Defence Against the Dark Arts

**Defence Against the Dark Arts** (abbreviated as **DADA**) was a subject taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this class, students studied and learnt how to defend themselves against all aspects of the Dark Arts, including dark creatures, curses, hexes and jinxes (dark charms), and duelling.

The class was a core subject at Hogwarts. The position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at the school was once rumoured to be jinxed, as no teacher could hold the post for more than a year without suffering an unpleasant fate. Tom Riddle jinxed the position because Albus Dumbledore did not give him the job when he applied for it. The fact that no teacher has lasted longer than a year meant that the subject had numerous Professors over the years.

Ilvermorny began teaching the subject in the 17th century. Harry Potter would occasionally deliver Defence Against the Dark Arts lectures at Hogwarts in his adulthood.

## Class information

Defence Against the Dark Arts was a required subject from first year to fifth year. The curriculum of the class varied greatly depending on what the professor at the time deemed appropriate. Due to the jinx on the teaching post that was present before Lord Voldemort died, many teachers had been appointed to this post.

Tom Riddle twice applied for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, the first time shortly after graduation from Hogwarts when he was turned down by Headmaster Armando Dippet, who claimed he was too young but invited him to re-apply a few years later.

Many years later, after becoming steeped in the Dark Arts and starting to use the title "Lord Voldemort", he visited the school and applied again, this time to Dumbledore. He was refused again. According to Albus Dumbledore, after the second refusal, no Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher held the post for more than one school year. Dumbledore believed that this was due to Voldemort placing a jinx on the position, a belief that was popularly spread throughout the school.

The lessons generally had a practical approach, with the cases of competent teachers believing that when it came to the Dark Arts a practical approach was the best way, with theoretical assignments given as homework. Inadequate teachers, such as Quirinus Quirrell and Dolores Umbridge, who were focused on theories alone, hampered the learning of defences as they would not be providing students any practical experiences.

In the fifth year, Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations were taken; as such, students spent their time learning new topics and possibly revisiting the past four years of lessons (depending on the teacher). As part of their Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., students had to sit a written exam one of the questions asks to describe the five signs of a werewolf and after students must complete a practical exam of; counter-jinxes, defensive spells, the Boggart-Banishing Spell, and the Patronus Charm (for bonus points).

To advance to the N.E.W.T. class, a student had to first achieve a high O.W.L. score of either "Outstanding" or "Exceeds Expectations"; most teachers set the bar at "Exceeds Expectations".

Also, due to the course being directly related to the Dark Arts itself, Dark wizards who wished to teach would typically apply for this course, notably being Tom Riddle, Patricia Rakepick, Quirinus Quirrell, Bartemius Crouch Junior, Dolores Umbridge, Severus Snape and Amycus Carrow.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were two known students who failed their O.W.L.s in Defence Against the Dark Arts, for which the following year's respective teacher, Snape, gave them both detentions.

The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was also responsible for dealing with any Dark Arts related activities that threaten the school and its residents, as Harry and Ron expected Lockhart to enter the Chamber of Secrets and protested against his excuse of leaving under an unavoidable urgent call in 1993, while Snape was assigned to staunch the deadly curse that afflicted Katie Bell in 1996.

## Location and time

### Classrooms

Defence Against the Dark Arts classes took place on the first-floor, Class 104 in the North Tower and Classroom 3C on the third-floor. In Classroom 3C, an iron chandelier hung from the ceiling, as well as a dragon's skeleton. On one end of the classroom stood a projector that was activated by magic. Several desks and tables could be found in the classroom as well as some sets of large windows.

## Curriculum

Due to the constant changing of teachers until the jinx created by Voldemort was broken, the curriculum of Defence Against the Dark Arts varied from year to year. Each teacher had their own priorities and way of teaching, and their own respective efficiency proportional to his or her beliefs and methods, such as Quirinus Quirrell and Dolores Umbridge believing that theories were enough (which were, in fact, more hindering), while the more effective Remus Lupin, Bartemius Crouch Junior (then disguised as Alastor Moody with Polyjuice Potion) and Severus Snape had a more balanced belief in theory and practical defence.

Sixth-years were supposed to be given demonstrations on what illegal curses looked like; it was only in the 1994–1995 school year that this was changed to the fourth year.

Earlier teachers from the 1985–1986 school year for example, were considered highly incompetent and ineffective by most students, and as such, very rarely showed up to teach.

