The One That Got Away
Chapter 2 - Transfiguration Troubles
"But that doesn't make sense," Mariah protested, hands held aloft in front of her to display her frustration. "Rorn's Law* states that only when the elements-"
Her exclamation was broken by a load groan from Sirius, followed by a thud made by his head hitting the table between them. James, too, looked fed up with her inability to grasp the topic at hand – Rorn's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, which was not to be confused with Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration.
"Look, Knight, Rorn's Law doesn't discount Gamp's and Gamp's doesn't discount Rorn's, okay? They're both true," James said, looking lethargic as he rested his chin on his hand.
Mariah made an angry noise similar to an annoyed cat.
"But what Rorn's law says completely-"
"Bollocks, you should have been a bleeding Ravenclaw," Sirius muttered.
"Quit interrupting me, Black! Rorn's law-"
"-completely disregards Gamp's Law," Sirius said, mocking her voice in a pitch much higher than it actually was. "You've said that about five times now, love."
The Hufflepuff's fists clenched, but before she could say anything, Remus interrupted them. Up until that point, he had had his hands over his ears and his eyes closed in an attempt to block them out, and Peter had long since fallen asleep in his chair, slumped against the wall with his mouth open.
"Sirius, shut up," The sickly brunette snapped, looking quite like he had a fearsome headache. "Mariah, you're in Muggle Studies, right?"
The blonde nodded, crossing her arms with an indignant expression.
"You remember the unit on Muggle Physics, when we studied the Law of Conservation of Matter?"
"Yes – matter can't be destroyed or created, it can only change forms."
"That's where Gamp's and Rorn's Laws come from. The first exception to Gamp's Law is about food, stating that you can turn it into something else, clone it... Basically do anything to it except make it out of thin air."
"But according to Rorn's Law, you can still vanish it, which goes against the Muggle Law stating matter can't be destroyed," She said, eliciting a tired sigh from the scarred brunette.
"Look at it this way. Say you have a cookie in your hand – oh, shut up, you tosspot," Remus paused halfway through his explanation, for James had given a great snort at his words. "Say you have a cookie in your hands, and you crush it. You grind it down into dust, and it blows off with the wind. The matter is still there, it's just been scattered so much that it doesn't form a definitive shape anymore. That's what happens when you vanish something – it's not really gone, per say, the particles have just been scattered so much you couldn't possibly see them, much less find them all to put it back together, meaning that it is gone. It is but it isn't at the same time. Conjuring is the same in reverse – for all appearances, the object conjured has come out of nowhere, but it's actually been created out of these particles. So Rorn's and Gamp's Laws are both true, and they both follow the Muggle rule."
The tall girl stared at the boy, face scrunched up into a skeptical look as her mind tried to find a discrepancy in his statement. She couldn't find one, which made her frown unhappily, still not sold on the complex idea.
"That seems like an awful lot of theorizing and not a lot of fact," She muttered. "You know, I'd like Transfiguration better if we had more solid stuff to go on than cryptic laws written down hundreds of years ago by stuffy old wizards who like to be as confusing as humanly possible."
Remus cracked a smile at her, but it was tired and seemed very fake. The Gryffindor had been very quiet after finding out she'd eavesdropped on them. He was polite, of course, but seemed very tense and wary – as tense and wary as someone who looked like they were about to keel over could look, anyway. Whatever secret plans he thought she might have heard certainly had the boy spooked.
Needless to say, Mariah was very curious about the matter, but thoughts of the boys' secret had been chased out of her mind as she was bamboozled by the homework Professor McGonagall had given them during that morning's lesson.
"I reckon we'd better call it a night," Mariah said, eyeing the clock on the wall.
It was a quarter to eleven – they had been discussing various aspects of this particular branch of Transfiguration, by far her least favorite subject, for several hours – and she still had to meet her fellow Hufflepuff Prefect for corridor duties that night.
Sirius jumped up immediately, sending his chair flying away from the table to land with a loud bang on the cold stone floor. The girl ignored his incessant whining about being "bored out of his mind," instead choosing to speak with the only boy out of the quartet that had actually been of any use that evening.
"Thanks for your help," She said, smiling. "You're a much better teacher than these buffoons that I've been stuck with."
Remus returned her smile with a small one of his own, still looking wary.
"Their hearts are in the right place, they're just-"
He was interrupted by a yell, for Sirius and James had been roughhousing and caused an entire shelf of books about Dragons to crash down onto Peter's head.
"Incorrigible," Remus finished, sighing.
AN: Hello all! The pilot chapter of this fic was well-received, so here's the second chapter, as promised! Fun Fact: I have an entire outline for this fic written up, from start to finish, as well as a character map for Mariah (who just loves Transfiguration, in case you couldn't tell). I'm working towards having enough of it pre-written that I can post several times a week.
NOTES: Please note that Rorn's Law is not canon – I created it. Gamp's Law is the law that Hermione mentions in a row with Ron in Deathly Hallows, but Rorn's is completely made up. It is also important to mention my use of the Law of Conservation of Matter – I'm definitely not an expert in Physics, I have never taken Physics (well, not yet, anyway), and that whole scenario with the various laws is the interpretation and theory of a high school sophomore and her internet research, so don't get caught up if I mucked up another rule of Physics in the process lol.
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