Chapter 7 - Chapter 7

The trio managed to make it to class, "Hello students, please, take your seats and we shall begin momentarily." The extremely polite professor stated. The three of them were kind of shocked by how kindly and softly she spoke, they took their seats as they awaited for the lesson to begin, then Lily looked at the twins and whispered, "Well, this is an interesting turn of events, who knew there were professors out there who are like her." "How do you mean?" questioned George. "I mean, she almost speaks like me, soft, kindly, but, I wonder how she is going to handle the others, by others I mean Genevieve and her two henchmen. You two know what they are like." Lily exclaimed. The professor turned to the three of them with a gentle and sweet smile then spoke with a soft but almost firm voice, "You let me deal with those three my dear, it's extremely considerate of you to be worried about me, but I didn't take this job if I didn't know what I was getting into, dearie." With that she resumed getting the board ready for the lesson and then the rest of the students arrived and they took their seats. "Good afternoon students, welcome to Defense Against The Dark Arts, I'm Elizabeth Primrose and I will be your professor for this subject and our other lessons for this term, I will be able to adequately prepare you to face the world beyond these castle walls - a world full of dark creatures, as well as dark witches, and wizards. Now, since this is your first exposure to the Dark Arts, we will not be going too in-depth this term. We will cover some basic creatures and how to defend against them, if they need to be defended against, as well as a few simple spells that will begin to build the foundation for your spellwork in future years. It is impossible to say that there is a 'beginning' to the Dark Arts; as long as there has been light, there has been dark. This balance is one that the universe creates itself - there cannot be one without the other. The 'Dark Arts' is a blanket term that covers anything that has the intent to harm, injure, or even kill another person. It also covers a wider range than that which I can teach you in this course. The Dark Arts include many branches of magic, particularly potions and charms. The call of the Dark Arts has always held a certain appeal for some people - those who desire and actively seek power will frequently dabble in the Dark Arts. Once the Dark Arts have a hold on you, they never let you go; once you cast your first dark spell with malicious intent, they will continue to corrupt you, making you incapable of resisting the power you felt when you used that first spell. But this power comes at a price. As the Dark Arts corrupt your soul, it will also corrupt your body. One of the most evil wizards of our time, most commonly known as Lord Voldemort, 'You-Know-Who', was once known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, tried to recruit them to be Death Eaters, but both were defiant. 'You-Know-Who', had sent some of his followers that also killed one other family, but far worse than he did to the Potters later on." Professor Primrose took a very deep breath before continuing. "He sent three of his followers who went to the house of the Snow residents, they had placed a curse, a curse that took Norissa Snow's life, the curse was for her to be tortured to death for the information of the Potters' location, and this was shortly after their only daughter was no more than a small child, but she didn't give in, and she kept their location to her grave. The father, Rohnan Snow, was on his way home from work, but he was just about to reach home when one followers of 'You-Know-Who', had ambushed and killed him with the killing curse after he too wouldn't give them the location of the Potters. In the end, he was a spy to the Potters and the Snows, who betrayed their trust, he was supposed to be their friend, but instead of being loyal, he gave them up. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of this person, I just know of what his actions had done for both of these families and that the person behind it all was a male." Once Lily heard Professor Primrose speak of this, her complexion had completely lost its natural hue, where she was as pale as a ghost. As for what is going on in her heart, there was a bundle of emotion that were twirled and twisted into an enormous ball within her, most of it was rage and despair, as well as confusion of why her Aunt Nora never mentioned this to her about her parents, especially to her of all people. Tears started to stream down her face as she was ineffective to contain her intense reaction to this news. Fred and George gently took her hands underneath the desk hoping to reassure her and George whispered into her ear, "Once this class is over we can find somewhere private where you can release all of your emotions that you have bottled up." Lily was incapable of speaking so she was only able to nod while she squeezed their hands lightly, fortunately, Professor Primrose didn't notice that Lily was devastated about finding the hidden truth about the death of her parents. Professor Primrose continued with the lesson, "The jinx is the first and lowest level of the dark spells. Jinxes usually will not cause much harm and are considered to be more