[HoM] Term V: Lesson I

[evasiiren]

Eva gave Victoria a small smile before being thrown in at the deep end and being asked to say a few words. Clutching her book now with one hand, she let the the other one loose and gave the students a small, rather European wave.

Giving a small cough and bring a clenched fist to her mouth, she placed the book down on the desk behind her before giving a look back to Victoria, and stepping forward a step.
"Hello class, I'm Eva Siiren, but please...call me Eva. As you can probably tell by my strange accent, i'm from Finland. I am glad to have a placement here at one of the most historical and well known magical schools in the world. I am hoping to assist you with all your problems, so I hope you feel you can come to me with anything you need help with" she smiled, before stepping back again and leaning against the desk.

[Ella Malfoy]

Ella awoke with a jolt, as her alarm fluttered about, beeping louder and louder. She pushed the magical thing back to her desk and shushed it, then, looking at it she noticed the time. She was going to be late for her first class of the day!!

Ella ran about the room, putting on make up, putting on her clothes, and doing a spell on her hair. As she attempted to put her other leg in her skirt, while at the same time reaching for her wand, she fell to the ground with an 'oomph!'.

"For Merlins sake!" She said, frusterated. As she rushed out the room, throwing her filled book bag on her arm, she remembered she had History of Magic.

Ella ran down stairs, corridors, until she finally arrived, opening the door and walking in. "I am so so sorry I'm late, proffessor!" Ella exclaimed, finding a seat. How could her roommates not wake her up? She thought, exasperated.

[Prof. Victoria Potter]

As apprentices go she did not seem so bad. Victoria had heard other teacher's horror stories about how eager the apprentices were to push them out of their jobs, she even heard that one tried to attack the professor in order to gain power. Victoria had no desire to have an of these things happen to her so she had avoided asking for one. Too bad for her because she was given one anyway. She had mixed feelings about it, but decided to reserve judgment until meeting her. So Victoria listened as she gave the students a brief introduction. Things seemed well enough but only time would tell. As Eva finished up Vicky smiled "thanks for that intro Eva glad to have you aboard. Take a seat anywhere class is about to begin so I guess you can observe, um feel free to make any comments as well."

As soon as she turned her attention back to the class the door opened and in walked Ella Malfoy. Victoria could be like everyone else and start lecturing the girl on the pros of punctuality but she had no desire nor did she see the need for anything more than just "It's ok Ella try not to let it happen again." That was it, no need to huff and puff and take away points, all that does is make the students dislike you and who wants that.

"Ok now class as you can see our topic is the Salem Witch Trials, who in the room can tell me a little about this subject."

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash, the ever 'nerdy' little Ravenclaw, spoke up. "The Salem Witch trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. It began when a group of girls in January of 1692, including Reverend Parris' daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and niece Abigail Williams, age 17, started having "fits." They screamed, threw things, uttered peculiar sounds and contorted themselves into strange positions, and a local doctor blamed the supernatural."


He paused for a moment before continuing, "Another girl, Ann Putnam, age 17, experienced similar episodes. On February 29, under pressure from magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne, the girls blamed three women for afflicting them: Tituba, the Parris' Caribbean slave; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman."

He paused once more, then continued, "More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft—the Devil's magic—and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. Since then, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoia and injustice, and it continues to beguile the popular imagination more than 300 years later."

Ash stopped figuring that if he said anymore, he might as well get up and teach the class himself! Curse his photographic memory! The boy could scan a page and memorize it in about thirty seconds flat!

[Sarie Thimble]

Sarie raised her hand. She may not know as much as Ashton. "Also didn't they have strange ways to find out who was a witch like if you floated on water with a rock tied to your ankle you where a witch but if you didn't they just let you drown any way?"

[Prof. Victoria Potter]

Ashton started but the poor boy sounded like he swallowed a textbook for breakfast. It wasn't even some of the words it was basically word for word. A Ravenclaw through and through she used to do the same when she was in school. She wanted to hear a bit more of him in his answer though. Maybe she would have a talk with him, he was smart but all people would see was that he was good at reading a book. Sarie one of her most enjoyable students piped up next, her answer was short and to the point but it was the kind if answer she was looking for it didn't sound like she was hearing the textbook read back to her.

