Learning and Teaching
He had spent the rest of the day exploring the place. Now that he was wearing Riddle's amulet, the structure of the refuge no longer seemed too confusing. The first thing he had discovered was the dining room, where house elves catered to the ever-changing clientele. It was a large, plain room with two long tables, somewhat reminiscent of the house tables at Hogwarts and probably based on the idea.
The big difference was probably the counter, behind which sat a strangely bored and unenthusiastic house elf, whose name tag identified him as Durl. According to the guest's wishes and the current availability of the dishes, he handed out trays of food. To Harry's indecision about the choice of food, the elf reacted only with a roll of the eyes and a silently raised unusually long index finger, pointing Harry to the selection board.
While he ate his Shepards Pie, which he ultimately chose, he would be largely ignored - apart from some whispering. He had a similar experience later in the refuge's small library, which, to his regret, even counting the works from the students' common room, contained a little less than a thousand books. As a child, that number would probably have seemed a lot, but when he considered that Hogwarts offered more than a hundred times that amount of research material, he would probably have concluded, even in his younger years, that the number of books was a little meagre after all. For his purposes it was sufficient, but for deeper research into very specific subfields of magic, the choice was probably limited to one or two works. His Hermione Granger would probably have been horrified by this fact, especially as this library room was the students' only source of printed information, apart from the other.
The main purpose of his visit was to learn more about the world he was in. First, he plunged into the history of this world. And what he found confused him immensely. For in many ways there were still strong overlaps between the worlds. There had been many conflicts with the goblins, which had not ended much more satisfactorily for the wizarding community than in his world. Already in Harry's homeland, the conflicts with the goblins had always ended without really producing winners.
Of course, both sides had claimed victory. In reality each party had always retreated to lick their wounds and prepare for the inevitable follow-up conflict. In this world, however, the fighting seemed to have been even more ruthless and brutal. Although it was certainly not Harry's area of expertise, he could not help but notice that the number of conflicts enumerated in special chronicles was more than double what he was used to.
A different conundrum was the non-magical world. It was bizarre to say the least. Apparently, both the damned Death Eater who had brought him here and he himself were so unconcerned about the Muggle world that the spell hadn't particularly taken it into account in their choice of world. As far as he could tell from the thoroughly up-to-date Muggle atlases, neither France nor Germany existed as a state. Both were patchwork quilts of small countries.
The Ottoman Empire on the other hand seemed to extend much further into Europe than Harry knew for any era. A large chunk of Western America seemed to be a completely Hispanic state. Democracies hardly seemed to exist. This fact, of course, also cast a shadow over the hidden, magical world.
At least if one could trust the books, there seemed to be an established aristocratic model worldwide in which certain noble families jointly carried the administration. In this respect, Great Britain even had one of the more progressive ministries, where at least nominally even half-blood witches and wizards could be elected to the Wizengamot if a member resigned from that body. This, of course, was forbidden for Muggle-borns. The segregation itself was so finely bureaucratised that Harry quickly lost the desire to delve deeper into this system.
He went back to his office then, quite frustrated, to go through Hurrington's teaching materials. They were not exactly a disaster, but quite unambitious. The course resembled a vaguely sensible self-defence class at somewhat higher level as Harry had experienced at his Hogwarts. Some spells were foreign to him, but most of those taught by Hurrinton were what could be expected. Nevertheless, that didn't mean very much to Harry. He would teach the students parts of it, of course, but he had his own approaches when it came to defence against the dark arts, or combat magic in general. And that was what he would teach the students.
The next morning, after a rather large breakfast by his standards, the likes of which he had not enjoyed since his time at Hogwarts, he waited in his classroom for the students to arrive. He had a total of two classes to teach, which in turn comprised two grades each. The younger grade six and seven students slowly trickled into room until class started at 08:30.
The numbers were more than manageable. There were five students in grade six and three in grade seven. Of these, he knew only Entwistle and Hermione. At the same time, he also found a Herbert Urquhart in the list of names he had been provided with, who Harry thought must be either pure-blooded or half-blooded, as he knew the family name from his world.
When all the students had gathered in the classroom at their rather old-fashioned desks, Harry began with a topic that he thought was immensely important: "I welcome you all quite warmly to my class that Mr. Riddle has so willingly invited me to teach. My name is Professor Harry James. I will not be making a sweeping separation of defensive and offensive magic as you are accustomed to. The two are inevitably linked in the end, and it seems to me to be rather silly to pretend that in a battle fought with magic there is a choice to use only one of the two. Your ability to win such an engagement will be mainly in recognising when which of these sides of the same coin is required at that moment."
