Lesson One - The Wand Lighting Charm (Year I)

A warm sensation spread throughout Ambrosius when he entered classroom 3C. Glancing around him, he was pleased to notice that the place had remained exactly the same as it had been during the previous term. A rather obscure atmosphere still reigned in the room, despite the sets of large windows on each side. On the walls, the painting he had positioned were still there : on one of them, one could see a man convulsing in pain while he was transforming into a wolf, on another, a group of dementors were sucking the soul out of their unfortunate victim, on a third a few mountain trolls fighting with a giant. Furthermore, hanging from the ceiling, right next to an iron chandelier, there was a huge dragon skeleton. He had decorated the room that way to give his students an insight on what dangers were lurking in the world and to show them how crucial it was for them to learn to defend themselves against these many dark creatures.

A glance at his reflection in one of the windows showed him that his strange physical appearance had worsened over the last year. Despite being quite young, his pale skin, the dark shadows under his eyes and his rather emaciated face and gaunt figure were more striking than ever. Hoping that his first-year students wouldn't be too terrified by him, he strolled towards his desk and waited for them to arrive, curious to meet the members of this new generation.

He finally heard the door open and a flow of students started coming in. He waited for them to sit down, and then started quietly walking around the classroom, examining every one of them as they were anxiously awaiting the beginning of their first lesson.

Daisee walked into DADA, excited to be able to learn to defend herself magically. This was the class she had been looking forward to the most when she first arrived, but hadn't been able to due to the lack of a teacher. She smiled at Professor Umbranox as she sat down in one of the front-row seats, eager to start learning right away, hoping that this class would be exciting.

Leah walked into the class room expecting the lesson to be just as thrilling as the name made it sound. Defence Against the Dark Arts, that sounded pretty exciting to her. Once again Leah made her way to an empty desk, this time it was in the front. She chewed on her bottom lip and swung her feet, anxious to begin.

After a few minutes of silence, he finally said, with a calm but authoritative voice: “Welcome, first-years, to Defence Against the Dark Arts. I am professor Umbranox, and I will be your teacher during this term.”

After a brief pause, he continued, glancing at random students. They seemed to be carefully listening and eager to find out more. “I believe this class to be exceptionally important for all of you, as I will teach you how to defend yourselves from a wide variety of threats and dangers that you will certainly encounter one day or another in your life. Therefore, I demand your full attention as what I’m trying to teach you may very well save your life in the future. You will be learning how to block unfriendly spells, fight anyone who wishes to harm you, and defeat numerous dark magical creatures. However, for your first year, we will stick to relatively basic but often quite useful defensive spells such as the Curse of the Bogies or the Knock-back Jinx."

He had performed a full circle around the room and stopped just behind his desk. “Apart from your books, The Standard Book of Spells and The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, which I sincerely hope you have bought, all you will be needing for this class is your wand. I want you to be as active as possible during classes: that means that whenever you have a question, or you have not understood something, even if it has been already explained, you must not hesitate to ask. I will then do my best to explain in another way. I am here for that. You are the ones discovering the lessons; I am only here to guide you.” he stressed, profoundly looking at every student to make sure that it was clear to them.

“That is all I have to say. However, as we will be spending a lot of time together, I wish to know a little more about all of you. Therefore, everyone please tell me your names, whether you have already encountered any sort of Dark Force in your life or performed or attempted to cast, intentionally or not, any defensive spell until now. You can begin.” he said, looking at the girl on the left extremity of the first row. He then quietly pulled his chair and sat down, ready to listen to what his students had to say.

Zoran swiftly reached the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. He was really excited for this class, as this would help him learn defensive spells and Shah and his....quest. When he entered, he found two girls and the teacher in the room. He nodded at the professor and took a seat in the middle of the classroom. Prof. Umbranox gave them a short introduction on what Defence Against the Dark Arts was all about. When the teacher asked the students to introduce themselves, not bothering to stand up, he raised his hand and said, "I'm Zoran Mandelino. I've never come across any sort of Dark Force in my life," Zoran was lying, of course. He'd lived with Dark Force till he was 10 years old. Now that the teacher asked, he'd never really used any of the spells. Just heard about them. "And no, sir. I've never actually cast a spell before."

Emmalynne had been trying to pretend that she wasn’t in the classroom. That was the best explanation as to why she had been seated quietly near the middle of the classroom, continually looking at the paintings on the walls and then the dragon skeleton with wide eyes when she hadn’t been watching Professor Umbranox circling around like, well, she wasn’t sure what. It was just all creepy and made her want to hide. Along with reminding her of the stories her mother had told her about how Dark wizards had affected her family in the past, but she’d managed to focus as the lesson had started. Of course she’d bought the books. She hadn’t exactly opened either of them since she’d gotten to Hogwarts, but she had them. She’d just been stalling thinking about having to actually learn to defend herself against Dark magic, because it just kept making her worry. She wanted to be prepared, she just didn’t actually want to learn what she was up against.

