History of Magic, Lesson One: Fifth Years (Class ended)

Derek hummed happily to himself as he exited his office, stepping into the History of Magic classroom. Today was his batch of fifth year students. They were nice and perky. This was just when they started to develop properly, something Derek liked observing very closely. Yeah, he was a pervert, but he didn't care.

"Good morning, class," he said pleasantly as he moved over to his desk, looking over his class. He waved his wand, and the chalk by the blackboard started writing.

Professor Derek Blood
Fifth Year History
Silence, please

Putting his pipe in his pocket, Derek looked over his class with a faint smile on his face. "Alright, this is OWL History, so you better pay attention, because this will be on your tests... er... probably, I mean. I think it will." To be honest, Derek could hardly even remember what had showed up on his OWL History test.

"Now..." Derek moved around to the front of his desk and hopped up on his, looking over his class and clapping his hands together. "Let's talk history, shall we? Germany. The year is nineteen thirty-five. Can any of you tell me what I'm talking about? What happened in nineteen thirty-five?"

Garrus walked into his first class of the semester with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.
He'd been here in the same school for a while now and was getting used to the day in day out Activities that seemed all too monogamous of a students life.

When he walked into class he noticed the Man standing atop the class and the name on the Board
Professor Derek Blood. Garrus Barely noticed him without his wide-brimmed fedora hat.

Garrus Sat himself down mid way through the class not wanting to be too enthusiastic but didn't want too be too far back and slack.

The Garrus and Professor Blood had a similar policy for no idiots so he thought to himself, " This could be decent class for once". Remembering vaguely the idiocy of previous classes in years past, Garrus quickly composed himself as class started.

The topic at hand was Germany of nineteen thirty five, knowing a bit about this topic Garrus put up his hand hesitantly hoping he wasn't giving a wrong answer

"The Nazi flag became the national flag of Germany, and the German air-force the Luffwaffe was officially created oh and Adolf Hitler announced German re-armament in violation of the Versailles Treaty."

It all come back to Garrus as he spoke aloud in class. He just hoped that he gave the answer The professor was looking for

Derek narrowed his eyes as he stared at the student who had spoken, giving a small "Hm..." Vakarian, if he wasn't mistaken. The boy was up to speed on Muggle history, but sadly, that wasn't the answer Derek had been looking for. It was a good try, though.

"While I do commend you on your grasp of Muggle history, Mr. Vakarian, this is, in fact, History of Magic, and therefore I cannot give you any points, although it was very true." Knowledge, in any form, was worthy of respect for Derek, and he was happy that the boy had at least some grasp on history.

"Yes, the thirties and the forties marked the rise of the Third Reich, but this was not the answer I was looking for," Derek continued, looking over his class. "Nineteen thirty-five, in Germany, the Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald begins taking his anti-Muggle movement to the next level, torturing and murdering Muggles on a large scale. This was also the year when he was first noted to have used his slogan, which was...?"

Derek raised an eyebrow and looked around the class expectantly.

Feeling like a right tool for mixing up his muggle studies and his history of magic studies Garrus sunk deep into his chair where if it were up to him he'd stay quietly for the rest of the semester.

The professor asked yet another question and still no one seemed like they would answer thinking deeply Garrus came up with what he hoped was the correct answer to possibly redeem himself.
Garrus slowly raised his hand and in a low voice said

"For the Greater Good."

He then immediately sank back into his seat awaiting the professor to tell him he'd gotten it wrong.

"For the Greater Good!" Derek repeated happily, pointing at Vakarian. "Very good, Mr. Vakarian, take five point for Gryffindor." That was much better. So, Mr. Vakarian wasn't ignorant when it came to History of Magic, but Derek was very disappointed that no attractive girl had answered his question. Ah well, there was nothing to be done about that, he supposed.

"Yes, Grindelwald frequently used the phrase 'For the Greater Good' to justify his acts of torture and murder. This was all complete rubbish, of course, so don't any of you get it into your heads that saying something like 'For the Garden Gnomes' will get you a free ticket out of Azkaban when committing murder."

Derek chuckled to himself as he shook his head, then looked over the class once more. "Grindelwald took advantage of the ongoing war in the Muggle world during the forties to further his goals. Being a very skilled manipulator, some even say that he was the reason why the war started. Purely speculation, of course, but although one should never completely believe speculation without proof, neither should you dismiss it without evidence proving otherwise.

