Chapter Eleven
“First day of school always hits hard,” Ron said as we sat down for breakfast after receiving our schedules.
“Oh do stop complaining. It’s a Friday and we didn’t have class first thing since we’re supposed to do Astronomy on Thursday evenings. Then it’s History of Magic with Lupin, Potions with the new teacher and then it’s the weekend,” Hermione said.
“If we had known we had the first period free I could have slept in instead of coming down to get schedules,” I said.
“You and your sleep. I still don’t get how you need at least ten hours,” Hermione said.
“Tell me about it. Now that we have real teachers for History and Potions, I have to actually go to those classes instead of going to my room to take a nap or doing homework,” I said.
“History was great for naps,” Ron said sadly.
“I can’t wait for History. I'm glad we have Moony now,” Harry said.
“I know. I’ve been self studying for three years but I’ll learn so much better with a real teacher,” Hermione said.
“History might just turn out to be my favorite subject though,” I said.
History of Magic was in a new classroom given it was impossible to remove Binns from his classroom. He was probably still teaching his biased opinion of the goblin rebellions to a classroom of empty desks.
Lupin was standing at the front of the classroom. He was dressed in nice wool robes in the soft brown tones he favored and looked so much less depressed than last year.
“Welcome to History of Magic. Your OWLs will be at the end of next year so we will need to cover five years of teaching in two years. This year we will be starting at the founding of Hogwarts. Over the course of the year, we will study the implementation of the Statue of Secrecy, the creation of the Ministry and our relations with the other magical countries. Next year we will be doing Ancient Magical history, starting at the earliest records of magical creatures up until the creation of Hogwarts,” Lupin began, writing on the chalkboard.
“Over the course of this school year, we will have many smaller assignments, two larger essays and a final exam. The essays will be due shortly before winter break and shortly before spring break. The final exam will be taken at the same time as your other final exams and will include multiple choice questions, short answer questions and a few longer answer questions. Are there any questions?” Lupin asked.
“How long should the essays be?” Hermione asked after Lupin called on her.
“They should be around ten to twelve pages, although what is most important is ensuring you have a good argument,” Lupin replied.
“What are the essays going to be on?” Anthony Goldstein asked.
“They will each have a few essay prompts to choose from. The first essay will be regarding the founding of Hogwarts and the first few centuries after that. The second essay will be on the creation of the Ministry and the events leading up to that, around the 1600s and 1700s. The final exam will cover everything we have learned over the year but focus most heavily on the events of the last century,” Lupin said.
After checking there were no other questions, Lupin began the class.
“Hogwarts was created in 990 Common Era, just over a thousand years ago. While their exact ages are unknown, the founders met each other after they had come of age at seventeen and created Hogwarts at least several years later. Scholars believe they were in their twenties or thirties when Hogwarts was first founded.”
“In the tenth century, prejudice against witches and wizards was at an all time high in Albion. Magical families were persecuted and murdered by their neighbors. Muggleborn children would sometimes even be killed by their families when they first found magic. Children were most at risk as they were untrained and could not defend themselves. The founders wanted to create a safe space for children to learn to use their magic.”
“I would like to clarify. When I say muggle born children, I mean children born to muggle parents, half bloods or purebloods who lived in predominantly muggle villages or orphans who were raised in orphanages as part of muggle societies. They lived as part of muggle society, instead as part of the noble families who lived separate from muggle society.”
“At first their school consisted of around a dozen children in a small village. Children born of at least one muggle parent, who made up the majority of magical children prior to the Statue of Secrecy, would frequently be given up to wandering witches or wizards whether because their parents believed it was safest for them or because their parents no longer wanted them. However as word spread and the school grew in size, the other villagers turned against them. They moved from village to village, leaving whenever the villagers began to turn against them or the local lords decided to persecute them.”
“Eventually, the Founders decided that they needed a safe place removed from non-magicals to protect and teach their students, who grew in numbers. And so they went into the mountains, far removed from any people. For seven days and seven nights the four founders poured their magic into creating a safe haven for magickind. With the combined power of the four strongest wixen of their time, they created a fortress of stone and mortar, imbued with magic that would protect wizenkind for as long as it stood. By the time the sun rose on the eighth day, the castle stood strong, hidden by the strongest magical wards that the world had ever seen. Hogwarts.”
