Defence Against the Dark Arts

"Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom. No cursing allowed."

- Notice outside the classroom

Defence Against the Dark Arts (sometimes written as DADA) is a subject taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this class students learn how to magically defend themselves against Dark Creatures, the Dark Arts, and other dark charms. Offensive magic is also taught in this class, such as how to duel, which requires the use of both offensive and defensive magic.

The subject is core class at Hogwarts. The position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor here was once rumoured to be jinxed, as no teacher could hold the post for more than a year. Tom Marvolo Riddle (Lord Voldemort) jinxed the position because Dumbledore did not give him the job when he applied for it.

The subject is also a class at Ilvermorny. It began teaching the subject in the 17th century.

Class information
"Your defences must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo"

- Professor Snape discussing defence during a 1996 lesson

Defence Against the Dark Arts is a required subject from first year to fifth year. The curriculum of the class varies greatly depending on what the professor at the time deems appropriate. Due to the jinx on the teaching post that was present before Lord Voldemort died, many teachers have been appointed to this post.

The lessons generally have a practical approach, with many of the teachers (except Dolores Umbridge) believing that when it comes to the Dark Arts a practical approach is the best way, with theoretical assignments given as homework.

In the fifth year Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations are taken; as such, students are spent learning new topics and possibly revisiting the past four years of lessons (depending on the teacher). As part of their Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., students must sit a written exam one of the questions asks to describe the five signs of a werewolf and after students must complete a practical exam of; counter-jinxes, defensive spells, Riddikulus, and the Patronus Charm (for bonus points).

To advance to the N.E.W.T. class a student must first achieve a high O.W.L. score of either 'Outstanding' or 'Exceeds Expectations'; most teachers set the bar at 'Exceeds Expectations'.

Also, due to the course being directly related to the Dark Arts itself, dark wizards who wish to teach would typically apply for this course, notably being Lord Voldemort and Severus Snape.

Classrooms
Defence Against the Dark Arts classes take place on the first-floor, Class 104 in the North Tower and Classroom 3C on the third-floor. In Classroom 3C, an iron chandelier hung from the ceiling, as well as a dragon's skeleton. On one end of the classroom stands a projector that is activated by magic. Several desks and tables can be found in the classroom as well as some sets of large windows.

First year
"The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke."

- DADA lessons with Quirrell as the professor

Dark creatures

 * Curing werewolf bites
 * Gnomes
 * Doxies
 * Snails
 * Imps
 * Bowtruckles
 * Ghosts
 * Gargoyles
 * Hags
 * Fire crabs
 * Gytrashes

Spells

 * Curse of the Bogies
 * Knockback Jinx
 * Vermillious
 * Verdimillious
 * Wand-Lighting Charm
 * Smokescreen Spell
 * Green Sparks
 * Red sparks
 * Periculum

Second year
"It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind. You may find yourself facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm will befall you whilst I am here. I must ask you not to scream. It might provoke them!"

- Lockhart introducing Cornish Pixies

Dark creatures

 * Cornish Pixies
 * Banshees
 * Ghouls
 * Hags
 * Trolls
 * Vampires
 * Werewolves
 * Yeti
 * Fire crabs
 * Imps
 * Gargoyles

Spells

 * Disarming Charm
 * Tongue-Tying Curse
 * Homorphus Charm
 * Verdimillious Duo
 * Vermillious Duo
 * Tickling Charm
 * Banishing Charm
 * Petrificus Totalus
 * Cushioning Charm
 * Melofors Jinx

Third year
"Professor Lupin had complied the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken; a sort of obstacle course outside in the sun."

- Third year exam in 1994

Dark Creatures

 * Boggarts
 * Grindylows
 * Werewolves
 * Hinkypunks
 * Kappas
 * Red Caps
 * Vampires
 * Salamander

Spells

 * Riddikulus
 * Seize and Pull Charm
 * Freezing Spell
 * Lumos Duo Charm
 * Patronus Charm
 * Orbis Jinx

Fourth year
"When it comes to the Dark Arts, I believe in a practical approach."

- Barty Crouch Jr on his approach of the subject

Dark creatures

 * Erklings
 * Red Caps
 * Dugbog
 * Blast-Ended Skrewt

Spells

 * Cruciatus Curse
 * Hex-deflection
 * Counter-curses
 * Imperius Curse
 * Killing Curse
 * Freezing Spell
 * Aqua Eructo

Fifth year
"Your previous instruction in this subject has been, disturbingly, uneven. But you will be pleased to know, from now on, you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic."