"Now, do any of you have any questions before I continue?"

Garrus had read somewhere that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were great friends, but there was one other thing he read that he wasn't 100% on.

"Professor Blood is it true that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were really good friends and became extremely close, even to the point where Dumbledore felt attracted towards Grindelwald or is that also complete speculation?"

Derek hummed and leaned against his desk as he thought about Mr. Vakarian's question. "A very good question, Mr. Vakarian. It is true that Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore were very good friends in their youth, perhaps even best friends. That there was any sexual attraction between them, however, is merely speculation. If you want my personal opinion, I think that there is some truth to said speculations, however."

"Now," Derek continued as he stretched. "Grindelwald's war on Muggles sparked several things. Most noticeable, it sparked animosity toward Germany from all of Western Europe and Britain, and it also sparked the bloodiest Goblin rebellion in history, the nineteen forty-four Goblin rebellion in Prag. Led by Gorb the Greedy, these Goblins murdered, in total, nearly a third of the total amount of the people Grindelwald killed. Which, all things considered, is a large amount."

Derek took his pipe out of his pocket and lit it with the tip of his wand. "But we'll get to the Goblin rebellion later. Now, Grindelwald's forces swept through Western Europe, crushing almost all resistance. He conquered it all, and the only thing remaining was Britain."

Derek crossed his arms. The rest of the story was common knowledge. Hopefully, one of these people would know it. "Alright, who can take it from here? There's twenty points for your House in it for you."

Marie sauntered into history of magic, her hair in a curly mess at her waist from waking up late and her dark eyes were heavy from tiredness. She noticed Garrus sitting comfortably and chose to sit as far as possible from him in the back.

Sighing she crossed her pale legs and copied the writing on the board onto her yellowed parchment. Looking over at her new professor, she studied him with her eyes but quickly shrank back in her seat when he began asking questions, the brunette knew she couldn't answer half of them.

She began doodling flowers upon her parchment as Garrus answered most questions.

Taking advantage of his classmates unwillingness to answer Garrus once again raised his hand.
Not remembering all the details about the topic at hand he tried to give the best answer he could starting with the how the conquest started and how it was ended

"After stealing the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch, Gellert Grindelwald used its power to begin his conquest of Europe until he came to Britain. Where he was defeated by Dumbledore in an epic battle which took place in 1945. It took Dumbledore five years to respond to the Wizarding world's pleas for his help. Dumbledore Aged 64-years-old in the prime of his powers Beat Grindelwald even with the elder wand and put a stop to Grindelwald's conquest"

Garrus's Head began to hurt after remembering all that information his many trips to the School library to study had done him well

Derek's eyes roamed over the class, stopping to look at the various girls in the room while Vakarian spoke. A lot of potential. A lot of potential, he thought to himself, barely managing to keep a perverted grin from appearing on his face. It wouldn't do to let the class know what his thoughts were, after all.

"And here I thought you only knew about Muggle history, Mr. Vakarian," Derek spoke with a mocking smirk on his face. "Very good, very good. Take twenty points for Gryffindor. Now, I hope the rest of you are taking notes?" he said as he looked over his class. In truth, he didn't really care if they were. It wasn't his OWL exams coming up, so he didn't have to worry about keeping notes.

Derek puffed thoughtfully on his pipe for a while, his eyes closing in thought. What to talk about now? He had completely forgotten... He snapped his fingers and his eyes opened when he remembered. "Ah yes, Gorb the Greedy. In charge of the Prague-branch of Gringotts bank, he had always been at odds with the German branch manager, Bur the Burly.

"Upon finding how much power Bur got under Grindelwald's leadership, Gorb rebelled against the Czech Republic, back then known as Czechoslovakia. Attempting to gain more freedom, the goblins took to Grindelwald's tactics of torture and murder to gain the attention of the Czech Ministry. This plan, where they were attempting to get the Ministry to listen to them, backfired completely, and only managed to enrage the Ministry to the point where they committed the greatest slaughter of goblins in recent history, numbering in the thousands."

Derek chuckled and puffed on his pipe some more. "Of course, the Czech Ministry weren't the only enemies Gorb made. The neighboring goblin nations took offense to what Gorb was doing, and managed to capture him during a visit under the guise of diplomatic negotiations. Now, would anyone care to take a guess as to Gorb's fate?"

