A/N:  I don't know if it's just me, but I've always pictured the majority of the classrooms in a semi-circular amphitheater type layout and I am writing the story with this in mind.

            Chapter 3

            The Great Experiment

            Harry didn't sleep well that night, something about Andranos didn't sit well with him, especially the way he treated the faculty, Dumbledore particularly.  In fact, he didn't get to sleep until 2:00 am. In the light sleep that followed, he had the classic nightmare of falling, with a gigantic Andranos' head floating in front of his face sporting a sadistic grin, laughing at him.  In the dream, the head transformed into that of Voldemort repeating, 'There's nowhere you can hide Potter, nowhere I can't find you,' in a hushed voice.  After that disturbing image, he woke up with the all-too familiar searing pain on his forehead. 

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            After a hastily eaten breakfast laden heavily with conversation, Harry, Ron, and Hermione proceeded to their first class of the year, potions.  As the three entered, they saw Andranos, wearing the same cobalt blue gown, sitting near the door leaning back in his chair, snoring.  When Professor Snape walked in, he kicked Andranos' chair to wake him up.

            "I will expect you to remain awake for the entirety of the class, Mr. Andranos, irregardless of the night you've had."

            "Ya ya, just be sure to keep it short and to the point.  Don't be another breathless windbag.  Well don't just stand there cock monkey, ya gonna' teach something or do you expect us to learn through osmosis?"

            "You would be wise to watch your tone with me," Snape said as he walked up to his desk.  "Over the past four years, you have been instructed how to make some of the easier potions, this has ended.  From this year on, you will be studying the individual effects of potion ingredients, how they interact with each other, and processes of discovering new ones.  Each one of you will have a year long assignment in addition to any others in this class.  This project is either original potion research, or the creation of a useful potion as yet unknown to wizarding society as well as how to replicate it.  Yes Mr. Andranos?"

            "I guess I'm all done then, Mr. Teacher Man," Andranos said holding up a small bottle.

            "And what exactly is that?"

            "This?  This is one teaspoon of calcinized dragon's esophagus boiled into 3 cups of water distilled from Ogre mucous and fermented in a carrion crawler stomach for one month.  I would love to show you what it does, would you care to volunteer?"

            "Er…"

            But before Snape could answer, Andranos stood up and walked to the front of the room.  He bowed deeply to the class before taking a long swig from the bottle.  He turned to Snape and took in a deep breath.  The potions master leapt back as an eight foot flame shot out of Andranos' mouth, setting his robes on fire.  Snape immediately began screaming as he ran for the door, pieces of flaming cloth trailing behind him as he rounded out of sight.  Andranos pulled out a cigarette and lit it off some of Snape's robes as he walked out the door saying, "Class is dismissed then?"

            Dumbledore walked in a short while later and addressed the class with surprisingly pleasant tone, "Professor Snape will be indisposed for the remainder of the lesson and you are all free to adjourn, and I suggest to library until your next class.  Has anyone seen Andranos?  I would like a word with him."

              Hermione went strait to the library, with Harry and Ron close behind, to start on her project while most everyone else went to their respective dormitories.  Harry and Ron spent their time talking about how nasty the burns probably were and how long until they would be healed, Hermione however, spent her time leafing through potion encyclopedias occasionally looking back to hurumph Harry.  When the bell rang, they looked at their schedules to see where they heading, "Oh joy, History of Magic.  But it's in a different room, and we have it again on Thursday in the same room as last year," Hermione pointed out as they walked down the halls.