- Dolores Umbridge's excuse of depriving students of practical defence

Official curriculum

 * Conflict avoidance
 * Counter-jinxes and Defensive Charms
 * Fleeing
 * Iguanas
 * Vampire bats
 * Theory

Dumbledore's Army

 * Stunning Spell
 * Patronus Charm
 * Reductor Curse
 * Diminuendo
 * Tickling Charm
 * Petrificus Totalus
 * Disarming Charm
 * Shield Charm
 * Other jinxes and hexes

Sixth year
"You will now divide... into pairs. One partner will attempt to jinx the other without speaking. The other will attempt to repel the jinx in equal silence. Carry on."

- A N.E.W.T. lesson on nonverbal spells

Dark creatures

 * Dementors
 * Inferi

Spells

 * Nonverbal spells
 * Resisting the Imperius Curse
 * Levicorpus
 * Disarming Charm
 * Stunning Spell

Changes to curriculum
"You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe. Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. Given this confusion I am surprised so many of you scraped an O.W.L. in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with N.E.W.T. work, which will be much more advanced."

- Professor Snape on the curriculum's instability



Due to the constant changing of teachers, the curriculum of Defence Against the Dark Arts varies from year to year. Each teacher has his or her own priorities, and his or her respective efficiency proportional to his or her beliefs and methods, such as Quirinus Quirrell and Dolores Umbridge believing that theories are enough (which is, in fact, more hindering), while the more effective Remus Lupin, "Alastor Moody" and Severus Snape have a more balanced belief in theory and practical defence. Gilderoy Lockhart, fraudulent and incompetent, is one known teacher who taught nothing to the classes of his respective tenure, aside from nonsensical and unrelated materials, considering that he was hired solely for the purpose of ousting him as a fraud to the world. In the 1997-1998 school year, the class was changed to Dark Arts.

During the 1995-1996 school year, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, had gotten into his head that Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was using the students to create a private army of young wizards to overthrow the Ministry. As such, he implanted Umbridge to become the teacher of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, which he believed to be the main source of training (e.g. defensive spells) for Dumbledore's would-be soldiers. Umbridge supplied a syllabus based entirely on theories on avoiding conflicts instead of facing them, all of which was simply reading out of the textbook, believing that this would be sufficient in passing the examinations. This misguided belief deprived the students on any useful lessons as even the theories are inaccurate, thus leading to the formation on Dumbledore's Army, which taught more practical defence that students from all grades found more useful. Umbridge would later claim that the spells Harry taught were deemed by the Ministry inappropriate for students at their ages.

Known professors
"There is a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and that position is now as safe as the other teaching posts at Hogwarts, since Voldemort's death broke the jinx that kept a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor from remaining for more than a year."

- J. K. Rowling stated the jinx on the DADA post has been lifted


 * During the time between Voldemort's jinx started to take effect and broke there was at least one professor per year. Therefore, between c. 1965 and 1990 (the year before Harry began studying at Hogwarts) there could be around twenty-five different professors in the position.
 * Severus Snape served as a substitute teacher during the 1993–1994 school year, when Remus Lupin was feeling ill.

Required textbooks

 * Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard
 * Confronting the Faceless (N.E.W.T.)

Known O.W.L.s

 * All known Aurors, since it is a compulsory N.E.W.T.-level; therefore O.W.L. must have been achieved before that.

