History of Magic 3PM, Monday Oct 5, 2009 Classroom

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>>Above all, FUN!! (and don't destroy the classroom)

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Nothing like the class following a Hogsmeade weekend where there was bound to be sweets, new joke items, gossip about which couples were at Madam Puddifoots and all the other signs of weekend frivolity that there were bound to be. Ah, when Hogsmeade were the most desirable things at his age. When you could convince Terrence to maximize their weekend potential for "research" and the idea of sneaking into a private room in the Three Broomsticks with Primrose Claggin...

Err, never mind. Dates with Primmy had never ended well with how stressed out she could get. Probably made her a hypochondriac.

"Alrighty," Sissel addressed the class. "I know what interests you the most about this year. Thee Tournament, now Tetra instead of Tri. You paying attention Casey, this sounds like your thing but there's that blank look on your face."

The sick looking Slytherin scowled slightly, making every effort to keep the fact unknown that he had an invisible book in the cluster of his things.

"Not only is the competition prime entertainment and a chance for each champion to showcase the best of their abilities, it offers tremendous insight into foreign culture, even if some of it is mostly Western European of origin."

Sissel looked around the room. "So who's learned something about our guests, or who has that invaluable insight on the history of the Tournament that they want to share? You who are joining us from afar," the few youngest students allowed to attend from the competition, "will be a tremendous help to our understanding."

Ayla sat at her desk with her supplies all ready and set to go, a roll of parchment in front of her with quill in her hand. Her private notebook (one that was charmed to become invisible should someone else try to read it) was perched off to the side in case she had a sudden inspiration to add something to her latest recipes. In the past she would only bring it out during potions since it was the most logical class to equate to baking but lately she had been catching inspirations from the strangest places and felt it was best to keep it close by at all times.

Unlike some of her other classes Ayla's attention was rapt and at the front of the room regarding Professor Jowd. She was beginning to really enjoy his classes. He was nice and funny and kind of cute (nothing compared to the Adonis that Professor Frasier was but enough for her to enjoy looking at) and easily much better than that crotchety old Professor Austerlitz. The best part was that Ayla was actually retaining the information he had been teaching them.

"Over the summer we did a pen pal program, I learned a fair amount about Beauxbatons through that and my cousin Ginny's here from Salem. It's not that different from the school I would have gone to had my Dad not become an Ambassador over here." By now most of her classmates had gotten used to Ayla mentioning her home country (Afterall a Canadian accent was hard to hide amongst all the British and Scottish ones within the castle) along with her father, Joseph Collins, who was the Canadian Ambassador for the Department of International Cooperation but she didn't think she had mentioned it in front of Professor Jowd before.

It was the end of the day and Naomi had let her curls down for History of Magic and runes, since they didn't involve anything as physically demanding as Professor Storm's class (unless Aileen had some sort of "mishap"). So she relaxed and paid attention to the lesson at hand, though she missed having class with Austerlitz.

Despite Professor Jowd's proclomation, Naomi wasn't as terribly interested in the tournament. Even if she could participate, she still wouldn't be that interested. There was something about comparing wand sizes and magical capabilities Naomi just wasn't interested in unless it involved marriage--which meant suitors had to go through trials orchestrated by their desired partner's family in order to get married. That was fun to watch. Though maybe she wouldn't think so when the time came for her marriage... nah.

Despite her disinterest in the tournament itself, Naomi was interested in the foreigners who were staying at the school--her dungeon neighbors specifically, "Dursmtrang has school ranks," Naomi inserted with a light lilt of fascination, "Zufrieden and Oberteil are 'di ones that are here, but I t'ink there's a third one they didn't bring wit 'dem."

She'd heard something about students getting 'demoted to the Dregs,' whatever that meant, yet she had yet to see what, who, or where the Dregs were. She could only assume they weren't actually at Hogwarts. Odd.

With a more matter-of-fact and lazy tone Naomi added, "'Dey also call what 'dey study Spellworks, Intangibles, and Tangibles."

It wasn't that Zoe disliked History of Magic, it was just she found it a lot more boring than any of the wandwork or more magical classes. History was more of a muggle subject. Professor Jowd was nice though, and classes were always at least slightly enjoyable. The subject of the day excited Zoe.

The Ravenclaw chimed in after Naomi. "Beauxbaton is divided up too, into two 'schools'. There is Collège for the younger ages, 11 to 14, and Lycée for the older ages, 15 to 18. I personally find that strange, because in the non-magic folk world here College is the higher form of schooling." She wanted to add her opinion, just so she seemed to be taking something from the information.