Garrus knowing nothing about Gorb Glanced around the room subtly to see if anyone was going to attempt an answer ,Hoping that the Professor wouldn't Fall back on him for an answer if no one else did and would simply continue with the lesson.

On his glance around the room Garrus noticed Marie sitting as far away from him as humanly possible at the rear of the class. He thought to himself, "Thank god no distractions". He tried not to look around for too long as he would lose valuable class time or worse risk attracting the attention of Professor Blood.

Marie stopped drawing the small water lilly on the edge of her parchment to quickly scrawl down some notes in her elegant handwriting. She listened silently to Professor Bloods voice not bothering to embarrass herself by answering a question incorrectly.

Glaring at the back of Garrus's head when he earned some points for gryffindor she rolled her eyes. The brunette wasn't stupid, in fact she considered herself intelligent, her flaw was she was lazy and she found herself drifting off into daydreams too often.

Gritting her teeth she tried to concentrate on the discussion.

"Really? No one?" Derek asked, though there wasn't a hint of surprise in his voice. He already knew most of his class was filled with nothing but idiots. "I see that goblin history isn't nearly as interesting as wizarding history. Well, can't say that I blame you. One confuses the names of the goblins sometimes. Anyway, Gorb's fate was simple. He was decapitated. His body was burned to ash and spread in the wind, and his head was mounted on a pike to show the Ministry that the rest of the goblin nations didn't condone what he had been doing."

Derek crossed his arms with a smile on his face as he chewed on his pipe. "Ah yes, goblins, the most brutal creatures in the world, in my opinion. Now, remember, Gorb the Greedy is not to be confused with Corb the Clumsy, who made the mistake of scaring a herd of African elephants, and so getting trampled to death, in eighteen eighty-four."

Derek smirked. "I want you all to learn from his mistake. In the future, should you find yourself on the African plains, staring at a herd of elephants, do not ingest a large amount of alcohol and sing the goblin song of war at the top of your lungs."

Vaguely picturing Some goblin drunkenly singing and being trampled on by elephants to amuse himself Garrus couldn't help but find himself drifting further and further away from the class lapsing in and out day dreams, oddly revolving around both alcohol and elephants.

He could only picture Professor blood's face if he could read minds. But what if he can read minds.
Maybe it was out of Boredom or perhaps the fumes from the professors pipe where causing him to hallucinate , but Garrus found himself at a certain unease when the professor laid his wise and possibly all knowing eyes upon him.

Derek looked around the class. He was losing them. Ah well, they didn't want to study? It would cause problems for no one but themselves. Clearing his throat, Derek puffed on his pipe a few times, and then moved around his desk to sit down, putting his feet up on it, and placing his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair.

"Alright, class, from now on, until class is over, it's whatever-time. Do whatever you wish, but for appearances' sake, I'll have to keep you here until class is over. I'm sure you'll find something to enjoy yourselves with," he said with a smile. While he probably wasn't the best teacher at Hogwarts, he was pretty sure he was one of their favorites, with his relaxed attitude and disregard for having the students really learn anything.

After all, he wasn't the one who decided that they wanted to learn. They decided that for themselves, and he wasn't going to go that extra mile to make sure everyone did as they were told. He just didn't have the energy for that. He'd much rather just sit in his chair and look over the cute and beautiful girls in his class.

Surprised at the easy going words of the professor, Garrus Quickly took down and put away all notes he'd assembled in the class. No doubt the professor would give a test sometime in the future and having a genuine interest in the Subject he aspired to do well. He had already grown to like his New professor and it had only been the guts of one class as for how that will change only time knew.

That said the second he finished taking down notes, Garrus began to rip several pages of paper out of his spare notebooks and created several origami Statuettes ranging from simplistic things like Aeroplanes to Amateur pieces like Swans and cranes and even more intermediate pieces such as A stellated icosahedron .

He did so in a manner so as not to attract too much attention such as the majority of his classmates who took to fooling around.

"Alright, class, from now on, until class is over, it's whatever-time. Do whatever you wish, but for appearances' sake, I'll have to keep you here until class is over. I'm sure you'll find something to enjoy yourselves with,"

Marie sighed; she really had nothing to amuse herself. However she appreciated Professor Blood’s kindness, to her doing nothing was better than doing History of magic. The hufflepuff next to her began describing a very animated story of his weekend; ignoring him she counted the marks in the wooden table.

She had quite a lonely childhood due to having no siblings, so she was accustomed to being alone; she found friends came to her instead of her trying to make them.

