Sirius walked towards Defense with his friends, musing on the changes to the class. He had been right in thinking that his soon-to-be stepfather would rustle a few things, but the degree to which he would do so was both shocking and amusing. According to his cousin Bella, Slytherins were absolutely outraged as a majority about the changes in the class, many had written their parents, expecting things to go back to the way they had been. She admitted it had been highly amusing to see their stunned and put-out reactions when they had received their replies.

As Professor Peverell had told them, the entire thing was sanctioned by the Board of Governors and more importantly (he had not mentioned this) the Wizengamot. There would be no changes made as long as students were not harmed by his teaching methods. As the only thing that had happened so far was a few ruffled feathers and lost points so far, Sirius didn't see it changing anytime soon. He was an interesting teacher and made the Defense class far more challenging than it had been for the past six years.

Their first two sessions after the ruffling introduction had been debates on what spells were actually Light and Dark and which had just been classified by the Ministry as that way due to what had become their common usage. Evans had just about thrown a fit in that class, demanding to know how a 'Light' spell could be used in a bad manner. Harrigan's reply had been chilling, to say the least.

"Miss Evans, I think it is time you open your eyes. The magical world is a dangerous place outside of these protected walls and it certainly has no place for your narrow-minded way of thinking. How can a 'Light' spell be used for 'Dark' purposes, you ask? I can think of several ways off the top of my head. The Levitation spell for example. You scoff at me, but a spell that can levitate a feather could certainly lift a chunk of stone over someone's head and be released, couldn't it? For that matter, you could use it to levitate your opponent themselves out of an open window from a few floors up and kill them that way."

"Defodio is used for plants, but what's to stop someone from using a milder cutting spell the same way more severe ones are used, to slice open an opponents' throat? The Tickling Charm could be used as a lighter form of the Cruciatus, causing severe nerve damage from overexposure or even causing important blood vessels to break. I've seen people use Scourgify as a prank to fill someone's mouth with bubbles, that could very well cause them to choke, couldn't it?"

"You need to stop thinking about spells as Dark and Light and start seeing them the way they are, Miss Evans. Every single one of you is given a weapon at the age of eleven, you are given the means to kill someone at the age of eleven with the wrongful usage of even a single spell. If you want to make it in this world, Miss Evans, you need to set aside the naivety that there is only good and evil. There is far more to Magic than that."

"You only say that because you're a Pagan," she accused him.

He turned and looked her straight in the eyes with an almost glacial stare. "You will find, Miss Evans, that most witches and wizards are what you call Pagan. Considering the fact that the Christian religion demands the death of all those that practice witchcraft, you could very well be considered a hypocrite. My religious beliefs have nothing to do with what I am teaching you here in this school and that insolent accusation has gained you a loss of 25 house points and a detention with Argus Filch. I expected more from a Head Girl whose Head of House praises her so highly."

Lily Evans had unknowingly insulted quite a few people that day. After word had spread about what she had said to a teacher younger students came to her less and less, afraid of accusations based on their beliefs. Older students had lost their respect for her as well and several teachers had come up to her and expressed their disappointment in her behavior and conduct.

Much to Sirius' relief, James had not taken her words too harshly. He had given up his pursuit of her in 5th year, much to her seeming indignation. It all made Sirius want to shake his head at her. If she had actually wanted James, why had she been so scathingly negative towards him? It made him honestly glad that he'd never really been interested in women. They were so confusingly complicated.

By this point, they had reached the Defense classroom and Sirius pushed open the door. The first thing he spotted was the chalkboard, which had been pulled into the center of the classroom and had the following words neatly printed on it in Lord Peverell's handwriting.

Once you have changed robes and placed away your belongings, bring only your wands and come down to the edge of the Black Lake by Hagrid's hut. Your Defense session today will take place outside.

James read the board as well and whistled lowly. "That promises to be interesting."

Sirius nodded and added, "Not to mention incredibly vague."

The Marauders switched out their robes and headed back out of the classroom. As they passed students headed for their class they passed on the message, gaining surprised and some suspicious glances. Remus shook his head and said to Sirius, "Thanks to you and James people don't believe us when we're actually telling the truth, Padfoot! Lovely!"

"I know you enjoy the confusion, Moony," he teased back. "I recall your planning for several pranks taking distinct advantage of that particular fact."

