Professor Holden was awfully talkative, wasn’t he? Luckily that talk was all facts and good points otherwise Claudine was sure that she would have zoned out. Not to mention that the class was about art. Even if she dabbled with sketching and the occasional painting, this was the aspect of the broader topic of art which she liked best.

Uh huh. Claudine remembered that particular topic of the Sacred Twenty Eight. Also, how many times did Holden use the word ‘now’ to start off a sentence? See? Her keen sense of observation was distracting her. Claudine shook her head to refocus. She studied the revealed portraits and could not help but be impressed: said paintings were done so well. The seventh year thought that she recognised a few of the faces.

Okay, so a little activity now. Claudine read the parchment. This was going to be easy-ish. She grabbed her quill and got to work.

SPOILER!!: Clicketh!

1. Bellatrix Lestrange = ended up serving in Azkaban.
2. Sirius Black = was an animagus.
3. Andromeda Tonks = the only “true” family of Sirius Black.
4. Narcissa Malfoy = betrayed the Dark Lord.
5. Regulus Black = was on the Slytherin Quidditch Team.

Busy keeping an eye on their watch, Nem's attention was not caught again until a sheet of parchment was set down on the desk in front of them. They stopped, pulled it closer, cast their eyes over each line several times, and looked up to the front of the class again. First at the professor, and then at the portraits that stood there.

For a few minutes, they didn't do much of anything, only a lot of staring and thinking on matters only tangentially related to the topic at hand. After a long pause, they looked to the parchment once more.

"'True family'," Nem said out loud, in a ringing voice, but there was no indication as to whether that was comment or question. They didn't know what he meant by that, but ultimately it didn't matter. After eyeing the parchment for a few moments more with a blank and near dismissive expression, Nem did nothing more than circle the name 'Lestrange' in black pen ink, before retreating back to their own business.

Ash’s face fell. The sacred twenty-eight? Again? Was he TRYING to get them to fight each other? She did not WANT to listen to other opinions. ‘Other opinions’ included ‘muggleborns are inferior’. And that opinion was stupid. She’d been expecting something fun after all the talk about art. Idiot. She rested her chin on her hand as the professor uncovered the paintings. Yeah, sure, they were attractive or whatever. But they were also very dead, and some of them were just the worst. She started writing on her paper, drawing some doodles of phoenixes on the side. Y’know, to cancel out the bad energy.

SPOILER!!: Ash’s work

Sirius Black- was an animagus
Bellatrix Lestrange- served time in Azkaban
Regulus Black- played on the slytherin quidditch team

She paused for a while, lost in thought, then continued. If Regulus played quidditch, then who betrayed the dark lord? She decided that it must have been Narcissa during the second war, since she lied to Voldemort. That counted as a betrayal, and it definitely had a ripple effect.

And Sirius Black’s only... true family? Her first thought was Regulus Black, since they were brothers, but that was already taken. So it must be Andromeda. Huh. How was she his only ‘true’ family? Ash figured it meant that she was the only person who was there for him. She was his favorite cousin, after all, and they were both sorta disowned by their blood family...

SPOILER!!: Ash’s work

Sirius Black- was an animagus
Bellatrix Lestrange- served time in Azkaban
Regulus Black- played on the slytherin quidditch team
Narcissa Malfoy- betrayed Voldemort
Andromeda Tonks- Sirius Black’s one ‘true’ family

After she was done working, she sat back in her chair and tensed up as if something bad was about to happen. Because something bad was certainly going to happen. You know what the professor needed to do right now? Surprise her. Make this class end well. But he wasn’t gonna surprise her, was he?

Apollo had been perplexed by the question of art and history, so much that he completely missed his shot to answer the question. At least it wasn't due to lack of comfort in speaking aloud like it had been with Professor Rosier. He instead just listened to Professor Holden and his classmates speaking on what they felt about art and history - Kinsay surprisingly spoke A LOT and Apollo wasn't sure he'd ever heard her give that many words in a lesson before??? Also, what Remy said was interesting - Art has been around for centuries and gave us insights as to how people lived during a different time.

But moving on to talking about the Black family. The gryffindor frowned at the facts because he was pretty sure that some of those facts could be applied to multiple Black family members.

He wasn't sure about the slytherin quidditch team one, but he was pretty sure both Sirius and Bellatrix were in azkaban, although Sirius wrongly serving.

