"It was two years after the assassination of the pope. The papal seat was still cursed, and so had been empty, stopping France from using the pope's influence to gather troops. The King of France, Louis IX, was intimately tied to the Foucois family as his wife, Blanche Foucois, was none other than the past Pope's sister."
Now, all the students couldn't help but be absorbed by the lecture, which felt more like a novel than history. But it was just how the magical society was organized back then. There was little to no place for Muggleborns, despite the efforts of three of the Hogwarts founders or even Merlin.
The vast majority of the wizarding society at the time was forcefully contained within a few families, who hogged all the power they could for as long as possible.
"House Black was once again successful. Violetta Black, a veritable legend among Potion Masters, being the creator of the Polyjuice Potion, used her still unknown creation to disguise herself as Blanche Foucois.
"Using her disguise, she joined the old king in his chambers, and killed him, before escaping. She even signed her assassination, drawing her family's crest with the king's blood."
Binns turned around and slowly wrote a few dates on the board.
'1268- Assassination of Guy Foucois, alias Clement IX, at the hands of Cygnus Black.'
'1270- Assassination of French King Louis IX at the hands of Violetta Black.'
'1271- Curse on the papal seat is lifted.'
"the French's momentum was utterly crushed, their spirit trampled down by the back to back assassinations. The Foucois Family, who had been the absolute strongest in France, lost all their influence overnight. The alliances they built fell through, their allies scared they would suffer the same fate.
"The Bonaccord Family rose to prominence in these troubled times by allying with House Black. Using their position as trusted subordinates to the Foucois Family, they betrayed them and imprisoned Blanche Foucois, and plundered most of the Foucois Family, nearly killing the entire family."
Binns drew a long line after the 1271 entry, and wrote down another.
'1287- Blanche Foucois escapes from the Foucois Family.'
"Peace ruled between England and France between these 16 years. On the magical side at least."
Binns added another entry on the board.
'1288- Blanche Foucois wipes out half of the English wizarding community.'
The classroom had fallen to a pin drop silence, and Binns' ethereal voice seemed to cast a weight on everyone's shoulders.
"To this day, we still ignore half of the spells Blanche Foucois used that year. But as she chased the Black Family for revenge, none were spared. The only silver lining was that the muggles were mostly spared. It has been speculated that this was because the Black Family took the fighting as far away from them."
Ethan found that doubtful. If there was one family he did not expect to care about muggles, it was House Black.
Binns ignored the different reactions.
"Blanche Foucois and Violetta Black disappeared later that year, probably killing each other off in a last battle. Still, the sheer scope of the tragedy forced a reaction out of the European wizarding community."
'1289- International Warlock Convention leads to the creation of the Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.'
"The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards still exists to this day, and has vowed nearly seven hundred years ago now to fight dark wizards and make sure no other calamity of this scale ever took place."
Binns paused for a moment, before clicking his tongue, "We will see that they were never very good at their jobs in our following lectures. And although they do still exist today, they are mostly a joke."
Perhaps for the first time that day, the whole class listened to Binns' entire class, although the rest of it was spent giving some more details on the events around that period of time. From that, they learned that not only had the Medieval Assembly of European Wizards been created, but the Dark Arts had become a big taboo in the English magical society.
If one spent their whole life in magical England, they might think that the dark arts were an esoteric form of magic that only the most wicked of wizards would learn and use.
In reality, however, the distinction between dark magic and normal magic was not even a consensus among the magical community. Some spells were considered dark magic in some countries, and not in others.
And although it was not really the case anymore, in the past there were some more extreme cases where dark magic was not even a thing. For example, Ancient Greece did not believe in the concept of dark magic.
Herpo the Foul was considered as a forefather of dark magic, having created the ritual of Horcrux and made the first Basilisk, but for a long time he had just been considered a genius.
Ethan himself did not believe that using dark magic as a category of magic made sense. Transfiguration and Charm magic could be considered as such because they were unique. All the spells under each of these categories worked in a particular way that was not shared by spells of another category.
A transfiguration worked in a completely different way from a charm.
Dark magic did not have that specificity. There was no common denominator between all spells of dark magic. In reality, most dark spells were either charms or rituals.
Of course, Ethan was no expert in dark magic, he did not even know one dark spell, so there might be components of it he was missing.
It took Daphne a while to arrive, and as she did she had a book in hand. She was the only one to not pay any attention to Binns as she sat down next to Tracey and started reading.
Eventually, the class ended, and it was time for them to eat. However, when they saw that even while eating, Daphne had her nose constantly within her book, her friends decided to intervene.
Theodore, who sat in front of her, reached out and pulled on her book, earning her attention as he asked, "What are you reading there?"
Daphne looked up from her book, and although she looked annoyed she was interrupted, she still answered, "It's Transfiguration."
"Since when are you interested in Transfiguration? I thought all you cared about was Quidditch?"
Daphne pulled her book back, and resumed her reading as she replied lightly, "Do I have to report all my readings to you now?"
Theodore looked like a kid who had been caught trying to steal a candy, and backed away quickly. Ethan, on the other hand, looked at Daphne with narrowed eyes, and decided not to mince his words.
"You've been quite a pain in the ass today, haven't you? Did something happen with your sister?"
This made all three of them look up at him in alarm. Daphne looked at him coldly, but Ethan continued unbothered, "What, you think I'm deaf and blind? Of course I heard about your sister. This sudden interest in Transfiguration wouldn't happen to have something to do with McGonagall's mention of Untransfiguration being linked to Advanced Healing Magic, would it?"
"Shut up."
Ethan rose a brow, "Why are you being stubborn at being stupid? You are trying to do everything by yourself when you have the most talented transfiguration wizard this world has ever seen as your friend."
Tracey suddenly quipped up, "I'm flattered."
Ethan snorted, "Besides, if what I heard was right, what your sister got is a blood curse. That's not something you just solve through healing magic. Maybe you could help with the symptoms, but to resolve the curse itself, you're going to need more than that."
Daphne's anger faded away like ashes in the wind, only to be replaced with bitterness, "The blood curse can't be cleansed."
"This only shows that you don't understand a thing about magic. There's no invincible spell, the people who tried were just not good enough wizards."
Daphne's spirits seemed to have been lifted by Ethan's quips. She leaned forward with a teasing smile, and said, "Professor Dumbledore once tried to cure someone who had a blood curse. Was he just not good enough?"
Ethan scoffed, pretending to be offended, "The old man's good, but I'll surpass him before I even graduate."
Just as he said that, Ethan felt a presence appear right behind him, and a mirthful voice exclaim, "I would love to see that!"
Ethan jumped in his seat as he finally noticed that behind him was none other than his Headmaster.