Assistance in difficult feelings PV Simon Kincaid Fin

"It may well be" Haley was annoyed that she herself didn't notice when she spoke which language "I'm trying to get out of the habit, I don't want anyone to just hear it when I don't even know I'm speaking it right now." She shrugged her shoulders, currently there wasn't much she could do about it anyway, except to only speak when she consciously wanted too.

Haley was surprised that Simon recognized the quote. Most students weren't that familiar with Muggle books and stories and only knew the absolute classics, so she was all the more pleased. The more Haley thought about the story, the more she could relate to it in some way. She had to accept her "new her" because that was her and that's it. She laughed lightly and spoke another quote "It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then." She smiled at Simon and laid the book back on the table.

"So, um, back to the topic at hand." Haley gave herself another quick shake and focused on the important things. "Oh, I've always wanted a personal assistant." She winked at him, but she didn't really have an answer for him. "Well, I don't really know either. Actually, I just want to know everything there is. Something about the origin, known parselmouths, general info," she didn't really know, the only thing she was clear about was that she wanted to know more. "Ah and I wanted to check Hogwarts, a History to read up on something. I heard something about a room once. But more on that when I know more too."

Haley stood up and put away the three books that had gotten her no step further. As she put them back she continued "You know, I think the basic problem is that I don't know what to look for." As she slid the last book into its place she came back to the round table and dropped into her chair.

Since those books didn't prove to be very useful, Simon excused himself from the girl for a moment while he headed over to the shelves to look for some more books that might be of some help. He came back with about seven rather large heavy books that felt light to him and placed them down on the table before her.

"Alright, let's learn something new." He grew quiet as he opened the first book, checked the index on where to find the information they were looking for, and then flipped to the correct page and skimmed over the words before him. Eh...a lot of what she already told him so this particular source probably wasn't going to be very beneficial to him.

So Simon took to the next book and did the same - glancing over the index first to guide him where to direct his focus. "This says its a very uncommon skill. See that? You're special, Haley Rose," he smiled to her. Who knew, maybe that wouldn't make her feel better but maybe so! Didn't everyone want something that made them unique? He figured so.

"Also says its almost exclusively a hereditary trait. Maybe you could try and hint around to your parents or aunts or uncles or grandparents and see if maybe they have this skill as well."

And in a short time, just researching this subject matter got Simon curious about it - about the linguistics behind it all but there didn't seem to be any detail about that in either book he had looked at thus far. Maybe this was a very complicated sort of thing and not fully understood by someone who didn't possess the skill. In his opinion, that just made it all the more interesting!

After all the failures Haley had in the last few hours, she could hardly motivate herself to continue with her research. She was all the more surprised by Simon's helpfulness and at the same time infinitely grateful to him; after all, the two of them hardly knew each other, or rather didn't know each other at all. She watched him as he brought seven books to the table and was sure that she would not have been able to lift the weight or would have spread half of the books on the floor.

She smiled at Simon, but just couldn't get herself together, so she continued to look half-lying in her chair and began to read the titles of the books. Not being satisfied with anything and not being able to take another failure, she got up and picked up "Hogwarts, a History" because she was sure she would at least find something about the chamber in there.

Haley had to laugh, "Didn't think I could be any more special." She was often described as crazy but being a Parsel was really quite special, but it was also nothing she didn't already know. "Maybe I'll take them up on it at some point, but there are other topis at the moment with my family" Haley knew that she wouldn't get an answer from her mother if she didn't even want to tell her about her ancestors without Haley knowing about the Parselmouths. But she did not want to dwell on that. She opened the book and quickly found the relevant chapter.

"During the establishment of Hogwarts in the First millennium A.D., Salazar Slytherin co-existed peacefully with the three other founders initially, but as time passed, he became increasingly adamant about his disapproval of the acceptance of Muggle-borns at Hogwarts. Disagreeing with the other Hogwarts founders about the matter, Slytherin left the school. According to legend, before he left, Slytherin created a secret chamber deep underground in Hogwarts Castle - known as the Chamber of Secrets."

Haley just skimmed the first part, even though she was always interested in history, she just wanted to know if it was true. And it was, the chamber really existed. She read the next part a little more attentively.

"That Chamber was home to a monster - a Basilisk - that was allegedly supposed to purge the school of all Muggle-borns. Only the Heir of Slytherin could open the Chamber of Secrets, through the use of Parseltongue."

"A basilisk," Haley spoke quietly to herself, barely noticing that she was absent-mindedly speaking again. But before she could have even gotten angry about it, she read on.

