I always think Hermione got a bit of a raw deal at this point in the story, especially in the book. Who were her roommates? How did she feel about fitting into school life? So, although Teyla only takes on part of the role of Hermione (Rodney doing his bit too), I thought a little bit from her point of view might be nice.

Also, we have some lessons from the boys' points of view and their first chemistry lesson with Professor Theodorus. So that's bound to go well...

Chapter 4

Teyla tried hard not to think of the village children near her home, who made fun of her strange speech and dress. She squashed down her sense of disappointment, telling herself that she was in Atlantis, the City of the Ancestors, and she didn't need to rely on others for her happiness.

She trailed down the spiral staircase after her three laughing, chattering room-mates. They were nice girls - Kate, Jennifer and Alison - and they'd been perfectly pleasant to her. But, despite the fact that of the three of them, only Alison had grown up knowing about the Ancients, they seemed to have quickly found many things in common. They had bonded, the previous night, over endless in-depth discussions of TV shows and celebrities which Teyla knew nothing about. And they, in turn, knew nothing of her ways. As soon as Teyla had risen she'd moved to embrace her room-mates in the morning greeting that was customary at Athos House. They'd been embarrassed and then she'd been embarrassed and it had been very awkward. She would not attempt to carry out the ritual tomorrow.

And there was also that barely-acknowledged suspicion that might turn them further away if they knew. It was only a suspicion, though, Teyla told herself. She wasn't sure. And if her fear proved founded, and it was true that she could sense Wraith-kind through some kind of telepathic link, she certainly wouldn't admit it to anyone. Such people were thought to be part Wraith themselves and were often shunned and discriminated against.

The common room was as warm and welcoming as it had been the night before and students were making their way to the transporter to take them to the Mess Hall for breakfast. Kate, Jennifer and Alison joined the queue.

Teyla turned instinctively to the sunlight flooding through the floor-to-ceiling window at the far end of the room, her arms twitching to perform a Salute to the Sun, regardless of what anyone might think.

There was a round shape next to the campfire, which she identified as Rodney, kneeling on the ground, his head pressed sideways to the floor, his arm reaching toward the base of the fire. John stood behind him, his body slanted in his own uniquely flexible slouch, his black hair in ruffled disorder. He was wearing a brand new Atlantis Academy jacket in Athar house colours, but there was a hole in one knee of his black jeans and they were a little short.

And on one of the rocks was Carson, hunched forward, his hands waving as he spoke. "...spent the summer on a field trip to the Camargue. It's a marshy area in Southern France. And they were studying the European Pond Turtle so she knows all about turtles, and I'm sure Hamish'll be fine. But I hope we have lessons in the biology labs today because he'll miss me and be wondering where I am."

"Ouch! Dammit!" Rodney withdrew his hand. He sucked his fingers and sat up.

"Told you," said John. "Oh, hey, Teyla."

"John!" Teyla didn't care about convention. She skipped up onto the platform and hugged her friend. "Rodney!" She crouched down and embraced him too. "And Carson!" He smiled shyly and squeezed her back.

"Pleased to see us?" John had stuck his hands in his pockets. Had she made him feel awkward? He was smiling, though.

"I am very pleased," she said. "And I am looking forward to going to our lessons together." She found this was true and she remembered some words of Halling's: The city of the Ancients is a magical place, but it is the friends you will make there that will bring true magic to your life.

"Breakfast first, though," said Rodney.

"You giving up?" John gestured at the flickering campfire, the flames dim and translucent in the sunlight blazing through the window.

"For now. But I'm determined to find out how it works."

"Just don't break it, Rodney." Carson unfolded himself from the rock and stretched.

"As if I would."

oOo

Some of it was just like normal school, although John had been to so many different schools that, for him, normal was difficult to judge.

As usual he struggled with English, especially when Professor Weir asked them to empathise with the author of a poem and try to think what that person might have been feeling.

John looked at Rodney whose face was contorted into a comical expression of disgust.

Rodney mouthed, "What the hell?" and mimed screwing up the poem and flicking it across the room.

