Chapter 247: Professor of DADA
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"What's the use of sitting here when nothing's going to happen," said Eddie, his arms crossed with a frown marring his face. "I could be dueling you in the grounds outside than sitting here wasting my time."
Quinn flipped a page on his book; his facial features softened, his features relaxed. "If you want to, we can play Accio-Tug-of-War to pass the time," he said.
"No, I'm not feeling like Accio-Tug-of-War right now."
"You just don't want to lose."
"Nuh-uh!"
Marcus sitting between Eddie and Quinn, placed his palm on his open book in his hand and looked straight up. "If we are called here, then there must be a new Professor who will teach us today." He turned to Eddie, "it would look good if you do a revision on the theory — no, I'm not talking about Umbridge theory — be ready in case someone does come to teach us so that we don't embarrass ourselves. It'll do us no good to blame Umbridge now, so try to brush up on the topics."
Today was the first day after Umbridge's arrest, and first thing in the morning, they had been called to the Defense Against The Dark Arts for a supposed class.
"Do you know about something," asked Eddie, taking out an actual Defense Against Dark Arts book from his bookbag. "Did the Professors tell the Prefects something about who's coming for the class?"
Quinn shook his head. There was no notification to the Prefects about what was going to happen in today's class.
"Do you think Alastor Moody is going to come in?" asked Marcus. "Or maybe an Auror would come to teach us? That'd be exciting. . . do you think they'll answer my questions about the Azkaban Eleven?"
Quinn chuckled, "Why're you already assuming that it's going to be an Auror?"
"What if it's a Hit Wizard?" Eddie asked. In his mind, Hit Wizards, who were exclusively combatants with much more firepower, were much more interesting than Aurors, who were a mix of combatants and investigators.
"Who do you think it's going to be?" Marcus asked Quinn.
"I can't say," said Quinn, "maybe, Professor Lupin would return till the end of the year."
"Or-Or, maybe-maybe," said Eddie, raising his finger, "we're looking at it the wrong way, and it's not something one from outside — I bet it'll be Snape. Didn't he want to teach Defense Against The Dark Arts? I'm sure he wants to get his stinky hands on the job."
And so it happened that Eddie was indeed correct, or at least partially true, as his words were immediately followed by an amused chuckle from near the classroom's door.
"Professor Snape did ask to be put in charge of the Defense Against The Dark Arts, but with the OWLs and NEWTs so close, it wasn't a wise decision to give a teacher the duty of two subjects."
Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus turned their heads towards the back of the room, and there stood Dumbledore smiling by the door, his hands behind his back, peering at them through his half-moon glasses that sat near the edge of the bridge of his nose.
"And because I found myself free, I decided to take on teaching," Dumbledore smiled widely as more and more students started to turn to look at him — immediately straightening up at the sight of the Headmaster standing by their door.
Dumbledore walked through the front of the class. He took out his wand and, with a flick, the green board on wheels pulled out from the corner to the front of the class. A stick of pinkish-red chalk rose from the board's ledge and wrote Albus Dumbledore on the board.
He faced the class and was about to address the students but stopped to look at the windows in the classroom. Another wave and the numerous mirrors and lenses hanging around the room, fixed on ends of mechanical arms, adjusted themselves — with every adjustment, the stream of light coming from the windows would get directed by the mirrors and lenses to light up the classroom better than it had been ever before. No Defense Against The Dark Arts had been in the position long enough for them to get proficient at the lighting system.
"Good morning, dear children," Dumbledore's beard rose at the edge of his mouth. He didn't get a good morning back because of the stiff-surprise in the room. "From today till the end of this year, I'll be taking Defense Against The Dark Arts for all years — first to seventh — as your Professor. Unfortunately, you won't be able to find me in the Professor's staffroom like the others, but I'm willing to stay behind after every class to answer your questions. Yes, Mr. Belby, please ask your question."
Marcus lowered his hand and asked, "Sir, aren't you a Transfiguration teacher?"
