Oh a question.

"Other than dummies and the like, in my family we practice on each other. As in other practitioners, who are fully informed of the risks. Never innocents." A slight twitch of the lip and Angelo added, "Usually I get to practice on my father." Never creatures. Never muggles. They had standards.



Really now. Angelo was impassive at this turn of events, though he was kiiiind of amused at the Tate girl -she kind of reminded Angelo of their shared aunt Briony Toussaint who had married into his family.

He wondered if Sophia Bellaire knew how the youngsters in her family were behaving though, and was kind of surprised in that sense. He knew the Bellaire family. He knew that they had some pretty exacting standards of conduct. So it seemed a little odd to him.

His young cousin had done something idiotic, thoughtless, and cruel (and while there was an element of boys will be boys, nobody in the family had let Bastien off scot-free, because he was clearly lacking control, and control was important to the Toussaints, as was respect) but there had been apologies and Angelo was pretty sure nobody else had done this Blaise kid any harm. Maybe even the opposite.

He remained silent though he fixed Katy with a gaze and silently told her to rein it in. Never mind that Hirsch apparently supported her. It wasn't right to interrupt the learning time of the other students.

Were they done? He was unruffled. And he wouldn't apologise on behalf of his family because they had, with the exception of Bastien, done nothing wrong, and again, this was about the lesson and Angelo wasn't one to approve of hijacking a lesson for personal issues. Or of leaving. Too bad about that one kid.

Terrible apology, by the way, Blaise Bellaire. Seemed someone liked being the centre of attention. Too bad it was for all the wrong reasons. At least the other one, Bentley, seemed to have his head screwed on a little tighter.



Surprisingly, maybe, Blaise Bellaire gave a good answer. Angelo treated it as if it had come from anyone, of course.

"Yes, Herbology is absolutely an area that is often underestimated as far as its relevance to dark magic goes, either because of dark-bred plants, or because of the ingredients that may be used in potions." So that, Blaise Bellaire, was a good answer. Go figure.



"Yes, potions is right. Either because of poisons or because of those potions which can take control of others. So its important to be educated in the topic." Good answers from the girls.




Did she mean the unforgivable curses? Angelo figured as much and chose not to correct what was clearly just a slip of the tongue.

"I suppose you could, but I would hope that anyone who does take that avenue as far as educating themselves on the dark arts does so in order to better their ability to defend against them." He wasn't condoning kids going off and dabbling on their own, to borrow a term from Bentley Moore.



"Horcruxes are corrupting. That's where a lot of the associations between dark magic practitioners and the destruction of the soul and physical corruption come from. In no way would I ever condone that." Not ever. That was a hard no in his family. "Drinking unicorn blood, likewise. Those are some of the more insidious practices which add to the negative perception of the dark arts... however we're looking for less specificity in the case of Professor Hirsch's question." Branches of magic. Subjects. Wider learning areas.




"Yes, the breeding of dark creatures absolutely has associations with the dark arts." Angelo agreed.





Well.... yes but they'd been looking for non-spellwork subjects. And some elaboration. But Angelo did quite like what the boy was making. He nodded in acknowledgement.

As for the girl....

He wasn't sure where she was trying to jump to with that comment. Obliviating someone didn't immediately mean evil. She herself admitted it was for protection reasons. However, he'd noticed she was a little jumpy and reserved so rather than point out any argument or that the professor had asked for things other than spellwork and wand magic, he simply nodded.

"So you can see how its often a matter of how a spell is used, rather than it being inherently dark or not."



"Ancient Runes is absolutely an area which can be associated with the dark arts. Its all about how you invoke them, to what purpose you awaken their power, and how well you understand what you are trying to achieve." Definitely this was one of the answers he wanted to hear.




"Yes there is an association with the snake language, and you're right that its associated based on history specifically, because obviously those who are able to use it can talk to basilisks, which are a dark creature after all. However, your point about certain tongues is a good one because many dark spells use very old incantations, using dead and ancient languages, scripts, and rituals, so its actually important to have at least a passing familiarity with more than just say... Latin or Ancient Greek as a serious dark artist." But that was kind of beyond the scope of today's lesson, just an interesting tidbit... at least to some.



