History of Magic 13.1

[Derek (Admin)]

History of Magic 13.1

Professor Owen Cliffworth (substituting)

RL Start Date: Open now
IC Date: February 2041
Weather: Cool but fair
Other Considerations: Text - see below

[Professor Cliffworth]

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:  Text is on reserve in the Library: Hogwarts Magical Paintings, A Pictorial History, by Culbert Blackstone

The history of magic classroom was set up in a standard classroom style, with rows of desks, two chairs to a desk. A center aisle ran down between the desks, that were also on tiered levels, so that the back row had a clear view of the chalkboard and Professor’s desk and lectern.

Professor Owen Cliffworth stood by the lectern, arranging papers and notes.

“Good afternoon class. You regular Professor is sick today, so I am filling in. My name is Professor Cliffworth, and History of Magic was one of my favorite studies when I attended Hogwarts some years ago, so I'm no stranger to the course. We study history for a variety of reasons. Since I don’t have lecture notes prepared today, we’re going to do an exercise instead. The halls of Hogwarts are filled with art pieces and paintings, and many of them are of famous witches or wizards. Your assignment for today is simple: Go out and find a painting of some famous witch or wizard or magical subject from any era that is depicted in one of these paintings. If you are First or Second Year, please provide 12 inches of parchment on that person or magical painting subject. Third and Fourth Years will do more in-depth writing. I’d like 24 inches from you. If you are OWL or NEWT-level students, please provide a full 36 inches about your subject of choice. The assignment is due at the end of our double period today, so you have all afternoon to seek out a subject in the halls and then write about it.  If you need a guide to the paintings you can find sufficient copies of Hogwarts Magical Paintings a Pictorial History by Blackstone, on reserve at the Library. Any questions?”

For your post, one paragrph of general description of what you chose, where you looked, etc. and one paragraph about the subject will suffice for all years, unless you wish to write more, of course. So, standard two paragraphs. You may choose anyone from the Harry Potter Lexicon or a Magical subject from there like a creature or famous scene. If you want to you can add a picture to your post of the painting. 

[Valentina Jones]

  Permission to GM Hugo granted  

Of all the classes at Hogwarts, one of Valentina’s earliest favorites was History of Magic. When she’d had trouble with spells, the class was a safe haven from bad marks. She had a good memory for all kinds of names and dates and places, and she had always favored her copy of Hogwarts: A History. History was a big long story of magic and magical people, and she loved to get lost in all the names and places. The historical romance novels were the best when you were lonely and didn’t have any friends around. Of course now that she and H. were an item, the romance books were largely ignored, but she still loved to read about historical figures. She had also been very keen to use the class to expand her knowledge about places like Darjeeling, which figured so prominently in her family’s history. It was the people, not the wars, that fascinated her. It was also a history in which her family, a mostly pureblood line, had figured for a couple of centuries.

She got to class early, and found that their usual Professor was sick, and they had a substitute. He was a man she’d never seen before, but his name was Cliffworth, and he was British. From what he said, he’d taught the subject or something, so at first she expected a lecture. He quickly released them to do something entirely different. They were supposed to look at the portraits in the halls of Hogwarts, and choose one subject to write about for their assignment. This would be rather fun, in the red head’s opinion. She and Hugo could walk about and look at portraits, and take another look at  the portrait, and see what the girl in the picture was doing.  So, as soon as she could, she waited for Hugo so they could do the class together. There was an art gallery in the theater wing, so she thought they ought to go there. On the way, they could look around from the moving stairs and see if any of the other paintings were interesting.

“I never really looked much at these portraits until we talked to madame Guinevere at the circus,. Now I have a real appreciation for the work. I wonder if my mother ever did portraits?” she told Hugo as they walked along. “I have a key to our Gringotts family vault, but I’ve never been in it. My Aunt says that all my mother’s artwork is there, except for what we have at the house.” She arrived in front of one on the Fifth Floor landing. It was of a wizard who was fairly young and dressed in blue and green. She read the nameplate on the painting, and noted it down: “Norvel Twonk” it said. The book they had listed him as a wizard that had save a muggle child from a manticore, although he died. “He seems interesting,” she said. “What are you going to write about?” she asked, and clutched his arm playfully.

 

[Diana Dubois]

The short attention span of Diana Dubois couldn’t stand sitting in a class like History of Magic, which she found really boring most of the time. She really didn’t feel like going, but she forced herself to pile up the thick books, and toss them in her backpack and find her way down to the classroom. It was nearly empty, and she saw why: Their regular History of Magic Professor wasn’t there. That meant they would probably be copying and talking about some famous date in history that had no relevance to Diana’s world today. Her world today was her friends, and helping people like Larken Ayers. She was in some way glad to see that the Hufflepuff didn’t need her help very often. That was because a fellow Hufflepuff named Alan Darcy had been with Larken for months this term. Diana was rather happy that she’d found a new friend in the boy, who seemed nice. She still helped Larken once in a while when it was something that Alan couldn’t do, like being nearby in the girls bathroom. However, Larken didn’t seem to be as helpless as when Diana had first met her last year, so Diana had free time to help her own sister occasionally.

She sat down and waited for class to begin. Professor Cliffworth then did something unexpected: They were going to walk around and look at historical paintings and write about one. While this was still kind of tedious because of the writing part, Diana felt it was a big improvement over a simple lecture. It seemed like all the Professor were making them get out of their desks and do things. She looked around for Larken or any of her friends, and then walked into the hall to go to the Moving Staircase and find a picture that looked interesting. She found one not too far from the landing for the Second Floor. It was a painting of Godric Gryffindor holding a sword. Presumably the very same sword that had killed the snake that belonged to Voldemort. What was the fellows name that did it? He’d been a teacher at Hogwarts, too. Neville Longbottom. She sat and sketched the picture of Godric Gryffindor in her book and wrote out the 12 inches, without a pause. Then she went back and turned it in. She was surprised at what she knew, and how easily she'd written it down. Maybe some of this history stuff was sticking in her head now.