"That's correct, but before I was the Head of Transfiguration and a Professor of Transfiguration — I was a Professor of Defense Against The Dark Arts — in fact, it was my first full-time job. So please be assured, I'm qualified to teach you the subject."
. . . That wasn't ever a doubt, though the entire class. The greatest magical in the country as a long-time educator was a dream that even the uninterested of students would pay attention to.
Quinn replaced his book into his bookbag, took out a notebook and pen to pay attention. No way was he going to do other homework or work on his Occlumency when Dumbledore was teaching a class.
"Now I understand that it's too late for us to follow a formal curriculum and get all of you caught up with what a sixth-year student would usually learn," students looked at each other worried — even if they had performed well enough in their OWLs to attend a NEWT level DADA class, if they didn't score well in their sixth-year, they would be removed from the seventh-year part of the NEWT-level course, "so we aren't going to follow a formal curriculum; instead, our classes will be a series of interactive sessions about Defense Against The Dark Arts, that I think will be beneficial for all of you. Please don't worry, the end-of-year examinations will be adjusted accordingly, and I'll personally set your papers and practicals based on what we discuss in our sessions together."
That alleviated tension from the shoulders of students worried about the end-of-year examinations.
"Yes, Mr. Hopkins," Dumbledore said to Carl Hopkins, Gryffindor, who raised his hand.
"Professor, what would we do about next year? The NEWTs cover everything we were supposed to learn this year and will learn the next year. We haven't learned anything from Umbridge, and that would affect our NEWT scores."
"I'm already in talks with Madam Professor Griselda Marchbanks — the Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority that runs OWL, NEWT, and WOMBAT. She sympathizes with the egregious errors made this year and has already put into the process to change the criteria for OWLs and NEWTs. Of course, next year, your batch will require to learn an extra amount to at least cover topics required to contribute to the seventh year curriculum."
"That seems fair," said Eddie aloud for everyone to hear.
Knowing smiles surfaced on a few faces in the classroom — the faces of DA members. They couldn't care less if the end-of-year examination were the same as usual, and having that confidence felt good, so much so that their hidden smiles edged to smug.
"Now, I'd like to open this class with a question on which we would build for today," said Dumbledore; he raised his wand, and the stick of chalk rose with it writing as Dumbledore spoke: "What do you all think is important for magic to work to its fullest?"
The answers came immediately.
"Knowledge," said Katie Bell, a DA member.
"Intent," followed Cho Chang, another DA member.
"Emotion," finishes Marcus, yet another DA member.
Dumbledore's hand moving up to stroke his beard, stopped midway, and a smile surfaced as the rapid answers sunk it. ". . . That is correct," he said, "those three — Knowledge, Intent, and Emotion — those were the answers I was looking for. Fifteen points to Gryffindor and thirty to Ravenclaw. Then can you also tell me why they are important?"
"Knowledge about what you want your magic to accomplish is required as information and understanding gives the magic a solid structure that is essential for a witch to cast magic effectively," said Katie, expanding on her point. "Without knowledge, magic's too unpredictable and quirky to cast consistently."
Cho immediately followed after Katie, "Intent is basically having a clear image of what you want your magic to be. If you're casting a disarming charm and have a clear image of a wand flying off the hand, then the magic will work much better than when you don't have an image in mind and are hoping that chant and wand movement would do the work for you. The clearer your intentions, the more the magic will work as you want it to work."
Dumbledore opted out from speaking and turned to Marcus, who started talking when Dumbeldore looked at him. "Emotions are the power behind magic; channeling emotions into magic will provide magic with an extra punch, with a peppy efficiency, and with an ease that just doesn't come otherwise. To provide an example, shield charm, Protego, works a lot better when you're thinking of a memory that invokes determination or perseverance or defiance," said Marcus.
Dumbledore's eyes all but gleamed with delight. "Twenty-five points to Gryffindor and fifty to Ravenclaw," he said before asking. "Mr. Carmichael, can you tell me when knowledge isn't necessary to cast magic."
