Ambrosius watched as his students were entering the classroom and heading to their seats. "Good afternoon everyone, and welcome back to Defence Against the Dark Arts" he calmly greeted them as most of them were looking around the room with surprise. There were indeed some odd additions to the classroom. In one corner, there were four shining crystal balls floating in mid air, forming the shape of a square, and that seemed to be connected between them by a luminescent ray. In that cage made of light, one could see a spectral dog, walking in circles, on alert. On the other side of the professor's desk, a ghost was standing near the wall, furiously glancing at the students. He was rather frightening, wearing a robe covered in silver bloodstains, and carrying chains and a sword around his belt. Finally, on his desk, Ambrosius had placed a plant composed of a mass of soft, springy tendrils and vines.

"Yes, I have prepared something quite special and interesting for this lesson, but you will hear more about that later. By the way, as some of you may already know, this is the Bloody Baron, the house ghost of Slytherin. He has kindly agreed to help me with this lesson" he announced. "But for now, we will proceed with what we hadn't finished last time, more precisely the uses of the Wand Lighting Charm and its variations in Defence Against the Dark Arts. I trust you have all done your homework?" he asked, examining the students. "Could you please just pass them to me so that I see what you have written?".

Apparently, all of them had achieved their task. And quite well, it seemed. "Well, I see that you have done this with the required seriousness. I therefore award 5 points to each of you. You have all understood that the Wand Lighting Spell, as well as its powered up version, is used to ward off spectral foes, and that the Lumos Solem charm was an effective weapon against the Devil's Snare. But, as you know, Defence Against the Dark Arts is about making you able to defend yourselves in the face of danger. Therefore, I believe that what we are learning here would be useless without applying it to more practical situations. And that is exactly what we are going to do today. Now if you would all please stand up and come to the front of the classroom.".

As soon as the students had joined him, with a swish of his wand, he moved the desks and the chairs on the back of the room, leaving a vast empty space in the middle. "I have asked you to master the Lumos spell for today, and I hope all of you have done that. What I wish from you now is to practice to perform the two other spells, Lumos Solem and Lumos Maxima, that you haven't tried yet, as we will be needing them later. You can ignore the Lumos Duo spell for now, as it is not very used in defensive goals. However, if some of you have the curiosity to see what it looks like, you should observe the cage in that corner" he said, showing them the area with the spectral dog. "You will be working in groups of two, one of you attempting to perform the spells, the other criticizing him or her, pointing out mistakes, for example in the incantation or the wand movement, as it is often easier for other to see our wrongs than for ourselves. Of course, when you succeed in casting the charms, you change roles with your partner. Lumos Solem will probably not be a major problem for you since you have all mastered the Lumos spell, but Lumos Maxima may be a bit more difficult, since it is a powered up version of the basic charm. It therefore demands greater concentration and precision from the caster. But I don't doubt that you will succeed at performing it after a certain number of attempts. "

After a moment of reflection, he pursued: "Miss Frey, you should team up with mister Macgonagall, and Miss Fernandes with mister Riddle. You can get started with practicing now. When all of you have mastered the two spells, I will give you further instructions."

Demelza and James and James were walking to classroom 3C (the DADA classroom) and sat down. The class was weirder now than before as the house ghost of Slytherin was there. And there was four shining crystal balls floating in mid air, and finally a dog in a cage," What a weird class, James," Demelza said.Professor Umbranox started explaining and later ordered James and Demelza to be a group and perform a spell. "You go first," Demelza told James.

James followed Demelza in the classroom and sat next to her. Having seen lots of unusual things for him over the past few weeks, he didn't immediately notice the atypical additions to the classroom: a spectral dog, a ghost and a very odd plant. However, after seeing the expression of surprise on Demelza's face and her comment on how weird this class was, he understood that they were not really going to have an ordinary class.

After reviewing their homework, Professor Umbranox asked them to practice the Lumos Solem and the Lumos Maxima spells as they would be needing them for the second part of the lesson. Then, he announced they would be working in groups of two, teaming up James with Demelza. Glad to be practicing with her, he gave her a smile as she was saying: "You go first". "Okay" he answered.

He was quite confident that he was going to perform well, at least for the first charm, as he had perfectly mastered the basic Lumos spell, and the casting of Lumos Solem was very similar to that of the Wand Lighting Spell. Nevertheless, he was also a bit nervous, especially because the fact that Demelza was watching him and had to criticize him afterwards. Concentrating, he pointed his wand in front of him and pronounced the incantation. A narrow beam of light instantly burst out of the tip of his wand. Satisfied, he glanced at his partner to see her reaction and started getting ready for the second, much more difficult spell. After a few moments, he moved his wand like a whip in a hasty and somewhat clumsy way, uttering: "Lumos Maxima". Unfortunately, nothing happened. Disappointed, he looked at Demelza and asked her: "I don't understand. What did I do wrong?"

Kim was late for her Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Everyone was passing their assignments when she got to sit beside James. She hurriedly took her homework and passed it to her professor. At first, she didn't notice some changes in the room until she saw her own house ghost, the Bloody Baron who was really scary but seems to be nice.

After some introduction, she put out her wand and saw that James and Demelza we're already doing what they have been instructed to do. She was still catching her breath this time, so she decided to let Bill go first.

"I can't conjure a spell while I'm catching my breath. You conjure the spell first then I'll try to watch," Kim said to Bill.

