The Boy Who Wanted to Live

A brief conversation

Hannah looked at the book on the table with a blank stare. She no longer remembered what the book was called, nor the reason she had decided to take it off the shelf in the first place. The good thing about the school library was that staring at a book for hours wasn't considered strange at all. She couldn't remember how long she had been sitting there. The pages had long ago turned blurry, and even if she had decided to read the pages for some strange reason she knew there would be no point as she couldn't understand the words anyway. The book was old and worn and the language it was published in even more so. She had no idea what the words meant, but they were pretty to look at. It was too bad the tears in her eyes had grown too thick to be able to see the intricate details anymore. Every letter wined and coiled like it was all connected and lead to some long forgotten place. It fascinated her. 

"Are you okay?"

Hannah snapped her head up, hoping that whoever had spoken wouldn't notice her glassy eyes or flushed cheeks. She recognized the blonde boy who sat down next to her at the table. She stared at him for a moment, her mouth open before she suddenly remembered that she was supposed to answer. She swallowed and smiled politely. 

"Yeah, I'm fine Ernie, how are you?" She said finally. 

"You don't look fine," he replied, ignoring her question.

She laughed bitterly and wiped her eyes with her hand letting out a small sniffle as she did so. 

"What makes you say that?" 

"Well for starters," he said, nudging his head towards the thick novel on the table "you've been staring at that book for an hour,"

"What does that prove?" she asked, bitterly "It's a library, everyone reads in a library."

"perhaps," he said frowning slightly "but I don't know anyone who reads without ever once turning the page. Nor, have I seen someone start reading a book by opening it directly in the middle or by never moving their eyes" 

Hannah blushed with his words and closed the book. 

"I also have never seen anyone who doesn't know the language try to read a book that was published in parstlemouth," he said, leaning back in his chair with arrogance. "Then again I've never seen anyone who knows the language, either," 

"How do you know it's in Parstlemouth?" Hannah asked, curious as to how it was so easy to recognize. 

"Easy. Look," he flipped open the book and pointed to the words "see how they curve and wind like a snake? They are written that way to mimic vibrations. Wavelengths that the words make when spoken aloud. Notice how you can't read the words? If you try to focus on them for more then a few seconds they seem to move, see?"

Hannah focused on the words but they wiggled around on the paper as if trying to escape. It made her head hurt. 

"I never noticed that before," she said.

"Many people don't," he said "I've been studying dark wizards with my father since I was six though, so I know a few things. I'm going to be an Auror one day. And look here," he closed the book to the side where a golden snake was engraved on the dark leather "that is how you know it is parstletongue from a distance. It was originally used as a way to signal other parsletongues to go meet up and talk in private. They'd say some type of spell and it would make the snake move and point to where they should meet. Here," he pointed at the ink of the title "it shines, see?" 

"Yeah, it's pretty," she said watching as the title changed into fragmented colors like the sun on snake scales.

"Pretty dangerous you mean," Ernie said disgusted "they mix the ink with snake venom to get it to look that way. It's how Slytherin used to sign all his paperwork too. Poisonous ink." 

Hannah pulled her hands away from the book, a shiver of disgust and fear going down her spine. From nearby some Hufflepuff boys were calling Ernie back to the table. He waved at them that he'd be over in a minute and turned to smile at Hannah. 

"Here, I'll give this disgusting thing to the librarian. Hopefully, nothing else that dangerous is in the library," he stood up, holding the book. 

"I don't think it's dangerous," Hannah said, leaning forward. 

"Do you understand what it says?" Ernie said, more with arrogance than suspicion. Hannah shook her head and Ernie smirked then said "I thought not. Anything we don't understand is dangerous until we do understand it. Understand?" at her nod, he continued "When I don't understand something I find it's best to get a second opinion" 

He paused and looked at her pointedly. 

"I usually go to someone smart, like my dad." he paused again "Or Dumbledore,"

Hannah's eyes brightened as she understood his advice and sat up taller. Ernie bowed his head respectfully and gave Hannah a polite smile. 

"I bid thee goodnight, miss. Abbott." Ernie said, turning gracefully and walking away.