Advanced Level (6th and 7th Years): Lesson I on Defense Against the Dark Arts

Professor Levy

July 11, 2011 9:53 PM

Advanced Level (6th and 7th Years): Lesson I by Professor Levy

As her class began to file into the room, Erika sat on her desk. She favored this position more than any other, because it gave her a sense of height that she really didn’t have. She stood at a mere five feet; already some of the third years were beginning to tower over her. Thankfully, she had always had a forceful personality and domineering demeanor polished by the affinity for appearing scary. Black robes and black combat boots were always a must. Her hair was a dark brown contrasting sharply with her extraordinarily pale skin. Yes, the only thing that held her back was the limp that she still carried from her Auror days. Every day she hoped for some miracle spell to be invented to fix the curse that had caused her knee to be damaged.

Though, not all had been lost. She was still able to focus her love of defense into teaching. Normally, she focused more on the practical rather than lecture. She found more people obtained knowledge by actually doing rather than memorizing. Besides, the material was easily covered in homework and testing. However, today, she thought lecture (and some debate) would work a bit better since it would require looking at the pictures she had thrown up on the board. One was a typical cat. It was a black and white cat with a pink nose and a mischievous look upon its face. Other than that, it was nothing special. The other was also of a cat. The difference was if one wasn’t really looking, they might not notice what made this cat not quite such an ordinary cat. This one was actually an animagus.

“Welcome back, students. I hope that all of you had a pleasant summer,” Erika said sincerely. She really hoped that none of them had experienced a summer like hers. While they knew that it had been coming, it had been a shock nonetheless when Torra’s (Erika’s by marriage) cat had passed away. She had held her wife through her tears. Torra’s heart had an infinite capacity for caring about every single creature that ever came her way. It was what made her a great vet. The fact that this had been her cat for several years had torn her up and Erika had wished there was something she could have done. Honestly, she felt that animals should never die or get hurt. It just seemed wrong that they did. However, it was that sort of love that had inspired today’s lesson.

“Today we are going to be discussing the impact of Transfiguration in regards to Defense Against the Dark Arts. All of you should have already studied enough Transfiguration, if not continued with it, to know the basic rules of Transfiguration and the various branches of the subject. We’re going to be looking further at Animagi transformation, which is when a wizard is able to transform himself into an animal. While in this form, the wizard is completely aware of his behavior. This differs from werewolves where the person loses all control.” The idea that a person could lose all control like that was scary, especially when they were unaware of it, because it put their families and friends, as well as anyone else in vicinity, in extreme danger. Not to mention, there were those who enjoyed hunting werewolves for sport, which was an entire level of worrisome, both for those being hunted as well as those hunting.

However, today’s talk was not of the book that could be written on the defense complexities involving werewolves. No, today was about animagi. “On the board, I have two pictures. One is an ordinary cat and the other is an animagus cat.” Gesturing to one of the students, she asked, “Could you please pass these out?” She handed them a stack of papers. “This is your homework for tonight. I want each of you to answer the questions and then turn it in next class. Now, then,” she clapped her hands together, “we are going to be having a bit of a debate. Please pick a side. Are you for Animagi transfiguration or against it? Think about the advantages and disadvantages this branch of magic has when it comes to defense. Who wants to start? Oh, and feel free to jump in when someone finishes if you think of something or question anything.” She pointed to one of the students to start.

OOC: Standard posting rules apply. The more creative and detailed the post, the more points earned! For the lesson, an example of an advantage and disadvantage of Transfiguration in DADA might be the ability to escape from one’s enemies depending on what side you’re on. Happy posting!

Subthreads:

Opening the floor by Edmond

0 Professor Levy Advanced Level (6th and 7th Years): Lesson I 0 Professor Levy 1 5

Edmond

July 13, 2011 5:24 PM

Opening the floor by Edmond

Continuing it had not been as optional as it had been with most of his classes, since there was now no doubt in his mind that he was going to need it in life, and he had resolved to see the beginning of sixth year and his new classes as a new start, but Edmond still found himself uneasy as he entered the Defense classroom. Being there reminded him of the reason he had to be there, which reminded him of the…unpleasantness. It hadn’t done it so much that he couldn’t function even at the worst of it – well, it had only done it that much once or twice – but it was enough for him to be uncomfortable in the room, prone to fidgeting, lacking in confidence.

It would stop, someday. He made himself believe that, at least as far as he could force a belief. Someday, it would have been long enough that he no longer woke up at odd hours from nightmares, didn’t feel the need to look over his shoulder at nothing at all, stopped nearly freezing up every time something tangentially reminded him of that day. Things were already better than they had been, since those things happened less than they had. It just wasn’t all the way there yet.

He smiled automatically when Professor Levy said she hoped they’d had pleasant summers, not thinking of his too much despite its lack of anything concretely bad, exactly, and listened more than he took notes to the lecture that followed on Animagi.

