Defence Association/Dumbledore's Army

This lesson will test your creativity.

Part 1:

Write a short essay on how you will go about creating and setting up your own DA (like in the book). Cover the first six meetings - what will you teach, how and why?

Well, first and formost,with me being a Slytherin, the first meeting will consist of sorting out the loyal members. Who can be trusted and who can not.

The first meeting will be a basics overview of what the other meetings will involve. The first is also a get to know who you can trust and who is loyal. You can not work well with someone if you can not trust them. While we may be individuals, we must still be able rely on each other as allies.
The second meeting is going to be about using defensive charms and practicing disarming and defending spells. Simple spells of stupefy, expelliramus and others of the sort will be learned here as it is important to be able to stun,and disarm which there will be more disarming skills learned in our 3rd meeting. The object of this meeting is to make sure that we know what we are doing and how well quickly we can learn.
The 3rd meeting will begin with a short lecture on defense basics. I want everyone to be well aware that without a good defense, your offense will be sloppy and careless.
You have to have a good defense before you jump into an offensive mode.During the third meeting, everyone will have partners and will practice disarming and using sneak approaches. Disarming will involve not only using magic to expel a wand from the hand of an opponent, but to manually be able to do it as well. Sometimes wizards must stoop to a muggle level in order to throw off their opponent.Everyone will start learning how to do this by pairing up into partners.

When the 4th meeting is held, everyone will then learn and practice the art of tactics. We will be thinking more and doing less. Having a practical approach before waving a wand is a good idea. Stratagizing and working on tactics for individual use will be best to learn and will involve everyone to have a chance to prepare mentally.

By the 5th meeting we will be using our tactics and defense strategies against each other in practice and during this time we will dive into offensive positions and tactics. It will be important for everyone to know and practice this as when the battle comes, it will be important to know what you're doing. By this time everyone will have a good defense and that combined with strategy and tactics will make the offense more stronger.

The 6th meeting is going to be where we will create a group strategy working on formations and positions. Finding out who is best for what position and practice more complex magic, magic that should only be used if absolutely necessary. We will be playing off of each other's strengths and where one has a weakness, the others will fill in.We will be strong as individuals and this last meeting will be where we work as a group, we will use our individual skills to combine into a group that will be quite powerful.


Word count: at least 250 words

Part 2:

Design a way of secretly letting your members know the date and time of your meeting. Explain how you would create it, what it is etc

Since we don't want the whole school knowing about our plans, we will need to devise ways of letting only our slytherins know. We will all carry a small charm. One that will be small enough to keep either in our pockets or on us. It will be a snake shaped charm and will be invisible to those who are not Slytherins. For those of us who can see it, the eyes of the snake will glow green when the meeting is going to be held and the snake will open its mouth letting a tiny bit of rolled parchment slide out. This parchment will be giving the times and dates of the meeting. We will all meet in one of the abandoned dungeons that are hidden from other houses. The days will vary as we don't want to raise suspicions and the times will always be in the wee hours of the morning. We have to also soundproof and sightproof the room so as not to alert Filch or his cat. And we have to go as individuals otherwise going as a group would look rather suspicious. So, we'll set time peremitiers. I will always be the first there for it is I who am teaching. then everyone is to wait a few moments before leaving. When I am at the room and it is secured, I will tap my charm and the next person who is in line to join me will have their snake charm hiss them a song. Then when that person goes and joins me, that person will send the next person the same song and so on and so forth...If there is ever a time where we can't meet, then our snakes' eyes will glow red as a warning that we will not be able to meet. No owls shall be used for sending messages of our meetings, it's too risky. Our snake charms are specifically enchanted for these meetings.

Bonus:

Design a small flyer (400x200) to advitise your DA.





Housepoints possible:

Part 1: 20
Part 2: 20
Bonus: 10

Part 1:

The Slytherins seemed extinct from Potter’s special DA club, so I present to you a Slytherin only DA, yet this is not Dumbledore’s Army, nor is it Defense Association. The Slytherins DA stands for Deatheater Association.

Preliminary Meetings

In the first six meetings, we will not cover the mamby-pamby good and pure defense spells, we will cover the more advanced dark defense spells, ones that will actually come in useful in the final battle between good and evil.
It is erudite that many Slytherins have taken a back seat in the learning situation, well here is your chance to shine and to be in with a chance of becoming the dark lords right hand man or woman once Hogwarts is behind you.