"Also," Zoe continued, "They teach non-magic folk subjects. They have music, dance, literature, and even crafting magical objects for the older students. This won't surprise you, but the younger students are required to take an ettiquette class as well."

Ella sat in her history class, really, really tempted to put her feet on the desk. Good holy father, why was she so fidgety? She couldn't help it! It had been months since she had had a good surf, swim, trail ride, or anything. How on earth could the students at Hogwarts even survive not being next to an ocean? That measly lake did nothing for her, even though she was already on good terms with the Giant Squishy in the water. She couldn't help but grin when she thought about Finding Nemo.

When Mr. Jowd... or Professor, she supposed, began speaking, she sat up straight and folded her hands together in a vain attempt to still them. They were talking about foreign schools? Sick. She could actually contribute to that discussion.

After the Hogwarts students finished speaking, Ella raised her hand and put in her two cents.

"Well, Salem is totally different from any of the European schools. Merlin, it's pretty different from any of the schools in the rest of the U.S. to begin with. It's a mix of old and new, but its getting pretty American as time goes on. We have different names for everything: like Zoology is Care of Magical Creatures and Numerology is Arithmancy."

She paused for a moment to think for a moment, chewing on her quill. "Oh! We also use lots of muggle things, like I knew how to use a quill because my Brazilian grandparents in Boston are uber-old fashioned, but at Salem I always used pencils and ballpoint pens. Still, probably the most obvious differences are sports and houses. I couldn't believe y'all only had one sport when I came here. I'm all like: dude, really? At Salem, we have so many extracurriculars ,I wouldn't be able to name them all. Choir, drama, soccer, football, volleyball, art, clay, track, and plenty of extra time if you don't do those. I personally surf whenever I can, even in the nasty winter."

Ella couldn't help but chuckle. She swept her long hair over her shoulder. "And then houses. I had never heard of such a thing. I mean, Salem Junior has two halls, but it's just where you sleep. Same with Senior. I'm in Ptolemy Hall, but have actually never been there since we came to Hogwarts this year. It's based mostly on what you want to do eventually and which buildings on the campus you're going to be spending most of your time in. It would totally suck if you got put in Cliodne Hall and then ended up having most of your classes in the Observatory. We don't do things by personality and it doesn't make much sense to me. If there were 100 people similar to me living with me and having classes with me, Salem Junior would have exploded a hundred times over!"

Realizing that, once again, she had let her mouth run for longer than necessary, she shut up. "Those are only the most obvious things."   

Moira was another student who held no interest in the tournament. At all. Four years she had been at Hogwarts, studying and slowly coming to terms on being somewhat social. It wasn't as overwhelming to have so many people around as when she first came to the school, but she still didn't really like it. Full classes like this still made her antsy to get away. Then what with all the extra students from the other schools roaming Hogwarts as well, the Scottish girl found herself sneaking off to hide more often than not.

The class that did fully hold her interest, however, was the care of magical creatures. This was not. Mostly this was the history of people, and so far she didn't really care overly about people. Moira didn't want them hurt.... most of them. There were a few she wouldn't mind sneaking those bed bugs Muggles were plagued with into their beds. Muggle Studies. She wouldn't take that class, ever, but if there were Muggle Creatures Studies, she would jump at it in a heart beat. The fact that their creatures had nothing magical about them and how they managed to survive was fascinating.

Pulling herself back out of her thoughts she listened to the other students, including the hyper Salem girl, answer Professor Jowd's question. Never having much to say in most of these classes, she sat off to the side, the back was too obvious, and did her best to remain unnoticeable. As she did just about everywhere. Same as Hogwart students, she had avoided the foreign students as well. Aside from that incident at the lake and the flying monkey and that Salem boy. That had been rather embarrassing.

Katy worked slowly and deliberately, writing out what her students had to say.  She rolled her eyes at Ayla's self-promotion, which was about as subtle as getting hit with a rock.  But it was Ella's Yankee accent that made her cringe and create an ugly black splotch on her paper.  She sighed heavily, crossed the entire line out, and started again beneath it.

Overall, her classmates answers were fairly shallow in their answers.  Katy wanted to know why Durmstrang only brought members from two of the three ranks.  Katy liked to know why.  Individual points of information were useless unless you could the reasons behind them that connected them all together.  They formed patterns behind the scenes that gave meaning to be used in similar circumstances in the future.

That dissatisfaction confirmed, Katy raised her hand and then spoke.  "The Triwizard Tournament was often criticized for creating animosity between the students of the schools involved but it has evolved into a way to expose children of one school to children from another, proven by the expansion of the Tournament to include Salem, an American school.  I'm curious about why all the major schools of the world weren't invited to participate as well."

