call me Axel. But that's beside the point." He stifled a yawn and started to read off his papers.

"For the first class of the year... unfortunately. We are learning the Patronus Charm..." He gave an unenthusiastic cheer. "The Patronus Charm is very advanced magic. Mostly because you wouldn't be able to cast one in front of Dementors." He grinned wickedly. "Maybe I'll bring in one, ya know? Just for fun?" This earned incredulous looks from almost everyone in the class, making him shrug at the lack of faith he was receiving. "The wand motions for this particular one in unimportant, so... I'll demonstrate."

He smirked and thought of something, something that made his eyes soften and a small cheerful grin appear on his lips. "Expecto... Patronum." In response, the tip of his wand began to glow, two seconds before a brilliant light filled the room. When the light died down a bit, the class could see a lounging cat... lion that is. One of the laziest in the cat family, so of course he would have one as his Patronus.

Ajax grinned wickedly, and murmured something that made the cat disperse into glowing shards of light. "That was a Corporeal Patronus, one that takes on a certain form. For your first time, I would expect you to get a non-corporeal Patronus, which is just vapor, but able to halt a Demntor in its tracks.

Patronus means "protector", "guardian", or simply "patron" in Latin, specifically reflecting the entire role that the Patronus Charm plays. The Latin word exspecto or expecto means "I look out for" or "I wait for", thus the charm's incantation roughly translates into "I await a protector." He went back to his desk and kicked back a bit, Sam jumping onto his desk with an ease only found in animals.

"Well..." He questioned when no one moved. "Get going!"

Nina raised an eyebrow. Although this teacher seemed like he couldn't give a damn about really teaching and seemed to want to get this over with and go to sleep as soon as possible, the mini-conversation he had with his so-called 'fox' was rather interesting. And seeing him smile...well, it already looked like an unusual thing for him. But hey, they were to be learning the Patronus Charm, right? That meant he had to be happy in order for it to work, so a smile was necessary.

When he told them all to get to it, she shrugged and sat on the desk rather than on the chair, pulling her wand out and trying to think of the happiest memory she could. But there were so many...! Finally deciding on one, she clearly said the charm, the tip of her wand only slightly lighting up, but then fading. She sighed. The memory must have not been good enough. Searching in her mind, she eventually came up with one stronger one and, after a few tries, she finally got it, so that a light glowed from the tip of her wand, and formed a Phoenix (OOC: Don't ask me, I took a quiz with Nina's personality to get this...). She remained concentrated, staring intently at the Phoenix in absolute surprise, having not expected it to be that, but after a few seconds she let it disappear, then casually looked around at all the others. A few more students had walked in about halfway through the explanation.

Most were happily chatting about the Patronuses they had with their friends, others weren't bothered, and the remaining few that were actually doing it seemed too concentrated on what they were doing to focus on anybody else. Seeing there was nothing better to do, Nina proceeded to doing the spell once more, and watched it fail again. She sighed, raised her wand in the air, and switched on to another memory, then quietly mumbled 'Expecto Patronum'. This time, the Patronus showed itself again, and she tried to keep it around for longer.

Ajax lifted an eyebrow and yawned lazily. The class was almost over, while that was good- he hoped no one told the Dog about what was happening in his class. Ajax did not enjoy being lectured. And that was what was going to happen if the Dog found out about how lazy he was being during the class... maybe he'd be lenient. After all, it was the first class of the year.

Ajax thought for a moment. Nah. That was a lie. The Dog would lecture him either way. "Alright." He contemplated casting a Sonorus Charm on his words, but thought better of it. Not because it would scare the students, but because it would probably give him a bigger headache then he already had.

"Alright." He repeated, sending a out a blasting curse on an unsuspecting chair. Almost immediately, the class went silent, aiming wide eyed looks at the demolished remains of wood. "I'm usually more even tempered." He said mildly. "But I am annoyed at the world in general right now, and while I congratulate those of you who actually did the assignment..." He flicked out his wand, Transfigured Fox Plushies going to Nina, Gregoise, Lorely and Henry- the only ones to actually try. Two of whom did a Corporeal Patronus.

"Congrats, Yippee. Class dissmissed..." Ajax smirked lazily and draped himself over his chair. "Everyone but the ones who got the Plushie has extra homework also." He added as an afterthought. "I want a 13 inch essay on what would happen if a Dementor cornered you with you not knowing how to cast a Patronus. Don't be afraid to add details pertaining to the after effects."