Chapter One
A Very Brief History of Magic
'But, Professor, what is the relationship between magic and philosophy?' asked the boy.
'The answer of that question, my boy, goes back to Ancient Greece, when one of the first known wizards decided to reveal his powers to the world. His name was Socrates, and his definitions of "philosopher" and "wizard" were not that different.
'He used magic to see the truth, or rather, what is not the truth. He discovered his powers when he was an old man and he had no idea where they came from. He thought everyone else had these powers so he walked around Greece asking about it. Only a few people made sense of what he said and they wanted him to teach them all about it. However, he, himself, knew nothing.
'Still, they worked together to try and influence the world with their magic. The magic was found mostly in the questions they asked, which made them aware of the wonders that the rest of the world could not perceive.
'At that time, magic was very limited since the wand was not yet introduced to Greece. The wand was invented in Ancient Egypt long before Socrates was born. They built great things using magic, like the pyramids and the obelisks as well as several temples. However, no one outside of Egypt knew about the existence of magic until Alexander the Great visited the land. He was a wizard too, and the wand was one of the many great things he presented to the rest of the Wizarding World.
'It wasn't long before the Greek society found out about what Socrates was doing and they considered it blasphemy. He was brought to trial and was also charged with corrupting the youth and tricking people with dark magic. He was sentenced to death.
'After his death, the Greeks began to accept the idea of magic, and Plato, one of Socrates' greatest students, went on to establish the Academy, the first school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Plato's favorite student at the Academy, Aristotle, became the mentor of Alexander the Great and he taught him how to use magic to become a great leader.
'There was a problem, however, when it was discovered that only few people had the ability to become witches and wizards and the Muggles were outraged. For years, there were clashes between wizards and Muggles, until Alexander decided to wipe all the Muggles' memories and, from then on, magic was kept a secret. Wizards were taught to come up with an explanation for any occurrence that related to magic so that the Muggles would never discover them.
'During the Roman times, a republic of wizards was formed to rule the land; an idea that Socrates suggested was the best way to govern a country. Though they abused their power and treated the Muggles cruelly. A lot of Muggles were taken as slaves and were used for entertainment by fighting and killing each other in an arena.
'The Republic's time had ended when an ambitious wizard by the name of Julius Caesar wanted to rule Rome all on his own, and when his time had finally come, his own friends betrayed him. Shortly after, he was avenged by his great-nephew Octavius and his most loyal friend Marc Anthony, who was a Squib and didn't have the ability to use magic.
'Octavius, quite ambitious like his uncle and a lot smarter, wanted Rome for himself alone so he used the Imperius Curse on Marc Anthony and his lover Cleopatra, the Muggle queen of Egypt. He corrupted their minds and made them commit suicide. Octavius became the first Emperor of Rome under the name Augustus.
'When Christianity was introduced, wizards were against it and they killed and tortured many people who have entered the faith. Today, there's a lot of debate about that part in history since some people believe that Jesus Christ was, himself, a wizard, but there is no evidence of such thing. I don't like to get into that part since it's very vague.
'After many years of war, the wizards came to a point where they were at huge risk of being discovered, so they decided to stay under the radar and leave the Muggles to deal with their world, while they built their own.
'Centuries have passed without any wizards taking part in world politics. There were many famous wizards that came by of course, like Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla and many others, but they were merely inventors and artists who never sought power over the Muggles. They only helped in making the Muggle world better. Some dark wizards played a small part in Muggle politics like Grigori Rasputin of Russia, but they were silenced or killed.
'That was the case until a German wizard decided to take matters into his own hands when he saw that his country was falling apart. He was the darkest wizard the Muggle world had ever seen, and his name was Adolf Hitler. In 1939, Hitler started a great war that involved most of the countries in the world. He killed and tortured millions of innocent Muggles as well as witches and wizards. He was smart enough to use magic without anyone noticing but many other wizards were not fooled. These wizards had no choice but to secretly take part in the war, and because of them, Hitler was defeated. Using his dark powers, he faked his own death and, until now, the Muggle world thinks that he committed suicide when the war ended in 1945.'
'Is he still alive?'
'He went into hiding after the war and no one knows what happened to him. Until a couple of days ago when I discovered that yes, he is still very much alive,' said Professor Binns. 'Much worse… he is building an army.'
