The first dinner after everyone returned from the Christmas holidays was usually quite a feast. Reunited after roughly a month apart, the students excitedly shared their holiday experiences. Of course, their discussions centered on two things: the special potion Roy had developed, and the disappearance of the beautiful, gentle Professor Jobana.
Neither question was answered at the welcome-back feast, naturally. Dumbledore offered a great deal of polite chatter, but never once mentioned Professor Jobana's whereabouts or the arrangements for Defense Against the Dark Arts in the second half of the school year.
Roy and Dumbledore exchanged a knowing glance. Some surprises were better sprung without warning.
Speculation about the substitute Defense Against the Dark Arts professor continued from dinner into the following morning. Then Snape, who was actually in a fairly good mood, barged into the fifth-years' classroom with a dour expression, and every hope and theory about their substitute professor burst like a bubble. This suited Roy perfectly. He wanted them to let their guard down first, so that his eventual appearance as their professor would be shocking enough-and surprising enough.
Unfortunately, according to the arrangement Roy and Dumbledore had agreed upon, Roy would have to wait about another week before meeting the "fortunate" second-years for his first lesson. The industrious Professor Smee had therefore written over a dozen pages of lesson plans, eager to teach every scrap of magical knowledge he possessed to younger students who could not even produce a tiny spark.
But when he rehearsed the lesson alone in the Special Operations Office, following his own teaching plan, he suddenly realized that he had prepared far too much. Explaining even a single technique thoroughly would take several lessons, never mind the dozens of techniques for defending against dark creatures and countering Dark Magic he had included.