Dark Arts Defence: Basics for Beginners

"Some of the spooky material in this book should be familiar to you. Some of it will almost certainly be breathtakingly new to you. All of it is essential to obtain a thorough understanding of the Dark Arts and of all the other formidable, scary, creepy things which are out there."

- Description of the book on its back cover.

Dark Arts Defence: Basics for Beginners was an introductory level Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook issued by the Ministry of Magic. The book was presented only a theoretical examination of the topic, and lacked practical information on countering Dark Magic, such as how to use defensive spells.

In the 1995–1996 school year, when Dolores Umbridge was the professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts class of Hogwarts school, she supplied her fifth year students with a book each, and had them read from it and understand only the theories for their examinations. Although she claimed it was a "carefully-structured, Ministry-approved" guideline to repair the previously unstable curriculum, it was in truth to prevent the students from being trained in combat and become Albus Dumbledore's soldiers to overthrow the Ministry, a paranoid fear stemming from Cornelius Fudge.

Intercepting a Counter Incantation 'On-the-Go' was one of the spell techniques covered by this title.

Behind the scenes

 * In the film version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, this book is used in Dolores Umbridge's fifth-year Defence Against the Dark Arts class, rather than Wilbert Slinkhard's Defensive Magical Theory.
 * Instead of the usual of students buying the textbook before the start of term, Umbridge handed out the books during their first class because, as it is written in the cover, it is a Ministry of Magic issue.
 * In LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, Umbridge used a book transfiguring spell to transform defensive books carried by members of Dumbledore's Army into this book. In addition, the books are pink with a cat playing with yarn in the front cover.
 * The people who wrote this book also wrote Abracadabra: An A-Z of Spooky Spells.
 * The illustration on the book's front cover contains an infinite regression.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7