Professor Pye
November 26, 2016 6:34 PM
Advanced Defense (Years VI & VII) by Professor Pye
Mental magic. Alfie had grown up around the stuff and he had hated it. He had hated it so much and he’d done his best to get away from it. The whole genre creeped him out. It was probably the part of magic that he disliked the most. Of the three Unforgiveables, Imperio was the one that scared him the most. He wasn’t afraid to die and he wasn’t afraid to feel pain—he’d come close enough to dying that it didn’t bother him anymore and he knew how to close off his mind to pain, to numb the aftermath with a drink or four. But the idea of someone getting into his mind, playing with things—the idea of doing that to someone else… That was what freaked him out.It was sort of ironic to think, then, that mental magic had been the reason he’d gotten into the Auror program in the first place. It seemed the Pyes had a reputation for being skilled with wandwork but also for performing some of the most amazing stunts in mental magic the Auror department had seen in years. They had never been caught, either, so that meant they were good at covering up their tracks, but a mole had long ago defected from the Pye empire and fled for protection. He had given up a few secrets until he was found a few days later, mentally destroyed and in no condition to ever be able to live on his own again. The Pyes scared Alfie, but it was that name and that reputation that had gotten him such a warm welcome to the department—a chance to turn one of their own against them, his hiring officer had said.
At first, no one had trusted him, they’d just wanted his skills but they remembered his days on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and they remembered how loose and playful he’d been throughout school. It was all gone now though, Father had figured his game out and sent him packing. Alfie had lost contact with most everyone on his team—they all certainly thought he’d abandoned them to become another of his father’s cronies, but Cecily had believed in him. They had accomplished so much together—until Jake, that was. Alfie felt like someone had reached into his chest and was squeezing his heart until it could no longer function.
And then Barnaby…he sighed. His little brother (half-brother, but at this point did it really even matter? They were both Pyes, they were both doomed) was heading down a dark path, he had recognised signs of his father’s presence when he’d sat Barnaby down in his office that day. He had worked with magic that he’d vowed to give up the moment he was no longer under the employ of the Auror office, magic he’d vowed he’d only ever use in conjunction with the law. But there was no law to protect his brother from his father. There was other magic present in Barnaby too, magic Alfie didn’t recognise as his father’s and he’d done his best to override that. But because he was unfamiliar with it, when he pulled out of Barnaby’s mind he recognised the sloppy job, the scar he’d left on his memories.
He would be found out, and one day soon. He was just grateful that day was not today. The intermediate students were too young to learn mental magic. The advanced students were old enough that the school board felt they should be able to protect themselves against things and Alfie himself thought it was a good idea. There were just too many dark witches and wizards out there who wanted to take advantage of innocent minds and as their defense professor (for as long as he could be now that he had mental magic’ed a student) it was Alfie’s job to protect them and teach them to defend themselves.
As Alfie stood in front of the rather small class (he knew his strict methods scared off some of the students and he was not really sure how he felt about that—it was important he be strict, defense wasn’t just some fluff subject students could fail. It was important to their survival) he offered a rather jaunty grin. Just another day to put on his jovial, joking personality before he had to really nail them on their wandwork. “I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Unforgiveable Curses by now. Who can name them?”
He waited until all three had been correctly named before moving on. “There are shield charms that can protect you from most spells and curses, but these three are especially violent and difficult. You can try to deflect them but when performed correctly and with enough malice behind them—” Alfie held back a shudder as his mind went back and relived moments no person ever should have to see “—they can be deadly. Because it ensures death, many people are most afraid of the Killing Curse. Here’s the thing though, if someone uses the Killing Curse to kill you, that’s it. You’ll die painlessly and it will all be over. Not so much with the other curses.
“The Cruciatus Curse causes undeniable pain, pain that can make you actually go insane,” he smiled a little at the unintentional rhyme. “Hey look,” he said. “I made a rhyme!” He grew serious again once more. “It won’t work unless the person casting it really means it—their hate and anger fuels the power of this spell. And that’s what makes it so dangerous. The Imperius Curse, can make you do anything the caster wants you to do, and I mean anything,” his voice became icy. This one tended to give the Auror department the most trouble and had surfaced in a fair number of different crimes of varying degrees of seriousness.
“Some claim that being an accomplished Occlumens can help you to fight off the Imperius Curse longer, but it is not a proven theory. To this day there isn’t an officially documented case of someone successfully fighting off the Imperius Curse once it had been both cast and hit. Becoming an accomplished Occlumens takes a lot of time and studying, nevertheless, it is very important for those of you considering a career in Defense and many of you whose business dealings might take you a little…south of the law.”
Alfie wasn’t stupid. He knew that many families at Sonora came from legit backgrounds, but there were others who dabbled in dark magic. And it was important to protect all his students from mental magic. “Thus, today we are starting out Occlumens training since it helps defend against both Legilimency and, as some claim, the Imperius Curse as well. If you all think back to your first lesson on protecting yourself against Dementors, I asked you to recall a happy memory. Not so much today, today you will need to relax yourselves, to keep your minds as blank as possible. Release yourself of all emotion, and let everything roll off you.”
Now, there wasn’t really a way for Alfie to teach Occlumency without performing Legilimency and he didn’t really want to do that, but he did have the next best thing. Darling Tallec had sent him a couple Kneazles and for a first, introductory lesson, Alfie thought it would be a good start. The Kneazles would know when a student was thinking guilty thoughts which, while not everything, was at least part of their emotional field and a good place to start. If only there was an animal who could detect happy thoughts. Everyone was trained to recall happy memories to protect against Dementors. Now he had to teach them to hide those from dark witches and wizards who would want to exploit them for their own good.
Alfie turned on a soothing tape. “We will always start our Occlumency lessons with a relaxation session, to try and void our minds of any emotion or sentiment. After that, we will attempt to trick Kneazles.” Alfie knew that there was no way to trick a Kneazle—they had base instincts, but if he could teach his students to relax under pressure, they were already halfway there. There were other methods to resisting the Imperius as well, anyone with the mental strength to resist the pushing and prodding could do it. But normally those who attempted the Imperius Curse were using a much higher level of magic, and at this age with so many insecurities flying around (Alfie still remembered the Satori incident) he didn’t think anyone was capable of trying to do that just yet. It was an interesting self-esteem exercise, however, that he thought a guidance counsellor (if the school ever got one) could perform with the students…
OOC: I know this lesson might be hard to have a thread with, use it as an opportunity for some character self-reflection or, have your thread take place after class with another students as their leaving the classroom. There are different ways to get your characters talking in here, after all nothing bonds two people faster than having a professor who demands impossible things to complain over! Keep things realistic and at a minimum of 200 words! Have fun :)
Subthreads:
10
Professor Pye
Advanced Defense (Years VI & VII)
30
Professor Pye
1
5