On March 24, 1993, several American Muggle astronomy enthusiasts discovered a comet while observing the stars. It had broken away from the asteroid belt beyond the Solar System and entered the Solar System, becoming a periodic comet.
But unlike Halley's Comet, it was not harmless. According to trajectories calculated by computer, it would strike Earth directly in July 1994.
However, continued observation revealed that the comet was not orbiting the Sun, but Jupiter, with an orbital period of two years.
In other words, according to its trajectory, it would enter Jupiter's surface in July 1994, be torn into several fragments by the immense tidal forces there, and plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere.
The impact occurred in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. The largest fragment struck with enough force to destroy Earth once over, and it was precisely because of this impact that people came to believe even more firmly in the theory that the dinosaurs had been wiped out by a meteor strike sixty-five million years ago.
Through archaeological and geological fossils, Muggles believed dinosaurs had once existed on Earth, but they did not believe in the sort of dragons that breathed fire.
They had found no fossils of fire dragons, nor had they seen any living specimens with their own eyes. Even the so-called specimens had ultimately been proven fake.
The school's "black market" had once sold a Wit-Sharpening Potion, said to clear the mind, strengthen memory, and let one remember everything at a glance.
In truth, it was merely a rodent tonic. Drinking it would not harm a person, but it had none of the effects the seller claimed. It simply made them unusually excited at night. Yet instead of sitting down to read like Leonardo da Vinci, they wanted to bite anything they saw that could grind their teeth.
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