Her head had turned as a boy had answered the professor’s request for their names and things, watching him with the same wide eyes she’d had ever since she’d stepped foot into the room. Something seemed odd about the answer, and the investigative part of herself was piqued. She wasn’t about to interrupt the lesson in order to ask, but maybe Professor Umbranox would have noticed it too. He seemed awfully attentive to all of them, after all. “Professor, my name is Emmalynne St. Pierre, and I haven’t personally experienced anything related to Dark magic, but at least one of my ancestors did. I haven’t tried to cast any defensive spells yet, either,” she said, once it was her turn to speak. She wasn’t going to say anything more about that, and she hadn’t had any reason to try out any defensive charms before. That wasn’t going to stop her from learning, though, provided she could stop thinking about how spooky everything in the classroom was.

It was her turn to speak, "I'm Leah Ridges, I'm muggleborn so I never came across any dark magic or tried any defensive spells." Actually she never even knew there was any kind of dark magic at all untill she started reading her DADA book. It was a bit shocking to her that something so wonderful would be used in such ways. But then it made perfect sense to her, of course someone would want to seize power and use magic to hurt someone to do so. It was only human nature, always wanting to be the one on top.

Ambrosius was carefully listening to his students. He was pleased to see that they all had different backgrounds, yet slightly surprised that none of them had experienced magic before, as it was very common for young children to unintentionally perform it, sometimes even without being aware of it. He also couldn't help feeling that some of them knew more than they revealed, though he didn't want to insist. Giving an encouraging glance to those who hadn't spoken yet, he waited for them to do so before continuing with the lesson.

After having finally found a seat in the classroom, the Professor began the lesson by inquiring about their degree of familiarity with the subject of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Frowning, Aurelia considered what she knew of the Dark Arts versus what she knew of defending against those who had obtained such power and wielded it in society. Those who spoke before her evidently each had a different background, some of them with a far greater understanding or grasp of the subject than herself.

As Aurelia considered the Professor’s question carefully, tilting her head to the side as she assessed her surroundings with a distant look upon her features, she attempted to think of a proper ‘definition’ for the word Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was a skill used to defend a person from a spell cast by Dark wizards, yet there was more to it than just that. Spells were not the only component of the skill; that much was evident to the girl, yet she could not place the other aspect of the subject in words.

With an imperceptible shake of her head, the young girl broke out of her light reverie and glanced upwards to meet the Professor’s gaze. “ I'm Aurelia Rosier, Professor. Most of my ancestors, except for my parents, were Death Eaters and various members of the Dark Force, so yes I have encountered in my lifetime. As for defensive spells…” she hesitated for a moment before nodding, “Yes, I have attempted them.” As she concluded her brief introduction, Aurelia couldn't help but wonder if she had shared too much with the class, and sincerely hoped that they wouldn't judge her for the secrets she had revealed.

As he entered the dimly lit classroom, Emilio's gaze flicked across the decorations with little interest. Obviously they were meant to scare the other wimpy first-years, but dead dragons and freakish pictures didn't really bother him. Not that he wanted to be in that much pain, of course, but he wasn't the type to freak out when others were experiencing it. He took a seat at the end of the nearest row and watched silently as the others introduced themselves. He mentally stored their names in case he needed to use them in the future. Hoping that the professor would skip him, he slumped in his seat and attempted to make himself unnoticeable.

However, the gaunt professor had eyes of steel, apparently. They caught on Em, and he straightened slightly. "I'm Emilio Nocicarte," he began in a bored tone, "and I guess I've heard of defensive spells, but I've never done anything with them." And I really don't care, he added silently. As Umbranox continued, Em prepared to take no notice, but the class really did sound interesting. At least that's what it was supposed to sound like. Em doubted they would learn anything real for a while, perhaps never. He kept his gaze on the professor, though, even if he would rather not.

Taison listened and watched the Professor perform Lumos and Now. He then held out his wand and said, "Lumos." A light flickered but then went out. He tried again and again, until it finally worked. He waved his wand in the air excitedly then said, "Nox." and it went out.

He was so shocked that it actually worked, that over and over he performed the two spells.

Zoran listened with a bored expression on his face.

Isn't this supposed to be taught in Charms?

He was expecting something more interesting, something more....well, defensive. Seeing as this was what they were going to learn today, Z pulled out his wand and muttered, "Lumos." His wand lit almost immediately. Zoran was sort of expecting it to not work, so that he'd have something to work on. He sighed, partly liking the fact that he could do it at the first try. "Nox." The wand went off. He continued to do the same thing as he didn't have anything else to do.

Leah closed her eyes and tried to imagine a little orb of light on the tip of her wand, satisfied with the image she tried the spell, "Lumo-os" She huffed at her involentary stutter, "Lumos" She said again this time getting a nice white glow of a light at the tip of her wand. This was probably the easiest spell yet. "Nox" The light vansihed leaving Leah very satisfied and proud.

