Chapter Eleven

Scientifically Speaking

A few days later, Maurice was able to arrange for a quiet lunch at the Pannage so that Beth could give him her report.

"Upstairs there wasn't even anything remotely related to any sort of spinning equipment," Beth explained, testing the wine thoughtfully. "Although there were some lovely Headmistress robes from the same time period with an interesting charm on it. I have it written down," she added, giving him a small rolled parchment.

"What about any clothing items that were goblin related?" Maurice asked.

"No, nothing that really stood out," Beth said. "As for what he had downstairs, there were quite a lot of miscellaneous items down there, but none having to do with spinning and all properly registered. Father said that anything questionable was typically confiscated by the Ministry, and that included anything that would hurt goblin relations."

"Alex would have mentioned to me if anyone had ever tried to register the spinning wheel," Maurice said. "Of course, this only proves that your Father doesn't have it, not the society in general."

"True, but I really didn't want to give way what it was that I was looking for. Knowing my Father, he would have been likely to say the wrong thing to the wrong person and that by itself my have cause a political incident between us and the goblins," Beth said.

"Likely," Maurice agreed.

"Anyway, the meeting did lead to a temporary cease fire, and he is planning to teach me more about his collection," Beth explained with a sigh. "So if anything comes up you might find interesting, I'll send you another Owl."

"Oh? Is he finally giving in, then?" Maurice asked curiously.

"He's convinced that you're going to find another girl," Beth said. Maurice snorted.

"You know that's not going to happen," Maurice said.

"Yes, you're right," Beth answered with a mischievous smile. "Because if you did, Ambrose would tell on you." Maurice blinked at that.

"Are you two ganging up on me?" Maurice asked.

"Well, how else do you expect us to keep up with you?" Beth teased, pointing him towards his lunch before taking a bite of hers. "Speaking of which, how are things going with breaking that new girl into the Owls?"

"You don't want to know," Maurice answered, rolling his eyes in exasperation.


Viorica walked into the Owl Room with her microscope in her arms. Garvan and Maurice rolled their eyes, while the handful of others who were there seemed more curious.

"You actually brought a microscope to school?" asked Chris Parker.

"Oh, is that what that thing is," said Chuck.

"My parents gave it to me for Christmas," Viorica said proudly.

"Eddy, why did you bring that up here?" Maurice asked critically.

"My housemates kept sabotaging it. Librarian Boulderdash said I could keep it in here to protect it," Viorica explained.

"Slytherin don't sabotage other Slytherin," Garvan warned. "And if you do have a complaint about another house member, it should stay in the house rooms."

"It isn't as if I was mentioning any names," Viorica said, setting it on a desk in the back.

"I bet it was Maxen," Hope put in.

"Now, don't start that again, Hope," Maurice warned. "Eddy, why don't you just send that thing home? It'd be safer there, and you certainly don't need it at Hogwarts."

"Actually, I was running an experiment, looking at different hair, nail, and blood samples to see if there are any differences between magical humans and non-magical ones," Viorica explained.

"Blood samples! From where?" Chuck exclaimed.

"My own, of course, don't be so critical. I was only curious to see if there were differences. I haven't had any luck, if you're worried. I don't think my microscope is powerful enough," she brooded, getting a sandwich. "It must be a mutation or on a molecular level."

"Eddy, I know I'm going to regret asking, but what are you talking about?" Maurice asked with a sigh.

"I think she's looking for Metachlorians," Chris Parker said, shaking his head. "You're going about it the wrong way, Viorica. Magic and science don't mix any more than religion and science mix. You're not going to find any scientific proof for things like that, you have to use magic."

"But that defeats the point!" Viorica protested.

"Exactly, which is why you should probably drop it and just concentrate on your studies," Maurice said.

"You say that like I'm not at the top of my classes," Viorica said irritably. "But even if I am, nothing I've learned has explained just how it all works."

"You're going to make yourself balmy trying to figure all that out. You're better off just accepting it at face value instead of going on about it," Chris advised.

"I agree. It's a waste of time, Eddy," Garvan said.

"Professor Craw doesn't think it's a waste of time. In fact, she wants be to bring my microscope to open lab so that she can have a better look at it," Viorica said defensively. Maurice sighed.

"Then I won't bring it up again since my sister seems to be handling it. But in the mean time, you really ought to work on learning about functioning in wizard society a bit more," Maurice said.

"I did join the order, didn't I?" Viorica retorted. "Although I don't feel like I've had an opportunity to learn much when all I get any time I come in here is constant criticism."

"Maybe we should talk about something else?" Garvan suggested. "How is everyone doing in Defense? Anyone want any extra tutoring to try and win one of those books?"

"Me," both Chris and Chuck said at once.

"Not I," Viorica said. "I'm at the top of Defense as well, although I don't know what I'm going to do if I win it. It's not like I've read any of the other books, or even heard of it outside of that class."

"I'll lend you the first set so that you can start getting caught up," Maurice offered. Viorica blinked in surprise. So did Garvan.

"Really? I suppose I wouldn't mind reading it so I know what everyone is talking about," Viorica admitted.

"Good. Then afterwards, maybe we'll have something to talk about that won't revolve around criticizing you," Maurice said bluntly. Viorica glowered but didn't reply, concentrating on her lunch.

Later on that afternoon, Viorica brought her microscope into the lab, ignoring the dirty looks that some of the Items and Dabblers students were giving her for bringing it in.

"Ah, Viorica, there you are! I'm glad you could come," Jennifer said brightly. "I even cleared off my desk so you could show it to me. Do you suppose we could look at some potion samples with it?"

"Sure, if you like," Viorica said and set it up. "You don't seemed as baffled by it as some of the students I've talked to."

