“And the Hogwarts champion is…” the final champion’s name comes out of the Goblet. “Hadrian Scrimgeour!”

  But now that I’m no longer as exposed as I used to, all I can do is study as I normally would, a dejected Nurcan returns to her room so she can get ready for her first official day of courses at Hogwarts. Tomorrow morning is History of Magic, and it’s apparently one big section of sixth-year students. It seems like not many even want to pursue it at what they call… NEWT level? Something like that. However, History of Magic is where differences in curriculum matter most, so a British NEWT in it cannot be deemed equivalent in knowledge to an Ottoman FYBS, only maybe in “transferrable skills”.

  When the History of Magic sixth-year lecture begins, on that day, in Class 72, the instructor, Chroniculus, have the newcomers introduce themselves to a class bringing together students of all Houses, with no sixth-year Durmstrang student in that section. And no other sixth-year Beauxbatons student either; then again, 9 of the 13 finalists are seventh-years, and the other 2 are fifth-years. (And History of Magic is an optional subject at Durmstrang for the final 2 years, just as at Hogwarts)

  “I’m Alejandra Diaz, Slytherin, originally from Beauxbatons!”

  “I’m Nurcan Topkara, Ravenclaw, also originally from Beauxbatons!”

  The other students seem to look at the two new people from Beauxbatons a little weirdly, paying attention to Alejandra and Nurcan, especially what few boys are left in the class, and are seated at opposite ends of the classroom.

  Once all the students in the course are seated, the lecture of the day begins:

  “Today’s lecture is on the later stages of the 1752 Goblin Rebellion. On September eighth, 1760, Montreal surrendered, and with it, New France fell under British control…”

  “Who are you to talk about la Nouvelle-France?” Alejandra interrupts Chroniculus, in a Spanish accent.

  “Minus five points to Slytherin!” the instructor rules against Alejandra.

  All I was ever told about New France was that it didn’t join MACUSA in 1693, it became British in 1760, and that it took 3 months to the ICW to rule that New France would be zoned to Ilvermorny thereafter, Nurcan feels like she had knowledge gaps about why New France didn’t join MACUSA. Karakalem focuses on the Levant and the Middle East, there was no further coverage of New France.

  Said knowledge gaps cause her to raise her hand.

  “Nurcan?” Chroniculus acknowledges her. “Did I mispronounce your name?”

  “No, but why didn’t… la Nouvelle-France join MACUSA in 1693?”

  The textbook, which she opens for the first time, makes it clear that Muggle New France was much bigger than the wizarding one, with the portion south of the Great Lakes already under MACUSA jurisdiction in 1760.

  “Wizarding New France was spared the worst of wizard hunting…” the instructor then talks about Scourers and, most importantly, how that tied into Muggle-wizarding relations. “Wizarding New France wanted to maintain some level of cooperation with Muggles, whereas MACUSA wanted to sever its ties with the Muggle world!”

  Why did this lecture turn into a lecture about New France going into the Statute of Secrecy? The other Slytherin student in the class, a male, is about to cry, wanting to return to the 1752 Goblin Rebellion. Which makes that male Slytherin student, Jace, raise his hand:

  “Knowing why New France stayed out of MACUSA is one thing, but how is that relevant to the 1752 Goblin Rebellion?” Jace asks, a little irritated.

  “Because New France became a bargaining chip for goblins in 1760. Urg the Unclean offered to administer wizarding New France, along with a ruling council that included goblins and werewolves and resettlement of both!”

  And the lecture continues with internal squabbling among goblins, such as Bodrod the Bearded and Vargot. Bodrod and Urg wanted werewolves to be relocated to New France alongside goblins, while Vargot preferred to keep werewolves out of New France.

  “Can anyone tell me where the werewolves stood on the New France issue?”

  “It’s easy to imagine that werewolves were divided about New France, just as goblins were!” another Ravenclaw student answers.

  “Five points to Ravenclaw!”

  Shoot! History of Magic is going to be a nightmare! Alejandra starts wondering whether she can actually function at Hogwarts in that subject. I could barely stay afloat in that course at Beauxbatons, I had to constantly ask for help, year in, year out, just to get an Acceptable in it, and the other Slytherin doesn’t seem willing to help me out!

  The rest of the lecture is about various aspects of engagement during the later stages of the 1752 Goblin Rebellion. About the goblins being on the defensive, and Vargot being killed, forcing the goblins to the negotiating table.

  And the goblins ended the rebellion on much worse terms than the 1752 Goblin Accords, much less lording over wizarding New France.

  When the period is about to end, Chroniculus gives them the assignment for the following week:

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “We didn’t have enough time to adequately cover the reasons the Ministry of Magic might have had to reject Urg’s peace plan, so the assignment for the week is an essay about possible rationales for the Ministry to reject the plan!”

  “Alejandra, voilà le plan. On va commencer par lire sur les stades précoces de cette rébellion de gobelins, mais également sur la situation en Nouvelle-France dans les stades tardifs de la Conquête, et ensuite on va essayer de trouver une troisième personne pour réviser!” (Alejandra, here’s the plan. We’ll start by reading about the early stages of this goblin rebellion, but also about the situation in New France in the late stages of the Conquête, and then we’ll try to find a third person to proofread!) Nurcan explains the plan to her.

  “Comme nous n’étions pas prises par la Coupe de Feu, je pourrais peut-être mettre mes différends passés de c?té cette fois-ci!” (Since we weren’t taken by the Goblet of Fire, I might put aside past differences this time around!)

