allendalepharm Chapter 202 What is this guy secretly guiding?
Chapter 202 What is this guy secretly guiding?
Chapter 202 What is this guy secretly guiding?
Professor Lockhart's course on the protection of magical creatures is an elective.
There are a total of 6 elective courses at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The most demanding course, "Alchemy," is only available to sixth or seventh-grade wizards.
The other five elective courses are Arithmetic Divination, Divination, Ancient Runes, Magical Animal Conservation, and Muggle Studies.
Starting from the third year, young wizards must take at least two elective courses, and can change their elective courses in subsequent years.
At the beginning of fifth grade, young wizards will receive "career counseling" from their home school's headmaster to decide on their future path and finalize their two elective courses to ensure they obtain the basic certificates needed for their future careers after taking the "Ordinary Wizarding Level Examination".
Young wizards who have the ability to delve deeper into the path of magic will also determine their direction for the NEWT advanced class in their sixth or seventh year during this job counseling session, aiming for higher-requirement certificates for better jobs.
For example, those who aspire to become employees of the Ministry of Magic must obtain certificates in the elective courses "Muggle Studies" and "Ancient Runes".
Alternatively, for pharmacists, the only options are "Fantastic Beasts" and "Ancient Runes".
Of course, the third-year wizards don't need to think about things that are so far in the future.
Many of them are willing to sign up for more than two elective courses to try to explore their own potential, and some are invited by good friends to attend classes together.
So it's quite interesting.
Lockhart found that the number of magical creature conservation classes he needed to teach was highest in the third grade, then decreased by a quarter in the fourth grade, then by two-thirds in the fifth grade, and by the sixth and seventh grades, there were only a handful left.
Fantastic animal conservation is a discipline that requires talent.
Some people are born to be close to animals, while others are inexplicably chased or even attacked by stray dogs even when walking on the street.
Older students have begun to think about their future and have to give up what seems to be the most interesting elective course, magical zoology.
this is the truth.
Black Magic Biological Defense and Magical Creature Protection may seem like two subjects with their own levels of difficulty and entry barriers, but one is a compulsory course and the other is an elective. The social impact of mastering the knowledge and skills they acquire is completely different.
"The principle is actually very simple."
Grindelwald said dismissively, "Even in the worst-case scenario, a wizard can use the Killing Curse to kill the attacker, no matter how terrible the magical creature. But this move is ineffective against dark magic creatures. The Killing Curse can't even kill a Boggart."
"Merlin's fake mustache!" Professor Kettleburn exclaimed, blowing on his mustache and glaring at Grindelwald with displeasure. "How could you think of using the Killing Curse against magical creatures from the very beginning! Our research is about magical creature protection, not magical creature defense!"
Grindelwald sneered, "Because we are wizards, we are humans, and they are merely beasts!"
This is the trouble of four men living together, with endless topics of argument every day.
Lockhart and Lupin didn't want to get involved in such a topic. Lupin was mild-mannered and disliked arguing, while Lockhart knew all too well that Grindelwald would eventually veer towards his own political beliefs no matter what the argument was about, and he quickly persuaded them.
For example, he and Lupin were discussing the existence of "Centaurus".
Centaurs are not considered magical creatures. Yes, it would be an insult to call these creatures, who are almost as intelligent as humans, magical creatures. Humans would not do that.
But they are not considered dark magic creatures.
This raises a question – why is there nowhere for wizards to teach how to deal with centaurs?
Not only centaurs, but also house-elves, fairies, and many other intelligent beings that possess powerful magical abilities are not specifically taught in magic schools.
This is a big problem.
So, if house-elves betray wizards, given their ability to freely move between wizarding homes and magic schools, who can stop the harm they might cause?
The answer is a specialized department within the Ministry of Magic.
Grindelwald quickly took over the conversation, launching into a lengthy explanation of the Ministry of Magic's sinister purpose in using this to control pure-blood families and magic schools, which made the other three wary.
