Chapter 150: Defense Class
3rd September 1995, Hogwarts (Earth 2)
(Harry Potter POV)
Like every year, Harry was excited for his first Defense class, and he could see that he wasn’t the only one. For the first time in almost a year, students were vibrating in their seats, vibrating in excitement, at learning from someone they admired.
Harry didn’t really understand why, but apparently, the Slytherins were very excited to learn from someone who could be a descendent of their house’s founder and were acting like a bunch of first year Hufflepuffs ready to make friends.
It got even worse when someone found out that Jasmine Sayre was some kind of magical prodigy who already had two masteries in different fields of magic. There were a lot of speculation and rumors, some were so outrageous that it made Harry laugh for few minutes, like her being Voldemort’s secret daughter. Harry was in tears when he heard that one. It was funny that people had already started worshipping the woman and ignored what she did during the welcoming feast.
Still, Harry heard rumor after rumor about her classes. Fred and George were seriously admiring her. They said that she was without a doubt the best defense professor that they ever had. She really knew her stuff, and they always assumed that this was what Dumbledore would be like if he was teaching the class himself.
Seriously, it hadn’t been that bad when Moody had come to teach the previous year, well, fake Moody, at least. The man was famous, or is it infamous, in magical Britain, and yet they didn’t act like that with him.
Still, the new professor having two masteries had pretty much cemented her as Hermione’s newest hero. What a surprise, having a significant academic achievement was enough to earn Hermione’s respect without even meeting the woman.
As for Ron, he didn’t seem to especially care about the woman. He really had an aversion to anything academic, didn’t he?
Even with Ron’s lack of enthusiasm, Harry was still very excited to attend Professor Sayre’s class. He had gone through an entire day of people gushing about her classes and the professors scaring the crap out of him about the OWLs, that he wanted to see what everyone was talking about.
Finally, it was time for Defense class. Harry followed the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors, to the classroom where Professor Sayre was sitting down, writing something on a piece of parchment. She looked up and smiled at them, “Ah, good, you’re here. Let’s wait for the Slytherins to arrive. Sit down, wherever you want, take out your books, and some parchment.”
Everyone scrambled to take a seat. Hermione pretty much leapt to the front of the classroom to secure the closest seat to the Professor. Harry shook his head in exasperation and just joined her, leaving Ron at the back of the class where he chose to sit. Harry was going to try to pay attention to this lesson. From what he had heard, he didn’t want to miss anything.
A couple of minutes later the Slytherins arrived in unison, far more organized and proper than the Gryffindors, and took their seats as well.
Professor Sayre smiled at them and started to introduce herself, “Hello, my name is Jasmine Sayre, you will address me as Professor Sayre for the rest of the year, after which I will leave the position.”
Seamus interrupted her rudely, “What, scared of the curse?”
Professor Sayre chuckled, “No, I’m not, Mr. Finnigan. Don’t worry, I have heard a little about you from your professors. Let’s just say that they had a few comments about your pyrotechnic talents. Now, about the curse, I have identified and removed it before the welcoming feast. Nasty little thing, it was. Quite a display of brilliance and ignorance at the same time. Either way, after my departure, there will be nothing to stop you from having a recurring Defense professor.”
Silence met her at that declaration. The defense curse was removed. Just like that? What the hell? Was she serious? No one had expected this. Even Dumbledore hadn’t been able to remove the curse, and she did it in one day?
The woman ignored the stupefied looks and continued, “As I was saying, I will be your defense professor for the next year, especially since this will be your OWL year, so you’ll have a lot of work ahead of you. Now, about the OWLs, I have no doubt that you were scared witless by your professors, saying that if you don’t study like mules, you’ll ruin the rest of your lives and so on. I’m here to say that no, OWLs are not that important.”
Hermione looked outraged and raised her hand, “I don’t follow, Professor. How are they not important?”
The woman chuckled, “Now, Ms. Granger, you’re not supposed to interrupt your professor in the middle of a speech. If you had waited a few more seconds, I would have answered your question,” Hermione’s face reddened in embarrassment, “now, as I said, OWLs are not that important. I’m not saying they’re useless, I’m just saying that in the long run, they don’t really matter. First, you have to understand why they exist in the first place, and that’s to make sure that you have a minimum of competence in a magical field, meaning that you have a better chance of passing your NEWTs if you choose to pursue further studies. The exams, both written and practical, are relatively simple and focus on your general competence in the field in question, not your mastery over it. This means only half your exams are from what you’re studying this year, the rest will be on what you have learnt during the first four years of your schooling. Failing your OWLs is better than passing when you shouldn’t. It means that the chances of passing your NEWTs are very slim.
