Lesson 1 - History of Magic: Why Bother?

Professor Vance ducked his head as he stepped through the doorway into his third floor classroom. The mountain of a man moved with surprising ease about the room, making a final check that everything was in place, all the enchantments had held, and that none of the more complex transfigurations had gone awry in last night’s haste to get everything done. He was, in his estimation at least, setting the scene for learning.

“Set the mood. Grab their attention and you’re half-way there, old boy.” His subject had fascinated him for the last three decades. If the students weren’t engaged, it would clearly be a failure of his, not ancient Egyptian magic. With a nod of satisfaction, Montgomery – or Gummy as his friends and colleagues called him – sat down at the front on the classroom with a flourish of black robes colorfully embroidered with hieroglyphics.

Moments later, a cluster of students walked through the door. Their conversation stopped in mid-sentence. The group stared at the room, at each other, and then at the large man seated in a huge, elaborately carved chair decorated with reeds, lotus flowers, and vivid blue out-stretched wings.

“Come in. Come in. Take a seat.” Pleased at the reaction from the first of his students, Gummy waved his hand to indicate that they were free to sit wherever they chose. “The furniture may look like museum pieces, but I promise it’s sturdy and functional.”

With only a little hesitation, the students took their seats on the long wooden benches set behind elaborately carved tables. The exotic-looking tables had legs shaped like sleek, jewelry-adorned cats and each had a different set of colorful hieroglyphics running along the front apron. As the classroom filled, Gummy allowed the students time to exclaim, stare and talk excitedly about the decorations covering the walls, the woven reed mats underfoot, and the statue of Isis that stood gloriously against the far wall. Soon enough, though, it was time to begin.

Gummy stood and squared his broad shoulders. With a flick of his wand, the door shut and the students grew silent. “Good morning. I am Professor Montgomery Vance and I’ll be your History of Magic teacher. With another flick of his 14-inch, cedar wand, the hieroglyphics covering the blackboard at the front of the room shimmered and resolved into the syllabus for the first semester.

Lesson 1 -- History of Magic: Why bother?
Lesson 2 -- Ra – Father of Self-Transfiguration
Lesson 3 -- Bastet – The First Animagus
Lesson 4 -- Isis – Separation of Magic and Muggle
Lesson 5 -- Quiz
Lesson 6 -- Horus and Seth – Ancient Wizards at War
Lesson 7 -- Bes – The Comic Divide
Lesson 8 -- Imhotep – Egyptian Construction Magic
Lesson 9 -- The “Death of Magic" in Egypt
Lesson 10 -- Midterm Exam

“As you may have guessed, this term we are going to focus on the witches and wizards of Ancient Egypt. Not only is the topic absolutely fascinating, but a surprising number of today’s practices have origins in Ancient Egypt.” Gummy paused when his gaze fell on a skeptical-looking Hufflepuff in the front row. “Hmmm. What’s on your mind—“

“Amy Timko, sir.” The girl quickly supplied, before continuing a little more hesitantly. “I realize History of Magic is a requirement for my degree, but it's dreadfully boring -- all dead people and irrelevant facts. And Ancient Egypt? That was about a zillion years ago. I mean, what’s the point?” The girls on either side of Amy cringed and shifted away as if to clear the blast radius in case their new teacher cast Expulso on the reckless Hufflepuff.

Gummy broke into a broad smile and laughed lightly. “Why bother studying history, indeed! You’re certainly not the first to wonder that. In fact, I’d be surprised if a number of your more circumspect classmates don’t wonder the same thing.” Gummy swirled his wand and an enchanted paintbrush appeared. As he spoke, the paintbrush began zipping up, down and sideways, seemingly dabbing at random the air. Each dab left behind a colored dot. “Some people think history is nothing but a bunch of names and dates to be memorized for a test. Some think events are isolated, like the dots my paintbrush is making. Those people don’t believe that what is happening in Albania right now has anything to do with what went on in Dorset last year or will transpire in Shanghai next month. You might recognize these people. They’re always shocked when something happens and say things like, ‘That came out of nowhere,’ or ‘No one could have predicted that,’ or ‘Crazy -- it just happened, for no reason at all’.”

The paintbrush made a final dot and then settled itself on Gummy’s desk. He flicked his wand. Each dot sent out runners. Some made only a few threadlike connections, while others had masses of threads connecting them to fellow color splotches in all directions. Within seconds the chaos resolved into a picture.

“We study history so we can understand the connections. Things don’t just happen. Events, people, and the environment cause things to happen. We study history so we can see our world as more than just random, chaotic events over which we have no control. And so we don’t stand around with our mouths open saying, “Who would have thought?”

“That’s Ra, by the way.” Gummy motioned at the floating picture. “Next class we’ll talk about why he has the head of a bird. It's far more interesting than reviewing the class rules, but they tell me I have to, even for a Graduate level. Gummy made a complicated curling and sweeping gesture with his wand and small papyrus sheaves dropped onto the tables in front of each student.“Please take a moment to review the rules."

Professor Vance's Classroom Rules

Rule 1 -- Preservation of Anonymity!
Please do not put your name, your username, your House, or other identifying information in your homework. No special treatment here. No, sir. You'll need to earn your points in this classroom. As it should be!

Rule 2 -- If You Seek Answers, Look to the Lesson!
Answers to all the homework questions can be found in the lesson text. Therefore it would be unwise and very much against the rules to obtain the answers elsewhere. Don't bother owling your parents and asking them to look up answers for you on the Muggle internet. It won't help. The answers will be wrong and we'll all just be embarassed. No. This year, if Professor Vance says the sky is orange, just snicker and go with it if you want the points.

Rule 3 -- By Horus, At Least Try!
All regular homework questions must be attempted or the TAs won't even bother scoring the extra credit. If you don't put in the required effort, why should they? So if you want the extra credit points, at least guess at the regular questions. You might get them right and not need the EC anyway. It is only possible to earn 10 points on each homework assignment. Those juicy EC points are to make up for any inadvertant mistakes, not to boost you above the 10 point max, you greedy Guss!

Rule 4 -- Brevity is Beautiful!
Please attempt to keep your answers short. Leave the verbosity to Professor Vance. And please don't include the questions along with your answers. You won't get docked points for bombastic, excessively-loquatious behavior, but it makes the TAs irritable. And then Professor Vance needs to bring trays of brownies and baklava into the TA Office to get them to stop snarling at him every time he walks past.

Rule 6 -- Timing is Everything!
All homework must be submitted by the due date and time in order to qualify for full credit. No exceptions. Homework submitted after the deadline is considered make-up homework and is subject to a pro-rated scoring system based on the amount of time past the original due date.

Rule 5 -- Communication is Key!
If you have any questions about the lessons, homework, grading, or that sort of thing, just send me an Owl.

The students read and Gummy was pleased to see none of them looked even a little surprised at the rules.“Good. Good. No surprises there, I'm sure. Your homework is on the back of the papyrus. Owl me if you have any questions.”