[Alison Taggart]

History of Magic was Alison’s next class, and she couldn’t wait. She loved debates about history, and that was how the classes were usually conducted, and Alison tended to do well in discussions. She was widely read, as well as being interested in the topics. She knew a lot about early European magical history, especially around the time of the muggle Religious wars, because that had been a bad tie to be a wizard. Her family was a fairly old one, as well, so she delighted in naming the various ancestors. Not all of them had been famous or important, but they’d always been involved in commerce of some kind. This was what Alison herself was interested in, so the history of economics in European wizardry was something she was thinking about for a book, perhaps for her OWL in the subject next year.

In class today, they were going to write about something they’d been staring at for years: They could choose any picture they liked, and write a couple of dozen inches about it. She supposed that most of the students would pick one of the founders pictures, but Alison searched all over the halls for something different. She chose to write about one of the few pictures of a centaur: One of the ones that had fought on the side of Harry Potter and his allies. She described the painting, which showed him standing in front of a group of other centaurs, and shaking hands with some of the defenders of Hogwarts Castle. No one saw much of the Centaurs these days, so she thought it was an interesting topic to write about. She did more than the required 24 inches, and then returned it to the Professor and went off to her next class.

[Cerise Valassion]

There were all kinds of strange rumors in the hallways as Cerise slowly made her way to class. She'd heard that one of the two missing boys had returned to school. Claude and Olivier had been gone for a long time, and she's actually seen Olivier, who was from Gryffindor originally. If that wasn't strange enough, the rumors Alison had told them about: that there was some kind of fiery thing in the dungeons, was also circulating. There were also reports that some girls had been murdered or abducted near the Shrieking Shack. None of the school administrators had as yet told the students anything, but cerise had heard about something from Hugo on the compass network of the HSA. Maybe he and Val would be in class today, and she could get first hand information.

Once in class, she soon learned that they were doing an essay on a painting of their choice. Cerise had long wondered about the various paintings around Hogwarts, but she'd never had the chance to write about them. The book the Professor had for them was all about the portraits or the famous people, now all she had to do was go and find one to write about. She wandered the upper corridors of the school, and finally found one of them that was a of a former Headmaster that didn't seem quite a famous as Dippet or Dumbledore. She decided to research and write about the painting with the name "Theodosius Kendrick" on the little brass plate. He had been an 18th Century Headmaster and had presided over a period of growth and expansion at the school. His specialty had been Astronomy and Astrology, and had been an early friend of centaurs. There was plenty of material in her books about him, so that was who she wrote about. She turned it in, and went to find her friends.

Theodosius Kendrick

[James Stafford]

  Permission to GM Valentina given 

The dullest class of all came this hour: History of Magic. The only thing that interested James about this class was the great wizards and warlocks of past and present. What spells they perfected, or whether they were great duelists or not. He was really into a couple of Chinese Sorcerors that they'd learned about before, and he was really interested in the differences in wand work. He entered the classroom prepared to be put to sleep if it wasn't about the Goblin wars, but instead found a substitute in charge, some guy he'd never seen before. He settled into a chair, and glanced briefly at the others. More lightweights.

The Professor was going to make them write today. Luckily, it was about something that James cared about. He'd often looked a the various paintings near the moving staircase and in the halls. Some of them he knew were about witches and wizards. James was a great trader of wizard cards, so he knew all of them. He pulled a packet of them out of his robes and looked them over before he left the classroom to look for one in the hallways to write about. One of his favorites that he'd just traded for was Sacharissa Tugwood. She was a witch that was one of the first to expreiment with potions to enhance beauty. She was super hot looking even for a woman of her time. In fact, there was still a line of cosmetic salves for women that bore her name. James had tried to get his hands on some of the more advanced ones to sell for exorbitant prices to some of the stupider girls at the school, but he hadn't been able to get a steady supply. He found her portrait not far from the moving stairs, and looked at the picture as well as the wizard card in his pocket. He avoided other students while he sat there, and took a few notes. Then he went back to the classroom, and wrote an impressive essay on her contributions to potion-making for everyday use. It was a long, detailed work, including a short history of her perfumery and cosmetics company. Yeah, she was his favorite of the lady witches. He turned this in, and deliberately bumped Valentina Jones on the way to his next class.

[Professor Cliffworth]

For a short time Owen stood near the door to the classroom and watched the students head off on their quest for a good painting to write about. He breathed in the smells of Hogwarts for the first time in years, and gazed up and down the corridors. people came and people went, and no one much noticed the Professor standing there. So much time had gone by since he'd been at the school. He wasn't sure if this was going to be a job he could stick with, but for now, he was content. He was also unstressed about the class: He didn't know any of the students by face or reputation, so he could look at their work with unbiased eyes. He had his own favorite paintings in the halls, and it would be interesting to see what the kids brought back.

After a few more minutes of idling in and near the door of the hallway, he went back inside the classroom, and opened his old briefcase, battered and worn from years and years of use, and got out a couple of new historical fiction novels about the Second World Wars almost a hundred years ago. The characters in one of the novels were well and artfully written, and one could feel the history come alive on the page. He was absorbed in this novel when the students started to trickle back into the room one by one, and slowly the desk had a small pile of assignments. he thanked each student as they turned them in, but so far there hadn't been any questions of problems.