Chapter 64 - Solo Defense

***** Bonus Chapter ***** A/N: Been considering opening up a discord server for this story. Somewhere for the community to hang and discuss theories, and maybe il end up dropping my chapters in there a few hours earlier. Ngl Never really joined a fanfic discord community before, so not really sure how to set it up ahaha. Most of my discord servers are game/web3 related tbh. Anyways, Letme know if that would be something you guys would be interested in 🫡 And hope you all Enjoy the Chapter! *****

The first/second round finished up late into the evening the previous night, and soon it was once again Monday, and time for regular classes.

Although the competition was quite fierce, not to mention cut down from 609 to 128, there were still quite a few younger students that made it through to the next round.

Some notables included Luna with her unique headpiece, along with Daphne and her completely contrasting sister, whose name Khan had learned, was Astoria.

Harry and Hermione had both obviously made it through, and surprisingly so did Ginny, doing much better than Ron, who was eliminated after a particularly poor performance during the first round.

Needless to say, the first weekend of Khan's tournament was a success, and even though a majority of the competitors had been eliminated, it was safe to say that everyone was eagerly anticipating the upcoming rounds.

Khan, who was back in his regular Relic Robes, had recently just finished breakfast in the great hall, and was currently making his way to The Defence Against the Dark Arts Tower, accompanied by both McGonagall and Flitwick, who also had their own classrooms in that same part of Hogwarts.

"Are you sure, you'll be alright Jordan?" Flitwick asked worriedly, as he walked alongside his protégé.

"I should be alright sir." Khan responded placatingly to his mentor. "I have taught quite a few charms classes on my own, after all!"

"Ah yes…. It seems as though I will have to go back to teaching all the charms classes myself." Flitwick commented sadly. He had grown fond of having Jordan accompany him in his charms classes, and had grown quite close to the young lord.

"Sorry sir, but Prof. Dumbledore requested it of me." Khan replied also frowning, though for a different reason, as he was feeling somewhat anxious to teach his first real solo class. "I do hope he returns soon…. Him and the real Moody. I'm not really certain on the lesson plans for Defense to be honest."

Although he had taught quite a few charms classes on his own, all those lessons had been pre-planned with Flitwick's help. In Defense, fake Moody would never share the plans with him, completely leaving Khan in the dark regarding the curriculum.

Fake Moody appeared to be focused solely on the study of dark magic, often ignoring the defense aspect, simply displaying and showing the perils of the outcomes of dark spells.

As a result, Khan had no real idea what he was going to teach, while he was filling in for Prof. Moody.

"Dumbledore will be returning next week." McGonagall answered the anxious looking Jordan. "And Poppy informs me that Moody should be fully recovered in 2 weeks, although she doubts she will be able to keep him that long."

Khan would later learn that Moody had actually already regained consciousness, and was making quite the mess, arguing to be released from the medical wing.

Ever the Auror, he wanted to get started on investigating the current situation, and figure out why exactly he was trapped for so long, and what the other side had planned.

"Oh!? Has Moody already reawakened?" Khan asked in slight surprise. He had spent more than 3 months imprisoned in that Magical Chest after all. Not to mention he was rather older in age....

"..... Thats one way of putting it." McGonagall responded after a few moments, thinking of the mess she had walked into earlier that morning in the medical wing. Moody wasn't just reawakened; he was back to his trouble-making ways, giving a hard time to anyone and anything trying to interfere with his various paranoias and investigations.

"Well, lets hope we make it through the next week then, without any mishaps!" Flitwick commented positively.

The three professors continued walking and talking, as they all made their way towards the Defense Tower.

*****

"Alright settle down class, settle down!" Khan announced, walking into Defense class from his Defense office.

Looking around at all the faces, he saw that he was teaching a double 4th year class, Gryffindor and Slytherin, just like that first class, when fake Moody introduced the three Unspeakables.

Unsurprisingly, he was familiar with a majority of the students from these two houses, as simply from his friendship with Hermione and Harry, he ended up interacting with students from this age group on a regular basis.

The students (except for Harry and Hermione, who of course knew of One-eyed Moody's entrapment inside that magical chest) stared at Khan in shock (A/N: pikachu face), as they were all not expecting their recently missing Jr Prof. to be teaching them, especially without Prof. Moody.

Khan had never taught them a solo Defense class before, after all. All of his solo teaching classes had been in Charms.

"As I can tell from all your beautifully shocked faces, you have all noticed that Prof. Moody is strangely absent this morning for our class." Khan decided to address the Graphorn in the room, so to speak. "Unfortunately, Prof. Moody has come down with a magical illness. As a result, he will be temporarily unavailable to teach, as he will be recovering in the medical wing."

"Which means, that you guys are stuck with me, for the time being." Khan joked to the class, but he was surprised that instead of laughing, the class appeared to cheer at him, celebrating his announcement.

Whether that was due to him being a student teacher, and them thinking they would have an easy class, or whether they were simply all excited for him to teach class, Khan really had no idea...

"Thank you guys for the warm reception! I'll be doing my best to prepare you all, just as Moody has been!" Khan did his best Moody impression, as he yelled suddenly.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

The class by now, used to Moody and his outbursts, did not react like the first day, and simply smiled at their Jr. Professor, as they all kept quiet, eagerly waiting for Khan to start his class.

They were all feeling quite happy that not only was Jordan Khan back teaching classes, but it appeared he would finally be giving his own defense lessons, and not just aiding Moody.

Especially after his particularly fierce battle against the Mother Hebridean Black dragon, all of the students were very impressed with Khan's combat skills, and were all hoping to personally learn them from him.

To find out that they wouldn't have to wait for their charms class later in the week, to actually learn from their newly returned champion, needless to say, they were more than a little excited.