"The Entrance to the Chamber was at a snake-engraved sink tap on the Second Floor Girls' Lavatory. A corridor may be entered by giving the command of: 'Open' or 'Open up' to a snake engraved on the entrance in Parseltongue."

"Hell, I need to try this!" spoke Haley now quite excitedly, looking up slightly startled. Even though she had already read a lot about Hogwarts as a child, she didn't know that. Of course she didn't like the origin of the chamber and everything that had happened in the past, but at the same time she found it totally exciting that there was this hidden chamber that could only be opened by Parseltongue. THAT was really special.

She had her attention when she spoke about not really being able to talk to her family. Maybe he was too knew to the magical world and this sort of thing just wasn't something you discussed to everyone - after all she was even hesitant to tell him at first and she didn't know him or care about his initial reaction like she would her family.

He wondered, if in the way she spoke, if there were family issues happening at home. His best friend back in London had seen his parents go through a rather messy divorce and while it didn't happen to Simon personally, he felt for his friend and was there for him through the entire thing. He knew how horrible broken homes could feel although his homelife was that of a positive one with he and his Aunt Maggie.

The girl with him then had his attention because she had gotten up. He was in mid-sentence when she did so and didn't mind, but it did distract his focus on his reading and he looked back continuing on as she got another book that she eventually returned with. Going through that one, she seemed a bit more interested in the text and he hoped maybe she'd find some of the answers that she was looking for.

But then it happened again. Now that she mentioned it was sort of like a hiss, he was sure of it. She DID speak like that before and here it was, just briefly, but again. Was he put off by it? - No, not the least. He found it absolutely amazing that someone could do that and what's more, communicate with something other than a human! Most languages just allowed you to speak to someone who wasn't from the same country as you, or maybe assist in talking to someone that was hearing impaired, but none from his knowledge, at least until today, allowed you to communicate with an entirely different creature!

"You need to try what? Forming frequent study meetings with your great new friend Simon because he's so amazing?" he decided to give it a try although he knew that wasn't it. She had been reading over the book that laid open before her and hopefully she found some information that she was looking for, some information that would be beneficial to her.

Haley had to laugh, already she was sure that a good friendship would come out of this meeting, "Oh yes, definitely and especially because he is so amazing!" She laughed some more and smiled at him. Even though she would never have wanted to admit it, her cheeks turned slightly red. But she wanted to share this information with Simon and she really hoped that he didn't already know. But she was sure that this detail must be new to him as well, since he didn't elaborate on it earlier.

"So," she spoke as she moved in her chair and put the book on the table, she slanted it a bit so they could both look inside "I had already mentioned a chamber, but I didn't know if it was all true." She pointed her finger at the interesting part "And what can I say, it's true, the Chamber of Secrets really exists here at Hogwarts." Totally excited, she looked at Simon and sat back in her chair. By now she was sitting on her right bent leg. Excitement was making it hard for her to hold still.

"And this can only be opened by one who speaks in Parseltongue. This is where I come in. I absolutely must try to open the chamber." A tingling sensation was building in her body, she couldn't wait to discover this secret place and was already imagining all sorts of pictures of what it would look like down there.

"So," Haley began again as Simon was still reading the text, "I really like going on adventures," she smirked, "but I also always love it when I can share those moments with someone." She stopped and looked at Simon with a raised eyebrow and started laughing again "If only there was a great, amazing friend to go exploring with" Haley pretended to think hard and made a mumbled noise.

As much as she was already imagining everything, she suddenly realized that this was not going to be that easy. Although she could speak in Parseltongue, she had never done it consciously before. She had totally ignored this obstacle until now and her excitement and anticipation disappeared. Her big smile and bright eyes suddenly disappeared from her face and a wrinkle formed between her eyebrows as she began to think about how she would learn to control the language.

"Oh I know of a few amazing people in this place," he said and was glad she was finding what she was looking for. It was apparent she had or else her mood probably wouldn't have lifted this much. He was happy for her and he was proud that she was the one that found it and not him.

But then he noticed as her enthusiasm seemed to fade and he tilted his head, trying to figure it out but couldn't. "I'd be more than happy to go along with you," he said to her. "Seems like you might need some protection if it's in the abandoned bathrooms. I've heard stories of that place being the place to go for people to cry." He wasn't apathetic to others, he just didn't really get that. Even when he took some major falls and whatnot, he hadn't cried. Even when bigger things happened, he hadn't cried. Honestly, Simon wasn't sure he could remember a time that he ever did.

"Don't let any flaws in your plan stop you from trying" he encouraged her. "What's wrong?" Something was wrong. Maybe he hadn't known Haley Rose very long but he could tell that in that moment she was thinking something and it was something wrong and causing her disappointment. She was in good hands though. A friend was near and friends were supposed to make you feel better and that's just what Simon intended on doing.


