First Years, Lesson Two

Noel was going over his notes for today's lesson when the first wave of students entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. He left the notes be, as he wanted to get a good look of the first year students and see how they entered class. So he welcomed them with his friendly smile, and stood up from his desk. As he walked towards the door this time, figuring the walking was good for him he saw the last student coming in. And closed the door once they were in.

He than walked back to the front of the classroom and stood before his desk. '' Good morning, everyone.'' He than greeted his class and started off directly what he expected of them. '' I would like you to take out your quills, pen and parchment. We have a lot of material to go over for today.'' He than said to them and gave them an moment to take their writing equipment, if they hadn't already. And contiuned. '' Like Hogwarts, most of the other wizarding schools around the world have made Defence Against the Dark Arts a mandatory subject. But why? From what, or who, do we need to defend ourselves?'' He waved his wand at the blackboard behind him to make a handful of images of infamous witches and wizards appear. The first of them would perhaps be the most infamous of them. On the board appeared a moving picture of a wizard with snake-like features, smiling menacingly.

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He let the students look at it for a couple of seconds and then returned their attention to him. Some seemed to be startled by the look of him. ''The man behind me is Lord Voldemort. Your older relatives may still refer to him as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who.'' He glanced around the classroom when he could hear some reactions. ''Back in his time, people had every reason to be afraid of him. Voldemort murdered and tortured countless people and creatures to achieve his goal of taking control of the wizarding community of Great Britain. He used and abused the Dark Arts and eventually transformed into the abomination you see behind me. Take a good look at it because this is what happens when you don't respect the power of the Dark Arts - he was more snake than man in the end.'' He had been reading a lot about this person and still it was an topic people sometimes spoke of. '' Together with a group of loyalists called the Death Eaters, Lord Voldemort worked towards ''cleansing'' the magical world of those they deemed impure and unworthy of wielding magic. They mostly targeted Muggles and Muggle-borns, but also other impure beings such as part creatures. Everyone not sympathetic to their cause would meet the same faith if they weren't careful enough.'' Noel than waved his wand at the blackboard a second time. Another image appeared, this time the students were looking at a witch.

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'' Here you see.. Gormlaith Gaunt. An unstable and cruel witch. She believed in pure-blood supremacy and had an intense hatred for anyone with a different view from hers. She used jinxes, hexes and curses to bring living hell to those around her. Her hatred for Muggles and Muggle-born ran so deep that she murdered her own sister and brother-in-law for showing sympathy towards their Muggle neighbours. She kidnapped and manipulated her niece Isolt Sayre and later tried to kill her when she married a Muggle. Those of you who have a knack for history might recognise the name of her niece as one of the founders of the American wizarding school Ilvermorny, a school Isolt founded alongside her Muggle husband.'' And then he waved his wand for the third time and a different person appeared on the blackboard behind him. This time they saw another wizard.

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''This is Gellert Grindelwald. Expelled from Durmstrang at a young age for conducting disturbing experiments on his peers, Grindelwald used and abused the Dark Arts as well. He killed, maimed and controlled people through the Dark Arts. His main goal was to end the International Statue of Secrecy, and there's even a rumour going around that he sought a way to cheat death.'' With a final wave, the image of Gellert Grindelwald disappeared too. ''There are dark witches and wizards in every corner of the world, including here in New Zealand. The Scitorari are a nasty bunch of people.'' He didn't faced them before gladly, but ofcourse working beside the Minister closely had been usefull to learn about what was going on around. ''We could go on but there is not enough time in your seven-year education to review every practitioner of the Dark Arts.'' He paused for a moment, waiting for the first years to finish writing everything down. ''The main reason that I have told you about all these people today is that I want all of you to know why we must learn to defend ourselves from dark magic. Perhaps you will never meet people like Lord Voldemort, Gormlaith Gaunt, or Gellert Grindelwald in your life, which I hope you do. But it wouldn't hurt to know how to protect yourself and your loved ones from people who practice the Dark Arts.''

It had been a long lecture, but he was sure interesting for the first years. Some might prefered some wand work, but it was important that they knew. He had an dry throat of talking a lot. He than smiled to the class as they were finishing their writings. '' That was all for today. Next week we will focus on spells, so it will be handy to bring your wands along.'' He than said and winked playfull. And with that he dismissed the class.

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Roleplay the lesson, that's all

 

[Sayuri Edogawa]

Sayuri entered Defense Against the Dark Arts without any further expectations than last week. Apparently, her professor hardly had any experience outside of the classroom, which probably meant that most things she was going to learn in class, she could learn from the assigned textbook. Aside from the spells, of course, but she had a thought that knowing how to cast was only half the battle. Meaning it was only half the defense one needed against Dark Arts. Still, it wouldn't hurt to get decent grades on the subject she supposed. She took her seat similar to last class, placing her bag on the seat beside her to make sure no one tries to sit by her side. Except Rose. Rose would know that she was allowed there because Sayuri had let it be last week and Sayuri liked her routine.

The lecture was pretty much as Sayuri expected - most came from the textbook. Gormlaith Gaunt was the most unfamiliar to her, but Voldemort and Gellert Grindelwald were familiar names across history textbooks. She wished that the professor would have talked more about the Scitorari rather than just providing one sentence since they were the most recent active group. It was also interesting that dark wizards always had a vendetta against muggles and muggle-borns. She wondered what a dark lord reign would be like if it were against Purebloods. Maybe one would try one day and that would definitely be one for the books. She tidied up her things as soon as class ended and gave a nod to her sister before leaving class. At least the next one would be spellcasting.​

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

The second week of the semester was underway and Tori walked into Defence a little deflated. Her steps were quiet, but purposeful as she remembered the books she had read in the library about several dark wizards in the hope of understanding what it was all like. She regretted it now, seeing what some of them said and some of the things they would be learning later on. She was only eleven, how could she be expected to understand any of this, or how any of it worked if she couldn't use any of the really powerful spells she'd read about? The images of the dark wizards of history were still fresh in her mind, even though last lesson had been a lecture. She liked action, preferred it even, generally, but maybe this was a step too far for her. She wanted to know the enemy, but wasn't the point that the enemy should be able to wipe the floor with her? What was she supposed to do with that information? Most people were just going to lie to her about it all anyway, since that's what adults tended to do. Getting a truthful word out of them was almost impossible.