Ayla rolled her eyes right back at Katy but it was nothing compared to the look she had given Ella. Despite having family that lived in the States Ayla hated Americans, mostly because those she had met were ignorant fools, this Alvers girl didn't seem to be changing her opinion either. From what she knew Salem wasn't that different from Pinebrook or even Northwest well at least when it came in to integrating more muggle subjects and sports and what not. However Ayla kept her opinions to herself when Katy brought up a fair point.

"Well there's a lot of wizarding schools aren't there? I mean Canada's got Pinebrook and Northwest, The States have Salem and Red Rocks, then there's Beit Gaddol and Gondishapur and Mahoutokoro and those are only the ones I've actually heard about. I sure there's plenty more. If everyone was invited we'd have to build a whole 'nother castle just to fit 'em all. Though I guess it does beg the question, why Salem?" She turned to Ella with the friendliest smile she could muster, "No offense or anything but do we actually know why after hundreds of years of tradition Salem was suddenly included instead of some other school?"

(Safely) seated a few chairs behind, off to the side, Connor snorted just loud enough to be heard. Jeezus, girls. Sometimes the answer was so troll-arsed obvious it didn’t do for them, so they twitched their skirts elsewhere for something prettier t’ give. “Psssh,” the boy went as he fiddled with a lock of his hair, eying the dull shade of brown lazily; the shade was boring enough it could lull him to sleep easily. Releasing it, he stayed slouched over his desk—spindly arms draped over it until fingers hung well past the edge—and let those limpid blue eyes fall onto the trio of Hufflepuffs who’d gone before him.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he grinned at them all, with all the airs of a wise man about to get his wisdom on (or a tit about to fart). Lovely as some o’ these girls were (there was a lot to be send about the high strung ones, dontcherknow), the lot of them were just too much fun to try gaining their favor. “It’s ‘cause their Creatures prof is hot- ow!”

Something had zinged his leg with frightening precision, and he hunched over his desk now, clutching at his knee. Furtively, he shot a suspicious look at Naomi’s way first—because it almost always was her (Kelvin usually just threw stuff and Ronnie pinched like a spider bite)—and noisily slumped back into his chair with folded arms and a pout.

“They’re th’ oldest school in th’ States, aren’t they?” he added, rolling his eyes. Uptight, the lot of ‘em. Sheesh. “An’ real—I dunno—progressive? First would explain why Red Rocks was shoved over, I guess. Second could explain Mahoutokido- ‘koro, whatever—an’ the others. Mahou’s shunned by purebloods, yeah? Tha’s high form snobb’ry right there. Doesn’t look good, if yer lookin’ fer international cooperation.” He uttered the phrase like a chore. Fuck-long answers were his Housemates’ job. “Durmstrang an’ Beau’ get away wiv it ‘cos o’ them already bein’ in it, an’ the Tourney was initially a European thing anyway.”

And it probably went without saying that they’d all thought Salem would be an easy loss, too.

As he’d been speaking, he’d torn off a piece of parchment and scrunched it into a tiny ball. Idly he flicked it at the back of the kid’s head in front of him. “Dunno much ‘bout th’ Middle East,” he admitted easily, uncaring, “but it’d look bad if one was chosen over th’ other, right?” It didn’t take a genius to figure out which one was most likely the Jewish one outta the pair of ‘em. Precedent backed him, too, that if there was already a bigjob school for a given group or region, then it wasn’t likely there’d be a name as big for either close by—meaning if one was Jewish, then the other probably wasn’t. “That’s jus’ askin’ fer trouble.

“ ‘Sides,” Connor continued, lightening up with a slick, mischievous grin. “What about Canada?”

   

Emi had sat quietly and observantly throughout the History class, nodding only once or twice in agreement with Naomi's description of the Durmstrang system... niet, it was not precise but better maybe than what other might think of her school. The professor had encouraged diverse reactions and conversation was quick.

The blonde with struggled for a moment, to keep up with their language barrier. Although used to listening and singing english ballads, it was not easy to wholly comprehend the entire back and forth. She leaned forward in her seat, head resting on one hand dully while she toyed with her wand with the other. There was a lot about America, simple enough to shrug off. Still a young school, compared to the original three.

And then the annoying boy opened his mouth. Emi shot him a look, sure that nothing good could come of this. Such a condescending... her thoughts trailed off into some rather rude Latvian adjectives and she quickly aimed her wand underneath the desk, smugly.