SPOILER!!: notes

1. Bellatrix Lestrange - a. Ended up serving in Azkaban.
2. Sirius Black - a. Ended up serving in Azkaban, b. Was an animagus
3. Andromeda Tonks - The only “true” family of Sirius Black
4. Narcissa Malfoy - Betrayed the Dark Lord, Was on the Slytherin Quidditch Team
5. Regulus Black - Betrayed the Dark Lord, Was on the Slytherin Quidditch Team

Maya couldn't help but feel like when Professor Holden said that people tended to look at history as memorizing facts, the young girl couldn't help but feel... attacked? It felt like it was directed at her despite the class being full of students. She pushed that feeling down, her pen flew across the pages of her notebook as she kept up with everything the professor was saying. Oh no.

Her hand was starting to cramp. Maya took advantage of the professor taking a moment to take out his pocket watch to shake it slightly. What interesting symbols were on the pocket watch. She hadn't been close enough to see the runes that were etched on it but she was certainly curious. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough time to keep looking at it because the professor had resumed his lecture.

The Sacred Twenty Eight.

Maya's pen stopped abruptly in the middle of the page, allowing the ink to bleed through into the next page. Thinking about her first year in Hogwarts left her with a lump in her throat. She shifted slightly in her seat before realizing she now had an ugly stain on her notes, quickly lifting her pen. Her attention was drawn to the now unveiled paintings. The Black family. All were rather beautiful in their own way even though one was crazy. As the parchment was passed out, she took one, remaining silent and looked down at the names on it.

SPOILER!!: notes ♥

Members to match:
1. Bellatrix Lestrange - Ended up serving in Azkaban
2. Sirius Black - Ended up serving in Azkaban Was an animagus
3. Andromeda Tonks - [i]The only "true" family of Sirius Black[i]
4. Narcissa Malfoy - Betrayed the Dark Lord
5. Regulus Black - Was on the Slytherin Quidditch Team

After matching everything, Maya pushed the paper to the corner of her desk.

And as usual, V forgot how much Professor Holden TALKED. He blabbed on...and on....and V, despite not wanting to disrespect him, felt herself droooooping drooping DROOOOOOOPING. She was seated near the door, and she found herself leaning against the wall. His voice was nice, and she was being lulled...away...

*ZZzzzzZZZzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzz*

But caught herself! Before she started dreaming, they were given a task. V blinked tiredly around and tried to figure out just what they were doing. Matching??? Things??? Oh! There were portraits, and she opened her notebook quickly. She did NOT feel like using a boring ole' QUILL so she pulled out her pack of fancy artist markers and grabbed a light pink one and labeled the page with today's date and the directions for the activity. It wasn't hard to figure out even if she had momentarily taken a snooze.

She wrote down all the names of the Black family members first, and then she tapped the marker's end against her wrist as she thought. TIME TO DECORATE THE PAGES WITH HEARTS -

And V was off, doodling hearts across the whole page while she "thought", and eventually she managed to match using her best guesswork. She certainly didn't know all of them and thought maaaaybe she'd get them wrong, but hopefully not all of them, right?

Serena was rather enjoying the lesson, especially the part about art and history. She wasn't much of an art geek, but she appreciated it. Especially when it had deeper meanings connected to history. She jotted a few of the things the professor said about that. When it came to the topic of pureblood families, she set her quill down. That was something already ingrained in her brain. There was no need to waist ink on that.

She recognized the people in the portrait, and it took her back to summer. This year, when she turns thirteen, Serena was going to have her presentation portrait done. She was going to be a full fledged teenager. Hmm.

When a paper appeared in front her, Serena snapped out of her thoughts and blinked at the paper. Oooh. Was this a quiz? She eagerly started on it.

Quinn was still a bit shaky on History of Magic. She wasn't born and raised around magic—she didn't even know magic existed until she was ten—so she wasn't raised with the triumphs and tragedies that are the stories from wizarding history. However, she did know a thing or two about these historical figures from the past couple years of classes (along with her own research she did first year... she felt like she had to look to the past to understand what was happening in the present. A very politically charged year that was).

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black... she had gotten rather familiar with them through her own research into the Alliance, which took her through the first two Wizarding Wars. The Black family as a whole were very large players in both, no matter which side they were on. She was obviously pretty familiar with Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange, two very important historical figures in their own right. In the same vein she knew Narcissa Malfoy and Regulus Black, but mostly through Bellatrix and Sirius, their respective siblings. Andromeda Tonks was the one she knew the least about... though she knew she was the mother of Nymphadora Tonks, and the third sister of Bellatrix and Narcissa, but that was about it.

