“And can we please give a big Hogwarts welcome to Professor Viridian, who will be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts.” Apparently Professor Dingle had also succumbed to the Defence teachers’ curse and only lasted one year. “You know, the sort of thing that’s so important that the Ministry has to concentrate on that rather than, well, I don’t know, catching You-Know-Who?” She rolled her eyes in a bit of an exaggerated way. Indian Sex Bea’s leaving at the end of this year and you’ll be able to concentrate on your own problems for once. Definitely. James was tall, reasonably broad (and so a little imposing), and one of the best in our year at Defence Against the Dark Arts, and so was most probably the student I would feel safest with under the circumstances. Carefully shutting the portrait hole behind us, Mary and I looked at each other again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than she was Martha.
