Chapter 4 – First Science Lesson
After an early morning run-in with Seamus, ("Git," said Ron angrily, glaring as Seamus hurriedly left the dormitory, "I thought he'd believe you!") Harry, Ron and Hermione followed the Ravenclaws down to breakfast, looking instinctively at the staff table as they sat down. Professor Smith was talking to Professor Sinistra, and judging by her expression, she wasn't liking what Professor Smith was saying. Passing over this, the trio began eating breakfast. Professor McGonagall started moving down the table handing out time tables soon after.
"Now, Potter, Granger and Weasley, I suspect you all heard what Dumbledore was saying about the new subject?"
"Oh, yes, of course, Professor," said Hermione eagerly. "May I take it?"
McGonagall smiled. "I thought as much," she said, tapping a piece of parchment with her wand and handing it to Hermione. "Your first science lesson will be in classroom six in the last period of the day."
"Now," she said, turning to Harry and Ron. "I take it you will be joining your friend in Science this afternoon?"
Harry swallowed his bacon hastily. "Ah, well, yes, I suppose."
"Excellent," said McGonagall, and she handed a piece of parchment to Harry and Ron, who immediately scanned it eagerly.
"Oh, no!" Ron groaned after about ten seconds.
"What is it?" asked Hermione anxiously. "They haven't mixed up your subjects, have they?"
"No, it's not that, rather, it's what subjects I have got. Look at this - History of Magic, double Potions, Divination, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Science ... Binns, Snape, Trelawney, Umbridge and that Smith weirdo all in one day! Worst Monday ever!"
"Tell me about it," Harry groaned.
They were distracted by the sound of a large argument coming from the Slytherin table. It appeared as if Malfoy didn't like the time table Professor Snape had just given him and the other Slythering fifth years.
"I don't want to do science!" Malfoy was saying loudly, with the most of the other Slytherins nodding their heads in agreement.
"Listen," said Snape crossly. "I don't like the fact that there is a muggle subject any more than you do, but the fact remains that the things taught in this subject will benefit you tremendously! How would you like it if your refusal to take the subject meant the Hufflepuffs got a better education than you and your friends?"
That got Mallfoy's attention.
"Fine," he spat. "We'll do it."
Snape nodded curtly and moved away.
"You know," said Ron, turning back to the Gryffindor table, grinning. "That must've been the second time I've ever supported Snape in anything! You show Malfoy who's boss, Snape!"
"Science must be really good if Snape's supporting it," Hermione said excitedly. "I wonder what we'll be doing?"
"Only one way to find out, isn't there?" said Harry.
After enduring the agony of all three of his worst subjects (which soon became all four of his worst subjects by the time Defence was finished), Harry was back in a gloomy mood. He tried to cheer himself up before science, as he knew Professor Smith was a new teacher, and wanted to give him a fair chance. Malfoy, however, wasn't making this easy.
"Pathetic," he said, as the class lined up outside the classroom. "Science - what a waste of time. Us Slytherins wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for Snape."
The other Slytherins nodded, while the rest of the class Rolled their eyes.
"Well, us Hufflepuffs didn't need our Head of House to force us," said Ernie Macmillan. "I personally find the idea of learning how our world works as very intriguing, and the same goes for Hannah and Susan as well."
"Well, those in Ravenclaw like to know as much as we can," said Terry Boot. "This science class sounds like it'll really expand our knowledge."
The door to the room swing open, and the class entered, the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors trying not to look too excited, while the Slytherins tride not to look too bored.
The first thing that Harry noticed upon entering classroom six that afternoon was the abundance of posters that had been charmed to the walls; there were hundreds of them detailing and describing concepts that he couldn't comprehend. Then there were the models of planets and a plethora of other things that he couldn't identify, all being stored in glass cabinets and display cases.
Hermione was in her element.
"Wow!" she breathed. "Look at that – it's a Newton's cradle!" she said, pointing to model with four marbles suspended next to each other on individual pieces of string.
"Come again?" asked Ron.
"Newton's cradle, it shows how kinetic energy works. And that's a Van de Graff generator – it builds up a charge of static electricity, and -" she faltered.
"And what?" said Harry.