Quinn also realized that several of these attributes applied to several of the Blacks, which actually made it a bit harder to pinpoint which was which. As far as Quinn knew, two attributes could be applied to Sirius, so she wouldn't be surprised if multiple could be applied to some of the others as well. Quinn tried to think about it as rationally as possible—Sirius was the only one she was sure was an animagus, so she was confident in that one. And that meant that Bellatrix probably should get Azkaban.... and Regulus was Sirius's blood sibling, so he probably took the "true" family.... which left Narcissa and Andromeda. This one took Quinn a minute, but she knew Nymphadora Tonks was on the side of the Order of the Phoenix, which made her think Andromeda was too (though she wasn't completely confident in this assumption), which would mean she wouldn't have had the opportunity to betray the Dark Lord, right..? So that meant it should be like this...


...that seemed...about right? She hoped?

Gosh, her eyes were starting to droop. Although, listening to Holden fanboy over history was kind of adorable. Remy had obviously heard of the famous Black family, but she wasn’t sure she could recall specific facts about each of them. She was certain she’d mix a lot of them up. With her chin resting in her hand, Remy used her other to lazily scribble ideas down.

First… HOW was she supposed to know which one of them were on the Slytherin Quidditch team? She had no idea and wrote down Regulas Black, followed by Narcissa Malfoy as the person who betrayed the Dark Lord. Technically, she did, Remy suddenly remembered so… CORRECTOMUNDO.

Next… she wrote two names down for the Azkaban inhabitant. Bellatrix and Sirius, followed by writing Sirius’ name down a second time on the animagus sentence. She knew her Gryffindor history. She eyed the portraits for a moment, becoming extremely distracted by their faces. They were a cute family, ngl.

That left Andromeda Tonks as Sirius Blacks “true” family member. Honestly she didn’t know who that person was.

You know, Remy was quite chuffed with her deducing skills as she set her quill down, adamant that every answer was correct.

She smiled at Evan saying hello oh and Claudine, "Yes, hope you are too." she said quickly before their class actually started and she had to start paying attention. If she had noticed Kinsay looking her over as a potential place to sit she would have said something to get her to sit by her, but she hadn't so she continued on oblivious.

Hearing the question she added, "Art can teach us what one person thought about history because the meaning behind art is closely related to the person creating it." She felt good making that answer it wouldn't kill her that's for sure.

Oh match game. She was super good at this. But the Black family, from everything she read Sirius was the only normal one of the group. Oh Flamsteed felt the same way as he called the professor out. Thank goodness she wasn't sitting beside him because holy merlin she might have been smited with him. Instead she turned her attention to her paper and began writing.

Text Cut: mini activity

1. Bellatrix Lestrange--Ended up serving in Azkaban
2. Sirius Black--Was an animagus
3. Andromeda Tonks--The only “true” family of Sirius Black
4. Narcissa Malfoy--Betrayed the Dark Lord
5. Regulus Black--Was on the Slytherin Quidditch Team

Felling okay with her answers she put her pen back down and glanced around the room a bit looking at Flamsteed again wondering what Holden's reaction would be.

Merlin, that was a lot to take in at once! Heath furiously jotted down notes as Professor Holden talked, only looking up at the mention of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Again? What was it with the History of Magic professors and Sacred Twenty-Eight families? Did they think that learning about blood supremacists was somehow supposed to make everything better? He had to fight the urge to roll his eyes at that little disclaimer. That was easy for Holden to say. He hadn’t spent months locked in a room below the school for no reason other than his heritage.

No, Heath wasn’t interested in listening to blood supremacist opinions. He tried that once because he thought it would keep him and his girlfriend alive, and he nearly lost himself in the process. Not that he thought that would be a problem. He trusted most of his classmates to know right from wrong, at least enough to not spout bigoted rhetoric in the classroom. If that did happen, he would respect them only to the extent that he wouldn’t tear them down in front of everyone. Lashing out in anger wasn’t his style. He was more likely to silently keep score of who held blood supremacist beliefs and cut those people out of his life forever.