“And in the end, your careers will depend on your NEWTs entirely. No one will care about your OWL results, aside from the Professors for your next year, who will decide the minimum level required to enter a NEWTs class, which translates to how much they’re willing to invest in your education to get good NEWTs. Most of them will target students with more than an EE in your OWLs, with Professor Snape choosing students who have at least an O in their potions’ examinations. Now, onto the question of, why would you want a NEWT in Defense. And the answer is simple. Outside of learning how to defend yourselves, a defense NEWT is required if you want to continue a career as an Auror, a Hit Wizard, or a dueler. But outside martial careers, if you’re planning on pursuing a higher education after Hogwarts, be it an apprenticeship or joining a guild, you will be required to be able to protect yourself and your secrets from any enemies, meaning that having a defense NEWT is almost always a requirement.”
This seemed to relax the classroom a little bit. Students were a bit stressed from the speeches the other Professors gave. It was kinda nice to have someone not stress how difficult this year was going to be.
The professor continued her introduction, “Now, I will have to say that from what I have heard, your defense education was somewhat lackluster, so we’ll have to revise a few things before going forward. It’s nothing extremely straining on you, but you’ll have to study a few things you should have learnt during the previous years on your own. I cannot teach five years’ worth of lessons in one year, so it will be your responsibility to catch up if I ask you to study a topic in particular. Now to get started, I want you to get your books out, and throw them away.”
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Wait what? Harry looked around and everyone looked confused as well. Hermione even looked scandalized at the thought of actually throwing away a book, “Look, I know, it was the recommended book and everything, but it was supposed to be what your previous teacher was supposed to use. I can say that without a doubt, whoever was supposed to teach this class was an idiot. The book is more like a philosophical book than anything, that pretty much tells you to run away from fights. Which is a very good idea when you’re this young, and you shouldn’t involve yourself in a fight that you’ll probably lose after all. You’ll be fighting against a fully grown adult with a full magical education unlike you. You should always call the Aurors for help if you’re in danger. The problem is, that this is a defense class, which is supposed to teach you how to defend yourself. In case you want to be Aurors or Hit wizards or something similar. This means that spending an entire year learning how to run away from a book without learning a single spell wouldn’t be productive for your education. So, keep the books, throw them away, ask for a refund, I don’t care. But I can say with absolute certainty that I won’t be using this book. Now, with that out of the way. let’s take a look at what your education looked like.”
Harry stiffened when he heard that; he had killed one professor, made one lose his memories, was almost bitten by Remus when he was a werewolf, and the last one was an impostor that got kissed by a dementor. His history with Defense teachers wasn’t a very good one.
Sayre ended up picking up a piece of parchment, “I asked your professors to send me a summary of the syllabus for each year. Huh, your first year was somewhat normal, for the first semester, at least. A couple of minor jinxes and hexes, the dispelling spell, that’s an important one. There were some complains about his stutter and the smell in his classroom but nothing much. But for some reason, your professor ended up spending the entire second semester focusing on the iguana, a non-magical creature of all things. Now, let’s move onto your second year, where for some reason your professor recommended fiction books of all things, and then spent an entire year storytelling and acting scenes from the books. Am I reading this right?”
Harry felt himself snort at the reminder of Lockhart’s lessons. It sounds really bad when someone phrases it like that.
“Anyway, your third year was the first one where you had an actual defense education, where you focused on dark creatures and how to fight them. The syllabus was well done, and was very advanced, your professor went above and beyond. I guess we won’t cover dark creatures this year, that’s a relief. Finally, last year, you had a professor who went nuts and kept demonstrating dark curses, and how to defend against them. There’s a note here saying that he performed one of the unforgivables on you? Well, he seemed to go too far with the study of basic curses that you were supposed to cover. What the hell was Dumbledore thinking, letting a professor put fourth years under the Imperius of all things?”
Huh, was fake Moody that bad? At least, she thought that Remus was the best of the bunch. That’s enough for Harry to like the woman. She didn’t seem to care that he was a werewolf or anything.
“Now, I don’t want to scare you, but your defense education is crippled. You probably learnt whatever you were supposed to cover in your first year on your own, it was just a list of basic jinxes, hexes, and their counters, but you haven’t covered the roles of charms and transfiguration in defense. Like not at all, you were supposed to have an introduction during your second year and fourth year, which your teachers pretty much skipped.”
Hermione immediately raised her hand. The professor sighed in exasperation, “yes Ms. Granger?”
Hermione righted herself, “I’m afraid that I don’t understand, Professor. What do charms and transfiguration have to do with Defense class?”
