DADA-401 Lessons

Well, we have finally reached the end of the year. I certainly hope you have all enjoyed it and find yourself more prepared than you have ever been to face the unknown. The Dark Arts are ever changing and ever growing. You must always be prepared for the next attack, even if you can’t see it coming yet.

Now, I know many of you are probably stressing about this final examination. That is what I hope for. If you’re stressing, as long as it is a healthy stress and not an overwhelming stress, you are more aware and more prepared to react. Without a healthy amount of stress, you will not do as well because you are overconfident. However, I know you will all perform to the best of your abilities and be more than prepared to move into Year Five.

Looking Forward to Year Five
Speaking of Year Five, I think I have left you in the dark long enough about the event going on in the course. In the future, I will provide a more detailed syllabus that clearly states the content of each lesson. In Year Five, you can expect a focus on offensive spells, dueling techniques, and tactics. There will also be a few creatures that require you to go on the offensive in order to most effectively overcome them. We will also be delving into the concept of combination spellcasting, with a focus on offensive combinations and offensive/defensive combinations. At the end of the year, you will sit through your O.W.L. examinations. I certainly hope to see most of you return to this class after them.

Now, we must focus on the time we have today. That means that we must do a quick review of the Year in order to ensure that you have all of the essential information necessary to do well on your exam. This is not a full listing - you will need to know more than this review gives. However, this will give you a guideline from which to work, giving you a reminder of what the key points in each lesson were.

A Year in Review
In Lesson One, we gave a brief overview to the year, where you got the clues that guided you forward. We then learned the Bat-Bogey Hex and Periculum. The Bat-Bogey Hex requires focus and willpower. The wand movement, when done correctly, looks like a sideways hourglass and the incantation is Volamucus. Periculum simply requires that you point your wand straight up in the air and say the incantation, Periculum. There is also some required concentration and willpower.

In Lesson Two, we learned two more spells - The Impediment Jinx and the Smokescreen Spell. The Impediment Jinx is a spell with multiple effects that only requires concentration and willpower. The wand movement is a simple horizontal slash and the incantation is Impedimenta. The second spell, The Smokescreen Spell, is different from all previous spells learned because most of them did not require extended concentration. The Smokescreen Spell requires concentration, as well as willpower, in order to be cast successfully. The wand movement is an outward spiral and the incantation is Fumos.

In Lesson Three, we covered our first creature, the salamander. There are two varieties of salamander, the frost and the fire salamander. We also covered the concept of life force and how each living creature has a life force. We learned what the life force of both a fire salamander and a frost salamander are and how to extinguish each of them using the Fire-Making Charm and the Freezing Charm.

In Lesson Four, we continued our creature coverage by learning about trolls. There are three different types of trolls, but all are theorized to have the same life force. Trolls have a magical tolerance, which makes spells weaker against them. This lesson also included the Bludgeoning Hex, a spell that can be useful for making a hard impact with the opponent.

Lesson Five consisted of the Erkling, an elf-like creature that cackles and lures children, yet has no effect on adults. These short creatures can either be playful in their killing or they can come and directly attack you, depending on their location of origin.. The spells that you were told are effective against an Erkling are the Silencing Charm and the Orbis Jinx.

Lesson Six returned to spellwork, where we covered the Confundus Charm and the Stinging Jinx. The Confundus Charm requires focus and willpower, but must be taken into account with the target’s willpower, since the Confundus Charm is attempting to affect the synapses in the brain of the target in order to confuse them. The wand movement looks like a backwards question mark and the incantation is Confundo. The Stinging Jinx simply requires the wand to be pointed at the target, but again requires a strength of willpower in order to be effective, since you must overcome your target’s willpower in order for the spell to be completely effective.

Lesson Seven closed our spellwork for the year by covering the Reductor Curse and the Ventus Jinx. The Reductor Curse is a simple spell to cast, since it really requires minimal focus and willpower. However, a higher level of focus is required if you want to destroy only the intended target. A higher level of willpower is only necessary if you want the target broken into a fine dust rather than chunks. The wand movement looks like a sideways V whose bottom is aimed to the right and the incantation is Reducto. The Ventus Charm has two potential effects, one of which requires extended concentration. It can either blast a burst of wind at the target or can create a stream of wind. The desired effect depends on the goal and is up to the caster to determine.

Finally, we move to Lesson Eight, where we covered our last creature for the year, the kelpie. These creatures can take any form that they choose, but often take the form of horses. One has even been known to be sighted, being known as the Loch Ness Monster. There is no known way to truly beat a kelpie, except to avoid them. They can be made docile for a time by using a Placement Charm to put a bridle on them, but even this will not last for long, depending on the willpower of the kelpie.

And that brings us to now. Again, this is not an exclusive list. This covers the basic information covered in each year, but there is much more information needed from each lesson in order to do well on the final and I urge you to review your notes before beginning the examination. I wish you all the best of luck and cannot wait to see you all back here for DADA Year Five.

Original lesson written by Professor Jericho Penrose