Pfft.. that comment about muggles not discovering fire was a bit patronising wasn't it? Oliver crinkled his nose and eyed the little ginger girl for a moment before going back to nomming on his carrot.

CRUNCH!

Chomp chomp chomp.

He raised his hand. “What about Gandalf, Professor? Wasn't he, like, fighting balrogs waaay before Merlin came along?”

He was about to continue along the same vein and say something about Star Wars when a younger Ravenclaw appeared to go loopy. He let out a loud snicker, followed by his trademark dirty drainpipe laugh. The kid sounded just like Lainey.

"Bahaha!"

(I feel guilty not posting)
 

Eyeing the brownie and cupcake she'd retrieved from the plates, Grayson had sort of missed the last few questions. She'd noticed the discussion, just in her attempt at deciding which to eat first, she'd neglected to offer her own suggestion. But now she nommed the brownie, and once she'd swallowed, she looked up at the professor with a grin. Yay chocolate. Even though it sort of made her remember the icky food from DADA. At least this was yummy, not all moldy and stuff. And the class wasn't either, not really.

"What about Stonehenge? That's been around a long time, and nobody can quite figure out how it was made. There's stories that Merlin used magic, though," she said, raising her hand. In her head, it was either that or the alien theory as to how those rocks had been lifted up like that. But they weren't talking about aliens right now, so magic it was. And now she'd go back to her brownie until the discussion moved on. Glancing at Evelyn as she complained about Jacob. Not her business.

Louisa swallowed the brownies she was so busy chewing slooowly as not to miss any GREATNESS of the chocolate it contained and then raised her hand. "The Egyptians used special curses to protect the treasures in those tombs." Oh and by the way, "I don't know if that's before Merlin's time or not." The little girl pondered for a second and then added, "As a matter of fact I don't know who Merlin is." Well, yeah she wasn't that familiar with such Historical names. This Merlin guy would be an inventor of some spell right? right?!

Popping a brownie into her mouth Dianna thought of the question. It was hard to concentrate when you have something rather sweet inside your mouth.
"Somewhere around 1000 BC in Ancient Egypt, Professor." Dianna said. "Magic was recorded for the first time there.. And I guess another can be around 382 erm.. BC when Ollivander's began. I mean by that time wizards and witches were learning how to use magic through wand right?" Dianna said. Popping another brownie into her mouth she listened to the others.

Magic before Merlin's time? So something older than Merlin? the lad wondered, scratching his head and furrowing his brows as he listened to the class. Then he sat up on his desk and raised his hand "Uhm.... I think magic has been happening even before the Egyptians Professor, or even before Gandalf which by the way isnt even human.... I bet there was magic during the Dinosaur era, with their own Supreme Mugwump that leads over their own International Confederation of Magical Dinobeasts, and they probably had this big meeting where they were arguing and trying to out do each other right? Then this Supreme Dino Mugwump said 'I can out-magic you all!!!' and so he pulled his biggest, baddest spell then POOF!--they all vanished off the face of the Earth! And thats why nobody knows what really happened to the dinosaurs."

Fee grabbed a brownie and bit into it. Ohhhhhh delicious.!
This was school how it should be.
Chooocooolaaaate! Yum.Yum.

"Wasnt it first named as magic in the arthurian legend", she said.

Sweet always made her sooo talkactive.

Ohh browniesss!! Carter helped himself to a few. He then returned to his seat.

Carter raised his hand. "Magic had to be widely used enough before Merlin since Ollivander's has been around since around 400 B.C." he offered. That made sense right? There had to be enough people to market to to start a wand-making business.

Cass took a a brownie as she thought about her answer "Well, the King Arthur legend is an evidence of magic...as well as the Salem witch persecutions during the middle ages."

Freya thought for a moment before raising her hand "Umm..I think magic has been happening since 50,000 B.C. I had had read in a muggle book that muggle Scientists believe that Prehistoric people who buried themselves in cave bears probably started magic. They probably did this as a magic rite (spell). The muggle scientists believe that the drawing and craving are a form of magic." she said and lowering her hand.

