Noble Arts this year is shaping up to be brilliant

[alt_seamus]

So today, Professor Dolohov showed us this fascinating spell that lets you use your own blood to lock a box so it can't be opened. It doesn't just work on boxes -- you can also do it with an envelope, for instance. But the material has to have once been something living (like wood).

I've been wondering this evening if it works on fibres -- wool, cotton, silk, linen. Cotton comes from a cotton plant, so surely that would work. Wool comes from a sheep, and sheep are alive but I'm not sure if the wool is? And silk comes from silkworms but I don't quite know how they make it so I'm even less sure about that. I suppose I could test it out on a sock, but I'm not sure how a sock even would lock, and I don't particularly want to get blood on my socks. I think I have a little wool pouch somewhere in my trunk, if I can find it (it's a pouch for my omnioculars) so I can test that out later.

He let us try it ourselves and taught us the incantation. (You only got to try it if you volunteered, but lots of people did. I suppose I don't blame the ones who didn't, because you DID have to use some of your blood, although he taught us a spell for that, you didn't have to jab yourself with a knife or anything.)

Professor Dolohov prefers the term Noble Arts but he does use the term 'Dark Arts' quite a bit in class, since that's what we're all used to. Anyway, it was dead interesting. The Slytherins and Ravenclaws will get to learn the box spell on Friday, I think. What was your double-period class like? Ours isn't until tomorrow. (I guess it's the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs who had it earlier in the week?)

Comments

[alt_padma]

That does sound brill! I wonder if we bring our own things, he'll let us try the spell on that instead of the same box. Did anyone ask him if everyone who volunteered could then open the same box, because that doesn't seem like it's all that strong a protection, if all you have to do is cast the same spell and then you can open it.

(But I do want to try it on something of mine, too. I've got a nift music box that has a secret drawer in it. Would that do?)

Our double-hour is tomorrow, too. I did my Intra Profundis section on weather magic, because I think it's interesting how no one really bothers anymore, on account of how it usually means you'll just get more of what you don't want later. (Like, if you make it sunny because you don't want rain, it'll work but next week you'll get a small storm system right over your house.) But back then everyone thought it was a terrible thing and caused earthquakes and all.

[alt_blaise]

We had our Double Session on Monday. It was about the Intra Profundis assignment, and was really very interesting. He asked us to say which section we'd written on and to defend what we'd said about whether that type of magic would now be considered 'Dark' and by which definitions. He really didn't seem to mind which definitions we used, either. Only that we could explain our choices and the logical conclusions one ought to draw if starting with those assumptions.

I don't think I've ever been asked to think as ... fully as that. He's really rather amazing, don't you think?

[alt_padma]

I noticed that in our first lessons, too--he doesn't seem satisfied with just one answer. He'll ask more and more questions, like he really wants you to think about why you said what you said.

Off to Charms. Somehow even though she assigned us that essay, I don't think Professor Acton will probe quite so much.

What section of Intra Profundis did you pick?

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Yeah.

Now I can think of loads of other questions I should have asked him instead of just the one I did.

Like are there any counter-spells I can use to keep Finnigan from using Obfirmo Sanguine on something of mine.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_neville]

I think I may remember something in one of my Dad's books. Vaguely.

Won't be able to look it up until I'm home for the Christmas hols, though.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Ask him in a private message. He'll give you House points -- I think he gives points every time anyone asks a question about anything -- and he'll probably give you some useful suggestions.

I mean, you might not want to specifically say Finnigan, but I'm sure it's not news to Professor Dolohov that students hex each other. Or play nasty tricks like using this sort of spell on stuff that isn't theirs.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

That's a good idea, actually. I'll do it.

D'you know I got House Points for asking him a question during the lesson, too. I asked whether if you did this spell with your blood and then someone took the object, whether they could use it to cast spells that would target you, because it'd got your blood signature wound into it.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Oh, that's a good question!

What did he say?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Well. He said It was a good question and showed excellent reasoning skills, and he said it was good I was thinking about self-protection.

And then he said there's not much risk of this spell being turned against you because the magic gets directed inward on the object, and because it's just meant to make the object recognise you as its owner.

And then he said it's also not very risky because it only takes a little of your blood. But get this. He said someone could do as much against you by using your hair if you don't vanish it out of your hairbrush in the mornings, or if you cut yourself a little and bleed on your robes. He said that happens to everyone all the time, so if you wanted to collect someone's blood for a Dark charm, you could just lift it off their robes.

Do you vanish your hair out of your comb and brush?

Um. He did promise he'd tell us if he's ever teaching us anything that could be really dangerous to us. So we'd know before we did it.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

I don't vanish my hair.

Maybe I should start.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

And I might have some suggestions of my own once I've actually had the lesson.

I've USED this sort of blood magic, you know. We put Terry's blood in his bracelet, and Hermione's in hers, to keep them from getting lost. I've done the same magic on some things of mine I was worried about losing. I've never thought of it as Dark Arts, actually.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_terry]

Ugh. I hadn't either. But I guess it seemed so benign compared to the sorts of things the git was doing to me all the time.

Well...doesn't mean I'm going to stop using the bracelet.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_justin]

Hullo, Sally-Anne.

Meant to reply last evening when I saw Ron's first but my Arithmancy for today took longer than expected, what?

But I say, that's rather the point Professor Dolohov was making--that it's not a particularly Dark spell at all. I wonder if he'll tell your class what he told us, that it doesn't require any particular skill or affinity for Dark Arts to do this one, just blood and the incantation. And the right sort of object to use, what.

I still didn't volunteer, though. I wonder if that's a mistake. He did seem to want to question the translation I had done, quite a bit. I had to pull out the original just to make sure I got it right. (Which I thought rather odd, his interest in that. The translation in the concordance was bally well terrible so I thought mine couldn't be any worse!)

Luna, Dux, you'll have to tell us how your lesson goes.

-Justin