Heath glanced at the portraits at the front of the room. The Black family may have been striking, but their outer beauty couldn't overshadow the ugliness of some of their hearts. He said some because by all accounts, Sirius and Andromeda had been good people. Narcissa was more of a gray area. Heath would give her credit for choosing her son over Voldemort’s cause, but based on everything he knew about her, there was no evidence to suggest that she actually let go of her blood supremacist views. Bellatrix was just straight-up evil, even more so than Lucien Rosier, and nothing anybody said would ever change his mind about that!

Then there was Regulus. Of all the portraits up there, Heath was most drawn to his. He could forgive Regulus for initially supporting Voldemort because he saw the error of his ways and gave his life trying to put things right. If he recalled correctly, Regulus had been about his own age when he died. That struck a chord with him. He couldn’t imagine dying to fight evil at such a young age - no, actually he could. He thought that would happen to him two terms ago. He wondered if Regulus’s reasons for joining Voldemort had been similar to his own for placating Rosier…

But now wasn’t the time to think about it. There was an activity to do. Heath looked at the parchment in front of him. Ended up serving in Azkaban… that could be Sirius or Bellatrix. He’d come back to that one once he’d matched some of the others. Was an Animagus? The only one of those five members of the Black family that Heath knew to be an animagus was Sirius, so that meant Bellatrix was the match to “ended up serving in Azkaban”. The only true family of Sirius Black… that one was a no-brainer! The only person that could possibly have been was Andromeda.

Three down, two to go. Heath looked at the next fact on the list: Betrayed the Dark Lord. Well, that was one way to put it, though he didn’t look at it as a betrayal. He’d call it doing the right thing. At any rate, that could apply to both of the remaining Black family members, so he left that one blank for now. Then he came to the last fact on the list: Was on the Slytherin quidditch team. He’d never heard of Narcissa playing quidditch, so that left Regulus. He quickly filled in the last two answers and set his quill down.

The reactions of several of his students did not go unnoticed. He understood why and sympathized. Probably none of them knew that he was muggleborn himself or that he fought in the Battle do Hogwarts.

Simon had spent some time walking around the classroom and observing his students. His attention turned to Atlas Flamsteed first who had asked him a question about being a fan of the Black family. He paused, debating on how to react to such a question. He decided to be honest. “Personal opinion: hardly any of them I admire… but.. I am biased. I am muggleborn myself and struggle with what the family believed in as a whole. However, I do find them interesting characters to study and do believe Sirius and Andromeda have redeeming qualities.” Regulus was the most interesting to him. “How about yourself Mr. Flamsteed?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow. He was interested to see how young Atlas would answer and he was quite intrigued by the boy’s willingness to participate now compared to before. He smirked. A distraction tactic no doubt. He did chuckle at the next question. “Perhaps it shows a bias but that wasn’t my intention. I simply chose the paintings because not all of them have Azkaban posters.”

He did cast his eyes elsewhere around the rooms, surveying more students. He did note Nem’s surprising reaction of “True Family”. Intriguing. More to unpack surely but now wasn't the time based on the rest of the class’ unspoken tension that he could feel.

“Let us move on. The answers to the questions are such,” he began, tapping the board to reveal the connections. “Surely some of you may have noticed that there are answers that could be applicable to multiple members. If you’d like to learn more about this family, please refer to page 451 in your textbooks.” He cleaned the board after a few moments of silence and then turned back to the students. “I’m sure you are well aware of the facts or as I like to call them: the what, the who, the how, and the when…. But what is the why behind their motivations. Why did Sirius and Andromeda join the Order? Why did Narcissa betray the Dark Lord and proclaim that Harry was dead? What made Regulus change sides? Why did Bellatrix remain with the Dark Lord? If you were in there shoes, would you do the same thing?”

OOC: Alright folks! Please ANSWER ONE OF THE QUESTIONS that Simon asked. Will be moving on in 18-20 hours to keep us on time for the Main Activity!

Oh. So even though some members of the Black family had more than one answer that could be applied, it was the best fit? And they were meant to choose just one? Apollo glanced down at his notes and put a single line to strike through the answers that were duplicated.

