Ignoring the uncomfortable patch of a seal on the back of my neck meant to keep my mind to myself, I took in a deep breath and started off the lesson.
"Welcome to my Seriously Magically Dark lessons!" I started off with a grin, watching as James Potter gave out an amused snort in the front of the gaggle of students who'd either come here to seriously learn or because they had nothing better to do. "We'll call it S.M.D for short," I added on as I swished my wand around in an arc, the three letters ballooning into existing as they floated above me.
"Why do I feel like that means something bad?" Lily questioned with a frown, while some of the older mudbloods quickly twitched in realization when their minds went to the gutter.
"Try and keep all questions until I say so, Miss Evans!" I grinned at the girl, watching as she rolled her eyes at me.
Overall, there were about thirty students in the room, all from different years and houses, in the expanded classroom. Along with two professors, my own head of house and Ravenclaw's.
From the Slytherin side of the castle, only a handful had bothered showing up- Severus, the boy currently in the front, his arms crossed as he tapped his right foot impatiently, along with my two cousins, both of them lounging in the back talking under a silencing charm about Andy's wedding plans.
Apparently, she'd chosen her sisters for her bridesmaids.
I looked forward to Bellatrix fucking that up spectacularly- Said witch was still on her vacation terrorizing the other countries.
A vast majority of the class was filled with Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, though a few Hufflepuffs had made it, including Remus.
"Oi, stop daydreaming!" James Potter called out.
I promptly stuck him under a silencing charm.
"Now, why don't we start with some basic knowledge?" I questioned with a grin as I whipped my wand around again, 'Magic 101' replaced the three letters from before. "As I am sure some of the older years have noticed, provided they had any brain cells to begin with-" I ignored the sudden glares. "-the easier a spell is to learn, the harder it is to master."
Which was true- If you weren't me and couldn't actually learn the normal version of any spell, to begin with, and just started off on a lawsuit defining magical practice.
"Take the Levitation charm for an example," I followed on, a floating feather coming into existence to surprised looks. "A first-year spell that any idiot can learn and use with ease- But take it a step further and try to levitate something-" I waved my wand around with a shrug, "-Like say a table?" A temporary table materialized in front of me, one I started floating up and down to very surprised expressions- This time from the Professors themselves. "And you realize you need a little more practice." I deadpanned before making the table disappear. "And obviously, after that, you try your hand at making yourself, houses, and countries float etc-" I waved my free hand in a shrugging matter before pinning the...
Huh, I seem to have lost everyone judging by the vacant stares.
"-You get the gist! There's alwayssomething bigger for you to levitate, and until you can levitate anything and everything, then you haven't really mastered it." I waved my wand again, showcasing a holographic train of items that slowly grew bigger in size and volume starting from a feather. "Of course, unlike other aspects of magic, levitation is a little harder to really figure out in terms of mastery, given the lack of any advancedvariants of the spell."
I tapped my wand towards the air again, ignoring the need to wand-wave for no reason. This time three words came into existence.
"Take explosion magic for example-" I remarked, pointing towards the Reductor writ in air, as a shimmering red ball appeared beneath it. "You've got the Reductor spell, a third-year spell that starts you off on the path to explosions and all things great," I took in a breath. "Now the Reductor itself is quite literally just creating a simple ball that explodes on contact with anything- In essence, it's an external form of explosion magic,"
I levitated one of the chairs I'd had tucked into the side of the room and promptly threw as weak of a Reductor as I could at it. The red ball blasting it to several pieces. "See?"
I moved my wand towards the second word, 'Bombarda', and made a visual image of an explosion appear. "In the fourth year, you learn about the Bombarda spell, a little more complex than the Reductor, as instead of throwing a ball at something, you are now literally making a target explode itself. Instead of external, it's now an internal explosion as it comes from within-"
I levitated another chair towards me while using a sweeping motion with my hand to move away from the broken pieces of the last one aside.
I'd gotten McGonogall's permission earlier.
I pointed and used the Bombarda spell on the new chair and watched as it exploded into rubble.
"Compared to the Reductor, this explosion is a little more consistent, in that every part that made the chair up was blown up, instead of the spot directly hit."
I pointed towards the last word, the Vanishing charm, this time a visual image of wind appearing. "And then, in the seventh year, you learn about the Vanishing charm, which surprise surprise, isn't just making something disappear- But rather making it explode on a conceptual level- Ie, every single facet that makes it up-" I levitated the third chair, and made it disappear with the vanishing charm "-goes poof." I made the three words disappear.
I made a single word appear this time.
"Now, the Reparo charm is quite similar to the Levitation charm in that it has no advanced variants, and relies on you improving your skill with it yourself. Another relatively simple spell in truth- The first stage is repairing damage caused external, such as the result of a Reductor." I paused, letting the words fill up the gaggle of confused, and somewhat disturbed students before me.
