Oh, for pete's sake. A fight on his first day as a teacher? Shannon shook his head, then stood and walked over to them; one hand went to the fall Harvey's shoulder and the other took Eli by the scruff of his oversized robe. "All right, you two, first lesson: keep your personal shit out of my class. Eli, go sit over there," he said, motioning toward the other side of the gathering. "Harvey, you're going to sit with the much bigger kids and think about why rising up to the bait is a bad idea."

He gave Eli a nudge and motioned for some fellow Slytherins to help Harvey actually get to his feet before returning to his spot at the head of the class. He gave them all a moment to consider what had just happened before adding: "That's a lesson for all of you, by the way. Starting fights or rising to the bait is going to get you in trouble. After this, it's straight to the Headmaster or detention. Someone starts picking on you, you let me know." Shannon let his expression soften somewhat in humor, and gestured up toward his own face and sightless eyes. "Trust me, I know how much it sucks to get picked on at school and I'm not going to ignore it."