Ambrosius was walking between the different groups, checking how they were faring with the spells. "Nice work for the Lumos Solem charm, James. However, you seem to have some issues with Lumos Maxima. Demelza, could you please point out what he was doing wrong?". Then, he approached the other group and demanded: "Mister Macgonagall, could you please start casting the spells while Miss Frey is recovering?". He didn't raise his voice, but somehow still managed to sound authoritative.

"Yes professor I will" Bill said to the professor. He watched other students do and it is time for him to do the same. "Lumos Solem" Bill said and beam of light appeared from his wand and pointed itself in one direction, Bill felt good that he did that well. But now comes the hard part the lumos maxima spell. Bill moved his wand in elongated S shape and said "Lumos Maxima" but only small ball of light appeared and it went down immediately. "Oh-No what happened?" Bill asked professor and Kim.

"Well, Lumos Maxima seems to be a hard spell to conjure. Maybe this spell really won't work with just casting it once," Kim answered.

Kim took out her book of DADA to look for some tips on how to cast the said spell.

"And according to this book, you also need to have really tough confidence that you'll do the spell to be successful with it," she said without taking her eyes off the book. "You ready to start it again?" Kim said to Bill.

Richard entered classroom 3C and found himself in front of a very strange scene: a ghost, a strange cage made of light containing some sort of spectral dog, the students grouped by two apparently trying to light their wands, and the professor walking among them. Suddenly, they all turned towards him, their attention caught by the sound of the door opening. He quickly snapped out of that moment of confusion and said: "Excuse me for being late, professor, but I have just arrived at Hogwarts, and they just told me about this class. Can I join?"

Ambrosius turned around when he heard the door of the classroom opening. A boy was standing there and asked if he could join the class. "Since it is still the beginning of the term, I will let you attend. However, from next time, I won't tolerate any more late arrivals during class, whatever the reason" he said, emphasizing the last few words. "Now, come on everyone, get back to work" he demanded, as the other students were still waiting to see what will happen with their new classmate. "And you will be practicing with me, since all the others are already in groups" he added looking at the boy who had just entered.

He waited for the boy to join him in the center of the classroom and then said; "First of all, can you tell me your name? And then, I want to know if you have had any experience with magic so far, in particular with the Lumos spell since it is what we have learned during last lesson, and it is necessary for today's assignments."

After laying his backpack near one of the desks, he took out his wand and joined the professor at the center of the room. "My name is Richard Adlard, professor. And I have had quite a lot of experience with magic. My father already taught me the Lumos Spell, lending me his wand so that I could master it, since it is the only spell that is not affected by the Trace" he said, looking the professor in the eyes, with a satisfied smile. He then pointed his wand in front of him and said: "Lumos". The tip of his wand instantly started emitting a bright light. "Nox" he added, and the light immediately turned off. Turning his look back to the professor, he eagerly awaited a new task.

"Impressive" Ambrosius replied with a tad of sarcasm in his voice. He was glad that his new student had already mastered the spell, but did not like his vanity. "I guess you won't have any problems with the Lumos Solem and Lumos Maxima spells either then. We are learning those two charms today as they are necessary for the second part of the lesson, so please try to cast them and I will tell you what to correct."

Eliza walks into room a little bit shy. She had just started Hogwarts. " sorry i was late. I just started Hogwarts." said Eliza. " What are we learning about!" Eliza walked to the only unused desk. She lay her books down. Quickly she waved her wand and said "Lumos," to catch up with the class as her wand slowly lit up at the tip.
Her tie was neatly done up and she was in full uniform.

"Of course" he answered trying to remember the lessons his father gave him. "Lumos Solem" he uttered and grinned seeing his wand successfully performing the spell. Concentrating this time on the elongated S-shaped wand movement required for the second charm, he clearly pronounced: "Lumos Maxima !". A small ball of light appeared at the tip of his wand. It was not very powerful, but since this was a more difficult spell, he was really proud to at least get to that result.

Another one? thought Ambrosius seeing a girl enter the classroom. "Come in, put your bag in the back of the room and join us" he said. He then turned towards Richard Adlard and added: "Since you seem to have mastered the two spells, please team up with your new classmate, explain to her what we are learning, and correct her if she's doing something wrong when casting the charms."

Letting the two of them proceed with practice, he started another walk around the classroom to check up on the other students. Apparently, William Macgonagall had successfully cast the first spell but had some issues with the second one. "Miss Frey is absolutely right" he declared while approaching the group. "Listen, everyone" he demanded loudly so that all the students could hear him. "I'm sure mister Macgonagall is not the only one having problems with Lumos Maxima. Being a powered-up version of another spell, Lumos Maxima requires the utmost focus from the caster. The intent is also different. For the basic Lumos charm, you just had to imagine the outcome in your head. But with this one, you need to concentrate on building and sustaining all the energy of the spell on the tip of your wand, and then releasing it." He raised his wand, moved it in the shape of an S, uttered the incantation, and let the ball of light slowly become bigger and brighter at its extremity, to let his students really understand he nature of the charm. When it was powerful enough, he suddenly moved his hand in a whip-like action and sent the ball of light to the other end of the classroom. "Now get back to practicing. I'll come and see how each group fares." he added. "Try again having this in mind, mister Macgonagall."

"Nox" she added and and her wand turned off.