Dark Arts Class One: Advanced Level

Dark Arts... A subject which had probably never been taught in all of Hogwarts History. For its whole existence in fact, the school had taught the exact opposite, the Defense against such things. And now they were teaching it to students. His parents and grandfather probably thought it was a good thing they were teaching it now, but Scorpius had mixed thoughts about it. It would be rather cool to learn, but many people would leave due to this.

Entering the classroom, he took a seat next to one of the other Slytherins in the room, a girl he knew by name but whom he had hardly ever spoken to. "Good Morning Professor," he said to the woman. He knew her of course, she practically lived in his house. Anyone who knew him well knew that Scorpius disliked death eaters a lot, but kept that hidden.

He took the bottle next and poured himself some. He looked at straight at it as if if he looked hard enough he would see if it was poisoned or not, it was quite clearly champagne, but he followed the professors orders and didn't drink.

Julia had her books pressed to her chest as she made her way to the Dark Arts classroom. She couldn't honestly say that she was "excited" to be taking the course, but she found it mandatory for leading the Dark Followers. The Dark Followers hadn't had a meeting yet, but she had one coming up soon, so she could fit in a few classes beforehand. She was beginning to get anxious about their meeting, she had no idea how to lead people against goodness, she barely knew how to do that with herself. But, she would get everything together and it would work out great... if she payed attention in class, that is.

Julia opened the door the classroom and stepped in, searching around the room for her friends before shutting the door behind her. She smiled as she saw Scorpius, she waved to him and nodded in his direction, "Hey Scorp" She acknowledged with a hearty smile. It was then that she turned around and saw Elijah. "Eli!" She greeted, walking over to him and giving him a hug, "Wow, we're finally in the same classes together!" Julia dropped her books to the vacant seat next to his and sat in it.

Julia took one of the bottles the professor had passed out and held it in her hand, examining it. She filled the glass with the liquid and sniffed it, clearly champagne or something of the sort. She wondered what they would be learning as she waited for the professor to confirm that it was alright to drink it.

Is it weird for a Potter like Elizabeth Potter to be in the Dark Arts class? Well she must be the first Potter to ever be in the class, it may be a subject such as an enemy of those who learn this class. She must have a good reason why she is even in this class when she is also trying to fight against evil. Some of the students in the class could be murders of muggle borns or worse those who want to take over the world again. For a brave face like Elizabeth Potter, it seemed that she is the only Gryffindor that is first to show up or perhaps she will be the only Gryffindor in this class.

As entering the classroom, she didn't say a word and sat down on the end of the 3 row where a glass was on the table and she notices a bottle of looking like a champagne was passed around and pour into the other students glasses, the bottle was passed into her hands and she didn't truly think it was champagne plus the professor is a death eater. She showed no fear and just pour it in the glass and passed on to the next person. No one was drinking of course since the professor had told them not to yet. But Elizabeth knew she wasn't going to drink it.

Sandra watched with a bemused smile as several of the students made attempts to check their glasses for poison, all eventually giving up, sitting back and waiting for her signal. Once everyone had poured themselves some, she picked up her own glass and held it high.

"No doubt you are expecting some great lesson," she said, leaning back and putting her feet up on her desk. "Perhaps I will tell you the dangers of trusting somebody, or maybe use the champagne as a metaphor for your lives." She smiled, and tossed her champagne back. "I hate to disappoint you, but sometimes champagne is just champagne. You're big boys and girls now. You can handle a little fun."

She poured hersef some more champagne and held it up. "To your first year of a true education."

After the toast was finished, she put her glass down. "I'll be blunt with you - you are no longer children. You are my advanced students, some of you are already considered adults in the wizarding world. Therefore, I will not coddle you like I do my younger classmates."

"You came here to learn about the Dark Arts. Perhaps you thought I'd teach you to hate the muggle born and the half bloods, to curse and hex your way to a world where they do not exist. I will tell you now to drop such illusions. Maybe you came here seeking power, wishing to make yourself the next Dark Lord. If so, you will be disappointed. I am here for one reason and one reason only - to make you into soldiers."

"The world is a very dangerous place. And to survive in a place like this you must be ruthless. And prepared. I have encountered...and killed....things you didn't believe existed outside your worst nightmares. Because I was perfect. Because I knew what to do, and when to do it, and more importantly, how to use it."