John responded with a highly exaggerated shrug and grimace.

"John, Rodney, focus!"

John quickly bent his head and stared at his copy of the poem. His gaze slowly crawled to the right where Teyla was scribbling away, line after line flowing from her pen. He picked out a few phrases and copied them down, altering the words a bit.

The poet feels happy, he wrote. Because he's out for a hike and he sees some flowers. Yeah, as if...

Rodney nudged him. John shuffled his exercise book in Rodney's direction and his friend began to write.

He glanced at Teyla's work again and then back at his copy of the poem. He snorted and nudged Rodney to point out that it contained the word 'gay'.

Rodney sniffed and drew a small diagram in the margin of his exercise book. It was those male or female symbols, the ones with the arrow or the cross, depending on which was which. Anyway, two the same in a sum arrangement, with an equals, then 'Me'. Oh. So, whichever symbol that was, male or female, Rodney's parents were the same. Gay.

He mouthed, "Sorry."

Rodney shrugged.

John looked at Teyla's work again. Next time he and Rodney would have to sit either side of her so they could copy more effectively.

Maths with Professor Lee was a relief, though the work was easy and the professor ended up giving Rodney an advanced textbook and leaving him to get on with it. It was Teyla who struggled, but she wasn't afraid to put up her hand and say that she didn't understand.

Physics with Professor Carter was great. Enthusiasm rolled off her and spread in waves throughout the class. She encouraged the children to familiarise themselves with the equipment and design their own experiments, helped by the Professor's assistant, Radek Zelenka, who was one of the much older students.

Teyla discovered some prisms and John helped her set up a beam of light going through them. Others joined in, someone shut the window blinds and soon they had a maze of light beams spread like a web across the workbench.

Rodney was strangely quiet, then monopolised most of the equipment, creating an elaborate array of electronics, all the while muttering about the absence of any 'decent' sources of radiation. Then he got into an argument with Zelenka which was only halted by the chime for the end of the lesson.

"And who has to tidy this up and put it all away?" Zelenka's glasses slipped down to the end of his nose and he pushed them up again impatiently. "Tell me that, eh?"

"Come on, Radek." The smiling Professor Carter looked over his shoulder. "I did tell the first-years to have fun. And this looks pretty interesting."

"It's a… well it... of course you'll know what it does because you're a… and I'm… and it… um."

Radek smirked in triumph at Rodney's tongue-tied confusion. "I will efficiently clear this away, Professor Carter. You can rely on me!"

"C'mon, Rodney. Lunch." John dragged his spluttering friend away.

oOo

Lunch had been a bit too good. If they were going to serve spongey puddings and custard at lunch and dinner, Rodney was in trouble. He was eleven years old, for God's sake - did they seriously expect him to bypass the pudding and take a piece of fruit or a yoghurt pot?

The corridor was crowded and Rodney glared up at yet another pack of whispering voyeurs, not kidding himself for one second that they were whispering about him - although he'd expected his advanced academic level to have caused something of a frisson amongst the teaching staff at least.

That so-called 'assistant,' that Zelimka person or whatever he called himself… He'd deliberately sabotaged Rodney's plan to dazzle the fair Professor Carter. He probably wanted her for himself, the…

"Ooh, that's him, there he is!"

Rodney snapped out an arm, palm up, in front of the gaggle of gogglers. "A dollar a look and a dollar extra for inane comments," he snapped. They turned and scuttled away, as well they might, but Rodney followed them with, "Ten dollars for a signed photo! Fifty for an in-depth interview!"

"Rodney, just leave it."

"No! They've been staring at you all day. Pointing and staring. Pointing and staring and making rude and/or stupid comments. I've had enough and I can tell you have."

"I'm fine." John carried on down the corridor, his shoulders hunched. He'd be looking for secret passages next, thought Rodney, to avoid all the pointing and less than subtle whispering.

"You're not. You were walking like a normal person this morning, not that you're that normal, but anyway now you're… slinking."

"Slinking?"

"You have been staying close to the walls, John and looking over your shoulder," said Teyla.

"Yes, and checking round corners. So don't say it doesn't bother you."

