Dewey Decimating Our Feelings PV Closed

"That's so poetic- brought down by the very thing that raised him up." Piper laughed along with Nova. "And yeah, I'm a Ravenclaw so smart I was able to finagle a placement in Hufflepuff, because I knew deep down that Hufflepuff is the best house in the school. Easily."

He frowned when the smile dripped off Nova's face and she kind of stared off into the distance, real intense. She looked exactly how he imagined it would look if someone was having the recipe for Oreos telepathically inscribed into their brain. He followed her gaze, trying to spot... hm, maybe the guardian angel or ancient nemesis that had drawn her attention. Nothing. He turned around to see her diving towards a shelf and wrenching out a book in the blink of an eye.

Before he could even ask, she was making deductions fast as the wind, a kind of logical fire blazing in her eyes that he had to admire. She laughed afterwards, apparently not taking herself seriously, but Piper had read too many thrillers to know a clue when he heard one.

"Huh. I don't know how you just know the name of the North Star like that, but it makes a lot of sense. I mean, a naming tradition like that has gotta have a reason for existing in the first place, you know?"

Piper realised then and there that his new friend was basically a walking mystery novel. He was pumped.

"-because I knew deep down that Hufflepuff is the best house in the school. Easily."

Nova scoffed, feigning how incredulous she was at his affirmation, then gave a devilish grin.

"I think you mean, Slytherins are the best house. By far the most powerful, and who doesn't want to be cunning or ambitious," Nova smiled teasingly, flipping her hair confidently behind her shoulder to add dramatic effect.

"Huh. I don't know how you just know the name of the North Star like that, but it makes a lot of sense. I mean, a naming tradition like that has gotta have a reason for existing in the first place, you know?"

She laughed, not really knowing how she knew the name of the North Star either. Her father long, long ago would sit with her outside on summer nights and point out different constellations. She was young, maybe two or three, and insisted on finding a supernova in the night sky. And so her father would pretend to go along with finding a supernova with her at night, instead pointing out the different names of everything they saw. She remembered thinking, but never asked if those names were names of his cousins or siblings. Maybe I should've been paying more attention, Nova thought, then shook it off. She was three or four years old, not like she could remember every star name her father told her about.

Still, her memory worked in interesting ways, deciding to remember the name "Polaris" out of the blue, almost just as she needed it. Her throat tightened a little bit; she really enjoyed the company of Piper and their easy banter, but she had a sinking feeling that her family may indeed have a "potentially tragic history," like he said. After all, her father wouldn't have kept it a secret if his family were perfect saints, right?

Nova bit her lip then decided to spit it out and tell Piper, "Seriously though, you're really awesome. And I want to be your friend, just I'm really not sure if my family is, you know, good. Since, why would my father keep it a secret if they were easy-going, nice people, you know? So, just, I don't want you to like, think differently of me when we find out. Since, we are finding out together. And I'm not evil--yet," Nova winked, trying to lighten the mood a little and dodge any anxieties she was feeling by humor.

Nova did a hair flip. Nova "I'm a scary cunning Slytherin" Hamidi did a literal hair flip to dramatically emphasise her point. That settled it. They were going to be friends forever.

In response, Piper simply nodded, making it as sarcastic as he could. "Uh-huh. Totally."

He watched as she seemed to get lost in thought after he spoke- again. Man, he really needed to stop being so thought-provoking. At this rate, they were going to solve the whole mystery in, like, a week, and then what wacky hijinks would they be able to go on for the rest of the year?

"Seriously though, you're really awesome. And I want to be your friend, just I'm really not sure if my family is, you know, good. Since, why would my father keep it a secret if they were easy-going, nice people, you know? So, just, I don't want you to like, think differently of me when we find out. Since, we are finding out together. And I'm not evil--yet,"

Oh.

Piper was caught off guard for a split second. He was used to having friends, of course, but normally it took a little longer for people not to find him "exhausting" or "good in small doses". It took a second for him to realise he was smiling. For once, he actually took a moment to consider what to say.

"You know," he said, giving Nova a friendly nudge, "you're pretty cool yourself, kid. And, I mean, even if worst comes to worst, you're not your family, you know? Wait. Are you? Is someone their own family? Am I- am I related to myself? Doesn't matter. For now. Though I will be thinking about that for the next month. Point is- I'm not gonna judge you if your family has some bad apples. Pretty sure you'll find something rotten if you go back far enough in anyone's family tree- yours might just happen to be a little closer than other peoples'. Did that make sense? I'm going to act like that made sense."

"Oh, and you're totally already evil if you don't admit right now that Hufflepuff is the best house, by the way." He shrugged, grinning. "I don't make the rules."

"You know," Piper said, giving Nova a friendly nudge, "you're pretty cool yourself, kid."

Nova nudged him back, letting a sly smile escape her lips. She then laughed at what he said next, relieved that he was not going to grow scared of her based on what they learn of her family. She could trust him with whatever they ended up learning, and so she could trust him in helping her search. She nodded when he finished, implicitly letting him know that his ramble made sense to her.

