31 Aug 2021, 13:32
Tea and Translations
Brian wheezed as he finally arrived at the top of the last flight of stairs. Just....so many stairs. He simply wasn't made for strenuous activity. His severely aching knee most certainly agreed.
Still, he was here with a purpose. He'd procrastinated for days, weeks even, dreading the climb from the Dungeons up to the North Tower of Hogwarts. But he had paid a lot of money for the books that he was carrying with him right now: Old-as-dirt manuscripts about magical plants of Scandinavia. Handwritten, held together by more magic than glue, and partially useless to him as some parts of the manuscript just seemed to be absolute gibberish.
Most of the books were fine, easily enough translated with the right books and some handy magical trinkets, but every now and then, Brian would stumble over a page that was filled with gibberish, symbols that technically looked like they could be runes, and just generally unhelpful sketches of plants he didn't recognize.
Brian had worked with Professor Lydursdattir for a while now. He knew that she was probably as old as the manuscripts in his hands, and knew her stuff when it came to languages and runes. So Brian had selected herbs and dried flowers, assembling them to a box of green tea that he hoped the ancient professor would appreciate enough to be willing to help Brian with his translation problem.
As his mother had always told him: When in doubt, resort to blatant bribery.
Classes had ended a few hours ago, so Brian hoped that he'd catch Lydursdattir at a good time. Raising his free hand, he knocked on the door and started waiting.
"I assure you that if you die, you need not hand your homework in"
31 Aug 2021, 17:25
Tea and Translations
It has been a while since Béatrice had a few minutes to spare. Usually her students would keep her busy, either with their elaborate homeworks or with the questions they tend to ask her even after class was finished.
Today, however, had been quiet. No student who wanted to hear about Egyptian hieroglyphs, nor any other school related incident, of which there were far too many. All homeworks and essays had been graded and Béatrice sighed in relief. Time was nothing she had plenty of, so if she was blessed with some to spare, she nowadays tried her hands on books to read. She had to admit that reading never was something she did for fun. Sitting down for an hour doing nothing but read had seemed like a waste of time for Béatrice. But since she had found a little lost book during the last Christmas holidays, she also had found a new hobby; or rather guilty pleasure. Even though she rarely had the opportunity to sit down and enjoy the tales of that handsome Alejandro and the beautiful but overworked Tamsin.
She smiled when she reached for the book, when a knock made her stop.
"Ah here we go. You have to wait, Alejandro." With aching bones she stood up and reached for the door.
She expected one of her student's, which usually was a sixth year. The seventh year's were nervous wrecks and plagued with fear of the nearing exams, unable to wonder about seemingly silly questions about where Atlantis migth be. She chuckled.
But it was not in fact a student. "Brian, dear. What a nice surprise to see you!" She held the door open for her colleague to enter, when she noticed that his pale cheeks were glowing red. "Oh no, look at you. Can I get you something to drink? Take a seat, hon."
As fast as her age allowed it, she hurried to get the wheezing child in front of her a glass of cold water from the desk and prepared her comfy armchair for him to use.
Skelfr Yggdrasils askr standandi
ymr it aldna tré, en jötunn losnar
ymr it aldna tré, en jötunn losnar