Chapter 3 The Way of the Night
The night had passed wonderfully as all of the students fell asleep with full stomachs. Albus in particular had a pleasant nights rest knowing that he was in the same house as practically everyone in his family. And he walked confidently through the halls as he made his way to his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
The man who had organized the house sorting the previous night, Morris Validus. From Victoire's explanation Validus was one of her, as well as many others, favorite teachers. She spoke of a very caring and understanding man which caused some confusion to Albus who thought it was funny that such a kind man would be the head of Slytherin house.
Albus reached the door and opened it to find that Rose sat uncomfortably at the head of the classroom. She for the most part was not nervous due to the new class but rather that Scorpius had sat himself next to her. For the most part the classroom lay in darkness with only candles giving off enough light to ensure that the students could read the books and be able to see their quills write on their parchment.
Albus took the seat on the opposite side of Rose as Morris Validus took his place at the front of the classroom. "Welcome students to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Gryfindor and Hufflepuff are sharing this first year class. We will skip the whole my name is so and so and I did this and that this holiday and get right down to the nity gritty and learn some defensive spells."
"Professor?" Rose said raising her hand.
"Yes Miss Weasley?"
"Is there any way we can get some more light in here?" Rose asked squinting her eyes. "I can hardly see at all."
"Unfortunately Miss Weasley I have a severe allergy to natural light." Validus said as Rose's ears seemed to glow in the din. "But today we will learn a few spells that rely on focusing light."
"Professor Validus?" Volubilis said quietly.
"Yes Mr. Lovegood?"
"Are we going to learn how to produce a patronus today?" Volubilis asked as a few bursts of laughter rang through the classroom.
"Oh you won't be learning that charm for a few more years but we will be learning a spell today that though not as powerful as a patronus can protect you in many ways similar as that charm. Now everyone turn your books to chapter one." Morris continued heard alongside the thumbing of pages.
"Vampires. One of the most recognizable dark creature in history. Like it has been told they do suck the blood of the living to continue their unnatural life. Can anybody tell me the process in which a person becomes a vampire."
Volubilis and Rose raised their hands almost in unison while one seemed to have calmly done so the other had raised it so quickly a small popping noise could be heard. Morris than pointed to Volubilis, " A vampire is created when a vampire slowly suck the blood of their victims leaving them in a state bordering life and death. As the body is left in this unnatural state it will eventually be left there permanently, being both alive and dead. Sucking blood keeps the vampire in this balance and kept away from the decay of death."
"Very good Volubilis can any one tell me what the three stages of a vampire are?"
Again two hands raised in the same fashion and even before Validus could point to the girl Rose began explaining, " A vampire goes through three stages. The first stage is the pupa stage where the vampire is barely close to being of human intelligence. They have no conscience to speak of. The next stage is the metamorphic stage where they begin to exhibit more human personalities but also show the same bloodlust as there predecessors. The last stage is simply known as the final stage were they have complete control of their bloodlust."
"Good ten points both to Gryfindor and Hufflepuff. Now there is something I have to make perfectly clear though the pupa vampires are dangerous and animalistic the one stage you should void entirely is vampires in the metamorphic stage there primary goal is to create more vampires they appear harmless and will speak words to you now. You must keep yourself at full aware or these words can posses you." Morris said as a sudden chill went through the classroom.
"Now as I spoke of earlier I shall be teaching you spells that will help in most of your fights with dark creatures. This spell requires light in some way. Lumos." He said as a pail light formed at the tip of his wand. " Sparsum Luminarium."
With that the light on his wand formed into small dagger like points and shot there way into the classroom hitting a couple of students who began to giggle as if they were being tickled.
"So this spell does not affect humans?" Albus asked giggling a bit.
"No this spell only affects creatures who don't take kindly to light. Now vampires can't go into the day light because of their condition. Being stuck in a place between life and death causes the body to make choices choosing night over day as a part of being dead and having to sustain oneself with blood in order to live. Now as your homework tonight I want you all to practice both the Lumos and Sparsum Luminarium charms have a good day class." Validus said as the first years began their rustle to the great hall for lunch.
Albus and Rose entered the great hall as they saw Durinda sitting alone eating what seemed to be a thing of pudding. The rumblings of murmurings that came mostly from her own Slytherins seemed to affect her and small tears were forming behind her eyes. As Rose was about to take a table with other Gryfindors Albus stood there for a moment and then walked to Durinda's table and sat in front of her.
"Did you enjoy your first class?" Albus asked with a smile.
"Yeah it was actually pretty fun." Durinda said with a light voice as she tried to pull a tear away from her eye without Albus noticing.
With that Rose took a deep breath and sat next to her cousin and scooped herself a thing of pudding that appeared in front of them. As Volubilis and Scorpius entered they saw the two sitting with Durinda and a smile spread across Volubilis' face.
"I like pudding." Volubilis said as they joined the table with Albus and Rose.