He looked around the room insistently so that he could see the reaction of his students. It didn't seem to him that they were particularly surprised. He took that as a good sign. Perhaps the Hogwarts of this world prepared the students better for life than his had. He did not want to rely on that.
"And it is precisely this fact that it is a matter of moments that is crucial in most cases. You will seldom have the opportunity to cast spells in a combat situation that require either a lot of concentration, complicated wand movements or tedious recitations of formulas. And this not infrequently creates a certain dilemma, as the most powerful curses usually require just these things. Who can explain to me why this is so?"
At first, no one came forward. They seemed to be caught off guard by the question. Harry knew what possible answer would come to their minds without even considering the more obvious idea. He knew he had been no different as a child. Finally, unsurprisingly for Harry, Hermione raised her hand.
He motioned for her to speak, whereupon she explained, "From what I know, all three actions have their own answer. Classical theory of magic suggests, as formulated in Philander's First Law of Magical Induction, that the amount and intensity of thought applied is directly proportional to the effect achieved. As for movements, I refer to Anthingham's theorem, which states that depending on the type of effect hoped for, there must be a certain pattern created that corresponds to the nature of the spell, otherwise the flow of magic will be disturbed and it will be more difficult to bring it into the desired form.
"The names of spells correspond in the best case to arithmantic calculations and since the length of a word also reflects a complexity of the content, impressive spells with long incantations are quite common. But this is not a guarantee in this case, after all there are also spells that are very long but have hardly any effect worth mentioning."
"If we were sitting in a lesson on Charms or Arithmancy, I might agree with you, Ms. Granger, if only out of respect for the empirical achievements of our ancestors. However, we are in another field of magic, where I have been firmly convinced for a very long time that these two schools of classical magic theories are unsuitable to explain this class of magic sufficiently well. It can be done, but you have to strenuously bend a lot of arguments to get a coherent overall picture."
At that moment, one of his older students, who had reddish-blond hair and with his disgustedly raised upper lip could almost compete with Malfoy in looking arrogant and contemptuous at the same time, interrupted him: "Oh, and a runaway mudblood from who knows where naturally has more of a clue than the time-honoured tradition that has shaped our culture for thousands of years. I think you're a braggart, commissioned by Riddle to pump us full of lies and propaganda of supposed progressiveness."
Surprisingly, the student quickly finished his rant when Harry gestured for him to be silent.
"What is your name?" he asked him.
"I am Hyperion Whitmoore of the noble and ancient house of the Whitmoores."
"Well, Mr. Whitmoore, as a matter of fact, the theory on which I base my views is no less mature or old than the traditions for which you feel you must agitate yourself. I caution you not to use the term mudblood in my classroom," Harry stated in irritation, "I see it as a useless, aggressive gesture that serves no deeper purpose other than to defame others for something over which they have no control. I must admit, however, that I am a little surprised by your attitude. If you live here in the refuge, you should have learned by now that it is not welcome in any form."
Whitmoore just snorted contemptuously and raged: "I am here because my stupid father betrayed the Ministry and took my mother with him to her death! But because I know too much about this so-called refuge, they won't let me take my rightful place in the world! Spare me your stupid talk. I am a prisoner and I will not bow to my keepers!"
Harry did not outwardly show that Whitmoore's accusation mildly appalled him. But also understood why Riddle would not let the young man go. Even with memory spells, there was never any guarantee that he would not provide the enemy with dangerous information. Unless, of course, he was turned into a mental vegetable with no memory of anything.
"It may be that your situation is not exactly ideal for you," Harry conceded, "I understand that. But this is a class, not a public protest meeting. If you really want to complain about your personal suffering, you can visit my office hours. If you have nothing to contribute thematically, keep silent. If you fail to do so, I am not averse to magically silencing you. Do you understand?"
The young man nodded grimly and looked away. Harry almost felt bad reprimanding him. But what else could he do? He was not employed to solve Riddle's problems. He shook his head thoughtfully and continued, "Of course, Mr Whitmoore's objection has some merit in that it would of course be adventurous to simply wipe away all past magical theory as if it had no value.
"I am not doing that, nor do I intend to. What those theories represent above all is an accurate observation of how spells have behaved in particular situations of usage. This enables us to repeat them. It can be useful to consult these theories if you want to learn a particular spell.
