Questions all around ((Jacquin))

[dana]

Dana walked to the place where she had left her bag with her nose in the next book. Dana had received a letter from her grand-mother telling Dana that Isabelle – one of their servants, even though she as almost family as Dana’s grand-parents paid for her schooling in the Academy of Paris – had good-natured neoplasm. A surgery would be done soon in the muggle-world but it had gotten Dana thinking. She had bothered different professors with her questions until one of them gave Dana allowance to the Restricted Section so she could find out what she wanted from there.

Unfortunately not very many wizards or witches had researched muggle-deceases. Dana wondered briefly, if magical folk even had deceases like cancer or something like that? Maybe the same ability that let magic being created worked as somewhat of a shield against such deceases? Whatever the reason was Dana was stuck and she had spent more time in the library than usually in most of her previous years. It was frustrating how things didn’t seem to even out right now. Maybe Dana would have to take a short break – or get someone else’s fresh opinions.
Scanning the library for a possible victim to talk to Dana’s eyes traveled over a sixth year Ravenclaw. Then traveled back to the boy. Dana knew him by reputation only, but he was supposed to be a complete nature and science lover. He had certainly known enough about dragons in the last COMC class. Maybe he could make Dana’s thoughts moving again, if he would allow himself to be bothered for a minute.

Standing up Dana smirked – hopefully Jacquin wasn’t prejudiced about age. With light-blue knee-length pants and a white top as well as white tennis-shoes, with her hair braided into two pony-tails with ribbons above her hair Dana didn’t look older than a third year. She was taller most certainly, but if you didn’t see her standing up and didn’t know Dana, then you would take at least a couple of years from her real age.
Standing up Dana moved towards the table Jacquin was sitting at, when a second year ran up to her. Talking with the boy he tutored in a couple of subjects, Dana accepted the scroll with an essay for History of Magic and promised to return it at dinner after checking it.
Continuing towards Jacquin once again Dana stopped at the table and spoke calmly with a tilt of her head: “You are Jacquin right? Mind if I bother you with a question or two?” Twirling the scroll with the essay between her fingers Dana waited to see – and hear – the boys response.

[Jaquin Prokenstien]

Jaquin whooped with elation as he backflipped on his Firebolt, falling through thick cloud cover as he dived back towards the ground. His dark blue quidditch robes billowed out behind him as he went into a steep dive and wrenched the broomstick upwards just as he was about to hit the ground. Then he was off again, soaring upwards towards a bright, yellow sun. He burst through a nearly impregnable layer of accumulated water vapor, finding himself hundreds of feet above ground. Jaquin was currently ameliorating his Quidditch skills after an hour of diligently improving his knowledge about muggle biology and helping Perseus with his potions while constantly imbibing knowledge on the subject of chemistry. He had noticed an abrupt change in Perseus's attitude towards muggleborns and was a bit reticent of approaching him directly. Jaquin did not know what made Perseus so weary of muggleborns, but the fact that his friend was becoming more and more like Malfoy made Jaquin grit his teeth in choler. As Jaquin dismounted from his Firebolt, he remembered that he had to finish an essay for McGonagall on the subject of molecular changes when transfiguration is applied.

Jaquin quietly entered the library, enjoying the quiescent atmosphere in contrast to the raucous students running about in the halls. As he had entered the castle, Jaquin had heard tumultuous yelling the Great Hall, unambiguously another Gryffindor prankster or two. He had tried to avoid as many loqacious passerbies as possible, taking the quickest route to the libaray. It was a late Saturday afternoon and Jaquin felt as if he would do well with the transfiguration essay. He was rather talented at the subject and felt that it would be a breeze, nothing but a miniscule drop of ink on rolls of scheduling. Without hesistation, Jaquin set down his gargantuan bag and took out a typewriter from his magically enlarged bag, stuck a peice of parchment on it and began typing, perpetually striking the buttons and after the parchment was at the end, Jaquin lifted his hand and pulled it back to the left.

Just as he was done typing his essay, Jaquin heard someone call out to him. It was a girl who looked as if she was in the 4th or 5th year. Jaquin immediately saw her Ravenclaw badge and plastered on a friendly smile as he turned in his chair to face his new acquantaince. "Good day," he said pleasantly. "What may this question be? What is your name, by the way?" He rolled up his three pages of writing and stuck it into his volumous bag before returning his gave to the girl.