The brunette‘s face suddenly lit up as she remembered she took her favourite book with her, Wuthering heights. She rifled in her bag and finally pulled out the old paperback book. Her mother had always wanted her to read muggle books and since she was small she was forced to read all the classics. She knew she was a silly romantic for loving such a gloomy book but she still continued to favour it over all the wizarding books combined.

Tito grunted to himself as he wandered down the corridor toward his History of Magic class. Alright, so maybe he was a little late... Looking at his watch, he realized that he was nearly half an hour late. He shrugged. It didn't really matter to him.

As he reached the classroom, he opened the door and stepped inside, waving his hand at the teacher, who was sitting behind his desk, smoking a pipe. The class didn't even look like it had started yet. So... What was this all about?

"Hey, teach," Tito said, waving. "Sorry I'm a bit late. I'll just go take a seat." With that, without another glance at the teacher, he moved over to an empty seat and sat down, immediately resting his chin against his fist. He really didn't want to be here...

Derek looked up as Mr. Lentini entered his classroom. He had heard a lot about the boy. He was a punk, apparently, but Derek didn't care about that. He just waved the boy off and watched him taking a seat. Derek reached into his frock coat and took out a small notebook, which he opened and started looking through.

Strangely enough, there wasn't a single word about history in his notebook. Only strange sights and such that he had noticed and jotted down. Now, however, finding nothing to do, Derek took out a pencil and started doodling on an empty page in his notebook.

Maybe he should've taken some points from Ravenclaw for Lentini's tardiness? Then again, why bother? It's not like it'd stop him from being late.

Garrus couldn't help but notice someone come in rather late.
Wondering how the professor would react to the students tardiness, Garrus look up at him only to notice him take out a notepad

"Must be taking notes on how everyone is behaving " Garrus thought to himself

Garrus watched as the time left in class slowly diminished, making it seem like the class would never end.
Not that Garrus was complaining with the free time he was given, he just couldn't help but shake his urge to do something more constructive than origami, which he was only going to dispose of anyway when the professor ended the class.

Having become bored of origami Garrus proceeded to move aside the origami to the empty part of the table next to him and then take the notebook he'd removed pages from out from where he'd stash it and sketch random objects in the room. Among them a rather unskilled drawing, that poorly resembled Professor Blood

Marie watched as Tito came in late, the Slytherin wasn’t surprised, it was a habit of his. Her dark eyes wandered around the classroom observing the mini world around her, some girls were whispering in the corner, Garrus seemed to be doing some elaborate sketch and Professor Blood seemed to be doodling on a small notebook, her curious eyes tried to decipher what was on the page but his desk was too far from her seat.

Sighing she slumped in her seat and traced her long pale fingers around the picture of a willow on the front of her old Wuthering Heights paperback.

The Hufflepuff next to her seemed unfazed by her disinterest and carried on chatting about his weekend. She bit her lip hoping the clock would move at least a little faster. ..

Looking at his time table and at the clock, Garrus saw there wasn't too long left in the class and gathered up his paper and head for the bin he saw on the way in

He detoured the route he came and made his way over by Marie. He pretended to fumble the paper in his hand and drop some what he had dropped was a swan and a note intended for Marie right on her table.
Picking up the swan he winked and apologised for being clumsy.

He then proceeded to the bin and emptied the rubbish into the bin and took the route he first took into class back to his seat.

Derek hummed a tune to himself. He couldn't remember what the name was, or where he'd heard it. Probably something his mother had sung long ago, or something. He didn't really care. Noticing a student rising from their seat, he looked up and saw Vakarian walking over to the rubbish bin, throwing something in there.

Derek's eyes drifted down to the watch he fished out of his waistcoat, quite unnecessarily, considering the wall clock right above the door. Ten minutes left. Shrugging, he pocketed the watch and his notebook, before rising out of his chair, stretching.

"Well, you all seem to be a bit restless, and quite honestly, I can't be bothered to sit here in silence, amusing though it may be to observe what you do in your spare time. So, I think class is over for today." With that, Derek headed off to the door to his office, opening it and walking inside. He came out immediately after, however, and gave a wave.

"Until next time, kids. Remember, no singing war hymns around elephants." He headed into his office, only to quickly poke his head out again. "In fact, it's better to not sing at all... or be around elephants... or even go to Africa in the first place. Hm... Yes..."

For the final time, Derek headed back into his office and closed the door.