[Y2] Lesson I-Azkaban

Taking a deep breath, Selene entered the History of Magic classroom with Gretchen, the house elf, close behind. "I feel nervous." She said quietly to Gretchen, who assured her she'd do fine. Selene had lowered the temperature in the classroom, dimmed the lights, and hung chains on the walls that moved slightly as people walked by. Overall, the classroom looked like a prison cell, sending shivers down Selene's spine as she thought about this lesson.
"Okay, let's get ready for the students to come in." she said as she wrote on the board, and Gretchen placed pieces of paper with the student's names on their assigned seats.

History of Azkaban

Ella walked into the classroom and stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at the chains and felt chills. She looked around, saw Gretchen then saw Professor Vega. She decided why not, and walked over and gave her a hug. Her and Ellie had been talking and she was very grateful for all Vega was doing with Ellie, she hoped everything would fall through because Ellie deserves it. She'd been wanting to talk to Vega about it but she was extremely nervous.

"Good day, Professor." she said as she let go to go find her seat. She saw she was working with Lucy and let out a sigh of relief. They hadn't been talking much and she missed her, but that soon would change. "Professor, can we talk soon?" Ella asked as she took her seat still gazing around the classroom. "You should totally be an interior decorator," she laughed.

Aurora stepped into History of Magic slightly disconcerted. Professor Clark had left suddenly, and Aurora was starting to like him. She hoped that Professor Vega would continue the lessons the same way Professor Clark had, but she guessed that it was fine if that wasn't the case. Aurora enjoyed the Care of Magical Creatures classes, and she hoped that Professor Vega made this subject as fun and interesting as she made her other class.

Sitting down in her assigned seat, which would be next to Wade when he arrived, she waited, slightly imaptiently, for the class to start. She had a feeling that it would be very exciting indeed, since it looked as if they would be studying Azkaban, the mysterious prison somewhere in either the North Sea or the Atlantic Ociean.

As Wade walked into the HIstory of Magic classroom, ready to begin another class with Professor Vega. He wasn't going to deny that seeing her twice in a day made him happier, but he also knew he'd miss Professor Clark. The first thing he noticed, was that the classroom looked different. It was darker and colder, and Wade's spine shook a little as he realized what it was supposed to look like. Noticing that Ella was already there, he smiled at her and then caught sight of Shah's fiery red hair.
"Hey Shah!" he said as he took a seat next to Aurora. Turning to her, he said while smiling, "Hey, looks like we're working together today."
He hadn't really talked to the Ravenclaw, but he hoped that she'd be as nice as the other Ravenclaw's he'd met before were.

Lucy walked in slowly to the History of Magic classroom just as Wade had walked in. Looking around, she saw that she was supposed to work with Ella. Seeing her made her smile, as she hadn't talked to her in a while.
"Hello, Ella." she said softly as she took a seat next to her Slytherin friend.

"Hey Wade," Aurora greeted the Slytherin. She hadn't spoken to him for a while, so she smiled and asked, "So, how was your summer break?"

As the other students arrived, Aurora made it a point to wave or smile at each one, even though most of them were mere acquaintences. Soon, only James had yet to arrive, and Aurora was quite ready for the lesson to start. The anticipation was about to kill her.

To Ella Fontayne:

When Ella walked in, the first student to arrive, the girl hugged Selene. Surprised, Selene hugged back for a few seconds before the girl let go."Good day to you too, Ella." she answered the girl's greeting.
"Of course we can talk, Ella. Drop by my office whenever you want." she responded, expecting it to be about Ellie. Selene laughed at the girl's comment, "Yes, well, I guess I should." until the next student arrived.


When the students had finally arrived, Selene stood at the front of the classroom, staring deep into their eyes. "Does anyone in here know what Azkaban is?" she asked, very seriously, to the kids in front of her.
Pacing, she spoke "Remus Lupin, one of the Marauders, once said that 'They don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most go mad within weeks.' Does anyone have an opinion on this quote?"