[Just a quick ooc note. I'm not sure Simon really CAN go on this adventure with Haley. For me, at least being a non-parseltongue, the Chamber of Secrets is darkened and not a choice of places my character can venture. We can always plan for them to go, or even have Simon help overcome her language barrier or maybe find a fellow parsel that she can go with =) I'm totally game for rping it all out, but just wanted to let you know poor Simon's limitations.]

Haley had to smile at Simon's remarks and was glad that she was allowed to meet him today and that he is now sitting here with her and tackling this new matter together with her. But Haley's mind was already back on her problem, which she just realized.

"I just realized there's a problem with this whole thing." Haley now looked somewhat sadly at the table and then up into Simon's face "I am a parsel but yet I can't control it." Annoyed, she leaned back in her chair again "And I'm really out of ideas on how to learn to control to speak Parsel." She shrugged her shoulders, at this moment she was just stumped.

She didn't really know what else she should have said, but she also didn't want to depress the mood that much. "Well, that problem will be solved too" she encouraged herself and forced herself to smile, even if it was immediately obvious that this was just an act. She took the book and made her way down the hallway from which she had retrieved it. When she was back in sight of Simon she continued "But maybe you found something interesting in your books? But if not, it doesn't matter, then I would suggest we take a break and finish for today."

Haley's head was starting to hurt from all the thinking and she really hoped Simon was okay to stop searching for any information. She was sure that she would find herself in the library more often to find out about the Parsel existence but she had enough for today. It was almost time for dinner and a little wistfully Haley looked out the window, envying the students who could enjoy the good weather today. In the meantime, the sun had mostly hidden behind clouds again and it slowly started to get a little darker.

I'm almost sure I can take you into the chamber with me, but we can just try it out later then

He agreed that they would stop for today, "okay, but know that I'm here in any way I can possibly help. Maybe we can just...restructure learning other languages. You already know it, right? The parsel stuff? So it's just a matter of bringing it to the surface." And he was eager to help her discover this all. Simon wasn't a Ravenclaw, but it was a house that probably would have fit him. This was not only something he WANTED to help with, but something he found enjoyable.

Simon then stacked up all the books that he had, plus a couple that she left behind or maybe the person before her. Again, it was enough that probably would have made a grown adult man drop them due to the weight but Simon had never picked up on the fact that he had incredible strength - with the exception of a really impressive squash move here and there in the years he had been playing on the school team. He had been their top ranked player.

When he returned he saw Haley's look out the window and wondered if she was one to like the great outdoors. He enjoyed them enough he just didn't often get much time to enjoy them like others could. "Hope you weren't cooped up all day here in the library. I heard this is one of the best days we'll have before winter break." EVERYONE had decided to go outside and that's probably by he and the Gryffindor girl were the only two people in the library with the exception of the librarian.

"Maybe you can catch a little time before supper," he offered up. Outdoors, especially during the day, weren't for him. He had returned with a book titled The Art of Magical Art and planned on taking in a chapter or two before the meal. "Keep me in mind when you want to venture more into this gift of yours," and yes, gift. Not many people had the ability and she should cherish it. "Until then, your secret is safe with me."

"Yeah, you're right but I think it's harder than you think. But anyway, I'll give it a try and see if I can find out some more tips" Haley firmly believed that she could do it and maybe she could just talk to Adlai again on occasion.

Haley again looked impressed behind Simon as he brought all the books back to the shelves. She doesn't know anyone who could have done that with such ease and smirked to herself at the idea of how she would drop everything after two steps.

Lost in thought and still with her gaze out, she replied to Simon, "Yes, indeed it was." However she was less sad by now that she had missed the day, as she had met a new friend today. She quickly regained her thoughts and turned her gaze to Simon, "Yeah, I think I'll go for another little walk outside and since it's getting a little dark by now, at least I'll have my peace and quiet since all the students are probably in the castle by now" She made a relieved motion and wiped the imaginary sweat from her brow to illustrate that she enjoyed not being surrounded by hundreds of students and their conversations.

Haley smiled at Simon's comment, it was nice how sweet he was to her, calling her new ability a gift. "Honestly, thank you Simon. For everything." She would have liked to give him a hug, but not wanting to cross a line, she took another short step back and looked down at the floor, embarrassed. She was sure that he didn't realize that he was the ONLY reason she hadn't gone completely insane today.

"Well, anyway. I'll be off now. Have fun with your book, I hope to see you again soon." She smiled warmly at him once more and then got ready to head straight for the Courtyard.