Birds of a Feather PV Luna Aurelius Closed

The stay overnight had been uneventful. Luna wasn't sure why she had been held in the first place. Maybe the nurses thought she'd have lingering mental trauma? It was unlikely, as the young girl had endured far worse under both parental care and without it. Memories she'd rather not dwell on, as they were far from joyous. Her mental resilience had gone through the metaphorical wringer. There was no time to reflect though, she had things to take care of, and not a lot of time to do so. 

Her day had been more than eventful enough to get her off track. She had missed her Charms class, her daily study session in the Library, and her wind down book before the chariots of sleep carried her away. The confrontation had left a consequence though. Why did she react the way she had? It didn't matter right now. She'd worry about it later.

She looked around for her trademark shoulder bag. She always had it on her, a trusty sidekick. Containing her quills, ink, parchment, books, various supplies like scissors, brushes, and numerous other items, it was her go-to item besides her wand. It was resting on a side table, neatly folded and ready for her to take it back out on her day's activities. Reaching over, she opened the top flap on the black and blue leather bag and withdrew the three books she had been arduously working to decipher. 

Each book was related to her never-ending thirst for knowledge concerning wands. However, there was a caveat to these particular books. They were completely in Latin. While Luna knew a small amount, she was hardly proficient enough to read these. That wouldn't stop her from trying though. She neatly stacked them on the table, sitting them next to one another. Which one to tackle first?

A query? She turned her head to the question, the morning light reflecting off her golden eyes. It was Cel, a Prefect and fellow Ravenclaw. Luna had first really met her at the Lock-In last year.  She had asked for her book. Luna's interest was piqued. 

"Um. Yeah, I don't mind. Are you able to read Latin though? All I have are books in Latin that is..." Her voice was soft, not yet ready for the strain of speaking throughout the day in the early morning.  

 

Latin! The book was Latin, and she didn't know exactly why she hadn't noticed it before. Luna-- the girl from the Lock-In last year, she was, but she didn't know that Latin was a language of her, too-- few people before knew the language; quite many did here at Hogwarts, and although the only other hyperpolyglot she'd yet met was her newfound brother, it was satisfying to discover those with that particular language in their skill set.

"Latin is practically my native language," she replied lightly, the wisp of a smile adorning her face as she took the words of Parker's colleagues over the summer. "And you-- are you fluent as well?" If she had the books, why wouldn't she be fluent, after all? The girl debated trying to engage in Latin conversation, but chose not to-- if she wasn't, the situation would become quite... incommodus.

Reaching across the short distance separating them, the girl's slight frame shifted to allow her arm to stretch toward the stack of tomes. Once, twice, thrice she grabbed at it feebly before her fingers caught on the edge of the top book and she tugged it off the table, pitching forward a bit at its weight, and pulled it back toward herself.

Coros: Compendium Anatomica, the engraved title of the book gleamed up at her, and she smiled at the Gothic script. Cores, a Compendium, its translation would be-- she'd read the book before, in its English form-- and she would be lying if she indicated any disinterest in the topic. There was something satisfying about wands-- cores, woods, lengths, the changing variables of wandmaking that fit one witch or wizard so well to one wand, so terribly to another. Perhaps her curiosity on the subject was not so deep as Latin or reading, but it was intriguing nonetheless.

With a careful hand, she spread the old, crinkled pages of the book delicately. The crackle of paper seemed too loud in the Hospital Wing, but it seemed that none else paid attention, and so she flipped another-- table of contents, Mensam de Contentis. "So you like wands?" she asked faintly, her head tilted to one side and her tangles hair falling from their place tucked behind her ears.

She nearly asked what had landed Luna in the Hospital Wing, the words to the query on the tip of her tongue, but as usual she halted them, swallowed them easily as instinct instructed her to, and allowed her previous questions to hang between them until they were answered-- after all, it was likely that the other girl would ask her first, before Cel needed to raise the question.

Heartstring of a dragon, wood of the chestnut tree, and twenty-nine point nine centimeters long-- that was her own wand, the wand that chose her after several tries. Ebony, cherry, phoenix tail feather, unicorn hair-- none had quite fit her... and only this one, after such a myriad of others, fit her slender hand correctly.

