Chapter 0015 - EPQ

Hermione Granger POV

After hearing that and Jessica making sure Luna was okay, we headed towards the fourth floor. I just stood there, stunned.

"Wait. There was an explosion? What even is the project? How are you allowed to do research at Hogwarts? I thought you needed permission from Dumbledore," I asked in quick succession.

I walked alongside Jessica as she explained.

"We call it the EPQ: Extended Project Qualification. It's basically where, in your third year, you can research whatever you want and create something new and practical. It can be a variation of a spell or anything you like."

"Anything you like? So if I could, I could create, I don't know, a magical weapon of some sort?"

"If you really wanted, yeah. But there are some requirements. It has to be original, practical, and not too dangerous. It also has to be signed off by Flitwick, and you need either a sixth- or seventh year student to be your supervisor. Then your supervisor can authorise your research," Jessica said. "However, you can't do it. This is exclusively for Ravenclaw students."

"That's not fair!"

"It is fair. This is a tradition that dates back to the founding of Hogwarts. This programme helps create the next generation of researchers that will propel us into the future. It is our birth right," Jessica said. "And plus, you have your own things that other houses can't have. So it is fair."

"It sounds like something I would enjoy."

"You should have been sorted in Ravenclaw. You would feel more at home with us."

"Maybe, but I like how it is," I said with a smile. "What's the point of it? How long does it usually take to finish?" 

"Most people are finished by the start of their fifth year. Some people finish early, and others finish much later. What the point of it?" Jessica said. "The point of it is that we stop being bookworms and do something with our intelligence. We do something productive. We learn key skills, and we learn to be independent. We also learn how to stop being arrogant and learn how to ask for help. And when they finish documenting their research, we usually send it off to the guilds. The guilds can then patent the research and decide whether to invest in it further. It also opens career pathways outside of Britain."

"Oh, okay. Has anyone researched something revolutionary?" 

"Yes, we've had a few. Take Percy's pregnancy potion. He developed it for his EPQ project and finished it during his third year. His coffers are full because of it. Isn't that right, Percy?" Jessica said as Percy nodded. "We also had this kid a year below us that created a rune matrix for a really effective greenhouse lighting rig. Or something along that line. I don't really know much about it, but I can tell you it was good. It was so good that the Greengrass family has exclusive rights to its use in Britain, and he's also rolling in money now. They both finished their projects before the fifth year, but Isabel is still doing hers."

"What is she doing it on? Why wouldn't it take that long?" 

"From what I'm allowed to say, it is... You know your best friend, Neville?" Jessica asked, and Hermione nodded. "Well, her research project has helped them regain their mental faculties. Don't tell Neville! It's meant to be a surprise."

"I thought they were never able to... you know, be normal people ever again?"

"That's the magic of it. Isabel's research will allow them to regain a sense of normalcy, and it will help a lot of other people."

"Are all of them like this?" 

"No, they're the standouts. For every amazing outcome, there are a dozen decent ones. Like mine," Jessica said. "My project was simplifying and optimising the rune matrix for a protection ward. There are a lot of them out there in the market. Mine was nothing special." 

"That is still amazing. Don't put yourself down," I said. "You've done something that I couldn't do and still can't when you were younger. And people say I'm the second greatest witch of our generation?"

"You definitely have the talent for it." 

"Thank you, Jessica," I said. "Luna? Would you mind telling me what your project is about?"

