PARADISA

Welcome back to Hogwarts. I hope your summer holidays were productive, perhaps even enjoyable.

For those first-years who are unaware, I am Professor Thraxios, and I will be teaching your History of Magic classes. Your older siblings may have told you about Professor Binns' classes, which were primarily lecture-based and focused on the memorization of dates. This is not the case for my classes. You are expected to be both literate and thoughtful, and ideally rather talkative. Short lectures will be given through use of a chalkboard, but class discussion will make up much of the class. Participation is expected; it is hoped that through the exchange of ideas, your understanding of how history affects the present is improved.

All students enrolled in my courses should have the first two chapters of their textbook read in preparation for the first class. Please also prepare six-inch essay responses to specific discussion questions for your year, listed below:

( questions by year )

O.W.L. students are reminded that their History of Magic coursework will incorporate an international view of magical philosophy in addition to an examination of the historical record. During the first few weeks of class, beginning research into a culture's approach to magic usage is recommended. For those without a specific cultural interest, I recommend investigating the basics of Greek, Roman, Chinese, or Egyptian magical philosophy. Note that British approaches to magic are not an appropriate selection. We will be using the lessons we take from other magical philosophies to better understand the philosophy that drives your lessons here at Hogwarts.

N.E.W.T. students should already be aware that the bulk of their work this year will be in service of a short dissertation on a specific period in magical history or historical event. Please come to class with some ideas in mind. In the coming weeks, we will meet privately to decide upon your official topic and plan your research for the coming months.

As always, I look forward to seeing you in class, and I wish the Ravenclaw quidditch team luck in their first match of the year.

Has anyone had luck in attempting to trade clothes or wish for new garments from the castle? These trousers are uncomfortably stiff, but my own clothing has stubbornly disappeared. And I don't actually require these spectacles to see.

And while I'm writing - would anyone be interested in a game of cards? The man with whom I normally play Long Tiffany is ill, and my evenings have been rather quiet.

[Gideon's handwriting isn't nearly as neat as usual: the letters wobble, and there are splatters and swipes of ink around the words. Holding a squirming, squalling baby while trying to write using pen and ink in a journal that doesn't want to stay open to the proper page isn't an easy task.]

It won't stop crying.

What does one do

[and there's a particularly large spill of ink]

when it won't stop crying?

I've tried everything I can think of.

((OOC: Gideon is now father to a little girl who's old enough to have hair just like his, but not so old that she can say what she wants. >D))

[The post is written in a confident hand.]

I've examined this book for some time now, but I don't recognize the school of magic from which its enchantment is derived. Admittedly, I'm most familiar with the marks of Cabaline and Eusebian magic; if it is a more complex work from another tradition, I hope I can be forgiven for failing to notice how it fits into the overarching doctrine associated.

In any case, it appears to function as a method of communication far quicker than notes sent at breakfast. (A mercy, I'm sure.) I had never guessed that the realms of the dead would be so inclined towards chatter...but perhaps eternal rest is less of a comfort than it sounds to the living.

Have any treatises been written on the theological basis for this place?

((OOC: As noted in paradisaooc yesterday, this is dated to after the expedition to Terra Haute gets going. I've just got a few other commitments today and want to get this post up when I have a moment.))