DADA-301 Lessons

Welcome to the second lesson on vampires. If you remember from last lesson, we covered the bare essentials of what makes a vampire, we covered the origin and history of the vampire and the Italian vampire clan that divided and spread around the world, and then covered a massive event where Muggles were affected by a malevolent vampire attack. Today, we will be talking about what makes a vampire malevolent, what their supernatural abilities are, and how to repel vampires (and why we can’t kill them). It is also important that we talk about what a vampire is not, since I have seen many portrayals recently that are just inaccurate. We have lots to cover, so let’s dive right in!

The Temperament of a Vampire
As we have already covered incidences of attacks by malevolent vampires, you are probably getting the impression that most vampires are malevolent. However, this is far from the case. Please recall that Ambrogio, the original vampire, was in no way malevolent. He had no desire to attack Selene and almost refused; had Selene not begged him to do it, he probably would not have. Throughout history, there are examples of both malevolent vampires and civil vampires.

The malevolent vampires are the ones that, in most cases, get the most attention. As described in the case of the New England Vampire Panic, the malevolent vampire goes out of their way to cause harm to others. They have chosen to make it their life goal to lure in victims; their purpose for luring these victims is for a meal, to change them, or a combination of both. They hold no regard for human life, despite the knowledge that they themselves were once human. In most cases, these are the vampires who become involved in clan wars or were openly hunted by witches and wizards before the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans (more on that later). Some common portrayals of these types of vampires are Count Dracula (pictured below), as portrayed by Bram Stoker, and the vampires that can be seen on the popular TV series Supernatural.

Then, there are the civil vampires. They almost always respect human life and the moral implications of attacking a human. These vampires will go out of their way to ensure that no human is harmed by them, including making agreements with blood banks in order to have a supply of blood to feed on. When they are unable to make it to a blood bank, or the owner of the bank is unwilling to make an agreement with the civil vampire, they will mostly attack cows and goats to get the blood - they would rather have to feed more often than hurt a human (and they frequently make stops at Honeydukes and other such sweet shops to make purchases of blood-flavored lollipops). It is also not unknown for civil vampires to attend parties, such as the Christmas Party thrown by Slughorn which was attended by Sanguini the vampire as a guest of famed vampire enthusiast Eldred Worple! I see the confused looks, yes vampires enjoy parties as much as you or I. And if you ever get the opportunity, ask them about the Transylvanian Twist - do not refer to it as the Monster Mash, they will get touchy about that!

Now, there is one last important note that must be covered. Though civil vampires will not regularly attack humans, they can get desperate if they have been unable to find a source of food in a while. If this desperation sets in, they can be malevolent until they have eaten. This is why I strongly encourage you all to take precautions if you know that a vampire will be around - better safe than sorry.

It’s...Not Natural
The reason that you should take the necessary precautions when around a vampire, even a civil vampire, is because of their supernatural powers that make them more than human. This starts with their extended lives. Many people believe that vampires are immortal, but in truth, they simply live extremely long lives. It takes many centuries for a vampire to die of natural causes, but it does happen.

If you are ever forced to run a race against, or attempt to outrun, a vampire, you will lose. Vampires are well-known for their super speed. It is because of this speed that they are seemingly able to appear from nowhere, even if they had previously been behind you. This speed is also accompanied by superhuman strength. While the strength of the vampire varies (depending on their workout regimen), I have never seen a vampire that, at minimum, could not lift a small car.

The other, more prominent, supernatural ability that vampires have is the power to manipulate your mind. They can change your perceptions about what you think you see and, worse, can take full control of your mind through the power of hypnosis. Many of the perceived concepts about what a vampire can do come from the hypnotic effect that the vampire has over the human mind. For example, it is believed that a vampire has the ability to transform into a bat; this is false and is simply a manipulation of the mind caused by the vampire to create fear. It is not often that a vampire will try to scare a human away from their home. If they do, it is usually a civil vampire getting desperate for food, but still has enough rationality that they do not want to harm the human.

Now, there are two notions of the vampire that we have not yet addressed: their lack of shadow and their lack of reflection. The lack of shadow is completely false. Even though vampires are considered living dead, they still have physical forms and, therefore, can block light the same way that any human can. Since they can block light, they will also cast a shadow when moving about in the day. Most of the ideas of a vampire having no shadow come from the fact that most people only encounter vampires on dark, cloudy nights. The lack of reflection in the mirror, on the other hand, is partially true. If you have had previous exposure to the vampire, and have been under the influence of its hypnotic power - something that would happen to most humans who have ever encountered a vampire - then your mind will reject its image in the mirror. Vampires often do this, again, to increase the scare factor to try and get the human to leave their residence.

For all of their strengths, vampires have several critical limitations. The first of these limitations is sunlight. While sunlight will not kill a vampire, it will detrimentally harm the vampire by taking away its supernatural abilities. It will still be able to feed and will still be pale and gaunt, but for all intents and purposes, it will be a pale, gaunt human who feeds on blood. The other limitation that is not associated with defending against the vampire is its inability to enter a residence that it has not been invited to enter. In order to cross the threshold of a house or building, a vampire must have express permission to enter. Anyone who says otherwise is simply telling a ghost story, not describing an actual encounter with a vampire.

