Defence and Mayhem

Wars and Worries

Waking up was never harder. A soft bed with nice comfy covers, that somewhat cold weather that made you want to curl up in your blanket and never get out, the calming scent of books and remains of used firewood, the fact that it was a Sunday morning only added to the feeling of drowsiness.

But all good things had to end.

Harrison slowly got out of the comfortable covers, straight into the chilling air of an October morning. Shivering at the sudden chill, he shook off his sleepiness and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

As much as he preferred lazing around for the weekend, he had much to do. Essays to grade, lessons to plan. A lot of work he was too tired to do but still had to.

After eating breakfast in the Great Hall he went back to his private quarters and started thinking of lesson plans. First-year was always easy, all he had to do was add an easy-to-understand version of the theory behind affiliations and teach them meditation, something that helps to connect with one's magical core. He planned to add that to the second and third years too, aside from the actual material. Fourth year and up were more complicated. They were mature enough to understand theory even without a watered-down version and they, unlike the lower years, actually asked questions instead of simply accepting the information he gave them.

What would Hermione think if she saw him right now? A teacher was the last occupation she would think fit Harry Potter... Well, he did grow out of his 'angry teen' phase, but for him to actually act like a grown-up? Yeah, she wouldn't believe it.

With a sigh, he wrote down the fourth-year lesson plan for the week, which mostly consisted of defensive shield spells and creative usages of charms in dueling. But when he finally got to the fifth-year defence class he was stuck.

He couldn't help but remember the last lesson, the one he had the fifth-year students face their greatest fears. Many muggle-born students had fears of the war, but the one that struck him most was Riddle's. The teen had no one there for him. Harrison couldn't believe that none of the teachers, including his own head of house, came to his aid. He could now understand why he was so obsessed with immortality. He wanted to survive because he was scared and alone. Hell, there was no wonder he went nuts and became Voldemort! It wasn't his fault in the first place, it was his teachers' fault for never aiding him.

Wait, did wizards even understand how bad muggle wars were?

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"Today's subject is muggle technology." Yep, it had to be done. He could already see the recognition in Riddle's eyes; he knew what caused this particular subject to be learnt. Many students looked like they wanted to protest. Harrison did understand why, they didn't sign up for Muggle Studies for a reason after all. They couldn't care less about muggles. But he didn't care whether they wanted to learn this or not. It was important.

"I know that some of you have no interest in the matter, but you will learn this, whether you want to or not. Now then, how many of you here know what electricity is?" Only a third of the students raised their hands, almost none from Slytherin. He was genuinely surprised, they should at least know that much. He only asked that question to see if there were one or two that somehow missed this piece of information, but the results were ridiculous! "It seems like I have more to teach than I thought, but here's a question, do wizards really believe muggles live like cavemen?"

He only got questioning looks from the wizard-raised students, as if they didn't believe there was a different answer. He could see the other students, Riddle included, look at them with incredulity.

"Not knowing much or caring much about muggles is one thing, but this, this is bordering on foolish ignorance!" At that he got offended looks from some, but he didn't care. It was the truth. "As it seems like I have to start from the very beginning, electricity is a form of energy that is observable in positive and negative forms. In nature, you can see this energy in lightning. Muggles were able to produce this type of energy with generators, a muggle invention. Muggles use this energy for lighting, heating, cooling, to power means of transportation and much more."

Some, including Riddle's group, seemed shocked. They really believed that muggles were barbarians, how ridiculous.

"Now that you know the basics let's start with transportation. Cars busses and trains are devices that allow muggles to muggles to travel around, the closest thing to this that wizards have is the knight bus, but the muggle version, even if slower, is much more pleasant. Airplanes are an invention that allows muggles to fly in them without any magic whatsoever. Any questions?"

He now had their full attention. Flying without magic? Impossible, for sure.

Harrison had to explain the idea behind airplanes' ability to fly, and then what engines were when that was mentioned, and many more muggle inventions. It took time and some of the students who knew that already were bored, but it was worth it. He could now move on to the point of this lesson. War.

"Like wizards, muggles have wars too. In fact, for those of you who had your head in the sand, a muggle war is happening right now, as we speak. In these wars the muggles use planes loaded with bombs that explode when dropped. You might want to compare it to a very overpowered 'Bombarda Maxima', but no magic is used. In fact, there was a bombing like that in London a year ago. The Blitz. Wizards might hear about it in passing, or have a slight issue with the temporary closing of the muggle entry to the Ministry, but out there there are people who get killed. Innocent people."

It was quiet. The air in the classroom was tense. Everyone was feeling uneasy and those who experienced the horrors of the war firsthand were shifting in their seats, wondering what would the others say or think of the matter. Would they be sympathetic? Did they even care, when they had not the slightest care for those they think as inferior to them?

Harrison felt bad for bringing up memories, for making it hard for the students to continue with their day as normal after what they just heard, but it was necessary. With a shaky sigh he calmed himself.

But he hasn't finished yet.

"Muggle wars, like all wars, are sad, cruel and dreadful. Bombs aren't the only things used. There are tanks; armed vehicles, armed submarines that are used to attack from the water, and many more. But one of the muggle weapons that are so common but still so deadly is guns. A gun is a machine that can send a small metal piece flying at a speed between 120 to 370 meters per second, and that's only a simple handgun, one of the smaller ones. The metal piece, the bullet, can pierce a human. Easily. A gunshot to the head or heart and you're done for. But here's why that should matter to you wizards; no spell barrier can stop a bullet, since these barriers are meant to stop spells or spell-affected objects. Against muggle weapons, wizards are completely helpless, which is why the wizarding world can never be revealed to muggles. At any cost."

Published on Tuesday, November 30th, 2021