Subjects at Hogwarts

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 145151

> Bart:
> Defense against the Dark Arts: The study of creatures that attack 
> humans, and spells used to attack humans, and the learning of 
spells and 
> techniques to defend one's self from them.

a_svirn:
Do you have a definition for the Dark Arts themselves? 

> Care of Magical Creatures: How to deal with non-human magical 
creatures; 
> it appears to be of limited importance in the magic world. Too bad 
> proper treatment of house elves isn't in the cirriculum.

a_svirn:
Do you know I cannot think that including them into the same 
curriculum with hippogriffs and flobberworms would be a proper 
treatment? Rather the opposite, in fact. 

> Muggle Studies: It appears that people in the magical community do 
not 
> interact much with Muggles, but it's important for those who do to 
have 
> an idea of how to do so without giving themselves away.
 
a_svirn:
Why bother when you can always rearrange their memories? Besides 
it's not the sort of thing you can learn in class, anyway. 
Fieldtrips is the answer. 


> Divination: Appears to be similar to Muggle divination. The 
problem with 
> it is that the future is NOT predetermined; all that can be 
divined is 
> probabilities. Dumbledore does not have a high opinion of it, and, 
> feeling that it was more important to protect Trelawny, hired a 
relative 
> incompetent to teach the subject. I suspect that Firenze has a 
stronger 
> hold of the subject.

a_svirn:
Doesn't it sound a bit contradictory? So much effort is invested in 
protecting Trelawney and Firenze, (not to mention the Prophesy 
itself) and yet you are saying that Dumbledore does not think much 
about the subject?  Why bother, then? 
 
> 
> History of Magic: Those who fail to learn from history are doomed 
to 
> repeat it.

a_svirn:
D'you reckon that's what Binns is doomed to do for eternity? 
 
> Ancient Runes: Not clear if this is for understanding the language 
of 
> ancient spells, or if the runes themselves are magical, making 
this a 
> theoretical course as well.
> 

a_svirn:
The strangest thing about runes is that after three years of 
learning Hermione managed to confuse eiwaz and eihwaz (quite a feat, 
considering that only 24 runes comprise the full Futhark , not like, 
say,  thousands and thousands of Chinese characters) and  still get 
an O.