"This is not a class about "dark" magic, if such a thing even exists outside our very limited minds. This is a class about control, about dedication. Are there any questions?"

Well, this was refreshing. Not the champagne. Angelique hadn't had more than a sip, because the stuff went straight to her head and unlike some of her peers, she didn't think going through the entire day in a drunken stupor was particularly fun or grown up.

It was refreshing to have someone be straight with her. Of course, Caelani was always straight with her, but Caelani was only the duelling instructor and didn't teach real classes, and as a matter of fact, probably wasn't supposed to even know her. It was nice to be treated like a real person with a real mind for once.

Dark Arts immediately got pushed to the top of Angelique's mental list of priorities. It was a far cooler class than, well, anything lately. Angelique couldn't think of one class, other than this one, this year where she hadn't been treated like an idiot. It was kinda sad when a Death Eater was being more polite to you than a normal person.

There was just one thing, though.

"When you say soldiers, are you going to make us stand at attention for hours like muggle soldiers have to?" she asked warily.

Well now, isn't this a waste of time?

James took a look at his champagne, swilling about in its confines. He considered drinking it, but he was never one for celebration. He set the cup aside, and looked attentively at the teacher. It intrigued him really- his training as a magical soldier involved years of pain, suffering, torture, hunger and abuse- all of which left him effectively well-trained for harsh conditions. James merely held onto this curiousity as the teacher concluded her speech.

Then, Angelique asked her a fairly good question, though it was worded rather poorly. James would have patiently waited for the answer to such a question become evident in the way everyone was being trained. It was a simple act for him to remain silent and calculating. Never stop thinking, and you'll never be a slave to orders. That was how James got about in life.

Hidama couldn't hold back a slight laughter before she took a few sips of the champagne. I think I just might like this person a bit. What she was talking about aroused Hidama's interest and made her feel more eager than she had felt in her other classes. Oh a good question there, Angelique. Watching the teacher with interest, Hidama waited to see if she would snap a comment back or be able to come up with something witty to say. How would it be to kill someone? Should I ask her? Nah.. probably not. Maybe later. It felt somewhat like an exciting thing to be locked in a real battle where you had to fight for your life, well pretty much like that fight against the demons. But would she be able to actually kill someone? Yes, yes I think so. The Keikan girl didn't really consider herself very ruthless or abnormally cold towards others, but she truly thought she would be able to kill another person which would stand in her way.

"While there are certain advantages to the muggle ways of training soldiers, physical fitness is not a top priority when a wizard engages in battle. Certainly, you stand a higher chance of winning if you can dodge well, and don't get tired as fast, but these advantages can be offset by knowing more spells...or more correctly, knowing how to really use the spells you know."

Sandra stood, waving her wand absently at the black board. White marks began appearing on the board, finally spelling out the words: Onus Suspendi.

"None of you have ever used this spell. In fact, it is doubtful that you have ever even heard of it. I will tell you why. It is because the ministry has classified it as Dark Magic, and it is now what is known as an illegal spell. While not on the level of an unforgivable, you will serve time in Azkaban for using this spell. Do any of you know what it does? Go on, take a guess."

Marlowe slowly raised his hand and coughed to clear his throat.

"Well ma'am, in law, the onus of proof is when the people who are making accusations have to prove that what they're saying is true. It's sometimes called the burden of proof, so Onus obviously means burden.

I don't know what suspendi means, but I guess it has to do with suspension. I would guess that Onus Suspendi has something to do with suspending a burden of some kind, but that doesn't sound like dark magic to me."

Now that he'd explained the incantation, Marlowe was thinking aloud more than anything else.

"So I think the actual spell must have some other effect than what it sounds like. It might hang someone literally, in the same way they'd be hung on a gallows, I mean, not the way they get hung upside-down from something like a levitation charm."

Zack listened bordly he found himself thinking when she called them soldiers that this was more of a polite way of saying they were just meat for the slaughter. Which also meant that if his dream of being a healer ever succeeded that he would be the one cleaning up her messes. He didn't really listen to the spell but to Marlowe's definition of the world It sounded interesting he then looked at the goblet he still didn't believe her when she said it wasn't poisoned he figured that someone who has survived as long as she had would understand how foolish it would be to off a whole class of students at one time but still figured that it would be possible that she would have used a slow acting posion. He decided that in the long run appearing rude would be more beneficial to him if he were alive in the end.