Lesson One

Ambrosius was sitting at his desk in classroom 3C, expecting his students to arrive at any moment. Despite being quite young, his pale skin, the dark shadows under his eyes and his rather emaciated face and gaunt appearance made him often seem tired and filled with concern. It was as if he had already experienced too much hardship in his life, and that it had left a profound mark on him.

He stood up and glanced around him, examining the room. Despite the sets of large windows on each side, it was quite dark on this cloudy September afternoon. On the walls, he had positioned paintings representing various dark creatures: on one of them, you could see a man convulsing in pain while he was transforming into a wolf, on another, there was a group of dementors sucking the soul out of their unfortunate victim, on a third a few mountain trolls fighting with a giant. Furthermore, hanging from the ceiling, right next to an iron chandelier, there was a huge dragon skeleton. He had decorated the room that way to give his students an insight on what dangers were lurking in the world and to show them how crucial it was that they learn to defend themselves.

He finally heard the door open and a flow of students started coming in. He waited for them to sit down, and then started quietly walking around the classroom, examining every one of them as they were anxiously awaiting the start of their first lesson. After a few minutes of silence, he finally said, with a calm but authoritative voice: “Welcome, first-years, to Defence Against the Dark Arts. I am professor Umbranox, and I will be your teacher during this year.”

After a brief pause, he continued, glancing at random students. They seemed to be carefully listening and eager to find out more. “I believe this class to be exceptionally important for all of you, as I will teach you how to defend yourselves from a wide variety of threats and dangers that you will certainly encounter one day or another in your life. So I will demand your full attention as what I’m trying to teach you may very well save your life in the future. You will be learning how to block unfriendly spells, fight anyone who wishes to harm you, and defeat numerous dark magical creatures. However, for your first year, we will stick to relatively basic but often quite useful defensive spells such as the Curse of the Bogies or the Knockback Jinx."

He had performed a full circle around the room and stopped just behind his desk. “Apart from your books, The Standard Book of Spells and The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, which I sincerely hope you have bought, all you will be needing for this class is your wand. I want you to be as active as possible during classes: that means that whenever you have a question, or you haven’t understood something, even if it had been already explained, you mustn’t hesitate to ask. I will then do my best to explain in another way. I’m here for that. You are the ones discovering the lessons; I am only here to guide you.” he stressed, profoundly looking at every student to make sure that it was clear to them.

“That is all I have to say. However, as we will be spending a lot of time together, I wish to know a little more about all of you. Therefore, everyone please tell me your names, whether you have already encountered any sort of Dark Force in your life or performed or attempted to cast, intentionally or not, any defensive spell until now. You can start” he said, looking at the girl on the left extremity of the first row. He then quietly pulled his chair and sat down, ready to listen to what his students had to say.

Kim checked her schedule to know what's her subject after charms. She totally forgot that there's a subject called Defense Against the Dark arts. She hurriedly went to her next room and she sat on the left extremity of the first row.

She waited for everyone to go inside and then, the professor started the lesson.

“Welcome, first-years, to Defence Against the Dark Arts. I am professor Umbranox, and I will be your teacher during this year.” the Professor told them.

The Professor told them to introduce, themselves first, starting with Kim.

"My name is Kim Frey and this is the first time I'm going to encounter any dark magic. I do heard some offensive and defensive spells like the 3 unforgivable spells and the Patronus spell. I never performed any spell, yet but I am pleased that you, Professor Umbranox, will teach me how," she answered back confidently.

She sat down back to her chair and listened to what the other students have to say.

After Charms, James headed towards classroom 3C, alongside Demelza and the Slytherin girl who he had learned was called Kim. After entering the room, exited to discover yet another magical subject, he decided to sit in the front row, just next to Kim. He then glanced around, examining the room. There was something frightening about it, probably the lack of light and the very realistic moving paintings representing creatures that James had never seen in his life.

