August 14, 2015 - Ethics (FR-13)
August 14, 2015 - Ethics (FR-13)
Alt Title: Day 14 - Ethics
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: Agatha Harkness explains why the students need to be careful using magic.
Crossover: Harry Potter, Marvel Comics
Rating: FR-13.
Word count: 1151
Challenge: for the livejournal 2015 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Timeline: Storywise - Agatha Harkness explains the purpose of the class to her 5th years.
A/N: After thinking about it, Buffy and Agatha decided that the 5th years had to take Ethics as well since that’s the last year they’re required to attend Hogwarts.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Marvel Comics characters belong to Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Marvel Comics. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Auditorium
Agatha looked at all her students spread throughout the auditorium. This class was many firsts for these children. The first half-year class (1 semester - a term they introduced to the school). The first lecture-style class with all the other students in their year, and most obviously, the first course in the ethics of magic use.
“As there is no practical portion to this course, this will be the only format we’ll use. Other classes such as charms or transfiguration will also have smaller classes for casting spells,” she explained for the audience.
“On the overhead projection, there are two quotes. Can anyone tell me what they would have to do with this course?” Agatha inquired.
The quotes she projected with the help of the planetarium equipment were: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
A rather timid girl near the front raised her hand and answered part of the question, “You shouldn’t do any magic on somebody that you wouldn’t want used on you?”
“Very good, Miss Rhodes,” Agatha replied.
“So you don’t mind if somebody turns you into a slug?” a voice from the middle of the class asked.
“Next time you wish to speak, please raise your hand,” she chided mildly. “While I wouldn’t enjoy being turned into a slug, there are a couple things to consider about that circumstance. First and foremost, it was a fight. Now I might not like being transformed, but I do accept that as a possibility when I’m fighting somebody. Granted, this time it was only a duel - which is why I didn’t use any magic that could permanently hurt those young men. In a real fight, you have to use spells that might otherwise seem horrifying to consider…unless you are willing to die for your beliefs.
“The other issue was reasonable retaliation. Did you hear the details of the duel?” Agatha asked, knowing that these children were two years younger than the boys she battle with Tara; they couldn’t have witnessed themselves.
A hand went up and she nodded at the boy. “Yes,” he answered, “My older brother was in that class.”
“Please describe for the students how the duel went,” Agatha ordered. “I’ll correct any major errors.”
“You picked five boys and just as the duel was about to start, your assistant froze them with a spell. You cast a spell that had something to do with nightmares. Once you released them from that, you turned one of the boys into a slug and leaned down to whisper something to him that my brother couldn’t hear,” he recited.
“Remarkably accurate for hearsay,” Agatha remarked. “Before I correct the most glaring error, I’ll ask all of you a question and want you to raise your hands if the answer is yes. If one side is incapacitated in a fight, do you consider the fight over?” All the hands went up. “So when the losing side is freed by the winning side, would you still consider the duel complete?” A couple hands went down momentarily but eventually went up again.
“Now we get to the part that your brother failed to mention - or perhaps didn’t notice,” Agatha said to the young boy. “When I released them from their nightmares - which were visions in their minds based on some vile things they said about myself and my assistant - the young man in question raised his wand to cast a spell. Given the look on his face, I highly doubt that his spell would have been benign. If it had happened outside of school, I would have maimed or possibly killed him.”
Several students went white at her matter-of-fact mention of ending somebody’s life. The worst was the boy who dared to ask her if she would be okay with being turned into a slug.
Agatha noticed his fear and decided to reassure him a little. “I don’t mind honest queries; questioning authority is the sign of an independent spirit. That said, if you want to question me, be sure that it is a genuine question. I will not tolerate questions that are asked for the express purpose of being disruptive.”
She turned her attention back to the projection and asked, “What about the first quote? How does this relate to our class?”
It took a full thirty seconds for one of the brighter students to raise his hands, then answer, “If we don’t use our magic responsibly, fixing the aftermath of it could come back to bite us in the-- it would cause trouble for us,” he quickly altered his response when he remembered who he was talking to.
“Nice save,” she said with a touch of humor. “Can anyone give me the most egregious example of this in the British magical community?” She waited several seconds before offering a hint, “It happens with such regularity that most people don’t even see it as a problem anymore.”
“Oblivation?” a girl from the back asked after Agatha acknowledged her hand in the air
“Precisely!” Agatha confirmed. “In a majority of the cases, Obliviation is caused by a wizard or witch being reckless with their magic. There might be times when it is necessary to do magic in a non-magical area, but you should have a good reason for it.”
“What’s a good reason?”
“I’ll give you three examples from recent history, and you can tell me if any are justified. Scenario one: a wizard apparates to the non-magical side of Kings Cross and is seen by Muggles. Scenario two: a wizard sees a child about to drown in the river and uses the levitation charm to pull the child to safety. Scenario three: a witch wants something from a Muggle store but doesn’t have Muggle money to purchase it. Are either of the wizards or the witch justified in obliviating the Muggles?”
It was generally agreed that the third one was wrong - because it involved stealing something. It was also almost unanimous that saving somebody’s life was acceptable. The students were pretty much split down the middle on the first scenario…until one Muggleborn mentioned that it was just as easy to apparate to the magical side and walk out of the portal which had a permanent notice-me-not charm on it.
That led to a spirited debate about other acceptable/not acceptable reasons to obliviate Muggles. Agatha ended the impromptu debate by bringing it back to the quote. “If you know how to blend in with non-magical people, there will be less of a chance that you’ll need to cast a spell on them. It’s dangerous to count on that spell to fix the problem anyway…especially given the level of technology used in public areas now. You may get the one person who saw you at the moment you cast the spell, but the cameras recorded you, and that’s not good.”
