The Letter of the Law (Careers Class - All Years)

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As the rest of the class answered, Delia kept silent, mulling over the facts given. There was a lot of missing information, but as other students asked and more came to light, Delia mentally settled on an answer — or a resemblance of one, anyway. Raising her hand, she waited to be called upon before she spoke.

“I have… a few thoughts on this subject matter. My position on this is on the side of the Professor and hippogriff, but to explain that I need to offer a few other thoughts, first,” she started. “Pureblood, wealthy, you said. I’m going to define the word ‘right’ as not morally accurate, but rather as what is deemed suitable by those that matter — and so, in this case, what’s right would be to do one of three things: fire the professor, execute the hippogriff, or both. It does not do to have the only son of an influential Pureblood family be injured, even if said injury was caused by said son’s initiative.”

She shrugged, moving on a split second later. “Of course, the correct thing to do would be to interview those present and find out who the instigator is. Animals are wild creatures; they react as well as act. The animal shouldn’t be blamed if it was merely reacting instinctively to try and defend themselves, although unfortunately a lot of times animals are put down despite this.”

Again, she shrugged. “But you are asking for what is right and there isn’t such a thing — not really. What’s right to me is wrong to another. Right is typically subjective, especially in things like this. Is theft right? Almost everyone says no. But what if theft was committed so a baby could live? Is it still wrong? There’s a difference between moral and lawful ‘rightness’. It depends on the people in charge and whatnot.”

Delia waited a moment to let her point be clear. “As for me, what’s right in your case would be that an investigation be carried out, memories collected and viewed through a pensieve to determine who was at fault. If the boy was indeed trying to show off against the Professor’s orders, he is at fault and nobody else.”

Delia’s smile turned into a dry one. “We have knives and deadly ingredients in our potions classroom; we have deadly plants in our greenhouses; broomsticks and quidditch can be a deadly game… Does that mean all things even remotely dangerous are banned? I’d say no. Why should they? Each person has a choice to listen or disobey. If they’re foolish enough to disregard the instructions of an expert, and they get hurt, is it nobody’s fault but their own?”

With a shrug, she concluded, “My point is, there are dangerous things everywhere around us, in almost every class. Makes no difference if it’s alive or not. It’s the students’ responsibility to listen to instructions.”

"The professor," Victoria replied to Mimosa. "Was trying to impress his class. You see, it was his first day on the job, and he wanted the kids to really enjoy his class. So, he brought a fantastic beast to the class to wow his students. The professor was experienced with the beast, though, he had an affinity with the beasts for some time, so he knew how they behaved, and trusted them.

"The professor did take care. He taught the students how to approach the beast, the correct way to get close to them, everything that you will learn in Care of Magical Creatures, before he let anyone get close to the beasts." Victoria continued, showing the facts carefully to the children before her. After all, each account showed something else, and it swayed an opinion. Which was precisely the beauty of her job, finding the truth in and amongst the stories.

"But, Mimosa, do you truly believe it's fair for a beast, who is normally well behaved, trustworthy, and gentle to be put in a cage, for the masses to look at? Because of one student who could not follow the rules?" Victoria posed the question, purposefully keeping her own opinion out of her tone as she spoke so that the ten year old could not be swayed in a certain direction.

Victoria's attention turned to Delia a moment later, and the older witch listened intently to the arguments, smiling to herself as the witch defined 'right' and 'correct'. This was a point Victoria had been hoping to address. What was right, really? Were the laws of a country 'right', they were all the ideologies of very few, on how to run the many. They were what was deemed to be right, but not always the correct solution, and Delia had offered them the conundrum in that moment.

"You present very good points, Delia, very good indeed. This is a very subjective matter -- purposefully set out to be just that." Victoria explained to the class. "However, I will present you with something... you may not be aware." Victoria continued, checking everyone was still following the conversation along as she took a small pause. "Memories would, as Delia pointed out, be a very good method to collect testimonies. However... memories can be tampered with, altered, squashed to fit our understanding of a situation, until they no longer resemble the situation that took place.

"Why?" Victoria asked. "Some people are ashamed of what they have done. Others choose to see people they love, or like very much, in a light where they can do no wrong. Memories, therefore, are not always fail safe methods of getting evidence. But, they can be a good place to start." Victoria explained, not wanting Delia to feel like her idea had been wrong in that moment.

Delia's insistence that it was a student's responsibility to listen to the professor brought a small smile to Victoria's lips. At least the girl knew that much. "So, Delia is suggesting the student is at fault.

"Can anyone else propose who else might have been at fault?" Victoria asked, wondering if anyone would see past the immediate and in to the larger problem of the whole scenario that had currently not been touched by any of the answers.