John ran a hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't like everyone staring. It's weird. Embarrassing."

"It'll wear off," said Rodney, blithely. "Once they realise they're not going to see Wraith-killing rays shoot out of your eyes or something. And in the meantime, I'll do my best to deter them."

"As will I," said Teyla, firmly.

"Thanks, guys." John cleared his throat and ducked his head. "Um...

The kid looked like no one had ever offered to do anything nice for him before. Suddenly having two overprotective, always-on-his-case Moms and a too-cute-for-her-own-good baby sister didn't seem so bad. Who had John had before Atlantis?

"We're here," said Rodney. And a good thing too, he thought, before we descend into abject mushiness.

They entered the large, airy hall and copied the other students, taking a mat from the pile, finding a space and sitting down. There were students he didn't recognise. Oh. Yes, he did recognise them, because there was Acastus Kolya, surrounded by his group of fawning sycophants. They found themselves a space at the other end of the hall, Kolya sitting down with an expression of distaste as if there should have been a throne provided. With a palanquin. And slaves with fans.

Professor Teal'c surveyed the assembly calmly, his hands loosely clasped in front of him. Ronon Dex was there too, leaning against the wall, arms folded, looking like he was ready to kick the ass of anyone who thought meditation was lame.

The class settled.

"We will close our eyes," announced the Professor. "And let our breaths come as they will and listen to the sounds of the room."

This is going to be productive, thought Rodney. He exchanged scowls with John. Teyla's eyes were closed, her brow smooth, her lips relaxed in a gentle smile.

Rodney shut his eyes, tried to breathe instead of snort and found that the loudest thing in the room by far was his own stomach, busily digesting the cottage pie followed by syrup sponge and custard which he'd had for lunch. The breathy huff to his left meant that John could hear it too.

After a couple of minutes of this pointlessness, Professor Teal'c said, "You may now open your eyes." When Rodney opened his eyes he found that the Professor was looking directly at him, which was unnerving. Had he been able to hear Rodney's stomach? Well, what did he expect, getting them to meditate straight after lunch?

"Please take a star from the box which Ronon Dex is bringing to you, but do not attempt to light it yet."

Oh, they were like the little flower thing that Teyla had had on the train.

There was some shuffling and derisive scoffing from Kolya's end of the room.

"We will use these to practice control over our abilities," intoned Teal'c.

Control? This should be interesting. Ronon was trying to give John a star. John's hand hesitated over the box. Ronon shook one out onto the mat in front of him. Just as well. The whole lot probably would have blown sky high.

Rodney took a star and deliberately ignored it, thought he could feel its tempting presence in the back of his mind, like a little, wheedling voice, begging him to switch it on.

"I will count aloud," said Teal'c. "On five, you will light your star, on ten you will extinguish it, on fifteen you will light it, and we will continue this pattern." The Professor's steady gaze swept the room. His eyes flickered over John, whose star still lay before him on the mat. Rodney's was cold and angular in his hand, but he knew he could light it with just a touch of thought.

"One, two, three, four, five…"

Rodney's star lit with a pale, yellow-white glow. To his right, Teyla's lit too. Around the room others flickered to life. Carson had screwed up his whole face and looked like he would ignite sooner than the star.

"Eight, nine, ten…"

Rodney's star darkened instantly. He glanced at John. John's hair hung down over his drooping head, and what Rodney could see of his face was bright red.

"Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen…"

Rodney lit his star again. Carson's flickered, then died. Ronon approached John.

"Pick it up."

John shook his head.

Ronon nudged the star with his boot. "Pick it up."

"No."

"Eighteen, nineteen, twenty… Continue counting to yourselves in the same pattern."

The Professor approached John and sank down into a graceful cross-legged pose. He picked up John's star and lit it in time with the now silent count. "There is no reason to be afraid," he said. "If you succeed, that is good, if you fail, you will try again until you succeed."

Jeez, did these people not know who they were talking to? Rodney lit his star again. Did they think John Sheppard couldn't light a piddly little thing like this?

Teal'c held out the dark star. "Take it."