Connection issues, thank you for baring with me. ♥
 

Dylan raised his hand, "Stonehenge Professor." He had been there on a field trip when he was home schooled. He knew all about it.

Well, that was a hard question....uh..Well "Professor, can the practice of Alchemy be considered a practice of magic? Since Alchemy was practiced during the middle ages to be able to predict future happenings. A lot of muggle Alchemists were able to make precise predictions like Nostradamus."

Jimmy's hand went up. "Theres the Moai on Easter Island. Lots of traces of magic have been found around those, but its hard to investigate because the site holds a lot of interest for Muggle Archaeologists too and the Statute's gotta be protected and all. The part that is interesting is that magic at the Polynesian and Australasian sites are thought to have evolved separately from the African and European sites that most people are familiar with. Theres no evidence of wand use, for example, so they're looking into other ways that those people might have harnessed their magic. Like with gemstones. They reckon the Moai statues used to hold gemstones in the eye sockets, and that was one of the ways that magic was controlled. This is... I dunno, sometime between 1250 and 1500, which is a pretty big deal when you think about how comparatively civilized Wizarding Culture over here in Britain was around that period, I mean," Pshhh obviously the biggest indication of civilization, "We had Quidditch, but we didn't even know about those people."

He tipped his head at Finn and then nudged his friend. "Crop circles were on account of the Mooncalf." He murmured quietly. So yeah. Finlay was right.

Freya smiled when she heard Professor Welton gave her two points for her answer. Hmm..Things that happened to be cause by magic??Freya thought a moment. She raised her hand "Umm..How about the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life, Professor?If I'm not mistaken in the middle ages the alchemist was searching for two very valuable substances which are the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life" she said uncertain.

".... read it in a book, miss." James murmured.

Yeah. Wasn't because he.... knew stuff. Or anything. Still, his hand went up.

"Thats sort of the point isn't it? The Statute of Secrecy and all, when there have been breaches, they've been covered up, some of them so damned well that the general Wizarding public don't even know about it any more. And for the stuff that happened before the Statute, and before Obliviators, well its all become part of myth and story and superstition, which amounts to the same thing. I'm pretty sure everything in the world can be explained away by magic, even the things that have a more logical or mundane explanation.

I guess I wonder if there are things that we look at and say 'yep its magic' when its really not. When its really just some Muggle junk. Something scientific and not magical at all. I guess what I'm getting at is that we can use magic as an excuse too, and maybe that could be a lazy way of trying to solve a mystery, just like Muggles use superstitions -whether they're based on truth or not- to explain away the things that they don't understand."

"Professor, what about those things that they the muggles think were caused by aliens...could they have been caused by wizards? Like those huge circles found in farms that they claim to be from UFOs."

Alice smiled that she had earned a point for Gryffindor. She was glad to see that she was helping out her house.

"Well Professor, I'm not sure if this counts, but I always wondered how they were able to build the Greek Gods and Goddesses monuments. Generally, weren't they rather large in scale and very intricate? It seems kind of crazy that muggles could build them without some form of magical assistance."

"What about that flood with the noah's ark in the bible.I know its somewhat god realted. But isnt everything related to god somewhat magical?"

Fee didnt believe in god but this could be an expample.Except that it had just popped up in her head.

Carrots!!!!!!

Jacob took two or three or ten. "mine" he said simply and sat back on a cushion. Oh, this was going to be worse than the brownies. Yes he was going to give everyone headaches from random rabbit quotes. He started nibbling on the carrot like a little and tried to twitch his nose, like a rabbit would.

Jacob tried to think. Another reason he liked lainey's class better, he did have to think so much. Jacob raised his hand, Chinese dynasties were in recent centuries right? "Chinese dynasties used something call the 'Mandate of Heaven'. But that could have been wizards. They didn't like a ruler, they could a drought, or flood, and wait for others to riot and rise up against the ruler."

Pshhhh. People proving his point. Jim rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, slouching somewhat.