“Word spread throughout the magical community about Hogwarts. More and more magical children journeyed to Hogwarts, whether sent by their families or travelling on their own. The school swelled in size. Many tried to attack Hogwarts, but they could never even find it. The wards hid Hogwarts from muggles, while letting in all magical children.”
“While magicals were protected within the wards of the castle, Hogwarts could not protect them once they left its grounds. While children from old magical families had their parents or relatives escort them to and from Hogwarts on breaks, muggleborn children had no such protection. As the magical community grew more powerful with children being educated at Hogwarts, the hatred of the magical community grew in proportion. Muggleborn children began being attacked and killed either on the road or in their villages. Sometimes it was even their families that were responsible.”
“This issue led to a divide in the founders. The Quill of Acceptance and Book of Admission had just been created and recorded all magical children. While any magical child who sought sanctuary at Hogwarts was accepted regardless of age, the founders would seek out magical children only at the age of ten or eleven. Many children died in those first ten years. The story that Salazar Slytherin wanted to deny admission to muggleborn children is untrue.”
“Slytherin wanted to take magical children from their muggle families once they first showed signs of magic. Gryffindor wanted to take revenge on all those who harmed magical children. Ravenclaw wanted to encourage all children to remain at Hogwarts year round, but did not want to force them to. Hufflepuff had hopes of a peaceful solution.”
“The issue came to a head when members of the Catholic Church kidnapped a young wizard on his way to visit his family and forced the boy to give them access to the school. They slaughtered many of the unsuspecting children who were on the Hogwarts grounds before the teachers noticed and defeated the muggle attackers. Gryffindor was severely injured in the attack and lay in the Hospital Wing for several days before waking.”
“Slytherin left during the night to take revenge on those responsible and ultimately died doing so. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff reached out to Morgana’s Home and worked with them to remove muggleborn children from unsafe situations.”
“That’s all for today. Next week we will be going over how Hogwarts was structured in it’s early days and the beginnings of Hogsmeade. Have a good day!” Lupin said, ending the class a few minutes early.
“Well, that one class was better than three years of Binns,” Ron said.
“That was fascinating. Even Hogwarts: A History didn’t go into that much detail about the creation of Hogwarts,” Hermione gushed.
“I can’t wait to learn next year about when the earliest recorded wixen history is. I mean the muggle world has artefacts dating back around 6,000 years ago when the Ice Age was ending and the Stone Age was beginning. But wixen might have history records from before that, even if it’s just verbal,” I mused.
“I didn’t even think of that. How far back does magic go? Where did it come from? Are wixen a separate race of humanity like the Neanderthals and the Denisovians?” Hermione asked.
“That would make sense,” I said.
“Can you nerd out on your own time?” Harry asked playfully.
After lunch, we walked down to the dungeons where the Potions classroom was located. Already, the damp classroom felt less depressing than when it was Snape’s domain. We made a point to arrive ten minutes before class started and the four of us were the first to enter the classroom. Professor Slughorn lit up when he saw us and came over.
“Mr Potter. An honor to meet you at long last,” Slughorn said, grabbing Harry’s hand and shaking it.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Professor. I look forward to your class,” Harry said politely. Andromeda’s politics lessons were clearly paying off.
“Indeed. I tried to invite you to a luncheon I was hosting on the Hogwarts Express, but the first year I sent with the message couldn’t find you,” Slughorn said with a laugh, probing for information.
“That would be my fault I’m afraid,” I said. “I put up some eavesdropping wards and a few notice me not charms around our compartment so we would not be disturbed. We are sorry to have missed your luncheon.”
“Oh! Casting wards at such a young age. Very impressive Miss …?” Slughorn trailed off.
“Zo Hawk. And this is Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger,” I introduced.
“Lovely! So nice to meet you all. I am planning to host regular get-togethers for the most promising students. We called it the Slug Club back in the day. I would be thrilled if all four of you would join,” Slughorn invited, eyes darting over the way we were clustered together and clearly deciding it was best to extend a group offer. Smart.
Hermoine stepped on Harry’s foot.
“We would be delighted,” Harry said, looking anything but delighted.
“Excellent!” Slughorn replied, just as the first trickle of students began coming in.
History class went amazingly, although the bar was practically underground after Snape’s tenure as Potions professor. Slughorn patiently taught us about how to brew a Wit-Sharpening Potion. When he realized that everyone lacked a basic understanding of how potions were made, he immediately called off the lesson in horror and started teaching us a condensed version of the first year curriculum. Apparently he had only had the first years in the morning classes and had yet to realize how much the student body lacked in terms of Potions education.