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Sasha listened there carefully what was now said there. She tried to pay attention every word someone said there in that class now. She knew that she should try to speak her own opinion about this too. She wasn't at first sure what to say even once had listened what everyone said there now. The girl figure she should finally say something there now too.

She could tell that there was talk about the creature, the boy, and professor. Also, there was the school what they could mention there now. So she soon raised her hand there. She figured maybe the school was the missing part in there.

"I'm not sure how to say but why did even school headmaster or headmistress even let such dangerous creature be presented in the class. When they knew it would be so dangerous for to teach. So also school is to blame to let even professor let teach about such creature, who could harm easily the students when they aren't listening to the professor like happened in this case," she said there now something.

She hoped she was right there now. She knew that she didn't really speak so much as some others had done before her. She really wasn't sure what she should say there now. Mostly others had already said what she was thinking now there. She knew that even if she isn't right then someone could easily correct her or even professor will do it. At least she tried to be involved in the class.

From the way Victoria spoke, the little girl was getting a sense of where this discussion should be going. Though the lawyer was careful not to outright say whom she agreed with, Mimosa could understand subtextual clues like "well behaved beast" and "student who could not follow the rules", making her think that the hippopotamus was the wronged party here. It was how Clara often said things without really saying them. Like how it would be nice of Mimosa to pick up her own clothes, which meant she wanted Mimosa to pick up her clothes but didn't want to say it outright.

But the notion of consequences did get the young American thinking. If one animal shouldn't be punished for hurting a misbehaving child than the whole class shouldn't be punished for one animal's behavior. Or one professor shouldn't be blamed for one misbehaving child and one misbehaving animal? The circle of blame was too complicated for the child to comprehend, she had never really been raised to place blame on things and the idea was as confusing as it was novel.

Raising her hand once more, Mimosa waited to be addressed before she spoke again.

"Uh... Victoria..." Was she supposed to call her friend "professor", Victoria hadn't said so. "What happens when one or the other party is decided to be the wrong one? Like, suppose if everyone said that hippo- thing was wrong, would all of his kind be locked up or given a more dangerous status? And if it was decided that the student was wrong, would the professor continue to bring in dangerous creatures in class and just blame students if something went wrong? Like, what would be the point of finding out who was right and who was wrong?"

Now that she'd asked it, the child wondered why it hadn't been brought up until now. There had to be a point to this discussion, that was why Victoria was having it.

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As Sasha spoke up in the class, Victoria's attention turned to the witch, her face lighting up as Sasha brought forth yet another person who could be blamed, or rather, in this moment, an establishment. "Right you are, Sasha!" Victoria praised the witch, nodding a couple of times at the question. "Your questions are all very good ones too, why was the school not regulating the professor?" Victoria echoed to the class.

"The professor would have had his lesson plans approved, all of them are. So, the school is at fault for letting you experience a truly majestic creature first hand, when it's on your syllabus?" The questions were rhetorical, asked to make the class think, because Victoria knew that there was no way of knowing who was truly to blame. It was a cacophony of blame, and in the world of the law, this was the beauty of her job, finding someone who could not shrug away from the blame in the end. Find the person who had committed the wrong.

At that moment, Mimosa spoke up, and Victoria took in her question with a small nod. Here we go, Victoria thought to herself as she waited for Mimosa to finish what she was saying.

"This is, usually, the job of the judge, to decide what happens to the person in the wrong." Victoria explained, looking around all the faces in the room. "What sentence to serve, what punishment to hand out, how much money needs to be paid out. All of this is the responsibility of the judge. In the case we're looking at, it was judged that the Hippogriff was in the wrong throughout all of story. The Hippogriff was..." Victoria hesitated, looking at the younger students, before she spoke. "The Hippogriff was sentenced to death.

"In my opinion, however, this was done incorrectly. The beast was protecting himself, and I have a... suspicion, but not a proven one, that the Ministry official involved was bribed to find the beast guilty, and have it executed." Once more, Victoria paused, knowing that this needed to sink in, because actions had consequences. "However, the beast -- fortunately, in my opinion -- was not found in it's pen when the executioner arrived, and therefore managed to get away from the school, and lived.

"The point of all of this," Victoria continued on, hoping everyone was still kept in tune with the subject. "Is to highlight that in this world, we will always need people to help decipher what is right, and what is wrong. Who is breaking rules, laws, and hurting others, and how we should deal with these people. The world is always going to need Lawyers, it's always going to need law makers, and it's always going to need those to help make the decisions on cases. I wish to propose to each of you to consider the career if you enjoy looking in to whether an action is right, or wrong, or even if you'd like to aid us lawyers in a job alongside us.

