Cora entered the greenhouse and sat down waiting for the lesson to start. Hello Professor, she said.

Jasmine entered the green house a bit preoccupied but there. Walking to the front of the room she gave Professor Erikson a warm smile and sat down. "Hiya Professor Erikson! " Leaning forward a bit she whispered mysteriously, "I need to ask you something later if the rest of my plans fall into place with some other people." She finished with a wink in his direction and leaned back in her seat with a secretive if not happy smile on her face.

Ali walked into the green house looking quite sad. There was alot going on with her at the moment. She looked up at the professor."Hello, professor Erikson." Then she looked at the two plants. "Are those the Amore Fraternto, professor?"

He nodded to Cora with a smile.

He raised a brow at Jasmine's current mysteriousness. "Alright, all ears once class is over."

Ali walked in and asked about the plants and he nodded. "That's correct. Mine and Professor Blaylock's actually. Both true silver Amore Fraterno."

Hermy entered the Greenhouse and nodded a small quiet hello to Professor Erikson. Sighing slightly, she sat down and vaguely remembered what had been covered in Herbology previously. The last few weeks had been such a blur and none of her notes had sunken in. Flicking open a small sketchpad, she started sketching the plants on the front table.

"Well, let's not stall anymore." He nodded, looking over the few students in his classroom. "Today's lesson is inspired by the last lesson. I kept having so many genetics responses when all I was looking for was a demonstration of colors. So, I decided we can find out how plants get those colors. So, who can tell me what genetics are?"

Jasmine was getting her parchment and quill out to take notes, when her boyfriend Keller entered and sat next to her. Giving the professor a wave hello he whispered quietly in her ear. Smiling, she leaned in to hear what he was saying. At his words, her head turned quickly to look at him, her smile completely gone. He looked at her apologetically as her face fell with disappointment. Dejectedly she slumped in her seat and gave his hand a quick squeeze so he knew she wasn't upset with him. She knew he was bummed out too. Both very quiet now they stared ahead as the professor began class.

Raising her hand Jasmine said quietly,"Genetics is the study of heredity between like organisms dealing with characteristics,traits, genes, etc."


ooc: sorry my comp is so slow

Hermy stopped drawing and raised her hand. "Genetics is the study of genes. Genes are the sequences of DNA that code for certain characteristics in living organisms, such as hair and eye colour is humans, and petal colour in plants. Genetics looks at how these characteristics come about and how individuals are formed."

Erikson nodded. "Very good. Three points to Ravenclaw and Gryffindor both." He smirked. "Now, the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic has found that genetics as we know them and magic are quite set apart from each other." With a sigh, he added, "which reminds me... All things discussed in this lesson plan are going to relate to what can be found through normal muggle means or shall relate to the color of the blossom in the Amore Fraterno. All other matter is deemed secret... yadda yadda... So if your questions on genetics deviate from outside of that field, don't expect and answer." He groaned as though the very formality of it drained him. "It was a condition of teaching you this that I do that. Anyway, onto business."

"Where was I? Oh yes! We won't get into chemical components or other such nonsense. That's for them to deal with. However, there is a certain simplicity to all of this in the beginning. Genes are considered dominant or recessive, though this is rather a mis-statement. In truth, genes are either turned on or off, and it's done so in pairs."

"For instance, brown eyes are supposedly dominant over blue eyes." He walked up to a board and wrote Br and Bl. "Blue eyes are considered recessive. Can someone tell me what this means in terms of the pairs? If someone had a blue eye gene and a brown eye gene, by this definition, What would happen?"

Cora raised her hand "the person should have brown eyes because they are dominant over blue eyes."

Hermy nodded in agreement with the Hufflepuff. She raised her hand. "Yes, I agree, brown eyes, unless there is a mututation of some sorts of course."

Jasmine raised her hand,"I also agree. Brown eyes are dominant, and therefore more commonly found. While blue eyes being recessive, and are less common. However, I suppose there would be somesort of ration involved in there somewhere, like 1 out of 4 or something."

Cora also added "Dominant in pairs means that when an animal or plant has two dominant genes, then they will show the dominant gene. When a plant or animal has two recessive genes, then they will show the recessive gene. However, when a plant or animal has one dominant gene and on recessive gene, they will show the dominant gene."

Rasing her hand again, Jasmine said," Professor Erikson, may ask a question?"

Erikson nodded. "Very good. Three points to each of you." He looked to Jasmine curiously. "Yes, what is it?"

"Well, I was wondering when we cross pollinated our flowers, if we were going to try and produce a hybrid with another plant as well?" Jasmine hoped that wasn't a stupid question, but hybrids always facinated her.

"Not by cross-pollination, no." He smiled. "Next class will be focusing on grafting. I can think of a hybrid studies class for next term, however. Anyway..."

He tapped the board. "In truth, there are two genes which determine eye color as far as muggle scientists know. And as I said, genes are really like an on-off switch that works in pairs. One gene is for brown eyes, the other is for green. Only here is dominance ever an issue... because unlike blue eyes and brown eyes, which are actually part of the same gene, brown eyes and green eyes are entirely separate genes."

He erased the Bl from the board and replaced it with Gr. "But, you'll also notice that a person's eyes can range from green to brown, but rarely, if ever, blue to green. This is because while brown is dominant over green, it will also cause a blending of color." He wrote Bl below both Br and Gr on the board, then doubled them. In the middle of each Br/Bl or Gr/Bl pairing, he drew a light switch. Under that, he drew an eye, which currently looked blank.
"For instance..." he tapped the eye, which turned light brown, "if we were to turn off one brown switch..." He tapped a switch and it moved to the 'off' position. The eye turned a dark green, though still rather brown-ish. "There, you see? To get blue, we just turn them all off." He turned off the other brown switch and the eyes were a slightly lighter green. A green switch turned off and the eye was a rather light green, though still not pale. Turning off the last switch, the eye was blue at last.

"That turned out looking better than I thought... I'd just come up with it now." Shaking his head to keep from getting further distracted, he looked back to the class. "Of course, the Amore Fraterno has a wide range of colors, as well as two special types I mentioned before. Who remembers what those were?"

"Silver and multi- colored?" Jasmine guessed.

Cora raised her hand "The colors were multi-colored and silver."

"Multi-colored and silver?" Caitlin asked, raising her hand.

"You all listen after all!" he said in mock shock. "A point to each of you!" He grinned. "Now, normally separate colors blend, or a color is chosen dependent on dominance. Right? Well, the Amore is a magical plant, of course. Remember that the magical properties also make it a highly adaptive plant? Well, it was forced to develop a gene which keeps the plant's flower only one color. So, what would happen if this gene were to be turned off?"

"Perhaps if you turned off the gene, a single plant oculd produce many flowers of different colors and blends of colors," Cora said rather unsure.

Sam raised her hand. "Er... then that would be when it's multicolored, right?" Sam wasn't sure.

Thinking a moment, Jasmine finally said,"We would have combined colored flowers? Like a blue and red flower would produce a purple one, or blue and yellow would produc a green one, etc?" Grimacing she hoped she wasn't confused.Though it wouldn't be the first time.