Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Roadblock

Gavin closed The Magic Series Codex and shifted it to the side of the lab table. He then proceeded to bring out a scalpel, dissection tray and book from the drawer under the lab table. The book was a detailed anatomical report on Hippogriffs by Newt Scamander and Edlyn Everhart, his grandfather's cousin. 

 

Though, the copy he was currently using was a modified version of the book that Edlyn added to the grand Everhart library after she created the original. The modified version was way more detailed than the original and contained a comparative analysis between the body parts of hipogriffs and their ancestors, griffins.

 

Gavin opened the book to the page with the anatomy on eyeballs. He then called for Aelia telepathically as he read through the page.

 

[You ready?] Gavin asked the bundle of cuteness as soon as she teleported to the lab table.

 

[Yep. I’m quite curious to see where you’re going with this.] She replied.

 

Aelia then extended her paws and brought out her terrifyingly sharp claws. Next, she covered her left eye and ripped it out, using magic to seal the wound and prevent blood from spurting out. Her missing eye got replaced instantly, startling Gavin at the regeneration speed. She then controlled the eye to hover in front of Gavin so he could inspect it.

 

[Your regeneration speed is astoundingly high] Gavin said to her as he inspected the eyeball in front of him.

 

It was as large as and shaped similarly to a regular mammalian eye, albeit with a few differences. The eye was a bit more ovular than a regular eye and was adorned with very few blood vessels; the blood vessels themselves were golden in color and contained golden blood. The cornea was white and glittering under the lights. The entire eye was radiating exceedingly high heat. 

 

It was so hot, that if Gavin wasn’t immune to fire, his face would have been incinerated instantly once he moved closer to see it. 

 

[Can you turn down its heat?] Gavin asked as he finished inspecting the outer appearance of the eyeball. He didn’t want it to burn his dissection equipment and the microscope he would be using; that would be annoying.

 

[Yeah, I can. Honestly, if I wasn't this close to the eyeball, it would directly burn Hogwarts to ashes. The farther I am from the eyeball, the closer it would reach to the temperature of the sun.] Aelia said as-a-matter-of-factly as she turned off the heat the eye was radiating.

 

[Yeah, well…we don’t want that now, do we?] Gavin replied as he gulped inwardly, not daring to imagine that happening.

 

Aelia just chuckled at that.

 

Gavin then grabbed the eyeball gently and placed it on the dissection tray. He then grabbed his scalpel and followed the dissection directions in the book. He cut the end of the eyeball and exposed the retina of the eyeball. Still referencing the book, he proceeded to cut a small portion off the retina and placed it on the side of the tray.

 

The whole process had to be done delicately and as precise as possible. He targeted the retina cells because that was where the photoreceptor cells of griffins were located and the photoreceptors were the cells responsible for vision.

 

[Were you able to get it?] Gavin asked Aelia as he carried the dissection tray over to the lab bench with the advanced electron microscope.

 

[Yes, it was certainly an unusual request from you] Aelia chuckled as she responded.

 

[It was required…Can you bring it now?] Gavin asked coolly.

 

[Sure thing]

 

Aelia then teleported a cylindrical container containing an eyeball floating in gooey green liquid. ‘It’ was the eyeball of a wizardkind. Gavin wanted to do a detailed comparison of the two, especially their photoreceptor DNA sequences so he needed one to experiment with. 

 

He couldn’t ask his parents to get him one as that would be suspicious, so he had asked Aelia to fetch him one before he left for Hogwarts and she did it with relative ease. She simply used the Imperius curse on a random wizard and had them buy one from a dark arts ingredients store in Knockturn Alley.

 

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After Aelia brought it, he then dissected the eyeball and took out a portion of its retina, like he did with Aelia’s eye.

 

Gavin placed the wizardkind retina portion on a microscope plate and then placed it under the microscope to observe it with his enhanced vision. Once he did, he saw all sorts of cells and after navigating around a bit, he found the photoreceptors; they looked a bit like cheese graters. 

