HOM-101 Lesson 1
Year 1 Week 1
Classroom 4F was on the first floor of Hogwarts, just off the main corridor, walls lined with books enough to rival the Hogwarts Library. Eager first-years stumbled through the huge wooden doors ushered in by the house prefects. One by one they slowly filled the seats, whispering excitedly. Once all the seats had been filled, a young witch stepped through the doors as they closed behind her. The room went silent.
Tall, short-haired and freckled, the young witch had the attention of the students in an instant. Her royal blue robes flowed to the ground giving the appearance of floating with each step she took toward the front of the room. Everything about her emitted an aura of sophistication, despite her young age. Her bright green eyes twinkled as she began to speak, her voice quiet but filled with excitement.
According to renowned magical historian Augustus Racscol, magic is '...nature's ability to provide humans with the power to manipulate and modify conditions accordingly. It is a gift blessed to witches and wizards alone for they hold the knowledge and wisdom to use it to aid and not to destroy.'
Turning around upon reaching the blackboard, the blue-robed witch smiled at each of her students . Behind her on the blackboard, carefully written cursive began to appear.
Good Morning and welcome to Classroom 4F. For those of you who do not know me, I am Professor Wood, and I will be your History of Magic Professor this year. Before we leap into the content, I have only two things to ask of you - one: participate, don't just sit back and observe for history is best learnt through keen discussion; two: don't plagiarise your assignments - answers should be referenced or in your own words.
I understand that history is not the preferred subject for many of you in my class today, but I can promise to try and introduce the content in a way which will, hopefully, spark a newfound love for history. I cannot begin to explain all of the reasons why understanding history is so important, but here are just a few:
History is important to us because we are living it, because we are in it, and because we are going to make it. It is happening at every second, minute, and moment in time. Consider a timeline; there is not one moment in time where we stand still for two seconds. So, basically, we are creating history this very moment as you read this sentence.
History is also important to us because without it we cannot possibly hope to survive. If we as a wizarding society didn't study history, we wouldn't know that there was a Statute set forth to separate us from Muggles. We wouldn't know that those underage cannot use magic outside of school. There would be laws broken every day and wars breaking out every second, because we just wouldn't know.
Year One History of Magic aims to give you an overview of what you will study further in depth as your career at Hogwarts continues. We will begin by determining the importance of history studies and taking a look at three main theories for how magic came to be. The biggest portion of First Year HOM seeks to present students with their first look into magical history all around the world and will take up 6 of our 10 lessons prior to your end of year examinations. The last 2 lessons will look to how magic falls in with the muggle world, focusing on Major Religions and the many infamous Witch Hunts. On your desk in front of you, you will see a copy of the year syllabus attached to your assignment for this week....
As she said this, two pieces of parchment appeared in front of each student. The bright eyes of a young blonde-haired witch in the front row lit up with excitement, a muggle-born Hufflepuff girl, as a broad-beaming smile crept across her soft features.
Miss ... Carraway, is it? Would you please read out the assignment?
- Write your arrival to Classroom 4F in RPG form (past tense, third person) revealing your characters impressions. This should introduce the basics about your character (name, house, blood status, appearance, and anything else you might find relevant).
- Write an Introductory Essay to History of Magic:
- Explain in a minimum of two paragraphs (4-6 sentences each), why the study of history is important to you and why people should take history classes, or alternatively why you think students are forced to take history. Keep a strong central thought and be sure to include references to our world. Muggle history is interesting, but this is History of Magic.
- What are you looking forward to, or not looking forward to learning about in History of Magic? Why?
Points will be credited for:
70% - Content (how completely have you answered the prompts)
20% - Creativity
10% - Attention to Detail (word count, punctuation and grammar)
Thank you, Miss Carraway. You may now begin.
Lesson 1 Assignment: https://forms.gle/fk4WobFRnZTDvKVs9
If you require assistance or clarification do not hesitate to contact me by Electronic Owl at daughterofhogwarts@gmail.com.