A/N: I meant to have this chapter out almost a week ago, but the formatting just wouldn't work for me. Since this is a major explanation chapter, I tried to put in some visuals incase anyone out there is like me and needs to see things to really grasp them. But, unfortunately, nothing I did would allow me to input the small charts/images I wanted, so I had to resort to describing them. Also, I'm most definitely not a scientist by any means, so I'm hoping (praying) that my explanations are mostly accurate for the purposes of this story. Basically, I'm nervous as hell about this chapter and I hope it turned out ok...
*** 16 – Explaining Muggle Science ***
Word spread quickly of Liz's discovery, and soon everyone was gathered in the sitting room, waiting for an explanation. Isabel was still asleep, so everyone was free to relax a little while they waited. Dumbledore, at Liz's request, had set up a Muggle whiteboard and erasable markers so she could show them some of her findings.
Everyone was chatting nervously until the door opened. Silence permeated the room as Liz walked in with Arthur and Kingsley. She stopped for a brief second, suddenly nervous, but quickly gathered herself together, and headed for the board.
"Umm…ok," she began. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began her explanation. "Arthur and Kingsley came to me this morning hoping that I could shed some light on what these scientists are trying to do with magic, and I think I've figured it out. So I'm just going to try and explain it as best I can, and hopefully it'll make sense. If you have any questions, please ask."
Everyone nodded, and smiled encouragingly. Liz felt herself get a little braver, and she continued. "I think what I need to do first, is to explain what genetics are, and then go from there. I'll start by using Molly and Arthur as an example." Liz turned to the board, and drew a simple tic-tac-toe-esque grid on the left side. "Genetics is a type of muggle science, biology actually, that deals with traits or characteristics that are inherited in related organisms. With humans, genetic traits are passed down from parents to children, and can be predicted. Each human is made up of dominant or recessive genes, which can determine certain aspects of future children." She looked from person to person and found varying degrees of confusion on their faces, so she continued in the hopes that they would soon understand.
"Let's say we wanted to predict the hair colour of Molly and Arthur's children before they were born. Since both of them have red hair, that is the dominant gene in their family. But generally speaking, red hair is a recessive gene, as we don't see too many people out there with naturally red hair. I'll use the letters 'rr' to represent it on the chart." Liz wrote Arthur's name on top of the grid, and filled in the two top right spaces with one 'r' each. Then she wrote Molly's name to the left of the grid, and put the single 'r's in the two lowest spaces in the left-hand column. "Using genetics, we can combine their redheaded genes and assume that 100% of any children they have would have red hair." She filled in the bottom, right four spaces with 'rr' each and turned to look at her audience as they examined it. There seemed to still be a some confusion in them, but not so much that she needed to re-explain.
"Now let's take a pair with different genes, for example Harry's parents." Liz moved over, and drew a fresh grid on the right side of the board. "Remus told me that Harry's father had dark hair, and his mother had red hair. If we use the same logic, with brown hair being the dominant gene, scientifically speaking, the results are a bit different when we combine their genes. Since we don't know about James' parents, we'll assume that they were all brunettes. I'll still use 'rr' to represent red hair, but it'll be 'BB' for brown." Liz took a moment to write James' name up top, and fill in the single 'B's in the same places as on the last grid. Lily's name on the left side and the single 'r's went in the same places as well, before she filled in the rest of the chart with 'Br' in the four remaining spaces, and stepped back so everyone could see it before she explained further.
"As we can see by the 'Br' in each space, while James and Lily's children would most likely have brown hair, there's a chance that they would have red hair as well. Or it could be a combination, maybe a light brown, or more of an auburn colour. Either way, the odds are different than with Molly and Arthur's kids." The number of blank stares from her audience had dwindled a bit, which bolstered her confidence to continue.
"Lastly, let's take Harry and Ginny." Liz moved a step back to the left, and drew one more grid near the bottom of the centre of the board. "Now, using the other two grids, we know that Ginny's hair is straight red, or 'rr', but Harry's is a genetic combination of red and brown, 'Br'. If we use that information, we come into a whole new set of statistics." Liz wrote Harry's name at the top of the chart, and filled in a separate 'B' and 'r' in the top two right-hand spaces. Then she followed her pattern by writing Ginny's name to the left of the grid, and jotted single 'r's into the same two spots as in the previous charts. Filling in 'Br' in the two spaces left in the middle column and 'rr' in the two right-hand column spaces, she completed the chart and spun to face her audience once more. This time, she found that the confusion that had really started to dissipate as understanding set in. She did see a flicker of fear in Ginny's eyes for a split second, and her mind began working in a whole different direction.
Shaking herself from her thoughts, Liz returned to the task at hand. There would be time to question Ginny later. "Here, any children that Harry and Ginny have would have a very strong chance of being redheads. They'd be guaranteed a 50% chance of it, maybe more, since Harry's half and half.
