Post by ELIZA MARIE CUNNINGHAM on Aug 9, 2020 13:21:00 GMT -5
JULY 12, 2016
7 KNUTS
NEW HEADMISTRESS OF HOGWARTS
There aren't many in Wizarding Britain who don't know of Filius Flitwick. Those of us older folks had him as a professor at one point, and the younger ones as Headmaster. The former Charms Master of Hogwarts taught there for 28 years before becoming Headmaster, which he did for another 14 years. Upon hearing that he was retiring from Hogwarts this September, many of us were saddened by this, but also wish him the best. We managed to catch him in his office before he was quite packed up to get a hint at what was to happen for him in the future.
"I want to travel - I know that, for sure. I've spent most of my life in this castle and though I'll miss it and the students and faculty greatly, I can't wait to see what the future will bring! Honduras is my first stop, but I'm excited to see where else I'll go and what else I'll do."
We here at the Daily Prophet are excited for Filius as well. A long career in education surely has proved he deserves some time off.
As much as Flitwick is excited for his future retirement days, there is much excitement around the newly appointed Heamistress of Hogwarts: Eliza Cunningham. Being the most senior professor at Hogwarts with 11 years of teaching there and the current Deputy Headmistress for the past 4 years, she is clearly the most qualified. Though there are some criticisms she is rather young. Some wished Hogwarts to look outside of the country to get some older. However, those weren't the only criticisms.
Many with more traditional thinking are in an uproar over her appointment. This isn't because of her gender, age or experience, however. This is the fact that she is the first Muggleborn Headmistress (or Headmaster, for that matter) of Hogwarts.
In the last century, there was a Headmaster who got a lot of criticism just for having pro-muggle ideals. There was no way Cunningham would ever have been appointed during that era. But we are in a different and more accepting time. Though not everyone has quite accepted her as the new Headmistress. There are petitions to revoke this, even though the former Headmaster recommended her after mentoring her for years, and the Hogwarts Governors voted in favour of her appointment.
Under contract already, it's not quite clear if any petition can gain traction anyway unless the Ministry for Magic passed a law making it illegal to be Muggleborn and a Headmistress of Hogwarts. But under the leadership of Minister Dyer, that isn't likely to happen.
"People will always fight back when there's progress," stated Dyer. "It's a pity that it's 2016 and she's only the first Muggleborn Headmistress of our wonderful school. But her ancestry has nothing to do with her skill or ability to run a wizarding school, one that she has been employed at for over ten years already, if I'm not mistaken."
Indeed, Cunningham's history has proven she is quite capable. Other than educating thousands of students in the art of Charms, she has a lot of other qualifications before and also during her tenure at Hogwarts.
Eliza Cunningham started as a humble student at Hogwarts, but in the 1997-1998 year became "illegal" as she was a Muggleborn. She fought against the "Death Eater" regime that year, including at the famous battle at Hogwarts in May 1998. At least two people credit her for saving their lives, though there may be more.
She continued to fight against those with blood purist ideals, often found clashing with those known as "Mortenero". She was at the battle at Hogwarts in June 2003 when eight people infiltrated the school and attacked countless students and faculty, ending in the kidnapping of Hermione Granger, the current Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures in the Ministry of Magic. At the time, Granger had been the Alchemy professor at Hogwarts. [cont'd on pg. 2] >>
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JULY 12, 2016
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<< [cont'd from pg. 1] All the while, Cunningham dabbled in many things before finding her true calling of teaching. She was a professional Quidditch player on the Appleby Arrows as Chaser for 3 years as well as employed at the Ministry of Magic. Upon further investigation, the Ministry revealed that her employment was in the Department of Mysteries but despite having not worked there for over a decade, they refused to comment on the nature or even title of her job. One can assume she could have been an Unspeakable, however. Once employed at Hogwarts, Cunningham worked to protect the school on various occasions as well. However, she was victim of a breach in 2009 when she was captured by Harry Potter. She was rescued, however, when Giovanna Nero, under contract by the Ministry of Magic, came to retrieve the fugitive, Potter.
However, most notably out of any of her achievements, Eliza Cunningham worked with Hermione Granger and another experienced individual from the Ministry of Magic, Draco Malfoy, to create a cure for the Wizarding Plague. With a 90% mortality rate, they saved hundreds of thousands of wizards all throughout the world. There were only about 70 casualties in Britain, which was a very small number compared to those who were saved.
There was much controversy surrounding the whole thing, with criticism that the Ministry should have been more transparent about the thread of the wizarding plague against them and the purebloods. However, there is no doubt we are thankful to the three talented wizards who saved us all.
Since then, Eliza has continued to teach and lead at Hogwarts and even ran the school by herself (while still teaching all her classes) in the 2014-2015 term when Flitwick took the sixth and seventh years to the Egyptian magical school for the Dodecawizard Tournament. There were no complaints then.
A truly underrated player in most of the main events in the last couple of decades, she surely is on our radar now and hopefully your's as well. And for more than just being the first Muggleborn Headmistress of Hogwarts.
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