Lesson 2 - N.E.W.T. Level

Wilson stood amazed. Was this Krum being active on class? The last time this happened... no wait, this never happened before! This spell... it does strike somehow. The description was more than detailed, precise in every aspect... he had either experienced its effects of seen what it does, and that on someone dear to him. ''I am amazed, Krum, I dare say. Ten points for Slytherin. That is more than a precise definition and I do hop that, whoever you are referring to indirectly, survived and recovered from it. Now, there is nothing else to add about it. I can only confirm everything Mr. Krum said and indeed, Sectumsempra can be used as a dreadful torture method'', he said.

''Now, last year I made the students do my meal with the curse, this time, we shall practice on dummies'', he said. He waved his hand and moved the desks to the side of the classroom, thereby creating a lot of space in the middle. He then conjured a dummy on the end. ''Now, there is a dummy on the far side of the classroom. I suppose you can deduce that our task is to practice the spell and cut at least two limbs. The number of limbs cut influences your grade. Of course, you won't be able, not at your level, to cut real human limbs with the spell, but the dummy is much more fragile. Although I presume some of you have been taught how to use the spell by their... well, mentors, I shall still demonstrate. Once you are done with it, we shall proceed with the counter-curse to it. And now, the spell'', Wilson said. He took his wand out, pointed it at the dummy and flicked. ''Sectmsempra'', he fired. The green spell hit the dummy, cutting all of its limbs and its head, also making a lot of lacerations on its torso. He flicked its wand and the dummy returned to its normal state. ''Now, you have seen how it is supposed to work. Whoever wants to can!'', he said.

Brienne volunteered first. She went up with her wand, and tried from a few feet. She flicked her wand, "Sectumsempra!" A green flash hit the dummy, making a huge laceration where it hit, then multiple more on the head, limbs and torso. One hand came clean off. Of course, she was close enough to the dummy to fire the spell at full power.

"How did I do that?" Brienne had never had a successful Sectumsempra, since she was always on the good side. Dark magic wasn't her cup of tea. Perhaps she hung around with dark artists too much. She didn't know, but she'd probably turn out evil if this was the case.

Jack did not like the situation. She did not mind learning new spells, but it bugged her that everyone had admitted this was a terrible curse, worse perhaps than some of the Unforgivables, and then they were being encouraged to perform it. It was as though they had said it was so terrible and people who did such things were terrible as well... and they were going to proceed and do it.

Jack did not understand why they were all okay about performing a spell they had all agreed was terrible. And Jack was no idiot. Something was up with Eli. Jack had no reason to try to protect Eli, but she would have been upset by the situation regardless of who it was. Had it been James or Brienne who had said it, she would want to protect them too.

Brienne stepped forward and severed the dummy's hand. Jack sincerely hoped she was not proud by the feat. Before anyone could proceed, Jack had to say something. "Professor, if this spell is so vile why are we practicing it? Surely we don't have to be able to perform it to be able to fight it back. This is not right for a Defense Against the Dark Arts class." She stared at him, sure she was about to get in trouble.

''Good work, 5 points for Ravenclaw and an 'A' for you. You seem to have gotten the point of the spell'', he said to Brienne. ''What was that?'', he asked. He bent down and put his face in front of Jack's, making almost no free space between their noses. ''You're up next!'', he said, cheerfully and stepped back.

''Although disrespectful as it gets, Dyllan posed a good question. Why are we learning about this spell and why are we going to learn about and practice the Unforgivable ones and similar spells? Yes, this is Defense Against the Dark Arts, but... hypothetically speaking... you would definitely defend yourself against a gun... but, if you've never seen a gun or how it functions in your life, I could bring one, tell you it is a lolly-pop and then shoot you with it! To know how to defend against something you have to see it or experience it. This is not a theoretical class and my method of teaching is not like that - to defend yourself against danger, you have to face danger, not hear about it. You have to see how the spell works, you have to experience it yourselves... I would ask you to practice it on each other, but it is rather dangerous... I am not that idealistic professor who would try to save you from trouble! The world is a euphemism for trouble and danger and it won't go easy on you, and neither will I. My goal here is not to prepare you for knowing what a spell might do in a certain situation, my goal is to prepare to recognize those spells, avoid them and use them! What do you think that your future enemies will use spells like Stupefy? That is first year material. Most of them will try to kill you and you have to be prepared for that, you have to know it and avoid it! This spell is something you could and should use, not for killing but for defense. Whatever you may think, Dark Wizards are not the only one using Dark Arts... even you, all of you, should use them if it serves your purpose, because if you fight this spell with a Stupefy you're just idiots... dead idiots. And whatever you may think of me and my teaching methods, you will pass this class and learn how to defend yourselves from Dark Magic using each and every field of magic available to you. Now, do your task!'', he said.