"Well, a big blue box," she finished lamely.
A big blue box with the words 'Police Public Call Box' emblazoned on the top was standing to the right of the teacher's desk, at which Professor Smith sat. Compared with all the other science related objects in the room, it looked quite out of place. Wondering what on earth a blue box had to do with science, Harry took a seat next to Ron at the front of the class.
When all of the class had assembled Professor Smith took the roll, jumping up when he had finished.
"Hello everyone! I'm Professor Smith, and I'm here to teach you all about the universe, the world, and a bunch of other exciting...stuff!"
The class exchanged dubious looks. Had been given a madman instead of a teacher? Finally, the drawling voice of Draco Malfoy rang out across the room.
"If you don't mind me asking, sir, but are you qualified to teach us? You look like you've just finished school!"
Professor Smith only grinned. "I think you'll find me perfectly qualified to teach you everything I know, Mister (he consulted the roll) Malfoy. If you want to see my credentials, just ask, but for your general information, I graduated from the Magical Scientific Institute of Brisbane fifteen years ago."
"But sir!" said Hermione, her hand in the air, "You look about twenty-five! If you graduated fifteen years ago, that would make you ten when you graduated!"
"I agree," Professor Smith said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "But there is a difference between appearances and fact, Miss (he looked at the roll again) Granger. But anyway, my age is unimportant, but your education isn't. So, first of all, can anyone tell me how wizards control magic?"
Unsurprisingly, Hermione's hand immediately shot up. "Please sir, we can control magic through a chemical in our blood. It..."
Professor Smith let her finished before stating in a very matter-of-fact way. "No, wrong, incorrect. Wizards cannot control magic because of their blood, it's a lot more complicated than that."
Hermione was shocked. How could she possibly be wrong? "But sir," she said, confused. "I know I'm right; I've read all about it!"
"No, no, no, no! Blood is not responsible for the control of magic!" countered Professor Smith fiercely. "And I'll prove it to you." He walked behind his desk, withdrew his wand ('That's odd,' thought Hermione. "I swear I saw a flash of green.") and rapped it against the black board. A chalk drawing of a helix-shaped construct immediately appeared on the board.
"This," said Professor Smith, replacing his wand in his jacket pocket, "is the DNA double helix. Does anyone know what DNA is?"
Silence.
"Okay, let's start at the basics. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is what makes you human. In simple terms, it is information that contains instructions on how every single function in your body is performed; it's the body's blueprint, if you like. DNA is itself made up of billions of base pairs – they're the 'rungs' of the double helix. Each of the billions of bases is one of four varieties: adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. Adenine pairs with thymine, cytosine pairs with guanine. These bases are the letters in the information, and are arranged in a particular order along the DNA strand. The order of the bases is what makes up the information. So, how do we get from ordered base pairs to your bodily functions? Time to open your books..."
The majority of the lesson consisted of Professor Smith teaching the class all about protein synthesis, the translation of DNA into mRNA, how amino acid chains are coded based on the mRNA template, and how the polypeptide chain is folded into the correct shape, and therefore protein, in a cell organelle.
To the class, the amount of information they learnt was staggering.
"All this is happening inside us?" asked Anthony Goldstein incredulously. "Wow!"
Professor Smith grinned. "I know, pretty cool, right? But hold on just a second, there's something I haven't told you yet. You see, sometimes when DNA or RNA is being copied, mistakes occur. Mostly, these mistakes are picked up on and corrected, but sometimes, they aren't. These mistakes, or mutations, have the potential to affect certain areas of the body. For example, if the base sequence AGTCGGTA codes for five toes, the sequence ACTGCCTA will code for say, twenty. But not all mutations are bad, in fact sometimes they don't have an effect on the body at all!"
"So, now you know the basics of protein synthesis and mutations, I'd like you to practise identifying mutations in the following base sequences," said Professor Smith, tapping the blackboard with his wand again, this time causing a few questions to appear on the board.
The rest of the lesson had the class completing the questions, and it wasn't long before the bell rung to signal the end of the school day.
