Lesson #2
 

HM Hendrik walks swiftly into his classroom and shuffles several stacks of paper on his desk.

"Well class, if you all would just come in and have a seat...I seem to be somewhat behind in teaching this term....I need to start right away...I will give you all a few moments to get out some parchment before I begin."

Entered the classroom and automatically headed for one of the front rows. He looked about as active as usual, only that his uniform was rumpled as if he'd slept in it reccently. He sat down and reached into his bag, only to remember that he'd used his last roll of parchment earlier and...well, due to circumstances, had not been able to purchase more. He pondered for a moment, then pulled out the dragon diagrams from the last CoMC class and turned them over onto the blank side. He then regarded the Headmaster quietly, thinking, though focusing on Hendrik's nose rather than his eyes.

Nadia entered the classroom, a couple of book under her arm. Not all of the books were necessarily about dragons. She looked quite tired, the space under her eyes shadowed by lack of sleep. Absentmindly she sat in the front row and almost didn't notice Jaren sitting right besides and she let out a quite loud yawn. She regarded it as strange to see him there. Shaking her head and minding er own business, she took one of her books and sarted to read, again, yawning.

"Good mo-rning, professor," she said though yawns, one of her hand diving to her mouth to cover it.

Knowing that he had much to cover, HM Hendrik began his lesson...

"I would like to pick up where I left off....I believe someone had asked me if I could show them what the inside of a dragon bone looked like. Alas, I was unable to put my hands on the specific diagram I was looking for. I did, however find an interesting figure of the internal organs that I thought you might like to see."

He pointed his wand at the stack of parchment on his desk and levitated it the first person in the front row.

"Jaren, would you please pass these out."

Parchment

HM Hendrik waived his wand at the board and an explination of the figure appeared.
1. brain
2. spinal cord
3. Jacobson's organ
4. hydrocarbon storage vessicle
5. nasal passage
6. trachea
7. oesophagus
8. heart
9. fore air sac
10. lung
11. aft air sac
12. diaphragm
13. liver
14. gall bladder
15. stomach
16. spleen
17. bladder
18. urethra
19. uterus
20. female part
21. anus
22. ovary
23. fallopian tue
24. rectum
25. appendix
26. small intestine
27. large intestine
28. ureter
29. kidney
30. pancreas


"In this figure the lungs of the dragon are large and efficient. Air sacs that aid making the creature lighter for flight are visible to the front and back of the lungs, and are also large. The intelligence of the dragon is reflected in the large degree of encephalisation exhibited."

Nadia copie down the list. When looking at the diagram Jaren had just handded she thought she would be sick - well, at least it wasn't as graphic as the other muscles-ones. She stared at it thinking of the spinal cord, attatched to the brain.

Serena was fascinated with the diagram the Professor showed the students.

"Wow, that's a big word for brain? I had to look it up!"

Handing out the parchment to the rest of the class, Jaren returned to his seat, taking one copy for himself and placing the extras back on the Headmaster's desk. He regarded the diagram with scientific interest, tracing the path of air intake with his quill.

"I presume the air sacs are also involved in fire brathing?" Jaren asked. "Or would it be the lungs?"

Adam copies down the body parts. When he's finished, he looks up at Headmaster Hendrik.

sabina copies down the list which reminds her of the biology class she took at a muggle school before coming here.

Sangeetha took the copy from her felloe Slytherin and looked at the diagram with her left eyebrow raised. It somewhat reminded her of Godzilla, only this time it showed the internal parts. Chuckling, she quickly pulled out her Phoenix fetahered quill, green ink and parchment and wrote the list down quickly.

She then observed that the spinal cord connected the brain running along the middle of its back till the tail. She then saw that the intestines were like huge hose pipes. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. It was quite a revolting sight.

"Actually the air sacs have very little to do with fire breathing, if you look closely at the figure, you will see that #3, the Jacobson's organ is the primary organ involved with fire breathing....but I will get into that later. I would first like to concentrate on flight.

The wings of a dragon are based on the principle arm of any animal, i.e. they consist of an thumb and four very lengthened fingers, the whole connected with a membrane as we can observe in the bat. It is significant to understand that the similar struture between the shoulder, the arm and the hand is homologous with the corresponding structures of the wing for the dragon."

HM Hendrik points his wand at the board...(ooc:give the image a moment to load...it changes for you)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../arm2wing2.gif


"It is also important to understand that the membrane of the wing does not attaches close to the shoulder as certain biologically erroneous drawings can sometimes show but near the bottom of the back of the dragon close to the thighs.