The thought of having to use this spell horrified Elijah. He was happy to try new things but he didn’t even want to let his wand channel this spell. It was pure evil. As he’d said before, it made the first two Unforgivables look like child’s play. Imperio was a weird curse. Elijah wasn’t exactly sure what he thought of that one. He’d never experienced it, nor witnessed it. But then again, neither had he witnessed the Killing or Cruciatus curse being used. He knew the effects though. Sure the killing curse ended your life and the Cruciatus could drive people insane but Sectumsempra was living death.

Ten points, probably the only form of praise he’d ever get from Wilson. But it was hard not to stay quiet. This spell wasn’t for the fainthearted and it would have been pointless to let someone recite words from a text book. Elijah nodded and looked down at his hands. He felt awful but he felt he’d done it some justice. He’d explained what happened...what happened to Jen. He looked up at the Professor and spoke just as Brienne got up, “If you apply a Dittany, sir, after you heal the wounds...doesn’t it prevent most, if not all, potential scarring?”

He looked over at Brienne and saw the curse as it hit the dummy, severing the outer coating, keeping the stuffing inside of it. He saw the hand of the dummy fall to the floor and the Slytherin paled considerably. He tore his eyes away and grabbed his book. He opened it up, flipping the pages until he came to the part he’d been reading not so long ago. It hadn’t been him facing the spell yet he had been upset after seeing the after effects of what Jen had experienced. Now he was seeing exactly what had happened and it made him feel sick.

Elijah clamped his eyes shut and hid his face behind the book. He took in several large deep breaths and tried desperately to clear his mind. He closed the book and put it down on the desk again. Elijah rubbed his face with his hands and rolled his fingers over his temples a few times. Then he heard Jack’s voice. Her question made sense but he had an answer for that one as well. He was thinking basically the same as the Professor but his answer had less examples. “The best way to learn how to defend one’s self against the Dark Arts is to first learn how to use them.” He said, simplifying what Wilson had said.

"I've seen and experienced it enough, thank you," she said coldly, pulling up the right side of her hair to reveal the thin scar that went from beneath her hair towards her eyebrow, though it was very faint there. But if you put your hand to the scar that hid beneath the hair, you could feel the raised line...

"True, but to use a gun and understand one enough to protect yourself from it is different." She stared at him. "For a man who boasted his moral superiority over those of his peers who would descend to such a level as Sectumsepra, I thought you may understand that some of us would rather abstain from this exercise. You said it yourself, if we saw it, it would be fine."

She stared at him, knowing full well she would be flunking today and probably earning a detention, but feeling very justified in her words. "And obviously, you don't need to have done the spell to survive it because... Well, I'm still here, aren't I?" She stared back at him, waiting for the repercussions that were soon to follow.

''And yet, another rational statement from you. As I have said, you do have potential and you should, definitely, use it, Krum. And, regarding your herbal theory... no, nothing you put on yourself will neutralize the effect.... this is a spell, a dark spell, and there is nothing you can do once it hits you... not even medicine can help. But there is a counter-curse, something that is not in my syllabus... but I shall teach you how to use that spell here in class, how to heal the effects of Sectumsempra'', he said.

''What, a scar? YOU HAVE A BLOODY SCAR! Oh, shut up! You have not idea what Dark Magic is, you have no bloody idea. Your experience is something you can't use in a proper duel, you ignorant kid. Your scar, your irrational sense of right and wrong, your view of the world... you can put it you know where! You have to face it to judge it, if you do not have the guts to do one simple dark spell, you can get out of my classroom and you do not have to come back! You are a Gryffindor, Dyllan and your affiliation is what should determine your behavior... you have high, but irrational, moral standards. The world is a piece of shit and it will treat you like that! If you do not face everything there is to face and learn how to defend yourself, you can go and buy yourself an apartment on the graveyard! If you do not like how I teach, how I prepare, you can leave and never come back, I could care less! And I do not want any of your idiotic opinions on my methods... I tried to be rational, I tried to be calm... but no, you want to make me into Umbridge! Would you prefer learning about the Dark Arts from third year textbooks without any practice! Well, take a book and stay in your dormitories... here, you will either work and learn, or you won't be here at all! You all think you know all of it, you've been in one fight, a fight of secondary importance and strength, you've gotten one scar and now you think you know it all! I've faced thighs, I know how it functions and I try to prepare you for that as best as I can! If you don't want that, find an idiot who will narrate his experiences to you and make you learn them, I am not that kind of person'', he said, sighing. His hair became messy out of all the speaking and gesticulating. He tidied it and looked at her. ''If you don't want to do your task, get out! Krum, you're next!'', he said, sitting at his desk to calm down.

