glumshoe:

I like to imagine that there are a lot of classes not mentioned in the books, or that wizard college is a lot more comprehensive and in-depth. So I dunno. 

In the books, History of Magic is supposed to be really boring, but that’s probably mostly because the professor sucks (Why was he still employed? Was Professor Binns even getting paid? What’s a ghost going to do with money he can’t even pick up?). 

I thought about this earlier this year, and I think, were I a wizard, I’d want to study non-human intelligent species, like Acromantula. Possibly a kind of cultural studies and diplomacy course. Everything in the Department of Mysteries is really interesting, but it doesn’t seem like any Hogwarts coursework applies to what’s actually studied there. 

So like, a general ‘Study of Magical Creatures’, instead of ‘Care of Magical Creatures’? I think the regular class is supposed to deal with theory and study too, not just the practical stuff… The books didn’t really outline the scope of each subject, though. (Its probably in Pottermore)

I would imagine stuff in the Dept of Mysteries would be a combination of Transfiguration, Charms, DADA, Divination…. Or… basically every subject taught, except Muggle Studies, Flying, and History of Magic, probably. lol.

Obviously Divination, because of all the prophecies down there, and iirc thats where they kept the time turners too, so that would probably fall under Charms… That whole arch thing that Sirius fell through probably isnt something covered in regular courses, when I read it, I imagined it was like they found a natural phenomenon and built an arch to contain it (Charms again probably)… or they were exploring like, the nature of magic or something and created it with experimentation? (I think any general magic that’s not Transfig or Attack/Defense can be swept under Charms lol)

Department of Mysteries seems like the ‘science’ department of the magical world, to me. Like, Magical Science=Mysteries? I guess? idk but it seeemed like there was a lot of weird/experimental stuff down there, so I always imagined they were like, the wizards who wanted to discover more about magic, how/why it worked, find and push the limits, etc… like scientists. lol