alchemical blurb

[mswoods]

The following day, Sadde has Transfiguration in the morning.

She is all over it at lunch.

"Okay, so, Transfig is just about the coolest thing," she says first thing to the Ravenclaws as soon as she sits at the table.

Comments

[pleating]

"Ew!" giggles Karen.

[mrwoods]

He looks at Karen, then cups his hands around the sides of his head a bit so his eyes aren't easily visible. He turns them into chameleon eyes and moves them in different directions a bit.

[pleating]

"Eeeeeew!"

[mrwoods]

He laughs, his eyes and tongue no longer particularly lizard-y. "Yeah, I'm not gonna start behaving just 'cause of that. I think I ought to come up with at least one operational idea before talking to McGonagall about it."

[chanuphis]

"Operational meaning...?"

[mrwoods]

"Meaning it's something I could actually implement, or someone could, or, like, with more tangible immediate results than 'Slytherin doesn't have a bad rep anymore.'"

[chanuphis]

"Tangible results like..."

[mrwoods]

"Not a clue!" he grins. "Hmm... maybe like, less muggleborn-hate in the more immediate future? Or less bullying? I dunno, that's the sort of thing I'd have to figure out! I'd probably need charts for this as well, it may not be as daunting a task as eliminating prejudice against muggles but it's actually a pretty good first step!"

[chanuphis]

"Well, I wish you luck and if you need my help I will help you."

[mrwoods]

"Well I will definitely accept all help I can get! You're really smart, and I bet your notebook skills can help with the charts."

[chanuphis]

"I'm pretty good at charts."

[mrwoods]

He grins. "Yay, charts!"

[msmaxwell]

"That's the nerdiest conversation I've ever heard and I'm from a family of prodigies, I've heard some pretty nerdy conversations."

[pleating]

"What are they prodigies at?" Karen asks.

[msmaxwell]

"My 17-year-old sister is an international fencing champion, my 15-year-old brother got into Yale on a maths scholarship last year, the twins are 13 and they're musicians, my grandpa was a UN ambassador, and dad works at CERN," she recites as if she's said that hundreds of times, completely oblivious to the magical nature of the audience and its relationship with the muggle institutions mentioned.

[mrwoods]

Sadde whistles slowly.

[pleating]

"What's a UN ambassador? ...And CERN? And Yale."

[chanuphis]

"Muggle International Confederation, Yale's a university... I don't know CERN either."

[msmaxwell]

"Oh! Yeah, those things, and CERN is this particle physics research facility, and erm, particle physics is..." She stops, apparently at a loss on how to explain particle physics to a witch.

[mrwoods]

"They study the rules that govern how the world works, at a very very very very very very very very small scale, like so small humans can't even wrap our heads around it."

[pleating]

"Thennnn how does anybody study them?"

[mrwoods]

"Erm, I dunno. I think there's something about throwing stuff at other stuff really fast and then measuring the results and figuring out if this makes sense when you suppose this or that particle was involved...?"

[msmaxwell]

She nods. "Yes, that!"

[pleating]

"...I'll just take your word for it."

[mrwoods]

They both grin.

"Anyway, it's kind of a really big deal to work there, I think, 'cause only the very best physicists do, and to be a physicist in the first place you need to be really really smart and good at maths."