The first thing that occurred to him was that if a person was a cat, they could get in and out of places much more easily. Escape. The second thing that occurred to him – incongruously, it bothered him, he didn’t think this way – was that a large form could be used as a weapon. If someone turned into a bear, they could inflict quite a lot of damage on people and maybe even structures, which could also lead to escape. And even if there was no way out – curses everywhere, hard to tell what would trigger one, entrances secured, no weapons – being able to turn into a gerbil would make it much easier to hide until a way out did happen….

Oh, dear. He was being pointed at. He looked accusingly at his hand, wondering if it had been in a position which could pass for raised, or if he’d just had a look on his face which suggested thoughts on the subject, or if he’d just been picked at random. However it had happened, though, it was not exactly to his liking.

“Well,” Edmond said carefully, wishing he had something to fidget with and could fidget with it if he did, “It’s difficult for me to pick a side when the same thing is an advantage for both sides…Aurors could use animagus training to escape from a situation – or for surveillance – “ he added, not wanting too much of a link between himself and the idea of looking for any way out of a situation that could be found, despite this being something he thought of far more than surveillance – “but so could dark wizards.” He felt his answer wasn’t adequate, but he’d gotten accustomed to that. Others often seemed to have a different opinion anyway.

0 Edmond Opening the floor 0 Edmond 0 5

Dana Smythe

July 20, 2011 8:48 AM

That provides opportunity for being swallowed up. by Dana Smythe

Academic discussion wasn't something at which Dana considered herself to be especially adept. She wasn't stupid, by any means, but she often encountered difficulties in arranging her abstract thoughts into an eloquent expression. At least when she wrote essays she could draft the arguments and take her time to write up her final piece to be submitted, whereas this debate Professor Levy had suggested required students to be spontaneous in their theorizing. Dana doubted she'd come out of the class appearing in any way proficient, but as she could already acknowledge her own weakness in the area she wasn't hugely concerned. Furthermore, it didn't matter, generally speaking, whether or not she was any good in her classes, particularly Defense. It might matter if her looks, manner, or etiquette were failing her, but she doubted the ability, or lack thereof, to discuss relative merits of transfiguration used as defensive magic would ever present an issue in her future.

Edmond started the debate before Dana had really even decided what side she was on. Personally, she didn't think she cared whether or not people were Animagi, though as she had no intention of ever mastering the magic herself, she supposed she could choose to argue against it. Edmond didn't even pick a side, as such, but he did identify some advanatges for transfiguration in given circumstances. As it happened, Dana was able to instantly think of a suitable reply, which decided her position for her. She rose her hand and answered immediately, in case another opportunity like this - one where she actually had an idea of what to say - didn't again present itself.

"But there are other spells that you could use instead of transformation," Dana pointed out. "Tracking charms, or Dopplevision could be for surveillance," she took one of Edmond's examples to make her counter-point. "Or things like invisibility cloaks, or disillusionment charms if you're just using your form to conceal youself," she added her own example, as much because she'd thought of it as wanting to sound like she was adding something original and creative to the discussion. The professor hadn't indicated the work they did in the debate would be graded, but she was obviously paying attention to what they said, otherwise she would have asked them to discuss the topic in groups, rather than as a class.

0 Dana Smythe That provides opportunity for being swallowed up. 142 Dana Smythe 0 5

Andrew Duell

July 23, 2011 12:20 PM

Is that something we'll learn to defend against? by Andrew Duell

Andrew was intrigued by today's class. A debate? An intellectual discussion? This could get interesting, and it was on one of his better subjects, transfiguations. This could be fun. Given his disposition towards transfigurations, Andrew decided that he would be on the 'for it' side of the discussion. That lasted until Edmond started talking. In the defense field animagi would work both ways. There were many ways that you could use it to assist in the fight, but along the same lines, so could those that you were fighting. He would have to think this over for a few moments. Dana made a fair point as well, that many of those uses didn't rely on being an animagus, there were other ways to achieve the same result.

Andrew raised his hand, "Dana has a good point, that there are other ways to accomplish what an animagus could do. The main advantage I see to the animagus is that the transfiguration can be done without a wand in emergency situations and it also may not need as much planning and preparation to achieve the same results. Now, like Edmond was saying, that also goes for the other side if you're trying to defend yourself against an animagus. That does depend on what you are up against though, if you are hunting, or being hunted by a werewolf... I don't see how changing into a juicy, fluffy rabbit will help you." Andrew paused for a moment to try and figure out where his rambling was going, and came up nearly empty. So he decided to try a different track before letting the next person have the floor, "All Animagi need to be registered, correct? That list is also public record, which means that anyone working with the system is going to be publicly registered as such, and those working against the system probably won't be. That does give those working against the system a bit of an advantage should they choose to exercise it."

