You're My Destiny↣ Harmione

Chapter Twenty-Two

Hermione had discovered that the charms and potions used to produce magical photographs merely needed tweaking to develop the film. The colour wasn't quite right, there seemed to be a purplish hue to everything, but it was certainly fit for the purpose they intended.

Dan projected an old black and white film of London onto the screen they had also brought to Hogwarts. While there were some motorised vehicles on the roads, the majority of the traffic was still horse drawn. While Emma and Petunia provided live commentary, the next scene was still London but now in the fifties. To those of magical descent, the changes were startling. When Dan began showing film that he'd recorded over the summer, he was receiving unbelieving looks that had nothing to do with the colour being slightly off. He had this covered though, as Neville and Parvati walked into the shot - proving the film's authenticity beyond doubt.

"In the same timescale where your exams haven't change, we have gone from thinking it was acceptable to send children up chimneys and down mines to work - to seeing men walk on the moon. I don't want anyone to think it's all been plain sailing though, two devastating global conflicts have also been fought. The first World War was supposed to be the conflict that ended all conflicts. With around thirty eight million people dead, it's easy to understand how that thinking came to be. Two decades later though, World War Two was upon us. This time sixty million people lost their lives."

It was easy to see the students struggling to comprehend numbers like that, the adults couldn't get their heads around them either. Emma then took over the narrative.

"These lessons are not about measuring one culture against the other but we really have to highlight some of our differences. To understand those differences, we have to look back at the roots of what caused them. Without question, those wars influenced Britain into becoming the country it is today. History teaches us war is a great innovator, it's the side with the best means of waging that war who usually wins."

Petunia then took the lesson back where they wanted it, using some large advertising posters to illustrate the points they were making. "Not all wars are fought on battlefields however, commercial pressure means companies can't rest on their laurels least their competitors overtake them - and put them out of business. That is how we get from this, to this." The first poster was of a vintage car, easily recognisable as a 'horseless carriage'. The next featured car was an old Ford Anglia, the difference between the two was startling. The VW Golf was clearly another step up but the bright red Ferrari Testarossa looked like a completely different animal - especially when compared to the first picture of the classic car. While at the planning stage of this lesson, a smiling Harry had suggested using a picture of a DeLorean - though his aunt didn't get the joke.

Unveiling her final pair of posters, Petunia placed the first magical poster beside that of the oldest car. "The Moontrimmer was the best broom around in nineteen-o-one, the same year this car was manufactured. As you would expect, it's slow by today's standards though still easily recognisable as a broom - and three to four times faster than the car of the same era. You will all recognise the poster for the new Nimbus two thousand and one, which is one of the best brooms around - and slower than the Ferrari."

Draco's sense of disbelief had just been pushed too far. How dare these muggles even suggest one of their stupid machines could be faster than the brooms his father had bought for the Slytherin quidditch team. "That can't be right. The new Nimbus can reach one hundred and fifty!"

It was Dan who answered him. "That's what our research told us too. What you don't know is that the Ferrari pictured there has a top speed of one hundred and eighty. You would need to take it onto a racetrack to get anywhere near that speed however, since it would be illegal to drive that fast on our roads."