Signum Vitalis (a dramione story)

Introduction to Alpha-Lambda

The rest of the week went a lot more smoothly than that first day. Once the Professors got off of their soap boxes, the classes actually started to get interesting. Hermione found herself quickly getting buried in schoolwork, especially with all of the extra studying she felt was necessary. She had taken up studying biochemistry in the mornings to supplement what they were studying in physiology. She felt like she had more catching up to do on the hard science front than her American classmates, a familiar feeling from her early Hogwarts days.

An alarm alerted her she need to go grab breakfast before school. Luna was already in the kitchen eating a bowl of pudding. The green sludge had yet to make any reappearances outside of the spare room, for which Hermione was grateful. Hermione poured herself some tea from the teapot she had put on earlier and put some bread in the toaster.

"Morning, Luna," she called as she sorted through their fruit bowl for an edible piece of fruit.

"Morning, I would be careful of the bananas, it seems like they've attracted too many fruit pixies."

Hermione pulled out a very ripe banana from the bottom of the bowl. "Hm... I guess you're right," she agreed then decided on a gala apple as a safer choice. She spread jam on her toast and joined Luna at the table. "You came in rather late last night, how'd it go?"

Luna licked her spoon and turned it in her hand as she talked. "Well, Rolf said we should try when things were quiet and dark...so we were out pretty late," Luna paused and looked off into the distance. "We actually got a very good picture and some new information but Rolf was acting a little odd."

Hermione wondered what could possibly be considered odd to Luna. She opened her mouth to ask but Luna suddenly stood up from the table.

"Well, we've got a lot to get done before the weekend. Enjoy school, Hermione, I'm sure you will." With a 'scourgify' directed at her dish, Luna floated out of the kitchen. Hermione finished her breakfast, puzzling over her unvoiced question.

She arrived at school early enough to get everything in order and sat in what had come to be her normal spot. John joined her right before the professor began her lecture. He always managed to slide in right before the lecture began, leaving Hermione miffed and impressed at the same time. She had gotten used to this routine and so smiled at his friendly greeting before immersing herself in the rest of the day's lecture.

During the break, John leaned over and asked, "What's the difference between the flare corde and signum vitalis spells?"

Hermione breezed into an explanation and then stopped as she saw his face and settled for a shorter answer.

"Fundamentally, signum vitalis encompasses flare corde as well as other spells such as qualitas anima. It's a general spell used to rule out the body's vital systems as the source of the ailment."

"Ah, makes sense," he nodded and leaned back into his chair. Hermione could never tell if he meant it.

The next class was their first lab class from Professor Greythorn. The professor started by reviewing the spell that they had been talking about in lecture. She asked a relatively simple question from the reading but the class sat silently. Hermione sat on her hands and counted several seconds before compulsively raising her hand.

"Yes, miss?"

"The signum vitalis monitors the signals sent in and out of the medulla oblongata to determine irregularities in breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure."

"Exactly."

Hermione felt the thrill of a small victory run through her but it was quickly quenched when the professor announced soon after that they would be splitting up into their lab groups. The class abruptly became chaos once they were told to meet their groups.