A/N: I think I got everything I wanted to cover…or at least most of it. Any suggestions for tomorrow?
Alt Title: Day 14 - Ethics
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: Agatha Harkness explains why the students need to be careful using magic.
Crossover: Harry Potter, Marvel Comics
Rating: FR-13.
Word count: 1151
Challenge: for the livejournal 2015 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Timeline: Storywise - Agatha Harkness explains the purpose of the class to her 5th years.
A/N: After thinking about it, Buffy and Agatha decided that the 5th years had to take Ethics as well since that’s the last year they’re required to attend Hogwarts.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Marvel Comics characters belong to Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Marvel Comics. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Auditorium
Agatha looked at all her students spread throughout the auditorium. This class was many firsts for these children. The first half-year class (1 semester - a term they introduced to the school). The first lecture-style class with all the other students in their year, and most obviously, the first course in the ethics of magic use.
“As there is no practical portion to this course, this will be the only format we’ll use. Other classes such as charms or transfiguration will also have smaller classes for casting spells,” she explained for the audience.
“On the overhead projection, there are two quotes. Can anyone tell me what they would have to do with this course?” Agatha inquired.
The quotes she projected with the help of the planetarium equipment were: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
A rather timid girl near the front raised her hand and answered part of the question, “You shouldn’t do any magic on somebody that you wouldn’t want used on you?”
“Very good, Miss Rhodes,” Agatha replied.
“So you don’t mind if somebody turns you into a slug?” a voice from the middle of the class asked.
“Next time you wish to speak, please raise your hand,” she chided mildly. “While I wouldn’t enjoy being turned into a slug, there are a couple things to consider about that circumstance. First and foremost, it was a fight. Now I might not like being transformed, but I do accept that as a possibility when I’m fighting somebody. Granted, this time it was only a duel - which is why I didn’t use any magic that could permanently hurt those young men. In a real fight, you have to use spells that might otherwise seem horrifying to consider…unless you are willing to die for your beliefs.
“The other issue was reasonable retaliation. Did you hear the details of the duel?” Agatha asked, knowing that these children were two years younger than the boys she battle with Tara; they couldn’t have witnessed themselves.
A hand went up and she nodded at the boy. “Yes,” he answered, “My older brother was in that class.”
“Please describe for the students how the duel went,” Agatha ordered. “I’ll correct any major errors.”
“You picked five boys and just as the duel was about to start, your assistant froze them with a spell. You cast a spell that had something to do with nightmares. Once you released them from that, you turned one of the boys into a slug and leaned down to whisper something to him that my brother couldn’t hear,” he recited.
“Remarkably accurate for hearsay,” Agatha remarked. “Before I correct the most glaring error, I’ll ask all of you a question and want you to raise your hands if the answer is yes. If one side is incapacitated in a fight, do you consider the fight over?” All the hands went up. “So when the losing side is freed by the winning side, would you still consider the duel complete?” A couple hands went down momentarily but eventually went up again.
“Now we get to the part that your brother failed to mention - or perhaps didn’t notice,” Agatha said to the young boy. “When I released them from their nightmares - which were visions in their minds based on some vile things they said about myself and my assistant - the young man in question raised his wand to cast a spell. Given the look on his face, I highly doubt that his spell would have been benign. If it had happened outside of school, I would have maimed or possibly killed him.”
Several students went white at her matter-of-fact mention of ending somebody’s life. The worst was the boy who dared to ask her if she would be okay with being turned into a slug.
Agatha noticed his fear and decided to reassure him a little. “I don’t mind honest queries; questioning authority is the sign of an independent spirit. That said, if you want to question me, be sure that it is a genuine question. I will not tolerate questions that are asked for the express purpose of being disruptive.”
She turned her attention back to the projection and asked, “What about the first quote? How does this relate to our class?”
It took a full thirty seconds for one of the brighter students to raise his hands, then answer, “If we don’t use our magic responsibly, fixing the aftermath of it could come back to bite us in the-- it would cause trouble for us,” he quickly altered his response when he remembered who he was talking to.
“Nice save,” she said with a touch of humor. “Can anyone give me the most egregious example of this in the British magical community?” She waited several seconds before offering a hint, “It happens with such regularity that most people don’t even see it as a problem anymore.”
“Oblivation?” a girl from the back asked after Agatha acknowledged her hand in the air
“Precisely!” Agatha confirmed. “In a majority of the cases, Obliviation is caused by a wizard or witch being reckless with their magic. There might be times when it is necessary to do magic in a non-magical area, but you should have a good reason for it.”
“What’s a good reason?”
“I’ll give you three examples from recent history, and you can tell me if any are justified. Scenario one: a wizard apparates to the non-magical side of Kings Cross and is seen by Muggles. Scenario two: a wizard sees a child about to drown in the river and uses the levitation charm to pull the child to safety. Scenario three: a witch wants something from a Muggle store but doesn’t have Muggle money to purchase it. Are either of the wizards or the witch justified in obliviating the Muggles?”
It was generally agreed that the third one was wrong - because it involved stealing something. It was also almost unanimous that saving somebody’s life was acceptable. The students were pretty much split down the middle on the first scenario…until one Muggleborn mentioned that it was just as easy to apparate to the magical side and walk out of the portal which had a permanent notice-me-not charm on it.
That led to a spirited debate about other acceptable/not acceptable reasons to obliviate Muggles. Agatha ended the impromptu debate by bringing it back to the quote. “If you know how to blend in with non-magical people, there will be less of a chance that you’ll need to cast a spell on them. It’s dangerous to count on that spell to fix the problem anyway…especially given the level of technology used in public areas now. You may get the one person who saw you at the moment you cast the spell, but the cameras recorded you, and that’s not good.”
A/N: I think I got everything I wanted to cover…or at least most of it. Any suggestions for tomorrow?