Master Xander

Chapter Twenty-Four

That evening Alex Harris inspected the converted space-into-a-theater room for any flaws that might take away from the experience for the kids. Gone were the desks and regular chairs, and in their place were movie seats. The smell of popcorn and nachos filled the air, along with several English snack foods popular among the crowd. He told the thirty-five students to arrive and six-thirty.

Ceraine looked on with approval. Gone were her usual dresses she was so fond of. Instead, she was going no-mag casual. In fact, it was her suggestion that the students wear something comfortable imitating their vision of no-mage dress style. She was still smiling about that as her imagination ran wild. She was positive that their dress style would prove interesting, to say the least.

The students arrived precisely on time. Several of them were upset at having to sacrifice their Friday night for what amounted to a classroom exercise, but they wisely said nothing. Things changed, however, when the smells of food assaulted their nostrils, which naturally made their stomachs growl. Before they entered the theater room, Alex suggested that they get whatever foods they wanted and use the restroom before they came in. Two Hogwarts students were hired to dispense the food and collect payments. As their professor had said, "To fully enjoy the theater experience you had to pay for your food. No money, no food. And don't try to sneak your own personal snacks, then you will lose points and you will be ejected from the theater room. This means you will receive a failing grade and extra homework. Do you understand?"

Apparently they did.

The students quickly selected seats and sat down and started eating. Many of them hadn't had the traditional soft drink of movies–Coke and the sounds of intense slurping filled the air along with the crunching. Some students from the United States knew what to expect, so they were happily munching while their counterpart's cautiously tried it and attacked said snacks with a vengeance.

After about five minutes, the huge TV screen turned on and images of scenery from around the word began playing. The students were very impressed by the imagery, as Alexander stepped in front of the screen. "Hello students and Professor McGonagall, who was dressed in her traditional clothing, explaining that she felt silly wearing muggle clothing in front of the students. She was curious about the movie, hadn't seen one since the Great War and they weren't in color, so this promised to be something she wanted to experience."

"Welcome class for the evening session of the no-mage studies. I also welcome our visitors once more. I hope all of you will enjoy yourselves. Now, before we start, there were some questions concerning proof. I will not show you direct evidence because it is your responsibility to find it, if it exists." he smiled. "However, I will show you this memory. When I was young, I was visiting my uncle, he showed me a memory of them. I will now show you that memory. look at the screen."

Mystic energy filled the room, and the energy pulled back and focused on Professor Alexander.

"Jessie?"

His wand jumped from out of its case and floated towards his head. There was a brief connection, like lightning coming from Alex's head into the wand. When it was over, the wand floated to the top of the LG and rested there.

The professor explained. "This technique I'm using is very similar to one that you will learn as you continue your classes. This variation allows a portion of my memory to be translated and transferred to my TV. Please observe."

What they saw was a black and white image of four people in a desert speaking to each other. One was a young woman, another an old man. the third man was rather tall, wearing a no-mag suit, and the fourth was a shorter man in uniform, a constable. The wind was blowing, and they had protective glasses covering their eyes. The people were looking at what they decided was a footprint. In In spite of the howling wind, the students could hear what they were saying clearly.

"It's enormous!" the old man was saying. "Over eight feet. There might be more out and about now…"

The students were enraptured now. Several of them thought that the giant footprint came from a dragon or mystical creature of some sort.

Meanwhile, the memory focused on the woman walking around looking for more prints when something over the hill appeared. The woman heard clicking and turned around and screamed.

Draco jumped up and screamed, "it's ant!"

Indeed it was. A giant ant appeared over the ridge. The no-mages started using their weapons. The old man shouted instructions for them to hit the antennae. The marksman was very good, which surprised and disturbed the students. Then the man in uniform sprinted to his auto and pulled out another weapon. This weapon unleashed dozens of bullets which slammed into the body of the ant, who toppled over and died. The old man said something about the end of mankind as they heard the sounds of another one of the creatures in the distance.

The memory cut off, leaving a very sober audience whispering worriedly amongst themselves.

"Merlin!" whispered Ron. "I'm glad the Colonies have the American Army. The blokes need them. I'm glad they stopped them before they got over here."

A shocked and temporarily speechless Hermione simply nodded.

The students believed now and a renew search for those creatures was imminent.

Alex smiled and asked if anyone had any questions.

The silence was deafening.

"You are so full of it," Ceraine whispered to him. She couldn't help but smile hysterically at a stunned Minerva.

"Yes," smirked Alex. "I know." Turning to the student class. "Now, on with the movie. Tonight's presentation is a movie based on the writings of a historian named J.R. Tolkien, it is called the Fellowship of the Ring. It's part of a collection of a tale of Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, and others coming together to fight a great evil. Movies these days aren't as popular as they should be. For reasons I will not mention, they focus on historical documentaries, romance, or comedies. Speculative imagination such as space travel is almost nonexistent. Portraying space travel in movies is discouraged as being too unrealistic. Of course, anything involving magic is practically banned. Therefore, going to the movies isn't popular if you're looking for rousing adventure that stimulates the imagination. This is not the case with my collection. Curiosity and imagination are mankind's trademarks. We're asking, 'what do no-mages know about magic? Should they know anything about magic? And 'what is it that they know that we don't? What histories do they have that the magical community doesn't have?" he nodded at the students and the professor, who returned his intense gaze. "With that we will begin our movie and if you feel the need to hold hands because you are afraid, please be free to do so. This movie is in color and sound, just like the tablets and computers, except better. So please enjoy."

