Chapter 197: Where's Your Pure-Blood Dignity? [bonus]
The Scottish Highlands had lucked into one of those rare, decent days. Sunlight spilled through the tall castle windows and broke into bright squares across the stone corridor.
History of Magic. Shared with Hufflepuff.
Professor Binns floated into the room like always, straight through the blackboard, then drifted behind the lectern as if that was a normal way to start class.
He opened the same lesson plan he'd probably been using for a century and began in that dead, flat voice of his, the sort that could put the living to sleep and still somehow drag the dead down with it.
"Today's topic: the Giant Wars."
"...Taking place in the late nineteenth century, the term refers to a prolonged series of conflicts between wizards and giants. Giants possessed enormous size, immense physical strength, and a natural resistance to magic. Their repeated attacks on wizarding settlements posed a serious threat to the enforcement of the International Statute of Secrecy..."
Almost nobody was listening.
One student was sneaking through a Magical Picture Book under the desk. A few others whispered to each other. Someone in the back had already given up and gone face-first onto the table, fully asleep.
Binns didn't notice. He never did. He was here to deliver the material. Whether anyone actually learned it had never seemed to concern him in the slightest.