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The scratching of quills on parchment was all that could be heard in the classroom as the hourglass on the Muggle Studies teacher's desk indicated that more than half an hour had passed since the start of the theory exam. Kingsley Shacklebolt was one of the few students there, the Muggle Studies class was never very popular among Hogwarts students, and that year there were barely ten students taking their N.E.W.T.s. A number that seemed not to discourage the professor at all who, as if to compensate, was trying to make sure that for the few who did take it, it really meant something. And in Kingsley's case, he had succeeded.
As a good Ravenclaw, Kingsley always understood the importance of knowledge, all kinds of knowledge, and Muggle lore was no exception. In third year, Kingsley chose Muggle Studies as one of his electives, only because his best friend, Jenna Jones, had decided to take it.
At first he just took it as another subject, and was perhaps a little less enthusiastic about Muggle Studies than Arithmancy or Ancient Runes Study, but he also decided to take it with good grades. And that's what he did. Even after Jenna dropped out of the course after passing the O.W.L.s, claiming that an N.E.W.T.s in Muggle Studies wouldn't do her much good to be a medimaga, which was what the girl wanted to study.
It wouldn't do Kingsley much good either if they went for the subjects that the Ministry would consider important to become an auror, but he pursued it for two more years anyway. And Kingsley didn't regret it, despite all the stress that one more subject could add to any seventh year.
Muggle Studies was the last exam of them all, and even Kingsley, who was undoubtedly the calmest and most organized of his year, could almost cry with happiness at the thought of it. When it was over he would just enjoy one last week off at the castle with his friends before going home and waiting for the owl with the results of his N.E.W.T.s. Which Kingsley was more than sure he had passed mostly with Extraordinary and maybe an Acceptable in Herbology.
That day, since the professor had told them they could start the exam, Kingsley hadn't stopped writing other than to dip his quill in the inkwell or reread the odd line to make sure he hadn't skipped anything important.
The Muggle Studies final exam had only a few questions, which his classmates seemed to need no more than thirty or forty centimeters of parchment to answer. While Kingsley, without finishing it yet, was already going for the double.
Not only was he doing it to get an Extraordinary in his N.E.W.T.s in Muggle Studies, but because he simply couldn't avoid adding more and more things that he considered to be important. Unlike many students who found studying about Muggle customs boring or useless, Kingsley found it all interesting. Even most of his classmates who had opted for this class did so only because they considered it one of the easier ones. But Kingsley had understood from the first week of class that it was neither easy nor useless.
Muggle history and customs were so different from magical ones that it was easy to forget the similarities and see them as two completely different worlds, but they were not. And his Muggle Studies teacher was the one who made him see it, earning Kingsley's respect and some admiration from his first speech about Muggle life.
His words that day not only piqued his curiosity about the subject, they also stuck in his mind in such a way that over the years, in Kingsley's eyes, they were instrumental in solidifying his beliefs and deciding to take part in the war going on outside the castle grounds.
During most classes it was easy to forget Voldemort, and what his misguided and extremist ideas had caused in the magical world, to brush him aside as a distant threat. But studying Muggles reminded Kingsley, more than anything else, that it was worth risking one's life to defend them, as very few wizards were encouraged to do because of the danger involved.
The Muggle Studies professor always spoke passionately to them about seeing Muggles for what they are, people with different abilities, no more or less important than those of wizards, intelligent and resourceful human beings in their own way, and above all, people whose lives were just as important as those of wizards.
Kingsley being a pureblood wizard and having no direct Muggle relatives, or at least children of Muggles, knew almost nothing about them before taking the class. He had several classmates who were Muggle-born, of course, and he got along quite well with them, but he hardly ever heard them talk about Muggle things.That was mainly because during the first years, when they talked about something Muggle, no one understood them and they had to go around explaining even the most insignificant details. And if that wasn't enough to put them off, there were always pureblood purists to take care of it. In Kingsley's eyes, that kind of behavior displayed by many "purebloods" only showed how little a person's lineage, magical or otherwise, mattered. Kingsley was the only son of a wealthy pureblood family, and yet he had never called anyone a dirty blood or thought himself better than others for anything that wasn't a consequence of hard work, intelligence or talent. Kingsley always thought of himself as proud, but not stupid, if he boasted about anything, it was something he achieved on his own merits. And Kingsley, as he reviewed the last question on the exam, took pride in understanding Muggles as much as any wizard might be able to.