"I used to correspond with a doctor who spoke about them, and I've read about them in books. Sherlock Holmes was supposed to have had a microscope," Jennifer said, impatiently peering in with a frown. "I don't see anything, though."

"Give me a bit to adjust it and put a slide in," Viorica protested. Jennifer watched her for a moment then checked on some of the other students before wandering back over again.

"What do you have in there right now?" Jennifer asked.

"Oh... just a blade of feistyweed. I wanted to see what made them move," Viorica admitted.

"I definitely want to see that," Jennifer said enthusiastically. After adjusting it some more, Viorica stepped aside and watched as Jennifer looked through at what Viorica thought of as plain, unremarkable plant cells. "It looks rather like lizard skin, doesn't it? What's next?" Dutifully Viorica prepared some of the solutions onto slides, but as she adjusted them she saw with frustration that she was having the same problem as before... everything looked rather ordinary. It was like examining an herbal solution, a lotion...and on one slide, a drop of tea. Why couldn't she figure out where the magic portion of the potions were hiding? "Thank you, Viorica! It was quite fascinating. Now what can I show you?" Jennifer pondered, getting in her desk. Viorica looked at her curiously. "You don't really learn about testing potency other than sight and smell until next year, but I can show you one way to test magic potions now," she said, pulling out a small box of thin, tightly rolled paper sticks. "This is one of the prepared testers I use. They turn different colors depending on what the base of the potion is. It can tell you what the main ingredient is and give you some idea of how potent it is. Outside of school, they are mainly used to make sure when Dabbling with formulas that you don't accidentally mix ingredients together that would cause a nasty reaction that would cause a toxic gas or blow up the lab or some other undesired result."

"Oh! So they're rather like PH test strips," Viorica said with interest.

"What are those?" Jennifer asked.

"They tell how how acidic or alkaline something is," Viorica explained.

"Oh, yes! These can do that as well, actually... you'll find there's a booklet in the lid of the strips that will explain what the colors mean... both glowing and not glowing... but I advise that when you play with them that you only use things that would be approved for handling in your room... like cosmetics, sun potions, hand lotions, basic balms and magical soaps, that sort of thing," Jennifer said.

"But that will only tell me how things work with a magical tool," Viorica said with a sigh. "It still doesn't show me evidence of magic in the scientific world."

"I suppose that's because there isn't, and it's a rather good thing that it doesn't, if you ask me," Jennifer said, Viorica frowning at her in response. "Viorica, I know you've only been a student here for a short time, but surely Professor Scribe has covered some of the basics of why our society is mostly hidden from the non-magic world."

"Yes," Viorica acknowledged.

"Then you also should realize that it's a very good thing that it doesn't show up using science methods, or it never would have been possible to hide. They would have had us all under one of those microscopes by now," Jennifer said with a roll of the eyes, walking over to check on the others again. Viorica frowned at that, putting the testers in her bag.

As she got back to the Owl Room to put away her microscope, it was fairly empty. Maurice was there, consulting with Diana over star charts.

"There she is," Maurice said. Diana gazed at her speculatively with the same stony expression that she always wore. "Viorica, since you have to take beginning astrology this year, I'm going to put you on Halle's team. They are studying the references to revolts and spinning wheels for our main Owl goal."

"To find out what's so important about the distaff that might be somewhere in the castle?" Viorica asked.

"Right. Diana will help you with specifics on what to research and also tutor you in areas when needed since they're both in more advanced astrology classes," Maurice said.

"I'll do my best, although I'm not sure I really see the point in Astrology," Viorica admitted.

"Well, if it's any consolation, a lot of people feel that way about it, Viorica. Even my brother felt that way for a long time, but in recent years he's changed his mind about it," Maurice said.

"I don't see why he would. For example... do you see this big red star in Orion?" Viorica said, pointing it out.

"Yes, it's Betelgeuse," Maurice said calmly.

"It's expected to go supernova. In fact, it may be a supernova already. But if it exploded yesterday, we wouldn't know about it for another six hundred years. Wouldn't that mean that anything predicted in that house would be totally useless for at least that long?" Viorica argued. Maurice sighed.

"Viorica, haven't we already told you that science and magic don't work well in the same context?" Maurice said.

"Yes, it's been mentioned to me a lot, even as early as half an hour ago," Viorica admitted, putting down her microscope and sitting down, getting out the strip tester key to look at.

"This is simply another example. Don't think of it as stars at varied distances that have nothing in common except they are aligned a certain way from our perspective. Rather, concentrate on the fact that it is the perspective itself that is important. When we look into the night sky, it's time that we see... we are looking back thousands of years in some cases, and with telescopes we can see back millions of years," Maurice said.

"Even billions," Viorica interrupted.

"So looking up at the sky gives us a perspective of time and the past like no other source. Even in science, can't you predict the future by looking at what has happened in the past? You predict that Betelgeuse is going to supernova because scientists have collected all this data from other stars at other times to see what's going to happen to it, right?" Maurice pointed out.

"Yes, I suppose, in a way," Viorica shrugged.

"Astrology is just the same sort of idea, really, tracking important events by past alignments and using it to look ahead. You'll find perspective in and of itself is quite important in magic. Isn't that right, Diana?" Maurice said. Diana nodded.

"I understand the confusion. I can help her," Diana decided expressionlessly.

"Great, then we're set. I also have the first three books of the Meglomaniacs Club for you, Viorica," Maurice said, sliding them over.

"I still need book seven," Diana added.

"I'll get it to you at breakfast, Diana," Maurice said. Diana nodded at that. "I won't be here at lunchtime; I'm having lunch in the Headmaster's Study. Now that I'm done with my initial research, I think it's time I got some ideas from my brother about where the Distaff may be hidden."