“It’s ‘cause their Creatures prof is hot- ow!” Da, perfect! The little red hex shot straight through to his shin, missing the intended knee. Emi giggled to herself as the Ravenclaw looked elsewhere for the culprit. He rattled on anyway and she sunk back into her seat; some of what he said made sense. He meant Zionist, not Jewish, for one.

"It is all politics, da?" Emi said after smirking at the comment on Canada. "They choose one on the... the standardized measure, so as not to offend another. Salem is oldest so Salem is in our Tournament. Not just a competition but a form of diplomacy and we, although students, we are like pawns."

The Hufflepuffs seemed much more interested in the class and topic than Naomi was, so she crossed her boots together, propped her arm up on the table, leaned her cheek into her hand, and lightly tapped her fingers against her desk. Then the Salem kid piped up--Naomi could only tolerate so much talking from one single person, and usually that was only Lua Taylor or Abigail Reid at any given time of day--nevermind that the Amercan girl didn't seem to be aware that Hogwarts had clubs that covered most of the things she listed.

Then Connor decided he knew the answer as to why Salem was in the Tournament, and Naomi had quizzically arched her eyebrows and twisted her lips together disapprovingly before she even turned to look at the boy or was able to think of a proper way to stick him to curse him for the rest of the day and tomorrow.

But as Naomi turned to glare at Connor, someone had already gotten a shot off at him, and he was already throwing her an accusatory look. Naomi's expression relaxed as she looked at the usual suspects: Kelvin's wand wasn't out, Ronni wouldn't bother being so covert, and both of Naomi's hands were on her desk, empty... then she saw Emi looked particularly happy as she  secured something inside her sleeve.

A grin crawled across Naomi's lips as a cool green stare moved from Connor to Emi. She was really starting to like the this foreign witch, despite the creepy comment about the students being pawns. Though, that might be why Naomi wasn't fond of the tournament to begin with, eh, oh well. The Slytherin decided she would get a zing in on Connor later--maybe share the moment with Emi.

"It is all politics, da? They choose one on the... the standardized measure, so as not to offend another. Salem is oldest so Salem is in our Tournament. Not just a competition but a form of diplomacy and we, although students, we are like pawns."

Ambrose raised a tentative hand,
"Politics, and money." He put forward. "This must cost a lot of money to put on, what with asking a load of students and teachers to come over and live here for a year... or almost a year." Ambrose gestured vaguely, his face colouring as he spoke out for once.

"Hogwarts hosts but we get seen as the strongest, warmest school for doing so, and benefit from all the incoming tourists to see the match." Ambrose looked at Emi (who he thought was rather pretty) and added apologetically "Not that I mean to say you are all galleons to us, than people...!"

He sank down in his chair, eyes falling to the desktop below him and cheeks bright red.

Ambrose blushed and practically disappeared behind his desk.  He added to the discussion well, she thought but tripped over himself trying to avoid insult to Emi.  He was quiet but obviously intelligent.  And adorable, a small voice whispered.  She squashed the idea down so quickly, however, that it barely registered with her consciousness before she spoke up again.

"That's absolutely right," Katy said in response to Ambrose and Emi.  "Money and politics.  That's exactly why the Tournament is being hosted at Hogwarts.  After all the bad publicity the school has been getting in the past years, this is Hogwarts' opportunity to prove that it's still capable.  Students and faculty members from the other schools get to see what Hogwarts students are made of and at the same time the administration proves that Hogwarts is not only functioning properly but excelling because they're capable of shouldering the bulk  of the exorbitant cost as host."

As a muggleborn, Katy was still largely uncertain how the wizarding economy worked because somethings could be accomplished with magic and somethings couldn't.  She was certain, though, that despite her limited knowledge the cost of the Tournament must be great indeed.  Food, talent, and administrative organization.  All the costs and fees associated with large events like this.  Sidetracked by her own thoughts, Katy turned to her notebook and  began listing out all the political benefits and ramifications of this year's Tetrawizard Tournament. 

There was a good spread of answers. "Yes Naomi, five points to Slytherin. Durmstrang's lowest strata, also known as the Dregs, is not the student body Durmstrang excepts champions from." Talk about your ultimate underdog story though those must be rare at Durmstrang.

"Five points to Ravenclaw," he added for Zoe's answer. That was two schools now they were getting a descriptive understanding of, as Ayla did not comment on her Beauxbatons information. "Beauxbatons has prided itself on refinement since its earliest days. The French had developed many smaller saloons and schools until Beauxbatons rose to be the top academy. These were during the years after Hogwarts was founded, there had not been such cohesion of French minds into one school at the time."

