Kylie raised her hand, "Because it's possible that they can be dangerous. Just like it's possible for wizards and witches to be dangerous. Just because someone.. or some being isn't necessarily dangerous doesn't mean caution shouldn't be executed. I mean." Kylie paused to think of some sort of analogy, "Zoo keepers still need to be taught about the risks and situations that may occur, and how to avoid them, even though the animals they deal with may not be considered 'dangerous' in any normal situation."

Jack raised his hand to answer the question...and maybe to add that they didn't SPARKLE. Sheesh. Muggle books were destroying the minds of young adult girls!

"I think that many people believe that vampires are a threat simply because of the history surronding them and a number of the myths that have arisen over the years. Plus, I'm sure, as people have said, that not ALL vampires are very friendly...and should we ever come across a vampire who is a bit too hungry and hasn't fed in a while, we'd need to know how to protect ourselves in case one gets a little wild. Even wizards can do crazy things when they're hungry, why not vampires?" he explained.

Tavelon raised his hand again. "Well, Vampires are still dangerous, aren't they? Since they need blood to live. And they can go bad, or dark wizards can influence them. So it's still worth knowing how to defend against them. Particularly because their magic is different, like you said."

Wiise question. And Evan took his guess at the answer. "Because we are to save Muggles from them?" It was again the first thing that came to his mind... hopefully he could get this right too.

Adrienne raised her hand again, feeling happy that at least professor Lawson hadn't thought her previous rambling had no point. "Just because they, in general, hunt because they need blood to survive doesn't make them any less dangerous. And while it's not strictly magic that creates vampires, they aren't born that way. They're made, and we need to know how to protect ourselves from being attacked by them. They can't exactly be trusted not to go crazy and attack for no reason, after all. They're unpredictable. And since they are classified as beings, they really aren't that much different than Dark wizards. We learn how to defend ourselves against them in DADA, so why wouldn't we learn to defend ourselves against vampires?" She glanced at the Hufflepuff who had spoken about dark wizards influencing vampires, and gave a tiny shrug as she lowered her hand again. Dark wizards could influence anyone, unless they were strong enough to throw off their curses.

Bella raised her hand, "Well...I think that we learn about Vampires in class for our own protection. Say, we come across a Vampire, what do we do? Do we run? Throw a bottle of water over them? What we learn we can put into action. Although I would think that you would probably have no time to think, as the Vampire would've probably entranced you and you'd be drained of all your blood, but..." She added with a chuckle, "Lets stay optimistic! Plus, we need to protect others...those less able to understand, like muggles. Or your friends and family in any case. Their magic is different, we need to know how, we need to know what to do and how to protect ourselfes. If we don't..." She left the sentence hanging. "Basically, it's because Vampires can be very dangerous. Imagine you came across one when they were hungary - thirsty more like - They'd become very dangerous if they had no self control. They could also be good in a way, ever come across a good vampire? I'm sure they're real though!" She smiled optimisticly. Bella liked to see the goodness in the world. Even with Vamps.

Jacoby raised his hand " as you said their diffrent...they have diffrent magic, a diffrent way of life.We Fear them...thats it, thats all it is, pure fear of diffrence. But they need to feed off of us...and until we find away to get along with each other. and learn to create something to stop this hunger of blood they have, we'll need to learn to protect ourselves."

Celandine raised her hand.

"Well, like... they like girls best right? Maidens. Especially pretty girls."

Teehee.

"So we like, learn about vampires so that us pretty girls," Cel flipped her hair, "don't become unwitting targets."

Marie raised her hand
"Sir I believe we need to learn how to defend ourselves, and others from vampires because there is so much that is unknown about them. For example how often do they need to feed, how do they choose who or what they feed on, or do they feed from humans or animals? Not knowing these things we do need to know what we can do to defend ourselves or others around us if we should ever come across a vampire who is in a feeding mood."

"Excellent answers everyone. Two points for each of you. As most of you have stated, there are so many different theories in reference to Vampires. What is true and what is not? We don't exactly know. So we need to know how to defend ourselves against the unknown. I believe that Vampires pose no threat to wizards because they are easily overcome by our magic. So if we're willing to just let them be, then they will most likely not threaten us."