Remus looked forward, poked his nose in the air, and said with entirely false indignation, "I have no idea what you are talking about!"

All four burst out laughing and continued to tease and banter with each other as they made their way out to the appointed spot. When they got there, they stopped and stared in surprise, for the place was empty of Lord Peverell's presence aside from three rings side by side, large enough to hold each defense group. Shooting each other looks they shrugged and split up into their rings, waiting for the other students.

Bellatrix, Severus, and Avery were the next to arrive, taking stock of the situation before doing the same as the Marauders had. Eventually, all three groups had each of their members present. As the very last student stepped into their ring they all flashed simultaneously and disappeared. Instead, each group had a band around their wrists with the number of their group in Roman numerals.

From seemingly all around them, the voice of Lord Peverell began speaking, drawing a shocked squeak from a few students. "Welcome to your first practical Defense class. Before you lies the Black Lake, but to your left is your objective. The Forbidden Forest today holds a Gold Ring in the center. The first group to reach this ring wins the challenge. The centaurs have kindly agreed to keep an eye out on you, but they will not clear all of your opponents for you. There are both creatures and traps within the Forest which you will have to avoid."

"You are to be given only the most basic of maps, it shows your beginning location and the endpoint. If you run into trouble and can't complete the challenge, send up red sparks. One last note: for the win to count, each member of your team must cross into the gold ring. Good luck and you may begin when you see green sparks."

There was a flash of light and a piece of paper flashed in front of each group. Severus snagged it for group One. When James began to protest on habit more than anything else Severus looked at him and said in mild exasperation, "Look, Potter, do you even know how to read an unlabelled map?"

Sheepishly James replied, "No, I don't Snape. It's more habit than anything else. Sorry."

Rudolphus Lestrange snorted out a small laugh of amusement and said to Severus, "Go on then, where do we need to get to?"

"Northeast," Severus said simply, keeping his voice low to avoid alerting the other two groups. "I suggest we stick together, since we all must cross to count as a completion. Also, there is strength in numbers."

"I agree," James stated, "there is also likely to be challenges along the way that will require more than one person to either get through or avoid."

Lily glared at the two men and huffed, "It is a far more likely chance for success if we split up."

"Don't be daft, Evans," James said impatiently, shaking his head at her. "We have to all cross the line for it to count. We can't do that each on our own. Snape is right, we have to work together."

Lily opened her mouth to make an outraged comment about the word 'daft' when Bellatrix cut over her. "Look, it's going to get awkward using surnames when we're working together. Let's use first names here, please?"

"I would be amenable to that," Severus agreed, the barest of reluctance in his voice.

"So would I," James agreed as well.

"Before we start," Cadmus Avery began, "do all of us know how to use a basic Compass spell?"

"A good thing to ask," Rudolphus nodded. "It's a simple 'pointus' with your wand laying flat on your palm."

"Look!" Lily said suddenly, she had been ignoring the others since they refused to listen to her. "Green sparks!"

All of the students moved at almost the same time, some entering the Forest a bit more reluctantly than their counterparts. Lily suddenly jerked off to the right, prompting an exasperated "Lily!" from her teammates. She didn't pay any attention to them, much to their annoyance.

"I really don't know what you saw in her, James!" Bellatrix snapped.

"I don't either, at the moment."

"Well, we can't go after her," Severus said finally, sounding disgusted. "Let's continue on, shall we?"

In agreement, they set off together, taking a more lighted path that was slightly off from their destination rather than blindly heading off into the dark as Lily had done. Their first challenge was a few Devil's Snare, luckily Severus identified them quickly due to his Potions and knocked the greedy vines away with a small jet of flames pointed at the center of the plant. They made sure to move well out of range before the plant had recovered, breathing a little more heavily than they had been originally.

Their next trap was triggered when James activated what they realized later was a tripwire, triggering a complete set of magically enchanted dueling dummies. The fastest to defeat hers was Bellatrix, who then teamed up with James to finish off his, the two splitting up after that to help others in their group. James was surprised and impressed by how capable of a dueler Bellatrix Black actually was, she was quick on her feet and clever with her spells. Before now she had reminded him more of Moony, being clever with words and quick to learn from books.