[dana]

Dana smiled and sat on the edge of the table, letting one of her feet tangle down easily. Catching the quick glance to her badge after which a friendly smile appeared on Jaquins face, Dana couldn’t suppress a smirk. Diplomatic and friendly – but he had still checked the house-badge. Not bothering with polite phrases Dana cut straight to the point of her question:

“Muggle deceases – cancer, tumuor – things like that. Phoenix tears have healing power, so wouldn’t it be possible for a phoenix to heal these deceases as well? If you cut the flesh open, so phoenix could cry directly on the place that has the deceased cells or genes or whatever they were called?” The last part was added hesitantly – one of the books had talked a little about how muggles had some science called genetics. It was very briefly explained, so Dana didn’t really get the complete point as to what it was or what is was supposed to show. She thought she got the basic points down though. But right now Dana was more interested as to where the healing limit of a phoenix tears went? Surely they couldn’t heal death or paralyze, and Dana doubted about eradication as well. But what about were-wolfes – could they be helped? And what would happen if a phoenix cried on a vampire? After how long and to what amount could a phoenix neutralize poison? Dana had found answers to many questions already, but her curious mind had already supplied countless more.

Dana fell silent watching Jaquin calmly and rather levelly as she waited for his answer. Wasn’t he on the quidditch team as well? Dana had just joined so she didn’t know everybody on the team yet. Dana grinned as the irony that she – who hadn’t known how to fly before the start of this school-year – had appeared to be best as a seeker. She made a decent keeper as well, but seeker seemed to be best even though seekers sometimes did the craziest flying after the snitch.
Playing with her belly-button ring – a small snitch hanging from a short golden chain – leisurely Dana recalled that Jaquin had asked for her name as well and added it almost off-handedly: “And I’m Dana Coran.”<br>

[Jaquin Prokenstien]

((By the way, its spelled as 'disease', 'diseases', or 'diseased', and his name is Jaquin not Jacquin ;D Are you French?))

Jaquin knew exactly what to answer, but he was curious to what Dana's motive was. He had seen the girl practicing Quidditch with Savannah Johnstone, the new team captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Jaquin was rather surprised when he heard that Catalina would be letting go of that spot on the Quidditch team. Afterall, Jaquin greatly respected his fellow 6th year and felt as if she knew the Quidditch pitch better than her own hand. He looked back towards Dana through the viel of his quiet contemplation thinking her question over. It was not a particularly hard question, but Jaquin was wondering whether or not to explain it in what people called 'muggle terms' or to talk as if it were a Wizard explaining the worlwide, exasperating problems of cancers and multifarious diseases. Jaquin packed up his things before answering Dana's querie.

"First of all, Dana, I need to know what your heritage is. Is is pure, half, or muggleborn? These diseases you are talking about are any abnormal conditions of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person affected or those in contact with the person. Sometimes the term is used broadly to include injuries, disabilities, syndromes, symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts these may be considered distinguishable categories. These diseases can be caused by pathogens or pathogenic organisms, which encompass bacteria, viruses, and parasites. I'm sure that you know that cancers are. They are any malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division; it may spread to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system or the blood stream. Now, pheonix tears are able to heal things in general, but not necessarily destroy these pathogens or tumors. If you want to cure a patient of these diseases or cancers, you would have to utilize pheonix tears in certain potions, or take the muggle approach of using things like vaccines and other selective poisons. I hope that this has answered your question about diseases and cancers. So, why are you asking in the first place?" Jaquin replied after listening to what Dana had to say.

[dana]

((Sorry, I’ll go and modify your name in my post. And English is actually my third or fourth – dunno, as I started learning Russian and English at the same time – language. And yep, I also have French influences.))


Dana arched an ironic eye-brow towards Jaquin. She still remembered his comment from COMC and it had awaken the feminine side of Dana.
“You should have just asked, if you wanted my life-story,” Dana commented dryly, but answered none the less, “Half-blood as my mother ran off with a muggle. I’m raised by my grand-parents in France and as a pure-blood. But our servants – gardener and maids and cook – are muggles as the mansion is in the muggle-world, so I know about muggles. I went to a muggle school as a kid before Hogwarts, so that added to what I know as well. I have a drivers licence as well for example.” Dana made a short summary – she was rather at home in both worlds, even though she most certainly knew more about the magical world. She had to considering how high ranked her grand-parents were in the Ministry, with her grand-father the most likely candidate to be the next Minister of Magic there. And Dana was introduced and shown around the magical world since she was a kid. Her knowledge of the muggle-world however was incomplete.

Dana fell silent and listened to Jaquin’s explanation, letting it turn over in her head, picking up the places in his short speech that interested her right now.
“Utilize phoenix tears in certain potions? I was looking for some information about those. Even got a pass to the restricted section, but I either didn’t know where to look or there wasn’t any information on which potions might work like that? Can you direct me to some book where I can read about them, no matter how rare or dangerous it is. Writing to the Ministry in France would take longer than my curiosity allows. And after that dare and getting Cass and Pyro out Snape probably won’t be very willing to let me bother him with these questions even though he is the only Potions Master I know or can find easily.”<br>Dana fell silent letting Jaquin’s words through her mind once again. It certainly was useful to know – Dana’s knowledge about muggle’s, especially muggle sciences was with rather large gaps in some areas.