Behind the scenes

 * Sixth years are supposed to be given demonstrations on what illegal curses look like; it was only in the 1994-1995 school year that this was changed to the fourth year.
 * Tom Riddle twice applied for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, the first time shortly after graduation from Hogwarts when he was turned down by Headmaster Armando Dippet, who claimed he was too young but invited him to re-apply a few years later. Many years later, after becoming steeped in the Dark Arts and starting to use the title "Lord Voldemort", he visited the school and applied again, this time to Dumbledore. He was refused again. According to Albus Dumbledore, after the second refusal, no Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher held the post for more than one school year. Dumbledore believed that this was due to Voldemort placing a curse on the position, a belief that was popularly spread throughout the school.
 * The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is also responsible for dealing with any Dark Arts related activities that threaten the school and its residents, as Harry and Ron expected Lockhart to enter the Chamber of Secrets and protested against his excuse of leaving under an unavoidable urgent call, while Snape was assigned to staunch the deadly curse that afflicted Katie Bell.
 * When J. K. Rowling was asked why Dumbledore would not give Severus Snape the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, Rowling responded that Dumbledore believed that teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts would bring out Snape's worst side, though Dumbledore finally relented in Harry's sixth year. Snape admitted to Bellatrix Lestrange that reason during their conversation in Spinner's End.
 * Rowling has also revealed that after Amycus Carrow was the Dark Arts teacher, a permanent teacher took the post because Voldemort's curse over the job was lifted.
 * Whilst it is known that Dumbledore did not wish Professor Snape to teach DADA for fear of relapsing into his Death Eater ways, it is also possible that (since the subject had been jinxed) he was also thinking of Snape's physical well-being (not least of all because of how much of importance he could have been, and was, in the long run). Despite Dumbledore's fear, however, Snape did not truly return to his old ways when granted the position he sought for, though he did teach the lessons with a sense of passion for the Dark Arts.
 * Dumbledore hired the incompetent Gilderoy Lockhart as a means to expose him for the credit-stealing fraud he is, believing that a normal school environment would be the best place to achieve that. Despite this working out, the year's curriculum was wasted due to Lockhart's ineptitude.
 * Each Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher attacked (or attempted to attack) Harry. Quirrell tried to strangle Harry and jinxed his broom during a Quidditch game, Lockhart attempted to erase his memories, Lupin went after him as a werewolf (although he alone out of all the others would never have attacked Harry if he had been in his human form), Barty Crouch Jr (disguised as Moody) tried to kill him, Umbridge physically assaulted him (and had previously sent Dementors to attack him, though this was before she taught the subject), and Snape attacked Harry in retaliation for Harry trying to curse him during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. Ironically, Amycus Carrow, who taught Dark Arts instead of Defence Against the Dark Arts, was attacked by Harry Potter after Amycus had insulted Minerva McGonagall.
 * Dolores Umbridge was the only female Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in the series besides Galatea Merrythought; Galatea was not seen throughout the series, only mentioned.
 * The six professors of this subject who taught Harry each had a dark secret that he did not learn until near the end of their respective school years:
 * Quirrell was serving Voldemort and was possessed by him.
 * Lockhart was a cowardly fraud who covertly stole the achievements of others.
 * Lupin was a werewolf.
 * Moody was actually Barty Crouch Jr, an escaped Death Eater.
 * Umbridge was the one who sent the Dementors that attacked Harry and Dudley.
 * Snape was the one who had reported the prophecy to Voldemort and was the Half-Blood Prince.
 * During his tenure as Potions Master, Severus Snape only accepted students who achieved an 'Outstanding' on their OWLs into his NEWT-level Potions classes. However, when Snape became the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in the 1996–1997 school year, students who achieved 'Exceeds Expectations' were still allowed to take the NEWT-level DADA classes.
 * The only book to have twice been assigned for this subject is The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection.
 * Most of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers in Harry's six years at Hogwarts followed a similar pattern: each (with the exception of Quirrell and Snape) was an entirely new teacher; each was chosen out of necessity, due to the loss of the previous instructor and the absence of other applicants; each meets Harry before he arrives at Hogwarts in the respective year (with the exception of Mad-Eye Moody, who was only mentioned in passing, although Harry had unknowingly encountered Barty Crouch Jr at the Quidditch World Cup); and each physically (or magically) attacks Harry during school term, either intentionally or accidentally, as in the case of Remus Lupin.
 * In, when discussing who their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher would be, Harry said that the teachers didn't have much luck: "One sacked, one dead, one lost his memory, and one was locked in a trunk for nine months," referring to Lupin, Quirrell, Lockhart, and Moody, respectively; this isn't true, however, because Lupin resigned rather than was fired. Also, Crouch Jr, the de facto teacher for Harry's fourth year, suffered the Dementor's Kiss.
 * Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle are two known students who failed their O.W.L.s in Defence Against the Dark Arts, for which the following year's respective teacher, Snape, gave them both detentions.
 * Quirinus Quirrell is the only Defence Against The Dark Arts Teacher known to have died during the year he gave the subject.

Appearances

 * PS undefined
 * PS F
 * PS G

Notes and references
Verteidigung gegen die dunklen Künste Defensa contra las Artes Oscuras Défense contre les forces du Mal Difesa contro le Arte Oscure Verweer tegen de Zwarte Kunsten Obrona przed czarną magią Защита от Тёмных искусств