John's head came up. He glared. "Fine." His hand shot out and snatched the star away from the Professor. Its glow ignited and grew from a spark to a blaze in a split second, then it exploded in a shower of sparks and John yelled in pain.

Well, it was a shame John wasn't keen on being the centre of attention, Rodney thought, because he certainly had an audience now, including Kolya and his gang, who had all got to their feet, the better to view the show.

oOo

John held his burned hand tightly and looked down at the blackened star on the ground. He wouldn't look up, because they'd all be staring at him, rows and rows of eyes staring, and it was never a good thing to draw that much attention to yourself. He'd learned to be a shadow - to blend in. He'd become an expert at it from a young age, fitting in wherever he was sent, finding the interstices of school or home life into which he could disappear with as little notice from authority as possible. And now, in what should have been a perfect world, he was singled out as some kind of miracle and now singled out again as someone who couldn't control this strange, bright power.

"Why did you take it?"

Stupid question. "You told me to."

"No. You pulled the star out of my grasp completely and moved it away from both myself and Ronon Dex. Why?"

"Because I knew it'd hurt you," John mumbled.

"And now it has hurt you."

John shrugged.

"Show me." Teal'c reached toward John.

John clutched his sore hand closer to himself.

"Show me."

The voice was soft, but the depth of command was strong and unshakeable. This was someone you could rely on; someone who wouldn't let you down, or decide you were too much trouble or send you away.

John held out his hand and opened his palm. It was red and beginning to blister. "I want to try again."

There was a loud snort from Rodney's direction, followed by, "Burn the other hand, why not?"

One of Professor Teal'c's eyebrows rose.

"Why?" This was from Ronon, who seemed to favour short sentences or non-verbal communication.

"I think… I think maybe if I don't touch it? I could just turn it on like that? You can do that, right? You don't have to touch?"

"Some people have to be in contact with the device they are controlling. Others do not."

The pain in his hand was beginning to flare, the outraged nerves shrieking their anger. "Let me try."

A star fell on the mat in front of him.

John looked up at Ronon. "Thanks."

Teal'c projected his voice easily around the hall. "Continue with your practice!"

They'd still be watching, but at least not staring constantly, for which John was grateful. He looked at the little star lying on the mat. It looked like plastic, but he guessed it wasn't. It had six points, like Atlantis, like a snowflake. Atlantis had glowed with light when they'd flown over it, golden light, friendly and welcoming, almost like a woodfire, or the campfire in the common room. He imagined the star glowing with the same light. And it lit, flickered a little, glowed more strongly and then its glow intensified to a strong white. Could he stop it? "Off!" It went out.

There was a ripple around the room and cries of annoyance.

Professor Teal'c smiled. "I think we have established that you are able to control devices from a distance," he said.

Around the hall, all of the other stars had gone out.

oOo

"Halling taught me to make a remedy for burns," said Teyla. She looked down at John's bandaged hand, which he was trying to hide between his body and the wall.

"It's okay. The doctor seems pretty cool." John shuffled, smirked and looked at his feet, from which Teyla concluded that the doctor was at least as pretty as she was 'cool'.

"What is her name?"

"Doctor Fraiser."

Femininity confirmed. Teyla smiled. Ronon had taken John to the infirmary, so that he had missed the rest of Professor Teal'c's lesson where they had practiced slowly increasing and decreasing the brightness of their stars, but he had been waiting for them outside Professor Theodorus' lab when they had arrived for their chemistry lesson.

The door opened. Teyla shivered.

"Enter."

It was one of the underwater labs on the South East pier and windows set high in the walls let in an eerie, green glow, occasionally disturbed by a flash of silver as large fish reflected a ray of sunlight penetrating the water from above.

The Wraith was silent as they took their seats, Merlin house along with Athar students. Teyla was tempted to sit at the back, but saw Kolya and his gang heading that way. Determinedly, she sat in the front row and drew John and Rodney with her. At least she would know. And uncertainty was always worse than knowing the facts and facing up to them.

