Saturday Studying PV Henry Knight Finished

Interacting with @Henry Knight

When Henry said that his favorite thing about the wizarding world was the Floo network, Robert opened his mouth to ask what it is. However, Henry started explaining it even before he got a chance to ask, causing Robert to smile and lean back in his chair to listen. The way he explained it made Robert imagine a bunch of hamster tubes surrounding all of the wizarding world, with wizards zooming around them from place to place. This led to Robert imagining a bunch of hamsters crawling around brightly colored tubes while wearing wizard robes, making him stifle a laugh. "That sounds pretty useful," he replied, the laugh still dancing in his eyes. "Sorry, a very amusing picture came to mind when you were explaining it. That'd be awesome, if you could demonstrate the Floo network for me."

Henry then gave a very interesting proposal. "If you want, with both of our brains and smarts I'm sure we can find out what exactly magic is. That is if you want to become partners?" It seemed a bit out of the blue, but Robert wasn't about to complain.

"I-Yes, of course! I would love that!" Robert said with a huge smile. Especially since this was the magical career that he was already planning for, Robert was quite excited to get a head start on it. The Ravenclaw gestured at the table and said, "It's amazing how even with all these books, nobody understands the first thing about magic."

When Henry said that he was turned into a werewolf when he was six, Robert realized that if Henry was a second-year, that meant he'd been a werewolf for half of his life, which seemed crazy to the muggle-born. "What's... it like?" As soon as the words slipped out of his mouth, Robert realized how ignorant that sounded, and flushed. "I mean, is it weird having the body of a wolf?" That wasn't much better, but Robert let the question stand.

Interacting with @Henry Knight

Robert nodded when he heard Henry say students weren't allowed to use the Floo network while at school. It did make sense, when he thought about it. A network that allowed you to go basically anywhere in the world with a fireplace definitely opened the door to some serious mischief. "I guess that makes sense. I can wait until summer."

The Ravenclaw frowned at something Henry had said. For him, the reason he was so interested in learning about magic wasn't for the potential fame, but the burning curiosity inside of him that was his motivation for just about everything. In fact, fame was one of the only things that actually deterred him from trying to discover new things. He much preferred to be the one behind the scenes than the one with their face all over the news. He was a bit disappointed to learn that Henry felt otherwise. However, in all other respects, Henry seemed like a nice guy, so Robert didn't want to make a big deal out of this. "Oh yeah... That'd be nice..." he halfheartedly responded.

The muggle-born listened as Henry explained what it was like being a werewolf. He was a bit confused as to why wizard-folk would be prejudiced against werewolves. Other than one night a month, they were just normal people, right? And apparently, even for that night, they were able to take some sort of potion to avoid going psycho. The part about muggle-borns freaking out made sense, but his parents had stomped out any possibility in his mind that magic could be real so quickly that he really hadn't gone into this new world with any preconceived notions. "Uh, any questions?" Henry asked.

Robert smiled. Oh boy, where to start? he thought to himself. The Ravenclaw was one of those people who always had questions, and almost always asked them when given the chance. Some of the ones currently going through his head were, How do you make that potion? Why do you have to drink it every day for week? What were to happen if you forgot a day? How is it scientifically possible for someone to turn into a wolf? Why does it only happen during a full moon? How do werewolves turn other people into werewolves with a simple bite? However, Robert reluctantly realized that there was no way Henry would know the answer to any of those questions. With a sigh, the muggle-born told a lie that almost physically hurt him. "No, I don't have any questions." He actually did feel a sharp pain in his head, but that also could have been because of its abrupt meeting with the ground earlier. Wincing a bit, Robert rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "Erm, do you have any other questions about muggles?"

Interacting with @Henry Knight

Robert was relieved to learn that fame didn't matter much more to Henry than it did to himself. He was even more relieved to learn that Henry was fine answering any questions Robert might have about Werewolves. However, the muggle-born decided it was probably a better idea to explain cars first, in case they end up going down a rabbit-hole (pun intended) of werewolf questions and don't circle back. "Well, I don't know all of the specifics of how cars work, but basically, they have something called an engine, which normally runs off of gasoline and turns wheels under the vehicle to make it go forward. Gasoline is a highly flammable liquid, meaning that with a tiny spark, it can release a bunch of energy in the form of heat. The engine basically turns that heat energy into movement energy, which is used to turn the wheels. Because of friction between the turning wheels and the ground, the car is propelled forward."

Robert paused, and realized that most of what he said probably made absolutely no sense. "Sorry, there's a bunch of physics involved that I don't know how to explain, but the basic idea is, the engine uses the heat from gasoline to move the car forward. Any questions?" He would be very surprised if there weren't any, and he hadn't even begun to explain electric cars, butt-heaters, or any of the other amazing additions to the automobile that had been invented since the 19th centurty.