With that, he stepped away from the screen and watched their faces as the movie started. The first thing that captured their attention were the unique races, especially the Elves, and more than a few of them glanced at Professor Delane, including one transfigurations professor. Next were the rings of power and the one ring to rule them all. The battle for Middle Earth began, and the audience was hooked…

The first thing that assaulted Professor Minerva McGonagall was the smell of popcorn. She had some years ago, and its smell immediately brought back memories. She watched as the students from all four houses lined up to get their food snacks and was momentarily angered that they were being forced to pay for it. instead of the elves distributing the food, students performed that duty and seemed to like it. some of the food was definitely American style, and she remembered Alexander's store specialized in those delicacies along with the Coke and Pepsi, and normal drinks like butterbeer and bottles of water purchased. Most of it items being she understood, but why would they purchase water? Water was free, she thought, and the woman felt vaguely offended. However, she didn't say anything since Alex had explained to her that this was the no-mage experience, and that she should, as he termed it, 'go with the flow'. So, she did, not with the water, of course, but with the other items that caught her attention. What amused her was that she got a ten percent discount on her order. Harris was a rascal.

Following the students into the converted 'home theater' as he named it, she was surprised by the room. It did remind her of the auditorium style, very similar to a miniature Hogwarts hall. Instead of standard seats, these were plush and in roles, and each subsequent role was raised and designed to enhance viewing. When she found her seat, she felt the seat move back and forth. She gave a hint of a smile as she adjusted her seat without the use of magic. Quickly she placed her cup of butterbeer in the cup holder–a nice touch and simply enjoyed the beautiful scenery being shown on the large tele screen. The size of the device and the imagery were stunning, unlike anything she'd seen before. Furthermore, the images moved so smoothly that if she didn't know any better, it looked like the real thing! And these no-mages had devices like these, an acceptable counter to their magical counterparts, and more beautiful.

Professor Harris began talking about his class homework assignment. Something about giant ants. She smiled. Of course, there were giant ants. They were in the forbidden forest. Some of them were as large as six inches. They were tree dwellers and consumed plants and smaller insects. The children should have been aware of this and she made a note to have the students review the magical creatures of the forbidden forest and why they should avoid that place if they didn't want to be injured or worse. Suddenly she froze. Professor Harris' wand, he named Jessie. Lots of wizards named their wands, but that wasn't what stunned her. The wand moved on its own, gently touching its master's head. It touched the professor and extracted energy, a memory extraction spell of some unknown kind. Then the wand floated up to the tele and balanced itself on the top of the device. The others didn't notice it, but she did. The wand moved as if it had a mind of its own, acting as if it were alive! This peaker her curiosity and she resolved to speak to him later about this later. He didn't act like the kind of wizard she was used to. What was he?

All thoughts about the wand disappeared when the memory started playing on the screen. Instantly, she saw the advantages of this magic, but what played on the tele-thing again shocked her. it only lasted about four minutes, but she could barely believe what she saw. The ant had to be eight feet! The muggles, er, no-mages did battle with these things. And they weren't magical? Little wonder why his students were so intent on finding out about them. More importantly, why hadn't she known about those creatures and the other things she had heard the students talking about?

Then it hit her. Harris had implied that the Ministry was involved. If true, then they were endangering the magical community by keeping such secrets from the Wizarding world.

The woman was furious at their shortsightedness.

Then the movie started, and she was lost in the story. If this was lost history and she suspected it was, then there were many kinds of people living on Earth during those days, including some type of human-like creatures called elves. They weren't like the house-elves, but something else entirely. One look at Professor Delane confirmed her belief. Then there was the ring. That horrible, horrible ring!

No-mages and wizards lived and worked and played together along with others. Frightening but, at the same time, intriguing.

The battle with the troll brought back memories, and the professor could well imagine what a certain young group of students were feeling just about now. The battle was intense, with so few against so many. Even Gandoff's power's power was different from what she was used to seeing.. she smiled because the no-mages had gotten it wrong or had they? Magic was different and manifested itself accordingly, despite what she basically assumed to be true.

But all thoughts of magical theory disappeared when she saw the light moving down the great hall coming towards the now abandoned group. The goblin-like creatures had fled, obviously terrified at what was coming..

This was only a movie, once created by muggles! Yet, the only reason why her hair hadn't stood up on its ends was because of the tightness of her bun. In the distance, something was coming, and she'd forgotten it wasn't real. The sound of heavy footsteps, the almost too-deep growling.

"A demon of the ancient world," the wizard had said. Like everyone else in the room, what was coming frightened her, and she couldn't move from her seat.

The students were whispering to each other, and she wanted to as well. But she had no one to talk with, and so continued watching as the group tried to escape. All of them needed brooms right about now, she thought somewhat hysterically. Then the Balrog appeared.

It was a thing! A big flaming monster and it moved so fast! "Merlin's blood!" she roared while the students screamed.

Alex looked on, enjoying his students' immersion in the movie. movie magic indeed…

TBC