History of Magic: Lesson One, Pod One

Another day. Another class. Well, it was the same day, actually, and only a few hours later. With lunchtime over and done with, Baldric was ready to resume teaching and he was fairly excited, too. With Hunts were a serious topic, indeed, and not one that was to be handled lightly but it certainly wasn’t a subject that wasn’t without humour either. Baldric found himself wishing he’d set a little bit of reading for them but he knew it wouldn’t matter. It was going to be lecture-like but at the same time he wanted to make it interactive. That was always his biggest problem with Binns, ultimately – apart from the fact that the man was boring.

Having finished off his cup of coffee, Baldric vanished the mug and got up from his desk just as the door opened and started to spill into the room his students who didn’t look too happy about returning to class. He couldn’t blame them and knew that the slot after lunch was as difficult as the one at the end of the day but he was going to try and make this as easy and as interesting as possible so he decided to forego giving out worksheets and instead wrote it up on the board in his tall, scratchy handwriting.

WITCH HUNTS.

Throwing down his pen onto the desk, Baldric shoved his hands into his pockets and looked over his shoulder at the board before turning his gaze back to his students. Everyone would know about it. Even the Muggles often scoffed about it, thinking it a stupid thing to talk about. It wasn’t though, of course. Baldric knew that. Everyone in the room knew that. Yet, those in the room stood as a testament to Muggle failure – if nothing else.

“It’s important to know where we’ve come from,” he started, removing his hands out of his pockets. “That’s why we do this subject. This,” he threw his hand to the board, “is one of the bloodiest cock-ups in our history.” He smirked a little. “So, I’m your History of Magic professor for this year. You can call me Baldric though officially I’m Professor Wood.” His smirk changed into a smile. “Right, come on then. What do we know about witch hunts?”

To say that Christian liked History of Magic would be a gross exaggeration. The previous professors had been dull, if not downright snooze-worthy, and although the Hufflepuff really wanted to like the subject, he couldn't understand why someone so lame would be hired. He could really only hope that the new one wouldn't be so dreadful. After all, if he wanted any shot at a law career, shouldn't he know the history of the people he was to represent?

All he wanted as an interesting year. Was that too very much to ask? Christian imagined it shouldn't have been. Curiously enough, the lecture's topic was one that he had ben exposed to in part through Muggle Studies, as well as his own readings - though he wouldn't go about admitting as much to his parents, who did not exactly appreciate his interest in non-magical folks. But, still. At least he felt somewhat prepared.

Not typically one to speak up in class, Christian had to suppress a laugh at the introduction to the subject, considering for the first time that he might actually want to be the talkative one for once. When things were quiet for a few moment, his hand lifted and held until he received the cue to go ahead.

"There are... well, inordinate amounts of Muggle works and records regarding witch hunts, delving into fiction. More recently, though, it's turned into Muggles telling themselves that they have powers and buying silly, fake magic kits. There haven't been any real hunts as of late, but as far as I know the Muggle schools still teach using the fictional works."

It all came out in a bit of a rush, surprising those around him as well as Christian himself. He had never really been the quiet sort, except in classes, where not only was his skill assessed, he was subjected to measuring himself as compared to those around him. That had never sat well with him, despite his desire to prove to the professors that he really did want to learn. But at least he had given it a go, he supposed, fingers fiddling with his writing utensil absentmindedly while he gave a sort of sheepish attempt at a smile.