A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 704 Wizarding History

The lights at Hogwarts were on sparsely. Tonight was not much different from yesterday and the day before, but for many people it was still a sleepless night.

The library was very quiet, allowing Hermione to immerse herself in her work.

A thick stack of books lay before her, about ten of them open at the same time, but she didn't read any of them. Instead, she bit her lip and pondered. Clearly, after the Law of Secrecy came into effect at the end of the seventeenth century, no wizard dared to operate openly. If she intended to find places where wizards and Muggles crossed paths, she should have looked back to that time.

Hermione tried hard to recall what she had read, occasionally grabbing a book and flipping to a page to read carefully for a while. Gradually, a thousand-year-old picture of the magical world began to form in her mind.

Although Professor Bathilda Bagshot, the author of the History of Magic, only wrote up to the end of the nineteenth century, Hermione still managed to gather useful information.

During World War I in the early 20th century, Archer Evermond, then Minister for Magic, chose neutrality and passed legislation prohibiting wizards and witches from participating in the war to prevent large-scale violations of the International Law of Secrecy.

At the time, Harry's great-grandfather, Henry Potter, strongly condemned Evermond's decision, and his actions, as a pure-blood and Wizengamot member, caused a sensation and were widely discussed.

Some surviving fragments suggest that the Potter family's exclusion from the Twenty-Eight Holy Families may be related to this matter. Meanwhile, the wizards of war made their own choices—they did not violate the Statute of Secrecy or the Ministry of Magic's laws by directly engaging in the war, but the Ministry's laws also failed to prevent thousands of wizards living near Muggles from cautiously and diligently helping them to the best of their ability.

Hermione flipped through the book, reminiscing as she went—

In the 19th century, the Ministry of Magic agreed to let goblins run Gringotts; in the 1950s, a serious Floonet accident occurred; in the 1960s, the Act on Reasonable Restraint of Underage Wizards was passed, after which Hogwarts students were prohibited from casting spells outside of school; around the same time, the Hogwarts administrators tried to capture and control Peeves, but failed, and instead provoked Peeves' fierce resistance.

Because of the unique birth principle of Mischievous Ghost, the principal at the time made a compromise.

Idris Oakbeard, the founder of the Squib Supporters Association, was also born around this time. Some suspect that her experience of being mistaken for a Squib in her youth may have contributed to her empathy for real Squibs. In 1892, the Bigfoot Rebellion broke out in the United States, and the headquarters of the Magical Congress of the United States moved to its current location, Woolworth Building. In the last year of the century, Albus Dumbledore graduated with honors, but later gave up his graduation trip due to his mother's unexpected death. He met Grindelwald for the first time in Godric's Hollow...

Besides, this century has also produced some tedious Quidditch news. Oh, and Hermione remembered something closely related to her own life: the witch Eloise Minttab used a time-tamper in an experiment to travel back five centuries, getting trapped in 1402 for five days. Eloise died as a result, while she was much luckier…

In the 18th century, a law was passed prohibiting private dragon ownership, and the concept of the Unforgivable Curse was first proposed.

The Law of Secrecy had been in effect for nearly half a century, undergoing numerous revisions and improvements, but it also made some wizards feel oppressed, leading to some opposition. Gideon Flatworth formed an anti-Muggle extremist group, but their way of expressing hatred was by refusing to engage in manual labor like Muggles (Hermione thought this was somewhat similar to the professor's theory of using magic in daily life), and they expanded upon this to develop a series of practical applications for summoning charms. However, Flatworth didn't use the charms appropriately. He was exposed during an attempt to steal Gringotts' property using a summoning charm, failed, and had to flee in disarray to evade capture. His members were greatly disappointed in him, abandoning him alone in a cave, and the organization disbanded.

It's worth mentioning that Fratworth's ending wasn't too good. He was trapped in a cave, injured, and lacking food. So he dared to call out to the only food source in his field of vision—the barn at the foot of the mountain—only to be crushed to death by cows and haystacks.

Quidditch news is never absent; two groups fight for no apparent reason, and the only valuable thing is the first appearance of the Restoration Charm in the world.

Rappaport laws have been officially enacted...

The 17th century began with the goblin rebellion, and eight years later, Isolde Thayer, the most important founder of the Ilvarmoni School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, went to America; Mungo Bonham also founded St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries and Sicknesses at this time;

The fact that "all magical creatures except wizards are prohibited from possessing wands" has been confirmed by law, along with the code of conduct for werewolves. However, it is clear that no werewolf will voluntarily come forward to admit their identity.

1692 was a pivotal year, as the International Act of Secrecy officially came into effect. Wizards went into complete secrecy, and "small communities within communities" gradually formed over the next century; the Magical Congress of the United States was also established.

The 15th and 16th centuries were uneventful, and many wizards voluntarily distanced themselves from society. They began to pursue novel forms of entertainment, leading to the inaugural Quidditch World Cup (again, Quidditch!), which was followed by an unprecedented collection of fouls, with over 700 different fouls used. A book documented this phenomenon, and Hermione could hardly believe she had ever flipped through it out of boredom…

The fourteenth century was the origin of the laws of secrecy. As the Black Death spread across Europe, everything related to or connected with witchcraft was rejected. Some wizards who practiced openly or semi-openly were expelled. This situation escalated, eventually leading to the burning of wizards in some places. Many wizards were forced to hide their identities and go underground or live in seclusion.

Hogwarts was founded in the 10th century, and other magic schools were subsequently established.

……

As night deepened, Hermione looked up and heard a soft sound behind her. She suddenly turned around and saw Mrs. Pince, the librarian, standing behind her, which startled her.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Pince, are you closing the door?" Hermione exclaimed, startled. She was struck by the stern, short-tempered woman who resembled a vulture.

Mrs. Pince shook her head, her hand, which usually held a feather duster, now held a cup of hot cocoa. She placed the cup on the table.

Hermione stared at the hot cocoa, somewhat lost in thought, so surprised that she didn't even say "thank you." By the time she realized what was happening, Mrs. Pince was already gone. Hermione sat down and continued working. She tried to piece together a pattern by combining it with non-wizard history, but ultimately came up empty-handed, leaving her somewhat discouraged.

Hot cocoa energized her, and she wandered among the huge bookshelves, searching for inspiration. Her gaze slid over the titles of the books, and before she knew it, she had come to an area she rarely visited. The tall bookshelves were piled high with all sorts of notes that smelled of decay, all left by Hogwarts students.

Hermione randomly picked up a notebook containing the travelogue of a Hufflepuff student. Because it was quite old, the vocabulary and sentence structure were rather awkward to read. She put the notebook down and picked up another, this time a novel.

She read with great interest for a while, then realized how much time had passed. She put down the book, sighed, and said that now was not the time to read such things.

But then her eyes gradually brightened; she seemed to have just found a suitable angle.

I was originally going to write about the TV interview segment today, hoping to explore different perspectives on wizarding ideas. Unfortunately, progress was slow, so I hastily put together a chapter that serves as a general overview of wizarding history. The author has selected a few interesting but unrelated points that may represent some of the wizarding philosophies.

(End of this chapter)