Harry had asked himself a second before but didn’t want to seem stupid in front of the new professor who was looking at Hermione with incredulity, “Seriously? You don’t know?” Hermione shook her head, and the professor looked up, “Does anyone here know the answer to that question?”
She shook her head, at the silence that met her, “Alright, this is really bad. This is basic stuff that you should have learnt in your first year. Alright, I have to start from the top. Who here knows what a magical field is?”
A few hands were raised and the professor pointed at Hermione, “Ms. Granger.”
The girl brightened at being called by the teacher and answered, “A field of magic is a classification or category that certain spells belong to.”
Sayre nodded and answered, “A textbook answer, which is a shame since it's barely ten percent of the actual answer. Now, does anyone have another answer?”
Hermione’s face was red and obviously wanted to protest but had been able to contain her temper. The professor looked around and pointed at another student. It was a Slytherin this time, “Ms. Greengrass.”
The girl nodded, “A field of magic is a way for wizards to partition spells and practices that have similar properties. For example, transfiguration is the field of magic that concerns the transformation of something from one form or element to another.”
The professor nodded, “A very close answer, but not quite the correct one. A magical field in easy terms is a way for wizards to put labels on kinds of magic. Like Ms. Greengrass said, it groups spells and practices with similar properties, but what she didn’t explain, is why wizards did that. What the purpose of it is, outside of just categorizing spells. Long ago, before wands existed, before spells were a thing, wizards still existed and there were fields of magic. So, what do they categorize exactly? There were no spells, no incantations, just will and magic, barely more than accidental magic. So, wizards imagined the fields of magic just to be able to describe a magical act. No more and no less.”
Hermione spoke up, “I don’t quite follow you. How can there be magic without spells?”
“Spells, Ms. Granger are, by definition, a reproducible act of magic. Before the invention of a wand, there were no spells. A wizard, or a mage as we used to call them, learnt to manipulate their magic after decades of meditation and practice. There were no simple spells, with straight up wand movements or incantations, and whatever focus they had just served to direct the magic, not shape it like wands do. Wands are a Roman invention, and their main advantage is to allow someone to shape their magic for a spell by just moving their wands in a precise manner. Therefore, you have wand movements, for every spell. Your incantations, which are generally in bastardized Latin, are a way to synchronize your wand movements and time them properly. This allowed the Roman Empire to quickly train a lot of wizards for their armies. Classical mages could no doubt defeat hundreds of wanded wizards, but it would only take one lucky spell to kill them, which allowed the Romans to conquer most of Europe. For example, one of the main requirements to gaining a mastery in a magical field is being able to perform any spell in that field without actually using a spell, with just pure manipulation of magic. This is what I call true mastery over a field of magic. You hear things about dark lords who have mastered the dark arts or whatever. The truth is, that there hasn’t been a master of dark magic since Morgana Le Fey, no matter what most people like to say.”
The teacher paused for a few minutes to let them absorb what she said before resuming her lesson, “A magical field is also not a box with strict borders. A spell could easily be a part of multiple magical fields. For example, if you combine elemental magic with a charm, you create a new spell entirely. It’s how new spells are crafted nowadays. For example, if you add a cutting charm and the air element, it will enhance the cutting factor. Observe.”
With a wave of her wand, the professor conjured two blocks of wood. They were over a meter deep. She waved her wand at one and it was cut halfway, “This is a normal cutting charm without me actually trying to overpower it.”
She waved her wand again, and Harry felt a burst of wind with the spell. It cut through the wood easily and had continued to hit the wall where a clear slash appeared. After another wave of her wand, the wall repaired itself. Harry was stupefied, like the rest of the classroom.
“I added the same amount of power to the charm, I just modified it to add the air element as well. There are a lot of combinations, mainly with charms, but the deeper you get, the more you see it. You can combine elemental magic with transfiguration into something called elemental transfiguration, a very difficult piece of magic to master, soul magic with transfiguration for the Animagus transformation, blood magic, and alchemy to create a bloodline limit, like parseltongue and metamorphmagus. Although the last one has only been through the use of rituals, since the details were lost to time long before wands were invented in the first place. The main theory is that old mages used Alchemy to make the magic permanent, and then bound it to their bloodline using blood magic. Now, you’re thinking, as interesting as that is, why are we talking about this. What’s the point of this? It’s quite easy. Can anyone tell me what field of magic Defense Against the Dark Arts belongs to?”
For the first time, the students started to actually try to understand what Defense class was all about. It was odd. He hadn’t learnt a new spell, or even used magic, really, but he felt like he started to have a better understanding of magic just a few minutes with Professor Sayre. He had to admit that Fred and George were right. The woman really knew her stuff.