Not Handsome Enough to Tempt Me: Day Two, and 4,365 Words Down

Today was a much easier writing day after having worked so hard yesterday to figure out what the heck I am going to be writing about. Today's writing was exclusively Pride and Prejuwitch, which is a fun escape from the real world.

Today I want to post two excerpts. This first one is an explanation of the wizarding caste system in Pride and Prejuwitch, which was important to me to include so that it captures the class system of the original.

The modern wizarding world was divided into three main tribes, and members of these tribes were believed to be direct descendants from the original tribes in the time of the Sorcerer’s Temple. There were the Merlins, who are believed to have descended patrilineally from Merlin himself. The Spellberg School of Magic had a rule that the headmaster—and it was always a master, not a mistress—had to be a descendant of the Merlins, and this rule had not been broken for hundreds of years since the founding of the School. These are thought to be most powerful wizards, and there are only a few thousand scattered around Canada. Then there are the Mystics, descended from the priestly class of sorcerers at the time of the Sorcerer’s Temple. Those who are in this class of wizard are the teachers and keepers of wizarding law, and make up the majority of Wizarding Parliament to this day.

Any witch or wizard who can show that they are a Merlin or a Mysticis thought to be more powerful, and therefore more suited to positions of authority in the wizarding world. The majority of the faculty at the Spellberg School of Magic claim to be descendants of these two tribes, despite the fact that they collectively make up a relatively small proportion of the wizarding population. They also possess the majority of wizarding wealth.

Then, of course, is everyone else. This “third tribe,” which was often referred to as the Wizard tribe, do not descend from anyone special in particular. This was the group in which Eliza found herself. The majority of non-white wizards are also in this class, which has everything to do with the fact that powerful wizards have always found a way to declare themselves Merlins and Mystics, until they thought that there were enough of them and then the door was closed to all those who did not have the proper documentation.

The ways in which wizard classes are passed down is a complicated system that is obsessed over by those in the Merlin and Mystic classes. When wizards marry, the wife inherits the status of her husband. In the case of same-sex marriage, the lower-status wizard inherits the higher-status wizard’s social class. Marriage is the only way to change status, although mixing statuses has classically been frowned upon due to the belief that it dilutes the power of those classes—not to mention the wealth that is associated with being a Merlin or a Mystic. Anyone who spontaneously develops magic is automatically slotted into the Wizard class.

Unlike many of her colleagues, Eliza was a Wizard. Magic had been in her family for generations, and as such they had a degree of wealth that allowed her to have a comfortable upbringing. She had never noticed any difference between herself and her more distinguished colleagues, but the point of caste systems like these was that it creates unnecessary divisions between people that matter a lot to those who hold power and a lot less to those that are kept out of it. Eliza was part of a growing movement to abolish this discriminatory wizarding caste system.

Second, I wanted everyone to get a sense of the interactions between Eliza, her friend Jeanette Talismann, and the visiting professors from Wizarding Parliament, Charles Charmfinkle and William Wandstein. Here is their introduction:

“Ah,” said Headmaster Merlinfield, “Here they are now.” As he gestured towards the door, Eliza turned to see two men (of course they were men!) walking briskly into the room. They were black velvet robes that marked them as members of Wizarding Parliament. The first, who Merlinfield introduced as Charles Charmfinkle, had bright red hair and an even brighter smile. He smiled warmly at the collection of professors in the room, stopping for the briefest moment on Jeanette’s face before sitting down beside Headmaster Merlinfield.

“Thank you for giving me this excellent opportunity to shape the minds of tomorrow!” he said eagerly. “I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you over the course of this semester.”

Eliza suspected that Charles had one person in particular who he was hoping to get to know, and she smiled. That was often the way, of course, as Jeanette was striking in appearance and demeanor.

The second, who was announced to be William Wandstein, drew even more excitement from the room. He was taller than even the Headmaster, with dark brown hair that was combed carefully. His strong jaw was clenched, and his gaze dropped.

