Anthony erased the blackboard and wrote two new words: Muggles, Wizards.
"I have some Muggle gadgets here, and these are price tags. Discuss and try to rank these Muggle products by price." He dumped everything from his Undetectable Extension Charm bag onto the platform. "Come on, everyone come up and look."
Preparing these items had cost him considerable effort.
Thanks to his pen pal Arthur Weasley working at the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office—on the same floor as the Misuse of Magic Office that had arrested him—Mr. Weasley had readily approved his purchase and modification report, providing considerable help in preparing these teaching aids.
Professor Flitwick had expanded his thinking on magical modifications. "Add a trigger charm." He'd suggested. "That way you don't need to recite incantations—just tap with your wand and it works. Very impressive to watch."
In any case, these items had taken him at least half a month, all for this first class.
Students who chose this course were somewhat interested in Muggles, and Hogwarts, being an ancient magical castle, rarely had Muggle items. Anthony didn't believe they wouldn't be curious.
Students immediately stood from their seats. One student touched his wand. "Professor, can we use magic?"
Anthony nodded. "Of course."
"Excellent!" He rushed to the platform and cast a spell Anthony hadn't heard before at the flashlight.
Classmates beside him watched expectantly. The charm began converting to a strange earthy yellow. The student's expression changed from excitement to confusion, and finally from confusion to disappointment.
Anthony couldn't help being curious. "What was your spell, Mr. Thomas? I heard a prefix indicating detection and a suffix indicating limitation."
"Value Detection Charm." Thomas said dejectedly. "My uncle works at Gringotts."
Anthony nodded knowingly. "I suspect this spell doesn't work on Muggle items. Muggle objects—in Gringotts goblins' definition—have no value. Has anyone tried exchanging Muggle currency with goblins for Galleons? Their expressions will make you feel like you're robbing them."
"I believe so, Professor." Thomas said.
Anthony smiled. "So try using your other senses. Most problems wizards encounter in life, Muggles encounter too. For these little troubles everyone has, Muggles have developed their own solutions. Try identifying them and see if you can guess their uses."
"Car engine." The Weasley brothers recognized it immediately. "It's a kind of Muggle alchemical product, equivalent to a Comet Two-Sixty's propulsion runes."
"How expensive is it?" A girl who'd come to accompany her friend asked.
"Uh... I don't know. Maybe fifty Galleons?" They calculated the Comet's price and discounted it.
"This is a Muggle camera." A boy said confidently, pointing at the camera. "Probably over sixty Galleons." He placed the camera in front of the engine. The camera's lens cap suddenly flipped open and spat a slug at him.
"Hey! Fred!" He angrily poked the camera with his wand tip. The slug vanished. Anthony hadn't even reacted. The Weasley twins' classmates clearly knew quite a few counter-curses for prank spells.
"Hey, why are you looking at me? I'm George." One brother said. "Trust me, engines are much more expensive than Muggle cameras. I'll bet you a Transfiguration essay."
"Deal." The other immediately agreed. "I'll bet a Herbology essay."
The other Weasley clapped his shoulder. "Hey, what about me? Two Herbology essays. I'll raise you one Defense Against the Dark Arts."
Anthony listened silently to their conversation. He might know why Professor Sprout complained about the Weasley twins' homework quality being "inconsistent."
Angelina examined what was before her. "I can't tell what this does. It looks like a plate, but the bottom has a hole."
"A record!" The boy whose family played Muggle Christmas carols called out. "Muggles use these things to record music so they can listen whenever they want!"
"That's impossible!" Angelina objected. "Even wizards can't do that—I mean, we have magic that directly transmits sound, but I haven't heard of recording sound."
Thomas prompted her. "Patronus Charm?"
"Oh, alright, that works." Angelina thought. "But you can't listen to a Patronus anytime. They finish delivering messages and that's it."
