Field trip

"Draco, good to see at least your still punctual as ever," Severus drawls as I walk into the potions classroom. Oh no, what did I do. "Though you seem to have forgotten Hogwarts students are to keep to the curfew."

I flush. How did he know?

He looks at me pointedly. "You were not as stealthy as you thought, Draco. I did not know you knew where the kitchens were. I hope you didn't give the Hogwarts' elves too much trouble?"

I smile hesitantly. "Dobby was pleased to see me, I think," I say. Well, that was definitely true. Strange elf. "So, you said we'd have some field trip to teach me about muggles?"

Severus scowls. "Not so quick. You are not above the rules. I did not wish Slytherin to loose house points, I do not however accept you to think rules do not apply to you. I have changed our field trip for today a bit. It will still be interesting, but now it will require a bit more labor.."

I nod. "So, where are we going?" I ask quietly.

"The place I grew up," he mutters. He does not sound very reminiscent. He walks with long passes to the floo and then looks at me expectantly. He takes some floo powder in his hands and lets it fall. "Spinner's End," he says slowly. Green flames light up.

Well, I can't really imagine what kind of place Severus would grow up. He never really told me. All stories he told were mostly about his time at Hogwarts.

I walk up into the floo, with some floo powder clenched in my hand. Only one way to find out. "Spinner's End."

I look around. It was dark in the house. I squint my eyes trying to see the house clearer. Severus snorts. "Maybe you should try to turn on the light."

I blush and nod determinately. I take my wand. "Lumos."

Severus gives me a confused look. "Nox," He says. He gives me a look that clearly tells me he did not want me to use my wand. Of course, muggles and stuff. He then disarms me. He looks thoroughly amused. "Now, turn on the light without a wand." Severus comfortably leans against the wall.

Maybe being taught muggle studies by Severus was not such a good idea. I feel incredibly stupid. "If you'd give me a wand I could accio some candles and some fire?"

Severus guffaws. "You think I'd let you accio fire?"

I feel frustrated.

Severus looks slightly baffled. "Surely you'd not think accioing a fire would be a good idea?" Well, when he says it like that. "You could possibly start a forest fire.. People could see fire being levitated.. You could put furniture in my house on fire.. Beside this is not the middle ages, certainly you know.." Severus stops. His face softens, seeing my abashed face. "Muggles do not use candles. They barely produce light. I have lamps in my house, Draco." With his hands he lightly taps this button on the wall. Immediately the room is illuminated. I see a lot of stuff that I quite can't recognise. "You just turn the switch, that is all."

I nod dejectedly.

Severus still looks a bit baffled. "Well, this will be somewhat more challenging than I had anticipated, of course, I could have known Narcissa and Lucius did not teach you much about muggles. Still, I had forgotten how ignorent wizards can be." I feel my cheeks flush a bit. "No matter. I guess we'll just have more to discuss. So Draco, how come there is light when there is no fire?"

I look at it in wonder. The only word coming to my mind is magic, still that can't be right.

Severus sighs teasingly. "Electricity, Draco."

I am sure I have never heard of that word. "Eleklicity?" I blurt out, confusedly.

Severus smiles amusedly. "Electricity, Draco. This actually is a very important thing if you want to understand how most muggle things work. Of course, it is not strange wizards and witches do not know much about it, since electricity doesn't work around too much magic."

I nod determinately.

Severus looks reminiscent. "You know, Anna, well, for you it's professor Vector now, since you are taking arithmancy, always feels there is a lot to learn from muggles. Unfortunately in my youth I was always very focussed on the magical world and not very much interested in more mundane, muggle things."

It felt strange that Severus called something as strange as the muggle world mundane. I realised I did not know how a lot of things worked if it was not by magic.

Severus smiles. "I have even though of studying chemistry, to see, if it would help me in potions."

I feel thoroughly confused. Somehow I had not thought the muggle world could leave me so baffled.

Severus looked thoughtful. "Electricity is a flow of charge." He frowns. "Well, that didn't clear things up for you, didn't it?" I shake my head reluctantly. "Well, I guess we'd need to dive into the building blocks of atoms." He sighs and looks like he's starting to get a bit of an headache. "Sweet Merlin, Draco. Alright. Matter is anything that occupies space and has mass. Matter exists in three states. Solid, like the bricks that make up this house. Liquid, like water. And gaseous, like the air you breathe. Matter in turn is build up from elements. Elements can not be broken down into simpler substances by ordinary chemical methods, which is like the muggle equivalent of potions. Sort of.." He nods, looking pleased with his explanation. "There are 118 elements recognized, 92 occur in nature, others are artificially made in particle generators. And no, I do not know how those work. Though I might ask Anna sometimes. Each element is composed of identical particles or building blocks called atoms. Atoms have subatomic particles, called electrons, protons and neutrons."

I had no idea muggle studies would be so absurd. "Sir, obviously that is ridiculous. I mean. If you look at sand, sure I could understand how they'd think that's made up of those atoms, that looks like it's made up of small building blocks, but surely water can't be. It is smooth."

Severus snorts. "We are talking about extremely small building blocks, Draco. Trust me, you would not be able to see such a particle with your blind eyes."

I nod confusedly.

Severus remains patient. Somehow I can't help but wonder how cool potion classes would be if he always was like this. At least I got to get to know Severus like this, for that I was happy.