"Oh, and you're totally already evil if you don't admit right now that Hufflepuff is the best house, by the way," he added.

"Well that settles it then. I'm evil. And I'll just be following in my family's footsteps," she deviously smirked with a slightly raised eyebrow again. "Slytherin will always be the best," she nudged him again.

She then looked at the book she had pulled out and began flipping through the pages.

"So all I know is that my father's first wife and son died in the Second Wizarding War. But what was it about? What are 'death eaters'?" she asked naively, pointing to a few words accompanying wizards listed in the book. Some had it, some didn't, and the only difference that she could truly tell were that no muggle-born wizard had "death eater" listed next to it. Regardless, they did not sound like a band of people she'd want to be associated with; who wants to be associated with "death"?

Piper was glad to see Nova smiling at what he said. Even as the words had been coming out of his mouth, he was cringing at them, half-convinced that his good intentions were manifesting as meaningless rambling. But she seemed happy, so he must have said something right.

"Well that settles it then. I'm evil. And I'll just be following in my family's footsteps,"

Piper shook his head in mock sadness. "What can I say? I tried to show you the path towards goodness, honestly I did, but you're blinded. By snake eyes. Now I'm saying it I feel like snake eyes would be a little transparent. So- you're blinded by a snake-tinted lens."

"Slytherin will always be the best," she nudged him again.

"Pfft, the best at being the worst, maybe," he laughed, trying to hide a wince. Nova's elbows were sharp.

It was all going so well. Piper was having a blast, the treachery of certain fictional characters long forgotten. He'd made a great new friend, they was solving a mystery, and the whole thing was happening in a library!

It was all going so well, and then she asked about death eaters. Piper felt his face falling even as he struggled to keep his expression neutral.

"O-kay," he said, drawing out the word as he tried to figure out a way to say this lightly.

He didn't know a lot about death eaters, at that. Sure, they were an infamous aspect of recent history, but he was only eleven. No way were his parents going to poison his little mind with those kind of horror stories. But then he knew the basics. He'd assumed that everyone knew the basics.

"Okay," he said again, and once more for luck, "okay. Right. Death eaters. That's, uh- wow. I mean- okay, I'm not judging at all; I feel like that's important to say and while I'm talking about me I also feel like maybe I'm not the one who should have had been the one to have this particular conversation with you, but, uh- okay. Death eaters were, were kind of the main supporters of You-Know-Who back in the war, if you get what I mean. Kind of- kind of, uh, did a lot of his dirty work. Absolutely not judging. Just to repeat."

It was true, the not judging thing. These days everyone knew at least one kid of dubious parentage, and- well, they were almost always good kids. Piper made an effort to make eye contact, so she'd know that this didn't change anything.

Nova rolled her eyes. "We wouldn't be called the most ambitious house if we were the worst, would we? If we weren't the best, maybe we'd be known for being, I don't know, hard-working, or something," Nova said with a joking snicker and even stuck her tongue out a little to tease him.

She let him explain to her what death eaters were, noticing his stuttered speech. Nova narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. "If we settled that I'm evil--or really, if my family is seriously evil--you don't have to hide anything just to make me feel better. If thats who death eaters were, then they sound pretty awful and evil. You don't have to hide that from me; my father already did that," Nova gave an encouraging grin.

Sure, she was still a little nervous to know just how evil her family was, but Piper had been so nice and already said that he wouldn't judge her for who her family is or was. She didn't want him to know that she was even a little bit scared, and she certainly didn't want him hiding any potentially important but horrible information from her either.

Nova flipped through the pages, finally landing on a Polaris. Not Sirius, her father, but a Rigel Polaris. Aspen wood, 30,4 cm, dragon heartstring. 1730-1810. Slytherin house. Married to Fawn Polaris, née Rosewood. 3 children; Arcturus, Graffias, and Procyon. Accomplished duelist. Well, that's a pretty early ancestor. Let's see if they have any more recent ones.

Nova flipped again through the pages until she found the first Polaris still listed as alive; Altair Polaris. Elm, 29,7 cm, dragon heartstring. 1970-present. Slytherin house. Married to Georgia Polaris, née Cunningham. 1 child, Perseus Polaris. The last bit was smudged out though, so she couldn't quite read it. "Any idea what this says?" she asks Piper, angling the book in his direction.

Piper tilted his head. "So you're ambitious? You got big plans for the future? Well how are you going to achieve those plans without- oh, I don't know, a hardworking attitude? While you Slytherins lounge around in your beds talking about how nice it would be to be Minister of Magic, we're all over here actually doing stuff." He stuck his tongue out too.

"If we settled that I'm evil--or really, if my family is seriously evil--you don't have to hide anything just to make me feel better. If thats who death eaters were, then they sound pretty awful and evil. You don't have to hide that from me; my father already did that,"

Piper was impressed. A lot of people would rather stay as ignorant as possible; clearly, Nova was determined to power through despite the unpleasant subject matter.

