CHAPTER 19

MUGGLE STUDIES

18-4-2020

Dear Mum,

Hello, I hope you and Dad are doing well. Everything's going fine at Hogwarts; other than Divination I still really like all my classes. Gryffindor's in the Quidditch Cup, too. Even though we got beaten by Ravenclaw once, we won the next game and got back in the lead. We're playing Hufflepuff for the Cup in a few weeks. Thanks for your letter about the Time-Turner, by the way; I'm glad I can give it back to you and not just the Ministry, I know it meant a lot to you. Hugo's doing well, too, I'm not sure if he's written to you lately. I should probably warn you, though, I think he's using his owl to help Roxanne sell Collin stuff from the joke shop. I heard Dad's thinking about going back to work soon, is that true? I read it from the Prophet, so I thought I should probably ask you before I trust that. Things are pretty normal, which is a nice change. Say hi to Gran and Granddad for me.

Love, Rose

24-4-2020

Dear Rose,

Hello! It's always wonderful to hear from you, dear. Your dad was very excited to hear about Gryffindor and we both wish you all good luck in the Cup. Hugo has written us, but somehow forgot to mention his business venture, so you can let him know that he should be expecting to hear from us soon. As for your father, it's true that he's going back to work, but he's decided that he's not going to go back to the Auror office. Instead, he's going to start helping Uncle George and Aunt Angelina with the joke shop. He thinks he'll be a lot safer there, though I'm not all that sure about that, knowing Uncle George. Really, though, Rose, he's doing this for you and Hugo; I think this whole thing has made him a lot more aware of the kind of danger he was putting himself in. Anyway, Rose, I'm glad things are well and normal. Gran sends her love.

Love, Mum

When Rose looked up from reading her mother's letter in the Owlery, she saw Hugo walking in, holding a lime green and purple box. He jumped when he saw her. "Rose! Hi," he said, and she eyed the package that Hugo was tying to the feet of Roger, his owl, at that moment.

"Hi, Hugo," she said. "Are you… writing to Mum?"

Hugo hesitated and glanced down at the package. "Er…yep."

Rose shook her head and stood up to go. "You should tell Collin it might take a while for Roger to get to Little Whinging carrying a package," she told him, and Hugo's face flushed red as she walked out giggling a little.

She felt a little guilty about telling her mother that everything was normal, since she still had no idea about the Stone. But nothing was really wrong, technically. James had found out about what the Stone was a few days after Rose did, but he didn't seem to mind; if anything it made him even more interested in the whole thing. He'd even told Harry and Lily, and they'd been talking to the Marauders and Lily Evans for the last couple of months on an almost weekly basis. It worried Rose a little, but she didn't really want to do anything about it unless any trouble started. She didn't want everyone to be mad at her because of one thing. Even so, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She left the Owlery and returned to the Great Hall just in time to meet Al and Scorpius, who were getting up to leave. The three of them walked to Muggle Studies and were met on the way by Devon Goyle. "Hey, guys," he said.

"Hey, Devon," Al said. "How've you been?"

"Pretty good, I guess. We're having a meeting next week, right?"

"Yeah," Rose said. "You should bring Vincent along."

Devon shook his head. "He won't come. I think he's a little bit scared of you. Because of that thing where everyone thought you went all Dark." Rose rolled her eyes and Devon shrugged. "If it helps, no one in Slytherin really ever believed that. But mostly because you almost got a some of them expelled for just that less than a year ago."

"Yeah, the rest of the school seemed to completely forget that happened," Rose remarked. They entered the classroom and sat down in their usual cluster of seats. Professor Creevey walked in just as the clock turned to 1:00, and she turned to the chalkboard and wrote in large letters across the top:

MAGIC VS. TECHNOLOGY

"Good afternoon," Creevey said, "today we're going to be discussing the topic of our last unit of the year. This lesson starts to tie all the different units we've been doing together—electricity, the branches of science, physics, transportation, communication, and so on. So, we're going to start by filling in a Venn diagram." She turned to the board and drew a diagram, with Magic labelled on one side and Technology labelled on the other. Rose noticed she left a very large section for overlap in the middle. "Can anyone tell me something we can put in the category that only applies to magic?" A few hands shot up, and Creevey called on a Ravenclaw in the front of the classroom.

"Magic is hereditary, you get it from your family," he said, and she nodded and wrote it in the 'Magic' circle. The next student she called on was a Hufflepuff girl in the corner.

"Er, magic doesn't have to go by laws of physics," the girl said. Rose frowned and raised her hand. Creevey was writing it on the board, not seeing her, and she attempted to raise it higher.

"Professor, I think Rose Weasley's going to explode," a Hufflepuff boy in the back of the class said, and some people chuckled as Rose lowered her hand a little. Creevey turned around and looked sternly at the boy before addressing Rose.

"Yes, Rose?"