SPOILER!!: Notes

1. Bellatrix Lestrange - a. Ended up serving in Azkaban.
2. Sirius Black - a. Ended up serving in Azkaban, b. Was an animagus
3. Andromeda Tonks - The only “true” family of Sirius Black
4. Narcissa Malfoy - Betrayed the Dark Lord, Was on the Slytherin Quidditch Team
5. Regulus Black - Betrayed the Dark Lord, Was on the Slytherin Quidditch Team

Although as he did so, he realized he might have been presumptuous as he had no idea if Narcissa played quidditch. But her son had, so she might have as well? And both she and Regulus betrayed the dark lord, hadn't they?? Glancing up from his notes when Professor Holden through a bunch of questions at them, Apollo decided to go with one of the ones that he was pretty sure he knew.

"Narcissa betrayed the Dark Lord because of a debt owed by her family when Harry had helped her son. There's an old pureblood adage, or maybe it's just a human adage?" He paused reflectively adding that, "But it's about when someone does something for another... you automatically have this debt to owe them as a repayment. It's this sort of unwritten code of ethics of what we owe to each other as humans, I suppose. Which means, had I been in Narcissa's shoes, suppose I would have been indebted to do the same thing. To offer that protection."

Nem, for their part, was absorbed in watch-watching, head bowed and eyes fixed on their right wrist. In the other hand they still held the pen, now marking a series of parallel lines into the desk in such a manner that they could still conceivably be writing on parchment. The professor's words drifted around them, varying in volume as Nem tuned in and out, half-focused and uninterested.

(Un)fortunately, that meant they were still present enough to provide some kind of input. Sort of.

"You're asking the wrong people about loyalty and betrayal and motivations. The nuances and complexities of war." Nem spoke dispassionately, still not looking up or raising a hand. "People will see what they want to see, unless a textbook tells them otherwise. This room is bristling with bias."

When the correct answers were revealed, Quinn frowned a bit. They had mixed up Andromeda and Regulus... two of them that she knew the least about, so she wasn't super surprised, just a bit disappointed. She supposed that it made sense if Sirius and Andromeda were both fighting for the Order of the Phoenix for Andromeda to be his true family, which would leave Regulus to be the Quidditch player.

She was listening to the Professor's questions as she was correcting her answers, and then Nem spoke up. She stopped her writing immediately, a fiery hot anger boiling inside her chest. She hadn't felt it since first year, since she felt so powerless to do. anything for herself.

But this time was different. She didn't want to cause a scene (at least not yet) but she could at least speak her mind.

"Well," she started, resting her quill in her ink pot, "while I agree that, yes, history books are generally biased to the opinion of whoever is writing them, and yes, sometimes people see what they want to see, the fact of the matter is that these people in these portraits...." her hands shook with rage and nerves, so she shoved them in her lap, "some were good. Some were evil. Some fought for the Order of the Phoenix. Others were blood purists. Death Eaters. And to say that we are biased in our opinions of them is to say that to hate blood purists, cold-blooded murderers of magical folk, particularly Muggleborns and half-bloods, my people, is biased. And that to champion the people who fought against them, that stood up for people who couldn't stand up for themselves, is biased." She let out a shaky breath. "To me, that sounds like the sentiment of blood purists." And she left her speech at that, not even turning to look at Nem.

Claudine couldn’t help but smirk at the way Holden handled that Flamsteed twin. In her opinion, it had been disrespectful in the manner in which it had been asked. But Holden was so calm and collected about it that Claudine suddenly found herself thinking Holden was a life goal - in other words, she wanted to not get worked up when people annoyed her.

The Snakette made a quick note of page 451 in case she decided to read further later. A quick look over of Holden’s answers told her that she had 5 out of 5 correct. Yay. Here’s to the small successes.

Okay, on to the questions. Her thoughts were interrupted by Nem and she quickly felt the familiar sense of annoyance rising up in her as she did when they were around. Claudine just wanted Holden to handle them as he had with Flamsteed. The girl put her hand up. “To add to what Apollo said, Narcissa lied because she wanted to know about Draco, if he was still alive. I think by that point of the war, Narcissa only cared about getting Draco back safely. It was an act of desperation that made her lie.” Here, Claudine shrugged. “I guess being a parent makes you want to put your children above all else.” Not in every case though… take her father for instance.

Well, she corrected her answers because she had definitely gotten a few wrong. She had predicted it, so it wasn't a huge blow or anything. Professor Holden was doing the TALKY TALKY thing again, and she found herself wanting to doze off again, but she DIDN'T. Plus, it had gotten slightly more interesting! He was firing questions at them like crazy!