"But they don't really tell us why they work. They tell us how they work. Of the five classical schools of theory, we have already mentioned Arithmancy and Charms. Like these, the treatises of Transfiguration and Runic lore also only describe an effect. Which one is still missing?"
A chubby girl spoke up and asked, "Potions?"
"What is your name?"
"Charlotte Smith, sir."
"You are not so far from the answer I seek. I am speaking of the ritualistic theory of magic. Making a potion is in itself nothing more than a very finely crafted ritual. But the art of the brewing is also subject to the fallacy of the other theories, in that it forgets that the rules by which it is governed were created by human beings and do not derive from a transcendent mechanism. Another form of magic that is also ritualistic in nature is divination. And this is the closest of all contemporary fields of magic to what I am concerned with.
"Because the mechanics are basically simple. We make a sacrifice and expect something in return. The classical theories you have followed so far explain magic as a power within us that we direct and shape. The ritualistic approach denies this and sees magic as something external, an all-pervading form of sentient energy, with a life of its own, if you want to call it that. One reason why the memory of this perspective has faded is that the belief in gods seems so nonsensical to us today.
"But when this was still common, the ritual, the intercession to a higher power, was the centre of magical thinking. But the price for magic to unfold is often very low. Especially since wands became widespread in the western world is little wonder that in other parts of the world, which do not rely on magical foci to the same extent, ritual still enjoys much higher prestige. Yes, Ms. Granger?"
She had started waving her raised hand wildly. At least she didn't seem to have the impulse to start snapping her fingers too. She said: "But doesn't this prove that the scientific approach, which also gave rise to the wand, is superior to the old obsolete forms of magic? Is there evidence that magic has a consciousness and is not just another form of physical force?"
"First of all, I can certainly see when you calmly raise your hand, Ms. Granger. There is no need for any undue excitement," Harry scolded mildly, who had always been somewhat irritated by this behaviour in the past. "First of all, to your question about the evidence. Of course, these do not exist in unambiguity. But since this also applies to the opposite, it is an empty discussion. I will merely try to make clear to you what the merits of the ritualistic approach are and hopefully you will all soon understand, what far-reaching consequences this can have.
"On the subject of scientificity, for a long time, well into the 19th century, the Muggle world was convinced that their form of astrology was perfectly scientific. They saw a regularity where there was none, and in their increasingly elaborate models found more and more proof of the correctness of this so-called science. In the end, however, it all turned out to be nonsense.
"The wand merely ensured that people thought less about the origin of their powers and ultimately fell into the arrogance of declaring themselves gods. Magic was suddenly no longer something sacred, but a tool. It expanded the possibilities of fast magic. But it was not stronger. There are relics of the past, old artefacts and places of worship, for example, that still virtually breathe magic today, whereas contemporary magic is hardly able to keep objects effectively enchanted for a few years.
"No, it would be wrong to call it obsolete. As I said, classical theory explains the how behind existing spells well enough for a student to learn them quickly. The creation of new spells, on the other hand, can only be halfway explained by Arithmancy. And even there much emphasis is still placed on intuition.
"The exact reason why this wand movement or that initial letter is needed often involves a lot of guesswork and at the end of the process no longer makes any real sense. Unless you construct it by force. And I know this, because I have created few spells this way.
"The development of new spells is easy to explain according to my ritualistic understanding. Spell formulas and hand movements serve to humble oneself before magic. In the end, they are inconsequential and interchangeable. By forcing ourselves to do certain things for certain effect, they take on an exclusivity, we are forced to perform that very form of subjugation. Experienced witches and wizards can do this mentally, but even to those the effects will always remain below their potential. Also, any mental contortion to produce certain emotions is nothing more than a sacrifice."
Harry now looked sharply around the room. Apparently his students did not seem bored by his lecture yet, but he decided to get to the point: "Now you are probably wondering what exactly all this has to do with the problem of reacting quickly, which I mentioned at the beginning. There is a class of spells that makes this aspect seem downright seductively simple.
"All too often these do not require complex wand movements and lengthy spell formulas. Certainly they often require a certain thought pattern, but in the situations, in which they are needed, you will find these quickly, unless of course you are using the spell for the first time and have basically no idea what you are doing.
"I'm talking about dark magic, of course. And as I understand it, this term does not refer to an administratively determined catalogue of undesirable spells and curses, but to a category of spells which, in a ritualistic sense, demand great but often unwitting sacrifices from spellcasters.