They also said that the approach being promoted by many political groups to recognize "werewolfs" as "humans" would only lead to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class removing werewolf defense teachings, leaving only the Ministry of Magic as a means of dealing with werewolves, and so on.
Indeed, sometimes, spending time with this wise old man gave the other three people a deeper and broader perspective on many things.
Lockhart quickly got into the rhythm of the lesson.
I casually 'invited' a few neighbors from next to the Mushroom House, the Evil Bird and the Silent Bird, to be used as teaching aids, and started the first lesson.
Grindelwald didn't come along as a teaching assistant. He wandered around the school, seemingly too lazy to pay attention to Lockhart. Later, for some unknown reason, he wandered over again during the second period and started appearing in Lockhart's classroom.
"The 'evil bird' represents the ancient Russian number '4,' which also has another symbolic meaning."
"Those are the four relationships in the ancient wizards' understanding of magical creatures!"
Lockhart waved his wand, and words quickly appeared on the blackboard behind him: "For food (including medicine), for entertainment, for clothing, and for companionship."
"To this day, due to the reduction of magical creatures' habitats, many magical creatures are on the verge of extinction, or wizards have found substitutes for magical creatures as food and medicine, so there is no need to harm these creatures. As a result, many magical creatures have been banned from use by the Ministry of Magic."
"The most common one is the unicorn, which often appears in fairy tales and represents purity."
that's all.
Grindelwald felt uncomfortable listening to these words.
He had a lot to say in almost every sentence, but when he noticed a figure staring at the classroom from outside the door, he had no choice but to shut his mouth.
It's so painful.
Unicorns are such useful magical creatures, yet wizards don't try to breed them in large numbers and better develop their abilities. Instead, they're busy protecting them. It's a complete waste of their potential!
He was extremely uncomfortable, feeling that sitting in this stupid classroom was worse than being in prison in Nurmengard.
Fortunately, he discovered that this young man, Gilderoy Lockhart, seemed to be just like himself, not exactly a well-behaved person.
Hey.
The class quickly became interesting.
"So, what's a way to circumvent these restrictions? How can we comply with the law while also expanding the scope of wizards' use of magical creatures?"
Lockhart tapped the blackboard again, and another word appeared on it.
"Breeding! The field of magical creature breeding, especially crossbreeding, produces new species that are neither covered by the Ministry of Magic's magical creature protection regulations nor opposed by other wizards."
This word quickly spawned another phrase, "wizard life," which in turn spawned another phrase, "wizard aesthetics."
"When we breed animals to better suit the aesthetics of wizards, or even the broader human aesthetics, they will have tremendous potential for development in the fields of entertainment, clothing, and companionship."
"Conversely, when we breed animals to be uglier, people will naturally feel that killing such animals doesn't seem to be a problem, and everyone will accept this practice."
"If there were a magical creature with all the magical abilities of a unicorn, whose materials could be used in potions, alchemy, magical items, wands, and so on, but which was also extremely ugly and disgusting, do you think wizards would still enact laws to protect them?"
After saying this, Lockhart looked intently at the young wizards before him, a slight smile playing on his lips. "So, is this the right way to put it? To define whether or not to kill magical creatures based on beauty or ugliness? Or, to think more deeply, to define a wizard's evil or goodness based on beauty or ugliness?"
"I need you to think about this."
There will never be a standard answer to this question.
"I can only leave you with a hint." The wand tapped the blackboard lightly, and the words on it disappeared one by one until only the word "wizard life" remained. "What kind of impact does the wizard life, or rather, the magical life, actually have?"
Hemp egg!
Grindelwald figured it out!
Lockhart, that cunning fellow, presents a course with a certain bias!
This thing is secretly guiding something.
Wizarding life? Magical life? Grindelwald stared at the words on the blackboard, then looked at Lockhart, who was talking eloquently, and his expression gradually became strange.
(End of this chapter)