It should have been insulting, but instead it was relieving to have a competent teacher in Potions. Slughorn taught us about what the individual ingredients did, how boiling them for certain lengths of time changed their potency, why the stirring time and heat was so important. He compared Potions to any other magical discipline, showing us how a potion was made of many individual parts and that you could not properly brew a potion with merely the instructions, you must first understand how the ingredients interacted with each other.
The lesson ended up stretching far past the end of class, although Slughorn did make note of the time and say that staying after was optional. Given Potions was the last class of the day and Slughorn was highlighting how atrocious our lack of Potions knowledge was, nearly everyone opted to stay after to his delight. Eventually, he ended the lesson shortly before dinner began, stating that he would need to completely revise his lesson plans and bemoaning how he would get his OWL and NEWT students up to speed.
“I knew Snape was horrible at teaching, but I never realized how much he was actively sabotaging our education,” Ron said as we left the dungeons.
“Self study isn’t really a good option for Potions, like it is in History. I had just been memorizing the ingredients to make things, but Slughorn completely opened my eyes on Potion making,” Hermione said.
“Potions is probably going to have a resurgence of popularity now that Slughorn is the teacher. I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of the sixth and seventh years who had dropped Potions tried to get into his upper classes,” I remarked.
“No kidding,” Harry said.
“I’m going to go to the library to do some research for the house elves rights movement before dinner,” Hermione said.
“I think I’ll go find Fred and George. They would love to get their hands on Potions notes, they are completely self taught as well in Potions and it is really important for their pranks,” Ron said.
“See you at dinner. I’m going to go track down some of those who said they wanted to talk to me once school started,” I said.
“Here, why don’t you take the Map?” Harry said, offering me the blank parchment.
Daphne was in an empty classroom with Tracey Davis on the second floor. I leaned my head in to see the two girls sitting at desks and looking over their class notes while they chatted.
“-all ready for the Mabon festival?” Tracey asked Daphne.
“Zo! What are you doing here?” Daphne asked, cutting Tracey off.
“Mabon? The old Pagan holiday?” I asked curiously, entering the room dropping down beside Daphne.
“Tracey and I are doing some extra research for History of Magic,” Daphne lied smoothly.
“You’re lying,” I said, curious.
“No I’m not,” Daphne said.
“You looked briefly panicked for just a second, you are fiddling with the hem of your robe which you always do when you lie and you mentioned preparations for an old holiday that if I remember correctly, should be taking place soon. So why are you lying?” I asked, curiously scanning her face.
“Please don’t tell anyone about what you heard. I’ll owe you a favor for whatever you want,” Daphne asked, as shaken as I had ever seen her.
“Most pagan rituals are banned, aren’t they? But you’re from a noble family and underage, you would barely get a warning if you and Tracey were doing an illegal ritual. Furthermore, you are visibly distressed which means you are freaking out and you just offered me a no holds barred favor. So I’m guessing that means you are part of something larger that you are afraid of finding out,” I surmised.
“What will it take for you to keep quiet?” Daphne asked.
“Explain everything. If nobody is getting hurt and it’s just breaking a law I don’t agree with anyway, I won’t tell,” I promised.
Daphne wavered.
“I can’t tell you. There’s a whole procedure for those interested in joining the Old Ways. I’d have to talk to the Youth Priestess and then she would decide what to do,” Daphne explained.
“Secret pagan rituals? I don't want to join, I was just curious. I might be interested, but I would need a lot more information first. But from the sounds of it this is highly secret, so if you need to get permission, then okay. I won’t tell anyone in the meantime,” I promised.
“Not even your friends?”
“Not even them. But once again, only so long as nobody is getting hurt,” I said.
“Nobody is getting hurt. I’ll be in touch within a week. Don’t say anything,” Daphne said. “Now, what was it you need to talk to me about.”
“That thing we discussed during Sirius’ ball. But if you’re busy we can set up another time,” I said.
“Does 2:00 tomorrow work?” Daphne asked.
“Works for me,” I replied. “The Room of Requirement?”
“See you then” Daphne said, beforing standing up and walking out of the classroom.
So, a secret pagan society. I had wondered why the Wixen World was so pseudo-Christianised instead of having pagan beliefs. I had simply assumed that it was something that slowly evolved as society modernised, similar to the gradual transition from staffs to wands. This called for a deep dive into historical research.