DADA-501 Lessons

I hope that you all found your break to be enjoyable and utilized your time wisely. If you have allowed your skills to get lax due to relaxation, I suggest that you get training immediately. As you all should be aware, you will be taking your O.W.L. examinations at the end of this term. There is still a lot that I have to teach you in order to have you all adequately prepared for this test. As such, lessons will be a bit longer than they have been in previous terms, bar the beginning of Year One. This is due to the fact that I will delve more into the theoretical explanations about how the concepts I will teach you work. You may find that some information crosses over between this course, Charms, and Transfiguration. It will be important to note any differences between the functionality of several of these concepts, since the basic ideas will be the same, but the details will diverge depending on how each course functions.

Before we begin any of that, however, we have a few clerical things that must be handled first. The first regards what you will be learning. Below is the course syllabus for this term. As you will note, we have a lot of spells to learn and a number of dangerous creatures that we need to discuss.

Syllabus and Expectations

• Lesson 1: Inroduction and Overview of Combination Casting
• Lesson 2: Wand Movement-less Magic, Offensive Combination Spellcasting
• Lesson 3: Boom Goes the Dynamite
• Lesson 4: Out with a Modified Bang
• Lesson 5: Ouch, That Stings
• Lesson 6: Flight of the Arrow
• Lesson 7: Acromantula
• Lesson 8: Not All About Strength
• Lesson 9: End of the Line...For Now
  

Please note that the ninth lesson of this year does not contain a final examination. This is because you will be taking the O.W.L.s, so I will not be adding the extra pressure of a test on the topics we cover when many of them will reappear on the exam.

I hold the same expectations of you all as I have since First Year. You are to treat myself, the PAs, the Head Students, and all people on this site with respect. Everyone works hard to create a community of fans and willful acts of harassment will not be tolerated.

The standard policy about plagiarism is in place - any essay that is plagiarised will receive a 1% automatically. Any responses to Short Answer questions that are written word for word directly from the lesson will be marked wrong.

By now, you should all be familiar with the general rubric, but for the sake of clarity, I am adding it here:

• 70% - Content
• Have you answered the prompt in its entirety and done so using logic?
• If an opinion is asked for or is given in the process of writing, is that opinion backed up with fact?
• 15% - Word Count
• Do you meet the minimum word expectation for the assignments? These points can be awarded on a full, half, or none basis. If you meet the minimum word count, you will get full points. If you write at least half of the minimum word count, but do not make the full word count, you will get 7%, approximately half of the points. If you write less than half of the minimum word count, you will receive no points for the word count. This is a new policy that has been implemented across the curriculum.
• 10% Grammar and Spelling
• Please be sure to proofread all assignments before submitting them. Students who have a learning disability, including physical disabilities, should include the letters LD at the top of their essays to alert my team not to deduct points in this category. The same policy is in place for non-native English speakers, though in this case the letters NES should be put at the top of assignments.
• 5% - Identifying Marks
• All assignments are meant to be submitted anonymously. Any marks that could potentially identifying yourself, such as your name or your house (there are more, but these are the main two), will lead to the deduction of the full amount from this category.
  
  

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask any of my PAs, my Head Student, or myself. I can be reached via the onsite messaging system.

With that out of the way, let’s begin a short discussion about combination spellcasting.

Combination Spellcasting - An Overview
Up until this point, I have focused primarily on increasing the amount of spells that you know how to use individually; it was more important that you knew how to cast the spells. This term, we will be moving away from that. After this term, you will be expected to be capable of holding your own in a combat situation. This means that individual spells will not be enough; your opponent will not let you take breaks between the casting of one spell and the casting of another. You need to begin thinking strategically.

This is why I am now introducing the idea of combination spellcasting. This concept is easy to explain, yet difficult to execute. The basic idea of combination spellcasting is that the caster utilizes two or more spells to a greater effect than either spell could accomplish individually.

Taking combination spellcasting a little further requires a great deal of strategy. When you are casting spells, you are utilizing your own willpower - if you use too much at one time, you will wear yourself out and suffer from the effects of magical exhaustion, as discussed in Year One. When casting spells in a combination, you need to be thinking not about the next spell you plan to cast, but the spell that you will cast after that spell - in short, you must always be thinking ahead. You could just cast any spell that comes to mind, but that would be inefficient for winning in combat. If you want to win efficiently, you need to have the entire combination planned out - know what the effect of each spell is, how it will benefit you in conjunction with the previous spells you cast, and how it will enhance the next spells you plan to cast.