Looking at the smiling students, textbooks out in front of them, Khan spoke out, smiling at them in return, for their good behavior.

"Alright class, please stand up, grab your wands, and line up at the back of the class! Textbooks away please! You won't be needing them today!"

Shuffling was heard, as all the students listened to Jordan in excitement, quickly following his instructions.

A line of 4th years was quickly formed at the back of the class, with Daphne close to the front of the line.

Khan took out his own trusty wand, and waved it twice, moving all the desks to the side of the classroom, leaving a giant empty space between himself and Daphne, with the students looking on behind her.

"Now... While Moody has focused on the Dark Arts, and showcasing what you will be going up against, such as all the various curses, and various dark arts relics..... What I'm going to teaching you, in my opinion is just as important. I'm going to be focused on teaching you all one thing only."

He paused for dramatic effect, the classroom silent enough to hear a pin drop, with all of them hanging on his every word.

"Combat!" He finally answered.

"This may sound odd, especially coming from a Ravenclaw like myself, but you can read and practice charms and spells all you want, and still not master something."

"It is only truly with Practical experience, do you really learn something enough to master it."

Khan conjured a few training dummies in front of him before continuing.

"And It is only when you master something, that you can truly start to simplify battle."

"In light of that, today we will be reviewing a spell combination that has saved my life more times that I would care to admit."

"Sir?"

"Yes Ms. Greengrass?"

"Could you clarify what you mean by 'spell combination'?"

Khan stared at her for a moment, to ensure he heard her correctly. Daphne was one of the smarter students in her year, with Hermione as her academic rival, so it was rare that she did not know something.... especially something so basic.

Looking over at Hermione however, as well as the rest of the class, Jordan could tell that they all did not know what spell combinations were, just from the blank look on all their faces.

"Spell combinations, are spells that function synergistically, building off of each other, to create devastating and powerful effects, not originally possible by casting those spells individually." Khan answered in full professor mode, hoping that they understood.

Hermione of course, appeared to understand, her hand up already with a question to clarify.

Daphne as well, appeared to understand as well, eyes twinkling with recognition and appreciation at Khan's explanation.

Looking around however, it appeared that he had lost the class with his explanation, with dumbfounded looks on all the student's faces.

"You guys will see what I mean...."

"Now, before I begin to teach you this, you all must promise to never use it on your schoolmates. Although this is by no means a deadly spell combination, it is powerful enough to serious cripple someone if done correctly."

Everyone quickly agreed, as the excitement in the room grew, all the students were eager to learn this powerful new 'spell combination' from Khan.

"The first spell to start off this spell combination is probably one of my favorite 'crowd-controlling' spell. 'Levioso!'"

He cast the charm in example, at the training dummy, levitating it a few feet off the floor.

"Levioso? A levitation charm?!? That's how this spell combination starts?!?" Ron complained from the back of the class. It seemed Ron still did not like Jordan for some reason.

Looking over, Khan sudden cast a quick Levioso on Ron himself, keeping him floating a few feet above the rest of the students.

"A surprised opponent is a weak opponent." Khan continued teaching the class first, before turning to address the still floating Ronniekins. "Care to defend yourself, Mr Weasley? No?"

Ron was flailing all around in the air, attempting to reach his wand, to very little success.

"An opponent held by this spell, as you can all see, is simply helpless, and at the mercy of the caster. In fact, one of my best friends, used to use this very tactic, when we were fighting against groups of poachers, to cut down their numbers, and prevent too many from attacking us all at once."

"It may seem like a very rudimentary and basic charm, but I have found in my personal experience, that when in heat of battle, one cannot over-value the power of simplicity."

"In fact, many of my spell combinations, actually utilize rudimentary and basic charms for this very purpose!"

Khan finally lets down the flailing Ron after a few more minutes of tortu- teaching the class.

"Thank you for you help in the demonstration, Mr Weasley. Please let me know if you would like to help me with the 2nd part of this spell combination as well!" Khan smiled widely at Ron, daring him to speak out again. He would love to have Ron help him demonstrate his next spell.

"Now for the 2nd spell. It is again, another charm, that on it's own, does not do much damage. "Descendo!"

Khan casted a Descending charm on another training dummy that was still on the floor. It hit floor violently, before bouncing upwards into the air.

Khan, just out of habit, immediately kept the training dummy afloat, keeping it bouncing upwards with basic spells, before he realized what he was doing, and let it fall to the floor awkwardly.

It seemed like his combat movements and combinations were now automatic, with Khan simply reacting to certain situations (in)appropriately without thinking about them.

"Here we saw our two spells cast on their own. And you all just saw... they were each individually useful on their own, Levioso rendering Ron incapable of fighting back, and Descendo damaging the training dummy."

He pointed out some slight cracks in the training dummy, when it impacted the ground earlier.

"But if we combine these two spells..."

He cast a "Levioso!", raising another Training Dummy up in the air, before ruthlessly casting a "Descendo!" slamming it into the floor with greater force, that the training dummy even shattered and broke upon impact!

"...the damage grows even greater!"

"Same spells, same magic power.... completely different results."

"This is an example of a spell combination, and there exist many more."

The class seemed in awe, looking at the differences in the two training dummies. One of the Dummies was simply cracked, displaying very little damage otherwise. The other Dummy however (the one that was attacked with the spell combination) was completely shattered.

Could that little bit of extra height added to a descendo charm, really amplify its damage that much?

"Now lets get to it! Three at a time please, one for each training dummy!"

And with that statement the students all spent the remainder of class, practicing their first spell combinations, all of smiling and enjoying themselves.

It appeared, Khan's first Solo Defense class had been a success!