"Alchemy is a great answer. It can certainly be used for dark purposes."
The philosopher's stone was a great example of that.



"Occlumency and Legilmency can be used for dark purposes yes. They aren't divination, however." Nice try though, nice guess there associating it with divination. Angelo nodded at the girl as well, including her in his response.

"Occlumency tends to be considered a lot more positive in nature than Legilmency, the former being about self-protection, while the latter can be considered an invasion, though like anything its not always black and white. For instance, if you couldn't speak, consider how Legilimency might be useful in making yourself understood to someone who was open to you communicating with them. Also, by its nature, Legilimency requires steady eye contact and is much easier to do when you actually use the incantation for it, so using it for dark purposes is actually harder than you might think, unlss you are particularly advanced with it." He himself was good enough to read an unblocked mind, but not good enough to try and plant anything in anyone's head with any subtlety. Maybe that would come with age if he were inclined to practice, but Angelo couldn't see much good coming from it or necessity for that matter.


Okay.... sure. All of them.

That was kind of, to a degree, the point of the question, but Angelo had been hoping for more elaboration than that, and he was sure Hirsch had been too. Still, it seemed they both had got the point that it wasn't about being inherently dark. And dark didn't always mean bad, sometimes it just meant grey areas. And most people did things in the grey areas all the time.

"Its all about how creative your thinking is, and about how you play to your strengths, and of course about what your intentions are." He acknowledged.



... and he was just going to ignore that kid. Though honestly he was surprised, from what he'd seen of the professor so far, that he was so laid back about the kids being disrespectful, generally speaking. Things were definitely different back at Durmstrang.

So.

Moving on.

"Alchemy was mentioned and I can give an example of dark magic which is unique to that field: the homunculus. Some of you might have heard of something known as the rudimentary body potion, this was an alchemical potion which Voldemort used to create a miniaturised, deformed, host body. Unicorn blood is a component in this potion- it is truly dark, corrupting, and dangerous." And Angelo had never met anyone who could do it.... and if he had, they wouldn't because they weren't insane.

"Astronomy and Arithmancy also have their uses in the dark arts. This might surprise some of you to know. However dark magic has its own numerical vibrations, and certain spells and rituals are made stronger when astronomical alignments are taken into account, particularly when it comes to Blood Magic, which is a lesser known magic branch, that is neutral in nature, and most often is employed in invocation... for example when invoking runes."

Really, just reducing it all to 'the dark arts' was limiting, and meant that people were less equipped to face it and defend against it effectively. How could you fight what you didn't know?

"Runes can also be used to either create or break thralls. A thrall is being or form under control by another. A homunculus is an example of a thrall. So is the use of an imperius curse. Several potions create thrall-like responses in those who take them. Love potions for instance. The degree of the thrall depends on how the thrall is created." Were they following this? Because they were getting to the crux of the lesson now.

"Most of you have been forming something out of clay so far during the lesson. If you would, please look at what you have created, or if you haven't created anything, what others have done, and consider: what could theoretically be done to your creation, or in the case of those of you who made inanimate objects the real-life version of your creation, to make it be considered dark in nature?

And while you're at it, particularly those of you who have created a creature or being of some sort, does anyone know what a golem is?"


ooc: Hi guys! Two part question here! Feel free to answer one or both, up to you.

Part 1: considering the clay crafted inanimate objects: how could they be cursed to be dark? be creative! ie if you made a glove, maybe the glove could be cursed to shrivel up the fingers. If you made sunglasses, maybe wearing them could blind you. Consider the possible 'dark' things that could be done to the actual item, not necessarily the clay version of the item. Got it? Cool!

Part 2: What is a golem? Don't worry if your character doesn't know. There IS info online but we would RATHER you didn't just copy paste as if a textbook answer if your character has never been exposed to the idea before. This is new to SS canon after all, its okay to have your character not know, or only have the vaguest ideas, or have come across it in literature, or whatever makes sense for YOUR charrie. Your character could also use what they've just heard to take a guess or a stab at what a golem is. You won't lose out on points for not knowing! Kita's nice like that!

Kita will continue the lesson in her next post