HoM: NEWT - Lesson One

[Kyala Duran]

The room, as you notice, is set up like an early modern courtroom. There are rows and rows of seats, a witness stand, the accused stand, the judge's table, and a juror's bench.
Sitting at the Judge's table is Profeesor Duran. She looks excited about this subject. Behind her, the wall has words written on it, as if it were a blackboard.

History of Magic: NEWT - Lesson One
The Salem Witch Trials

[Janie Lucas]

Janie walked into the History of Magic classroom and stopped in the doorway, her eyebrows raised. Errrm - where was the classroom? She gave the professor a smile and took a seat at one of the benches, feeling very stupidly self conscious.

[Aidan Fischer]

Aidan walked through the door of the classroom and stopped dead. What the...? He looked around for some clue as to what was going on, and saw the subject of the lesson written on the blackboard.

Great. Just what he needed. Another reminder that people he'd known were going through lately. Sighing, he walked over to a bench and slouched down on it.

[Alycya Weasley]

Alycya wandered into the classroom, in a sort of daze. Only when she'd actually entered the class did she actually pull up and take notice of her surroundings.
"Whaa?" she whispered to herself. She raised a perfect red eyebrow and looked around. Hmmm.... interesting. Giving the new Professor a polite nod, she made her way over to sit with Aidan.
"Hey," she murmured. "This is wierd.."

[Kyala Duran]

Kyala chuckled, watching all the students' reactions as they walked into the classroom. She was a practical teacher, she liked showing things rather than just lecturing. "Good Morning, Miss Lucas, Mr Fischer and Miss Weasley. How are you all?" she asked, standing up. She'd learnt her role by heart. She had a good memory.
"Okay - well to begin, I just want to know what you all know about the subject we are studying. So, could you write it all down on a piece of parchment, then send it up to me, and I'll put it on the board to collate what we know."

[Aidan Fischer]

Apr 10, 2009 0:22:10 GMT 8 Alycya Weasley said:

Alycya wandered into the classroom, in a sort of daze. Only when she'd actually entered the class did she actually pull up and take notice of her surroundings.
"Whaa?" she whispered to herself. She raised a perfect red eyebrow and looked around. Hmmm.... interesting. Giving the new Professor a polite nod, she made her way over to sit with Aidan.
"Hey," she murmured. "This is wierd.."

Aidan looked up when Alycya sat down beside him. He nodded at her words. "Yeah. I could do without the reminder - you know Zach's testifying at Ceallach's trial today?"

Apr 10, 2009 10:29:30 GMT 8 Kyala Duran said:

Kyala chuckled, watching all the students' reactions as they walked into the classroom. She was a practical teacher, she liked showing things rather than just lecturing. "Good Morning, Miss Lucas, Mr Fischer and Miss Weasley. How are you all?" she asked, standing up. She'd learnt her role by heart. She had a good memory.
"Okay - well to begin, I just want to know what you all know about the subject we are studying. So, could you write it all down on a piece of parchment, then send it up to me, and I'll put it on the board to collate what we know."

When the professor started speaking, Aidan faced the front of the class, and listened to the instructions. He took out a piece of parchment. He thought he had a general idea what the Salem Witch Trials had been about. He dipped his quill in the ink, and started to write:

The Salem witch trials occured when a group of young girls started accusing people in their community of witchcraft. While they were listening to the trials, they acted as if they were possessed. A number of people were executed because of their accusations.

He paused, trying to think if there was anything else. Hmmm, he wasn't sure about this bit, but he'd put it down anyway:

Some of them later recanted and admitted they'd made the whole thing up.

With a quick flick of his wand, he sent the parchment floating up to the Professor's desk.

[Alycya Weasley]

Alycya nodded, puting a comforting hand on Aidan's shoulder. "Yeah, I know," she said, giving him a smile. She looked up and removed her hand from Aidan's shoulder as the Professor bean to speak. Hmmmm Alycya took out a piece of parchment and her quill, unscrewing the lid from her inkpot and inking her quill.
The quill poised above her paper, she suddenly had a blank. She'd read all about them! How could she NOT know what they were!

The Salme Witch Trials were simply a way for the superstitious people of the time to get rid of all those they didn't think fitted in. Anyone that were slightly different, acted different, lived alone. Whether they were witches or not, didn't matter, as long as there was a shread - even the thinest piece of cotton like shread - of evidence, then one could be convicted.

A;ycya sighed, looking down at the words scrawled across the page in her spidery script. She groaned. She was in a bad mood. No use in trying to correct it. It would only just get worse. She flicked her wand out and her parchment flew to the front.

[Janie Lucas]

Janie heard the two older students behind her talking. She knew Alycya, but the guy she didn't know. She wondered if he was taken... Her thoughts turned back to the class as Professor Duran began to talk.
Great

She took out a sheet of parchment, dipped her quill in the ink and began writing.

The Salem Witch Trials were ran by superstition, mostly. They hardly ever caught a real witch or wizard, except the ones that liked to get caught. Mostly, they convicted women that acted out of the 'ordinary', people that lived alone, or spent a lot of time outside at night. The accused were burnt at the stake, thrown off cliffs to see if they would fly, or drowned. The belief was that a witch wouldn't drown, and would float. Many innocents died in the Trials. By the end, it was jsut a show.

