For questions about Defence Against the Dark Arts (DADA),a fictional magical class taught to magic users in the Harry Potter universe of J.K. Rowling.
DADA, or Defence Against the Dark Arts, is a fictional magical class taught to magic users in the Harry Potter universe of J.K. Rowling.
The discipline ranges from dealing with dangerous magical plants and animals, to dealing with Dark Magic by other wizards.
At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the position to teach DADA was cursed so that no teacher held it for longer than a year; courtesy of Lord Voldemort who wanted to teach DADA there and was rejected by Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. The curse only ended once Voldemort was killed by Harry Potter's efforts.
The discipline was taught differently at different institutions and during different time periods: at Durmstrang school, they taught actual Dark Arts, at Hogwarts before Carrows/Snape's rule, only defense. Some better teachers taught practical skills (Snape, Moody or Lupin), while some followed a silly Ministry line and only taught theoretical knowledge in the books (Umbridge), and some were merely incompetent in the topic, thanks to the curse (Quirrell, who ended up being Voldemort's carrier body; and Lockhart).