In all her nervousness over the classroom and everything else, even notwithstanding the fact she had managed to get enough courage to introduce herself before the spell they were going to be working on had been introduced, Emmalynne had practically forgotten to actually try to successfully cast the wand-lighting charm. Just as she’d forgotten to mention that she may have tried this one before, but she hadn’t said that because the earlier question had been about defensive magic and she didn’t really consider it defensive. Plus, Professor Umbranox had even said that it wasn’t exactly defensive, so she felt like she couldn’t have been wrong in not mentioning it before. All she’d said was that she’d never tried to cast any defensive spells, and that was it.

Either way, the next thing she’d heard was the professor speaking again and at least partially moving the lesson on, and she’d flushed a light pink as she realized she hadn’t tried the spell yet. Oops, she thought, quickly taking her wand out and preparing to cast it surreptitiously if she had to. She wasn’t about to not show that she could cast it, especially if they were going to be paired off for more practice soon. However, once he’d finished speaking, there was another pause. Almost as if he had realized that not everyone had cast the spell yet, and she blushed even more at that. She was still going to show that she could, so she closed her eyes and focused on the little orb of light that was supposed to appear. “Lumos,” she practically whispered, opening her eyes to notice that not only had a tiny light appeared, but the concentration had calmed her down as well. That was even better, and she at least knew she could still cast the charm. “Nox,” she said, just as quietly, then turned her attention back to the professor as she waited to be paired up or whatever would happen next.

Once the professor concluded his explanation to the class, Aurelia turned to one side, her azure eyes immediately glimmering with a detemrined glint. She wished to produce these spells accurately and generate the intended effects, above all else at the moment. She allowed her body to fall into a similar stance to the ones that the Professors in the various classes had taught, her finger covering the majority of the wond, the tip of her index finger aligned perfectly with the tip of her wand, while her wrist lay motionless and relaxed, ready for a quick 'swish' and a 'flick'. Closing her eyes, she directed her wand towards nothing in particular, narrowing her gaze as she watched her wand intently. "Lumos," she hissed, azure eyes widening as a shimmering veil of light was produced from the tip in front of Aurelia, the slightest hint of pigmentation surrounding the aura suggesting that it was of a white or yellow-based color.

A small smile curved across her lips, as she twirled the wand gently in her hands, tilting her head to the side appraisingly as she watched the graceful movement of the wand. Convinced that her level of mastery and precision with the spell would increase with practice, she gave her shoulders a light shrug and decided to try the next spell. "Nox," she stated confidently, flicking her wrists as she brought the wand down. The ray of light quivered for a few seconds reluctantly, before extinguishing, leaving no sign of her feat behind. The smile on her lips widened as she turned towards the professor, silently awaiting the next phase of their lesson.

Daisee rushed in to class, knowing she was super-late. Her uniform was kind of rumpled, and there were bags underneath her eyes.

"Sorry, Professor!" Daisee puffed as she clutched the stitch in her chest. "I overslept- was up until 3am studying!" Usually that would be a bunch of bollacks, but this time it was true. She got there just in time to hear the question. She didn't know it for certain, but she could take an educated guess. She raised her hand.

"Maybe Boggarts, sir? Or Lethifolds?"


OOC: Sorry, RL school's been pretty hectic, and I have a position of responsibility that takes time to maintain on another site as well!

Emmalynne’s eyes had widened again as Daisee had shown up to the lesson really late, and then Professor Umbranox had lectured her, and everyone, about how tardiness would not be tolerated. Of course, at least she had had a guess as to creatures that might be repelled by the Lumos charm. It had been more than she had come up with herself, whether or not it had turned out to be a good guess. In fact, it hadn’t, and it took her a moment or two to even decipher what the professor had gone on to ask them. Something told her that he wasn’t asking about other spells. Therefore, she’d need to come up with a different answer, just to prove she could actually speak up in the lesson.

At least the few seconds had given her time to think. “Isn’t a type of Lumos used against hinkypunks?,” she asked, partly guessing even though she’d read something like that in her textbook over the two seconds between the lecture and the question being asked. Hinkypunks were a creature, and slightly less scary than lethifolds. They were still scary, though.

Deirdre didn't even know if her teacher had noticed her being late.Thankfully,he hadn't,and she sneaked in the only free seat.She managed to catch his words,but before she could reply to his question,he continued on with Lumos and Nox.
She,herself,didn't like the DADA subject.The Dark Arts were mysterious,unknown,so interesting to her,and she saw no need to protect herself from them.So she was relieved when the teacher announced those two simple spells they had to do.
She got up from her place confidently,her long hair floating slightly behind her.She held her wand forward and with a loud and clear voice she said "Lumos"
A strong bolt of light ran from her wand and she smirked,everybody's eyes were on her."Nox"the light went out.
Deirdre sat in her place.

Auden snuck into the classroom right after Deirdre. She heard the professor's words and sat at a desk. Auden liked DADA. She liked learning new things and having challenges thrown at her. And DADA did just that. Auden stood up and held her wand up. She said with a steady voice, "Lumos". A thick line of light came out of her wand. Auden felt very proud that she got it on her first try. Auden then said "Nox". It didn't work at first. She then tried it again, "Nox". The light disappeared.