Chapter 3 Ancient History and Old
Magic
The
following morning was relatively normal for the three young Gryffindor’s. Harry
and Ron woke up early, and met Hermione in the common room to go down to
breakfast. Just as they sit down at their table, Professor McGonagall hands them
their timetables. Ron takes one look at his, and lets out a rather loud
groan...
“We’ve
got double Potions with the Slytherins this morning... AND double History of
Magic with them later this afternoon... WE’VE NEVER HAD HISTORY OF MAGIC WITH
THEM BEFORE!”
Apparently, McGonagall was still within
earshot... because within seconds, she had turned back to face them... with her
trademark stern face.
“Professor Dumbledore decided that it would
be prudent for the sixth years to take History of Magic in two groups rather
than four... it will be easier on the teacher than if each house was in its own
class.”
Hermione looks questionably at
McGonagall...
“Why
does Professor Binns need things to be easier on him? He is a ghost, after
all.”
At
this, McGonagall smiles brightly at the children.
“Well... I guess you will find out the
reason when you attend class this afternoon. So... I will see you all in
Transfiguration tomorrow... until then, good day.”
With
that, she turns to finish handing out timetables to her house. Harry turned to
his friends, and was relieved by the puzzled looks on each of their faces...
obviously, he was not the only one who didn’t completely understand. But there
wasn’t really time to work it all out... they had to get to Snape’s class
quickly or risk a few hundred points being taken from
Gryffindor.
They
hurried through the dungeons to reach the classroom, and were relieved to see
that Snape hadn’t shown up yet. It was odd though, Harry found himself
thinking... he had realized that Draco would be alienated from his housemates...
he had seen it in the Great Hall during the Sorting... but here, even in
Professor Snape’s class, the blond sixth year was forced so far away from the
other Slytherins that he was sitting in what is traditionally the Gryffindor
section of the room... something which, to Harry’s near embarrassment, Ron was
all to quick to point out... rather loudly.
“Hey,
ferret! How about you keep to your own house... because we sure as hell don’t
want you sitting on our side of the room!”
Draco
shrugs his shoulders, and sighs heavily as he turns toward
Ron.
“I’m
sorry, Weasley... am I crowding you?” The blond Slytherin sneers that famous
Draco Malfoy sneer... and stands up. He steps right in front of Ron, staring him
down, eye to eye...
“What
would you have me do... pull a spare desk out into the hallway and prop the
classroom door open with my cauldron so that I can hear Professor Snape’s
lecture? On second thought... you know what? I really don’t feel like moving...
especially not for a Weasley. Live with it!”
Ron’s
face turns a deep shade of red, and Harry looks down to find his friends hands
clenched into fists at his side. Ron does his best to sneer back at Draco... but
in comparison, it just looks like he’s confused about
something...
“I
don’t want you in the hallway, Malfoy... I want you out of the school! I don’t
think there’s any reason why they just don’t expel people like you. It’d be a
hell of a lot safer for the rest of us.”
“People
like me? Don’t tell me that you, of all people, think that you’re better than
me! How do you figure that?”
Apparently, this is just the opening that
Ron was waiting for. He gets this very serious look in his
eyes...
“You’re
father’s a Death Eater... he’s a murderer. You shouldn’t be allowed anywhere
near this school.”
Ron’s
words had grabbed the attention of the entire class, and members of both
Slytherin and Gryffindor turn to watch the argument... and, of course, the
inevitable fight. Draco stares seriously at Ron... his face dropping
slightly...
“So...
that’s the way it is Weasley? This is grand! I get shunned by half of my own
house, who are like you, because I’m the son of a Death Eater... and the other
half, like Crabbe and Goyle over there,” Draco points toward the towering bully
duo that used to be his only friends, “want nothing to do with me because I
turned my back on the Dark Lord that they so willingly support! It figures that
the only time in my life that I make the right choice, you lot won’t let me live
with it! Besides... I’d think you’d be on your knees singing my father’s
praises... without his betrayal, you’re family never would have made it out of
the gutter. You owe him.”