During the 1988–1989 school year, the renowned Curse-Breaker Patricia Rakepick was appointed as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for that academic year. She proved herself to be a highly effective teacher of both defensive and offensive magic, having taught her students a wide variety of fascinating and useful topics during her lessons, to compensate her students for having learnt almost nothing in previous years. She even gave her select students private lessons in the subject, teaching them how to duel, in preparation for locating the Cursed Vaults throughout the Castle.

During the 1989–1990 school year, Bill Weasley was given permission by Albus Dumbledore to teach extra-curricular evening classes in this subject to students after graduating the school, due to the ineffectiveness of the teaching that year. He continued teaching these lessons in the 1990–1991 school year as well. Olivia Green, a former Ravenclaw student, was later appointed as the DADA professor during that school year. She had Jacob's sibling investigate the existence of the rumoured jinx on the teacher's post during the school year. She also had them help her research Nogtails for a planned lesson.

In the 1991–1992 school year, Quirinus Quirrell taught mainly theoretical knowledge, which, four years later, the Ministry deemed he was the only teacher before Dolores Umbridge to be of acceptable standards. However, the Ministry at the time was corrupt and paranoid, thus their evaluation of Quirrell's effectiveness was inaccurate. In fact, while he was a studious intellectual, his practical aspect was severely hampered by his timid and stuttering nature, leading him unable to teach properly, which caused many students consider his classes to be a joke, and failed to take him seriously.

In the 1992–1993 school year, Gilderoy Lockhart, fraudulent and incompetent, taught nothing to the classes of his respective tenure, aside from nonsensical and unrelated materials, considering that he was hired solely by Albus Dumbledore for the purpose of ousting him as a fraud to the world. His lectures were simply storytelling and theatrical re-enactments from his books, since his first practical lesson ended in a disaster that he failed to contain (involving live "freshly caught" Cornish Pixies), and his idea of homework was for the class to compose a poem of one of his alleged achievements with the offer of a signed copy of his autobiography to the best composer.

Lockhart simply using the course to promote his uninformative publications, Ron Weasley claimed that the only thing he learned from it was "*not to set pixies loose*", and expressed his desire to drop out of the course mainly of Lockhart's incompetence. In late 1992, Lockhart also established a very shortly lived and unsuccessful Duelling Club with the help of Severus Snape, in an attempt to teach students how to defend themselves; the club only had one meeting which resulted in complete chaos.

In the 1993–1994 school year, Professor Lupin was among the most effective teachers to have taught, as many students under his tutelage agreed upon. He taught practical aspects during the lectures, even bringing in several dark creatures in captivity as visual aids, and assigned theoretical aspects for homework. He was also charismatic, earning the respect of his students, and therefore, making them want to learn from him. Lupin also gave his favourite student Harry Potter additional lessons in how to perform the Patronus Charm, so he could learn to combat Dementors. Hermione Granger claimed he was the only teacher among their five (at the time) who knew what he was doing.

Lupin's third year exam was an obstacle course set on the Hogwarts grounds, in which third-year students had to confront various dark creatures. Third-year students had to wade across a pool containing a Grindylow, cross potholes containing Red Caps, navigate a marsh while ignoring misdirections from a Hinkypunk, and finally defeat a Boggart inside an old trunk.

In the 1994–1995 school year, Bartemius Crouch Junior, then disguised as Alastor Moody using Polyjuice Potion, believed firmly in a practical approach. As such, he taught the fourth-year class on the Unforgivable Curses that were normally reserved for the sixth year, believing they need to see it sooner. He even performed the Imperius Curse on all the students as a means to teach them how to resist it. Although the students found him to be one of the most effective instructors (despite his true identity later being revealed to be a criminal), the Ministry found the lessons to be very controversial, and expressed their strong disapproval.

During the 1995–1996 school year, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, had deluded himself with the bizarre conspiracy theory that Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was using the students to create a private army of young witches and wizards to overthrow the Ministry. As such, he implanted Dolores Umbridge to become the teacher of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, which he believed to be the main source of training (e.g. defensive spells) for Dumbledore's would-be soldiers.

Umbridge supplied a syllabus based entirely on the theory of conflict rather facing them, all of which was simply reading out of the textbook, believing that this would be sufficient in passing the examinations. Furthermore, she herself did not teach the students, as she had them read the textbooks quietly in class and refused to answer their questions any more than to silence them. This misguided belief deprived the students on any useful lessons as even the theories are inaccurate, thus leading to the formation on Dumbledore's Army, which taught more practical defence that students from all grades found more useful. Umbridge would later claim that the spells Harry taught were deemed by the Ministry inappropriate for students at their ages.

