Life After Death - An Erica Black Continuation (4)

Twelve

"Hey class! Welcome to your fifth year History of Magic course. This term we will be covering the Wizarding Wars; both the first and second."
Erica Black, despite not looking a day over twenty, was born in the mid 1970's, around 50 years ago and had lived through parts of both wars, one of which; most of her student's parents weren't alive to see. She stood at the front of this classroom, full of fifth-teen year olds. Her dark ringlets secured in a half up, half down style by a Slytherin green ribbon, her cloak draped elegantly over her shoulders, partially covering the dress she wore; simple and fitted, the same colour as her hair-ribbon and falling just below her knees.

"so, best we start from the beginning: what do you all know about the first wizarding war?"

A few hands danced in the air for a moment before settling back down.
"No-one? well that's not unexpected but slightly disappointing... How about we try something a little different? What if I share my story, and then we can move onto the more objective facts?" The children nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay! So, My name is Erica Black and I was born in 1976, about half way through the first Wizarding war. Both my parents, Sirius Black and Willow Ollivander, were seventeen and members of The Order of the Phoenix- a secret society founded by late Hogwarts Headmaster; Albus Dumbledore to oppose Voldemort and his followers; the Death eaters. Other members of the order included:
-James and Lily Potter
-Alice and Frank Longbottom
-twins; Fabian and Gideon Prewett
-Marlene McKinnon
-Remus Lupin
And auror; Alastor (Mad-eye) Moody
Just to name a few, countless more witches and wizards fought for the Order, many of which lost their lives and multiple of which we will be revisiting later in the term in more depth."
She took a moment to scan the classroom and was pleased to see the students looked interested in what she had to say.
"Now, the Death eaters and their leader, Tom Riddle (also known as Voldemort) were a group of magical supremacists who's core beliefs revolved around the superiority of members of the magical community who had pure blood, specifically the sacred 28. These are families considered to be the purest of British wizarding blood according to a piece of propaganda written in the 1930's by a member of the Nott family who wanted to assert the blood purity of himself and his family and friends. Most famously involved with Voldemort: the Carrow, Rosier, Yaxley and Lestrange families. Please, don't be mistaken, not all of the 28 families were on the wrong side of history. Some, like the Weasleys the Shacklebolts and the Prewetts, were very heavily involved with The Order and what they stood for. But, as with any debate, it was not quite so black and white as that. These views divided families and ended friendships. This was life and death, people were willing to not only die for their beliefs, but kill for them too. One example of this is my own family, The most ancient and noble house of Black. for decades, was incredibly conservative and focused on blood purity and wizard supremacy however, very few of them joined the Death eaters, most notably Bellatrix Lestrange who was one of his most devoted followers. On the other hand, Sirius Black, Ted and Andromeda Tonks were active members of the order during the first war. Others, including Narcissa Malfoy and Regulus Black did their parts to aid the cause despite the ambiguity of their situations.
After eleven years, the first war came to an end after the home invasion, double murder and attempted infanticide of the Potter family. In 1981, 21 year olds James and Lily Potter were murdered by Voldemort during an invasion of their Godric's Hollow home , Riddle then attempted to kill their one year old son, Harry Potter. Luckily, he failed, Lily Potter had sacrificed her life to protect her only child and in doing so she had unlocked an ancient and powerful type of magic, unknowingly when she willingly gave her life to save her son, with nothing but selfless and loving intentions, she had created a long lasting counter-charm what would protect the boy until he came of age. This, as we now know, is called Sacrificial protection."
Once again pausing to check she wasn't losing her audience, the professor smiled to herself to see that every single student in the room appeared fully invested in what she had to say, this was unsurprising, it was hardly a secret that the war had occurred but many people who were involved were deeply traumatized by the events on 1998 and many of these student's parents had likely never shared this information in the same way Erica was. She was telling them a story they had never heard and unravelling a mystery with every word, for some of the students; possibly even explaining a family history they'd never known.

"Today I want to focus specifically on Voldemort. Tom Riddle was the only child of witch, Merope Gaunt and muggle, Tom Riddle making him a half-blood wizard. He was born in late December of 1926 after his mothers death. He was conceived under a love potion which some believe is what lead to his severe lack of empathy. He lived in a muggle orphanage until Transfiguration professor Albus Dumbledore invited him here, to Hogwarts. Unlike so many others, Dumbledore was not immediately charmed by the boys natural charisma and quickly grew suspicious of his obvious instincts for cruelty, secrecy and domination. In his sixth year, 1943, Tom Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets- a secret space hidden deep beneath the castle by one of the founders, Salazar Slytherin and in doing so released a creature called a Basilisk and directly causing the death of multiple muggle-borns, including our very own Myrtle who some of you girls may know from the lavatories. He managed to avoid the consequences of his actions by passing the blame to a fellow student."

"Erica... listen to me... You need to help me... ERICA!"
"Miss Black..?" the sound of a student's voice brought her back to reality, without hesitation she sprang back into her lesson completely unaware she had been frozen still in thought for almost a minute before anyone interrupted her.
"And that's time guys, next lesson we will continue with Tom Riddle during the first wizarding war and hopefully find time to continue onto the next person of interest."