The Boy Who Was Forgotten

Part 11

Riplimb seemed to be in shock the whole time it took Hadrian and Cinis down to Hadrian's trust vault. It was the closest one and only took a ten-minute ride in the cart. Cinis smirked the whole way down while Hadrian smiled politely at the archaic form of transport. Once they were down at the vault Hadrian asked for a bag that would withdraw straight from whichever vault he asked for. Riplimb handed over a small black leather pouch. It was big enough to hold about 10G but not much more. Opening the pouch Hadrian looked inside. It was completely empty.
"You just ask for an amount and that is how much will be withdrawn." Riplimb explained. Hadrian nodded and handed over 15G to pay for the pouch taking the money Riplimb led the two boys back to the cart and took them up to the surface.
"May your enemies fall and your coffers ever be full, Master Riplimb." Hadrian said the traditional goblin goodbye, he then nodded his head and exited leaving a very shocked and slightly confused Riplimb to scurry away to find his King and tell him of the offer.

As Hadrian and Cinis stepped out into Diagonally several people turned to stare at the boys. Both Hadrian and Cinis found it quite funny how much they were stared at. Chuckling quietly the two boys slipped into the shadows and down Knockturn Alley. Once there they slipped into the bookstore on the left, just to check if there was anything that Hadrian hadn't read yet. The inside of the store was just as dusty as the outside. The boys searched the store and left with three books. All written in parsletongue, the lady at the counter had been unwilling to let them buy it until both of the boys hissed at her in unison. It was hilarious to see her reaction, she immediately started asking them loads of questions about how the gift of parsletongue worked, definitely a Ravenclaw at heart.
"So how do you understand the snakes? Do you hear the translation in your mind or do you hear what they say in English? Do your thoughts run in English or do you sometimes think in parsletongue? What sort of things do the snakes talk about? How is the translation of what they say different to normal English? Do they have good grammar? What about their vocabulary? Is there a difference between the parsletongue for different species? Does that mean you are dark wizards?" The witch tried to catch her breath to start asking questions again but Cinis interrupted.

"Well it depends on theperson and whether we focus on it or not. For me, I here hissing but understandthe meaning but for Hadrian he hears English and if he focuses, he hears thehissing. Sometimes after having a conversation in parsletongue I find myselfthinking in hisses, but mostly I think in English. Mostly snakes complain abouthumans, or about their mates, or about their young. So mostly complaining, butthere are odd ones that can hold a very interesting conversation. Well, namesdon't really translate into parsletongue, you have to spell them out or combinethe letter sounds to create the name, but otherwise parsletongue is pretty muchnormal English when translated. Most snakes have good grammar but some lowerspecies of snakes like ribbon snakes have worse grammar than royal or higher upsnakes like basilisks or mambas have much better grammar and vocabulary. Noparsletongue is the universal language of snakes, across the globe allparsletongue is the same, apart from some minor differences depending on therank of the species or the particular snake in question. As for your lastquestion, we are not dark, we are not light, we are magic. That is all there isto it. Good day!" And with that Cinis pulled Hadrian from the store grumbling aboutnosy witches.

 Hadrian was laughing at Cinis as he griped while tugging him down Knockturn alley to a well-known weapon maker's store. 'Master Bladebeard's Weapons & Wands' was apparently 'the only place we can get you an acceptable wand so hurry up already!' The two handsome young men entered the store and Hadrian was surprised to see a goblin manning the till. It was uncommon enough to see a goblin outside of Gringotts, let alone being employed by a business separate from the wizarding bank. A thought struck Hadrian, living in Imbetween with some of histories brightest wizards taught him loads, but because they rarely took trips back out into the modern world, they knew little about the minor things that went on. So maybe it was common practice to have goblins owning or working at stores now, it would make sense, they are some of the most efficient workers.