A Little Bit of History PV Simon Tilia Finished

late january 2023; interacting with @Simon Tilia

Alyssea's eyes widened at the mention of a sister. "You have a sister? What's that like? I have an older brother and no sister. She's not that bad, right?"

Simon continued. "Oh, and my parents are married but my mom chose to keep her maiden name, Jacobsen. That's why they have different names. Honestly, I'm not a fan of Tilia either, but it's been in my family for generations."

"Well," Alyssea said as she shrugged, "I think Tilia is more interesting than Brown. It's so basic, it's literally an ugly colour. Although! I will argue that I like the colour brown."

"Geez, I just gave you the whole family history, didn't I? Sorry."

Alyssea chuckled and waved her hand. "It's alright. It sounds interesting, anyway."

She listened as Simon voiced his opinions about what caused the witch hunts. She was no raging feminist, but rather a neutral listener. It was one thing that made her enjoy history. Historians always kept finding new things to interpret an event differently, so you could never take it at face value.

While she did agree with much of Simon's frustrations, Alyssea gently interjected, saying, "When you really think about it, religion was a way to control the people in times of authoritarian governments. I mean, if you've ever had a look at fascist Italy."

She didn't want to suddenly get controversial on a completely irrelevant topic, but it was something she realised a little after they started this topic in class. She had noticed it back in her Muggle education, as well, but she never thought about it this deeply. Usually, history was a fun subject that taught you about the past.

Simon flipped to a page and pointed at it. Alyssea leaned forward to read as Simon explained what she was meant to be looking for. She winced at the descriptions Simon recounted to her. They were absurd, as he called it. She almost couldn't believe it, but these were first-hand experiences recorded by people from the time period, so they were a good source of evidence.

Alyssea shook her head. "Gosh, that's just awful. I hate it all."

She took her quill and started listing a rough draft of information for her essay. These sources were a good place to start. "Thanks for pointing those out, by the way. I think they'd make for good content in the essay. First-hand experiences and all."

As she wrote, she asked Simon briefly, "What were you making in Potions class, by the way? You said it was a physical potion?"

Alyssea was always the type to bring back old topics no matter how long ago they had already passed. Sometimes, new ideas came later and not in the moment when they were relevant.

"Having a sister? Well..." Simon thought about their constrained relationship and decided not to go into any details. "Since she's 8 years older and I'm a wizard, so I suppose we don't have so much in common. She's been a bit self-occupied lately with her company and all, but she's a good sister."

When Alyssea made the connection between religion and authoritarian regimes Simon nodded. He had read a lot about this in his Muggle school and in some of the books from his parents' private library, and what Alyssea said rang a bell. "Yeah, it served a purpose. Definitely. And I guess we cannot escape the fact that those with power were mostly male. Even though there were some male wizards that were executed, I don't think it comes as a surprise that most victims were female during this era. So I guess that shows how inequal it was back then, even for us magic folk. Statistically, the girls at Hogwarts would have faced a higher risk of execution than the boys, despite us all having equal magical abilities."

It was hard to imagine what it was like living back then. Thank god for 2023, Simon thought, although there were still a lot of contemporary challenges both in the Muggle world and the Wizarding world as well. Most disturbing, according to Simon, was the fact that the pure blood elitism seemed to be on the rise again, despite it being only 30 years since the last Wizarding war. It had even penetrated the school walls. He had been chocked to find out that one girl in Ravenclaw was a pure blood elitist.

They continued to work on their essays. Simon flipped through the books and made sure to write down the references to keep track on which books he used. He enjoyed studying with Alyssea. She was not too talkative and when they spoke they always talked about interesting things. His stomach started to growl though, telling him that it was soon time to get something to eat.

"What were you making in Potions class, by the way? You said it was a physical potion?", asked Alyssea while she wrote on her essay.

"It was the Bruise Removal Paste. But I screwed up pretty bad the first time, which is kind of ironic, thinking how often I get bruises. When I'm not in the library, that is." He chuckled. "Hey. We've been studying for a long time now. What do you think about call it a day and go to the Great Hall to have supper?"

late january 2023; interacting with @Simon Tilia

The study session had been a lot more productive than Alyssea imagined. Not that she doubted their abilities to get through the content, but rather her personal productivity levels. Coming back from Christmas break was a journey and she still hadn't fully acclimated back into the Hogwarts mindset. Come exams, she hoped her motivation would improve.

Simon was a good study partner. While they hadn't delved into other subjects in the session, she was glad there would be someone who would enjoy looking a bit deeper into history. She often came to the library as a way to cure boredom. You know, replace boredom with productivity. But she'd spend most of those times alone. So, having Simon around was a nice change.

"Hey. We've been studying for a long time now," Simon said.

Alyssea checked the windows and, sure enough, the sun had started to set. Did they really spend that much time studying? It didn't feel that long.

Still, Alyssea looked back to the table and nodded. "Yeah, it has."

"What do you think about call it a day and go to the Great Hall to have supper?"

Alyssea nodded. "Sounds good. I'm pretty hungry, now, too."

It was a mostly true statement. During their study session, she didn't feel any hunger pangs. But now that they had finished, she felt it. Talk about the mental work she did to spend that kind of energy. They packed up their things and headed out. She hoped the professor would be pleased with the essay once she handed it in.