Lucy didn't have to think about it much, and so she responded quickly.
"I guess it means that the prison is just for show. The inmates are already mad within themselves so being locked in doesn't really matter."

James made his way towards his seat after glancing at the blackboard, eager to attend the first History of Magic lesson of the term. "Hi Shah" he greeted the Gryffindor while taking out his things from his bag and arranging them on his desk.

Just as he was about to ask her whether she knew what happened to Ashton Clark, Professor Vega began the class. James listened carefully, impatient to discover more about the mysterious wizarding prison. As he didn't know much about Azkaban, he remained silent after the teacher's question, waiting for someone else to respond.

"Good answer, Lucy." Selene responded to the girl's answer. "There are many that say Azkaban's prisoners are already crazy and don't need confinement to go mad. Now, before we start, does anybody know what a Dementor is?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, waiting for the students to answer that question.

It took James a few minutes to connect the name with the frightening painting that decorated their Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. "Dementors are dark creatures, who feed off happy thoughts and spread despair around them." he gravely recited after raising his hand. "They can also suck one's soul if they have the opportunity to." he added more quietly, remembering the three hooded figures surrounding their unfortunate victim.

"6 points to Ravenclaw." Selene announced as James answered the question correctly. "Dementors are Azkaban's method of security. They roam around the prison and suck the positive emotions of the prisoners, which is why they would lose all hope and all good feelings and thoughts and were forced to relive the darkest, most horrible memories of their lives." She glanced around to make sure the students were listening,

"Now, everyone here is well used to Voldemort, right?" she asked, and seeing that all most of her students nodded, she said, "Well, long story short, Tom Riddle was a pure-blood maniac who thought he'd be the most powerful wizard of all time. And he was. He was an incredibly talented wizard, but he used his magic for the wrong things. Either way, during his return, which is when Harry Potter was a student here at Hogwarts, the Dementors at Azkaban let out some of the Death Eaters and eventually became Voldemort's allies. After that, Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt decided that Dementors would no longer be involved in guarding Azkaban."

Walking to the first desk on the left side, which was Lucy Malfoy's seat, she gave them further instructions.
"For this first assignment, I want you to work with your partner and write a few sentences on what you think you would do in case you were sent to Azkaban. I want you to design some sort of escape plan."

James carefully listened to Professor Vega's description of the prison and its dreadful guardians, wondering which horrible memories he would have to relive if he were to meet one. He couldn't think of anything truly tormenting, yet he was certain that most denizens of Azkaban weren't that fortunate.

"Any ideas?" he turned to Shah once the professor had finished giving them instructions. "Do you know of any way to fight off Dementors?"

Turning to Ella, Lucy said quietly, as to not let the other groups hear her ideas, "I know you can use a Patronus to drive Dementors away, but it requires a very happy, and strong memory. I don't think that if I were to be imprisoned in Azkaban I'd have any left." Taking out a piece of parchment, she took her quill, ready to write their thoughts down.

James had never heard of the Patronus Charm, yet Shah seemed to know quite a bit about it. "Oh, well that could prove useful against the Dementors." he remarked. "But you would first have to get out from your cell, I guess. Is there a spell that can transform you into a mouse, so that you can sneak out between the bars?" he added with a smile.

"Very good," she said to James and Shah. "You seem to have the same idea as Lucy, but you're on the right track." Selene wondered if James knew what Shah was talking about, given his heritage and his confused look, she asked him, "James, do you know what a Patronus is?"

"Right," Ella said to Lucy as she mentioned the Patronus Charm, "I don't think I'd have happy thoughts either, come to think of it." An escape plan, Ella thought. "What Sirius Black, the Marauder, did was pretty smart. He transformed into his unregistered Animagi form I believe is what Mami told me when I was young."Ella shrugged, "Other than that, I don't really know." She turned to Lucy hoping she could think of something else.