Finally, it is possible for a vampire to breed with a human and create a half-breed. This process is extremely complex and the details will not be covered here in school - in fact, the details will not be discussed unless you continue your studies beyond Hogwarts and become a specialist in vampires. However, it is important that you know about the offspring of a human and a vampire, known as a dhampir. A dhampir is special because they will look like a human, albeit a little paler than usual (not as pale as a vampire, though), and will not have a vampire’s thirst for blood. Aside from the slight paleness, a dhampir will have either the superhuman strength or the superhuman speed of a vampire, never both. They also will have a slightly longer lifespan than the average human.

Stop! Or I’ll Say Stop Again
To continue discussing the limitations of the vampire, we can also move into how we protect ourselves from them. The first method of defense against a vampire is garlic. By wearing cloves of garlic around your neck, or being near garlic, a vampire will avoid you. No one is quite sure what it is about garlic that repels a vampire. Some think that it has to do with the pungent smell that will keep most people away, while others speculate that garlic, when eaten, will prevent vampirism from afflicting you. None of these rumors or speculation has ever been confirmed. All we know for sure is that garlic will have a vampire turning the other way. With that in mind, it is a good idea to keep some garlic in stock and, when you live on your own, to grow a garden that includes garlic (for proper garlic growing advice, you can talk to our esteemed Herbology professor, Professor Aspen).

The second limitation of a vampire is that they cannot be in the presence of a holy symbol, such as a crucifix or holy water. The only stipulation is that the person hanging the symbol must have a strong belief in the power behind the symbol. If you attempt to hang a crucifix in your house, or throw holy water on the vampire, but do not believe in the powers that would have blessed those symbols, then they will simply serve as a decoration and will not have any effect on the vampire. This is why many people will flee to churches in an attempt to escape a vampire - though the individual may not hold the belief, a church usually contains the powers of those who do believe and will function as a deterrent to the vampire.

Finally, before we can move to the end of our lesson, and thus our discussion of vampires, we have to discuss the legal implications behind killing them. While many modern adaptations demonstrate a disregard for vampiric life and a freedom when killing them, know that the Ministry does keep track of all known vampires and that it is illegal for anyone to kill a vampire. This is according to paragraph twelve in the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans, which outlines the ethical treatment of vampires and the way that they must be treated as beings with moral understanding and cannot be killed except in the most dire of circumstances. If you find yourself in one of these circumstances, you should attempt to drive a wooden stake through the heart of the vampire or to decapitate it. However, be aware that the Ministry does investigate all vampire deaths, that they will expect you to present a memory of the incident which caused you to kill it, and that they can tell if a memory has been tampered with, so do not try to deceive them.

What a Vampire is NOT
We are just about out of time for today, so I want to close by dispelling some of the popular myths and ideas about what constitutes a vampire. Below you will see a picture of one of the more popular “vampires” in modern culture.

What you see here is a “vampire” by the name of Edward Cullen. He, and other vampires like him, are portrayed the novel series and movies known as the Twilight Saga. Through this series, author Stephenie Meyer attempts to create a new breed of vampire that does not become weaker in sunlight, but rather they sparkle when exposed - a phenomenon that is explained by the solidification of cells. Vampires as described by Meyer also are considered excessively beautiful and are often compared to gods. There is also a misconception that vampires can find the blood of a single individual appealing and will crave the blood of that person once they have found them. Finally, these types of “vampires” have changing eye colors that reflect their age and the amount of blood that they have consumed.

Let me assure you than none of this is true. While Meyer does get some facts about vampires correct in her presentation, she makes it seem like the need for human blood is something that a vampire can control, that the reason vampires avoid sunlight is so that they don’t expose themselves by sparkling in public, and that their appearance is something to be desired. None of this is fact. A vampire will never sparkle, and if they do it is an illusion created by their hypnotic mind powers for whatever reason they have chosen; a vampire will consume the blood of any individual and not have a preference for the blood of a single person. While it is true that they prefer the blood of humans to animals, it doesn’t have any serious negative effects on the vampire to drink animal blood. Then there is the eye color of a vampire. The majority of true vampires have eyes that are blood red, but will never change. Once a person becomes a vampire, their eyes will change and that will be the end of that. They are in no way an indication of how old the vampire is or how much blood of a certain type the vampire has consumed, if any.

When completing your assignments, please keep this in mind, as Twilight “vampires” and their characteristics will not be accepted as responses.

And so we finally come to the end of our set of lessons about vampires. I hope that you all feel more confident in your knowledge about these fascinating creatures - knowledge that, even here, I have only begun to scratch the surface of. I highly encourage you to continue researching them on your own, just be aware of what is and is not a credible source.

Next class, we will start our coverage of werewolves, the mythological enemy of the vampire. As with vampires, this topic will be covered in two lessons and will take us to the final exam. I hope you all are as excited as I am!

Class dismissed!

Original lesson written by Professor Jericho Penrose

Image Source(s)
Dracula: https://variety.com/2015/film/news/universal-monster-movies-mummy-dracula-frakenstein-1201642140/
Edward Cullen: https://twilightsaga.fandom.com/wiki/Edward_Cullen