2 Andrew Duell Is that something we'll learn to defend against? 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Quentin Melcher, Aladren

August 01, 2011 6:47 AM

Perhaps by Quentin Melcher, Aladren

As education was highly valued by most members of the Melcher family and learning was enjoyed by Quentin, the seventh year Aladren was taking every subject offered besides Divination and COMC. There was nothing specific Quentin was more interested in than any other. He was fascinated by it all and regardless of what he actually would need-which didn't seem like would be much, Quentin wasn't going to be a teacher, he was going to be an administrator-wanted to take almost everything there was.

Truthfully, the seventh year did not really want to be an administrator of his family's school. It did not seem to actually be a job that required Quentin to know much of anything beyond the way the school ran. Which was something Quentin was hoping to change because he was certain it was too strict.

A fact that made him glad that he attended Sonora. He would not have enjoyed having his father and grandfather around all the time, trying to control him. Quentin wasn't sure that was actually possible, for one person to control another without the Imperius curse. Nor could they watch him every single moment of the day because that was physically impossible. Still, it probably would have been quite irritating to have them more aware of exactly what Quentin was doing at all times.

He sat down and the class started. A debate? This could be quite interesting, even if it wasn't a topic Quentin had given much thought to. After all, there were so many topics out there that it was impossible to give them all an adequate amount of thought.

But as it was required for the lesson, Quentin would have to think about it now. Was he for or against animagi transfiguration? Truth be told, he did not really have an opinion on this particular subject but if someone wished to become an animagi, Quentin could not really think of a problem with it.

Well, morally. He supposed there could be technical problems but it was a person's choice and he had no right to tell other's what they could do or not do to their own bodies. It wasn't like he was being asked whether or not it was okay to use transfiguration on other people. Which Quentin thought was a lot more humane than other things one could do to someone. Better to turn them into a frog for a bit than to crucio them.

Some people might even prefer being a frog. To think as a frog thinks. If someone was suffering mental anguish and couldn't take care of themselves,why not change them into a cat and treat them like a pet for a bit?

Of course, there was a downside to this theory too. People could get mixed up. Say someone was turned into a turkey and it was near Thanksgiving. That person could end up cooked and served in a feast.He decided against mentioning this to his cousin, ever.

That wasn't what the debate was about, however. The debate was about people choosing to become Animagi themselves. Edmond had a fair point as did the others. And here Quentin thought of something to say on the subject.

"What Miss Smythe said applies more if someone is not capable of animagi transformation. Dopplevision, disillusionment and tracking charms seem more like an alternative than the transformation does. They provide an outlet that any wizard can use, whereas animagi transformations do not. However, invisibility cloaks are rather rare and expensive and not everyone can either find or afford one." Quentin stated.

He continued. "Furthermore, Andrew gave the example of a juicy fluffy bunny animagi form being useless, but are the sort of people who become either dark wizards or the people that fight against them such as aurors really the sort whose animagi forms would be rabbits? Animagi forms tend to reflect characteristics one shares with a type of animal."

"Also," the seventh year went on. "if those working against the system cared what the system thought, they would become registered to begin with. Therefore, even if becoming an animagi was banned completely," that had been part of the initial question, "it wouldn't matter to them and they would just become one anyway. Just like Unforgivables are banned and criminals still use them anyway, because they do not care about the law to start with. So there's really no point in forbidding people to become Animagi in general."

11 Quentin Melcher, Aladren Perhaps 129 Quentin Melcher, Aladren 0 5

Charlotte Abbott

August 03, 2011 5:11 PM

Yet perhaps not by Charlotte Abbott

"Precisely," Charlie piped up once Quentin had finished speaking. She rather enjoyed a good topical debate when she was in the right mood, and today seemed to be one of those opportune times. Personally, she was all for human transfiguration, but maybe that was in part because she'd been raised a Muggle, and still, even after seven years of immersion in magic, found certain spells exceptionally cool. Her brother could turn himself into a swan; how awesome was that? Which would bring her onto another point, but she ought to finish the first one she'd been making, first, that Quentin had started off for her.

"If people are going to use magic for dark purposes, then they will. If Animagi didn't exist they'd find another way. Saying animagus transformation is bad because it could aid trouble is like saying nobody should have a wand in case they cast a curse." A point that she undoubtedly could have made in less words if she were one of the many students in Aladren that took this class, but as a flightly Crotalus representative she was generally permitted to be more loquacious and less succinct.

"But also there are times when spells can't replicate what a person is trying to do," she returned to a point made earlier by Dana, one that was being fairly heavily debated. "Like flying - a winged animagus can fly successfully, and no spell has yet been developed to effectively mimic flight." Thank you, Oliver, for that tid bit of information. Admittedly it wasn't very helpful if you weren't a creature with wings. Charlie wondered what she'd become if she ever gave it a go. Her patronus had been a tiger, and she thought it would be pretty cool if her animagus form was the same (as they tended to be, she'd heard).

0 Charlotte Abbott Yet perhaps not 135 Charlotte Abbott 0 5