Defense Against the Dark Arts ( All Years )

[Head Girl Andi]

Catalina walked up the steps from the Great Hall with her plate of warm vanilla swirl brownies in one hand, and her bag strapped over her shoulder. Defense Against the Dark Arts was next, Catalina quite feared the class, not so much the subject but rather the professors. She'd experienced decent professors like Quirrel, who turned out to be horrible, and Lupin who was the best so far, then the bad Moody, and the horrible Lockhart, and then atrocious Umbridge. Professor Vector was to teach today so Catalina was hopeful that this would be an enjoyable session.

As she walked into the classroom there were several students already seated but she didn't recognize too many. Millicent was in here for some reason, perhaps just looking for a new victim to bully, Catalina would have to watch her carefully. "G'day Profess'r Vector, want te' brownie?" Catalina asked as she offered her plate then sat down with the rest of her brownies next to Savannah. "Want te brownie?" She asked Savannah, knowing full well that she'd have some sort of smart remark to make.

Soon the class began and the subject was vampires, and the question was asked, what do they think vampires are. That was an opinionated question so there was no possible wrong answer, Catalina quickly put her hand up and waited to be called on.

[dana]

Dana trudged to the DADA classroom unhappily. She wasn’t bad in the class, nor was she at the top, but she rather enjoyed the class usually. At least it was necessary. But today Dana was having a head-ache. She hadn’t had the time to drop by the Hospital Wing – she really hadn’t even wanted to go there – instead hoping that it would pass by itself. For once Dana was sitting in the back of the classroom where it was a bit darker with her head laying on her arms. Even her things weren’t out of the bag which was something out of the ordinary for Dana.

She heard the class begin and had to suppress a shudder as it became clear that they were learning vampires today. Dana had always been irrationally afraid of vampires. Even her boggart took partially the shape of a vampire. Listening to the answers some younger students gave Dana grimaced and finally draw her head up. Savannah and Cataline seemed ready to continue with the answer which was good – points for Ravenclaw were always welcomed.

Pushing through her hair with spread fingers Dana grimaced upon winding the tangles there. She had washed her hair in the morning but obviously she could really use a brush. Taking a deep breath Dana pushed the throbbing in her head to the back-ground and twirling the quill she had pulled out from her bag waited to hear how the class was going to continue.

[Professor Juliette Vector]

"Alright Mr. Blackstone a good answer take 5 points, anyone else?" At this she saw a pair of new hands up, "Yes Miss Johnstone, then Miss Cavales, please tell us what you know about vampires."

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

While the Gryffindor was explaining his answer, Savannah shot Catalina a look and then spied her plate of brownies. "Vampires like chocolate" she whispered before the Professor finally called on her. "Well, I believe that vampires can't be in the sunlight or they will die, or be destroyed, whatever you call it. I also think that you can kill, or whatever a vampire if you stab it's heart." Savannah then stopped talking, she could have very well gone on much more but she decided she'd let Catalina get one or two words in as well.

[Harry Potter]

He managed to make it to class before the late bell rang, and he took a seat close to the door. He had a hard time focusing on class since it happened, but he was here, just like he was suppose to be, even if his focus was else were, though he did try to focus on the lesson. Vampires. He should probably learn something about vampires.

[Head Girl Andi]

Catalina eyed Savannah as she told her the vampire would eat her brownie, that simply wasn't true! Vampires drank blood, that was a common fact, at least it was a perceived fact. When it was her turn, Catalina put her hand down, "Te vampire 'as te good eyes and te' good 'earin' an' t'ey also are really strong, when a person turns into a vampire, t'ey are like a super 'uman and I t'ink t'at t'ey can 'eal t'emselves w'en t'ey get hurt?" Catalina wasn't quite sure about that last part, it was something she read in a book, of course maybe all of it was just made up fiction that was created by people with vivid imaginations.

[Professor Juliette Vector]

"Very good Miss Johnstone and Cavales, take 5 points each of you. Now then, as they mentioned, vampires have certain characteristics that are quite unique. Vampires are also dead, so how you may ask, how can something that is dead, die again? It's actually quite simple, they don't die a second time, rather they are destroyed and what is left of the soul is moved to the afterlife. Of course this has never been proven, but is merely what the Vampire experts in Transylvania believe, and they have produced countless books supporting this idea. Now then, please turn to page 185, and read the paragraphs about vampires. Look up at me when you have finished reading."

