Lesson One

[Leilah Meranovoskov]

The Russian walked in to her new classroom and started tyding. This wouldn't take long and would give her a few minutes before the students came in. When the room was cleaned, Leilah set out quills, parchemnt and a small gift. She waited for the students...

When the students arrived, they sat at the desks that Leilah had put their names on. She had attempted a boy-girl-boy-girl seating plan but it soon died as soon as she found out that she had more boys than girls. The students sat down and Leilah began the lesson. "Welcome students, to Dark Arts. I am your teacher, Professor Meranovoskov. In this class, I will expect the best behaviour. And only that. As you can see, I have left you a small gift. You may open them." She watched as the students opened their presents to find a small egg. "These class, are model basilisk eggs. They will hatch soon and it is your job to keep them as pets. They will not kill you but they can leave you with a strong headache." Leilah remembered the time when she had gone through that. "Now, for today's lesson, we will be studying from our textbooks. Please turn to page 197." One student was going through his book very slowly. Leilah gave him a hand. She made the book turn to the page itself. "Now, as you can see we will be studying Morgana. Otherwise known as Morgan le Fae. Please read thorugh the pchapter on her. Once you have done that, please write me a short piece about her. Minimum 75 words. Please use any sorce availible." She planned hoemwork. "For homework, please hand me in a drawing of her by you or write a new chocolate frog card details for her."

Leilah write this on the blackboard.

"Class dismissed. Please see me in my office so we can talk about what you would like to learn and if you have anything else. Thank you."

HOMEWORK

Write the piece mentioned

Draw picture (using whatever you can)

Re-write chocolate frog entry

To be Owled to me

[Guest]

Tarragon jumped as his book slammed to page 197 without his doing, he looked up at the Lehrer to see it was her that had done so. He tried not to blush, and looked down at the page. Morgan la Fae, he hadn't heard of this before, so hurried to read on before angering the Lehrer more.

Morgan la Fae, or Morgana, was a sorceress in the Arthurian era. Dependant on the workings of many authors tells us as to how Morgan le Fae worked, some write of Morgana as that of only a sorceress, whilst others portray her as an antagonist to the future King Arthur and Lady Guinevere's rule on the throne. In later literature, Morgana was portrayed as a being of villainess of Arthur's time. Using seductive ways of luring men to help her to overthrow the power Arthur possesses, thus making her a megalomaniac.

Tarragon smiled to himself, just like most women then really, although this did remind him very much of his potions teacher. A shudder ran down his back at the thought of The Sweeney being the next Morgana. He didn't much care for things that were myths, he cared about the here and now.

[Guest]

Alys glanced over at Tarragon who seemed to have already started writing. Well, the teacher had helped him open his book. Alys had to flip to the page herself and then scrutinize the tiny text. She had never heard the name before but the author of her textbook seemed to have a lot to say on this particular witch.

The blonde felt an empty buzzing in her head as she read on, not caring if she didn't understand some of the more difficult words. Her Papa was right, old German was much harder than what they spoke nowadays. Regardless, the blonde did manage to understand enough to set about on her writing task.

Many people disagree on Lady Le Fae's origin, including her name. She is sometimes agreed to be one of nine sisters and sometimes King Arthur's half sister and lover. She was a gifted witch who was also a healer, as some writers agree. Her relationship with King Arthur was also unclear as she always healed him after he got hurt even though sources claimed they were sworn rivals. Merlin, the wizard most englishmen swear by, was said to be her teacher until she surpassed him. Some even say he was in love with her which is disgusting because he was her teacher.

Lady Le Fae keeps reappearing in history by different names and some people think she is like the Frenchwoman who was an animagus and traveled to England in the form of a bunny rabbit. Sources are unable to tell why she would choose that form to transfigure into. However, I don't think she is like the Frenchwoman. She is portrayed to be evil in some works and benign in others. What is the point in that? Why can't authors agree on one thing or the other?

The only thing we can conclude from the text is that many people believed different things about this witch and it is very hard to get to the truth of the matter because she is long dead. But she was probably evil because all English are.

The eleven year old studied her work, then scratched out the last line as an image of her Papa's stern face came to mind. Giving the short essay a once over, she set it aside for the Lehrer and got out a blank page and her sharpest quill, ready to sketch the witch in question and get the homework out of the way too.

[Avangeline King]

Ava knew right where to turn in her book for information about the famous Sorceress, Morgana. Glancing towards Tarragon and Alys she could see them working hard, she wondered which version of history they were going to use. Morgana WAS a bit of an enigma, slowly Ava started to write.

There has been constant debate on whether or not Morgana was a Dark sorceress, or a Light Sorceress that got a bad rap in the King Arthur legends. Merlin himself also suffers this duality in some texts. Morgan Le Fay is claimed to have seduced King Arthur and bore him a son that would one day challenge the King for the throne. This story is most likely to be true as it appears in many documents from different eras, however the exact circumstances are unclear.

One group of myths suggest they are half-siblings that were both students of Merlin, but Morgan Le Fay grew up jealous and wanted to have the power her brother Arthur had, and to do that she needed his child. That is the common myth most people would know.

There is a secondary one though, and it changes one small fact, and that fact is what may change our perception of Morgana. This legend claims that Arthur and Morgana are not just the students of Merlin, but his grandchildren. If she was also his descendant, than why would she be concerned with Earthy Kingdoms? I believe Morgana was in fact a Dark Sorceress and that made the people of that era afraid, as it still would in some areas today, and to that extent rumors and accusations came out of nowhere to slander the powerful Dark witch. I believe Mordred was King Arthur's nephew, but since he had such an important pedigree in addition to the fact Arthur had no children of his own at the time, Mordred attempted to claim the throne for himself.

Ava hoped she hadn't made a fool out of herself. A good portion of her essay had come from eclectic sources, ones she only knew about through her desire to know more about her Mother's country, King Arthur was one of the most famous legends from that area. The worse she could be was wrong, and she felt it better to include what she had found in the obscure books in an effort to be thorough.

[Guest]

Lukas took out his writing things and started the work. It was easy, his father had told him about this woman before.

"Morgan Le Fay was one of the most fearsome witches of her age. Not only was she extremely skilled in dark magic but she could change her human form to any of her nine sisters. All her sisters were said to be gifted in certain areas of magic and she herself was said to be particularly good at confusing the minds of her enemies, not just with her magic but also with her looks and her words.

She was the daughter of Ingrain and the Duke of Carnwell and later gave birth to a son who would one day challenge her brother’s right to rule. However, some claim that he was also Arthur’s son and heir and had a right to rule anyways. It is said that Morgan Le Fay herself started this rumour to win support in favour of her son and to slander the name of the reigning monarch of the time."

Lukas looked at his work proudly before handing it to the lehrer.

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