COMC-201 Lessons

Welcome to Our World

Welcome everyone to Care of Magical Creatures! I, Professor Matthew Aspen, will be your temporary professor for this course while the Ministry of Magic appoints a permanent one. While this is only the beginning of your exploration of this class, I hope you will all continue it through to your Seventh Year! In six short years, I will teach you everything I know about the creatures of our world, and all of that starts today. While teaching you about magical creatures, we will also discuss other aspects of our world that affect creatures, such as magical law and history.

I would like to start today with an introduction of myself, of the course, and then of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

I grew up in a family with two creature enthusiasts. Both my mother and father left their jobs at the Ministry to start a Crup farm, a creature we will discuss at length in future years. Being raised in this environment caused me to have a great love for the creatures in our world. I owned a Crup as a child, and when she passed away I was gifted a Fwooper by my parents. I still own my Fwooper, named Fuschia, and occasionally sell her feathers to quill shops. After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures catching illegal dragon breeders. While this work was satisfying, I am very pleased to be teaching at Hogwarts. 

Now that I have introduced myself, I would like to cover the important aspects of my class. There are a few expectations I have of you. While this class won't contain as many assignments as most, what I do give you will require thinking on your part. There is no required textbook for this course; however, supplementary books are available in the library if you so choose to look through them. In this class, you will not only learn about the creatures and how to take care of them, but how they are used in the wizarding world. We will discuss this subject, but others too, specifically potions and herbology. Magical creatures have given us many different ingredients and other items used in the magical world, and I plan to cover them all in due time.

During your first year of Care of Magical Creatures, your assignments will be fairly rudimentary. Be prepared for an increase in assignment level and difficulty with each coming year. For each lesson this year there will be a ten question quiz on the material. This is meant to help check your comprehension of the material taught during class. There is only one mandatory short essay this year at the end of this very lesson. However, there will be three other optional short essays to encourage you to think about the potential uses these creatures have for the wizarding world. While these essays are not required to complete the course, I highly encourage you to complete these assignments. These short essays will require you to respond to the prompt in 300 words or less. This will help you learn to express your thoughts concisely, which is a great skill to have. Additionally, you will have both a midterm and a final in this course. Your midterm will be a simple test taken in Lesson Five and will cover the material we discuss from Lessons One through Five. This will also be the case in the following years. Your final will be a short answer test in Lesson Nine. To give you advance notice, you will have to select one creature to discuss for the entirety of your final, so make sure to keep that in mind during the lessons this year. There will also be an extra credit multimedia project attached to your final. This will allow those of you with creative juices to stretch your wings. Finally, there will be a surprise assignment, called a “flash assignment,” at some point during the year. This assignment could be anything from an essay to a test, so be watching out for it.

I understand not every student is a native speaker of the English Language. If you feel you will have trouble writing the short answers or essays, please write NES or LD on top of them. If you have any concerns in general, please owl me, as that will be the first form of communication I will be checking. For current course information, as well as updates on what lessons have been posted and when, please follow me or check the course announcements. 

When PA positions are available in the course, an application will be made open to students through the staff feed. The requirements will change slightly each time, so make sure to read the application carefully. If you would like to see who the current PAs are for Care of Magical Creatures, please check the course page for a handy list.

The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures

Now that the business end of things is out of the way, I would like to continue on to our first lesson. Today's lesson will be on the Ministry of Magic’s Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and Newt Scamander. Before we begin discussing any creatures, it is important you understand the department that recognizes and protects them.

The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures is the Ministry of Magic department that oversees everything involving magical creatures. The department enforces creature law, gives licenses to appropriate applicants, handles complaints about creature abuse or misuse, and maintains two different forms of creature classification. The first form of classification is the three divisions. These three divisions are beast, being, and spirit. Every creature that is recognized by the department is placed into one of these groups.

A beast is a magical creature that does not have the intelligence to cooperate and understand magical law, nor can they help shape these laws in any way. This means they will not participate in the law-making process. This definition was given by Minister Grogan Stump in 1811.

