cloudy with a Chance of freedom

chapter 19

Renato looked rather harried...but he was still grinning like a mad man.

"He is insane," said Renato.

"Why did you think I was so quick to ask if I could learn proper scrying and divination from my betrothed's clan instead of joining him a second time?" deadpanned Viper.

She rather liked the moniker Viper... it was vicious and elegant, just like her. Camellia was positively soft, never mind that it's meaning changed when you brought up the various styles of flower language that existed.

"Have fun?" asked Fon.

"Like you wouldn't believe. Scamander was positively beside himself when he found out I have a knack for speaking Reptile and Insect. Apparently I have some form of green magic in me that allows me to understand non-human languages, though it's very limited."

"So you could get near the cave Skull put in for that damn snake of his?" asked Viper raising an eyebrow.

"Not even close. I could barely understand a word in three, though I could gist when it came to the regular snakes Skull rescued. And I got a new friend out of it," said Renato pleased.

There was this poor little lizard (Skull identified it as a chameleon) that was all dried out and about to be used for potion ingredients that they had rescued from a black market ring. They didn't stand a chance between the four of them.

Verde was positively giddy having some new things to play with, especially since odds were Snape would happily let him join in on his experiments since he proved he knew what he was doing last year. He was just glad he had gotten in as a second year rather than a first year due to his age.

"So what's your pet's name?" asked Blaise.

"I've been calling him Leon. At least now I have someone to talk to while you're at that school."

Skull rolled his eyes.

"Or you could, you know, use the mirror I gave you to call us. It's no different than a phone."

"I still find it weird that you're trying to produce these...cell phones... when people are still adjusting away from those ridiculous rotary ones."

"Once technology advances enough to mass produce them, we'll have cornered the market on the things. Soon they'll be so common place that even the youngest child will want one," said Verde smugly.

Considering how wide-spread the things were before they ended up in the past, they were going to make an absolute killing once the technology had caught up to where they needed it.

Or they could cheat (which was what Verde had already done with the phone he gave Skull) and use magic to speed things up. Skull had gotten some good results with enchanting crystals to produce sounds.

"I still find it weird to talk into a freaking compact mirror," said Renato.

"You're vain enough that people will just think you're being narcissistic and dismiss it if you're looking into the mirror for a message."

Skull had the "Mirror Phone" spells down pat. They worked almost like a very basic cell phone and were much cheaper to make than the real thing...at least for now anyway. Best of all there was nothing to be hacked, since they could only store the most basic of messages and sometimes they were lost because it had been stored for too long!

"How very 'kind' of you Skull," said Renato with a twitching eyebrow.

"You're welcome, sunshine," countered Skull.

Everyone watched with amusement as the two went at it like cats and dogs. It was like watching Skull with Lark on a good day.

"Shouldn't we stop them?" asked Remus.