The Christmas carol enthusiast nodded. "Muggles have some very convenient things. I really wish I could record the Sorting Hat shouting 'Gryffindor' at me. I could listen to it for life!"
Anthony leaned against the wall, not interrupting the students' discussion.
He discovered wizards not only couldn't understand electronic products but were also quite poor with mechanical structures.
Today's display included a water gun—he'd even risked filling it with water—but students hadn't figured out what it was for. Their conclusion was that it was a water cup Muggles used for drinking. George questioned why Muggles wouldn't just drink from regular cups instead of putting water in this oddly shaped cup, but Angelina said maybe Muggles just suddenly decided to do it that way.
"Like you deciding to give apple pie legs and make it walk into your mouth. I must say, that's really perverted." She said. So the Weasley twins raised no further objections.
Students also argued endlessly over the flashlight until Fred happened to flip the switch.
"Oh, it's light!" They curiously flipped the switch back and forth. The flashlight bulb flickered madly.
They quickly concluded, "Can't let Filch know about this thing. He'd love it."
...
Near the end of class, Anthony finally walked to the platform edge and examined the students' ranking.
Through the combined efforts of Muggle enthusiasts and imaginative thinkers—Mr. Thomas seemed to have found a little cheating trick, but Anthony didn't plan to intervene—the Muggle items on the platform were perfectly arranged by price.
He nodded approvingly. "Very good. Completely correct. Ten points to Gryffindor!"
(Just as Hagrid and everyone else had told him, this class had no Slytherins.)
"However, I listened to your discussion. Regarding their uses, some understandings still have small deviations. Muggles have no magic, so they've developed many technological means to achieve magical effects. For demonstration purposes, the electronic products in your hands have all been magically modified—I must state in advance that without Ministry approval, it's forbidden to cast magic on Muggle-made things. I wrote several reports, children."
He picked up items from the platform and explained them one by one.
"This is a calculator. People input numbers, it outputs results. Never makes mistakes. Perfect machine." Former cashier Anthony said affectionately. "Can help people easily solve algebraic problems. I haven't found the magical world's equivalent yet. Perhaps Arithmancy specialists have their own methods."
"Flashlight." He pressed the button. A spot of light appeared on the classroom ceiling. "Can bring light in darkness. Muggles' Lumos."
"Manual can opener." He opened a can of tomatoes in front of the students. "Can open sturdy cans. Even without kitchen magic, people can open cans. Of course, it requires some skill and practice."
"Engine." His wand tapped the engine. Pistons began moving, the crankshaft rotated, cylinders made rhythmic rumbling sounds. "Can make cars move. Cars are a very common Muggle transportation method. Muggles can't Apparate, so if they need to go somewhere relatively far—say, from Edinburgh to Glasgow to visit their grandmother—they usually choose cars."
"Record." Anthony walked to the classroom corner. Students' gazes curiously followed him until they saw a record player there they hadn't noticed before. "Can record music. Magic can make instruments play themselves. If you know the corresponding spell, you can make instruments play the tune you want. But the human voice... is difficult to recreate with magic."
Soothing music floated through the classroom. Among the many Muggle record shops outside the Leaky Cauldron, Anthony had chosen a choir album.
"Lighter." With a soft click, a small flame popped out. "Can be used to ignite... everything you can imagine being ignited. Relatively gentle. Some wizards might use Incendio, but if you just want to light a candle, the Flame-Lighting Charm or a lighter might be more practical."
"Water gun." He squirted water at the blackboard, turning the word "Muggles" into a mass of white chalk water that dripped down the board.
"And wizards have Aguamenti." A stream of water gushed from his wand tip. The word "Wizards" on the board was also washed into a puddle of chalk water, merging with the "Muggles" water.
Anthony waved his wand. The chalk water flew back to the blackboard, forming the word "Humans."
"Water guns can make humans happy." Anthony looked at the longing expressions of students below and put the water gun back in the bag, smiling. "Class dismissed."
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