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Page 185.....

The Vampire is classified as an undead creature, meaning that the host body has died yet the soul remains in an animated state. The most common form of vampire, is the human form. Animal vampires do exist, however their bodies are not as adaptable and thus are often destroyed shortly after the vampiric disease has taken hold of them. A human vampire is easily recognizable. As documented by the Transylvanian Council for Vampire Control, a vampire's skin will look pale white. All coloration will disappear from the body, the eyes will turn to a silvery color and hair will turn white or silver. All teeth will remain the same save for the canines which appear to undergo a severe chemical growth, a fully developed vampire can have canines between 3-4 inches long. From our studies we can ascertain that all five senses increase in sensitivity (vision, hearing, taste, smell and tactile). Finger and toe nails continue to grow after someone has died and a vampire's will as well. These nails are sharp and strong as stone.

Vampires have often been believed to have super human strength, that is not true. The truth is that once the body dies, the vampires will consume nearly all the fat in their bodies during their initial transformation, leaving only muscle. Thus the vampire weigh considerably less than a normal human and that gives them the appearance of having incredible strength.

Why do vampires need blood? That question has been romanticized through the years. The simple fact is that vampires need blood in order to keep their bodies running. Anatomic studies of vampires have revealed that the digestive systems undergo an incredible change and blood that is consumed is then sent directly into the veins. This blood keeps the body running. It is believed that a vampire will loose about 1 pint of blood a day, the cause of this loss is unknown. It is believed that a vampire can hold between 20 - 25 pints of blood in their bodies. As blood is lost, their strength fades as the body has less fuel to keep the muscles going. A vampire that should loose nearly all it's blood will wilt and crumble into dust (Krakorya experiment, 1769). From all our studies we have determined that vampires are driven by the desire to continue their existence and thus seek blood.

Do vampires live in mansions? Recent fiction novels have give rise to the popular belief that vampires are romantic creatures that live lives of luxury and sleep in elegant coffins. The truth is that vampires will live in a mansion if they happen to stumble upon it. They seem to have no desire for material items though. Most vampires can be found in caves or underground burrows where it is dark and damp.

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After 5 minutes, Juliette stood up again. "Now then, who can tell us one or two attributes of the vampire?" Looking around the room, she once again expected several hands to be raised.

[drakeemerald]

Drake Emerald looked around the room to see if anyone was going to answer. When noone raised their hands Drake threw his hand in the air.

"Please let me know it." He muttered to himself.

[Perseus Feynman]

Perseus read through the paragraphs Professor Juliette told them to read and quickly looked up at the Professor after finishing. He hoped that there would be a practical part to the lesson instead of the usual monotone discussions they had about Defense Against the Dark Arts. As he looked towards the front of the class, Perseus saw Drake Emerald, a talented Slytherin 3rd year raise his hand. Smirking, he did the same as he knew that there were several special attributes vampires had. Perhaps it was the elongation of one's canine teeth, or would it be the vampires need for blood so that the oxygen and glucose could be utilized in cellular respiration to give it energy to survive. Perseus held his hand high and waited for the Professor to call on him.

[thieflord84]

Bee opened her book to page 185 and read. It was very interesting and had many facts in it, so when the Professor asked for one or two attributes of a vampire, Bee could have given five or more. She raised her hand slowly into the air, while smiling at Osiris who had gotten points for Gryffindor. She hoped the Professor would call on her this time; she was positive she knew the answer and she wanted to get more points for her house. She looked back down at the page, memorizing the two she was going to say so she wouldn't have to look down at the book when she said it. Once done with that, Bee moved her gaze to Professor Vector and waited quietly.

[Professor Juliette Vector]

"Mr. Emerald, Mr. Feynman and Ms. Vreeland, could you each please tell us 2 characteristics of vampires that you read about?" As she waited for their answers she looked about the room for any other hands to go up.

