She Walked Away
CHAPTER TEN: Muggle Studies
Authoress Note: The Sumerian information was taken from Wikipieda
The packet they had been handed for Muggle Studies was rather thick for only covering three years out of five of their time at Hogwarts. Upon closer inspection of the packet they realized why their Muggle Studies professor said she would be thoroughly impressed if they could finish it by Friday. The packet held eight papers that had to be written all of which were of substantial length, eight multiple choice tests, and eight fill-in-the blank tests as well as copious amounts of notes that started all the way back in the Third Year Muggle Studies class up to Seventh Year, which surprised Hermione slightly.
"Let's go ahead and do the multiple choice tests and the fill-in-the-blank tests. From there we can space out our papers with our other papers we have to write. I doubt the Muggle Studies papers would be too complex for us, other than finding sources and the first two aren't going to need sources. The topics are 'What is the importance of taking Muggle Studies?' and 'What is the Importance and Relevance to the International Statue of Secrecy in Relation to Both Magical Folk and Muggles.'" Hermione said, pulling free the multiple choice tests and fill-in-the-blank tests and setting the rest of the folder aside. "We have an hour and a half until we have to be in Herbology, which should be plenty of time to finish almost all of these, if not all of them."
True to their guess their Muggle Studies multiple choice tests where easy enough to answer, as most of the questions regarded electricity, lawn mowers, food processors and things that both Hermione and Harry had grown up with and thought was relatively normal.
With the multiple choice tests finished in just under twenty minutes they moved onto the fill-in-the-blank tests, which they were given a word bank for. Even without the word bank they managed to finish the fill-in-the-blank tests by the end of another twenty minutes.
"We have thirty minutes until we have to head over for our History of Magic course, which should be enough time to at least get started on the rough draft for the first Muggle Studies paper." Harry said, after glancing at his wrist watch before dipping his quill into the ink and began writing on why he thought it was important to take Muggle Studies, using some of the Weasley's antics as examples, even if he didn't have the greatest home life with muggles.
Surprisingly enough he found it very therapeutic to write this paper for some reason and managed to get a rough draft that was longer than Hermione's before they had to leave the library to make their way to the floor of Hogwarts that their courses were being held on.
"The length was only set at six parchment sheets Harry. Yours is already eight sheets long, I'd say find a way to wrap your paper up and then start on the draft you want to turn in. Mine's only going to be nine sheets of parchment long and my rough draft is almost finished." She said, surprised at the length of his essay in such a sort amount of time.
"It was easy enough. I was raised by muggles, and have seen wizards that haven't had a lot of interaction with muggles so it gave me a lot of material to write on." He said, as they turned along a corridor that gave them a short cut to get to third floor corridor without having to worry about running into Professor Umbridge.
Their History of Magic professor, a Professor Bonnie Draconis, was already inside the classroom and had placed six thick packets on the only six desks in the room before sitting down in a chair that was placed right across from their desks.
"I realized I never properly introduced myself. My name's Bonnie Draconis, I prefer to be called Bonnie in all honesty as I'm not that much older than all of you. I realize there is a lot to cover because even I struggled to take my OWL and NEWT's under Professor Binn's and it took a lot of outside classroom time to even attempt to pass them as he only covers the Goblin Wars, and barley even touches on the Witch Burnings, the evolution of Spell Creation, which will be on your OWL's as it's on there every year, the evolution of the wand and what came before the wand, the founders of Hogwarts he doesn't even cover at all and they will show up on your OWL's as well. Hermione and Harry, you are the only two taking Muggle Studies correct?" she asked, turning to face the two students who were always glued at the hip.
"Yes ma'am." Hermione said, attempting to retract her ma'am when Bonnie shot her a look, "err…Bonnie." She said, blushing at such a blatant show of disrespect, even if she was told to do so.
"Good. Your instructor has already told me that as long as you finish the packet by Friday, he plans on taking you to go ahead and sit your OWL this Friday. Do you honestly think you can finish your packet by Friday? We'll need the Muggle Studies time slot just to get you all up to speed so you'll pass your OWL's." she said, shaking her head at the thought of Professor Binn's not being removed when he should have been; the day he died!
"Yes ma'am we'll manage. We have all the tests finished and we just have to finish seven more papers; two of which are opinion based." Harry said, glad to see Bonnie nod her head in agreement.
"Alright then, owl me as soon as you turn your Muggle Studies work in and we'll start with the extra History of Magic review sessions now since you don't turn your work in until Friday." She said, before having them turn their attention to their History of Magic packets. "You have gone over the Goblin Wars extensively, as well as the International Statue of Secrecy so there is no point in going back over those although if you want a review the last week ,feel free to ask for it. For now, we'll start with the Sumerians. They will take us this entire week as they are vital to the true History of Magic courses. The Sumerians probably came from the area of Anatolia, and arrived in Mesopotamia about 3300 BC. As successful trade developed with the surrounding areas, the Sumerian villages and settlements grew into prosperous city-states, such as Ur, Eridu, Lagash, Nippur and Uruk.
By the third millennium BC the Sumerians had founded about 12 separate city-states (Kish, Erech, Ur, Sippar, Akshak, Larak, Nippur, Adab, Umma, Lagash, Bad-tibira, and Larsa). Each of these states had a walled city with surrounding villages and land, and each worshipped its own deity, whose temple was at the center of the city.
The Sumerian language became the major language of the region. Political power originally belonged to all the citizens, but as settlements grew into city-states and rivalry between the various city-states increased, each adopted a system of kings. Various city-states and their dynasties of kings temporarily gained power at different times. The first king to unite the separate city-states was Etana, ruler of Kish (c. 2800 BC). After this, the cities of Kish, Erech, Ur, and Lagash started to fight with each other in order to gain power. These struggles lasted for hundreds of years and weakened the Sumerian nation, making it vulnerable to conquerors from abroad. First Sumeria was invaded by the Elamites (c. 2530-2450 BC) and later by the Akkadians (2334-2279 BC). Although Akkadian's dynasty lasted only about 100 years, it united the city-states and created a model of government that influenced all of Middle Eastern civilization.
After Akkadian's dynasty ended and Sumeria recovered from a devastating invasion by the Gutians, the citystates once again became independent. The high point of this final era of Sumerian civilization was the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur, whose first king, Ur-Nammu, published the earliest law code yet discovered in Mesopotamia. After 1900 BC, when another population, the Amorites, conquered all of Mesopotamia, the Sumerians lost
their separate identity, but their culture was adopted by their invaders. Their inventions and spell-creation eras went beyond anything we have seen in the past recent decades other than the age of Merlin, Aruthur and Morgan le Fay and finally the Era of the Founders: Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor and finally Salazar Slytherin. With that being said, your homework is to write a paper on the Sumerians which will be due tomorrow as there are plenty of source material on them between the notes you'll get later today and what is within the library. Your second homework is to write a paper on the Four Founders of Hogwarts and their personal achievements both through the school and in their respective fields this will be due Wednesday. Due Thursday will be a paper on Casandra Emory, who you will be able to find countless auto-biographies, journals, papers and books written about. With that being said I will see you all in two hours for your next class. We'll probably only stay half the time to give you time in the library." She said, as she started packing up her supplies as their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher entered the classroom.