V heard Nem's answer and had noooo clue what they were talking about, so....she just gave them a confused look and raised her hand after Quinn. Quinn's answer was confusing, too. And it honestly felt like she was missing out on some HUGE big thing which she was, but she didn't know that.

"Professor, I don't think all people make their decisions based on what is right and wrong. I think some people make their decisions based off of furthering their own selves. And sometimes your own interest is better for the world as a whole, too. And when that lines up, you look like a hero," she shrugged after she said it because she shrugged after ever offering an answer. She didn't want people to think she thought her answers were good. That would be embarrassing if her answers were not good. And she expected them to be not good.

It was happening. Itwashappening. ItWasHappeningItWasHappeningItWasHappening. It was happening. Ash took some deep breaths, trying to remember her previous good mood. It didn't help much. She stared at her desk and at her hands, which were clasped together so tightly that the knuckles were white. "I guess Regulus Black regretted joining up. He made a choice because he thought it would be the right one, but it turned out to be bad for him and for everyone else so he changed his mind."She released her own hand, suddenly feeling the pain of holding on so tightly. "That doesn't make him a good person. But he did better than he did before, and that means something."

She went back to staring at her desk. Her hands were lying relaxed on the desk, like they had nothing to do. The sight made her upset for some reason. So she clasped them together again, resisting the urge to walk straight out the door.

... Had the room suddenly turned red?

Evan's hand tightened on his quill, almost painfully as his corrections for the answers he got wrong ceased. There was... a lot of things he could have said, there were a lot of things he could have felt. But Quinn had probably already given the most diplomatic response that could have been spoken. And frankly... he didn't have it in him for fully getting involved in this discussion. He thought about saying nothing at all, but his hand went up anyways.

"When it comes to the why for history, unless there is an autobiography written by the person of question specifically detailing the motivation for their choices... why is simply speculation. Why's can be driven by emotions or moral codes that we could never understand. I could say Sirius Black joined the Order of the Phoenix because it was a way of getting back at his blood purist family who had disowned him. I could say it was just he wanted something to brag about. Or maybe he was joining simply because James Potter wanted too. That's three things that could have been a possibility, but we'll never know."

History should just be the who, what and when.

Serena eyed several people at around the classroom. There was something she was missing or maybe she missed bits of what was said, whatever it was, she agreed with V. People tend to make decisions based on their self. It was the root of many problems. The reason why humanity didn't move on. She would have joined in, but considering she thought some as annoying here, Serena went on to answer the question.

"I think Andromeda joined the Order after her believes possibly changed after falling in love with a muggle-born. Love is strong enough to sway people on their morals and believes," she said. It was one of those rare moments Serena's heart felt warm. Inopportune timing of course. Her dad was a dark wizard before getting with her mum. Then he fell in love with her and changed his ways. He was still a smidge of a dark wizard, but only because he dealt in...you know what, she wasn't going to go there. Point is her dad fell in love with her mum and he became a better person.

"Then came their child and a bond between mother and child is one of the strongest forces out there." If the mum loves their child. If not...welp. Rotten luck.

She was happy that she had answered them all correctly. Way to go, Ollie! Not that she had any doubts about her answer but this class, besides flying, was probably her worst class. But she still did good! Yes, she still did decent in this class, it just didn’t come as easy to her as other subjects did. So she was happy that her first activity went well. Now to the harder stuff. She listened as answers went around the class; some very confusing, others she totally understood (thank you V). As she listened to others answers something came to her head and she, very unusually, blurted it out. “I think Bellatrix was in love with the Dark Lord.” Her eyes widened at what had just happened. This was so not like her! Why didn’t she raise her hand first?! “Sorry.” She quickly followed up. “I just- well, I think it’s clear that she was obsessed with him. Like love obsessed. It’s not the most scientific answer, but like Victoria said, some people make decisions based on what they want. I think Bellatrix wanted the Dark Lord.”

Hmm...curious. Atlas found his eyes glancing back to the portraits and continued trying to puzzle why the discussion on art as it related to history and why THESE portraits. That was...the point, right? How history portrayed things and kept a record and the messages were all right there. His head snapped back around, tilted to the side with some further follow up questions for Professor Holden too. "Why only those two?" Andromeda Tonks and Sirius Black, specifically. He hand his own hunches but he was trying not to be too presumptuous. "Me? Suppose if I strip everything down and leave victor's bias aside...I can respect them all for their respective self preservation and loyalty tactics. I don't like Bellatrix Lestrange. At all. But you can't deny that she was unwaveringly loyal to her cause and leader...which is a loyalty that Andromeda Tonks and Sirius Black showed to their cause and leaders too. Never switching sides and devoting their final moments to a cause they believed in."

