There was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Pomona said.
Then the door opened, and Cedric walked in.
"You wanted to see me, Head of House?" said Cedric with a rosy complexion and a smile.
"Please, sit," Pomona said to the Quidditch captain, pointing at the chair across from her desk.
Cedric obediently took a seat.
"I assume you know that Gryffindor's Seeker has acquired another new 'secret weapon,'" Pomona said.
"I wouldn't call it a 'secret' weapon," Cedric said with a smile.
"Doesn't that upset you?" Pomona asked.
"No. Harry's broom broke, so he bought a new one. That's all it is to me," Cedric said, still smiling.
She could not quite tell whether the boy truly thought that way or was deliberately being considerate.
"Is that what you wanted to say, Head of House?" Cedric asked.
"No." Pomona handed Cedric the book she had prepared beforehand. "Read this, then write me a report."
Cedric took the book and began flipping through it.
"This is a book written by a Muggle." Cedric frowned in confusion.
"More precisely, it is a record of lectures at the University of Edinburgh." Pomona began reading its contents to Cedric. "The value and meaning of life in evolution depend on its interaction with the whole. This principle of interaction is achieved through the shaping process of natural selection. Living matter possesses every attribute required by the process of natural selection."
Cedric looked at Pomona with even greater confusion.
"Have you read Darwinian evolution?" Pomona asked.
"I have," Cedric said.
"The Galápagos Islands where he was could be understood as a 'domain.' The overall population of living creatures surviving within that system was coherent and unified, until the human Darwin appeared." As she spoke, Pomona poured herself a cup of tea. "The system was