TNFG-501 Lessons

And in a Flash...It’s Gone

Welcome
The classroom was quiet as the students entered.  Professor Mitchell was sitting behind her desk reading a small note and giggling to herself, oblivious to the rest of the slowly filling room.  When the scrape of a chair grabbed her attention, her head snapped up and she quickly shoved the little piece of paper into a drawer, looking slightly flustered. “Uhm, yes, take your seats, class. We will begin in a moment!”

Introduction
I hope you have all been practicing vanishing your snails! Today we are going to be practicing on some larger targets, but we will make the casting just a little easier.  Before we can get to that, however, we’re going to start with that topic that you all know and love: the theory and ethics of vanishing live creatures.

Life After Vanishment
So, you all know we have been practicing our vanishment on conjured creatures to avoid harming any living animals. However, what would happen if you did try to vanish a living thing? There are many theories on the topic but few studies to back them up.  The long-standing assumption was that vanished creatures were dead, or as good as. Any attempt at re-conjuring either resulted in a failed spell or your typical conjured creature, which would disappear after a period of time, so many gave up trying. More recently, however, researchers have theorized that there may be a way to maintain the life force when vanishing a living thing, allowing one to re-conjure a living, breathing creature with the same mind and make up as the one before. The idea is that the consciousness could be suspended for a short period of time, existing without a physical body.  We’ve seen in the case study of Lord Voldemort that it is in fact possible for one to maintain a half-life of sorts in which the soul lives on without anything to physically ground it.  So, if we assume that we can, in fact, maintain the life force when vanishing a creature, the question becomes how to create a lasting body and how to reconnect the consciousness with this body. If we could do the latter, would it solve the problem of the former? Unfortunately we do not yet have these answers, but researchers are working to find them.

Modifiers
Similar to some other spells you have learned both in this class and in your Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, the General Vanishing Spell is made slightly easier by using certain modifiers.  Rather than making the spell stronger or changing its effect, these modifiers help  focus your spell.  What I’m passing out now is a list of the most common modifiers and what targets you would use them on.  You will notice that they are only intended for use on animate targets.  This is because of the ease with which inanimate targets can be vanished.  When casting these modified spells, you simply say the appropriate root for your target before the incantation, Evanesca.  The rest of the casting is the same as the General Vanishing Spell, save that the required concentration is just a little bit lower. But wait, isn’t the incantation for the General Vanishing Spell “Evanesco”? It is unknown exactly why Evanesca works better than Evanesco when it comes to modifiers; some say it’s because of the way the word flows in conjunction with the roots, while others say it is a stronger form of the incantation in general. Either way, it is typically the incantation used with these modifiers, though both will work.

Another interesting theory concerning this spell, known in the field as “The Modifier Theory,” is that it is only with these modifiers that one can vanish and re-conjure a living creature while maintaining its life force. As mentioned earlier, this still hasn’t been successfully done, but the idea is that because these modifiers single out the target as a living creature, they have the ability to draw out the life force and separate it from the vanishing body, telling it to stay close for re-conjuration.  The counter-theory to this is that because the modifiers single out the target as a living creature, they ensure that the consciousness and life force are eradicated along with the body.  The magiscientific community are pretty evenly split on the issue, so it may be some time before any definitive conclusions are found.

Today we will be practicing this spell on snakes, as the Ministry said conjuring a bear into the classroom would be considered “dangerous”...so I have some slithering friends scattered about the room that you all can pair up and practice on.  When performed correctly, you should see a tiny puff of smoke when your snake disappears.

You have less of a chance of hitting the wrong target when using these modifiers, but other backfires, such as incomplete vanishments, may be a bit more common and slightly more severe. There is also the added possibility that the target may burst into flames rather than vanishing.  On two occasions, the casters of Modified Vanishing Spells have vanished themselves.  While this is an extraordinarily rare backfire, the vanishing of fingers has been seen a fair amount of times. You see, as some spells become easier to cast, the also become more risky.  This aspect of backfire theory is fascinating, but I unfortunately don’t have the time today to explain it in detail. It is, however, something you may learn more about if you choose to pursue spell creation or research in the future.

Historical Context
When looking at these spells throughout history, one notices a pattern as to their uses.  Former professors Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, and Minerva McGonagall were known to have used Vipera Evanesca specifically at some point in their careers: Professor Snape during a duelling club meeting, Dumbledore when battling Voldemort at the Ministry of Magic, and McGonagall during the Battle of Hogwarts. The late, great curse-breaker Kamuzu Salib often used Vipera Evanesca and Aranea Evanesca when he was surprised by venomous foes on his journeys. And no one could forget when a team of dragon handlers managed to successfully cast Draconia Evanesca on a rogue dragon during the 1742 Triwizard Tournament right as it was about to gobble up poor Ruslan Khasanov of Durmstrang. Now, what do all of these uses have in common? They were all cast in the heat of the moment, when the caster was faced with an imminent danger. Every time you cast a spell, there is a measure of risk and reward. As I mentioned earlier, these easier to cast modifiers come with some slightly more drastic backfires.  When vanishing your everyday messes and pests, most wizards tend to take the safer route and use the General Vanishing Spell. However, in a situation when a life may be on the line, many will take the smaller risk of severe backfire over the more likely possibility of missing their target.

Conclusion
I hope you all enjoyed today’s lesson! You have just a quick quiz and an essay for homework,  I’ll see you all back here next week for anti-vanishment spells!

*Duck image credit: http://donthatethegeek.com/soul-leaving-the-body/*