"Well, all the more reason for some payback, right?" Harry asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"Right," Ginny agreed with a smile. "What did you have in mind?"
They spent the rest of the day planning and plotting. They were so involved in their scheming that they missed the start of dinner, but they made it down to the Great Hall with plenty of time to spare and enjoyed their dinner sharing many knowing looks throughout the experience. They were both greatly looking forward to pulling this prank off. Their looks did not go unnoticed by Hermione, however, who was wondering just what was going on between the two. And wondering if maybe Ron didn't have the right of it earlier, at least in his guess as to what activities Ginny was getting up to with "some bloke."
The next day, Professor McGonagall put in an appearance during both of his HA classes. The BHA was learning stupefy, which caused the lesson to be a bit chaotic, with students collapsing left and right, sometimes onto the carefully laid out cushions and other times not. McGonagall did not interfere or help in any way. She simply observed unobtrusively as Harry went about his class. The class went by like normal, by Harry's standards.
After lunch, he went straight back to the Room of Requirement, and he beat his Head of House there by ten minutes. And she beat the first of the IHA students by five. They spent those five private minutes chatting about Harry's first class. McGonagall stressed how impressed she was at the way he handled his lesson, especially with such a large class. Harry thanked her modestly and insisted that he really didn't do that much. The kids practically taught themselves, after all. But he was really very proud to have earned her praise. She didn't give it out often, but when she did she always meant it.
She ducked into a corner before the first of the students arrived to stay out of the way. The class started without any of the students realizing she was even in the room. Harry ignored her presence and carried out his lessons as normal. They began working on the shielding charm where they had left off the previous class. He had the students separate into groups of three. They were to trade off between three different positions. One would do the casting of the shield spell on one partner while the other partner attempted to hex the one who was being shielded.
When Ron whispered something to Seamus and the two offered to team up with Blaise with mischievous smiles on their faces, Harry smelled trouble. So when he called for everyone to begin, he paid extra attention to that specific trio. Ron was starting off by casting the shield on Blaise, while Seamus would be attempting to hex the Slytherin. Ron nodded at Seamus, a smile on his face. Seamus mouthed a hex and waved his wand. A bright red light shot out from his wand towards Blaise, Harry thought it might be furnunculus based on the color, but he wasn't entirely sure.
Ron half-heartedly waved his wand and spoke the incantation. Predictably, he did it all wrong, not even making it look like he was trying. What happened next took him by surprise, however. Instead of being hit by the boil inducing hex, Blaise cast his own shield and managed to deflect the curse into Ron. Harry was running over to their group as fast as he could.
Ron was cussing up a storm as boils began popping up on his face. Seamus looked about ready to cast another hex at Blaise, who was looking decidedly smug with the way things had turned out. Harry almost forgot to release his wand from his holster before he cast the first spell. He flicked his wrist and caught the wand as it popped out of his holster. Two paralyzing curses were headed towards the two Gryffindors in the blink of an eye.
"Hold it right there," Harry called out, inadvertently calling the attention of the entire class. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for that display if idiocy. If I see one more stunt like that, I'll throw you both out of this class before you can blink. Is that understood?" He realized belatedly that they were both still frozen, so he released them from the spell.
"What are you punishing us for?" Ron protested hotly. "He's the one who hexed me."
"I was watching you the entire time, Ron. It was a terribly planned and executed stunt, one that Blaise saw right through. You didn't even try to make it look like you were actually casting contego. He just gave you what you deserved for trying to get in a free hex on him. Now, if I ever catch you trying to pull a stunt like that in my class ever again, I will not hesitate to throw you out. Is that understood?" Harry demanded authoritatively.
"Yes," Ron mumbled so quietly that Harry had to strain to hear it.
"Seamus?" Harry asked, directing his gaze to the Scot.
"Got it," he replied contritely.
"Good. Now apologize to Blaise and get back to work," he told them. Then looking around and noticing that everybody was staring, he called out, "This isn't some performance. All of you back to work now."
The rest of the class passed by smoothly enough. At least there were no more incidents like the one he had just resolved. He had them working on their shielding for most of the class, but also made sure to include plenty of time for the dodging drills, still including the stipulation that they must pair off with a member of a different house than their own.
....
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