"No, I can't tell you," Luna said before stopping in front of a door. "It's better if I show you."

~~~~~

The room was, in the politest way possible, a mess. There were journals all over the floor; I think I saw a BLT on one of the desks. The ceiling was charred. I guess she wasn't lying about the explosion.

But what really caught my attention was the stone pillar in the middle of the room. It had a see through glass side with what appeared to be a motor on top. The motor was attached to pieces of metal. I'm guessing that's the oscillator. In the middle of the cylinder was a blue spherical gemstone. I was pretty sure I could hear it pulsating.

"The blue thing there is a Gemstone. It was one of my mother's last research projects," Luna said as she gestured to the floating stone. "My EPQ was on creating a method to fortify the stone. Before, it was volatile and could blow up in your face if the ambient magical fluctuation were too much."

"What exactly does it do?" Jessica asked.

"My mother initially created it from waste Wardstones. She wanted it to be a self-replenishing magical storage device," Luna said. "And it works. With my fortifying the crystal, it's more stable. However, it does not work the way Mother had envisioned it."

"Is that why there are explosions?" Percy asked.

"Yes, I was trying to find a way to make it work. And I succeeded," Luna said. "Partially, that is. As I said earlier, it's stable at 510,000 resolutions per minute, but anything else doesn't work."

"And hence the explosion."

"Yes. Can you help me?" Luna asked. "You're the smartest person I know after myself, obviously," Luna said with a smirk.

"Happy to help," Percy said before delving into a journal with Luna.

"Hermione and I will be cleaning this pig state while you guys do your weird nerdy things," Jessica said as she pulled my arm.

We received grunts of approval from the other two before we started cleaning up. Jessica and I went to the other side of the room.

"I just wanted to ask, from earlier, what is a guild?" I asked. "I've heard Ravenclaws use that term, but I don't know what it is. I checked the library and couldn't find anything on it."

"I'm not surprised you didn't find any. You have Phineas Nigellus Black, Armando Dippet, and Albus Dumbledore to thank for that," Jessica replied.

"Why? What did they do?"

"To understand why they did it, you need to know what the Guilds are. The Guilds are basically a society of like-minded people in the same field. They strive to discover and innovate. Doesn't sound too bad, does it?" Jessica said as I nodded. "During Headmaster Black's tenure, he was worried about the number of students that the Guilds would poach, so he limited interactions between the Guilds and the students. During Headmaster Dippet's tenure, he and the other Board members didn't like how the Guilds had a say in the Hogwarts curriculum, so they decided to get rid of their seats in the Board of Governors."

"What were they teaching?"

"It was nothing too bad. It's just more efficient spells, recipes, and stuff like that. However, the interests of the rest of the Board of Governors and the Headmaster were now in conflict. So they decided to get rid of their influence and protect their interests. Dumbledore had a falling out with them, and he still holds a grudge, so he removed a lot of books that mentioned them."

"Dumbledore wouldn't do that," I said while picking up a journal and starting to skim it.

"Do you know about the restricted section of the library?" Jessica asked as I nodded. "There are lots of books that are better than the ones we used locked in there. Why don't we use them? They were written by the Guilds."

"Maybe they were too political, and Dumbledore decided to remove them? Or maybe they weren't factual? Or maybe they contained things we shouldn't have learned?"

"Some of the books in the restricted section are truly dark, but most are not. Especially the Guild approved text books," Jessica said as I frowned. "The Guild approved textbooks are some of the most politically neutral books in circulation. Side note: All members of the guild have sworn to political neutrality. Some are more enforced than others, but they are all neutral. For example, the Healer's Union would exile members for picking sides during conflicts or choosing to heal only one side, whereas the Engraver's Guild just wants you to personally exclude yourself from the political scene. They do allow members to exploit some loopholes if deemed absolutely necessary, however most wouldn't go against the oath. The textbooks they wrote were written in collaboration with experts in their fields, so do you think they are factually incorrect?"

"There must be another reason. He is one of the greatest wizards to have ever lived; the second coming of Merlin. He wouldn't do that."

"Do you know why Dumbledore and the Guilds fell out? During the war, when Grindelwald was at the height of his power, Dumbledore went to the guilds for help. He asked them to break their oaths of neutrality, and they rightfully refused. Because they refused, Dumbledore had to join the war directly and basically cripple his former lover. And since then, Dumbledore has not gotten on well with the Guilds."

"Wait! Dumbledore and Grindelwald were lovers? Since when? How come we don't know?"

"It's a pretty well known fact everywhere in Europe except Britain."

"What else don't we know?"

"Actually, a lot. Did you know we wouldn't be considered in the top five institutions in the world if not for Percy?"

"What does Percy have to do with it?"

"Well, considering he's the most famous Hogwarts student, even more famous than the girl who lived, and he's the reason why Hogwarts is more like an educational institution than a day-care," Jessica said as I looked at her, confused. "If it wasn't for him banding all the minor families, like mine, together, you would be taught a whole different curriculum. The things you're learning now in lessons, if things were like before, you would learn them at the end of your fifth year or maybe at the start of your sixth year. And also, all the extracurriculars—we wouldn't have them. The languages, the arts, and the labours. We wouldn't have them if it weren't for him."

"There weren't any extracurriculars?"

"They're a recent addition. Even some of your electives are really new..." Jessica said this before I cut her off.

"Luna!? Is everything inside these books accurate?"

"They should be."

"I may have a solution to your problem."

I quickly walked over to where Percy and Luna were sitting, and I showed them the page on the journal I found. I pointed to it, but they looked over at me in confusion.

"Don't you see? This could solve your problem."

"How?" Luna asked.

"Here it says your mother recorded the activity at about 9,192,631,770. Do you know what this could mean?"

Both of them looked at me with confusion.

"9,192,631,770? Louis Essen? 1955? The first caesium atom clock?"

Both of them shook their heads.

"Louis Essen created the first caesium atom clock. He used a caesium-133 atom and discovered that it transitioned at 9,192,631,770 per second. What metal do you currently use for the resonators?"

"Silver," Luna replied.

"That's your first problem solved. Just switch out silver for caesium-133."

"How expensive would that be?" Percy asked.

"Quite cheap, actually. It's one of the most abundant metals on this planet, I think. At least that's what I remember," I said as they looked at me, impressed.

"How much, exactly?" Luna asked.

"It should be around £100,000 for your needs."

"That's not really that cheap," Percy said.

"It is compared to other alternatives."

"It also says that it goes beyond 9,192,631,770 activities per second," Luna stated.

"That's probably because your mother did not have the necessary equipment to measure it more accurately. It could be higher than what she found."

I flicked through the journal to the second page I found. It had a device similar to the one Luna had built on the pillar in the middle of the page. My finger hovered over a small section of illegible writing.

"Renaissance? What?"

"Resonance, not Renaissance, Luna," I said as she looked down at the page sheepishly. "Silver resonates at 8,500 Hz, or 510,000 revolutions per minute. With caesium-133, you would need to up it to around nine giga Hz and it should work."

"How fast is that?"

"Nine with nine zeros behind it per second," I said. "You probably have to get a new setup to make it work or find a new method."

"So you're saying this could work."

"Yeah, but there's one small caveat. You would have to keep the room super cool. Like cold cold. Like really cold."

"Ooh, I know, I know," Jessica shouted out with her right hand flailing in the arm. "We can ask Pricilla. Her project was to make a rune matrix that could instantly cool a room enough to freeze water."

"Wont work. From what Hermione is saying, it has to be much colder than that," Percy said.

"We could ask your girlfriend," Jessica said as Percy looked at her, confused. "Fleur. She is good with this stuff. You could ask her for help."

"Luna, would you mind another person knowing about your project?"

"No. They can't copy it. Only I know how to make the fortified gemstone."

"Then it is settled. We wait for Fleur until Friday, and I ask Flitwick to order the caesium-133. We meet here again on Friday."

"Can I come?" I asked.

"As long as you don't tell anyone about this, then yes," Luna said.