We will be covering defense mechanisms on an individual basis for the first lesson, dividing the group into levels at to which we will continue our work into the dark defenses. In the second lesson, we will begin to look at a defense most complex, the art of animagus. You may think that this is not at all of dark defense, you are completely mistaken. The art of disguise is complex, yet one that could benefit a dark wizard in the final battle.
The third lesson will continue along the animagus process whilst working on dark spells to enable choice in the changing.
The forth meeting will take a break from animagus training and focus upon the muggle art of defense. Yes, the dark lord hates muggles, yet there in lies his weakness. To learn the muggle art of defense will give you the upper hand.
The fifth meeting will once again go back into training for animagus, with aid from those who have managed it, as well as looking at wordless spells whilst in the animagus form.
The sixth meeting, which will lie directly before the Christmas break, will cover more muggle relations, reflecting upon defense strategies and knowing your opponent.

Part 2:

As you will know, or should know, the death eaters of the dark lord have their skin burned with the dark mark. I have devised an invisible tattoo which will be pressed firmly onto your skin and work in the same way. Each time a meeting is called, the tattoo will burn heat onto your skin allowing you half an hour to reach your destination. The destination may change, due to this, the tattoo has a magical map enclosed on its surface which will guide you to the destination of the meeting, also signaling to you when others may be around.

Bonus

Part 1

Our name would be called Hufflepuff’s Militia. Our code name is of course HM so incase suspicious ears are around we can hastily say we were talking about History of Magic. Our main purpose of this group is to be more powerful as a Hufflepuff whole. After the loss of our dear Cedric we found we needed some basic training in some areas. To gain members we’d just ask around people we know we can trust who are of course in the Hufflepuff house.

Our first meeting would of course begin to explain what exactly we were all about. We’d make everyone swear not to tell anybody about this meeting or any other meeting if they wanted to keep all their limbs. We also explained that they’d learn to not only fight, but to run (apparate) if necessary.

Our second meeting would consist of talking of scenarios. For example if like Cedric you appear in a graveyard that Harry Potter claims he’s seen in a dream before GET OUT OF THERE. For one it’s a graveyard! Who would just stay there? Leave immediately and get the information later. Now if you appeared instead in a field of wheat, duck down in the wheat and hide until you’re sure it’s safe. We would go through all these and talk about the best ways to get in a kind of sniper position.

The third meeting would consist of making sure everyone knew the basics and we MEAN everyone. Even if it was someone as hopeless as Neville, we would have to make sure they got it. Us Hufflepuffs are naturally loyal and we help our own.

The fourth meeting would have us start endurance. Throughout the rest of the meeting we would be working on this. Wizard duels do not only consist of shooting spells back and forth, you have to have agility and strength to be able to duck and run places. We’d show them exercises and maneuvers that they would not only have to practice here, but by themselves.

The fifth meeting would pretty much be combining the third and fourth; using your basic spells with your endurance. They’d battle in twos while running around and shooting at each other. Highly dangerous, but exactly like a real battle would be. We’d probably have to make a couple runs to Madam Pomfrey, but we already came up with a bunch of scenarios, like we came across one of Hagrid’s creatures… Mean, but it Madam Pomfrey would buy it in a second.

The sixth meeting we would advance in our spell casting and such, but we’d also show them how to help a friend in battle. We told them that there might be a split second in battle where you’d usually attack your opponent, but what if you chose to attack your friend’s opponent? It gives them that extra edge that could finish the battle. Of course you’d have to be careful that it was their opponent you were attacking, not them. Not only that, but you’d have to be ready for your opponent who probably used that extra second you wasted to attack you while you were still focusing someplace else.

Part 2

Our communication would be a watch. To explain how this watch works, lets say you had one, and it buzzed at 5:43 PM. That means the next meeting is two days later at 5:43 PM. Simple really, and if someone asked you why your watch is buzzing (like they’d notice) say its malfunctioning. So the leader of the group would charm it so when they made their watch buzz, all the others would buzz too. A simple thing that nobody is bound to notice.

Part One

I would begin by investigating who would be interested in joining such a group, perhaps by word of mouth – a friend tells a friend who tells their friend etc. However, if there was no need for it to be a secret, I would simply put a notice up in each house’s notice board.

I would then hold an enrolment meeting, where everyone who was interested would come along and sign up, just so I could get an approximate head-count.

