Lesson 1; Introduction to History

[Eros d'Avonderre]

Eros was quite pleased with his new position. It involved the same children he was forced to deal with in his shop over the summer, but many that were older and at least marginally intelligent. Those were the children he would be teaching. If they weren't, he'd simply send them off to the nurse's office with a note for some kind of anti-stupidity potion.

For now, he was sitting behind his desk, or rather, lounging behind it, watching students file in. Sadly, he didn't recognize a single face, though he did find a familiar name on his roll sheet; Blackwood. He could only guess that it was Dare's brother, though for the life of him, he couldn't have picked the boy out from the others. Apparently Dare was the colorful one.

But that had nothing to do with the subject matter. He supposed he ought to begin.

"You will call me Professor d'Avonderre," Eros said, standing at last. He paused to brush an imaginary fleck of lint from his blazer, then went on. "Would anyone here care to guess where magic began?" He eyed the class a moment.

"It was certainly used in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and of course, we must assume longer, but as it was before recorded history of any kind, Magical or Muggle, we can only speculate. We will, therefore, follow a general timeline as term progresses, diverting here or there as interest dictates." Eros paused again, leveling his gaze on the students. "Yes, history can be interesting.

"Do we have any gossips in the class? Any who read the Daily Prophet? Assuming, of course, that the next issue arrives before you've all graduated. Gossip is recent history, and well-loved by many. Or at least devoured by them. History is simply the gossip of centuries past. Unless one has an exceedingly well-made Time-Turner, nothing is truly verifiable. But we will do our best, and we will follow what is written. Speculation is welcome, but for Merlin's sake, have some basis in truth.

"Since I must assign homework lest none of you pass, I'll pose to you one question, and you may owl your answer to me. The question, then, is this; How much would you suppose that Magical history is different from Muggle history? Enjoy the remainder of your day."

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn was truly stumped by the question that the teacher had posed to the class. How different was magical history from muggle history. If history was merely gossip, and gossip was a form of mythology having some basis in fact, then perhaps muggle mythology was history. Quinn's hand sifted through her hair as she looked over the class for any familiar face. Dare was in a few of her classes as was Markise which made her happy, but she wondered if she'd met anyone else. Her brow furrowed as her eyes caught on a boy that she couldn't place, but felt familiar. She sighed to herself as class ended and she packed her bags. At least her classes were working at her mind.

[nd12]

Nastasia mulled over the question in her mind, yes she did have an answer but how to phrase it was more important. Nastasia had found out that this was not the same professor from last year, but every professor was just a professor to her nothing special about any of them. Nastasia would never get anywhere in life if she didn't complete basic education, she would be another wife and mother..yuck. She was going far beyond basic after she graduated . Nastasia waited for Albert to get packed up and walked out with him to her next class.

[Albert Glasgow]

Albert pondered the question asked by the professor, he was very certain Nastasia had the same answer as he did, they would compare later he knew as they always did. If she didn't have an answer he would give her his answer and use another answer, he wanted her to suceed and she would. The lesson was over just like that, it would leave Albert more spare time to work on other things. Albert packed up his things and waited for Nastasia to walk along with him.

[Silver Blackwood]

That had certainly been a short lecture, and not one at all in keeping with the usual history of magic classes. He'd always had an interest in history of magic, but he could easily admit that the classes were usually long and slow, and easy to tune out. He found the correlation between history and gossip, of all things, quite interesting. And surprisingly true. Gossip was a part of history, reliable or not. It made him wonder how much of history had been warped by the gossips who had written it down.

[Brindle Sterling]

Another gorgeous professor! Where had they all been last year? Brindle listened with rapt attention, smiling at his enthusiasm. She couldn't imagine history being taught like gossip! She wondered if she could get extra credit for bringing him a copy of the Daily Prophet...

[Chase Firebrand]

Chase found history interesting, despite the usual droning voices of the kinds of professors who taught it. This professor was obviously quite different, and Chase wasn't at all sure he liked it. Gossip? Chase loathed gossip. He loathed how it spurred new students to challenge him and old ones to judge without so much as talking to him first. Not that he wanted to talk to them, but it was the principle. He'd do the assignment, and he'd do a thorough job. But the professor had better not get onto him about his lack of gossip and rumors in the finished product.

[Jasmine Brooks]

Jasmine sat at her seat and thought about the question. Wasn't the answer obvious? Well, it was to her at least. Seeing as none of her good friends were in this class, she chose work over socializing and isolated herself as she answered the question and finished. Setting her quill down, she reread her answer and was satisfied with it. Turning to put it in her bag, she figured she'd add a little more later on then turn it in by the next class when it was due.