[Y1] Lesson I-Ancient Egyptian Magic

Selene turned the walls of the room to their original color and took everything out from the Second Years' lesson. Instead, she cast a spell on the floor that made it sandy and dry. The walls turned to a yellowish tint, and the room was suddenly brighter than it usually was. Patiently, she waited for the students.

Ancient Egyptian Magic

The announcement that Professor Vega was going to be taking over History of Magic from Professor Clark had intrigued Emmalynne. She was excited to be able to take more lessons from the professor, but she was also highly interested in why there had been the switch this early in the term. Something must have happened, and she wanted to investigate. First, though, she needed to actually focus on lessons. At least she was fairly certain the CoMC professor would make the subject interesting, since the other lessons definitely were. Basically, she was curious, yet excited, and even more so when she’d entered the classroom to find that it looked like they had suddenly been transported into the desert. Except for the fact the temperature didn’t seem too different, everything else definitely was. It was all fascinating, and she kicked at the sandy floor idly just to see if it acted like the normal floor of the castle or if sand would be kicked up.

Just as an experiment before she looked up to see Professor Vega standing there waiting for people to arrive, and she realized it looked like she was the first one there. Oh well, she thought, practically skipping further into the classroom. “Good morning, Professor Vega,” she greeted the dark-haired woman, making her way to look for her seat for the lesson. If it was like CoMC, she wasn’t going to just get to pick any old seat, but then that was another thing that would prove to be interesting for her.

Leah skipped her way to the History of Magic classroom, just to make the walk more interesting and fun. But once she came into the room she was shocked to find it sandy and dry. The first thing that came to mind was desert, but the temperature of the room was not one that you would experience in a desert.
Leah remembered that she was just standing in the door way starring at the room like an idiot. She snapped out of her mini daze and walked in the room, there was only two other people in there. One of course was the teacher of the course, and the other a student.

"Good morning, girls." Selene said as the only two present students arrived. "Well, today's class is awfully small, but I'm sure you both can handle that." she told them with a smile.

"First, let's start with what you already know about magic. Come on, give me something. Anything you know." she told them, encouraging them to speak up.


OOC: Everybody who posts after this...make up a good excuse for your character to be late :OOC

Aurelia stifled a yawn as she wandered through the winding hallways of Hogwarts, azure eyes darting around her surroundings with the slightest hint of fear. She was lost, again. A month of classes had flown by, and yet, the young girl still found herself confused by her surroundings, espcially the staircases which were notorious for changing every few minutes, leaving the hapless student stranded in completely uncharted territory. That was exactly what had happened to Aurelia--she had set off for class a few minutes early, hoping to get to class before others, in order to get a good seat. However, things had not gone as she had planned for, within a few minutes, she found herself whisked to another part of the castle that she had not previously explored. Wiping a bead of sweat from her brow, Aurelia raced into the classroom, feeling her cheeks heat up with an intense pink color as she glanced around her surroundings.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Professor," stated the girl, addressing her Professor earnestly, noting in surprise that it was the same teacher for their Care of Magical Creatures lessons. "I was on the right staircase to get to this classroom, but then it suddenly moved and I ended up in one of the towers over there. I promise it won't happen again," she explained, gesturing towards the general direction of the tower she had found herself in. She didn't know what it was called; after all, if she did, she wouldn't have been considered lost. Casting a quick glance at the other two students in the classroom, she awaited Professor Vega's reply nervously and twisted a strand of her robe's fabric around her finger.

Before the girls could answer the question, Aurelia Rosier walked in.
"It's alright Aurelia. Just please make sure it doesn't happen again. Now," she said while motioning the girl to a seat, "Since you are already here, why don't you tell me what you some things that you already know about the history of magic? Anything will do."

Aurelia nodded swiftly, her cheeks heating up with color as she strode towards the seat that Professor Vega had motioned her towards and seated herself quietly. The woman's next statement, however, surprised her; she had been hoping that she would be 'let off the hook' and would simply be able to take on a passive role in the class, but evidently, that was not to be. "Um..." she muttered quietly, before staying silent for a few moments to collect her thoughts. Honestly, she didn't know much about the History of Magic, apart from the brief reading she had done over the summer after purchasing the textbooks required for her lessons. As she attempted to recall the information that she had read, a sudden memory flashed into her mind. "Ancient Egyptians were one of the first civilizations to utilize magic in their lives. If I recall correctly, the Egyptian wizards were skilled in the summoning of water and the movement of objects with magic, which helped them when building the pyramids," murmured Aurelia in response to the Professor's question, hoping that her response bore some degree of similarity to the facts in the textbook.

"Very good, Aurelia. Six points for Slytherin." Selene announced as she heard the girl's response. "Now, in Ancient Egypt, magic was used for both, practical and religious purposes. Egyptians believed magic was a divine creation for the benefit of humanity and they considered it to be a field of knowledge, kind of like architecture, literature, medicine, and the likes. That, however, contrasts with what magic means to the modern world. Back them, it was a real and potent force. It was a tangible means of communicating, manipulating, and controlling their gods. Now, magic is only a game to the common man. Does anybody know any examples of how magic was used to manipulate the gods?" she asked, hoping more students would participate.