He laughed a little. "Sorry, I guess you're right. To be fair, I don't know a whole lot of detail about death eaters, but- they're kind of the main bad guys of the war besides their leader. All valued blood purity, all responsible for a lot of deaths. Oh, and they all had these weird tattoo things too."

Piper leaned over Nova's shoulder as she flipped through the book, cheering a little when they came across the first Polaris. "Hey, they exist! You're not mad!"

She found another- Altair Polaris- and held the book out to him. He really did try hard to make out the writing, squinting and bringing the book inches from his face, but, in the end, he had to shake his head sadly.

"You've done it. You've found literally the saddest thing on the planet. A book I can't read." He pointed at one bit of the smudge. "That word looks almost like 'cherry'. Maybe it's his favourite fruit salad recipe."

"While you Slytherins lounge around in your beds talking about how nice it would be to be Minister of Magic, we're all over here actually doing stuff."

Nova scoffed, then countered, "Who said we weren't hard-working? We do what needs to be done... the means justify the ends, don't they," Nova said with a sinister wink, then laughed. "Besides, my teacher used to always say, 'Work smarter, not harder,' so I'd much rather work smartly to achieve my goals than just rely on hard-work. So watch your tone, since you are talking to the future Minister of Magic," she huffed teasingly.

"You've done it. You've found literally the saddest thing on the planet. A book I can't read."

Nova laughed again, rolling her eyes, then sighed and squinted her eyes. He said a word almost looks like 'cherry,' but would a book really list someone's favorite type of berry? Was Altair so awful or boring that the only redeeming or interesting fact about him was that he liked cherries? Nova rubbed her eyes then squinted again. She could barely see some numbers, or a word--she wasn't quite sure, right in front of the word 'cherry.'

"Look, are those numbers you think? Or is that a word? It looks like an 1042 Cherry, or it looks like the word, 'toxic,'" she pointed. So... an address, or a method of killing? Or maybe he died by eating a toxic cherry. That would be embarrassing... death by cherry.

She looked at Piper. "A whole line blurred out? The plot seems to be thickening..." she giggled and widened her eyes, feigning dramatic pause and mystery.

"Oh!" Piper swept down in an elaborate bow. "My liege! I had no idea you held such prestige! But then, if you have worked smartly, I should never have doubted you. You are a true Ravenclaw."

"Look, are those numbers you think? Or is that a word? It looks like an 1042 Cherry, or it looks like the word, 'toxic,'"

Piper went slightly cross-eyed trying to focus on the ghosts of words before them. He could kind of make out the lettering, now that Nova had pointed it out.

"Yeah, yeah, I see what you mean for both. Cherry stones are toxic-" Piper took a moment to appreciate the fact that he was now the one with the obscure knowledge- "but it wouldn't really make sense to jot that down in someone's autobiography, right? Like, oh yeah, let's have a look at Piper Sanchez- 11 years old, lives in Bath, by the way ketchup used to be sold as medicine. Just doesn't really flow."

"A whole line blurred out? The plot seems to be thickening..." she giggled and widened her eyes, feigning dramatic pause and mystery.

"If this doesn't turn out to be the one line we need to crack this case wide open I am going to be very disappointed." Piper said, an expression of almost complete seriousness on his face. Part of him just wanted to smile, revelling in their shared flair for the dramatic. He spun around and scanned the room, purely so that his robes would billow out dramatically behind him.

A thought occurred to him at that exact moment so he had to turn around again in a messy flurry of fabric. "Oh, wait a minute! Uh. No, wait. I'm trying to remember the- reparo, that's it! The repairing spell! That should be able to fix this book back up, right?"

She nudged him again after he called her a Ravenclaw. "Is it so hard to just admit that Slytherin is the best because we have everything the other houses are known for, but just are better?" She feigned exasperation. "I mean... we are as daring as Gryffindor to dream as big as we do, as smart as a Ravenclaw to find the most efficient way to get what we want, and as hard-working as a Hufflepuff to achieve our goals... it's not that complicated," Nova said in her most professorial voice, almost sounding too much like a high-pitched posh accent. She laughed at herself sounding ridiculous. Accents are not my thing, evidently.

"If this doesn't turn out to be the one line we need to crack this case wide open I am going to be very disappointed," he said "sternly."

She nodded rapidly. "This line, it determines everything. It is so dangerous that of course it was blurred out. It probably holds the secrets to the universe."

"I'm trying to remember the- reparo, that's it! The repairing spell! That should be able to fix this book back up, right?" Piper suddenly said.

Nova did not know, barely remembering the few spells her father did teach her. Episkey. Yep, that's all. Nova liked learning about magic, but got bored just learning simple healing spells--she got hurt often, but like, not that often to be able to use them all the time.

"Well, what are you waiting for? The secrets to the universe await--cast Reparo!" Nova said, moving the book from her lap to his.