"So, you're back, are you?" Professor Vance asked rhetorically as he opened the window. He stood back so that a very familiar Northern Hawk Owl could fly into the classroom. The brown and white striped owl landed gracefully on the corner of the professor's desk and lifted its right leg. "All business as usual, I see. Well, at least you managed to get here before class started this time."
Gummy carefully untied the message from the bird's tawny leg and then reached into his top right desk drawer. He stifled a laugh as he watched the bird's round eyes follow the movement of his hand and its head twitch at the sound of the drawer opening. He grabbed a good-sized piece of the crocodile jerky which he knew the messenger owl couldn't get enough of. As soon as the bird had the jerky in its beak, it found a perch on top of a bookshelf near the back of the room.
This should be interesting, Gummy thought as he unrolled the scroll. He'd been eagerly awaiting this message. At last he would learn what magic the Russian branch of the Sheta Sesh had been able to uncover at the site of those weird holes. The familiar handwriting of his friend, Dragunov Yuliy Timofeyevich, covered the parchment. A quick scan of the contents made Gummy's brow furrow in thought. It was not at all what he had expected. "Curiousier and curiousier."
Shuffling in the hall announced the arrival of his students, so Gummy rolled up the scroll and tucked it into a pocket. The sight of a Northern Hawk Owl perched on the bookshelf had three of his students huddled together, whispering, and throwing speculative looks at both the owl and their teacher. Professor Vance couldn't help but smile. There was nothing he loved more than a good mystery, so he knew how Amy Timko, Kyle Slater, and Zephyrus Fry had to be feeling. He would have bet a month's salary that all three of them were about to burst with curiosity.
"Alright everyone, settle down and get ready to take some notes. The last quiz of the school year is next class, in case you've forgotten." Moments later the students had settled into lecture mode and he began the lesson. "The XIII Olympic Winter Games took place in February of 1980. They were held in Lake Placid, New York in the United States. While there were many spectacular performances during those games, the 1980 Winter Olympics are best remembered for what Muggles have termed the 'Miracle on Ice.'"
Professor Vance paused, about to ask a question that he felt certain would somehow result in Kyle Slater claiming aliens were behind the nearly impossible win of the US Mens' Hockey Team, when the round, golden eyes of the messenger owl caught his attention. History is about to be re-written, he thought. That's the real lesson here.
"Who knows what historical revisionism is?" Even Gummy was surprised at the words that had come out of his mouth. Forget Felix Felicis. Forget the 1980 "Miracle on Ice". This felt much more like the right lesson to teach today. "Anyone?" he asked.
A hand shot into the air and Gummy nodded to Slytherin Zephyrus Fry. "Historical revisionism is when history as we know it is reinterpreted or what is generally believed to be true is changed. The Boston Massacre in 1770 is an example. The actual incident between British soldiers and American colonists was really minor. It likely would have been entirely forgotten, if it wasn't for a of rabble rousers.. er... patriots. I guess it all depends on your perspective. Anyway, Paul Revere made a woodcut that was completely fictional. It made it look like the British had intentionally fired on a big group of unarmed civilians for no reason. And then this other guy, Samuel Adams, printed it in his newspaper and handed out copies left and right. Next thing you know, everyone believed what happened in the picture was what really happened."
"Well done! Take 10 points for Slytherin," Gummy responded with a broad grin. "Mr. Fry has just described one kind of historical revisionism --- the negative kind. As they say, history is written by the victors, and in this case, propaganda was taught as fact to generations of American elementary school students. But we know much more of the story now because of another kind of historical revisionism. Existing information is re-evaluated, and new facts pop up every day. Sometimes documents that have been lost or maintained in someone's private collection suddenly become available. New Muggle technology such as DNA mapping can help solve mysteries by revealing information that was previously impossible to obtain. Archaeologists unearth something unusual and, suddenly, our entire understanding of the past may change."
Professor Vance reached into the bottom drawer of his desk and removed a small stack of papers. He shuffled through them for a moment and selected a few which he set out on his desk before returning the rest to the drawer. He tapped the first of the sheets with his wand and it floated up into the air before expanding until the image on the paper was large enough for the entire class to see clearly.
"This," said Gummy, pointing to the image of a large cylindrical hole in the middle of a grassy field, "is about to rewrite history. This hole was discovered during the summer of 2014 on the Yamul Peninsula in Siberia, Russia. It's about 200 feet deep and 98 feet in diameter. The crater has smooth sides and all that dirt you see piled up around the top was forced out from inside the hole. The question is, by what? Muggle geologists currently have two favored theories." The professor swished his wand at the enlarged photo floating in the air above his desk. It immediately shrunk back to its original size and dropped back onto the desktop. With a tap of his wand on another paper, Gummy made another image of the Siberian hole float upward and enlarge itself for easy viewing. In this picture, the size of the giant hole could be seen more easily because the people in it looked very small indeed.