And who better to explain Salem than someone from Salem? Sissel had to chuckle at her questions about Hogwarts. "Well, Hogwarts had several broom sports back in the day but they all became components to Quidditch, our top sport in the country. There were attempts to introduce winged horse racing but the horses were ill tempered around the creatures from the forest, and Hippogriffs. As for the houses, there's much more variety to the students within than most people expect, even the residents of Hogwarts itself. I think the biggest complaint in my day was the Houses of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, both in some of the tallest towers, were the last to get to breakfast in the morning. Otherwise the classes are spread out in the different floors of the castle..."

It was around this time that Katy Bevans asked an important question. "That is an excellent point, Katy, three points to Hufflepuff. Do any of you know why only those three before Salem was included?"

The question almost need not be asked as suggestions were made throughout the group. "Yes, size is one thing. If it was a truly international tournament and not just the four corners of Europe--scratch that, Europe and the States, size would be an issue. Having all those students together is unfeasible. The tournament would have to be an event held outside of an educational year, perhaps some kind of tryouts for competitors from different schools."

Suddenly Sissel spun on his heels, sneakers squeaking, arm stretched to point. "Knock Canada again and it'll be lost House Points Connor!" He didn't mean it though because of his grin. "I grew up in Canada, almost would have gone to Pinebrook if my parents hadn't decided the Isles were save after the apparent fall of the Dark Lord."

"Politics has a big deal to do with the centuries long traditions of the tournament, although maybe not in the way you imagine. The first tournament was made because of a rivalry between the schools of Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, and Hogwarts. But who decides to start a Tournament? The decisions of hosting and invitation have always been done by the heads of each institution. Their respective ministries, especially the foreign affairs and sport branches, handle the particulars."

"Publicity and politics go hand in hand like that." Ambrose Pepper, Francis' boy. His father had suggested he was unfocused, the rare times he talked about family when he and Sissel were Unspeakables. "Deciding to revive the tournament for a second time was started by Mz wherever she is Snark." Perhaps from impure intentions to get people to look the other way.

"But is money really a key factor for hosting an international tournament?" Sissel challenged. He leaned against his lectern but also forward. "Where is the money coming from and who benefits? Better yet, can anyone offer what kind of rivalry between three school would ignite into an international tournament?"

While usually not the type of student that would sit in class for a while without talking, Addison was rather silent on the issue so far in the History of Magic lesson. It probably shouldn't be too much of a surprise, considering that History of Magic was one of her weakest classes. Sure, it had absolutely no practical side to it in the form of spell casting. But, it had no theory really involved in it. All that the class discussed was mainly the history of the wizarding world, which was only what happened years ago. Even though she still tried hard in the class, she had trouble wrapping her mind fully around the material.

Despite all of that floating around her mind, Addie still held a quill in her hand, feverishly scratching away on her parchment. Thankfully, the class was not just some boring lecture. There was an effort to get the students involved in the lesson by having a big discussion. Quite frankly, that was her favorite type. She could certainly sit there for a full class period listening to a lecture. However, a lecture was usually not as interesting as having a discussion with her peers in class. While she would probably never admit it, but she thought that her peers were all really an interesting bunch. The fact that the students from the three visiting schools joined in their classes as well only added to the awesomeness, in her opinion.

As the different pieces of information flowed around the classroom from different sources, Addie managed to record down the information on the piece of parchment in front of her. Quite truthfully, Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, and Salem all seemed interesting to her. By all means, she would love to visit those three schools. However, it would probably be such a hard task to accomplish anyway, considering how far away the different schools were. Besides, Hogwarts was hosting the Tetrawizard Tournament as it was, so the other three schools had to send their students to their lovely castle for the year.

Once the wave of information seemed to subside for once, Addison lifted her head up and pushed a piece of her brunette hair out of her eyes. Professor Jowd was now asking additional questions to the students. The topic seemed to switch away from the different cultures of each school, instead to a totally different direction with respect to the tetrawizard tournament. This time, in the form of money. Indeed, money always seemed to be a big factor in whatever was happening or occurring at any given time.

For the first time in this lesson, Addison raised her hand to speak. "I quite frankly think that it depends on which way you look at it. Hogwarts naturally has their own expenses to pay with respect to the changes to the castle and any other accommodations necessary for the tournament. I'm sure that Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, and Salem all have things that they need to pay for as well. Quite honestly, each school benefits from some aspect of the tournament, and it isn't always monetarily related either. Each school would gain from the vast information that the post prints about them in their articles," she exclaimed. A smile graced her face, since she was happy that she managed to stay relatively on topic, despite the babbling.