The Professor began by taking the register, running a curved fingernail down the surface of his tablet and gazing at each student in turn as he spoke their name, his eyes an unnerving yellow, the pupils cat-like and unreadable.

He lingered over John's name, extending the syllables in a long hiss of breath. "John Sheppaaaarrd." At the back of the room, there was a rumble of derision. Professor Theodorus' eyes flicked toward the sound and then back to John's.

Teyla's experience of educators was limited to the adults of Athos House, who all took a turn passing on their knowledge or expertise to the children who did not yet attend Atlantis Academy. Some of them became easily flustered and lost the attention of their young pupils, whereas others seemed to have a natural, easy authority that held your attention, or if it didn't, those adults could silence a misbehaving child with a look.

Professor Theodorus had authority, but it was of a different kind - cool, distant and quite literally alien. There had very occasionally been a Wraith visitor at Athos House, but Teyla had only ever glimpsed them from a distance and had run away and hidden as soon as she could. And perhaps she'd hidden for a good reason. A wave of cold had passed across her as he had spoken John's name. This, surely, was proof that she was different, that she could sense the presence and possibly the emotions of Wraith-kind.

What would Halling say? Her father-figure, mentor and friend always knew what to do. He had been her guiding light throughout her young life. His words sounded in Teyla's head as another wave of cold passed over her: Find out who you are, accept everything that you discover, even the things you wish were not so. And be true to yourself.

Teyla straightened her spine, lifted her chin and let her body and mind feel what they would. The Wraith began to speak.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art that is chemistry." His voice, soft yet resonant, carried around the room. "There will be no foolishness in my classes. No insolence or insubordination of the type that seems to come naturally to young humans. Such behaviour will result in swift punishment..."

Rodney gulped audibly.

"...in the form of house points deducted." This was spoken with an air of disappointment. What punishment would the Wraith inflict, given free rein?

And yet… She had thought the eyes unreadable. Were they? Hard though it was to interpret this alien being, Teyla decided to try, to observe his manner, his gestures, alongside the waves and shivers of cold that projected from him, that only she could feel.

"I do not anticipate that there will be many of you, if indeed any, capable of fully appreciating the beauty of this branch of science, even though it concerns the substances of which matter itself is composed, from the wood here formed into a bench, to the flesh and bone of your bodies; and my apprehension is that there will be more proved in common with those two things than is compatible with effective learning."

Rodney's hands gripped the edge of the bench, whether in eagerness to prove himself, or anger with the professor's words, Teyla wasn't sure.

"The substances, as I said, of which matter is composed… the investigation of their properties and reactions, and the use of such reactions to form new substances."

He tailed away, his breath hissing between rows of sharp teeth. Teyla drew her jacket more closely around her and the Professor's eyes darted to hers and held her gaze for a second. He couldn't know, could he? His angular head turned toward John.

"Sheppard, what would happen if you ignited ammonium dichromate?"

Rodney's hand shot in the air.

"I don't know, sir."

"Hmm. Then perhaps you can tell us how sugar reacts with potassium chlorate using a catalyst of sulphuric acid?"

Both of Rodney's hands were in the air.

John answered flatly, "I can't, sir."

"Really? Did it not occur to you that the reading list was provided for… hmm… reading?"

This was blatantly unfair. Not only had John not received the reading list, but even if he had, how could he possibly have learned all of the books by heart? Teyla's heart burned for her friend.

"What is the difference between oil of vitriol and sulphuric acid?"

Rodney was on his feet, his hands waving.

"I don't know."

"They're the same thing!" burst out Rodney. He continued, spluttering, his words tumbling over each other. "And sugar and potassium chlorate react exothermically with a purple flame and lots of smoke, and if you ignite ammonium dichromate it decomposes exothermically, with orange sparks and nitrogen gas and water vapour, and green chromium three oxide crystals get thrown everywhere!"

There was some nervous giggling from the rows behind.

"Sit. Down."

Rodney subsided, trembling.

"Five points will be taken from Athar for ignorance…" The cold gaze rested on John. "...and speaking out of turn." The professor glared at Rodney.