"Now take this information and apply it to magic. Arthur and Molly are magic through and through. They're purebloods, and automatically so are their children. James was a pureblood, but Lily was a muggleborn witch, which would automatically make Harry a halfblood. Harry the halfblood and Ginny the pureblood would make up children that are strongly magical, but not entirely pureblooded."
"How do muggleborn witches and wizards fall into this if they have no background of magic?" George asked.
"Genetics, like anything, aren't perfect. There's no way to precisely predict this sort of thing. Scientists just use this guideline to make assumptions. And in all cases, there are exceptions. Sometimes people break the genetic mould for no reason. It gets into DNA and chromosomal anomalies, and it's just a little too complicated. But basically, there are ways that nature gets around the genetic structure, for no reason. It's how some children are born with disabilities. They have a little something extra in them that could not be predicted. I'd assume magic's the same way."
"So they've managed to figure out what gene makes a person magical?" Blaise asked from the back of the room.
"It appears that way, yes," Liz replied.
"So then what exactly are they doing to the people they take?" Tonks asked, her eyes sparking with curiosity.
"This is where it gets complicated," Liz admitted. "Sometimes Muggles develop certain diseases. Usually it's genetic, but sometimes it's not."
"Are you saying that magic is a disease?" Minerva asked, shocked.
"Not at all, but I have a feeling that those scientists feel that way. They think they can cure the world of magic."
"But how?" Ginny asked.
"There's a Muggle disease called cancer. It's a very powerful illness that is usually fatal. Basically, the diseased cells destroy the healthy ones so that the person with the disease has a harder time fighting it. But Muggles have been working on curing this disease for ages, and while they still haven't found a way to completely cure it, they can manage to destroy the diseased cells that they can find. If any are left, the disease can come back though. This treatment is called chemotherapy, and can be quite trying on the sick person as it involves radiation."
"What's radiation?" Ron asked.
"Radiation is a type of energy. But it is used in cancer treatments, even though the human body is not always prepared for this kind of energy. We're not meant to have it inside us, and sometimes people react to it. They can be tired a lot of the time after it, as well as nauseous, and they can lose their hair as well, to name a few side effects.
"If what I've read in these notes are correct, that's what these scientists have done. They've managed to mutate chemotherapy so that it doesn't attack cancer cells."
"It attacks magic?" Poppy Pomfrey inquired, her voice trembling.
Liz nodded solemnly. "I don't know if they're using radiation or anything like it, but these files are telling me that whatever they are using has the same effect. This treatment gradually kills off any magic that a person has inside them."
"Can they ever get their magic back?" Harry asked.
"I don't know. It doesn't sound good, by the look of these. The people who undergo this treatment seem to have some memory loss involved, and are unable to produce anything magic at all. And sometimes…"
"Sometimes what?" Neville prodded.
Liz breathed deeply. "Sometimes they can die from it."
The shock at this statement was audible in the room, as everyone gasped in horror and began conversing.
"They can't do this!" Luna.
"This is an outrage!" Kingsley.
"This is inhumane!" Minerva.
"What right do they have!" Tonks.
"Who are they to say that magic is unnatural?" Ron.
"We have to stop this!" Remus.
"They can't get away with this!" Arthur.
"Who do they think they are?" Ginny.
"Those poor wizards!" Molly.
"I'll kill those scientists myself!" Blaise.
"How can they be allowed to do this?" Poppy.
"That's rubbish!" George.
"We can't let this go on!" Neville.
Liz watched the group in despair, and finally turned to Dumbledore, who had been silent with Harry and Draco through all this. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
Harry gazed at her with a curious look. "Whatever for?"
"I'm sorry I can't do anything more," she finished. The three of them approached her as the rest of the group went on with their angry ramblings.
"My dear, you have nothing to be sorry for," Dumbledore told her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You've done brilliantly."
"We're already ten steps ahead of where we were an hour ago," Draco added. "And it's all thanks to you."
"I know the others are angry, and I feel it too," Harry admitted. "But you've helped more than you'll ever know. We would have been lost without you."
"We were," Draco finished.
Liz looked at the three of them gratefully. They'd help her through this, and she'd do everything she could to figure out a way to stop those scientists.
All of a sudden, something clicked inside her brain. Something she hadn't realized before while she was researching. As the idea cemented itself in her brain, she paled visibly.
Harry grabbed her arm. "Are you ok?"
"Oh God," she whispered as the information seized her brain.
"What is it?" Dumbledore asked.
Liz looked up at the three of them in turn, and her gaze finally landed on Draco. "They were going to do that to me, weren't they? That's why they were keeping me in that facility."
All three men went silent as her theory's merit sunk into their brains. They shared a panicked look, followed by one of resolve that these scientists wouldn't ever get the chance to experiment on her. But Liz didn't notice their look, as she felt the dizziness surround her. She felt all three of them grab for her as she fainted.