“Isabelle – she works for us – has a good-natured turmoil and it got me thinking, whether there was some magical way to heal those things or not,” Dana explained the reason of her question – she had said they had servants earlier, but every one of them was like family. Isabelle like an older sister, Anna and Maria as aunts and Pierre as an uncle. It wasn’t that Dana was interested in medicine, but she hated to see her friends hurt and if some research might give a less painful chance for Isabelle to recover, then Dana wouldn’t mind working in order to find it.

[Jaquin Prokenstien]

((Sorry, I had a virus problem. But, I'm back! ;D ))
"I see..... Looking to cure close friends? I'm not all that great a potions, as I'm more the type that... figures stuff out. I don't create things like my friend, Perseus.... ahem, I meant not so friendly a friend anymore. Anyways, he excells at potion making and has covered topics such as using pheonix tears in potions. However, I would not attempt any on my own unless I were at his level. Perseus really does not need much help on his potions. I mean, he could become a professional alchemist if he wants right now," Jaquin answered after a few seconds of contemplation. Afterall, he did not specialize in the field of potions and could help Dana out, but asking the potions genius, Perseus would be much easier. He took out a volume from the restricted section and showed Dana. It was called, Complex Potions of the Modern Era, and was gargantuan compared to the other tomes stuck on the bookshelves around them. Jaquin's dexterous fingers flipped through page after page. The pages became a blur as they traveled back and across at a prodigious speed. Finally, after inspecting several pages, Jaquin decided that a page explaining the properties of pheonix tears would do fine.

"See here," Jaquin said as he pointed at the page. "It says that a pheonix's tears have powerful healing properties that can mend almost any sort of physical injury. It can even help a amputated limb regrow if large amounts are applied. However, it says nothing about diseases. Seriously, Dana, I would ask Perseus about this, because I cannot answer exactly how these healing properties can be used to destroy specific cancers, viruses, or bacteria. I mean it heals. It isn't a selective poison like an antibiotic. Of course, it's strong magical properties could enhance other poisons that might destroy those pathogens or tumors, but leave the person untouched. So, what do you say? I promise that Perseus won't be that angry if anyone shows up to ask him stuff about potions. However, don't mention that you are a half-blood around him. He get's all stiff if he hears that stuff nowadays...."

[dana]

“Perseus. I know him. Have a duel with him soon,” Dana said with a smirk before a sneer that would make a Slytherin proud appeared on her face, “And I am not going to hide my background. If he can’t deal with it, then it’s his problem. There is absolutely nothing he can do; besides I have enough good friends in his house to know how to deal with Slytherins.” Dana grinned – her background from mother’s side of family was good and except for her mother running off with a muggle, the family-line had stayed pure for centuries. Added to the wealth and influence the family had in France and Italy – most Slytherins treated Dana with respect, looking past her father.
Dana glanced at the title of the book Jaquin had took and scribbled down the title on a piece of parchment: “Who said I was going to try making the potion myself? I’m alright in the subject but not that great to brew complex potions myself. If I get in trouble I’ll send a friend in SLytherin to Snape with my questions. Or ask grand-mother to ask the healers in the Ministry.”<br>Turning to look at what Jaquin was pointing do Dana arched an eye-brow deep in thoughts: “I’m not trying to regrow a limb. I’m trying to get rid of mutated cells. But since they are mutated, it means they are physically changed – phoenix tears should work to some extent. And lycanthropy – it is caused by poison, so if phoenix tears get to a werewolves bite-mark before it heals, then might lycanthropy be prevented? Or the damage of lycanthropy be reduced to one point? I think phoenix tears are used in Wolfsbane, if I recall correctly. And vampires – if a phoenix cried on vampires bite-marks, would they heal without the negative effects? But that raises the question whether it would work on vampires or not, because vampires aren’t completely living. Then again – from what point the human part in them dies? When they drink blood for the first time?”<br>Dana’s mind was whizzing with all the new questions that rose the more she thought about. She was really going to have to pay a visit to someone smarter about different medicines to get satisfying answers. Dana knew herself well enough that she wouldn’t get a decent night’s sleep with all these unanswered problems moving around in her head.

[Jaquin Prokenstien]

((So, are we continuing this post, or should we start another one with Perseus?))

[dana]

((Your characters, our choice. If you want to go on as Perseus, then start the post))

[Perseus Feynman]

((All right, then. No post is needed.))