Chapter 38: DADA classes - part 1

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

November 24th, 1992, 9:00 AM

As the school's bell signaled the start of the first period of the day, Erik, who was sitting behind the Professor's desk, watched as the door to the class opened and students started to enter the classroom. They had some faces that seemed to have lost all hope as they entered the classroom, but then the first students in the group froze in place when they looked up to the classroom. The students behind the frozen students decided to look around to see what happened, and their eyes went wide in shock with what they were seeing.

The room was different. They knew that a Professor could change the classroom to a shape that better fitted the lesson. But this was ridiculous for them. The room was totally different from anything that they had ever seen.

"Come on, take your seats. Don't stay frozen there."

Erik talked loudly to the students with an amused look on his face, waking them up from their stupor. The students in the front looked at him with a confused face and then, they seemed to link the face to the name, and hope came back to their eyes. They then quickly scrambled to take their seats the closest possible to the platform. Two minutes later, all students were in their seats and talking with their neighbours, and Erik deemed it was time to start the class.

Erik got up from his seat and walked down to the central platform, making the students stop talking and focus their attention on him.

"Good morning students."

Erik spoke as he arrived at the center of the platform. His voice seemed to have been amplified by the magic of the classroom to reach every student with ease, but it was just how the shape of it worked and no magic was involved in it.

"Your last Professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, abandoned his post as Professor for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes yesterday morning without previous warning. So, until your new Professor arrives, next Monday, I will be teaching this class in his or her place. While in class, or even out of it, you all can address me as Professor Ravenclaw."

Erik spoke in a calm manner.

"Now, I know that, unfortunately, your past experiences with this class' Professors were not the best ones, but we will try to remedy that until the end of the school year. I managed to strike a deal with the head of the DMLE, Director Amelia Bones, and she lent some of her Aurors to teach the Defense classes from next Monday till the end of the school year."

Erik continued talking to the students, managing to capture their full attention.

"You all must have already received this talk from your other teachers at the beginning of the year, but I will repeat it here, again. As you all enter your fifth year of education, you have to prepare yourselves for your OWL exams. This exam will have a deciding factor in your future, but that doesn't mean that you can't learn anything new at a later date."

Erik spoke and made a small pause before he continued.

"For example, for those that are not taking Care of Magical Creatures classes, you still can, at a later date, learn the subject by yourselves or through tutors and take a late exam directly at the Department of Magical Education, in the Ministry. But that doesn't mean that you all can be lazy. The moment that you started this school year, you all will have to take the Defense OWL exam and will not have second chances."

Erik told and warned the students at the same time.

"With that in mind, during this week we will be doing a revision of all the material necessary for your OWL that should have been learned during your past years."

He spoke, explaining to the students what would be their objective during this week's classes.

"Before we start, does anyone have any questions?"

Erik asked the students, and a lot of them raised their hands. He had been very concise in his explanation, so he imagined what was the reason for so many raised hands.

"Any questions related to this class?"

Erik asked again, and all the students slowly lowered their raised hands, letting just a solo student with his hand raised.

"Yes, Mr. Diggory."

Erik asked the student by name, remembering him from the round of questions on the first night.

"Yes, Professor Ravenclaw. My question is about the material for the class, more specifically the books. Will we change books?"

Mr. Diggory asked Erik. He was concerned about it. The books asked by their last 'Professor' could in no way be used to teach anything in the Defense spectrum.

"Yes… The books asked by 'Professor' Lockhart will not be used. I had the… pleasure… to read some parts of them last night in the library and I can tell you that the books authored by Gilderoy Lockhart were moved from the Defense Against the Dark Arts section of the library to the Novel section. What you do with your books is your choice. Your new Aurors Professors will be designating their own books to be used during their classes, but you don't have to worry about them. The school will buy and distribute the books of their choice to you all. Extra copies will be purchased for the library too, so if you want to check some material from the previous years, you can with no problem."

Erik finished his answer and explanation about the books to be used in class. When he saw that his message was delivered successfully to the students, Erik continued.

"Now, does anyone have more questions?"

He asked, giving the students some time to think. When nobody raised their hands, Erik spoke again.

"Good. Now, just a few warnings before we start. The first is about questions: if you don't understand something or want to ask a question pertinent to this class, raise your hand and I will call you as soon as possible. The second and last is about wand usage inside the classroom: you having a wand is not just your right, it is your privilege, and as so, you will be held responsible by the ill usage of it. Which means that I don't want to see any of you casting anything on another student outside of class activities. Are we clear on that?"

Erik explained his class rules and asked the students, who just mumbled some agreement words.

"I said, ARE WE CLEAR?"

Erik asked again while putting some 'iron' on his voice, wanting to impress the rules on the students' minds.

"""YES!"""

The students, this time, replied in a concise manner.

"Good, now let's begin with the revision, shall we?"

Erik spoke in a normal tone again.

"Who can tell me how to identify a vampire?"

Erik asked, starting his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The lesson time passed fast for the students that for the first time in the year were learning something that had to do with Defense in the DADA class. Soon, the school's bell signaled the end of the period, and the students started to take back their notes.

"So for next class, try to read more about creatures that we talked about today and practice the spells that we discussed, they are considered weak but they are dead useful in the right circumstances. Classroom '3D' and '3E' are special ones that have dummies enchanted to withstand spellfire and repair automatically that you can use to practice. I will ask the elves to prepare them for you. Dismissed."