Let me give an example of combination spellcasting. During our discussion of Erklings, I taught you the Orbis Jinx - a jinx that creates a sphere of earth around the target, but has the condition that the target must remain in the same location. This is because the sphere, when it goes to encase the target, will only be able to rise from the ground in a single location and can only cover a fairly small area. Without some spell used in combination with the Orbis Jinx, most targets will not remain still long enough for the spell to encase them. The spell used most frequently to hold an Erkling in place is the Levitation Charm, though many of the spells we learned in Year Two, such as the Full Body-Bind Curse, would also be effective.

Combination Spellcasting - Types of Combinations and their Effects on the Components
When we talk about combination spellcasting, we need to make sure that we get specific about what type of combination is being cast. There are two types of combinations that are recognized as part of the broad spectrum of combination spellcasting: consecutive combinations and concurrent combinations. Below, I have provided the definitions and I will discuss how these types affect the components of spellcasting that we have discussed since Year One.

Consecutive Combination Spellcasting: The use of two or more spells, one after the other, to a greater effect than any of the spells could accomplish individually.

Concurrent Combination Spellcasting: The use of two or more spells at the same time to a greater effect than any of the spells could accomplish individually.

Consecutive combinations are the more common type of combination. When casting a consecutive combination, you must think about the effects of the individual spells and how you can use two separate effects at two different times in order to accomplish something greater. Most spells in a consecutive combination will be static spells, therefore the concentration required for each spell is based solely on the individual spell. There is no need to account for the next spell in the combination while casting the current spell.

However, consecutive combinations are extremely taxing on your willpower. As a rule, an individual can only access a certain amount of willpower within a given time. This does not mean that willpower is limited - an individual theoretically has access to an unlimited amount of willpower - but, as we discussed in Year One, willpower is the magical equivalent of physical energy. You technically have an unlimited amount of physical ability to move heavy objects, but eventually you will tire out.

Concurrent combinations, on the other hand, are less taxing on the caster’s willpower. Each spell in the combination will slightly increase the amount of willpower required in order to successfully cast the combination. Since you need to apply some amount of magical energy to each individual spell, applying the right amount of willpower to the beginning of the combination, and slightly increasing it as each spell is added, you will be able to cast the combination.

Where concurrent combinations get tricky is with the amount of concentration that is required. Typically, a concurrent combination involves a minimum of one dynamic spell, or a spell whose effect can be held over a longer duration. As a rule, when casting a concurrent combination on your own, the combination will require a much greater amount of concentration, since you will need to not only extend the effect of the first spell cast, but also concentrate on the effect of the spell which is being added to the combination. The target will likely not change (though this rule is not set in stone), but the effect may be greatly different than the base spell (more about “base” spells in the next lesson).

The other way to cast a concurrent combination is to have a partner or a team of people. If you choose to utilize this route, concurrent combinations become a little easier, because you only have to focus on the effect of the spell you are casting in the combination. Before you and your team begin a concurrent combination, it is important to have planned ahead since the timing may be critical. If you and your team have not created a plan about who will cast each spell in the combination, the order the spells are to be cast in, and how long a person should wait between each spell, the combination might fail miserably. It is important to note that concurrent combination spells do not necessarily have to be cast at the same time - the important part is that the spells are affecting a target at the same time.

Combination Spellcasting Journal
We are almost out of time, but before you leave, I need to explain one final aspect of this term for you - a new type of assignment that I believe will allow you to think creatively while still applying the concepts learned in class. This term, each of you will be completing a Combination Spellcasting Journal. Each entry in this journal will not be as long as some of the essays I have previously assigned, but I will expect thought and effort to go into each of these entries.

For each entry, I will provide you with a prompt - sometimes this prompt will use two or three spells that were not covered in the lesson, sometimes it will use the two spells learned and ask you to consider a third, and other times you will be asked to choose one of the spells taught in the lesson and explain why another spell would work in combination with the chosen spell. These entries will be due in certain lessons, but as I stated, these journals are not long, so should not take you too much time.

I hope you are all excited for this upcoming term. There is a lot to learn, but I am certain you will all be more than adequately prepared to take your O.W.L. examinations at the end of it. Next class, we will continue discussing Combination Spellcasting and look at the primary topic for this year: Offensive Combinations.  We will also apply some of the concepts to the Orbis Jinx and the Levitation Spell as an example for future understanding.

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Original lesson written by Professor Jericho Penrose