"Very good both of you the witch trials were simply dreadful, a paranoia based attack on several innocent people. Which goes to show you that sometimes its hard being different in this life or any life. In your humble opinion why do you think the puritans were so afraid of a town in which witches might reside. Especially when there were witches and wizards living among them who had never even allowed them to glimpse them using magic."

[kiernan]

Kiernan ran panting into the room, "Sorry, I'm late professor!" he said, bending down, hands on knees as he gaseped for air. Once he had his breath he straightened up and walked towards an empty seat near the middle of the room.

He looked around at all the students, offering a shy smile. Some smiled back, some (Slytherins mainly) sneered, Kiernan paid those people no mind. He turned his attention back to the teacher, praying to Merlin that Headmaster Hubbles had told her that he was deaf. His disability, he had a feeling, would cause some problems...

[Julianna Farraday]

Salem Witch Trials well how interesting a bunch of psycho's going around trying to off people they thought were witches because they were cowards too afraid to deal with people who were different. The world hadn't changed much had it. People still didn't understand about differences. Prejudice and racism still ran rampant. Hearing Ashton describe in such vivid detail what those Puritans put these women through made her feel sick. Then when Sarie continued on about the tests done Julia felt so sorry.

Thinking of what the professor just asked Julia came up with what she thought was a plausible response. "Because people fear different, it's been like that throughout history hasn't it. I mean take a look at slavery, hate crimes. People fear change and they especially fear anything that means change or different. They weren't one hundred percent sure who the witches and wizards were they had ideas so they came up with ridiculous ways of finding out simply to alleviate the fears of others. They wanted to get rid of the problem."

People preferred to rid themselves of unpleasantness rather than deal with it head on.

[Prof. Victoria Potter]

A student, a Gryffindor she could see by the emblem emblazoned upon his robes entered her class. Now he was quite late, class was well underway when he entered. Protocol states she should get upset, dock points, give detentions or put the fear of merlin into them but Vicky just hated doing it. Other professors had horrible reputations for doling out punishments like they were candy. That just wasn't her style, but she didn't want it to become a habit so she asked nicely. "Kiernan just see me after class ok" smiling reassuringly she turned back to the rest of class.

Julianna another Gryffindor another Gryffindor changed the focus of Victoria's thoughts. She was making so many interesting points, points Vicky had wanted to hit on when she started the topic. Intolerance ran rampant back then and it ran rampant now, this was part of the reason why wizard kind had to keep its secret. "Very good miss Farraday I am glad you touched on that. It's one of the driving forces that causes us to keep our secret even now. To this day the world is plagued by their intolerance, unfortunately we too as wizards are guilty of the same. Can anyone give me a few good example of that, a very famous example happened here at our own school."

[Ellie Rook]

Ellie smiled and ran off. She was being sarcastic about the whole coffee this and had never fully intended on getting a coffee, but actually she wanted to say good morning to Bray, who she had been ignoring lately. Ellie smiled and skipped away, waving at Ash as he entered the room.

The halls were starting to get very crowded as Ellie searched around for the boy. Nothing. She sighed and walked fast toward the great hall. It was empty, well, almost by the time that she got there. Again, she didn't see a short Irish boy she knew so well. She sighed. He must be avoiding her because she was avoiding him. If he was going to be that way, Fine!

Now slightly angry she headed back toward the classroom. The hallways were empty now, Ellie was probably late. Oh well. She didn't really mind at the moment, she was thinking about where Bray could be hiding. Granted she had sort of blown up at him in the middle of a class and then ignored him for two weeks, but she felt bad and wanted to find him, to see him, to talk to him. Not anymore. Not ever.

She entered the room. It was fuller now, Ellie slumped into her chair. "Sorry, I got lost." She said, folding her arms, her good mood lost.

Witch Trials. Ellie perked up a bit. It was interesting, but she didn't feel much like talking and participating. Well, maybe if she had too. A question was asked. Ellie wasn't the best thinker in the world. She racked her brain, well as hard as her bad mood would let her, and she came up with nothing. However, unlike usual, the Hufflepuff could really care less. Bray was on her mind, She peered out the window, hoping she might see a short figure in Ravenclaw robes walking along the lake.