"Welcome, first-years, to Defence Against the Dark Arts. I am professor Umbranox, and I will be your teacher during this year.”, the professor announced in a calm yet authoritative voice. After listening to the rest of what he had to say, James thought that this teacher, despite being a bit scary due to his physical appearance, really seemed to know what he was talking about and that he would certainly enjoy this class a lot.

Then, Professor Umbranox asked them to introduce themselves and to state if they had any experience related to the subject. Being a muggle-born, James had never heard anything about the Dark Arts before coming to Hogwarts. He was therefore quite anxious about the fact that the others probably already knew a lot more than him, a concern that was confirmed when Kim talked about some spells that she had heard of. He thought of maybe just repeating the same ones she mentioned, in order not to appear ignorant, but then decided to tell the truth after all. "My name is James Riddle and, as my parents are Muggles, I have had no experience with Defence Against the Dark Arts until now.". Suddenly remembering something, he added, with more confidence: "But once, in school, a boy got inexplicably knocked back when trying to attack me. I don't know if that counts."

Demelza was in the Charms class asking Professor a question when she realised that she had DADA so she apologised and walked with James and Kim and entered the class.

We waited for the class to fill up and then Professor Umbranox said,"Welcome, first-years, to Defence Against the Dark Arts. I am professor Umbranox, and I will be your teacher during this year.” Then he tolod everyone to introduce himself. I was third after Kim and James,"Hi, my name is Demelza, and I am half-blood, and because of that I have almost mastered the boggart repelling spell at home." she saaid confidently.

Ambrosius was carefully listening to his students. However, after hearing the name of the boy who was sitting in the front row, he couldn't help but frown. Riddle. He hadn't heard that name for a very long time. What is just a coincidence? It is not a very common name, he thought. Despite his curiosity, he decided to think about it later, and re-concentrated on the lesson. "I'm glad to see that some of you have already heard of a few spells related to Defence Against the Dark Arts, or even mastered some of them. However, the others should have no worries, as we will learn everything from the beginning. And believe me, from my experience, the best students are the ones who try the hardest and practice the most, and not the ones who know the most at the start.".

After a brief pause, he pursued: "Now that we know each other, we can start with the lesson. As you may have noticed from your stories, some of you have already performed magic, even if in most cases it was an unintentional response to a specific situation. Strong feelings such as fear or anger can be powerful magical catalysts, but I have to warn you that they will not be enough to save you when facing a threat. That is why I will try to teach you to, through deep concentration and much hard work, master a set of spells that will make you able to defend yourselves."

"The first spell we are going to learn is not really a defensive spell. However, even if it is one of the simplest charms, it is also one of the most useful ones. As a very wise man once said: "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light". Well, that is literally what we are going to do today." Approaching the blackboard, he took a piece of chalk and wrote: "The Wand Lighting Spell". He then turned towards the class, took out his wand, and pronounced very clearly: "Lumos". A very powerful bright blue light burst out of the extremity of his wand, illuminating the whole room. After a few moments, he uttered: "Nox" and the light instantly went out. "As you can see, the Lighting Spell produces a light that allows the caster to illuminate dark areas like with a lantern. The incantation is Lumos and the counter-spell Nox. There is no precise hand movement for this charm, it is sufficient to just point at the area that you wish to illuminate. As you may perhaps already know, when casting a spell, three factors are essential: the incantation (it has to be pronounced clearly), the hand movement (it has to be executed precisely), and the intent: you have to imagine the outcome in your head and be confident that you will succeed".

With an encouraging voice, he announced: "I now want you all to try to cast the Wand Lighting Spell. Don't worry if you don't succeed at once, just keep trying. We will proceed with the lesson once each of your wands has emitted a glow, even if it is not very powerful.". He then started walking between the tables, observing the students in their attempts to cast the charm, ready to help them if needed.

They we're instructed to do the wand lighting spell. Kim, holding her wand, tried to concentrate the spell, and the light in her head. After some time, she decided she was ready to produce a light at the tip of her wand.

"Lumos!", Kim muttered.