Everyone's head turned to Eddie, who sat leaning into the seating bench, one of his hands resting on the bench's back and behind Marcus's back.
"For a majority of magic, asking for complete knowledge about every step of the magic is terribly improbable and not at all feasible. To take an example, if one wants to transfigure a desk into a pig, then it's too much to ask for the knowledge of the pig's anatomy — but the fact remains that we have been already taught this magic, and many of us can perform it.
Now to directly answer your question, while having a base knowledge is critical, it's not necessary to know all of it — the magic will take of what you don't know. Of course, the more knowledge and understanding one has, the easier it gets for them to cast. But the point remains that one doesn't need to know everything to successfully cast a piece of magic."
"Fifteen points to Ravenclaw," said Dumbledore, smiling eye to eye. "Children, if you keep answering like this, I fear that Ravenclaw and Gryffindor will have substantial leads by the time we end today." He turned to Quinn and posed him a question, "Mr. West, tell me the demerits of emotions."
"Emotions are the powerhouses pumping the extra life into magic, but that extra something can very easily get out of control if the emotions aren't kept in a check. Even without magic, emotions have the tendency to heavily influence people, and when you put them into the playing pen with magic, while they're able to create something spectacular, they can just as cause chaos and derail both the spell and cause major harm to the caster.
For example, using the feeling of glee or happiness to cast magic like. . . a cheering charm will render amazing results, but if you don't keep these emotions in check, then they'll cause substantial difficulties.
Happiness and glee might seem harmless emotions, but if one lets them affect you while casting magic, they will desensitize the caster from feeling sadness and sorrow, and no matter what the situation, they'll keep feeling happy. Soon, excessive optimism will kick in, and the decision-making abilities will suffer. They'll get easily pleased and easily persuaded, which would bump up the chances of getting taken advantage of by getting scammed. Thus, it's important to keep any and all emotion, WHILE CASTING MAGIC, in check."
"Excellent! Take twenty points for the answer," Dumbledore said, and the death stick shot mini-fireworks from its tip. "This. . . all of this was all I wanted to cover today and in the next session, and it seems that some of you have a marvelous handle on the understanding of these topics. It saves me from giving an introduction, which I'm deeply impressed for, so now, let's dive into these three factors and learn in detail how you can use and manage these aids to the best of your advantage."
Dumbledore then started to speak about knowledge, intent, and emotion. And for the entire class, Quinn couldn't find a stretch of minutes where he could put his pen down as he feared he would miss jotting an exciting new interpretation or insight on the topics that Quinn thought he had already had a good handle.
'Ah, this is it. Now, I remember how this felt,' thought Quinn as he made a note in his notebook. The last time he had felt like this was when learning Occlumency with Alan. Every word related to mind magic that ever came out of Alan's mouth was so insightful, so effectively phrased, and so utterly wise that Quinn had many a time found himself coming of trances.
Right now, he was touching on a feeling almost identical to that. Dumbledore was really good, thought Quinn. He didn't want to disrespect the other Professors, but they had nothing on Dumbledore, just with one class from the headmaster.
At the end of the class, Dumbledore stood by the door, bidding the students goodbyes as they exited to make space for the next class to come.
As Quinn walked by Dumbledore, he nodded, "Professor Dumbledore."
"Mr. West, great job today," greeted Dumbledore smiling, but then his eye widened as his eyes followed after Quinn, who had already walked away with the crowd.
The smile on Dumbledore turned deeper as his entire face portrayed the emotion he was feeling. He couldn't help but chuckle and then laugh some.
After all, Quinn West had just called him Professor for the first time.
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Quinn West - MC - Taught a lot and learned a lot.
Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster Dumbledore - Professor Dumbledore.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Short chapter. Next chapter, we move to the vault. I might complete in one, but I think it'll take two to complete the entire task, reward, and surprise.
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