Then, in the time between the first and second meeting, I would create lesson plans, so I would be going in prepared and not look like a bumbling fool.

First Meeting:

· As stated above, simply an enrolment meeting, where potential members would listen to an informative presentation about what the club hopes to achieve, perhaps a short demonstration of a duel and a sign-up procedure.

Second Meeting

· I would start with something simple, as it would be the first practical lesson. I think the most useful preliminary spell would be “Expelliarmus” and so would probably start with that.

Third Meeting

· In this meeting, I would want to see the abilities of the members, and perhaps stretch them a little farther than they usually go. To do this, I would have a mini-duelling tournament, splitting the group into around six groups in which they would duel with simple spells such as “Expelliarmus”, “Stupefy” and to practise shield spells.

Fourth Meeting

· In this meeting, I would use my secret training weapon: ‘alive’ cloth dolls, known as ‘golems’. They fire back spells at the speed of a Death Eater, and so would give a large challenge to the members. They are eventually destructible, and giving the members an enemy who is not a classmate may provoke better duelling skills.

Fifth Meeting

· In this meeting I would practise patronuses. I would firstly get the members to concentrate on a happy memory, followed by an attempt to make a patronus.

Sixth Meeting

· In the sixth meeting, I would arrange another mini duelling tournament, however put the members into pairs. They would duel for two minutes, then the winners move onto another partner, until there were two duellists left, and one would eventually be proclaimed the winner.


Part Two

The way I would use to let the members know the date and time of the meetings is to borrow an idea from the Marauders, and use magical parchment. I would charm a slip of parchment for each member, and keep a master copy to myself. Each slip of paper would be linked to my master copy.

Then, every time I wanted to notify of a meeting, I would simply write the time and date on my master copy, and it would show up on each of the slips of paper.

Meeting 1:

I think that this would probably be an introduction to the course and what would be expected from the members. The signing up would be done, much like the real DA, and all the technical stuff taken care of. It would be a meeting to try and get to know the members like a leader knows his troops and see where the strengths and weaknesses may lie. This getting to know abilities would stretch all throughout the classes, but the first impression is always a lasting one…

Meeting 2:

This meeting would be for the leader to test the DA and to divide it into groups of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced so that he could coach all the members to the best of his abilities, and the members could rise through the ranks to the best of their abilities. I think that the simple spells at first would be best, suck as Disarming, Summoning, Banishing, etc, but then a few higher level spells to see who would be in a higher group (Stunning, Hexes, Impedimenta, etc) and to see who should be in the advanced group, I would put anyone who can conjure a decent mist of a Patronus.

Meeting 3

To teach all three groups well, I would use a time turner so I could teach all three groups at the same time. In the Beginner’s group, I would work on target hitting with dummies to begin with because a spell is always rendered useless if it doesn’t hit where you want it. Intermediate group would practise all the basic things that the Beginners would move on to. Advanced would have a review of all hexes and jinxes they had learnt. This is just so that the members get into the feel of the DA again.

Meeting 4

Having practised target setting, Beginners would move onto summoning spells and disarming spells. If they can master these easily, individuals would be taught some other Beginner spells. Intermediates would practice basic hexes and jinxes, but if they know a lot of them, they can practise newer ones, just like the Beginners. Advanced Group would work on Patronuses because Dementors need to have a squadron of fighters

Meeting 5

This meeting would be to assess the abilities of the groups properly for the first time. Those who can do the basic spells in each of the Beginner or Intermediate groups would be able to move on to the next group.

Meeting 6

This meeting would be similar to the fourth meeting but more spells would be learnt, those who need to practise could practise. The new members of each group would have help to catch up properly. The same things would be covered, and practised until they are perfect. In future meetings, there would be diversionary tactics, healing spells, formations, attack drills and fitness sessions as well as just spells. An assessment would be held once every five weeks followed with a couple of catch up sessions and three sessions of new work.

PART 2

I think the Protean Charm is a great way of telling when a meeting is if the club is illegal. However, I would not use coins because they are easily lost or used. I think I would actually use a message on the notice board to advertise the meetings, except the message would be absolutely normal to any outsider eyes, maybe a notice saying that someone has lost their bag or shoe or something. It would have a glamour charm covering it so that it is viewable to the members. It will also have an Alarm on it to alert the members when the date has changed on it (using the Protean Charm).

BONUS