"Killing Curses are in many ways exemplary of this. The effect is overwhelming. Death without cause. Few who practise these ask the price of such magic and it is all too often their undoing. This is based on a study of mine on the subject. The best known Killing Curse in Britain is the one with the incantation Avarda Kedavra. There are others which have a slightly different effect on the caster. I will not go into these further, as you are unlikely to encounter them.
"The aforementioned Killing Curse has an immense effect on the psyche and perception. The lives of others, even the nearest and dearest people you know, become increasingly meaningless. Their feelings irrelevant. Those who use this curse too often, will have little empathy left and will only follow their own emotions and desires in such an uncompromising and limitless way that any atrocity on the way to achieving their goals becomes justified to them.
"The spell is designed to destroy the essence of the caster. Almost anyone who uses this Killing Curse often enough becomes a psychopath as a result. It is inescapable. Even a single use can shatter much of a personality.
"That's why I wanted to start by talking to you about dark magic and why it's incredibly stupid to use it in most cases. The syllabus that Mr Hurrington left me includes practising a few such forms of magic. I do not believe in that. Using dark magic is not a task for schoolchildren, who are unaware of the consequences and, lamentably, have not been made aware of them.
"Certainly, there are more harmless spells, such as those that prevent pain in one's own body. Or that interesting class of curses that inflicts on the caster what he does to the target. Powerful spells. Many even unblockable, if you don't consider the classic method of a physical shield.
"But that is their dangerous appeal. The only moment when such magic might be justified can only be utter desperation. I will not teach dark magic in this sense. I cannot prevent private study on your part, but I caution against it. For your own good."
Three students then raised their hand. They were a seventh grader he did not know, unsurprisingly Hermione, and surprisingly Whitmoore again. He pointed to the unknown student and asked: "Tell me your name and then ask your question. Then Mr. Whitmoore and finally Ms. Granger."
"I'm Paul Loyd. How can we use a spell in a situation of desperation that we have never practiced? You said yourself that it makes little sense. Shouldn't we prepare for such a thing?" the lanky student with curly dark hair wanted to know.
"I understand, of course, that this may seem strange to you. But it must be clear to you that every single spell you use of this kind leads to deforming your mind, your body or even your soul. When you are older, more experienced in dealing with your emotions, when you have fully found yourself, then you may begin to practise a dark spell between long intervals of abstinence, so that the damage it does is healed by the time you use it again. And there are more useful applications for that.
"When we talk about dark magic, we often think of destructive forces. And that is certainly the main area of application. But there are also dark protection and healing spells that still are destructive to one's being. Especially the young spirit is easily broken. Wait a few years, maybe decades.
"Then you can dare it, if you take it slowly. Many lose themselves in these experiments and where before there was a bright soul, soon only a degenerate monster remains. If you only want to defend yourself, then there are almost always other possibilities. Do you understand that?"
The young man nodded eagerly and Harry motioned for Whitmoore to speak. He explained frankly: "I am fascinated by the prospect that there are other death curses, I have never heard of them! Could you give me an example, Professor James?"
Inwardly, Harry groaned. He had not intended to arouse an interest in dark magic in his students, but to stifle it. The boy certainly was not ready for the few only semi-dangerous spells of this kind that he knew. Nevertheless, it wasn't a problem to give the lad an example that would be useless for him. So it would not look as if Harry was just telling tall tales.
"I strongly advise you not to try this. There is an old Indian spell, Urmi Mrtyuda, which leaves its victim dead. But the mindset for this spell to be successful must be of deepest spiritual conviction. Those who cannot muster this, turn the spell against themselves. The caster ideally wishes a dying person into rebirth. The effect of the spell is similar to our death curse in that respect for life is also lost. The character change, however, is of a different nature.
"The users became less egomaniacal than absurdly idealistic. Their ideal vision of the world became for them an absolute irrevocable concept that permeated all their future actions. But since they could no longer see any use in other people's lives as such, the users still generally became mass murderers," Harry replied coolly. "What is your question Ms. Granger?"
"If I understand you correctly, you are saying that the effectiveness of any conventional spell is defined by a trifecta of spell length, movement complexity and thought intensity. How then do you explain spells like Accio, which require hardly any deeper thought, are poor in movement and relatively short?"
Harry smiled at this question and replied: "First of all, you underestimate the concentration that such a spell requires from its user. You need a precise picture of the object that is to be moved and the path it has to cover and at what speed. These are not minor details. A ritualistic understanding of magic also gives us an insight into why many spells are so limited. The limitations simplify the spell.
