The Shadow of Slytherin

The beginning of summer

Going over all you have learnt from books Atticus has borrowed you from his ancient runes class, you sit over the scrolls and translate as much as you can. While the sun vanishes from the window of the old room, the creaking of footsteps on the wooden stairs comes creeping closer but too occupied with the scroll, you do not notice them until something soft brushes against your neck.

"There you are, thought you might have left" A feather in hand, the tip brushing against your cheek as you turn to see who stands behind you, Alec grins back, then drops to the ground in front off the scrolls and books you have spread out. "Ah, trying to figure it out, are we?" The hand on one of the translated papers, Alec raises his eyebrows and snickers. "Better than my version, but this one is wrong"

"What?" Wresting the paper from his hand, you lay it next to the book and the scroll you have copied. "No, here it says, at the rise of the full moon on the fifth day of the cycle-"

"New moon" Alec corrects, the feather flying over the paper. "We thought full moon too, but if you look here, when you combine these words-" The fingers point at two different sections of the book, "it becomes new moon, not full moon"

Watching you continue to write down all you have figured out, Alec drops back onto the dusty ground, the eyes on the arctic blue strands that hang from your head as you blow them out of the way to be able to see. "Then that one,-" you utter, jotting down more translations. A long sigh, you rub your eyes and stretch, your bones cracking when you turn to Alec and tilt your head. "What?"

"You remind me of Atticus, he makes the same face when focussed"

"Thanks" A sarcastic smile on your lips, you lean over the paper to Alec and lower your head right before his, "Why are you here anyway?"

The fingers brushing through the loose strands, tugging them behind your ear, Alec sits up causing you to shift your weight and almost drop on top of him, but he holds you up and laughs. "Oh, you know, after all that happened we figured you might do something dangerous, and since your boyfriend is not around any more I figured someone should keep an eye on you"

"I am fine" The legs on either side of Alec, you sit up and eye him as he takes a deep breath and leans back on his elbows, "So you can tell your boyfriend to stop sending someone to check on me, first Akira, now you" Rolling your eyes, you breathe in sharp when Alec sits up, his torso pressed against your.

"Akira was here too?"

"Not here, in the mausoleum, but I've seen him hide,-" A snicker rolls over your lips as you place your arms around Alec's neck, "not very well, but he tries. Saw him fall into a bush one time, never heard a guy scream like that"

His hands wandering over your sides to your hips, Alec leans closer and grins, "You really wanna talk about Akira right now? I mean-"

"No, but you refuse to leave, and I might need a break from all of this" The hands waving at the papers on the ground, you turn your head, then tilt it and stare at the drawing on one of the pages.

His face right before yours, Alec pulls you closer with his hands, sitting up straight to look at you smile. "Well, maybe, I can-"

"No way-" Climbing off his lap, you hurry over to the wall and remove two papers with drawings on them, then return to your spot on the ground and add them to the pile you have translated.

One by one they find their place on the dusty ground, overlapping until they form a full drawing, not that the drawings were incomplete, but the lines cross over to form a whole new picture and while you study the final one, copying to the papers, you spot the writing also overlapping.