Lesson 1 - Introduction to Magizoology

Before we even start to discover dark and more dangerous corners of Magizoology, we have to ask ourselves, what IS magizoology. If we look into the dictionary, it would be written that magizoology is the study of magical creatures.  Wizards and witches in this field are referred to as Magizoologists. One of the most famous is Newt Scamander, who also wrote the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Some other Magizoologists were Luna Lovegood and Rolf Scamander.

What is a beast?

That is perhaps one of the most hazardous questions ever spoken in the wizarding world. It was first asked by a wizard Hiperius Modlan, who was also one of the first Magizoologists ever. However, he had no idea that his inquiry would start an arguement that would last a couple of centuries.

There are different creatures in our world. For example, werewolves, who spend only one night a month as a beast, and have savage behaviour during it. Centaurs are part human, but do not live by law of men. Trolls look like a human, but have no to little intelligence and aren't capable of speech. So, we have to ask ourselves, which creatures are 'beings' and which 'beasts'.

Because all the arguments are far too long to write out, we will look at the brief timeline of all different definitions of what is a beast.

1332 – Being is any member of the magical community that walks on two legs, all the rest are beasts.

1365 –Beings are those who can speak the human tongue, others are beasts.

1365-1811 – Countless of other dim-witted definitions, not worthy of learning about them.

1811 – Being is any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws. This is a description that the magical world still uses today.

Muggle Awareness of Magical Creatures

Astonishing though it may seem to many wizards, Muggles have not always been ignorant of the magical and monstrous creatures that we have worked so long and hard to hide. A glance through Muggle art and literature of the Middle Ages reveals that many of the creatures they now believe to be imaginary, were then known to be real. The dragon, the griffin, the unicorn, the phoenix, the centaur; these and more are represented in Muggle works of that period, though usually with almost comical inexactitude.

There were any encounters Muggles had with magical creatures in the past, though most of the time, they didn't know what they were up against. Sometimes, imperfect understanding is way more dangerous than ignorance. The Muggles' fear of unknown, and therefore magic, led to some of the most gruesome actions Muggles ever did, such as prosecution of magic folk a couple of centuries ago. It is hard to believe that all this horror was started by Muggles who took notice of Hippogriffs or Hippocampuses.

The threat of the Muggles knowing about the magical world because of the creatures was thoroughly discussed at The International Confederation of Wizards at the summit meeting of 1692. There, many things were discussed, like how many speciese should be concealed from Muggles, what species should those be, where and how to hide them and many more. After days of discussion and arguements, it was decided that twenty-seven species should be hidden, as to give illusion to Muggles that those creatures only existed in their imagination.

So, how did wizards conceal magical creatures from Muggles? Lucikly, most of the creatures are naturally shy, like unicorns, so they already avoided more populated areas, or human contact in general. Some other creatures inhabit places out of the reach of Muggles, so no worries there as well. But what about those creatures that could be easily seen by the non-magical folk? That was answered with a creation of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Their prime job was to hide those that were living in plain sight.

First and probably most important, is the creation of safe habitats. Muggle-repelling charms prevent any unwanted visitors to come nearby and possibly get killed. One charm, also useful for hiding creatures is the one that make san area unplottable. A great example is the Isle of Drear, home to one of the most dangerous magical creatures, the Quintaped. Some creatures are also domesticated and made pets, such as Hippogriffs, Jarveys,  Kneazles or Crups. To those that apply, an owner must get a license to show the Ministry that the creatures is subdued in Muggle populated areas and must also perform either Disillusionment or Silencing spell as often as it is required from them.

If the worst happens and a Muggle spots a magical creature he should not have, Ministry of Magic's obliviators are called on the scene to erase the memory of such an event occuring. This can also be done by the wizard himself, as trained obliviators are only called on the really severe cases.

There is also Office for Misinformation, which is called up on the worst encounters Muggles had with magical creatures. Some collisons are simply too obvious to ignore and this Office's task is to come up with an excuse as to what happened. They secretly liaison with the Muggle Prime Minister and together, they come up with something non-magical that is plausible enough to be used as an explanation.

Classification of the Creatures

XXXXX - Known wizard killer/ impossible to train or domesticate

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

XXX  - Competent wizard should cope

XX - Harmless/ may be domesticated

X - Boring

credits: 

https://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Magizoology