[thieflord84]

Bee jumped when Professor Vector called her name. "Er...alright." she cleared her throat and recited the things she had memorized before she was called upon. "Vampire's can hold 20-25 pints of blood in their body and they consume all fat in their body so all that is left is muscle. That's why vampire's are considered to have super strength because they look very strong." she sounded like a text book, but she was glad when she had finished. She put her hand down and looked at the two Slytherins to see what they said.

[drakeemerald]

Drake smiled as the professor called his name. He was supposed to give two qualities of a vampire, and he knew that he could give several more. However, answering questions in class always made him a little bit nervous.

"Well,” He said. "Vampires are considered creatures of the undead. This means that they have died, but their souls have not moved on. They stay here."

He tapped his pinky and muttered "One" under his breath.

"And another unique physical change, in addition to what Bridget just told us, is that a vampires canine teeth with grow in length. They can grow to be between three and four inches long."

Drake smiled as he finished and was glad that he could answer the question.

[Perseus Feynman]

Perseus listened as Drake answered Professor Vector's question. Drake had mentioned the elongation of the canine teeth and the fact that the vampires were undead. After the younger Slytherin finished with what he had to say, Perseus began, "One vampiristic characteristic is the fact that all coloration will dissapear from their bodies and their skin will become pale white, the iris of its eyes will turn into a silvery color, and their hair will turn silver or white. Another is that the vampire's digestive system undergoes an extraordinary change where all the blood it consumes is direction transferred to the veins during the process of absorption in the intestines. This allows the vampire to continue metabolic reactions in order for it to create energy for itself to continue to exist. If this has been mentioned already, than the last one is that vampires tend to live in cold, dark, and dank places, as they are usually found in caves or underground burrows. Occasionally, they will inhabit mansions, but do not care for any material items as popular fiction leads us to believe."

[Professor Juliette Vector]

"Very good all of you, 10 points to each of you. So now we've learned about a vampire's traits, so how are they killed if they are indeed already dead? Please turn to page 196 and read the chart, I would then like some volunteers to tell us some ways in which vampires can be destroyed." Juliette then waited for the students to finish their readings.

-------------- Page 196 ---------------

Though vampires are undead, there are numerous ways in which they can be destroyed as demonstrated by Krakorya’s numerous experiments in 1769. As with most creatures, fire will destroy a vampire. Additionally sunlight will kill a vampire. Unlike in popular novels, a vampire that is exposed to sunlight will not be destroyed instantly. Rather it is a slow process whereby the vampire gradually decays. Some vampires are able to last up to 2 hours in direct sunlight, but most will be destroyed in about 15 minutes. Even though vampires have the ability to rapidly heal their wounds, damage done by sunlight is not repairable. It was once believed that holy water will kill a vampire, this is only partly correct. The fact is that a substantial amount of water will cause severe injuries to a vampire. If one is drenched in water, destruction is imminent. Submersion in water is instant death for the vampire. The last method to destroy a vampire is to cause severe trauma. It’s been documented for many years that a wooden stake driven through the heart will kill a vampire. This is true, however it does not necessarily have to be wood, any object driven through the heart will kill a vampire. Even though vampires can rapidly heal wounds, such traumatic injuries cause too much blood loss and thus the vampire will be destroyed. Other traumatic injuries such as decapitation or dismemberment will also lead to destruction.

[dana]

Dana read the page professor Vector directed them to calmly. She knew some of the staff there, but there were a couple of new facts. Not raising her hand, Dana listened quietly to the answer to professor VEctor, with her eyes alreayd scanning the next page. Killing vampires - now that was more what Dana preferred. She was afraid of vampires, so protecting herself against them was only good to know.

It wasn't much later when professor Vector asked the big question - how to kill a vampire. Even though her head wa still throbbing a bit, Dana decided that she should participate in class at least a bit. Sighing Dana pulled through her hair with her fingers once agian and then raised her hand.

[Samantha Driscoll]

First Arithmancy and now Defence… really, wasn't it enough they had to see Professor Vector once a week? She hated this school with its stupid rules and its incompetent teachers and useless syllabuses, and was more than disgruntled as she took her place in the second row behind her brother. She couldn’t resist giving him a jab in the back with her wand and then flashing him an evil smile. "Worthless untidy little brat," she thought to herself.