 

Gavin quickly used the electron microscope to zoom in on the nucleus of the cell and inspected the entire length of the DNA double-helix. As he did that, he actively tried to feel magical energy in order to detect any fluctuations from any segment of the DNA. He soon found a few segments in the euchromatin of the DNA  that were causing large magical energy fluctuations.

 

(A/N: Euchromatin contains active genes. Heterochromatin contains genes that have been turned off or silenced)

 

Gavin mused that these segments were responsible for anything magical related to wizards but he couldn’t tell which one was directly responsible for light perception. Thus, he zoomed out of the cell and chose multiple non-photoreceptor cells to investigate their DNA and compare with the photoreceptors. 

 

After he did that and compared, he found a specific segment that was located in the euchromatin of the photoreceptor cells but present in the heterochromatin of the non-photoreceptor cells. Gavin grinned once he saw it. He had found it; the segment related to vision in wizards.

 

Gavin immediately noted its position and proceeded to observe Aelia’s retina cells. Once he did, he immediately noticed a stark difference from it and that of wizardkind: every cell was brimming with magical energy and was causing fluctuations.

 

Frowning, Gavin proceeded to look at the DNA of Aelia’s photoreceptors and once he did, his eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. The DNA was still a double helix, but every inch of it was covered in iridescent golden scribbles that looked like a bunch of symbols mashed together. Gavin could feel the ridiculous amount of magical energy fluctuations they were causing. 

 

The ‘scribbles’ were constantly moving around and rearranging themselves, making them seemingly impossible to decipher. Gavin had a hunch that these ‘scribbles’ were actually an ancient runic language but he couldn’t even decipher a single symbol. 

 

Gavin had studied Ancient Runes extensively alongside Arithmancy because he knew that they would be incredibly important for his experiments. He needed them to create numbers like π in the wizarding world because the only numbers that were studied by Arithmancers were the numbers 0-9. Gavin needed a way to create complex numbers and mathematical constants like π and ancient runes were the answer. 

 

Currently, Gavin was around the sixth-year in terms of proficiency in the subject and even with that, he couldn’t decipher a single symbol.

 

Gavin stopped looking at the microscope, sighed heavily and slouched back in his chair. 

 

‘Trying to get these Eyes of Truth is going to be way more arduous than I anticipated. If I can’t decode Aelia’s DNA, it's simply impossible to try to gain her ability using science. Trying to decipher all those runes will probably take me my entire life. That’s time I don’t have, I need to complete this magic measuring system by the end of first year so I can delve deeper into my theories….It seems I have to find another way to get these Eyes of Truth or find another way to sense magical energy entirely but how do I even do that?’ He thought as he frowned deeply.

 

[From the looks of it, it seems like you hit a roadblock] Aelia suddenly said softly, as if sympathizing with Gavin.

 

[Yeah, I never thought things would be this difficult…] Gavin replied, a bit exasperated. He was feeling pressured to gain power quickly because he was a bit scared that things were totally out of his control and that if he didn’t gain additional power, aside from his griffin abilities, he would die.

 

Aelia felt this and jumped into Gavins arms, which startled him. She then used her paws to pat Gavin’s nose and then licked his face, which was totally unlike her.

 

Seeing this, Gavin was shocked and couldn’t help but cheer up. He then removed his gloves, and held Aelia.

 

[Thanks...kinda needed that.] he said to Aelia, chuckling at the end.

 

[I’m waiting for my compliment] Aelia replied, closing her eyes and smiling.

 

Gavin just rolled his eyes and dropped her back on the lab table. He looked at the clock and saw that it was already a little past midnight.

 

‘I should probably head to bed...I’ll probably read more books from the library and try to find another way forward. For now, let's just enjoy my time at Hogwarts and keep an eye on the progress of the story.’ Gavin pondered, as he cleaned up his lab bench, ending his eventful day.

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