of a minor irritation than a serious problem. Some common examples of jinxes are the Tripping Jinx, the Stinging Jinx, and the Knockback Jinx. All of these spells, and any spell that falls under the classification of jinx, will be irritating and can be used as a distraction, but will not cause any lasting damage. Some people will even frequently use jinxes to assist with practical jokes, a habit I suggest none of you participate in. Next, is the second classification of dark spells which is the hex. These spells are a bit darker than the jinx and will often do more lasting damage. There are not as many examples of hexes, but some popular ones include the Bat-Bogey Hex, the Hurling Hex, and Densaugeo. All of these hexes have effects that cause more damage to the target and are viewed as major inconveniences that cause a moderate amount of suffering. These spells can be reversed through the use of a Hex Breaker. Lastly, we have the third classification of the Dark Arts: the curse, now the curses are the darkest and most dangerous classification of the Dark Arts. These spells are usually casted with the intent to severely harm, torture, or potentially even kill the target. Some of the more well-known curses are the Reductor Curse, the Full Body-Bind Curse, and the Conjunctivitis Curse. The use of these spells is often discouraged unless absolutely necessary. As you all are first years, I would not expect you to be able to cast any of the curses I have mentioned, but I may provide a lesser curse in a lesson to give you an example. Before we get to that, I have one final topic to discuss with you, a category of curses that fall within a category of curses. This will be further explained in your second year when you start learning more about curses. As for this subcategory is a group of curses known as the Unforgivable Curses. These curses will not be seriously discussed here; these are the darkest spells known to wizarding kind and will not be covered in-depth until a much later year. That being said, I believe it is important that you should be aware of this category of curses. The use of any single one of these three curses will earn you a lifetime stay in Azkaban. I have actually mentioned two of these Unforgivable Curses, the torturing, and the killing curses, but I won't explain about those any further. On a more positive note, this week I will show you the Wand-Lighting Charm. It is a simple charm that, when performed properly, lights up the tip of the caster's wand. Do not confuse the light emitted for a flame. It is more like a light in the Muggle world known as a flashlight. The light produced is a light yellow when the spell is cast properly. This spell works well as a beginning spell because it requires very little concentration or willpower, concepts that we will touch on briefly next lesson and will be explained in detail in your Charms class. For now, all you need to know are the basics of the charm. To cast the Wand-Lighting Charm, you must carefully pronounce the incantation, Lumos, which is pronounced LOO-mos. The wand movement is simple. All you have to do is move your wand up into a counter-clockwise loop. This spell is great for navigation in dark places and makes it easier to see where you normally could not. However, there are other benefits to the spell . There are several Dark creatures that have an aversion to light, so casting the Wand-Lighting Charm will allow you to move away from them, since they will not approach you while your wand is lit. As with all things, this spell will eventually have to be put out. This process is even simpler than lighting the wand in the first place. When the time comes to put out your wand, a charm known as the Wand-Extinguishing Charm is needed. The incantation is Nox, pronounced NOCK-ss. A flick of the wand or slight jab in any direction is all that is needed for the movement. Please remember that pronunciation is important. This will be covered in more detail next lesson, but for today it will suffice to know that, when a spell is mispronounced, it can either cause the spell simply not to work or it can cause a disastrous backfire that could cause you serious harm. In your textbooks are the quick summaries of the absolute basic information you need to know in order to cast the spells mentioned in class. These will be explained briefly in the next lesson and will be explained in detail in your Charms class. This concludes today's lesson and I look forward to seeing you all in our next lesson, class dismissed." With that everyone started heading out of the classroom, Lily, Fred, and George started to pack up their things when Professor Primrose made her way to their desk and spoke, "Are you alright dear?" She questioned seeing Lily's eyes are a bit red from crying earlier. "I apologize for mentioning the tragedy of those two families, I just wish I knew what became of Snow's child, to lose both parents at such young ages." She said, not realizing that she was speaking to that very person, then Lily looked up at Professor Primrose, and could only mutter, "I am their daughter, Lily Snow." Professor Primrose was shocked to find out that she sort of rambled on about her own parents in front of her and about their deaths of all things. "Oh my goodness! I-I'm mortified that I said those