Professor Pye

June 12, 2015 4:13 AM
Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts was Alfie’s second class of the day and though he had only been teaching it for a week it was already his favorite of the three that he taught. Since the students he worked with were older, he felt as though they could better appreciate the hands on learning as they were at that stage in their life where they wanted to be in charge, where they wanted to be adults already. He’d certainly felt that way when he’d been a sixth and seventh year at least. In addition to that, he’d been made to understand that the sixth and seventh years were allowed to choose which classes they wanted to keep taking. To him, that meant all the students in his classroom wanted to be there. And since he himself didn’t want to be there, a classroom full of students who had actively chosen to be there made him happy—it meant he wasn’t wasting his time.

So, because of Alfie’s hands-on approach and staunch belief that the only way one could be ready to take care of oneself in the crazy wizarding world that existed outside the safe walls of Sonora, he had decided to start the sixth and seventh years off with a running start. That day after his Intermediate class was dismissed, he went on a walk through the Labyrinth Gardens and collected a selection of very smooth stones from a fountain he’d found in the middle of it. He dried the stones off, brushing away the strange, coarse hairs that clung to some of the stones. The day’s lesson was to be on Legilimency and Occlumency. When Alfie’s father had taught him the two skills, skills that he had come to find to be extremely useful during his days as an Auror, he had always found that it was easiest for him to imagine his mind as a blank slate, a lake on a day void of any wind to cause ripples or waves, a smooth stone.

Though he desperately thought that teaching the students Legilimency was an important life skill, he also realized there was likely only so much he could get away with, and if he was going to have to choose between throwing them into a group of Dark Wizards with the Legilimency skill or the Occlumency skill he was going to have to go with the more defensive set. Which honestly didn’t bother him too much as he knew the feeling of having Legilimency used on him without knowing Occlumency or having an Occlumency skill lower, weaker than the Legilimency user and the feeling of having his mind invaded like that, his private thoughts exposed to what felt like strangers at the time, was not a feeling he had enjoyed. At all. He didn’t think he would go so far as to say he wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemies because if the situation called for it, the situation called for it.

The Auror in him wanted to use Legilimency on the Advanced students so that they would be prepared for the feeling of having their souls, their brains, their most inner parts invaded, so that should this happen to them in the real world they would know what to expect. The teacher in him who needed to keep his job in order to keep an eye out for his brother, however, understood that if he were to force students to participate in a lesson like that it could end badly for him. Besides, he didn’t really think he wanted to know about the ins and outs of who liked who in the upper years of Sonora, details that he would have very much been interested in knowing back when he was a seventh year but couldn’t care less about now.

When the class started, Alfie sat on his desk as per usual, and gathered the small number of students around him. “Today we are going to be learning about two spells, one of which is very dangerous, probably more dangerous than some other spells you might have studied thus far and,” he emphasized this next part. “I believe it is up there with the three Unforgiveables. You, of course, know which ones I’m talking about I should hope. Now,” he reached behind his desk to pull out the basket of stones. “Take one and pass it around.”

Once each student had gotten a stone, Alfie twisted himself around the desk to go over to the chalkboard, he gestured for his students to follow him. “The first spell we will be talking about is Legilimens, can anyone tell me what it does? Yes,” he nodded to the first person who looked as though they had the answer. “Correct,” he said. “Legilimency is a type of magic which allows the performer of the spell to extract emotions and memories from another person's mind. Now while this may sound cool, it is actually a horrible thing.” He looked each student in their eye as he said this next part making sure they understood that Legilimency was not something to be taken lightly. “The feeling of having someone else in your head, taking your personal thoughts and feelings from you is not one that you should ever want to experience nor inflict on another person do I make myself clear?”

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he did so. “There is a way to block this, and that is called Occlumency. Occlumency is the art of being about to defend your mind from external probing or penetration.” He chose his words carefully in hopes that he might influence the students towards liking Occlumency and distrusting Legilimency. “Occlumency comes from the latin ‘occulto’ or ‘to hide, to conceal’. Legilimency comes from the latin ‘legens’ or ‘reader’.” He reached into his pocket to pull out the stone that he had kept for himself, holding it up for his class to see. “You see this stone? This is what your mind should be like when someone tries to penetrate it. Smooth, blank, clean. Impenetrable.

“We will be studying Occlumency over the next couple of days, and throughout the rest of the term because by the time I’m done with you you will all be able to perform at the very least the elementary Occlumency skills. Close your eyes,” he said. “Let’s begin. The basic skill set allows an Occlumens to keep a Legilimens from discovering the emotional ties to the particular memory the Legilimens is probing. Once we have mastered these skills we will attempt to continue on to advanced Occlumency and perhaps even attempt out hands at resisting the Imperius Curse as that requires you to tap into a similar part of your brain.

“Advanced Occlumency gives the user the ability to feed the Legilimens false emotions, feelings, and memories and can be a very important skill to have especially if you plan on becoming an Auror later in life, I certainly used this skill a few times in the field myself.” Though he had shared his previous profession with his students he had not given them the reason for his departure. “In today’s lesson I will not be practicing Legilimency on you, however be warned that should someone ever attempt to do so, they may first begin by verbal assault in order you let your guard down. As such, those who are able to compartmentalize generally do better with Occlumency because they don’t allow things to rile them up.

“Today though I want you to concentrate on concealing your feelings and lies. I have borrowed Professor Tallec’s class pet for the lesson, so what I want you to do today is partner up and each of you think of something particularly horrible that you’ve done. Kneazles are able to detect untrustworthiness and lying so this particular one should react if you are not concealing these feels properly. When you approach the Kneazle then you are to imagine your mind is like the stone. Your partner is there to cast a protection spell between you and the Kneazle in case the Kneazle decides to attack. It shouldn’t though.” Alfie felt perfectly comfortable in having his sixth and seventh years deal with a juvenile Kneazle as by now they should have had enough training to know what to do.

“For those who feel particularly brave or, perhaps, particularly careless, and feel that they have passed the Kneazle tests enough times I will perform Legilimency on you but only should you wish it. As I said last week, as your professor I am here to make sure you get as full an education as possible. However, I cannot ethically perform Legilimency on you unless I have express permission otherwise that could be a whole mess of legal processes. As such if you would like to participate in this part of the lesson—and by no means feel pressured to do so, I will need you to turn in the signed consent forms I passed out on the first day of class. If you are still a minor then you also need to have parental consent. I will make copies and allow each of you to have one while I will hold on to the original. That being said, you may begin.”

OOC: No one should go to the Hospital Wing because of a Kneazle attack as Pye would intervene should something like pose a true danger. Tag me in the subject line if your character has any questions, is having difficulties, causing trouble, or wants to be a guinea pig. If the latter, please indicate in an OOC note how far Pye can go.
Subthreads:
10 Professor Pye Advanced DADA (Years VI & VII) 30 Professor Pye 1 5