"Well, magic does have to obey laws of physics, Professor," she said. "It has its own laws, but they have to do with physics. Like laws of conjuration and the fact that you can't transfigure everything or create things out of nothing according to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

Creevey smiled. "You're right, Rose, that should go in the shared characteristics area. And five points for Gryffindor."

Al tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to face him, looking at her gaping. "Gamp's what? When did we learn that?" he whispered.

"Transfiguration," she whispered back. "You were asleep."

"Okay, can anyone think of anything that only applies to technology?" Creevey asked. Scorpius raised his hand, to Rose's surprise. "Scorpius?"

"Er, anyone can use technology. We can use it, but they can't use magic, so… technology's for everyone?" he said, sounding like he was unconvinced himself, but Creevey nodded.

"Very good point, yes. Anyone else? Just shout them out, come on."

"Magic's affected by emotions. And the mental state of the person using it."

"They're both kind of dangerous when they aren't controlled well."

"Both of them have to be channeled through something to serve a specific purpose," Rose suggested.

"Technology, at least electricity and stuff, is really really new," Al said. "Magic's ancient."

"Technology's more physical than magic."

"They both work almost instantly when you use them."

"They're both used for pretty much the same stuff," Al said. "Talking to people, transportation, making daily tasks easier, it's all the same reasons for using both."

"Did everyone hear that?" Creevey asked the class, as she wrote it down in the middle section which Rose noticed had nearly twice the amount of answers in it than either of the other sections. "You're completely right, Albus, five points for Gryffindor. Can anyone guess what that means? Any final thoughts about that?"

The class was silent for a moment before Devon Goyle timidly said, "I think—well, the—magic and technology both have—whole worlds built around them that really—depend on them."

Professor Creevey nodded and wrote 'DEPENDENT SOCIETIES' in big letters at the bottom of the middle section. "Five points for Slytherin, Devon, that's excellent." Devon looked extremely pleased and Professor Creevey stepped away from the board to let the whole class see the entire diagram. "I want you to look closely at this diagram, and notice how similar magic and technology are when we really think about them. We only really came up with a few differences. So, our last unit this year is going to be talking about why we consider magic to be superior to technology. Why does the wizarding world think magic to be above Muggle technology when they are so similar and so central to each society? Would anyone like to start the discussion?" The classroom was silent and Creevey smiled. "That's all right, it's a difficult subject to think about. Try to come up with an answer for me over the weekend and we'll continue the discussion on Monday. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves or finish other work for the rest of class."

"Wow," Scorpius said once the classroom had dissolved into several different discussions, "that was sudden. I thought I had to wait for Thursday nights at 8:00 for my worldview to be challenged, but now I can have three more convenient hours a week."

Rose rolled her eyes. "This isn't even that radical. I've heard it loads of times from my mum and my granddad. You just grew up in an environment where mentioning electricity was discouraged and shameful."

"Yeah," he muttered.

"What do we have after this?" Al asked.

"Do you really not know by now?" Rose asked, exasperated. "It's the middle of April."

"Fridays are different! Hold on," he said, rummaging around in his bag and pulling out his schedule. "Arithmancy's next."

"Brilliant," Scorpius groaned. "Ah well, at least we've got Defence after that. I heard we're starting a chapter on vampires."

"Why would vampires be in the curriculum?" Rose asked. "They're not even in this part of Europe."

"What if you go on holiday in Styria and suddenly find yourself alone with Count Dracula?" Scorpius asked, looking as if he was trying very hard to keep a straight face.

"Carmilla's the one in Styria, not Dracula."

"You have to be prepared for anything, Weasley."

"Also, they run out of ideas right about now in the year," Al added.

"Well, yeah, that too," Scorpius said. "God, Arithmancy is dull. It's not like I'm going to sit around when I'm thirty-five and decide what kind of cereal I'm going to eat for breakfast by calculating the numerology of the brand name and how it relates to my 'soul urge' number or whatever."

"Arithmancy is cool, don't make fun of it," Al said defensively. "It's like Divination, but it makes sense. And besides, you need an OWL in Arithmancy to be a Curse-Breaker."

"You want to be a Curse-Breaker? Are you mad? That's practically suicidal!" Rose exclaimed.

"Uncle Bill did it! It sounds amazing, and anyway, you need OWLs in Arithmancy, Defence, Charms, and History of Magic. Sounds like a job for me, those are my best subjects."

"I'm pretty sure you need Transfiguration, too, you know," Rose said. "Maybe you should try to stay awake from now on."

Al rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm just ready for classes to be done. James wants to go to the Room of Requirement today, he wanted me to ask you."

Rose sighed. "Why?"

"Sirius said he'd tell us about the battle on broomsticks flying over Bristol next time," Al said excitedly. "Please, Rose?"

Rose sighed. "All right, fine."

"Brilliant! We're meeting there at six." Professor Creevey dismissed them soon after that and Rose followed Al and Scorpius out the door. She started to think about Professor Creevey's question as they walked and came up with her answer more quickly than she'd expected: Wizards think they have much more control over magic than they really do.