Marcus walked back to the front of the classroom and lent against the desk. "But in saying that they might not always feel that way and there may be a few who will want to test us. So we always need to be prepared of what they can do to us and how we should defend ourselves against them. Okay so one last question before we finish up for the day. We know that they have an aversion to garlic but you're not likely to carry garlic around with you everyday. Just as you probably wouldn't carry a wooden stake. What spells could we use to overcome a vampire?"

Okay, Keeley had to earn Ravenclaw some points!! So, she stuck up her hand and said timidly "Um...a full body bind curse?" The only reason she knew that one was because some mean Slytherin had performed it on her. Gosh, she hated being muggleborn!!

Chris had to think about thsi for a minute. Vampires had super speed right? He raised his hand. "Perhaps Professor we could use the Impediment Jinx to slow them down if they tried to rush and attack us."

"Well, couldn't we use Levicorpus to fend off the attack? Alexandra said with a raised hand.

Cela raised her hand. "Shrowan? The arrow conjuring spell? Riiiight through the heart? Ummm or maybe sectumsempra so that they just get all weak cos they would if they lost lots of blood right? Ummm I bet you could conjure something that smells like garlic? Would that help? You could stick their feet to the ground so they don't chase you, or maybe make the ground all slippy so they fall over. You could conjure some ropes and tie them up maybe, or transfigure their head into a pumpkin so that they can't bite you."

Spells? Well... there were a lot of possibilities. Could they burn the vampires to death. Ooh. Not pretty. Livvy pondered for a moment before raising her hand. "We could use Incarcerous, which would bind the vampire with ropes. Ooh. Or. The Jelly-Legs Jinx. Vampires depend much on their legs to attack their prey... er... for much of their speed. So by using that jinx, they won't be able to run as fast and might lose their balance," she said, nodding her head. Yeahhh... that worked... right?

Cela got her AND face on and raised her hand again.

"AND professor? You could conjure a wooden rod with ferula and then SHARPEN it and then you woouuuuld have a wooden stake!"

Becca raised her hand and wondered if these were correct, "Perhaps you could use Evanesco, sir? Hm... or impedimenta?"

"Sir we could use Pertrificus Totalus to try and stop them. Also, you could use a shielding charm to keep them away. Something like Protego Totalum." Kay said not sure if this would work on a Vampire.

Trying not to laugh at Lexi's answer as he imagined an angry vampire hanging upside down in the air snapping at her, Lorcan raised his hand "Sir, perhaps you could use a light spell to dazzle them and then use something like a stunner or a body bind to knock them over. After that it would be easy to tie them up with an incarcerous spell."

"What about the leg locker curse Locomotor Mortis? Or maybe the confundus charm so it would bid you time to get away." Evelyn said after raising her hand. Would those work on vampires? Hopefully she wouldn't need to use any of those on a vampire, or even meet one.

Herminny raised her hand knowing what she thought was a pretty good answer to the current question saying, "I think pertrificus totalis would wok quite well to stp a vampire long enough to escape or get the proper people over to handle the vampire so no one else gets caught up in the mess.".

Kay listened to everyone answering the professor question and smiled when she heard Lorcan answer. It was a very good idea and Kay thought it would work nicely. "Good answer." Kay said mostly to herself, but hoped that he had heard her.

Destiny was thinking of spells. She thought about 'Tarantallegra' but quickly pushed it out of her mind, laughing at the thought of a vampire dancing.

Raising her hand, coming up with a better idea 'Maybe we could use Everte Statum? That would give us time to run away!'

Ems giggled at that weird Ravenclaw girl Celandine's reply... all of which were very creative she had to admit and would most likely work. She listened to the rest of the students then raised her hand. “You would defend yourself in the same ways you would if facing any attacker. Defensive spells as well as attacking spells. Or..or you could conjure a wooden stake or some holy water... or even a crucifix to defend yourself with.” She offered.

Jack raised his hand. "Well, if sunlight really DOES repel vampires, you would probably be better off using a spell that conjures an enormous amount of light or heat, like Lumos or Incendio," he suggested. "That is, considering all those rumors about the sunlight and vampires turning into dust and all that actually has some grain of truth."