Since Lily had taken off, they had lacked one person to go after the last dummy, which meant they had all been at a slight disadvantage to start with an extra opponent wandering around and attempting to distract them. James ended up with a scratch above his eye, while both Cadmus and Bellatrix gained a scrape each on their arms.

Rudolphus muttered a breathless pointus and they turned in the direction indicated, each student casting a pointus themselves at what they agreed should be four-minute intervals. For their first practical, they were doing very well as a group, James realized. He had underestimated what Bellatrix, Rudolphus, Cadmus, and Severus were actually capable of and he found it humbling. He was doing well working with them, finding out in particular that he and Severus worked rather well together on dueling, hexing, and shielding in wordless tandem.

They were beginning to reach the center of the Forest when Bellatrix pointed to their right, "Look! Red sparks!"

They pushed on after a moment, invigorated to realize how well they were actually doing. James saw a glint of gold in front of him and said, "Yes! There's the ring!"

"Evans is still missing though," Rudolphus said in mild disgust. "Even if we are the first to pass into the ring we won't win the challenge without her. Should we go look for her? The Compass spell will point us in her direction."

"No," Bellatrix spat. "We don't go back for her. We finish this together as we had started out and we let the centaurs and Professor Peverell find her if she really is lost. For all we know those red sparks were hers."

James nodded slowly. "I agree with Bellatrix," he said. "It's her own fault that she took off without us, she was just being churlish after we rejected her idea. Let's finish this now."

They all nodded and took off, jogging for the center of the Forest and the gold ring. As they crossed it they noticed that the misty ring was actually made entirely of protection Runes. Their professor was waiting for them, standing towards the back of the ring. He counted off their group with his eyes and said quietly, "You're still missing one."

"We know, sir," Cadmus spoke from the back of the group, respectfully. "She didn't much like the idea that we shot down her plan to split up and as soon as we entered the Forest after making our plan she took off on her own. We chose to finish it in our group and let you or the Centaurs handle her."

Professor Peverell tilted his head back and appeared to sigh softly before he nodded, conjuring chairs and offering them water from bottles that had been chilling in a bucket at his feet. They sat down, feeling exhausted and accomplished aside from their lost member, who was causing more irritation than anxiety.

The next group with Sirius and Remus crossed the line whole and with each person present, Sirius gave a thrilling laugh when he heard they were the first complete team to cross the line. Spotting James and his group he said, "How did we beat you?"

James scowled and answered, "Evans decided to revert to a two-year-old and took off on her own in a fit of spite after we rejected her plan."

Sirius and Remus both winced and said, "Sorry Prongs. Fun though, right? And just a bit challenging. If not for Evan Rosier we wouldn't have had any idea what that funky gold mist was!"

"Anti-Gravity mist," James nodded. "We ran into it as well and once Severus described it to us we decided to go around rather than through. Worked better for us since some of our team are afraid of heights."

Sirius laughed. "We just went through. It was fun, but certainly a bit disorienting at first."

His teammate Selwyn scowled at the laughing Gryffindor, crossing his arms and standing as far away from the group as possible.

Team three appeared at the same time as a Centaur carried a shaking Lily Evans into the clearing, placing her on her feet just outside the circle. She stepped over it, ignoring the glares she was getting from her teammates.

"All right then, first is Team Two, second was Team Three and Team One came in last. We are going to try and do something outside at least once a month, it might have to be something in the castle if the weather is not permitting, I don't want you lot to get ill doing this. Your goal today was to learn to work together, which most of you did so admirably."

He shot looks at Lily Evans, Zachary Selwyn, and Augustus Rookwood as he said this, pointing out the troublemakers from each group. "Those of you who did not do so well," he continued softly, "need to learn that you are not invincible, that others can come up with good ideas and plans, and finally the fact that book smarts do not contribute to practical logic and cunning."

"Dismissed, you have approximately 15 minutes before the start of your next class, so I suggest you hurry."

None of those from Team One even looked at Lily Evans as they left, making her frown in annoyance. It wasn't her fault she'd run into every trap in the challenge! She'd done well making it through dummies, mist, a snare, and multiple others on her own. She huffed, stared angrily at their Professor for a moment before taking off, determined to catch the others before they'd left the Forest.

She would be able to make them see that she was valuable to the team, right?