Hm. Elijah hadn’t really thought about it that way. He assumed that the dittany would help. It had helped Jen for a while then the wounds opened again and came back angrier than before. But that hadn’t been Rob’s fault. What had caused that is the curse being layered and the counter curse couldn’t get far enough down. As far as he knew a few of the smaller ones still opened now, refusing to close for a long period of time. Then, as they opened it was like the curse was waking again and it began to attack her body once more. Thankfully though, the tiny ones were easier to heal but the problem was that it took longer for her to notice them.

He took a quill from his bag and opened his book up again, turning to the page that spoke about the spell. He wrote carefully in the margin, after getting some ink on the nib, that the dittany wouldn’t work – that nothing would. Then he added his own observations about what happened when the curse was layered. Of course when it had been used on Jen she’d also experienced the Cruciatus so the spell would have been fuelled and aggravated by the Unforgivable to begin with. He put his quill down and let his writing dry in the book.

Elijah knew he’d have to be tested but he had hoped that Jack would go first, inconvenience the Professor somehow and allow him to get away with not doing it. Elijah bit his lip and slowly got out of his seat. He took his wand from his trouser pocket and turned the Willow over in his hand. He didn’t want to do this. He knew he could do the spell, he was sure of it, but he didn’t want to show that he could. At some point no doubt he’d been taught it in Durmstrang but things were a little bit sketchy. He’d spent more time in the Library than the rest of those dolts so he did know something...here at Hogwarts he just didn’t do anything with it. Perhaps now it was time he did.

The Slytherin sized the dummy up. It was the average size of an adult, not ridiculously tall nor ridiculously short – just right. He knew where he had to cast the spell to get the maximum effect. For torture it was a useless place to start but if you wanted them to die in pain then it was fabulous. Right over the heart. It was close enough to both the head and the arms and has the spell progressed it would tear all of those limbs off. For the second string he could take it down to the lower abdomen and the legs would come off quite easily. Then for torture...the middle. It wasn’t anywhere particularly life threatening and it would take a while for the spell to move unless cast multiple times and layered.

Then again you could keep the spell on the left side and bring it down, taking off the left leg arm, possibly the head too depending on how far and how fast the spell progressed. But what did the Professor want from him? Torture, self-defence or an offence? It wasn’t just about demonstrating the spell. If you really thought hard about it then you could take off different limbs depending where you hit the dummy or in the case of real life, the person. “Sir...could I have a scenario please?” Elijah asked, turning to look at the Professor. “Something that’ll indicate how I’m supposed to use the spell?”

Oh this spell was very interesting. Hidama stretched her neck slightly while watching and listening more intensely than she had ever done in a class this semester. Sectumsempra.. I feel like I have heard about that somewhere, sometime. It gave her slight goosebumps to see it's effects when the teacher demonstrated. The reason she didn't volunteer right away to go up there, was because she was still admiring what had been done to that doll. The girl which went up there seemed to be doing fairly well, managing to cut off a limb of the doll. I want this spell. Her fists clenched, it was difficult for her to sit still. Hidama's eyes sparkled with interest. But it didn't seem like others in there were as amazed as she was. That "Jack" girl was lashing out towards Wilson, and he of course was not late in replying. Elijah Krum also seemed to be rather pale and hesitant. What is their problem? Perhaps.. personal experience?

Jesus I think that guy is gonna have a heart attack soon! A small grin entered her face, it was always fun when the teacher wasn't scolding her. That thing about being his "toy" for the semester was still bugging her, but she bet that had been a one time threat or something in case she would get late again, or make any ruckus. But man did he have a strong voice! While wondering if Jack would really leave, Hidama now watched Elijah as he got up and started to prepare for the performance.

''Krum, you want a situation? I suppose I could arrange something like that for you'', he said going to a closet behind his desk. He murmured a spell and something moved from inside. ''Now, Krum. Inside there is an enchanted Boggart, something I have used for my toughest test last semester, some here will be able to retell you that, like Miss Lyons, if I am not mistaken. She passed that test. The Boggart won't, as usual, come out in the form of your worst fear but in the form of a person. Last semester I used someone dear to the students, now I have just used your Dark Arts professor, as she is the first one I thought of. It should be amusing. Now, Sandra Archer will come out of this closet and try to attack you. Your job is to evade and defend yourself as long as you can and then strike back. You can strike one or two irrelevant spells, but you will have to make sure you finis her off with a Sectumsempra. If you fail to do that, the whole idea of the test fails. I hope that is a good enough situation'', he commented. ''And yes, for those of you who still have some lust for knowledge, a Boggart can be magically enchanted, but it is extremely difficult magic which you won't be learning as part of your basic and advanced training, because it is even tougher that that. It requires a lot of knowledge and even more practice and not many wizards are able to use that kind of morphing magic. Now, Mr. Krum, meet Sandra Archer'', Wilson said, opening the closet door.