“He’s a Merlin,” she heard the coach of the broom flying team say excitedly. Eliza couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Her colleagues were so uncool.

Eliza, of course, knew exactly who they were. The world of Wizarding Parliament was a small one, and she followed their activities closely. Wandstein came from a very old wizarding family that had held powerful positions since the founding of the Wizarding Parliament. Particilarly of note is that Wandstein is the nephew of Sorceress Catherine de Bergstein, one of three judges on the sorcery court who was one of the staunchest defenders of the wizarding caste system. A charming lady, by all accounts.

As amiable as Charles Charmfinkle had made himself out to be, William Wandstein equalled it in his commitment to looking taciturn and disapproving. He exuded an air that said that everything around him was beneath him, not worth his notice, and that it was inappropriate to even request his presence here. He muttered something to the room and sat down without looking at them any further.

Everyone stood up at once to greet their new colleagues. Charmfinkle and Wandstein quickly realized that they were about to be mobbed by a room full of enthusiastic academics, and stood up to start receiving the well-wishers.

Eliza and Jeanette made a beeline to the back of the line to give themselves a chance to discuss the new guests.
...
When they reached the front of the line, Eliza observed that Charmfinkle was nervously shifting his weight between his feet. It was disarmingly adorable.

“I am so excited to meet you, Right Honourable Charmfinkle,” Jeanette said cheerily as she shook his hand. “I’m Jeanette Talismann, a professor of potions and incantations.”

“Eliza Witchman, professor of incantations. Wonderful to meet you.”

“Please, call me Charles,” he said back to her, smiling with his entire face. Eliza shook his hand as well, finding herself drawn into his charisma even though she was ambivalent at best about the current government.

“Thank you so much for joining us, Right Honourable Wandstein,” Eliza said, offering her hand.

William Wandstein took it begrudgingly, his eyes always on something, anything, else.

“Indeed,” he responded, pointedly not making a similar remark about how he would prefer to be called William instead.

“What an ass,” Eliza thought to herself, still tightly gripping his hand.

“Please excuse my friend,” Charles said with a laugh, “You must call him William. We are all colleagues now and titles just will not do!”

Charles and Jeanette smiled, and Eliza offered Charles a weak one in return. William, true to form, did not smile.

“Will we see you at the banquet this evening?” Charles inquired to Jeanette in particular.

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Eliza responded, wishing that one person in particular might come down with a case of foot and claw disease and be unable to join them.

“Excellent!” Charles beamed. “We will see you there!”

As Eliza and Jeanette turned to go back to their offices, after assuring them again that they would indeed see them there, Eliza dropped a spare bit of parchment on the ground and bent down to retrieve it.

“I have never met so many wonderful people in my life!” Charles said enthusiastically. “And I think I have just met the most beautiful witch in the world,” she heard Charles whisper to William. Eliza couldn’t see his face, but she assumed that his eyes had been replaced with little hearts. “I hope that I can get to know Professor Talismann this semester.”

“She was the only tolerable one of the bunch,” William said coldly. “I can’t believe we are going to be here for four months. This might be the worst thing you have ever talked me into.”

“William!” she heard Charles say exasperatedly. “We have been here for half an hour and you are already making plans to pack up your broomstick and go home! Some things truly never change.

“Indeed,” William whispered.

“But her friend, Professor Witchman, was very pretty, and dare I say, very agreeable!”

“Her?” William shot back coldly. “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me,” Eliza almost threw up in her mouth. “I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other professions.”

“I never understand what you are talking about,” Charles said as they left the room, carrying on their conversation.

Eliza stood up from her hiding place and stared at the door they had just exited from. She had never been more insulted in her life. There remained no cordial feelings towards him, which were scarce to begin with. On the bright side, she knew that she could tell the story with great spirit to her friends in the office. She had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous.

There is something so fun about making William Wandstein the biggest jerk possible by directly quoting from P&P.