Pointing towards the first chair, I threw a Reparo at it, and watched as it remade itself up. "This sort of damage is much easier to fix, as the Reparo is focusing on the cause directly, IE the red ball of boom's aftereffects." I deadpanned. "And most spells will leave an aftereffect of sorts."
I pointed towards the rubble of pieces on the left of the newly fixed chair. "Internal damage is a little more complex as it's not a matter of just repairing the cause- The Bombarda doesn't really have or leave such a thing, given it's a 'point and blow up from within,' so it comes down to what you, the caster, know about what caused it." I paused again for a breath. "The difficulty itself is in regards to accuracy, as the spell won't know what it is you're actually repairing without input given there are a lot of elements between you and a target, mostly air, but still a possible target all the same. And without a direct cause, ie magical residue left behind due to a Reductor for example, you need to focus on what you're really targetting yourself." I let out a breath after the rapid drawl of information. Shaking my head, I focused back on the class, closed my eyes, and aimlessly threw the Reparo charm out and before reopening them to watch as James Potter's tilted glasses fixed themselves instead of the rubble formerly a chair. "See?" I pointed back towards the rubble directly and actually focused on the former chair that used to be there, and threw the Reparo again. When the chair visually repaired itself- Ie the mounds of rubble formed together into it, I moved my wand towards the empty space beside it.
"The last stage of a Reparo charm is essentially materializing what you're looking for yourself- Because, and this is the important part, all lifeless concepts in the world can be recreated, simply because somewhere out there the materials for it exist." A single beat passed as I materialized said chair. "As I said earlier, the Vanishing charm destroys things conceptually, and there's no coming back from that- Instead you are left with coming up with a new version of whatever you lost."
I took in another breath and promptly returned the chairs back to their original place on the side of the class.
"Now, the reason that's important to remember is simple." I clapped my hands together, smiling at them. "The Three Unforgivable curses all follow those three rules, internal, external, and conceptual." I watched as wide-eyes quickly filled the younger students, while wariness filled the elder ones.
Professor McGonagall looked moments away from a facepalm.
"The Cruciatus curse for one blows up one's nerves, externally, internally, and conceptually. In that order." I let a frown fill my face. "Now a person's magical body can take a beating, and eventually recover, and copies of their nerves will do just as a good a job- But, do it long enough to someone and the target body will become accustomed to the new normal, and essentially forget that it needs to magically create any new nerves for itself." I vehemently kept my gaze away from Longbottom and his future wife. "And when that happens... Well, best hope whoever you signed yourself up to Azkaban for deserved losing all control, all ability to function and basically end up a vegetable."
I gave my head of house a pointed look, asking for the permission to continue on-
Needless to say, I was a little surprised to see her give me a slightly wary nod after appraising the rest of the student's frankly horrified expressions.
"Now, the Imperius curse is a little more on the conceptual side-" I waved my wand around, a visual of two stick figures coming to existence, one of whom had a stick pointed at the other's head. "Instead of blowing up nerves, what you're doing here is blowing up a person'ssubconscious control over themselves, and taking over yourself." I paused, narrowing my gaze. "Only, unlike the Cruciatus, there's no set time limit before it's too late- As the moment you successfully cast it... The moment it lands and you win whatever brief scuffle between minds you fall into... The other person's personal identity, what makes them who they are, is forever lost. And when your goal, that comes with a spot in the Ministry's most wanted, is complete and you relinquish control... All that's left of them is a knock-off of whoever they used to be, 'cos the original's gone.Permanently." I took in a breath. "Sure, provided enough time, they may get over the mental issues that come with feeling like you're out of place in the world, but it doesn't change the fact that you, purposely, killed someone's identity out of no doubt selfish desire."
I let out a sigh.
"The Killing Curse is self-explanatory. You blow a body's connection to its soul the fuck up."
A single beat passed.
"But really, the biggest issue comes innately, because the Dark Arts, unlike normal magic, directly affect you- Their costs come from personal experience. In that, anything you're willing to do to another sentient being is a green flag for your own magic to do to yourself. So if you're willing to kill someone's identity and take over their mind, then your own magic will decide it's fair game to corrupt your sense of self and slowly take hold of everything that makes you who you are." I shrugged. "Torture someone and your magic will slowly start torturing you- Whether through direct pain or through your body breaking down to keep up. And well, push someone's soul out of their body and magic will push a piece of your own one out as well."
I clapped my hands together.
"In short, if you fuck around with The Dark Arts, The Dark Arts are gonna fuck around with you. So stick to regular explosions like a normal person."
Another beat passed.
"Any questions?"