"That sounds like loads of work. I wonder if ancient wizards helped. There weren't witch hunts until later than Stonehenge I'm pretty sure, so maybe there was no secrecy back then."

"Oh, yes, the Statute of Secrecy wasn't until 1689, that's way later. ... Hm, now I'm wondering what other mysterious ancient things that Muggle historians can't figure out how they did it might have been wizards helping. We should make a list."

"Wizards were keeping to themselves a good bit before the Statute though. Helping their neighbors maybe, but not levitating enormous rocks around in front of everybody. If it'd been a good idea to do that sort of thing they wouldn't've needed the statute."

"Oh, sure, but a lot of the mysterious stuff is from way earlier too. Like the pyramids and things."

"Is it weird that I kind of hope Stonehenge and the pyramids and stuff were done without magic? Because that would mean they did something really clever, not because I don't think it would be good if wizards had been helping muggles with stuff."

"Someone definitely had the idea of building a calendar out of a pile of giant rocks no matter how they ended up doing it. Dunno if that's clever exactly but it's something."

"I think it's very clever! Not all inventions are little fiddly things after all. And I agree, I think I'd be very disappointed if I found out all the cool stuff I'd ever heard of was secretly magic the whole time."

From Ron's perspective this is a bit like being disappointed that all the cool stuff was made of physics the whole time, but he doesn't have the conceptual vocabulary to articulate this, so he just shrugs. "History would be a lot better if it was this sort of thing and not just battles and dates. Or if it was battles and they actually talked about how the battles went, you know, what each side did and why the side that won won."

"Maybe the library will have the fun kind of history."

"One of these days I'm going to say something that you don't think is a reason to go to the library."

" . . . Sorry."

"Maaaybe after we've read the whole thing any other things will be as interesting but I think it might get new books faster than we can read."

Oh hey look it's the great hall let's get some seats and find out what's for food today.

Lunch at Hogwarts, under the Great Hall's calm blue-grey noon ceilingsky, has the approximate nature of a picnic. On the same platters that yesterday's feast piled with roasts and vegetables and potatoes, there are now sliced fruits, boiled eggs, sweet and savory hand pies, and an enormous array of sandwiches.

This is likely, at least in part, meant to accommodate the fact that some of the upperclassmen clearly treat lunch as a work period: several of the particularly dedicated ones (Percy, for example) already have notes and quills out on the table with their plates. 

Excellent, he can swap and cross-compare history notes with Hermione while eating. He apologizes in advance for his terrible penmanship.

"Well, you'll just have to practice I suppose!" So will she, of course, but it is just a given that Hermione will be practicing until perfect.

As far as they can detect over the course of the lunch period, Binns' lecture probably had somewhere between thirty and sixty percent overlap with the first couple pages of the textbook. They're clearly both attempts to cover the same period, but there's definitely at least a couple of names and dates in the legible parts of Hermione's notes that aren't mentioned, perhaps omitted to make space for literally any narrative or context.

Bruce gets some of that practice by making a cleaner copy of the notes with everything on it. It turns out writing is much easier when you're not fighting to concentrate or trying to keep up with a speaker; Hermione can probably read most of the result.

Ron spends most of lunch talking to Seamus about Transfiguration. It comes up that Ron's mother knows how to transfigure things into a few different tasty and filling food items; Bruce briefly pauses in his note-organizing to be impressed.

Scribble scribble absentminded nom scribble scribble "hm? oh, cool," scribble scribble.

Bruce has produced everything he intended to produce and consumed everything he intended to consume by the time the bell rings for (in their case) Charms. Charms is another really exciting one.

Charms, it transpires, is taught by a fellow no taller than any of the first-years, pointy hat inclusive, but who is nevertheless immediately detectable as the professor because (1) he is standing on top of a large pile of books at the front of the classroom (2) he has a white beard nearly to his belt. 

"Welcome, welcome!" he chirps from atop his perch as they file in, "welcome to Charms! I'm Professor Flitwick and I look forward to getting to know all of you!" 

He unrolls a scroll and begins to call roll, starting with, of course, Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff ("here," she says immediately, in the brightly attentive voice of someone who has been first in roll calls for one hundred percent of her life to date). When he gets to Bruce Potter, he emits a noise somewhat better suited to an old-fashioned teakettle than to a human person and falls off his stack of books in surprise, sending a ripple of giggles through the small class. 

Oh dear. That was embarrassing and also funny but also he is absolutely not allowed to laugh about it (other people laughing about it is fine).Hopefully he'll pop back up again in a second and they can all pretend that didn't happen.

"Here?" 

Ron chuckles. (What's not to laugh about? Nobody ever got hurt just from falling off something.)

Flitwick indeed does recover from this minor mishap in good order, still beaming. "My goodness!" he says, cheerfully, and hops right back onto the stack of books as he proceeds down the list, which he's still holding.

(This involves making a standing jump, without his hands, to a height above his belt. Filius Flitwick does so without apparently using magic in any way, with the absolute casualness of a man who is simply unaware that this is not a normal thing for greybearded academics to be physically able to do.

Dean Thomas whistles, impressed, and then startles when called upon.)

"Now then!" Flitwick chirps, clapping his hands as he finishes with the list. "Welcome, properly this time, to Charms! Before we begin attempting any spellcasting, we have a little bit of foundational theory to get through, but fear not, you'll be ready almost before you know it! Now, the first thing to remember about charms is that they are a very wide category, and no two are quite alike." He waves his arms excitedly while he talks, which causes the book stack to sway slightly under his feet. He sways cheerily with it, unbothered. "While many of you may find that your adult careers focus on one or more of the variety of flexible magical skills my illustrious colleagues here at Hogwarts will teach you, the vast majority of spells that you encounter and use in your day-to-day life will be charms. Cleaning your dishes is a charm! Making a heavy object easier to carry is a charm! Making objects fly -" he waves his wand and sends Trevor the frog floating in a gentle arc from Neville's desk, gives him a gentle noseboop with a fingertip, and then sets him carefully back down - "is a charm!"

He beams around at his new crop of students to see if they are paying attention before proceeding; unlike McGonagall, he relies on his ability to actually engage their enthusiasm to achieve this, since he does not have her sheer unignorable gravitas.

He is paying so much attention because magic!