Harry
closes his eyes... Malfoy had just pulled the trigger. Ron was very proud of his
father’s recent accomplishments, and the very implication that Mr. Weasley owed
a Death Eater for those accomplishments was enough to put Ron over the edge.
Harry waited for the sound of fist on face... but all that came to his ears was
a small collective gasp from the gathered students. Slowly, Harry opens his
eyes, and his jaw drops.
Ron and
Draco were still looking heatedly at each other, and Ron’s hand was in fact
clenched into a fist... but standing between them was Hermione... her wand was
raised, and pointed directly at Ron’s chest. And to make the scene even more
absurd, standing in the classroom doorway was Professor Snape, arms crossed at
his chest... and a small smile on his face! Harry was sure that he was the only
student who saw the Professor, since the fight scene had taken place at the
front of the room and most of the others had their backs to the door. Looking
back at the scene in the room, Harry just couldn’t figure out what was going
on... Hermione with her wand pointed at Ron... to stop him from hitting
Draco!
“At the
very least,” Hermione’s voice is rather cold, and considering the fact that
she’s hardly spoken all summer, her words seem to hit Ron hard, “you could give
him a chance. Get over yourself, Ron.”
The
class looks on in awe... Hermione was defending Draco... it was almost like a
dream to Harry, and he could tell by the look on Ron’s face that he was equally
confused. But there was very little time to process the event, because at that
moment, Professor Snape steps into the classroom, and walks right up beside Ron,
Hermione and Draco.
“What,
prey tell, is the problem here?” The Professor’s tone is quite serious, and the
small smile that Harry had seen earlier had vanished.... he was just mean old
Snape again. It’s Hermione that first speaks up, as she puts her wand back in
her robe pocket.
“It’s
nothing, Professor... we were just discussing how our summer break
was.”
“That’s
all well and good, Miss Granger... but I expect you all to be sitting quietly
when I enter my classroom. If this happens again, I’ll be forced to take points
from every one of you. Now, sit down!”
And sit
they did... Harry and Ron took their usual places at the front of the class...
but Hermione surprised everybody by sitting beside Draco. This, of course, made
Ron all the more angry, and he spent the entire class with his fists clenched.
Harry noticed that Crabbe and Goyle looked almost as furious as Ron...
apparently, Draco’s comments about them supporting the Dark Lord hadn’t gone
unnoticed... and Harry had the suspicion that the blond Slytherin was in for
quite the beating later in the day.
Potions
class was a little more interesting than it has been in past years. Snape spent
the class giving a lecture about the potions they would be covering during the
term, including something called a Remedy, which supposedly would restore the
status of a wizard that had been affected by a charm... something that would
come in handy, Harry thought.
All too
soon, class was over, and it was time for lunch. Ron and Hermione are careful to
stay on opposite sides of Harry as they head to the Great Hall, and they refuse
to even look at each other during their meal. Harry’s use to his best friends
having these kinds of arguments... but this is the first one that’s ever
involved one of them defending a Malfoy!
Speaking of Malfoy... Harry notices that he
is conspicuously absent from lunch... along with Crabbe and Goyle. Visions of
the two apes beating upon an unconscious Draco make their way through Harry’s
mind, and he almost feels sorry for the Slytherin boy....
almost.
The
meal is finished in record time... as a silent agreement had apparently come to
the group that today was not the day to talk about everything. Quietly, the trio
heads to the History of Magic classroom with the rest of their house... along
with those “bloody gits”, as Ron called them every few seconds along their way
through the halls, the Slytherins. Remembering back to earlier in the morning,
Harry can’t help but wonder what Professor McGonagall had been so secretive
about... at least he didn’t have long left to wait.
They
step into the classroom, and the first thing they notice is that it seems to be
twice as large as it has in previous years. Harry had realized, of course, that
they would need a larger room since there were more students (something he had
once read in a muggle math book about stuffing pigeons into holes came to his
mind), but he had just assumed that they would be shown to a larger room... not
that their regular room would be magically altered to fit their needs. Still...
the solution did have a sort of wizard logic behind it. Harry takes a seat at
the back of class, with Ron on his right, Hermione on his left... and a black
eyed, split lipped Draco Malfoy next to her. It seems as though Crabbe and
Goyle, who were looking far too happy with themselves in their seats at the far
end of the room, had gotten their chance to pay Draco back for his comments
before Potions class.