In the 1996–1997 school year, Professor Snape taught his classes to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous and ever-evolving opponent, and that their defences must be as versatile as the foul arts they seek to undo. He imposed a darker atmosphere in the classroom by dimmer lighting and macabre portraits in order to allow the students to have a firmer understanding of the sufferings the Dark Arts can bring. Hermione concluded that Snape's ideals were very much the same as what Harry Potter expressed during the Dumbledore's Army recruitment meeting: not simply memorising a bunch of spells, but to understand and react appropriately to the situation at hand. As with Lupin and Crouch, Snape taught practically during the lectures, and assigned theories for homework. Contrarily to his previous position as Potions Master, Snape taught Defence fairer, with a sense of passion he did not show in Potions. As with every other course that required practical spells, sixth-years were taught nonverbal spell usage, and were expected to use them in class from then on.

In the 1997–1998 school year, the class was changed to Dark Arts during Voldemort's takeover of the school. It was taught by the Death Eater Amycus Carrow, who taught students how to perform the Unforgivable Curses, with a particular emphasis with ordering students to practise the Cruciatus Curse on disobedient students, along with the summoning of Fiendfyre.

### First year

* Imps
* Ghosts
* Hags
* Gytrashes
* Vampires
* Zombies
* Gnomes
* Knockback Jinx
* Red Sparks
* Verdimillious Charm
* Verdimillious Duo Spell
* Verdimillious Tria
* Wand-Lighting Charm
* Smokescreen Spell
* Green Sparks

### Second year

* Banshees
* Ghouls
* Hags
* Trolls
* Vampires
* Werewolves
* Yetis
* Imps (revision)
* Gnomes
* Homorphus Charm
* Verdimillious Duo Spell
* *Vermillious Duo*
* *Vermillious Tria*
* Tickling Charm
* Full Body-Bind Curse
* *Fumos Duo*
* Softening Charm

### Third year

Students during the 1993–1994 school year, under the significantly high quality of teaching under Remus Lupin, learnt about numerous dark creatures and how to handle them appropriately.

* Grindylows
* Werewolves
* Hinkypunks
* Kappas
* Red Caps
* Vampires
* Nocturnal beasts
* Imps (revision)
* Pixies (revision)
* Charmed skeletons
* Seize and pull charm
* Freezing Spell

### Fourth year

Students witnessed the three Unforgivable Curses used on spiders. They were also given lessons on resisting the Imperius Curse, in which Harry Potter was the only one successful in his class. These demonstrations were during the 1994-1995 school year only and the Unforgivable Curses are usually covered in the sixth year N.E.W.T. class.

* Red Caps (revision)
* Dugbogs
* Imperius Curse
* Killing Curse
* Counter-curses
* Hex-deflection
* Twitchy-Ears Hex
* Reductor Curse
* *Aqua Eructo*

### Fifth year

#### 1988–1989 school year

Patricia Rakepick was the Professor in this subject for the 1988–1989 school year, in which she taught her fifth year students a wide multitude of highly interesting and useful topics, carefully balancing both theoretical and practical knowledge and skills.

* Pixies
* Boggarts (revision)
* Snakes
* Impediment Jinx
* Tongue-Tying Curse
* Trip Jinx
* *Deprimo*
* Smokescreen Spell
* *Lacarnum Inflamari*
* Reductor Curse
* Snake-Vanishing Spell
* *Everte Statum*
* *Densaugeo*
* Human-presence-revealing Spell
* Protective enchantments

#### 1995–1996 school year

* Vampire bats
* Boggarts (revision)
* Counter-curses (discouraged)
* Boggart-Banishing Spell (revision)
* Hex-Breaker
* Hex Zapper
* Limbo Mist anticharm
* Conflict avoidance
* Theory
* Fleeing

### Sixth year

#### Official curriculum

* Inferi
* Shield Charm
* Resisting the Imperius Curse
* Cruciatus Curse

#### Bill Weasley's extracurricular classes

During the 1989–1990 school year, Bill Weasley was given permission by Albus Dumbledore to give evening classes in this subject after graduating Hogwarts, due to the ineffectiveness of the teaching that school year.

* Flesh-Eating Slugs
* Kappas
* Ear-Shrivelling Curse
* *Langlock*
* Sea Urchin Jinx
* *Cave inimicum*
* Imperturbable Charm
* Stretching Jinx

### Seventh year

#### Bill Weasley's extracurricular classes

* Gnome
* Manticore
* Poltergeist
* Dementor