Samantha sat very erectly as usual, the sun rays reflecting on her hair which was already sparkling, tied up in an elaborate French twist. She placed her wand before her and thought of what she wanted to finish today as she awaited the class to start, preferring not to look at the other students in the class who were a constant reminder of the filth in this school. The class began as soon as almost everyone had arrived, and Samantha would've snorted at the idea of how vampires were represented in muggle literature but she never did something so unladylike so she just smirked. She read the sections the professor asked them to and the second time she asked questions raised her hand to answer the professor's question a few seconds after a younger Ravenclaw did.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy put her textbook down as Professor Vector began the lesson, and listened intently. A lot of people seemed to be answering questions, and the lesson was moving at a faster pace than she was accustomed to. Having finally finished re-reading the first paragraphs the Professor set them and happy that she had made sense of them, Ivy found that she was being asked to read yet another paragraph as other people had already answered the questions. It sounded a bit to Ivy as though people became vampires through a disease, since the textbook had referred to vampiric disease. In this case, was it contracted through a virus or something? Ivy shuddered but made a mental note to ask Professor Vector at the end of the class.

Once Ivy had finished reading the second paragraph, she looked up at the Professor who had asked them about how vampires could be destroyed. Some other people already seemed to have their hands up, but not very many of the answers seemed to be coming from Hufflepuffs. Ivy raised her hand tentatively, glancing around at the other people who had their hands up and jumping and shrinking away as she realised one of them was that girl. That brought back a lot of painful memories and Ivy would have liked very much to get up and run out of the class, but all that happened was that her hand faltered in the air, still remaining stoically up.

[Nasser Salah G6]

Professor Vector was going to teach them Defence today, and since Nasser already took Arithmancy with her he knew her teaching and classroom rules, and he usually enjoyed her class although Arithmancy was not exactly his forte, he was not disappointed at all and was rather looking forward to the class, though he did wonder what had happened to Professor Nikolaeva then realised her absence probably had something to do with the hard times the wizarding world was going through.

Nasser sat down beside Dana who he knew from one previous meeting and smiled at her, not saying much. He wasn't shy around her, after all they had spoken before, but he really couldn’t think of anything to say so just got out his writing utensils and soon after that class started. Nasser listened in attentive silence to all that was being said, not really needing to take any notes yet since he knew almost all of what was being said. He looked back and noticed Dana wasn't looking very well. From what he knew of her she had a very vibrant personality so something was obviously wrong with her. Soon the professor gave them something to read and Nasser skimmed through it quickly. He turned to Dana to try and ask her what was wrong but then the professor gave them something else to read so Nasser reluctantly turned back to his book, this time having to read the section more carefully since this was brand new information for him. By the time he was finished several people had already raised their hands so he leaned back to listen to what they had to say, quill poised in case he wanted to write anything down.

[Charles Driscoll H7]

Charles didn't know Professor Vector at all, plus he didn't really like Defence Against the Dark Arts, but he had heard she was a good teacher. He hoped she was patient; he wasn't a fast learner and liked taking his time learning new charms and jinxes. Oh well, he would worry about that when it's time came. He was quite surprised to see so many people in class when he arrived, he thought he was early. He smiled at his friend Ivy Tunstall and then took a seat behind Harry Potter as she was already sitting with someone else. He would have liked to sit next to the window but was afraid that might distract him and knowing he had a short concentration span he decided not to test the professor's reaction if she caught him day-dreaming.

Just as he sat down he felt a sharp pain in his back and had to stifle a low cry. He gave his sister a cold look and said nothing. Well this was certainly new. Instead of ignoring and cold-shouldering him she was now taunting him? Things were just getting better and better with Samantha. He hoped class would start soon in case she was planning to do anything else. He knew Samantha, she was liked projecting the image of the perfect student and would do nothing to ruin her reputation once class started. Soon enough, it did.

Vampires were not exactly a topic that intrigued Charles. Honestly, who wanted to learn about creatures that fed on blood, and not just any blood, human blood? Nevertheless he listened as other students filled him in on information about vampires, most of which he didn't know. He read the sections the professor asked them to, thinking vampires really were gruesome creatures. He certainly couldn't see himself killing a vampire if he ever had to, all the methods seemed difficult and probably the vampire would have already finished with him before he had even had the time to try one of them.