The
class sits for only a few moments before Professor Binns makes his traditional
entrance through the chalkboard. He floats up to the podium at the front of the
room, and looks around at the students before speaking.
“Class... this is most likely the last you
will be seeing of me this year.” There are several gasps from the students, and
one or two muffled joyful cries at this news. “We are very lucky to have with us
somebody who has studied, in some depth, the period of history which you will be
covering this year. So, without further ado... allow me to introduce you to
Mister Arrowny.”
A few
more gasps welcome Mister Arrowny as he steps through the classroom door. Harry
is amazed by the fact that Arrowny was still dressed in his muggle clothes...
denim jacket, jeans, t-shirt, and sunglasses. But even more surprising was the
fact that in his hand is a long curved sword. He walks up to the podium, sets
the sword on the top, and turns to Professor Binns.
“Thank
you, Professor.” Again, the lack of a British accent strikes Harry as odd, even though he knows that the man is from Canada. Binns gives a
small nod, and floats back through the chalkboard... leaving the sixth year
students alone with a man who had a rather menacing looking weapon within arms
reach... Harry was beginning to wonder if anybody else thought that there was
something wrong with this situation. But, when Mister Arrowny removes his
sunglasses and turns back to look at the students, they see a calming smile on
his face. He takes off his jacket, revealing a small Canadian flag on the right
sleeve of his white t-shirt. He glances quickly from student to student, and
then, with a small clap of his hands, begins the
class.
“Good day everybody. As you probably know
by now, I am Mister Arrowny and I will be teaching your History of Magic class
this year. I know that I’m not exactly the kind of person that you’re used to
seeing around Hogwarts, so what I’m going to do is give a small lecture during
the first half of the class, and then open the floor to any questions that any
of you might want to ask about me, or where I come from, or where I went to
school, or that kind of thing. Now... I’m not a professor... so the ‘Mister’
thing is really just a formality for when we’re in this room... but if you pass
by me in the hallways, or in the Slytherin dorm... feel free to just call me
Ryan... okay?”
A few people mumble in some sort of
incoherent response.
“Right then. Well... this year we will be
covering what is called ‘Ancient History and Old Magic’. Does anybody know what
time period this phrase is associated with?”
Harry looks over at Hermione, hoping to see
her hand pop into the air like it used to do before the events of last year...
but unfortunately, it wasn’t her arm that was raised... it was
Draco’s.
“It deals with a brief period of war that
occurred one thousand years after the great War of the Magi...
right?”
“Right, Draco... five points to Slytherin.
The War of the Magi happened ten thousand years ago... so, we’re going to be
studying the period of time that happened one thousand years after that. That’s
nine thousand years ago... for anybody who may not be able to do the math. This
covers the ‘Ancient History’ part of the title... now, let’s talk about this
whole ‘Old Magic’ thing.
You guys use wands to do magic, right?”
There is a general murmur of an affirmative response. “Well... what would you
think if I told you that wand magic was what historians call ‘new magic’? You
see... wands have only been used for the past three thousand years. So... what
about the magic that existed before that point in time? Before we get into
that... we should figure out why wands allow you to do magic in the first
place.”
This was new to Harry... he had never
thought about why he can do magic with his wand... it’s something that he had
just always taken for granted. Tentatively, for the first time ever in History
of Magic class, he raises his hand.
“Is it because the wand gives us our power
to do magic?” It seemed like a good guess to Harry at the time... but judging by
the blank stare he was getting from Mister Arrowny, it apparently was
not.
“No, Mister Potter... if the wand gave the
power, then any random person, either magical or muggle, would be able to grab
any random wand from any random witch or wizard and cast any random spell that
they wanted to. No... the wand does not give the power. Anyone
else?”
To Harry’s dismay, it is once again Draco
that speaks up first.