"The first theory makes no sense to me at all. They are basically saying that it could be a type of sink hole known as a 'pingo'. The land in which this hole suddenly appeared is covered in permafrost. That means that the earth below the first couple of feet remain frozen all year round and have likely stayed that way since the last ice age. The pingo theory suggests that warmer temperatures have caused the permafrost to melt. The melting destabilized the earth and it collapsed." Some of the students exchanged quizzical looks and a hand shot up into the air.
"Then why is there all that dirt that looks like it exploded up out of the hole?" asked a Gryffindor who looked particularly unconvinced by the pingo theory.
"Yes. I find that rather troublesome as well. The methane hydrate theory sounds a bit more plausible, in my opinion. Under the right temperature and pressure conditions, water and methane can freeze together and form methane hydrate. The frozen methane hydrate remained locked below the ground in the permafrost until recently when temperatures began to rise. As the permafrost melted, methane hydrate unfroze and separated into water and explosive methane gas. And then, BOOM! There was suddenly a really big hole in Siberia. The methane hydrate theory at least accounts for the earth that was clearly ejected from within the hole and the elevated levels of methane recorded at the bottom of the hole."
Gummy paused for a moment, as he considered how much he should tell the students. Then, with a shrug, he pulled the message from his pocket. "Wizards have been investigating these holes, too. At this point, we know of seven large holes like the one in the picture. Each of them was found in areas of permafrost. And in every case, magic detection spells revealed large amounts of magic that were too chaotic to decipher. This occurs when multiple layers of spells crisscross an area. It usually occurs in areas that are routinely used for practice, on dueling platforms, or where large magical battles have taken place." Professor Vance decided not to mention that it was also occasionally used by wizards to very effectively hide the magical signature of dark and nefarious deeds."Spell layering in this manner makes it nearly impossible to determine what the spells were cast, the direction and target, or how old the magic is in terms of order of casting. Nearly impossible. Sometimes wizards can unweave the chaotic magic and tweeze out the individual spells."
As he spoke, the History of Magic Professor watched his three most promising students exchange knowing looks. Amy whispered, "The Adze of Thoth!" Kyle and Zephyrus nodded. All three focused intently on their teacher, eager to learn what the Russian branch of the Sheta Sesh had discovered using the ancient magical tool that could unweave even the most chaotic tangle of spells.
"Spells were cast from six directions, probably at the same time," the professor continued. "All had the same central target, which resulted in a hexagonal shaped zone of magical effect. And that's the first reason history is going to be re-written by these holes in Siberia. These spells date back to just after the last ice age, which is before magic users were believed to have sophisticated spells or be organized enough to work together in groups such as this." The students didn't look nearly as excited by this somewhat esoteric revelation as Gummy was himself, so he pressed on without further comment.
"The types of magic this group used and the spell sequence hints at something a bit more exciting. The oldest spells, the first the group cast, produced heat -- presumably, enough heat to thaw the frozen ground to a depth of about 100 feet. It took a lot of those warming spells, so it was apparently not an easy task. The next spells cast were a series of movement or transport charms to remove earth. In effect, they magically dug a hole, but the spells they used are quite different from what we used to dig wells and so forth today."
Gummy looked down at the message for a moment. "Right. The next layer of spells was different from the others in trajectory. In this case, it appears that all six witches or wizards stood back-to-back inside the hole and used some really massive heat spells that melted the earth and rock, solidified it." His respect for the ancient magic users was growing the more he thought about what they had managed to accomplish. "The rest of the spells all appear to have been cast from around the top of the hole. There were four more series of charms," he explained, referring to the message again.
"First more transport charms, which I presume refilled the hole. Then water charms followed by cold charms that would have settled the ground and then frozen it solid again. The most interesting charms, though, were the last that were cast." The professor watched his students carefully. He wanted to know which of them would be the first to recognize the significance of what he was about to say. "Pacification, immobilizing and sleep charms appear to have been cast on the ground over and over again, periodically, over the course of the next hundred years or so."
"Merlin's beard!" Kyle exclaimed. "Professor, what was in that hole?"
"And where is it now?" Amy asked.
The bell to end class rang suddenly, but, for once, no one moved. "At this point, your guess is as good as mine. As I said, history is being re-written as we speak. Witches and wizards are looking into it. I'll probably head out that way myself. Nothing I like more than solving a juicy mystery like this one. You lot, however, have homework to do." Gummy swished his wand and homework papers appeared in front of each student. "Off you go now, I've got a trip to prepare for."
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