This is very important since if the wings would be connected in the top of the back, the dragon would fly but it would have a vertical position (head up, posterior & tail down) that would be a serious disadvantage for the speed and also for the maneuvrability. When the wings are connected at the bottom of the back, the dragon can have a horizontal position and thus the head and the tail can be used as rudder and allows a great maneuvrability (at least, definitely higher than the vertical position). This also allows a greater surface for the wings (a critical element in flight)."

"That is really fascinating. I love that the wings closely resemble a human arm like that. I wonder if we could transfigure our arms into wings and fly, that would be awesome!" said Serena.

HM goes to his desk and takes another stack of parchments and begins to hand them out.

"If you would all look at this drawing of wing placement..."

Parchment

"The wings are connected near the shoulder. This is the most improbable type of wing. The surface is small near the body making the flight and even the glidding difficult, moreover the rear of the dragon tends to "fall" toward the ground.
However, this disposition gives good results if the dragon is hovering. Now tap the parchment with you wand to see the next image."

Parchment

"The wings are connected below the chest. The wings as shown in this image are somewhat between the shoulder blade and the theigh. Not a bad position, yet still not effective for maximum flight maneuvrability. And now if you all would be so kind as to tap your parchment one last time..."

Parchment

"The wings are connected near the thighs. This give a greater surface for the wings. The long neck and the tail give balance and enable the dragons to quickly gain or lose altitude."

Kay nodded as the professor spoke, scribbing down notes on the side of the parchement.

Nadia incribbed down some notes and remembered about her hoemwork, where she had stupidly added much more than neccessary, including the wings parts. She sighed. At least it was nonetheless interesting to review all of these facts.

"Yes, dragons lay eggs and all birds have a uterus and that 'female part'.

Now...let's see...."

He points his wand at the board....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ingdetails.gif

"There are three membranes that make up the wing: the primary mainsail, the secondary mainsail and the spar mainsail. The primary mainsail stretches from the dorsal spine and shoulder, stretching to the inner bone and forms that largest of the three membranes that comprises the wing. It is this membrane that supports the majority of the body weight. The secondary mainsail extends from the inner bone to the mid bone, whilst the third mainsail, the spar mainsail, runs from the mid bone to the spar bone. As well as providing support of the body's weight, these latter two mainsails provide manoeuvrability. The membranes can be manipulated by the tendons attached to the various joints, to provide movement in both the horizontal and vertical planes. The outermost tip of the spar mainsail is termed the 'finger sail' since it is able to function almost independently of all the other mainsails.
The wing membranes are nearly translucent in Dragons, although thicker over the bones and muscle attachment points. However, they are significantly stronger than they appear. Additional support of the primary mainsail is provided by a number of cartilages which extend from the arm and finger joint towards the trailing edge and referred to as 'batten ribs'.

Jaren sketched the diagram on the board and labelled it, hand flying across the parchment as he tried to write down the main points of what the Headmaster had said in the confined space.

Primary mainsail...secondary mainsail...spar mainsail...batten ribs.

Ooo-o, how beautiful these creatures were... Dragons... She would like to meet that old keeper-of-the-keys, who had that Norbert-dragon as a pet...Unfortunately it was impossible to meet him anymore... And what would he know, having had that dragon such a short time... Decides to feed her pet-snake some extra-treats on christmas-holidays... Makes some defence-charms, just in case...

"I don´t understand these people; we in Durmstrang are supposed to be weird?", she thinks.

*Scribbles down notes on a piece of parchment...*

Three membranes that make up the wing: the primary mainsail, the secondary mainsail and the spar mainsail
The wing membranes are nearly translucent in Dragons. . . Thicker over the bones and muscle attachment points. . . Stronger than they appear.

Serena finishes taking notes on the dragons wings and starts to think again about seeing a real dragon. The pictures were great, but she longed to see the real thing. She said to herself, "I wish they would bring dragons back to Hogwarts, like they did for the Tri-Wizard Tournament years ago."

Scribbling like crazy although haven't got a clue what it's all about..

HM Hendrik glances outside and realizes the time...

"Good Googly Moogly! My apologized class but I'm going to have to cut this lesson a bit short...many things to do and the term is rapidly comming to an end. I will assign homework and Extra Credit. Everyone has until the end of the term to complete it and get it to me.

Here now," he points his wand at a piece of chalk and it begins to write on the board....

Describe the different sections of a dragon’s wing.



Explain in as much detail as you need, why wing placement is important. Specifically where on a dragon body is is the optimal placement for wing membrane connection.



Though I didn’t cover it in class, describe the Jacobson’s organ.



Extra Credit:



Draw an illustration of what you think the inside of a dragon bone looks like. If you need to, refer back to the last lesson for a description.