When she was done, she flicked out her wand, sending her sheet to the front.

[Frankie Redfield]

Frankie had entered the room whilst the Professor was talking to the other three students and quickly took a seat in the shadow of a large set of wooden stocks. She glanced around the room but her expression remained nonchalant. It kind of creeped her out but for some reason the feeling she was experiencing wouldn't reach her face. She was glad to have gone unnoticed. Not that it was hard to do, but she was always relieved when people's attention seemed to pass over her as though someone had cast a disillusionment spell on her.

She took out a fresh piece of parchment and began to write what she knew about the Salen Witchtrials. As usual, she rambled.

Salem is in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. It is a small countryside town whose prosperity comes mainly from its fine farmland. In the late 17th century the town relied greatly upon it's crops of wheat which is where all the trouble began.
Women: usually young, attractive, clever women (such as midwives) were accused of witchcraft by other members of the townsfolk and over 150 were tried and executed for their 'crimes'.
It is commonly believed today that most of these women were merely accused my men who feared their intelligence, oher women who were jealous of them and men who had been been unfaithful to their wives and declared they had been seduced by witchcraft. This is where the modern phrase "witch-hunt"; meaning to hunt down and persecute innocents in a fit of group insanity, came from.
However it was not only women. Men were accused of witchraft also. In the town records it is documented that the accused people's behaviour was very strange and some were seen to have erratic, violent fits. It is the modern view of Muggle scientists that these fits were in fact caused by a fungus that grew on the wheat crops. However back in 1692 it was seen as possession.
What was more, anyone who tried to defend an accused witch would also have suspicion cast upon them and so no one spoke out.

At this point Frankie stopped and chewed the end of her quill as she re-read what she written. Absolutely no structure at all. Not that she cared.

[Kyala Duran]

Kyala watched them all as they scribbled down their notes, and read them all as they were sent up to her desk. Well, no need to ask what all of their reactions to trials were! She collated the reactions, and the answers, and stood up, walking out from behind the desk, and over to the where the students had congregated.
"Well, you all seem to know quite a bit about this subject. And, you have all answered differently."
She turned, and flicked her wand out at the wall behind the desk. The following appeared on it.

Young girls acting as though they were possesed.
Based wholly on superstition.
A way of removing individuals from society that didn't 'fit'.
Most were innocents - hardly ever caught a real witch/wizard.
Mostly 'just for show'.
Over 150 were tried and executed for 'crimes'.
Women targeted because of intelligence - men afraid of them.
People were having fits - they were targeted as well - caused by fungus - seen as possession.
Anyone that tried to defend an accused was also suspected, and generally convicted.

"This is a collation of answers of the class. Does anyone remember anything else? Something you can add?"

[Frankie Redfield]

Frankie watched as Professor Duran magicked their collected answers onto the board. They had indeed all come up with some different ideas. But it was no surprise they all knew a fair bit about it. Most families taught their children about the Witch Trials when they were young to discourage the use of magic in public. She couldn't help noticing that her answers were more Muggle orientated. Not surprising, considering her upbringing. Everything she knew came from Muggle history books.
She snorted softly when the Professor asked if anyone had anything to add.
"Muggles are idiots?" she muttered to herself, sarcastically.

[Kyala Duran]

Kyala was just about to continue on, when she heard one of her Prefects mumble something. "Now, now, Miss Redfield, that's not very nice," she chuckled. "Though, and this is not to leave this classroom, how very right it might be, it's not very nice."

She chuckled again, shaking her head softly. "Okay, notebooks out please. The Salem Witch Trials began in February 1692, and the majority of them ended around May 1693. They were a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex counties of colonial Massachusetts. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused but not formally pursued by the authorities. The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of witchcraft. Nineteen of the accused, fourteen women and five men, were hanged. One man (Giles Corey) who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so. At least five more of the accused died in prison."

[Frankie Redfield]

Frankie grimaced as she was scalded by the professor and gave her a dubious smile in apology. She was right, though. Muggles were idiots. Look at her Father.
She sighed and pulled out her notebook, scribbling down the notes as professor Duran began her lecture. The history was ugly.

[Aidan Fischer]

Most of the others had got a lot more detail than him - but although they'd heard about the witch trials, he and his brother had never given much thought to it. They'd grown up with almost no contact with muggles, so their parent's hadn't felt it necessary to scare them into keeping their magic hidden.

Aidan grinned to himself - their mother had had more than enough to do, trying to teach him and Zach not to change to their animagi forms whenever they felt like it. It must have been tiresome - setting out on a gentle walk to the playground, and then having to restrain a couple of energetic wolf pups from terrifying the other toddlers!

He felt sorry for Frankie, getting told off for saying something that most people secretly agreed with to some extent! He turned in his seat and gave her a sympathetic smile.

Then the lecture started, and he busied himself taking notes. He supposed he should try to set a good example as head boy!

[Alycya Weasley]

At Frankie's mumbling, Alycya felt as though her eyes had just turned as red as her hair! Muggles sooooooooo weren't idiots! Well, not all of them! She was Muggleborn, and no one insulted them around her like that. She was about to make a comment, when the Professor interceeded. Then, Professor Duran went off to say it was true!
She hurumphed angrily, and picked up her quill, writing heavily on her parchment in her anger. What was it with this place!! She'd thought the main prejudices were over!