Chapter 582 - Professor Manzil (1/2)

In the following class period, Rowan was still a bit distracted, but not for long. If she had thought that Professor McGonagall was bad, well, Professor Babbling had assigned them thrice as much as the amount of homework than in Transfiguration! It made more than one student suddenly want to drop the class, sadly, such an option was out of the question until next year.

The staggering amount of homework constituted of translation scripts and rune rituals. Their homework essays did not only have to be written in English but with a second written version as well in Ancient Runes. It was a test to ensure that they could reverse translate as well, which made Rowan want to scream!

And now it certainly made more sense why a greater portion of the student body in their year had elected Care of Magical Creatures, Divination or Muggle Studies as elective courses. She suddenly found herself in those same shoes of wanting to drop Ancient Runes and wishing she would have gone for an easier course. Tragically, it was much too late now.

The rest of the day passed in an exhausted blur followed by another exhausting day. Come Thursday, the last course of the day, Goobbledook, Rowan was earnestly praying for the weekend to finally arrive. For the first time in an exceedingly long time, she was planning to sleep in late on Saturday at least until seven o'clock, and eight o'clock on Sunday.

Thankfully, she at least had a bit of a respite as she had a free course period before Gobbledegook to give her enough time to gain her breath back. With a groan, Rowan rose to her feet and made her way to the new Gobbledegook Professor's classroom, Professor Manzil Snipe. From what she had heard from the lower years, he was not as nice as Flitwick, but he was not as tough as the new lower year transfiguration professor, Professor Norman Hopkins.

Tragically that did not mean much to Rowan as she did not have Professor Hopkins for Transfiguration. But if she had to guess, Professor Hopkins was on par with Professor McGonagall for strictness level, and that Professor Snipe was more on par with Professor Vector or Professor Babbling. The two witches were firm, but not overly strict, which meant that at least Professor Snipe was not a terrible teacher, to begin with.

Rowan was one of the first to make her way into the classroom and found it largely empty except for the figures of a few Hufflepuffs in her year sitting up in one of the corners of the classroom. Nodding her head at them in recognition, she goes up to sit next to the figure of Andrew Abbot.

Andrew flashes Rowan a tired grimace, unlike his usual natural cheery self. Why even Andrew was being affected by his Prefect duties. And he was a bloody Hufflepuff for heaven's sake!

Slumping down next to him, Rowan says, ”I'm exhausted.”

”Same,” Andrew whimpered. ”I haven't even had time to reply to Petunia's letter.”

He was rather dismayed now at being been thrilled to be a Prefect. Just what had he been thinking at that point in time?! Who would have ever thought that his position as Prefect could possibly be a danger to his relationship with his girlfriend have Petunia Evans! But worst of all after his duties were done for the day, he only had enough energy to change into his pajamas or like last night falling straight away into bed sound asleep with his robes still on the instant, his head touched his fluffy pillows.

”I know what you mean,” Rowan muttered as she rubbed her tired gaze. ”Petunia's been writing to be all about the NASA program, and how the American's have launched Viking 1, the planetary probe towards Mars.”

Andrew turns and stares at Rowan as he says, ”I must confess, I really didn't get it, when Petunia tried to explain it to me. Why are the muggles sending metal-like things into space?”

”To see if there is life on the planet Mars or if it is even possible to inhabit the planet,” Rowan matter-of-factly replied.

”Well, how in Merlin's name would that be important to us as wizarding folks?” Andrew muttered. ”Professor Elias Murphy, the new muggle studies Professor is really excited about the whole subject of space travel. But I still don't get it.”

Rowan purses her lips, before slowly saying, ”Well, what if a witch of wizard went to the moon? Could we possibly create breathable air or even make it possible for witches and other wizards to travel to the moon by establishing a portkey? Or does magic outside of Earth even work or does it have a set of different rules? More importantly, even the idea that via magic the moon or another planet could possibly become a viable habitat for all wizardingkind if Earth one day is no longer habitable or we can no longer hide from muggles all together! It is an interesting theory which to consider or simply to test the infinite possibilities of magic.”

Andrew's brows arch sky high as his mind finally begins to think and ponder the potential future implications of such an event. ”Huh, I had never thought of it that way,” Andrew slowly said. ”I suppose it's a rather important event to think of after all. I guess it just seems so impossible to believe that muggles can go to the moon, and places that we wizarding folk could never possibly go all on our own.”