“Well... before any of us had wands, we all
performed some sort of wandless magic... didn’t we? I inflated one of my
family’s house elves once, quite a few years before I got my wand. Aren’t all of
us capable of doing wandless magic if we’re pushed just the right way? So... if
that’s the case... then wouldn’t the power to do magic come from
us?”
Of course the second that Draco had
finished answering, Harry knew he was right. Thinking back to all the things
he’d done over the years, blowing up Aunt Marge, setting the boa on Dudley,
re-growing his hair, and flying to the top of the school building... all of
those things were done when his wand wasn’t anywhere near him... in fact, he’d
done most of them before he even knew he was a
wizard!
“Very right, Draco, another five to
Slytherin.” the smile had returned to Mister Arrowny’s face. “The power comes
from the person... not the instrument. The wandless magic that you all may
remember yourselves doing was probably quite unfocused... and probably had
erratic results. The wand is simply a tool to focus the power that is within
you. There are thousands of people who are not witches or wizards that can do
magic. Hell... there are entire muggle religions based on the study of magic.
They can do spells... but like you, they channel their power through a tool...
in their case, it isn’t a wand, but rather the very Earth itself that allows
them to focus their magic. True wandless magic, or more to the point focused
magic that doesn’t use some sort of tool as a medium, is a very rare thing in
this day and age. The very oldest magics were actually channelled through the
person’s own body. This form of magic has become nearly extinct... leading
historians to call it ‘Old Magic’.
So there... when I talk about ‘Ancient
History and Old Magic’, I’m really talking about focused magic that existed nine
thousand years ago. Simple enough, eh?”
As far as Harry was concerned... Mister
Arrowny was far too excited to be teaching this class... he was talking quite
fast, and they barely had a chance to take down any notes on what was being
said... but, at the very least, he wasn’t nearly as boring as Professor Binns
had been. But Mister Arrowny seemed to notice the fact that everybody was
scrambling to get something written down, because quite suddenly he announced
“Quills down!” and shook his head while quietly chuckling to
himself.
“Guys... you’re not going to be tested on
anything that I just said. In fact, you’ll never need to know anything that I’ll
be saying, or have already said today.
I don’t believing in getting into heavy work on the first day of class...
that’s for next time! Today is just so you guys can get a basic idea of what
you’re going to be hearing about over the next year. So... take notes if you
really... and I stress the ‘really’ part... want to, but don’t feel like you
have to. Everybody cool with that?”
This was very new to the sixth years.
They’ve never had a first day of class that wasn’t heavy on work... even their
very first classes back in first year were very much on the work-heavy side of
things. Like anybody was going to argue with a no-work
class!
“Okay... good. I guess I’ll tell you a
little bit about what the work that you’ll be doing this year. There will be a
written project due sometime before the winter break. I’ll be assigning each of
you a person, place or event from the time period we’ll be studying, and you’ll
have to do some research on it. Marks for this project will not be based on
quantity of the information found, but rather the quality. Some of the topics
will have vast amounts of information pertaining to them in the library... where
others will have almost none. I will bring in some outside resources when the
time comes, and I guarantee that there will be information on every topic I
assign... so nobody gets to use the ‘I couldn’t find anything’ excuse with me,
got it?
The exam will be mostly like your other
exams... unfortunately that means essays and lots of them... I’m sorry, I hate
that kind of thing too... but it really is the best way to test knowledge of
history. And I might throw in a couple of tests through the year just to make
sure you’re all keeping up with the work that I assign. There’ll be a few
written assignments... but I’m not really big on those either. I’ll try and find
some fun things that we can do over the year just so it’s not all me standing in
front of you and talking my head off... but no
promises.”
Harry looks around the room a little bit,
and for the first time ever, everybody seems to be awake in History of Magic
class. Harry snaps back to attention when Mister Arrowny start speaking
again.
“Okay... I guess that went a little quicker
that I’d expected. But, that’s all I wanted to cover, learning wise, today. So
I’ll move on to the whole ‘if you have any questions about the weird man
standing in front of you’ part of the class. Who’s
first?”