Ryland knew this one. It had been taught to him many times in the orphanage as they had studied Egyptian History only a few days before he received his Hogwarts letter. Slowly raising his hand, he said, "I don't really know if they used this kind of magic for this situation, but I know that if they were farmers then they'd chant or something and it would rain and it would increase their produce as it would help in fertilizing and such."

"Very good, Mister Marcotte." Selene said, "6 points to Gryffindor."

"Now, let's take a glance at how magic was used in dream interpretation and prophecies. Here," she said as she passed down a piece of parchment to every student, "Take this and write what you think is the right interpretation. You have 5 minutes to guess them all, and then we'll check our answers and explain."












Name:
House:

Dream interpretation taken from the Chester Beatty III papyrus

A man sees himself in a dream slaughtering an ox with his own hand ___________________
Eating crocodile flesh ___________________
Submerging in the river ___________________
Burying an old man ___________________
Working with stone in his house ___________________
Seeing his face in a mirror ___________________
Being bitten by a dog ___________________
His bed catching fire ___________________

Aylee, as usual, was sitting at the back, listening to the Professor talk. She wasn't the kind to raise her hand in class so she watched as other students did so. Even though she was quiet, she was very fascinated by the Egyptians. Back at home, her grandfather would tell her that nobody knew where the Egyptians came from and where they went so it interested Aylee alot.
As she received the piece of parchment, she looked down at it and tried to think of a good answer. She was pretty sure that she had learnt these in primary school, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Two minutes passed...
Yes, I know it! Aylee exclaimed in her head and started writing immediately.

Name: Aylee Walters
House: Ravenclaw
Dream interpretation taken from the Chester Beatty III papyrus

A man sees himself in a dream slaughtering an ox with his own hand- killing his adversary
Eating crocodile flesh- acting as an official among his people
Submerging in the river - purification from all evils
Burying an old man- flourishing
Working with stone in his house- fixing a man in his house
Seeing his face in a mirror- another wife
Being bitten by a dog - he will be touched by magic
His bed catching fire - driving away his wife

---

Your assignment has been graded, and you have received 10 points for Ravenclaw.

Leah stared at he paper for a moment, and thought. Then with a spark of inspiration she remembered reading something about dreams sometime that past summer. She had found it very interesting. She closed her eyes thinking up everything she remembered.

Name: Leah Baker
House: Ravenclaw


Dream interpretation taken from the Chester Beatty III papyrus

A man sees himself in a dream slaughtering an ox with his own hand __killing his adversary____
Eating crocodile flesh _acting as an official amongst his people__
Submerging in the river _purification from all evils__
Burying an old man __flourishment________
Working with stone in his house ___fixing a man in his house______
Seeing his face in a mirror __another wife_______
Being bitten by a dog _he will be touched by magic___________
His bed catching fire __driving away his wife_____

---

Your assignment has been graded, and you have received 10 points for Ravenclaw.

Struggling to remember what he'd learned at the orphanage, Ryland placed his hands on his head and closed his eyes in concentration. Finally, he managed to remember only a few things and began to write them down as soon as he could, but tried to make it legible.



Name: Ryland Lucas Marcotte
House: Gryffindor


A man sees himself in a dream slaughtering an ox with his own hand Killing his adversary
Eating crocodile flesh Acting as an authority figure
Submerging in the river Purification
Burying an old man I think I don't know this one
Working with stone in his house I don't know this one either
Seeing his face in a mirror He has another wife
Being bitten by a dog Someone will do something bad to him?
His bed catching fire His wife will leave him? Or something like that....

---

Your assignment has been graded, and you have received 8 points for Gryffindor.

Emmalynne had pretty much only been listening to everything that was being discussed during the lesson, both still a bit distracted by her surroundings and because she hadn’t entirely known how to answer the questions. She had peeked at some books at home of her father’s, from some article or something he’d written in the past, but that hadn’t meant she’d known anything about how the ancient Egyptians used magic to manipulate their gods. However, dreams were something else entirely, so her spirits had lifted as a stack of parchments were handed out.

She’d closed her eyes for a second or two to try and remember the pages from the books she’d read before about dream interpretations and everything, and then opened them to stare down at the questions. Okay, she thought, picking up her quill and starting to write down what she had pictured in her head. The hard part was trying to put words to pictures, but she was trying to become a writer. Therefore, this would be good practice.

Name: Emmalynne St. Pierre
House: Hufflepuff


Dream interpretation taken from the Chester Beatty III papyrus

A man sees himself in a dream slaughtering an ox with his own hand he will kill his adversary
Eating crocodile flesh he will act as an official for his people
Submerging in the river he will be purified against all evil
Burying an old man he will flourish
Working with stone in his house he will fix a man in his house
Seeing his face in a mirror he has a double life/another wife
Being bitten by a dog he will be touched by magic
His bed catching fire he will drive away his wife