Loyalty that...Atlas wasn't sure he possessed...something he maybe WISHED he had. Because during the war and that whole term, Atlas had just done what he felt he needed to to survive and not draw attention to himself...or get his dad killed.

And then class suddenly...became heated.

And while his mouth opened to point out that Voldemort himself was not pureblood, he knew better than to contribute to the tensions and heated emotions. But...it was also bad not to talk about things, so his therapist had told the family during a family session and then echoed in Atlas' own private session. But...just like with Healer Poppy during mandatory group therapy, this did not feel like the environment to air emotions.

He found himself unable to look at anyone in the classroom, instead his eyes fixated on the game of tic-tac-tow between himself and Aries, guilt for his inaction eating away at his insides. Victoria made some interesting points...but it wasn't so much a matter of what was better for the world as much as if you were on the winning side, wasn't it? Atlas had been on that winning side...and his methods of self preservation sure had not made him feel like a hero.

He didn't feel like answering this question, feeling like his honest answer to what he would do based on exactly what he HAD done would be unpopular and judged harshly...so his head simply hung low between his shoulders and he slouched a bit.

Nemesis was right, Atlas was not the person to ask about loyalty.

Charlie tried to listen as Professor Holden was explaining his choices in the family to study for the day. It was one of those things where Charlie had lived through the war but she just like others had done what she could to survive. Survive and make sure her family was okay. She was thrilled that her family was okay and that the twins were not at Hogwarts yet.

Listening to Atlas before he went quiet she watched him intently. He was so staunch in his opinion a few seconds ago what made him suddenly clam up? "Sometimes loyalty is for survival mechanisms. Not always the best choice. But Bellatrix could have truly believed in the cause blindly not thinking of consequences." She could imagine doing it for survival but it still felt sketchy and icky.

Whew, things were getting dicey again. Phoebe was a tad annoyed at Nem for constantly stirring the pot, but moreso at the kiddos who couldn't seem to hear a word from their mouth without reading something into it.

Could they please just press on and learn something today?

"It's hard to know the true motives of historical figures. Even if they wrote everything down themselves as an original source, there could be their own bias or viewpoint imprinted. They romanticize their motives, make themselves out to be the hero or more innocent or braver or whatever. And a secondary source, like someone who was there, is always tainted by the opinion of that source. So that's to say... the actions, we can assume these things happened, but we can't easily pin motives to them." Not that she was defending anyone or anyone's opinion.

Certainly an...interesting choice of topic today, Ivy thought, one elbow on her desk, resting her chin on her hand. It was bound to happen that certain things kept being brought up in History of Magic considering, well, history was full of this stuff. But it seemed even more noticeable, and certainly a lot more personal, in the last two years.

There were probably many plausible reasons behind why any of the people focused on today did what they did, and some of those had been given so far. Rebelling against family, love of family, self-preservation, a change in moral code, fear... Often multiple reasons at once too. It was rare that only one reason or factor played into a person's actions and choices, even if that person wasn't aware of all the factors themselves.

Ivy wasn't interested in delving into Bellatrix Lestrange's motives, but the others were a little more interesting to her. But even more interesting, and what most caught her attention, was Nemesis' comment.

She wasn't sure why. Most of the time she tried not to pay too much attention to them, but there was something about this that she didn't want to ignore. Or maybe it was some of the indirect responses that a few other students gave. Either way, she looked over at Nemesis. "That includes you too, you know. Every human being is biased in some way." It was silly to think that anyone was purely objective or unbiased at all times. Especially not a person who would join with an evil cult that took over a school.

But there was no need in bringing that up, nor did she actually want to go into all that or the emotional baggage that came along with that topic for herself and others. It was mostly beside the point anyway, which was that no one could sit here and pretend they were some perfectly logical and unbiased being of knowledge. So to tie it more into the actual discussion... "I'm sure all of those people had their own biases too," she added, raising her hand. "There's a lot of factors that influenced them in what choices they made, and that's probably one of them. For instance, maybe Sirius Black was at first biased towards the beliefs the Order supported just because it went against his family's wishes, but then at some point he came to truly believe it was right himself."