"Don't pack up yet; homework: find out what allows you to control magic!" Professor Smith shouted as students began to pack up prematurely. He tapped the black board one final time, making it display a base sequence code labelled 'Normal' and a second one labelled 'Wizard'.
"Copy this down and you may go."
Harry, Ron and Hermione copied down the homework before heading out the door with the rest of the class.
"What did everyone think about the lesson?" Harry asked as the trio made their way up to the Common Room after dinner.
"On the whole, very interesting," replied Hermione. "I mean, all the processes that go on inside us! But I wish Professor Smith hadn't completely disregarded the fact of the matter: that a wizard's ability to control magic is caused by blood."
"But isn't blood made up of these proteins?" said Ron. "Because that would mean you're right!"
"I suppose..." said Hermione slowly. "But I'm pretty sure that wasn't what Professor Smith was getting at."
"Well, no matter what happens, we'll trust you, Hermione. You've never been proved wrong yet," said Ron.
Hermione blushed slightly. "Thanks, Ron," she said as they approached the portrait hole. "Mimbulus Mimbletonia," she enounced clearly, allowing them entry into the Common Room. "But did you guys see his wand? I swear I saw a flash of green!"
"So?" Ron asked, glancing over to a corner of the Common Room to see Fred and George trialling their Skiving Snackboxes on some naive first years. Fred met his gaze and grinned; Ron quickly averted his eyes.
"Hello?" Hermione said crossly, snapping her fingers in front of Ron's face. "Wands aren't green, you know."
"Maybe Professor Smith dyed or painted it green," suggested Harry. "After all, he's a bit, you know, weird."
"Telling me," Ron agreed. "I mean, who keeps a big blue box in the middle of their classroom?"
"Well, if it's some kind of storage device that he keeps his equipment in, then I can see why," said Hermione, sitting down on her favourite couch beside the fire. "But if it isn't...though I can't imagine what else it'd be anyway."
"Well," sighed Harry, joining Hermione on the couch and extracting his science book from his bag. "We may as well get started on our only homework of the day."
"Good idea," Ron said. He sat down on the couch, took out his homework, and looked expectantly and Hermione. "Well, 'Mione? What's the difference between these two base sequences?"
Hermione stared at him incredulously. "Excuse me, Ronald, but you are a fifth year Prefect at Hogwarts, surely you can do your own homework by now! It's not even that hard, we did heaps of questions like that in class!"
As Ron started to argue, Harry shook his head and got cracking at his own homework. Unfortunately, Hermione was right, it wasn't hard, and didn't take long to complete, which meant that by the time he disengaged his brain from study mode, Ron and Hermione were still annoying each other.
"...do without you? We'd fail!" moaned Ron.
"Good, because you might finally come to realise that you can't depend on me forever!" Hermione said fiercely. "Now goodnight!" And with that, she scooped up her bag and stormed off to the girls' dormitories.
Ron frowned at her retreated form, but immediately turned to Harry. "Harry, you've finished the homework haven't you? Whatd'ya get?"
Harry hesitated, the pushed his book over to Ron, who scanned the page and started scribbling eagerly in his book. Harry knew he shouldn't let Ron copy his work like that, but they were best friends, and that was what best friends did.
Author Note: Hermione didn't like the Professor Smith saying she was wrong, did she? Her insistence that she's right will continue in later chapters.
Bit of a biology lesson in this chapter, I'm pretty sure I got everything right. I didn't go into much detail, obviously. All the processes are a lot more complicated than I made out!
Replies to reviews:
Insanityisgood25: The thestrals aren't important to the story, so I didn't include them. In this version of the Harry Potter universe, he still saw them, though I just didn't describe the encounter.
GoldenDiamonds: For the reasons given in the chapter, mostly everyone!
Henny14: Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this one too, and are satisfied with how it played out.
emflawlesswatson: Thanks, I try to be very careful that the Doctor's in character, after all, he's the most important character to get right. Hopefully this chapter answered your question as to how the trio would react when they met him. They'll spend a lot of time together later on, particularly in the sequel. ;) As for Peter, I think it's great that he's older, because another young person would've been continually compared (probably unfavourably) to Matt. Still, further judgement will have to be reserved until his first episode.
SuperDoctorWhoMind: Thanks!