Running a finger down the Table of Contents, she halted at the entry Dragon Heartstring. Another crackle filled the sterile air as Cel flipped the pages, flicking them aside with practiced efficiency, handling the old parchment with all due care, until she came upon her own core. At first, she had not believed that it was a proper core for her-- she had been proven wrong in ways that she would not have been able to see then.

And so she began to read, keeping half of her attention focused on the light-haired girl for a response, the other half reading over the Latin script indicating the aspects of Dragon Heartstring.

Luna had watched curiously as Cel reached for the top book upon the stack she had formed. It had taken more effort than Luna would've expected. The multiple attempts to grasp the book made Luna finally wonder why Cel was in the Hospital Wing in the first place. Perhaps that could be a topic at a later point in this interaction. For now, a golden opportunity was presenting itself. 

This girl knew Latin. Fluently. What were the chances? Luna's own knowledge was shaky at best. She had briefly started on the language in her "acclimation" school, taking a shining to the language, but not cementing fluency in only a year's time. This had turned out to be an issue of sorts. Once Luna grew...fond...of wands, she had sought out as much information as she could possibly obtain. The roadblock appeared in the form of overdue books. Luna had need of a few books related to the major aspects of wands, which were available. In Latin, and not English. Or rather, the English editions were not in. Maybe others would've just waited for them to return, but not Luna. She decided to decipher the books to the best of her ability while waiting for the needed ones to return to their home. 

She broke out of her thoughts, back to the world at hand. "I am not fluent." She said, putting stress on the final word. "However, I'm not ignorant of the language either."

"Perhaps you could help me? I need...well want to learn more about wands. So yes you could say I like them. I am curious about non-standard cores. That is, cores that aren't Dragon Heartstring, Unicorn Hair, or Phoenix Feather." Luna had already discovered that Ollivander had expanded out of his old comfort zone. She didn't know why, but the fact that he had meant she needed to understand as many cores as possible. Celynne could be the catalyst for new levels of knowledge. Luna felt a twinge of excitement. 

Anything said in Latin seems profound. The phrase was somewhat of a joke among those who spoke the Dead Language, and one that she and Parker made frequently. And it was true, too, for even Latin insults had a certain wisdom in them that resounded in the minds of the less knowledgeable, regardless of the fact that the Latin phrase in question might have meant eat my pants.

So Luna wasn't so fluent, after all-- for once, or again maybe not just once, the girl was grateful for her decision to hold her tongue. Why, then, were there a stack of Latin books on her bedside table? Was she proficient enough to read this, but still not fluent? From what she had read of the book so far, one would need quite the select Latin education to do both.

Her question was answered as quickly as it was asked in her mind. Dimly she deduced that since she had read English versions of the book, English versions must have existed, and Luna could simply read those-- but perhaps the English versions had already been taken. And maybe she could just have taken them from the magical bookshelves of their dormitories, but the magic in them was tricky-- it would force you go above and beyond, to seek more knowledge and guidance, as it saw fit.

Wands were quite the puzzle to Cel, and she did love a good puzzle. Her first read of the English version of the book hadn't quite included every single detail of the compendium’s Latin and likely original copy, and vice versa. She flipped back to the Table of Contents, discovering the other cores listed in flowing, calligraphic script, just as fascinating as its English counterpart.

What could she do to help Luna? If the girl was at least familiar with the language, a full translation would be both energy-wasting and unhelpful to Luna’s learning…Well, perhaps her concern for her own energy efficiency was greater than her covers for the other Ravenclaw. Notwithstanding, if it was help that Luna wanted, it was help that she would get.

”Perhaps I might be able to help you in translating it?” she volunteered, allowing Luna to interpret it as she would.The best situation would likely be one where she aided Luna in a full translation of the text instead of handing her a copy in English, and it was how Parker had helped her in reading some other languages that she hadn't quite achieved full fluency in yet. “We could work together,” she implied vaguely, leaving the rest up to her.