Now that he had that out of the way, Robert could ask some of his questions about werewolves. The Ravenclaw took a second to organize his thoughts, realized it was a futile endeavor, and instead decided to blurt out, "Who was the first ever werewolf? How did they become a werewolf? Why do werewolves only transform when there's a full moon? How do werewolves transform in the first place? How many werewolves are there at Hogwarts?" Eventually, he had to take a breath, and so he decided that five questions was enough to start with. If Henry could answer those, maybe they'd be able to start on the hundred some odd other questions also floating around in his brain.

Interacting with @Henry Knight

The Ravenclaw was pleasantly surprised to hear that Henry had actually understood his explanation of cars. He was even more pleasantly surprised to learn that the Slytherin was also interested in physics in maths. "I love physics and maths!" he exclaimed with a smile. "Erm, out of curiosity, which books do you have? I might have read them myself."

Robert nodded along as Henry began to answer his questions about werewolves. He was disappointed to learn that nobody knew who the first werewolf was, or how that person got the condition, but other than that, the older boy was able to answer all his questions. When Henry stopped after explaining how painful the transformation is, the Ravenclaw commented, "Yeah, changing the basic form of your body every month does sound really painful."

Robert definitely agreed that there was room to work on the Wolfsbane Potion that Henry was talking about. Speculating aloud, Robert tried to figure out how it worked. "So, I'm guessing that the condition of lycanthropy, when changing your body, also changes the layout of your brain, or changes the way the neurons fire or something. When you take the Wolfsbane Potion, something in it stops the drinker's lycanthropy from doing this. Or maybe it builds up an immunity in your body to the condition, kind of like a vaccine." A thought suddenly struck the Ravenclaw. "If you were to take the potion for, say, an entire month instead of just a week in advance, would the potion start counteracting some of the other werewolf effects?" As soon as he said it, Robert realized this probably wouldn't be the case. "No, I'm sure there was lots of testing involved in the potion's making, drinking it too much probably either has no effect or some sort of other side effect." Robert realized that he was interrupting, and embarrassedly gestured for the older boy to continue.

As Henry started talking about the werewolf registry at the Ministry, Robert heard yet another example of racism in the wizarding world. He hadn't even stepped foot in the wizarding world for an hour before learning about biases against muggle-borns, and now werewolves, who were no different from other people except for one night a month, were also widely disliked by magical folk. Before, when Henry had mentioned this, he'd been a bit confused, but just assumed he was missing some important piece of the puzzle. However, when it was confirmed that werewolves were basically normal people except during a full moon, the young boy was able to be properly outraged. There was nothing Robert hated more than not understanding something, whether it was an idea in school or another person's belief. Even if he didn't agree with something, it always gave him at least some solace to be able to say, "I understand why you think that." This was never possible with racism. "I am so sorry that people think that way about werewolves." Robert wasn't quite sure why he was apologizing for this, but it felt like the right thing to do. "Is there anything I could do to help change this?"

Interacting with @Henry Knight (Permission given to godmod the ending of the thread)

Thinking back, Robert tried to remember some of the books he'd borrowed from his father. "Let's see, The Feynman Lectures, they're a bit outdated, but you can still learn from them, The Theoretical Minimum, by Susskind and Friedman, and multiple different books named simply 'Quantum Physics,' because, well, scientists can't name things." The Ravenclaw said the last one with a bit of a chuckle.

Robert listened with sympathy and a touch of disappointment as Henry detailed exactly how painful it was for werewolves to transform, and why the wolfsbane potion couldn't be used in the way the first-year had suggested. "Oh well, it was worth a shot," he sighed. The muggle-born was glad to hear that at least Hogwarts was doing its part in helping the werewolves as much as possible, making sure all the students who needed it could get the potion.

As Henry started talking about the events of the Second Wizarding War, Robert realized that he'd actually already read about those events in one of the textbooks he'd read. "Yeah, I think I remember hearing about Lupin and Granger. It's great that things are finally looking up for all those minorities you mentioned, even if it did take this long and there's still such a long way to go."

At that, the conversation seemed to stall. Although Robert would normally be fine with just sitting in silence with someone, he found himself wanting to keep talking with Henry. Searching for something else to talk about, he remembered something Henry had mentioned earlier that he hadn't responded to yet. "Hey, what was that you were saying earlier about Arithmancy? I don't think I've heard of that before, but it sounds interesting!" One thing led to another, and after a bit of discussion on the subject, the two boys ended up standing up and searching the stacks for more information. They spent the rest of the afternoon talking, learning, and generally enjoying each other's company. When Robert finally left the library to go to dinner, he left knowing he now had one more friend than he'd had a couple hours ago.