"Lawyers, law, and right and wrong has never, and will never be boring. There will always be something new, and I know that all of you -- as we've just proved -- have the capability of asking questions, and making your own mind up on whether things are right, or whether they are wrong." Victoria summarised, looking around with great hope in her eyes.

"Does anyone have any questions on anything I've said today?" Victoria asked, glancing up at the clock which was denoting that they had just short of fifteen minutes left of the lesson for any questions people might have.

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Mimosa was quickly realizing she liked discussion based classes a lot more than the ones where you had to read and write stuff down. And even though some of the older students were taking notes when Victoria spoke, she wasn't enforcing it. In fact, the lawyer was encouraging people to speak up instead of write things down which was A-Okay with the young Slytherin. She also liked how the older witch was genuinely happy when other people spoke up instead of being critical. She didn't say anything about house points so there was no pressure, people were just talking and Mimosa really liked that part about school.

And what the lawyer was saying was more fascinating still. She had gone to the trouble of discussing what was right and what was wrong, only to lead the class into a conclusion where it didn't really matter. Like with the case of the beast that had hurt the misbehaving student. If it was the students fault, it didn't matter because someone had bribed the Ministry official to rule in the students favor. If the beast was at fault, it didn't matter again because it had escaped.

Raising her hand slowly a final time, the little brunette posed her question, a wrinkle of confusion between her eyes as she mulled it over. "So.... does it matter if one party is right or wrong when in the end - despite the verdict - you get your way by either having lots of money or creativity to escape?" The girl nodded silently to herself, that question had come out better than expected. She had even used important sounding words.

"My grandmere says rules don't apply to some people. Is this one of thsoe situations?"

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Victoria had looked around for questions, before her eyes landed upon Mimosa who's hand had slowly gone up. With a nod in her direction to allow the witch to speak, Victoria readied herself for the next question, but was not completely prepared for what was said. Where Victoria had given a smile to everyone who'd spoken before now, this is where Victoria felt herself hit the wall with the very real problem of the world. Corruption.

"You raise a very good, and very humbling point, Mimosa." Victoria replied to the young witch, taking a moment to think about her answer. After all, this was going to be one of the last thoughts of the session.

"In this world, there are a number of people who believe themselves to be above the law. A number of people who work in the law believe that it is their divine right to make the law as they go, and therefore, are susceptible to bribery, corruption, or else wise turn a blind eye." Victoria explained to the young witch. "But, that does not mean that right and wrong do not matter. Right and wrong are very, very important, and I hope -- and believe me, this is a very big, and somewhat unrealistic hope -- that one day we will live in a world where money and power can't make you untouchable."

Victoria took a moment, because this was not a class to impress her own opinion on others. "As to what your Grandmere says... I think it would be impertinent of me to say that she is wrong on this matter. So, I will simply give you my own opinion. I think, with everything in life, you should treat everyone, and everything, as you would like to be treated. Act in a manner that is responsible to the wider community, that thinks of others -- whether that's their feelings, being respectful of their property, or just looking out for one another. And then, we would have no need to discuss such situations."

Victoria did not care if other people did not believe the same as her, everyone had their own freedom of speech and thought. But, if the children before her considered her words for even a moment when making a decision, she knew she had made a good impression.

"If that's all..?" Victoria prompted, looking around the classroom for any last questions.

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When no further questions were brought forth, Victoria gave a warm smile to the class at large. "Well, everyone, thank you very much for attending my class. I hope that you have found the class thought provoking, if not useful to future career prospects you might have been thinking of.

"Whilst I might only be a temp at the school, you're always welcome to write to me if you have any questions on the subject, or any law subjects you come across, if you would like to." Victoria explained. "Good luck for the rest of the year, and once again, thank you so much for having me here."

With that, Victoria waved her students out of the class, feeling mightily happy with her work that day. Teaching, Victoria reflected, would definitely be a fun job to go in to, should the law career she had planned become something she no longer wished to pursue.

Class now closed!

House Points:
Delia Foster = 10 points for attendance + 5 points for participation = 15 points.
Mercy Williams = 10 points for attendance
Reienne-Louise Thompson = 10 points for attendance + 5 for participation = 15 points.
Sasha Denver = 10 points for attendance + 5 points for participation = 15 points.
Mimosa Harrington = 10 points for attendance + 15 points for participation = 25 points.

TOTAL:
Gryffindor: 25
Hufflepuff: 30
Ravenclaw: 0
Slytherin: 25

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