things. I'm deeply sorry, if I had known-" Professor Primrose was cut off of what she tried to say for Lily just ran off with her things leaving the twins behind, but they quickly ran after her for they knew that now more than ever, she needed them. Poor Lily was running as fast and far as her legs could take her, she didn't know where she was going or where she was going to end up, but all that she felt was that she needed to keep on running. She ran all the way to Hagrid's Hut side of the castle before she finally stopped running from all of the adrenaline that her emotions exploded into her legs that made her run such a distance nonstop she somehow ended up here. She was heavily panting and her legs finally gave out, now on her knees, she just broke down into tears and screamed on top of her lungs with her hands, one in a fist and her other hand over the fisted hand, she placed them over her heart because her chest, or more accurately, her heart was hurting so bad not from all of the running she did, but just finding out about her parents. Fred and George followed her screams and we're able to find her in no time at all, they joined her on the ground, embraced her almost with all of their mights, and remained silent just letting all of her emotions out, however, little did they know that Hagrid, the giant person they saw on the platform when they first arrived yesterday that lead them to the boats, heard Lily's screaming as well, came running out, and saw the three of them together. He walked up to them, kneeled down to be more at their eye level, and in a soft tone he spoke, "Come on, bring 'er inside my hut for a nice spot of tea." The twins nodded and eased Lily off of the ground, Fred grabbed her books, and the three of them followed him inside without breaking up their little huddle. "Here now, sit next to the fire Lily, George will keep you company while I set your books on the table." Fred said in a soothing voice, Lily was now full on silent, tears still running down her cheeks, as she sat in front of the fire, still being embraced by George, and she shuffled her body a bit so she could learn her head upon his shoulder. However, she had calmed down a bit after all of her screaming and unleashing her feelings she felt unsure of how she should feel other than conflicted. Hagrid slowly pours the tea while Fred places Lily's belongings upon the table, he then looks up at Hagrid, and says, "Thank you for letting us come into your home, I am sorry for being rude, but, who are you?" Hagrid softly smiled and stated, "Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds and gamekeeper here at Hogwarts, what might yer names be?" "I'm Fred," He said while pointing to himself, then turned, and pointed, "That's my twin brother George and that is our sister by bond, Lily." Hagrid nodded, "Nice to meet you three, now that introductions are out of the way, what in Merlin's beard upset 'er so much where she was screaming 'er head off?" He questioned as he handed out the full tea cups. "Well..." Fred began, but didn't have the heart to say it out loud then without turning her head to Hagrid, but is carefully sipping her tea, suddenly spoke with a now soft but raspy voice, "I just learned how my parents didn't die like I thought they originally did. I thought my mother died giving birth and father died of a broken heart." She paused as she was enjoying her tea of how soothing it was as she felt its warmth traveling down her throat and then resumed once she drank every bit of her tea. "However, I was just told that my mum was tortured by 'You-Know-Who' and papa was murdered by Death Eaters. Talk about a rude awakening, huh?" Her body was finally worn out from exhaustion, she carefully placed the tea cup on the floor, leaned on George's shoulder once again, she knotted off to a deep slumber, George rearranged her to where she was now asleep upon his lap, and slightly smiled. "There, that should make her much more comfortable." George spoke in a hushed voice then Hagrid gently places a blanket over the sleeping Lily. "Poor thing, to find out something like that and on 'er second day here. I can't imagine being in 'er shoes, but she is extremely lucky to have fellows like you two looking out for 'er and I know for a fact that she knows it, more than anything." He said as he looked at Lily first and then the twins before he picked up the used tea cups and continued. "Why don't one of you go to class and explain Lily's situation of her missing it? I'm sure that her professors will be more than understandable." Lily slowly woke up and heard this, "Oh no, I can't miss my classes." She said as she slowly got off of George's lap and the floor to where she is now standing. "Thank you very much for your hospitality but I must go to my next class." She grabbed her things and started making her way to the door, but her eyes were extremely red even the whites of her eyes were red from crying so much, in fact, her eyesight is even blurry from forcing herself to wake up and not letting her eyes heal. She looked at Fred and George and then spoke, "We really should get to class before we are late and miss our last lesson for today in Herbology." Fred and George thanked Hagrid for allowing them to gather themselves before their next class and made their way to Herbology.