Harry groaned as he stumbled in.
"Okay there?" asked Sirius
"Fine" mumbled harry "I may have gotten Rose trapped in a snake cage at the zoo"
"With the-"
"No, the snake got out first. But Uncle Vernon said that I was to stay with you from now on."
"Very well then. Professor Vissarionovich will give you some books to read so you know all about Wizarding Culture. "
Harry groaned as he walked out of the garden and down the road to Professor Vissarionovich's house, passing the Burrow and the Rook on the way. He stilled the impulse to shiver. The Rook –and the capital letters refused to be lowercase- was a menacing, tall, castle-like shape on the top of the nearby hill. Luna and Sola sometimes came to the sessions, and it was clear that Xenophilius must have some hold upon the professor, as the first time they had turned up, an unfamiliar, fleeting expression of terror crossed his face.
When he arrived, the Weasley's, the Longbottom's, the Malfoy's, the damn Lovegood's, the Patil's, and young Vissarionovich were lining up outside. Harry joined Ron and Ginny, who were talking, and whispered "What's he doing today?"
Vissarionovich, speak of the unholy satanic demon, appeared at the door, and in his softly spoken voice he said "Come in."
"You of course know of the 13 great Wizarding schools, Mahoutokoro in Japan, Stalitza and Koldovstoretz in Russia, Durmstrang in Bulgaria, Beauxbatons in France, Uagadou in Uganda, Ilvermorny in North America, Castelobruxo in Brazil, Hogwarts in Britain, Xuexiao and Mofa in China, Jadosnuri in Georgia and Sihir in Indonesia.
You know of the Avarga Pobeditel, in which 7 students from each of the 13 schools are selected to compete in a battle for survival in the Mongolian steppes, which has been won by a non-Russian school only seven times, and the seven years' war between Mahoutokoro and Mofa over the Maruk islands, the seventeen years war between Hogwarts and Beauxbatons, and the war of smert between Ilvermorny and the Possiya alliance, which consisted of Stalitza and Koldovstoretz.
The 20th century was a time of great upheaval for the magical world. For the first time, muggles could match some magical powers with their technology. Several dictators were toppled with the Ninel wand revolution, and another three houses were added to Hogwarts after the Yelsom rebellion- yes Ginny?"
"What's the Yelsom rebellion?"
"Anyone? Neville, explain."
Neville gulped and stammered "Yelsom was a man who supported Grindlewald. He became embittered by his placement in Slytherin, as his family disowned him. The board of directors decided that negative associations came with certain houses, and changed the houses to Gryfindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Dragonwing, Thestbite, Eagletalon, and Bearpaw."
"Good. "Said the professor. "Open your textbooks to page 12 and read about the Sakiv crisis.
Harry opened the book and looked down.
The wizarding world was severely divided over the issue of intervention and civilian power over governments. Soon the UWC (United Wizarding Countries) and the IW (International Wizengamot) would devolve into fierce debates, but before that, the Sakiv crisis would come to a head.
Since 2005, Wizarding Sakiv, a small country located between the muggle countries of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, had descended into civil war between the 'Russi', 'Ukra', 'Bela, and 'Sak' factions, which respectively wanted to join Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, or remain independent In the name of preserving peace, the brutal dictator of Southern America sent in his aurors. Thousands died, the muggle world remained blissfully unaware of the deaths of thousands. The Northern American dictator then invaded Sakiv from the other direction. This led to
"Sir?"
"Yes?"
"How is this useful?" asked Ginny. Harry tried to hide a smirk. Ginny was new to the class, and had not had the history talk before.
"Young lady, tell me, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, do you think that he might have paid better attention in his history class? When muggle leaders took the lie of the gender wage gap being as prominent as it is, do you think that they should have paid better attention in maths?
"Actually-"
"Vietnam, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria. I haven't even started on wizarding failures yet. Shall we continue?"
"But sir, the-"
"Silence! You will pay attention, because, and I promise you this, when the boy-who-lived over there is fighting Voldemort, you and the others in this room will be aiding him. Shared experiences, knowledge, culture. If you have to convince Sakiv, or France, or Russia, or Germany, or any other country that they need to help you against Voldemort, you must be able to pull on their past experiences with dark lords!"
The professor's dark brown eyes bored into Harry. Harry tried not to swallow, or breathe.
"That's enough, Vladimir!" came a voice from the doorway.
The professor whipped round, saw the expression on Sirius face, glared back, and quickly dismissed the class.
"I'm telling, you broke it!"
"No, you did!"
The dulcet tones of the Patil twins floated across the dry, dusty pathway which Harry was walking on. Vladimir had never seemed so angry before. Something had set him off, and Harry would find out.
"Ron, I've got an idea…"
So, um, yeah, this is me, doing my first note at the end of my first story! I apologise for inadvertently copying every fanfic I've ever read, and nicking ideas here there and everywhere. Feel free to comment and review, and before you get annoyed about Vissarionovich moaning about the gender wage gap, that does not reflect my beliefs, just his.
Okay?
Right, then…
What have I forgotten…?
Oh, yeah
Disclaimer: I (unfortunately and with my deepest regret) announce that I do not own Harry potter.
Otherwise it wouldn't be here.
But anyhow, I should probably say that my update schedule is once a month or two. So not very frequent.
The Thestral