Nothing happened. Kim knew she wouldn't be successful on her first time, after what happened during their charms class.

"That's okay. I can try again whenever I want," she muttered to herself, hiding her fear that she might not even cast a very simple spell.

She breathed heavily, removing her anxiousness and said, "Lumos!" more confidently than on her first try. A very small light appeared on her wand. She felt very happy, casting her first spell on her DADA class but she knew that this kind of light is not enough. This light didn't even traveled in the whole dark room.

Kim decided to try it again, until the light will be as bright as she would like it to have.

"LUMOS!"

A very bright light appeared on the tip of her wand, lightening the whole room. Kim was very happy and was very pleased of what she had done. At least, on her first day in Hogwarts, she produced a very satisfying spell that would be very useful.

James was beginning to feel slightly concerned. It was the second time that someone had that reaction after hearing his name. There was something about it that surprised his professors, but he just couldn't figure out what it was. Promising to himself that he would ask someone about it, he tried to turn his thoughts towards the lesson.

After seeing the fascinating demonstration Professor Umbranox had just performed, he was very enthusiastic to try this new spell. Repeating in his head the three essentials factors when casting any piece of magic (incantation, hand movement and intent), he took his wand out of his pocket, and closed his eyes so that he could concentrate better. Pointing his wand right in front of him, he distinctively imagined its tip glowing and pronounced very clearly: "Lumos". Opening his eyes, he saw a weak ray of light coming out of his wand's extremity. Not fully satisfied, he envisioned the outcome of the charm even harder, and watched in amazement as the light was getting brighter and brighter. After a few moments, even if it wasn't as powerful as the one Professor Umbranox had produced, James was quite impressed by his own spell. Pleased, he made sure that his teacher had seen him perform the charm, then confidently said: "Nox" and the light immediately went out.

Unlike at Transfiguration, where he had met just a partial success, James was really cheerful to have accomplished his first Defence Against the Dark Arts task, and felt that this could very well become his favorite subject. Looking to his right, he saw that Kim had also performed remarkably. "Well done, Kim." he said, smiling at her, "It looks like we're more talented for this than for Transfiguration."

Porofessor Umbranox had told them to try the spell Lumos.
"Lumos," whispered Demelza, then she saw a bright light coming out form her wand. Not as strong as Professor Umbranox's but it was still good.
Demelza heard James tell Kim,"It looks like we're more talented for this than for Transfiguration."
"Got that on right, James," she said as she winked

Ambrosius was very pleased to see that after some time, all of his students had succeeded in casting the Wand Lighting Spell. “Great work! I award 10 points to each of you. I really didn’t expect that you would master the spell in such short notice, but you are apparently quite talented for this subject.” he said, with a smile on his face, the first since the beginning of the lesson. “However, do not let this fool you. This is one of the simplest charms we are going to learn, so don’t relax thinking you are very skilled in Defence Against the Dark Arts just because you have casted it once, and keep working hard and practicing.” he added, immediately becoming serious again.

After a short pause, he continued: “Now that you know how to perform the spell, I would like to teach you more about it. Apart from allowing the caster to light dark areas, the Wand Lighting Charm can also be very useful in defending against some kinds of Dark Forces. “

Suddenly, the bell rang, announcing the end of the class. “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time to talk about that today. Therefore, I am asking all of you to read the chapter about the Wand Lighting Charm in the Standard Book of Spells (Grades 1 and 2) for next time, as well as to practice casting it. You have to be able to perform it almost perfectly and on the first attempt during our next lesson. I also want you to write 4 inches of parchment about the spell (with the help of the schoolbooks, that you can find at the Library), indicating its use in defence against dark creatures, as well as the different variations on this Charm and their effects. Please do this homework seriously as it will help you prepare for what we are going to do on our next lesson, and will also allow you to earn points for your House.”
He started packing his things in his bag and added: “Well done for your performances today. Don’t forget to practice the spell. You are free to go now. I’ll see you at our next lesson.”