Erik finished saying, dismissing the class. The students were already walking out of the classroom and he watched as they all exited. He had about ten minutes before the next class of students started arriving. As the last one walked out of the class, Erik waved his hand lazily and all chairs behind the desks went into their right places, tidying up the class for the next students. Erik then walked up to his desk and started to take notes on the material that he had just revisited with the last class. As he was writing the notes, Erik called for a house elf.

"A house-elf please."

*pop*

"How can Wandy help Lord Ravenclaw?"

With a soft pop sound, a young male house-elf appeared by Erik's desk's side.

"Hi, Wandy. Please take a group of house-elves and clean the practice rooms '3D' and '3E' for student's use."

Erik asked the house-elf.

"Ah, and I would like a cup of tea too."

He added to Wandy, who nodded his head, flapping its long ears before disappearing with another soft pop sound.

*pop*

Erik continued taking notes and finished just as a tea set appeared on his desk together with a plate of finger-sized sandwiches. He smiled at the house-elves' consideration for the 'extra' and served himself a cup of tea. He had already started sipping and 'snacking' when the next class arrived. To his surprise, or not, it was a group of first years. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs to be more precise, and Luna was, surely, between them.

The little blond left her material on her desk of choice for the day and walked down the stairs to the central platform, through them and up to the Professor's desk, where Erik was sitting. She then extended her hand to him, offering the newspaper that she had borrowed during breakfast back.

"Thank you, Lord Ravenclaw."

She thanked Erik, who put the cup of tea back on the desk and took the newspaper from her hands.

"Your welcome, Luna."

Erik replied to her, giving her a smile. Luna replied by giving a big smile back to Erik. She then turned and 'hopped' happily back to her desk. Erik put the newspaper on the desk, took his cup of tea back in hands and continued to drink from it. While doing it, he observed all students in class. It was really a small number of students, but it coincided with the difficulty of the times that they were born.

'The first year classes for the next year should have at least double the number of students.'

Erik thought. He, with all his experience of life, had seen that happen during certain periods in history. Couples tended to 'choose' not to have children during periods of war, just to 'go wild' when it ended. Even governments tended to give incentives to couples to 'reproduce' after war periods with the objective to repopulate all the lost citizens. 'One for him, one for her, and one for the Crown', that was a 'slogan' used by some of the governments just after the end of the second World War. And the magical community was not different at that point.

As the school's bell signaled the start of the class, Erik put down his cup of tea and walked down to the central platform. The students went all quiet watching him.

What followed was an almost identical introduction, from Erik to the students, that he had done in his past class. He introduced himself, explained about their past 'Professor', explained about their next 'Professor', and finished talking about the books that they would use for class. He then went on explaining what kind of behaviour they expected from them inside the classroom. When he finished with the 'rules', he asked if anyone had any questions about the class, and when no student raised their hands, Erik started the class for real.

"Now, everyone, put your wands on top of your desk."

Erik ordered and the students tumbled to complete it. While some students were quick to recover their wands, some of them had to open their bags and backpacks to retrieve them. As everyone had their wands on top of their desk, Erik addressed the class.

"Now, can anyone tell me what just happened here that was wrong?"

Erik asked the students. When no one replied, Erik continued.

"You all took too much time to retrieve your wand."

He said as a matter of fact.

"Some of you even had to search in their bags and backpacks for it."

Erik pointed, and some students went red at it.

"A wand is your main tool. As witches and wizards, you all are dependent on it during your initial stages of training and most of you will have it by your side during your entire lives. So, if you encounter a situation where you have to defend yourself, you have to have your wand in a place of easy access, that means no back pockets, no bags and no backpacks."

Erik explained to the first year students.

"Ideally you have to keep your wand, always, as near as possible to your hand. And for exactly that, we have wand holsters. When not possible, use a side pocket to store it. But never use your back pocket, as too many accidents can occur with your wand there, from your wand snapping to premature spellfire. After all, I'm sure that nobody here wants to hex his own bum."

Erik continued explaining to the students with some tone of humour in it. That managed to get some laughter from the students.

"Now, the most common wand holsters are the ones that are attached to the side of your legs, to the side of your chest, and to the under part of your forearm. The last one, the forearm wand holster is used only by adults and it is not because of some law or something like that. If you all take your wands and compare the length of it with the length of your forearm you will find that, normally, the wand is longer and that is obvious because you all are still children."

Erik explained more, inviting the students to compare their wands with their forearms. As they finished doing the 'measuring', he continued with the basic lessons on wand keeping, caring and handling. After that lesson about wands, Erik started to teach some basic spells to the first years. He had taught and gone through the quick practice of the green and red sparks charms with the students, including their 'duo' and 'tria' variations, and had started the demonstration of the knockback jinx, when the school's bell rang, signaling the end of the class.

"Before you all go. For homework, search and read about other spark colors that can be casted. Practice your spark charms, including their variations of 'duo' and 'tria'. If you are feeling adventurous, try the knockback jinx, but not on your classmates. You can use the classrooms '3D' and '3E' to practice your spells, they have dummies and targets available there. And remember what I said about how to handle your wands."

Erik finished and the students started walking out of the classroom, talking happily between them about their first 'real' lesson on defense.

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