The lesson did not improve from that point. The professor gave a brief, terse lecture on chemical and physical changes, which seemed straightforward enough, and then they were told to dissolve salt in water and then heat the water so that they could see the salt recrystallising on the sides of the glass beaker. This seemed obvious to Teyla. After all, if the salt changed its essence in any way when one added it to cooking, why would it still give a salty taste?

Teyla worked with Rodney, who was sitting to her left, while John worked with Carson to his right. They all took off their uniform jackets and were given white lab coats to wear, which were all either too big or too small and were covered in stains and peppered with small holes. Rodney tutted impatiently as he stirred the salt solution, muttering about 'time-wasting baby stuff,' but they soon had their beaker bubbling merrily over the bunsen burner and the bright light and friendly company brought to mind camping in the grounds of Athos House.

Carson had spilled some salt and so he and John had been delayed by a lengthy lecture delivered in cold, quelling tones about the importance of not wasting resources and working in a tidy, efficient manner.

Then Kolya approached the Professor. "Sir, I was wondering if different substances produce different shaped crystals?"

"Ah, an interesting question, I see that there is one among this cohort with a mind not wholly akin to the wooden inflexibility of these workbenches!"

Rodney snorted angrily and the glass rod he was using to stir the solution clattered angrily. The professor expounded on the various types of crystalline lattice.

"I've read everything on your list." Kolya continued, shamelessly currying favour. "Is there anything else you could recommend, sir?"

Teyla, however, was suspicious and, sure enough, one of Kolya's gang, Teyla thought his name was Kavanaugh, was sidling up to their bench, something clasped in his hand.

"Hey! What are you up to?" Rodney poked Kavanaugh in the chest with his glass stirrer.

It would have been better to have silently challenged the boy. Professor Theodorus turned around.

"What do you think you're doing, McKay?"

"He assaulted me, sir!" whined Kavanaugh.

"Another five points from Athar!"

"But -"

"Shall I make it ten?"

Rodney subsided, grumbling. Kavanaugh smirked and returned to the back of the classroom. The professor hadn't even asked him why he was at the front. Such unfairness.

Kolya had gone too and Professor Theodorus patrolled the rows of benches, his hands clasped behind his back, his long, silver grey hair falling forward to obscure his features.

"This salt's very lumpy," said Carson.

"Let's just get on with it before we get more points docked," John replied.

"Okay, in it goes." Carson tipped in a large amount.

Immediately the water erupted in bright yellow flames, smoke billowed out, sparks flew and drops of liquid spat in a hissing, roaring reaction.

"Ow!" Carson, leapt back, fell over his stool and landed on the floor.

John ducked and rolled to cover Carson. Teyla pushed Rodney further away as the flames rose.

"Sodium!" said Rodney. "Bright yellow flames, strong reaction with water - there was pure sodium in with their sodium chloride."

Kolya - it had to be. Kavanaugh had only been a diversion.

The flames died down. John picked Carson up off the floor. Both had extra holes in their lab coats. Carson was holding one arm and wincing.

The Professor approached. He glared at John. The silence stretched, which was somehow worse than a storming lecture would have been.

"I see that the lure of notoriety has proved irresistible to the 'Boy who lived'," he said at last.

"I didn't -"

"Will you compound your offence by proving yourself a liar as well as an incurable attention-seeker?"

Teyla expected John's face to burn with shame and his head to fall, but what happened was worse. His countenance became entirely blank and lifeless; no anger, no outrage, not even a shred of disappointment visible on his young face. Once again, Teyla's heart burned for him and she fixed her eyes on Professor Theodorus' disdainful features and projected her anger and thirst for revenge and hoped that her Wraith-sense worked both ways.

The Professor did not react. "Another twenty points from Athar. You can take your friend to the infirmary and witness the fruits of your foolish prank."

"Yes, sir," said John.

Ooh, what a bad place to finish a chapter! Such injustice demands immediate revenge! But it'll have to wait… And the next chapter must surely contain the first flying lesson, which will be a lot of fun! I have plans for the game of 'Skybattle' - some similarities to Quidditch, some differences. It's sure to be suitably dangerous, though!