I wanted to address some areas that a lot of PCs have questions on. The conversation will go something like this:

Player: "My character, XXXX, wants to learn to cast animage/legilimens/occlumens/Avada Kedavra/Imperio/Curcio/etcio...."

DM: "Those are advanced magics that will require a lot of additional work. Some of it will be spell casting, and some of it will be other kinds of RP."

Player: "Great! I'll have my character start it now!"

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Okay....the short answer there is....

No.

These magics are differentiators. They are made to be difficult to master, and as such, they are controlled in much the same way that things like Death-Eater-Wannabe/Werewolf/Jr. Auror League/superstarquidditchplayer are. Any player seeking to learn these magics should engage the DM team and start down the road. I would expect the steps to go something like this:

1. Player sends a formal request to the DMs asking for the chance to learn the magic.
2. DMs respond that the character is being tracked towards achieving the magic.
3. Player needs to start learning. Now then...what does this mean? It's not sitting in a dark room and casting the spell. It is roleplay. It is seeking out teachers. It is attempting to find books. It is working IN THE SIGHT of the DMs. If we don't see it, it didn't happen. There is no telling us that "Well, he's been casting Legilimency on Muggles in the pubs of London." The character must let a DM know and then do the RP while the DM watches.
4. Player advances (if they work) toward the goal. Now then, let's talk about that. From previous player RP or the rules behind learning the magic, I know that many of these spells can have permanent BAD effects. Legilimency or Occlumency? You can fry your brains. Animage? There is a man...Mr. Fredricks...who supposedly runs around St. Mungo's panting like a dog. He's the world's only 72 year old beagle. These magics require work and luck. Hard work can offset some of the luck, but there is still always the chance to end up with things going badly. Perma'ing the PC is a definite possibility.
5. Player wins/loses/quits/dies. Resolution...of one sort or another.

So...if you have a character that wants this kind of ability, ask to start down the path. Things will NOT be handed to you as the goal is to encourage active RP between players and other players...players and NPC....players and books.... But, the door is there. I won't lie, though. There are limits to the number of certain types of PCs that are allowed. It's not necessarily fair, but it's also to keep things under control. A whole room full of werewolf Hufflepuffs would just be a pain on the night of the Full Moon. If every Slytherin was a Legilimens, it would make for some rough days of staring at the floor. You get the picture.

So....decide if it's worth it. Come up with a backstory that is approved by the DMs. Work, work, and work. Accept what happens. I'm still taking my hat off to Felix Delgado's player. He tried animage and failed. The character was perma'd as a result, but...some great RP came out of it!

There...now you have it. In the magic words of Stan Lee....

Excelsior!

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You go your way
I'll go your way too

I would like to add to this something that is a common misconception. There is no recipe, order of events, or set structure to the gaining of advanced magics. Rolling solid 18-20 on a d20 won't cut it. These magics are not guaranteed simply by following a pre-set policy. I've had players yell at me when a roll of a 20 resulted in "nothing happening." Yes, if you roll a 20 on an attempt to push the castle across the grounds with your bare hands, "nothing" will happen. It won't even move an inch. The RP itself is far more important than the roll, if there's a roll at all.

There is no standard. These are very much a case-by-case thing, very much decided based on that particular character's role play. The story of how these are learned are tailored to a specific character. Please do not expect that by putting work work work and roll after roll will get the magic granted to the character; what was role played just may not have been what it took. And please don't expect the DM you are working with to explain what it will take to achieve it, this is for your character to figure out the hard way.

Just another note on these magics- if you are looking at these magics as something to be attained, you are missing the point. Your character should see it that way, but to you the player, the journey to the end should be at least as important, if not more so. You should be doing this to get RP out of the learning process, not to get the magical ability.

Some of these may take an RL year (or several!) of focused RP for your character to get good at it, -if- they are able to get good at it at all. Please understand that the player can RP their character perfectly, and the character themselves just may not be able to do it. It's not a reflection of the player or the RP quality, always remember that an IC failure is something that can add tremendous RP to your chatacter! In fact, perfect RP of a character may mean that the player intentionally has the character mess up, or utterly fail.

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-Calan

Liss Crest, Slytherin
Kalara Crest, Hufflepuff
Elizabeth Finley, The Moon

In addition, this is very much related to a much larger discussion on Out Of Character versus In Character; a discussion I would enjoy having with any of you, but which is not within the scope of this topic. Suffice it for me to add my weight behind Calan's (considerable) own when I say that IC struggles and failures are at the heart of truly worthwhile roleplay. Anyone who is "stuck" at seventh year and is bored has not given their character enough opportunity to struggle or fail. Succeeding easily at these things mentioned above, at its very best, merely provides your character with another "power" to pocket -- one which will likely be of very little use to them.

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"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me" -Nathaniel Lee

Shifty are the eyes of the gambler...