Taking her seat, she pulled out her quill, parchment, and wand, ready for whatever the day would bring. She glanced around at her classmates, noticing a mix of excitement and nervousness in their faces. When Professor Waldgrave greeted the class, Tori listened attentively, ready to absorb as much information as she could. The thought that both of her parents could have been killed under Voldemort's reign made her pause. She could feel that fear in the centre of her chest tighten. She loved both of her parents, they were everything to her and to think that they might not exist if someone hadn't stood up and fought for what was right terrified her. What would life be if they hadn't had that, what would she be now if not a de Lacey. Her thoughts swirled to her Uncle Lanithro, would she be related to him? She certainly wouldn't be who she is because she was Tori de Lacey, half blood daughter to two muggleborns. It was kind of scary to think about. Not even scary, downright terrifying.

Was Uncle Lani ever like that? She didn't know anything about his family other than what she'd heard about from other people, but he loved her dad and her dad was a muggle born, so he wasn't like that, was he? Could her dad love a man like that? The problem was, she just didn't know. As the class ended, Tori left feeling worse than when she'd walked in. How much of history had to happen exactly as it had for her to have been born as she was today? The thought was harrowing.​

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Lumos was pretty determined he wasn't going to do well in this class, so as he entered the classroom he sat at his desk and just doodled in his notebook. He took nothing in and left once the class was done.​

 

[Rose Edogawa]

Rose headed into Defence, trying not to think about recent events. She still felt terribly neglected by both her house mates and her dormmates which made it all worse. She wanted to get to work on defence, but she wasn't sure it was going to be her forte really. She took a seat near the back to try and stay away from the crowd as everyone sort of filed in. She eyed the professor suspiciously, sceptical about what all of this would entail. The man seemed okay, and reminded her a little of her dad, though she suspected that would have changed had he been her professor. She'd seen her brother coming out of his office enough times to know she couldn't go there for the support she felt she needed. It wasn't that her dad wouldn't support her if she asked, it was more that she didn't want to risk running into him if he was the one she needed the support from. Well him and Jonah both to be honest.

She took out her quill, it was clear this was going to be a lecture class. That wasn't a bad thing, but it did mean she would have to listen. She wanted to at least get good grades, her parents would want that for her surely and her dad was now a professor, so that made the pressure skyrocket somewhat. She would get through it eventually but it was still a hard sort of lesson to deal with. She took as many notes as she could about the dark wizards and witches and was a little surprised that they weren't a History of Magic subject until the professor explained that he was trying to get them to understand their situation and the greater view of dark magic and practices on the world. She hadn't learned too much about this back in Mohoutokoro and wondered if it was simply a western thing. Probably. Dark magic was expressly forbidden at school there.

The class soon ended leaving Rose with many spiralling thoughts. None of the people in her family were anything other than magical that she knew, but she found herself wondering if there was a reason for that, since so many of the dark arts seemed to be centred around blood purity. ​

 

[Arthur Larson]

The first week of this class had been good, but he was eager to know more. To learn more about what creatures and things they'd be defending against. He looked at the board as he adjusted the quill in his hand and tried to get it to sit right to he could write. He struggled with it and wasn't able to get the first part of what the professor said down. But the professor was showing them pictures. He looked at the first one and tried his best to write down what the professor was saying but he'd never been good at note taking. He struggled to keep up, hindered further by the quill. His notes were sloppy, he had ink blots all over, and so many smudges. The lecture itself was pretty sad, of course this world would have bad people, but he was too preoccupied with the state of his notes to really care.

 

[Winnie Calida]

Winnie wasn’t sure if the first week of school had gone as perfectly as it needed to, but she knew she had to just take it in her stride and try to do more to do better. The girl was getting herself together for the day ahead, she’d spent part of the morning reading, she’d gone for a run and she was energised for the day. She had her plan for the week, it was strict and to the letter and she wasn’t about to stray from it at all. Winnie was sure that others probably thought her dedication to work a little overkill but she was not about to stray from her objectives. Her parents were expecting an update on how things were going by week’s end.

Winnie walked into the defence against the dark arts classroom, greeting the professor warmly as she took her spot in the room. Her gaze moved to the professor as she finished taking out her writing equipment. The Slytherin had her quill in hand and then began writing down what the professor was saying about the evil people who he had on the board. She was glad there wasn’t anyone like that currently. She took down what he said first about the muggle borns, then about gaunt, and then about Grindelward. She made sure she got down what each did and what they believed, not leaving out any further detail which was important. Eventually the lecture was wrapped up and Winnie packed up her things and then headed out of the room.

 

[Kanako Kurosawa]

Kanako stepped into the classroom without a care in the world. True, her first week had been marred by the presence of a certain Gryffindor, but beyond that things seemed to be going well. She settled into her seat and got ready for the lesson. It was on the subject of dark wizards - which honestly, and Kanako wasn't honest, was a little scary. But she put on airs, pretending it was no big deal. She took sparse notes, waiting for the lesson to finally end. Kanako left after the lesson was over, looking forward to actually getting to use her wand next lesson.