A being is any creature that has enough intelligence to understand and cooperate with magical law, and can potentially help shape it. Typically, creatures capable of human speech are classified as a being. However, because these creatures are capable of human speech and understanding magical law, they are also capable of arguing against their given classification. Merpeople and centaurs should be classified as beings; however, they refuse to be grouped with creatures like vampires, so they are beasts. The Being Division is the most confusing of the three simply because not every creature that should be placed in this group is. When in doubt, refer to the most up-to-date listing of creature classifications published by the Ministry of Magic.

The last type, spirit, are beings that have passed on, meaning they are ghosts. Because they can no longer contribute to magical law, they are then placed into the spirit category. While spirits can still speak and communicate with the wizarding world, they are not directly affected by the laws in place, so they are not permitted to contribute to the development of said laws. They are allowed to sit in on any hearings and depending on the nature of the hearing provide insight, but that is the extent of involvement they are allowed to have.

The Ministry of Magic has also created a Creature Classification Scale, to help enthusiasts realize the dangers of certain creatures. This scale is only used for creatures categorized as beasts, due to their varying nature. The classification is as follows:

X - Boring

XX - Harmless, may be domesticated

XXX - Competent wizard should cope

XXXX - Dangerous, requires specialist knowledge, skilled wizard may handle

XXXXX - Known wizard killer, impossible to train or domesticate

This classification is essential to how one goes about owning the creature and caring for the creature. In some cases, it helps prompt you on how to handle the creature in a crisis situation. This system also helps determine which creatures require licenses, what kind of substances they produce, and the urgency of any matters regarding the creature at hand. I would certainly handle a dragon-related issue sooner than I would handle one with a Flobberworm, two creatures you will learn about in your time at Hogwarts!

As we discussed previously, the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures is home to three different divisions into which creatures are placed. Under each of these divisions are various offices and committees. I have listed these on the board for you, so please take a moment to write them down.

Under the Beast Division, there is:

1. The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures
2. The Dragon Research and Restraint Bureau
3. The Ghoul Task Force
4. The Werewolf Capture Unit
5. The Werewolf Registry and Register

Under the Being Division, there is:

1. The Office for House-Elf Relocation
2. Werewolf Support Services

The Spirit Division is a single office.

Also under the department, under no specific group, are:

1. The Goblin Liaison Board
2. The Centaur Liaison Board
3. The Pest Advisory Board
4. The Office of Misinformation

The Most Significant Magizoologist in History

Now, I would like to take a moment to discuss an individual that has given us much of the creature knowledge our world has today. We owe Newt Scamander, born Newton Artemis Fido Scamander, a great deal for his contributions to the study of magizoology -- or the study of magical creatures -- as well as the discovery of creatures like thunderbirds and his ability to bring creatures back from the brink of extinction. In 1926, he was credited with introducing the Magical Congress of the United State of America to thunderbirds and various British magical creatures, as well as assisting in a city-wide memory wipe to protect us from the Muggle world. Some of his legal contributions include the creation of the Werewolf Register in 1947 and the Ban on Experimental Breeding in 1965. This ban prevents the creation and breeding of new creatures in Britain, which in turn prevents these creatures from creating a spectacle for Muggles to see. His famous book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, now in its 53rd edition, is a great resource for this class and any creature enthusiast.  Finally, in 1979, he was awarded the Order of Merlin, Second Class, in recognition for his significant and important contributions to magizoology.

Scamander’s work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has been very significant and unmatched by anyone in the field until Gilderoy Lockhart published his set of books detailing creature encounters. However, it has since been found that Lockhart stole his experiences from other wizards. Due to his mastery in Memory Charms, Lockhart was able to wipe the memories of individuals that had truly accomplished the feats he took credit for. His book sales have since declined, and his information and knowledge is not seen as significant in the field. However, his smile still gets him far in life I’ve heard.

Closing

I think we should close your first lesson here! As I discussed earlier today, you will have a ten question quiz and short essay to complete. Make sure to take your time and read through all questions carefully. Next lesson we will begin to discuss what I know you are all excited about: the creatures. I hope you all have a great week, and I will see you next time!

Lesson content written by Professor Elizabeth Anne 

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