Nobody really knew what to ask... that is,
until a shaky arm was raised by Neville Longbottom. Mister Arrowny nods for him
to go a head with the question, and Neville nervously points toward the sword
that was set on the podium at the beginning of
class.
“What’s the sword for? If you don’t mind me
asking... that is...”
“Nope... don’t mind you asking at all. And
now that the class part is over, feel free to call me Ryan,
okay?”
Ryan reaches over to take the sword from
the podium. He holds the handle in one hand, and lets the tip of the blade rest
in his other one.
“The sword is called Sky Render. It’s very
old... very, very old. It’s also very strong, and very sharp. I use it for my
job back home.”
Draco’s was the next hand
up...
“Just what job would you have that you need
that thing for?”
“I’m a demon hunter.” It sounded so absurd
that most of the class began to laugh as if he’d just told a joke... but they
stop when he shows no sign of it being such. “I’m not kidding... I’m a demon
hunter. I lead a small group of people who hunt demons. There’s four of us...
we’re called Dragoon Knights after a group of warriors that existed long before
the War of the Magi. People who have demon problems call us up and we go fight
it for them, or we track a demon and get it before it can cause any problems for
people.”
Dean speaks up from the middle of the
classroom.
“Are there really that many demon problems
in
“No... not in
“But... aren’t you a little young to have a
job like that?” It was Seamus asking this time.
“Not really... I am twenty after all.
I’ve been
trained to do it since I was about ten... so I’ve got a bit of experience under
my belt.”
Ron
raises his hand.
“Dumbledore said something about you being
a graduate student. What did he mean?”
“Well... I graduated from the
There
is silence for a few minutes, before, finally, Hermione’s hand is raised. She
sits quietly for a few moments after Ryan nods for her to continue, as if
contemplating how best to approach her question.
“Sir...
isn’t History of Magic a rather strange thing for modern wizards to study in
depth? I was under the impression that most people who decided to continue their
education choose Charms or Transfiguration and that sort of thing. Why did you
pick history?”
“Well,
Miss Granger was it?... I chose history for the simple reason that I can’t do
charms or transfiguration. You see, by your Ministry of Magic classifications,
I’m a muggle. I can’t do magic in the same sense that you can. Although I
studied the theory behind charms and jinxes and such... my practical education
was confined to potions, magical creatures, herbology, and of course
history.”
The
class looks confused at this statement... but it’s Hermione that voices their
confusion.
“That’s
impossible... muggles can’t get into places like Hogwarts... they can’t even see
it. How do you expect us to believe that you’re a muggle, when the fact that
you’re standing in this castle proves otherwise. You couldn’t be a muggle... you
must be a... a... well, excuse my language sir... you must be a
squib.”
“Actually, nobody in my family has ever
been what you would consider a wizard. I could go into the local wand shop, pick
out the perfect wand, and I wouldn’t even be able to the simplest of spells.
Even a squib can do some magic with a wand... I, however cannot. The reason that
I am able to enter places like Hogwarts is because I know of their existence.
The charms placed on the castle cloud the mind of muggles who don’t have clarity
of perception to begin with. I knew about Hogwarts... thus my mind could not be
clouded.”
“But...
if you’re a muggle... why were you accepted at a
“That,
I’m afraid... is a story for another time.”
Ryan
inhales deeply, and sets Sky Render back on the podium. The class is reluctant
to leave, each wanting to know more about the muggle that became part of their
world... but, unfortunately, class time had come to a
close.
“I want
you all to read the first chapter, ‘Assault on Narshe’, in your text. I would
like you each to make a list of the various abilities of the MagiTek Armor that
was used to attack the town. I’ll be collecting them next class. See you all
then.”
With
that, the classroom emptied, and the students erupted in conversation. How was
it possible that a muggle could be at Hogwarts? This topic occupied the
Gryffindor sixth years all through supper, and far into the night in the common
room. Even Ron and Hermione were speaking to each other about it... but they
were both careful to avoid talking about the events earlier in the day. It was
finally time to sleep... but nobody seemed able to. Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus,
and Neville stayed awake until the early hours of the morning trying to figure
out this small mystery... but nobody could come up with a working solution.
Eventually, they all drifted to sleep.