Violet had never liked it when they met in the Duelling Arena. It had too many unpleasant memories of classes with Professor Trent/Not Trent. But if you took Defense Against the Dark Arts, you eventually wound up here once in a while, whether you liked it or not.

"Good day, Professor Vertagren," Violet murmured, looking up in the man's unnerving eyes for just a minute before continuing into the class, certain that that strange tattoo he had was watching her, too. The spinning sign caught her attention right away and she sighed and bent down to unlace and remove her shoes. Did that mean socks as well? she wondered. Unclear. Since it was cold, Violet opted to leave them on for now; she could always pull them off and stick them in her pockets if it turned out that was the wrong choice.

Speaking of choices, now there was another sign--which sort of defense did one prefer? Violet had always been a wait-and-see-what-happens-first kind of fighter, like the good Slytherin that she was, so she walked over to the left side of the mats (winning is more related to good defense than offense), where, to no one's surprise, she found a number of her fellow Slytherins--Darius, Bella, and (the slightly annoying) Aria. "Hi, guys," Violet remarked, "what's up?"