"In Accio's case, it is very easy to enchant objects in such a way that they can no longer be called. There are other summoning spells that were created with exactly this in mind and are far more difficult to avert. And as expected, they require longer incantations and wand movements, such as Gati Bhavapadartha. Another example is Diffindo as a spell that was primarily created to sever objects while living tissue is only weakly affected by it.
"Delacero Vulnus, on the other hand, is a more powerful curse that barely cuts inanimate objects, but slices through their opposite, like a hot knife severs butter. He is not very popular, as even a simple cloak of slightly thicker cloth can ward it off. But it is underestimated. Imagine someone using Diffindo first and then Delacero Vulnus. A devastating effect. But fortunately we have protective spells for that."
He turned to the blackboard and let the words "Important shield spells: Protego, Tego Mensim, Aegis circularis, Dhaala" appear there. Harry explained, "Ms. Granger has thus unwittingly led us to a point which I consider very important and which will dominate the practical part of the next few weeks. From Harrington's curriculum I gather that the younger students among you are only familiar with Protego and with the older ones Aegis circularis has been covered, even if only theoretically.
"Both, by the way, show the ritualistic behaviour which I have tried to make you aware of. Protego is simple and requires no wand movement. At the same time, this shield only reliably blocks certain spells and can be broken through quite easily with particularly strong spells and, of course, dark magic. Unlike Aegis circularis, Protego's shape is also only approximately a hemisphere in front of you. Aegis circularis surrounds you completely and is able to devour much more, even stronger spells. However, that spell requires a double circular movement and of course takes longer to pronounce.
"Before I come to the other two spells that I have listed as important, I would like to clearly point out that protection spells are always very situational. In about the majority of cases it is probably a better idea to dodge or jump away. Especially powerful dark magic makes it hard to rely on protection spells, as they can almost always break through them. So if you have a dark wizard as an opponent, it's better to do without them altogether. Otherwise you only endanger yourself.
"Ordinary citizens, however, are not expected to behave in this way, and if you cannot avoid their curses, especially if you recognise them as mundane, then you should resort to protective spells. This shows the weakness of Aegis circularis in a special way, as it simply takes too long to be cast.
"That is why most fall back on the very problematic but quickly cast Protego. Instead, I would like to teach you the old spell Dhaala. It is more robust, though more draining for the caster. The protective zone is only a circle about half a metre in diameter. So you have to catch the enemy spell in a sense.
"But my extensive studies have shown that Dhaala can break more different spells than even an Aegis circularis. But that comes at the price of draining yourself and a fairly small area of effect. I admit, if you follow my own terminology, it could be considered dark magic. However, its harmful effect is so temporary that I do not count it among them. The hand movement is simply three-quarters of a circle and it requires a strong will to protect oneself," performing that very hand movement with his wand, Harry intoned, "Dhaala!"
Immediately a sparking shield appeared in front of his wand, which followed his hand movements. He ended the spell and continued: "We will practise this one first. In my experience, it will take one to two weeks of practice before the spell reaches a reasonably useful level. The second spell is useful for those who are not interested in being subject to magical confusions and compulsions. Tego Mensim is a spell I developed myself. Those few who have mastered Occlumency will find it useless.
"But if you are not a master of it, as I am, you will be in a much better position to avert a mental intrusion. Its power lies in its selectivity. It is only able to ward off mental effects from one, while it has no protective effect against other forms of magic. If you have a capable Legilimens as an adversary, you can use the spell in certain intervals, in my case it is about ten minutes in which usual forms of magical influence become impossible.
"The advantage here is that very few dark wizards and witches learn more sinister forms of attacks on the mind than Legilimens. This is more of a ward. In case you are wondering, there are other persistent wards of this type, but I have yet to discover one suitable for combat in general, and my attempts to create one, have been sadly unsuccessful. We shall, however, turn to Tego Mensim only later in this course. For now, please try practising Dhaala, but first on your own. If you succeed with the spell over the next week, you can try actually blocking curses from a fellow student."
The students began to raise their wands without a complaint and started to achieve their first steps in this spell relatively unsuccessfully. For Harry, this was rather boring. He helped the students with their intonation and pronunciation, but basically had very little to do. He knew it would take them a while to master the spell.
Once they were ready, he would go into more detail for the older students about the classroom enchantments he had planned. This was necessary as he found it risky to let his students duel wildly. Collateral damage was to be expected quite naturally. With his permanent runic enchantments, he could create areas that permanently separated the pairs. Of course, he would have to discuss this with Riddle.