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Chapter 334: Evan’s History of Magic Exam
🕑 Added 2018-12-20 06:29:23 +0000 UTC
Unlike with The Transfiguration exam when he finished first, Evan was the last to hand in the paper in the History of Magic exam.
He wrote for two hours and a half. At the end of the day, the young wizards in the whole class stared at him, stunned. Even Professor Cuthbert Binns was very surprised.
They didn’t know how Evan could write so much, which was beyond imagination.
He could have finished the whole exam within an hour, but the last essay question on Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century aroused Evan’s interest.
He discussed this with Harry back in the last summer vacation.
Recent studies of magic handed down from the Middle Ages had given him a deeper understanding of this aspect.
Generally speaking, the wizard community generally believed that Witch Burning was pointless.
Muggles were particularly afraid of magic and witchcraft in Medieval times.
But they were not very good at recognizing magic. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever.
The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in various disguises.
These facts were quoted word for word from ‘A History of Magic‘, written by the magical historian Bathilda Bagshot, and also represented the views of the vast majority of people.
As long as this content was written on the test paper, Evan would get full marks.
However, through recent research, he believed that Bagshot ‘s argument was very one-sided.
The witch-hunt behavior dominated by the Vatican was not as simple as the magic world now imagined. Evan thought it was a conspiracy.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the whole of Europe entered the darkest Middle Ages.
Humanity had declined, morality had collapsed, productivity was developing slowly, and Muggles’ fear of the unknown and fear of witchcraft had reached its peak in history.
The old sacred empire was divided into many countries, and the magic power was also divided. A lot of heretical magic about ancient warlocks and wizards was spread in Europe.
Perennial melee between Muggles also allowed magic, especially black magic, to develop rapidly. Among them, the demon spells that explored the eternal life or summoned dead spirits used by the newly emerging Dark wizards led by the traditional Vatican wizards were the fastest growing.
According to the clues that had been preserved, these two kinds of magic had in common that they required a large number of human souls or corpses as the basis for casting.
Especially the souls and corpses of underage women, they were the best casting materials.
As mentioned before, in this case, the outbreak of Witch Hunting did not actually lead to the deaths of many real witches, but Muggle women were the ones to suffer extensive persecution.
The campaign lasted for hundreds of years and eventually evolved into a terrorist act. Many Muggle girls were dubbed as witches, and were sent to religious trial courts.
They were executed, but their souls and corpses were secretly collected by Dark wizards.
Ironically, out-of-control witch-hunting action couldn’t harm the real adult wizards, but it had destroyed the underage wizards who had just awakened their strength. Many Muggle-born children were brutally murdered by their relatives just after they showed their magical talents. Muggles called it the Power of the Devil.
This had led to the number of these wizards decreasing with time, and eventually to their demise.
More and more ancient wizarding schools had become extinct because they could not find suitable Heirs. The powerful magic of the ancient times was being turned into ashes little by little.
The magic world was becoming more and more depressed, and the status of the pure blood wizard family was getting higher and higher. Three hundred years after the outbreak of Witch Hunting, with the rise of colonialism and the introduction of mysterious witchcraft in the New World and the East, this terrorist act gradually ceased.
The International Statute of Secrecy, which was signed in 1689, was regarded as an important milestone in the development of the magic world. Necromancy and demonic black magic were re-tabooed and could not be studied. All magic books were destroyed and wizards went completely into hiding
They were no longer involved in the Muggle war, but had developed on their own to this day.
Because the exam time was limited, Evan could only sketch out his own research results, and couldn’t carry them out one by one. And still, his answer shocked everyone.
In any case, this was a study of the history of magic that was enough to shake the entirety magic world.
If it weren't for the taboo nature of the subject of black magic, Evan could even provide his own proof for the evolution of hundreds of black magic spells.
Even so, Professor Binns was stunned for a long time after he saw Evan’s paper.
Too excited, his translucent ghost body became obviously pale red.
Other young wizards looked sideways to see what Evan had written on the test paper, which could actually make Professor Binns so gaffe.
Because of its great research value, Evan finally got 120 points in the history of magic exam, and the extra points were awarded by Professor Binns. This new record in Hogwarts was to become the hottest topic in the castle.
Of course, that was all to occur later. Evan was walking with Colin to the Great Hall.
Unlike before, the third years were now all in high spirits and looked very excited.
Hermione's previous prediction was very accurate, and Professor Flitwick did indeed test the third years on Cheering Charms.
Evan didn't see Harry and Ron. Hermione told him that it was because Harry slightly overdid his out of nerves, and Ron ended up in fits of hysterical laughter. Professor Flitwick had to lead him away to his office and let him calm down before he was ready to perform the charm himself.
Halfway through lunch, Harry and Ron were able to get to the Great Hall.
They looked very haggard, not looking like they’ve been subject to the Cheering Charm at all.
“Very bad!" Ron shook his head and said, " Maybe laughing took too much of my energy. Maybe I was too nervous to cast spells. In short, my Cheering Charm didn't work. Harry just pretended to be Happy, Professor Flitwick clearly saw through it."
“Don’t take it to heart, this magic is very difficult." Harry said weakly, "I did feel happy at the time, but it was not that strong."
Harry's statement was not convincing. He didn't look happy at all at the moment.
“I told you before that when you cast a spell, your wand waved in the wrong direction!" Hermione looked at Ron and said, "Obviously, you didn't listen to me."
"But when I used this Charm before, it all came into effect. I thought..."
“You should be thankful that Professor Flitwick won’t give you zero points." Hermione took out the Potions textbook and said sharply, "But if you do this again on the Potions exam tomorrow, I'm sure Snape would never let it pass."