  “Prends juste ton dictionnaire anglais-fran?ais…” (Just take your English-French dictionary…)

  I hope that her failure to make it to the Triwizard Tournament, coupled with mine, will reduce years-old tensions between her and me. But it seems like the whole leadup to the Triwizard Tournament somehow amplified tensions. Nevertheless, I know I shouldn’t slip mentions of tax reforms or of privileges, unless either one was in Urg’s peace plan, or otherwise relevant to the whole New France case… However, these would have nothing to do with the Revolutionary ones or, for that matter, the Irad-I Cedid! Nurcan reviews her notes on Urg’s peace plan, whose other core element was that New France goblins would be allowed to use wands. Yet, either one says or does the wrong thing to each other, and what redemption she thinks is possible, will go up in flames.

  The pair go straight to the library, start reading their History of Magic textbooks about the 1752 Goblin Rebellion, while keeping their English-French dictionaries abreast. However, the whole section about the 1752 Goblin Rebellion appeared to be awfully quiet about how wizards in New France would have viewed a wizarding government run by British goblins.

  Once that reading is complete, Alejandra seems to be at a loss as to what the instructor could be asking for. And, of course, she would struggle to think of reasons why the British Ministry of Magic would have rejected the plan based solely on the Goblin Accords, which made no provision for any subsequent British conquest, Muggle or wizarding.

  But then the pair is reminded of one of the key aspects of Urg’s peace plan: relocation of goblins and werewolves to New France.

  “OK, Alejandra, pense à ce que relocaliser des centaines de gobelins et loups-garous requiert!” (OK, Alejandra, think of what would be needed to resettle hundreds of goblins and werewolves!) Nurcan whispers in Alejandra’s right ear.

  “?a va co?ter très cher; je te laisse calculer les co?ts estimés…” (It would cost a lot; I let you calculate the estimated costs…) Alejandra seems only to think of the cost.

  Now Alejandra starts to comb the library for resources on the angle of the relocation costs of goblins and werewolves vs the costs incurred by the MoM post-Conquest to put down the rebellion. Meanwhile, Nurcan is going for another angle: the risk of moving the conflict from the British Isles to New France. And where New France’s wizarding community would have stood on the two core issues that led to this rebellion.

  A third student, a male Slytherin student, then joins the pair, who previously asked to recenter the lecture on the Rebellion when the instructor went on sidenotes about New France’s earlier wizarding history and its refusal to join MACUSA in 1693. They whisper in each other’s ears:

  “I’m Jace, and you?”

  “Nurcan, and I’m here with Alejandra!”

  “I see that you made some progress, but I have some questions: why are you here?” Jace whispers in Nurcan’s left ear.

  “We’re both here on exchange for eight months!” Nurcan explains to him in a soft voice. “We needed to get up to speed about the early stages of the 1752 Goblin Rebellion before, because our home institution made us take History of Magic through sixth year, where there was no coverage of goblin rebellions!”

  “Why did you ask about why New France stayed out of MACUSA?”

  “New France wouldn’t have been a goblin bargaining chip had it been under MACUSA jurisdiction in 1760! I had to understand why it refused to join the Thirteen Colonies before I could grasp New France as a goblin bargaining chip in this rebellion!” Nurcan seems to imitate the prof’s wording to the best of her ability, making her English seem unnaturally good for the training she received, perhaps some lingering magical effect.

  “If I may, it seems like my fellow Slytherin has a few… issues!” Jace then gets to Alejandra on her right.

  “Is it about writing?” Nurcan asks him before he makes a beeline for Alejandra.

  A Lumos charm seems to be cast in Nurcan’s mind. Maybe… maybe that guy could proofread our essays later!

  In NEWT-level History of Magic, it seems like it’s easier to put aside house considerations than it would have been, say, at OWL level. Other Slytherins thought I was crazy for wanting to take History of Magic to NEWT level, Jace starts thinking of how Alejandra was seemingly willing to work with someone other than a Slytherin on an assignment about the core considerations of why the MoM could have rejected Urg’s peace plan.

  The main ones being the cost of resettling goblins and werewolves on such a large scale, and the risk of simply moving the conflict around. By ruffling the feathers of both French and Native American wizards.

  “Alejandra, not only you seem a little fixated on the value proposition of wizarding New France to the British MoM of the time, but you seem to struggle developing your ideas!” Jace comments on Alejandra’s progress on the essay.

  “My English… not very good yet!” Alejandra responds to her fellow Slytherin about her struggles on the essay.

  Alejandra seems to be questioning whether the cost of relocating goblins and werewolves to New France was worthwhile to the MoM of the day, while she looks up some words in the English-French dictionary issued to her prior to leaving Beauxbatons.

  But then Jace finds a passage in La Corriveau’s memoirs (the most famous wizarding criminal associated with New France, despite having committed her crimes without any magic), which Alejandra reads: Muggles described New France as quelques arpents de neige at the time, which seemingly implied New France, or at least Canada as defined in the Articles of Capitulation of Montreal, was essentially worthless to Muggles back then.

  However, Nurcan seems to pursue the angle of the potential of conflict spilling over to New France under a hypothetical goblin-led wizarding government, exchanging notes with the two Slytherins when they’re ready to get the final essay written. Maybe we can get stuff done together without having to bring up the Revolution in some form.

  While they are getting some good progress on the assignment, Alejandra then tells Nurcan when they go to eat:

  “?a s’est bien passé cette fois-ci, mais ne va pas penser que ?a va toujours se dérouler ainsi. Si les choses tournent mal la prochaine fois, ?a va secouer!” (It went well this time, but don’t go around thinking it will always happen like this going forward. If things go wrong next time, you’re in a world of hurt!) Alejandra warns Nurcan at the library’s exit.