Lesson Four - Basic Level

Professor Wilson entered his classroom. He passed through the empty desks and sat on his chair. He took his wand out and pointed it at the blackboard. Suddenly, a lot of text appeared. Why? He liked to let the students copy the important information and then listen to his lesson without the worry of writing his lesson down. That causes distraction. He then pointed his wand at the desks, and a note appeared on them: ''Copy the text from the blackboard!'' It was just a note for the students who came to the class to copy the text. After all of them were finished, he would start talking. He was done so he had some time to relax before the class starts. Again the same routine, the one thing he disliked about teaching.

James walked in, now used to the way Prof. Wilson ran his class. He sat himself down in the middle row, and called out "Good Morning" to the Professor. He then flicked his wand to the board, and flicked it down his parchment, where the text began appearing on the page. He then proceeded to seek out the correct page numbers from his textbook, and began to read the pages, comparing them to the notes on his page, annotating the notes every now and then with a pencil.

Miseria smiled when she entered the classroom. Ahh, another and perhaps even another enemy like Vincent will give her class today. It was like Slytherin and Gryffindor, though, she wasn't sure which one she was. Yes, she could be mean and on the same time, she was brave enough to show her face here. Yes, she wanted to go away and never returt, but this is school and she knew the rules.

"Good morning," she then said and sat down on the last row, closer to the door so she could escape as fast as she could when the bell rings. She took out her wand, quill, parchment and textbook, placing them all on the table.

Abbey ran into the classroom and said a rushed "Good morning" to everyone before sitting down at a desk. She pulled out a piece of parchment, headed it, and began copying down all the usual notes from the blackboard. Once she was done, Abbey sat up and waited for class to start.

Wilson stood up and looked at the class. Not much, but enough. ''Miss Dawn, I am glad you are here. Great job on your task. I was amazed.'', he said. ''Miss Mason, I do hope you will be able to control yourself.'', he remarked. ''Now, for today's lesson. Muggles and Wizards, a history. As you all may know, or better to phrase, should know, wizards are as old as Muggles, since we are all human beings. The main difference in our history is that we do not know how old our oldest wizard was because we do not have any records of wizardry in pre-history and even earlier, unlike Muggles, who have archaeological records of their first ancestors.'', he said.

He paused for a moment. ''Muggles and Wizards go a long time and, like the man itself, they have not been at war for ever. What I would like to hear from you now is your opinion on this question. Why have Muggles and Wizards started their animosity and who is to blame for it?'', Wilson asked looking at the class.

(NOTICE: I am waiting until tomorrow night for a reply, if I do not get one I will just god mod you all and continue with the lesson)

Miseria wrote down all the text from the blackboard, making it ready at the time when Wilson started talking. She put the quill down on the table and yawned quietly. Right, temper... He was the one who took the wand out in the hospital wing! And then she raised her hand:
"Muggles had this superstition in the middle ages or something," she shrugged. "They thought that Wizards are dangerous and so they started to burn them down. All the people who were suspects, mostly woman, were killed. So muggles could tell on their neighbours as well if they were jealous..." She scowled for a second.

"And for blame... perhaps the church?" She looked back at Wilson, waiting for his respnose. Well, that was her opinion and no one was disallowing her right now.

Wilson looked at her. ''Interesting opinion, Miss Mason, although that small quarrel goes a longer time than the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages were just a part of our little war and it was mainly influenced by the church, as you have well said. Why? Because the church, in the Middle Ages, could not and would not tolerate any form of liberal thought and any form of opinion which was, even minimally, different that its opinion. The Inquisition is one of the greatest crimes of our society. But you have to know, which is why there appears a paradox in your answer, that even Muggles were burnt and tortured during the Middle Ages, not just genuine witches and wizards, well... there was a small percentage of them because, if they were genuine, they could defend themselves, which wrongly accused Muggles could not.'', he explained. ''Nevertheless, 5 points for Hufflepuff, Miss Mason.'', he said and turned to the other two. ''Mister Wake, Miss Dawn... would you care to try?'', he asked.

Miseria nodded to Wilson:"That's why I said 'mostly woman'. They were main suspects at those times..." she explained. Maybe she didn't say it correctly and then he didn't understand her. But then again, she earned few points to Hufflepuff and that was good! She then turned her face to Abbey, waiting for her opinion as well.

Abbey wasn't quite sure about the answer; the one thing she did know, Miseria had already said. Abbey's face reddened as she realized everyone was looking at her, waiting for her to answer. "W..w..well," she stuttered. "Ummm..." Abbey frowned and shook her head, trying to come up with anything else that she could have possibly heard her father talk about a some point in time, anything that she had learned in the past.

"Well, I think I agree with Miseria." she said finally. "It seems that muggles established a prejudice against wizards and witches early on. If you think about it, the Salem witch trials probaly also made alot of muggles hate witches." she explained. "Even though half of them weren't even the real thing, people thought that they were performing evil things, so they just assumed all witches were evil." Abbey explained.

''The Salem witch trials... an interesting subject. Now that the two of you have brought that up... and since it is connected with today's lesson I shall make it more interesting, not typical, not by the book. Miss Mason, please... a small lecture about the Inquisition and how it is important to Muggle-Wizard relations. Miss Dawn, the same about the Salem witch trials. Let me see how you think. Dare to think, as Immanuel Kant said.'', he said.