When Professor Binns was still alive, his lectures had not actually been so "sleep-inducing." Pomona had read old Hogwarts students' notes on the Giant Wars, and they had been quite detailed and vivid.
By the time the first Bloody Goblin Rebellion broke out, Professor Binns was already dead. What if the Battle of Hogwarts became like the Goblin Rebellion—long and bloody?
Magical creatures had always had low birth rates, Goblins included. Prolonged war had inflicted devastating losses on both wizards and Goblins, forcing them to sit down and negotiate.
For the final battle, both Voldemort and Dumbledore had staked their "futures."
Pomona opposed Voldemort not only because of his cruelty, but because she did not believe the increasingly depleted pure-blood wizarding lines could restore prosperity to the Wizarding World. She preferred to believe in the "potential" Godric Gryffindor had spoken of.
Even if Muggles accepted "giftedness," the odds of becoming a wizard were low. But the population base was there, while Dumbledore had sent all the students onto the battlefield.
She kept saying Severus had not changed, but how much had she herself changed?
When she arrived in the front hall, Caroline was having an artist paint her portrait. Though pregnancy had altered her figure, the artist was not painting her body at that moment. Caroline reclined at an angle, looking at the painter from the same angle as the Mona Lisa, a ruby necklace around her neck.
People in the Renaissance believed that rubies could protect women in childbirth and ensure smooth deliveries. The custom seemed to have endured.
There was a portrait depicting a woman's profile, a work by Leonardo da Vinci. The ruby necklace around her neck had been removed. The woman in the painting did not smile like the Mona Lisa either; her eyes were vacant,