After Defense Against the Dark Arts ended, Sullivan felt refreshed and energized—he'd just earned another skill point. He didn't rush to use it, though, because his own class was up next.
From his last experience adding points to magic power, he knew the body needed time to adjust to the upgrade. Sullivan wasn't sure how long the process would take for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and he didn't want to risk it messing up his teaching schedule.
The Muggle Studies classroom was on the second floor of the castle. Right outside the door, there was a pile of Muggle artifacts—like an old television, a washing machine, a bicycle, flashlights, and more. It all looked pretty retro.
Sullivan walked in, and about a dozen students were already waiting inside. Among them were some he recognized: the Weasley twins.
He picked up the class roster and started calling roll. It felt kinda cool being the one in charge. While going through the names, he spotted another familiar face—Cedric Diggory.
Sullivan paid extra attention to him. Even though Cedric was only in third year, he was already around five foot nine, tall and sturdy, with a head of golden hair and really good looks.
Standing at the podium, Sullivan didn't jump straight into the textbook. Instead, he introduced himself: "Hey everyone, I'm your new Muggle Studies professor. My name's Sullivan."
"Before we dive into stuff about Muggles, I want to ask you all a question: What do you think wizards and Muggles have in common?"
George was the first to shoot his hand up, grinning as he said, "Wizards and Muggles are both human!"
Sullivan nodded and motioned for him to sit. "That's right—it's obvious, but it's not exactly what I'm getting at."
Then Cedric raised his hand. "Wizards and Muggles share the same emotions—like love, friendship, fear, and all that."
Sullivan snapped his fingers. "Nice one! That's super important. One point to Hufflepuff!"
A few other kids chimed in with their own answers, but none hit what Sullivan was looking for. So he went on: "In my opinion, the biggest thing wizards and Muggles have in common is our thirst for knowledge. Wizards crave magical knowledge, while Muggles chase scientific knowledge."
"Now, let me ask—who here knows what scientific knowledge even is?"
A Ravenclaw girl named Tracy raised her hand. "Professor, I come from a Muggle family. I know a ton about tech stuff—like telephones, electric lights, cars, airplanes. They're just as amazing as magic."
Sullivan turned to the blackboard and started writing as he spoke. "Great answer—one point to Ravenclaw. Let's talk about the telephone first. This thing lets Muggles talk to each other even if they're thousands of miles apart. Anyone know what wizarding item does something similar?"
"Two-Way Mirrors, Professor!" Fred piped up with his hand raised. "Not only can you talk, but you can see the other person too!"
"Spot on! One point to Gryffindor. Now, does anyone know how much a Two-Way Mirror costs to make?"
Nobody spoke up this time—the kids genuinely had no idea. Sullivan smiled and said, "Let me fill you in. On the market, they're about 250 Galleons, and making one costs at least 180 Galleons. Plus, it takes around a month to craft."
The class let out a collective gasp. Sullivan continued, "But a Muggle telephone? One costs about 100 pounds—that's roughly 20 Galleons. And the price is only going to drop from here. So, what do you think—how does this tech stack up against Two-Way Mirrors?"
Cedric, being from a pure-blood family, couldn't hide his shock. "Whoa! If it's only 20 Galleons, pretty much every wizard family could afford one. Owls would be out of a job!"
Sullivan grinned, clearly pleased. "Exactly. A lot of you probably know about those paper airplanes the Ministry uses for messages, right? Who can tell me where they came from?"
George jumped in. "Professor Sullivan, I know this one. At first, the Ministry used owls too, but the place was always a mess—feathers and droppings everywhere."
"Then someone noticed Swiss wizard kids playing with flying origami cranes. They got the idea to bring it in, and later, since folding cranes was too complicated, it evolved into the paper airplanes we have now."
Sullivan nodded. "Excellent—two points to Gryffindor. For thousands of years, wizards relied on owls for communication. Switching to paper airplanes at the Ministry was progress, sure."
"But it wasn't a huge leap—the efficiency isn't that much better than owls."
"Now imagine if every Ministry employee had a telephone. Wouldn't their work get a whole lot faster?"
That got the kids thinking. Most of the students in Muggle Studies were from pure-blood families, and a bunch had parents working at the Ministry. They'd heard stories or even seen the chaos—they quickly realized Sullivan had a point.
(In reality, Sullivan had already magically modified telephones and licensed the tech to a company he co-owned with the Stewart family. They were starting to roll them out across the American wizarding congress.)
Once the class settled down again, Sullivan went on: "For thousands of years, our magical knowledge has kept advancing."
"Back in ancient times, there were no wands or spells—only naturally gifted wizards could cast magic. Then wands and incantations came along, giving regular people a shot at becoming wizards."
"We've kept simplifying the process, optimizing magic nodes, making spells shorter and more varied."
"But Muggles' scientific knowledge has advanced too—from plowing fields by hand, to using oxen, to tractors now. Their productivity has skyrocketed."
"In my view, Muggles have progressed way more than we have—especially since their Industrial Revolution kicked off the machine age."
"In the old days, wizards fought with swords and knives. That was no real threat to an adult wizard—even a whole army couldn't touch us; we'd just come and go as we pleased."
"But now? Muggles invented guns, cannons. Against those weapons, even experienced wizards could die if they're not careful."
"And from what I know, their most advanced weapons today could wipe out all of London in a single second—flatten every person and building."
"Against something like that, even someone as powerful as Headmaster Dumbledore might only have time to Apparate away."
The whole class erupted in shocked gasps—pure-blood or Muggle-born, it didn't matter. To them, wizards were untouchable compared to Muggles. What Sullivan was saying flipped their world upside down.
Cedric sat there stunned for a while before muttering, "Professor Sullivan... is all this actually true?"
Sullivan smiled, pulled out a popular book on human weaponry, and said, "Anyone interested can come up and copy it. Take it home and read. Next class, we'll talk more about Muggle weapons."