            When they got to the room, they took their seats in the last row and made themselves comfortable for another boring session of goblin rebellions.  The starting bell came and went and Binns was nowhere to be seen.  A full ten minutes passed before a silver colored doorway appeared in the front of the room startling the class.  After a few moments, Andranos stepped out of it, letting it close behind him.  He looked at the class with a sense of anger written across his face before walking over to the chalkboard.  He picked up a piece of chalk and started drawing a series of strange symbols on the board and said, "Satou yut yukusa kasa supa sumyak sut sut santou gershk sun," and continued speaking what seamed an endless trail of gibberish and nonsense.  He paused after a few minutes and looked back to see the look of bewilderment on the students faces.  He glanced to his right and picked a necklace off the desk and started babbling again as he put it around his neck, "Kak sungamasuto seupo frentou sato…but I seem to have forgotten to don my translator amulet.  Let me clarify a few things right now, as I can tell you don't know by the look on your faces.  First of all, I, am the teacher of this class and although I have not been given the authority to dole out detentions, or to add or subtract points from your houses, I would appreciate if you would pay attention and not disrupt my lessons."  At this point he extended two fingers to the doors, which flew off their hinges, soared across the room and splintered against the wall.  "Second, your ghostly professor Binns teaches you history of WIZARD magic.  When I was assigned to come here, I was given certain duties to perform, one of them, among other things, is to instruct you in history of SORCERER magic.  Third, I do not now, nor have I ever spoken or understood a word of English.  I was given this," he said putting the necklace under his robes, "which will translate whatever I say so that any human, half or full, within ear-shot will understand it.  Likewise, it will translate whatever any human, half or full, is saying so that I can understand it.  And last of all, I must say that although I bear no malice to miss Granger and her kind, I have a dislike for Mr. Weasley and his kind, and a hate for Mr. Finnigan and his kind.  I am of course referring to the treatment of the elves in this realm.  Miss Granger's kind are, how you say, 'muggle born' and therefore had no knowledge of the slaving of elves.  Mr. Weasley and is kind have the knowledge of how the elves are treated and have chosen not to do anything about it.  While Mr. Finnigan and his ilk," he scoffed at this point, "OWN an elf.  I'm sorry, ownED an elf.  And the laws you have made, 'no elf shall posses or use a wand'.  Well, that particular law and all those discriminating elves from wizards have been eradicated upon the signing of the treatise between our cultures, as well as 'all elves shall be set free no later that January the first or their owner shall be put to death as many times as is necessary until said elves have been freed'."

            Ron leaned over and whispered to Hermione, "I guess this means S.P.E.W. isn't needed any more."

            "Thank you for interrupting me Mr. Weasley, even though I asked you quite nicely not to," Andranos said craning his head over at him, "but I will let you off with a warning this time.  Now, as I was saying, I disapprove of the way that you have treated elves hear for the following reason: you owe your very existence to them, but I will come to that in a second."  He walked back up to the board and pointed at his nonsensical scribblings before continuing.  "Your earliest writings date back to six thousand years ago.  This is at around the same time as we introduced you to the world.  I am of course referring to The Great Experiment as it is known.  That is to endow humans with the natural abilities of elves.  We, sorcerers that is, created a, well, a virus that we released across the world that would accumulate in the soul of a human.  It is this virus that enables you to use a wand and perform minor sorcery, however, it must accumulate in a sufficient quantity before a person's birth to take effect.  It is not transferred in a constant rate, the accumulation of it from one's parents depends almost entirely on luck and chance.  This virus is built up over a person's life and may, on occasion, add to one's magical prowess.  But, like I said before, it must achieve a critical level BEFORE birth in order to have any effect at all in life.  In theory, as has happened numerous times over the centuries, it is possible to have two people who's souls are completely saturated with this virus and are powerful beyond understanding spawn a child who has no discernable magical abilities what-so-ever.  Likewise, to have two people who wouldn't know a wand if it bit them on the ass have a child with immense abilities.  Now I know this must all be a lot to take in at once, but the sooner you understand that this is all true, the sooner you will realize how much better than you sorcerers are.  If anyone still has any doubts about this by the end of the week, come and see me before our next session and I will supply you with a fully documented record of both the preparations for the experiment and the experiment in progress throughout the millennia."

            "Oh great, another book for Hermione to read and quote," Ron said under his breath.

            Andranos walked up to Ron and placed his thumb on his forehead while letting out a long 'Shhhhh!'. after which he walked back up to the front of the room and said, "now I asked you nicely once, Mr. Weasley, but I hope this will show you that I am not fucking around.  Don't worry, it should wear off in about six hours.  And don't try to counteract it, for it will only make it last longer.  'Silence' is tricky like that."  Almost as soon as these last words escaped his lips, the bell rang and class was dismissed.