What the Heck? (Anyone)

[Aline Le' Fountenelle S4]

Frustrating. Confusing. Annoying. Troubling. Aline had narrowed down to one book: Divination. Divination was her most favorite subject, even though the professor had some "health care" issues. Aline enjoyed talking to her after class and liked going to Diagon Alley with her. She felt sorry for Professor Trelawney since no one showed even a glimmer of interest in her subject.

Aline then decided to just save the best for last and braved the next book. Spells. Aline just HATED this class. With her accent, words were hard to pronounce, and the spells always turned out wrong. With some quiet words, she produced some normal household objects to practice with. Yes, Aline takes the time to practice. How else would she be pulling off a C, exactly?

"UGH!" Aline yelled in frustration. The book was all in English... but what did that matter to the chorus of "SHHHHH!"s that followed her outburst?

She produced her translator (very inaccurate by the way, but the best she could come up with) which looks a lot like a texting phone, and typed in the words:

English- Avis: Birds shoot from your wand with a loud bang.

"Please wait, translation in progress"

Aline waited. This one seemed to take longer than she expected, so she assumed it was going to be right, or at least part of the way correct, as she drummed her fingers to the song stuck in her head.

"Translation complete"

Aline let out that breath she had been holding as she read the following translation:

French- Avis : une brise douce vient de la baguette d'utilisateur en jouant la musique de harpe silencieuse.

In English, it would say "a gentle breeze comes from user's wand playing quiet harp music."

Aline quietly pointed her wand to the chair next to her. Surely this should be okay in a library, right? Aline thought.

She said the word and a BANG! came from her wand as well as a whole lot of birds.

Everyone flipped out as they saw the mass of birds that had perched on the rafters and heard the bang echoing off the walls.

Aline didn't blush but totally started cursing that translator of hers. She was frustrated again and held her cold hand to her hot head as the librarian came over to yell at her.

The spew of words that escaped the librarian's mouth made no sense to her, so she figured that they wanted her to make the birds disappear. Aline waved her wand and said the first word that came to her mind: Feriverto. The birds, now goblets, on the rafters above her wobbled around and crashed down, falling on top of the bookshelves and tables. Aline's eyes teared up as she tried to pick the glass out of the skin in her hands and arms. Those glass shards did a number on her. As she got ready to arm herself with some scissors to pull it all out, a hand grasped her wrist calmly.

[Zeak Nitesh G2]

Zeak’s wrist tapped against the rectangular block that was set on the right side of his parchment, signaling that he had reached the end of the paper’s limit. Zeak quickly managed to fit the last letter on his word and than slide his hand down one line and back to the left and began his new line in his potion’s essay. It was quite a tedious job for him to set up his work station. The extra quills had to be set in a pre-determined location, the inkwell had to be within reach but also out of accidental knock over range. The parchment had to be unmovable or else Zeak could wind up writing over his previous lines, and of course markers had to be set up for him to know when he was reaching the end of the parchment and would have to start a new line. Zeak paused and laid down the quill at his new line and leaned back. Potion’s had never really been his strong suit, the class required a lot of visual stimulation, yet he usually didn’t have much problem during the essays, but this essay on Infusion’s of Gurdy Roots was really kicking his butt. With an exasperated sigh he snatched up his potions book and flipped to the assigned chapter, his sensitive fingers began to play over the letters as he searched for the information that he needed.

A sudden outburst, followed by a chorus of shushing, lifted his un-seeing gaze from the book. Zeak nearly chuckled at the action, he had been blind since he was 3 years old but he still fell into the same habit of glancing around in surprise at a loud noise. Shaking his head in bewilderment at himself he was just about to return to ‘reading’ his textbook when there was a sudden Bang that filled the library followed by the sound of many, many birds. There was a sudden uproar as students took notice of the birds and some began to run for cover. Zeak’s sensitive ears picked up another sound though within the general chaos of the library, somebody was cursing in a language that seemed relatively familiar to him. Zeak couldn’t dwell on it for to long as he was suddenly struck from the side by one of the panicking students and knocked from his chair. “Ow.” He cried as he struck the floor and heard that the rest of his essay equipment went clattering to the floor. “Great, now I’ll have to start all over again.” With a sigh Zeak quickly climbed to his feet and luckily managed to find his Dragon-headed walking stick.

Predictably a new voice entered the fray as Madame Pince found the culprit for this chaos and began to unload. Zeak knew quite well that even simple spells could go horribly wrong and that Madame Pince’s anger was problem improperly placed. Luckily her shrill cries made it quite easy to navigate through the library and reach the desk. Just before he could enter the conversation a female voice, obviously one of a student, said another word. It took Zeak a moment to decipher the accent and figure out what she was saying. “No!” He shouted but was to late, the air was sudden filled with falling goblets that shattered upon contact with the floor. Zeak instinctively reached out and managed to catch hold of a wrist that he hopped belonged to the girl, he turned his gaze over toward Madame Pince. “Madame Pince, please, allow me to help here. I’m sure none of the books have been damaged.” Zeak quickly leaned his walking stick against the table and pulled out his wand, with a quick flick all the glass shards littering the library were swept away. He quickly flashed Madame Pince a grin, “See, no harm done to he books, or any student, the mess is cleaned up, how about just letting this go as a warning?”

Zeak couldn’t see the expression Madame Pince’s face but he hardly cared, he turned his attention to the girl sitting in front of him. “Are you alright?” He asked but than a sudden thought came over him, he recognized the language and accent now, it was French. Zeak new a little bit of French, his father had taken him to France one time during his summer vacation, perhaps this girl had trouble understanding English. Zeak quickly thought back to his days in France and hoped he was correct in this translation. “Êtes-vous bien ?”

[Aline Le' Fountenelle S4]

"Êtes-vous bien?" a young boy said. Aline was quick to answer. She figured that he must speak French, so this is how Aline continued.

"Oui… non . Il y a en verre dans mon bras et il blesse un peu…"Aline cried. For those of you unfamiliar with French, that would be, Yes... no.There is glass in my arm and it kinda hurts...

She looked up and saw that he was truly concerned, but she wasn't sure that she should ask for help... she didn't want to sound needy.

Aline rubbed her head and watched glass fall. Well, aren't I just the lucky one today? I must seem so stupid... Aline thought.

She was silent for what seemed like a long time until she said in her best English,"I'm not sure how to get it out... Would you mind..."

Aline unconsciously started trying to pick out the glass. She was a little embarrassed but was grateful. He was the first person to approach her in concern. Well, now that she thought about it, he was the first to approach her at all.

She winced as she realized that she had wedged it deeper.

"Dammit," she cursed under her breath. She felt her heart racing as she couldn't believe what trouble she caused today. What would Madam Pince think of her now? She silently wondered.

The boy seemed grateful to know that she could speak some English, if anything at all.

[Zeak Nitesh G2]

“Oh boy.” Zeak mumbled to himself as the girl answered in rapid French. Ok, stay calm, just slowly analyze what she said… he thought to himself as he began to run her sentence through his mind. The going was a bit slow and he was starting to feel like an idiot for standing there in the silence when she was able to piece together a sentence in English. Zeak breathed a sigh of relief; at least she could understand and speak a little bit of English. Just than Zeak managed to complete the translation of her previous sentence and it all began to make sense. Of course the falling goblets would have caused some damage, and since she was at ground zero it was only logical that she had taken the brunt of the damage. Zeak’s mind began to whirl, he wasn’t really that great at healing magic, Madame Pince was out of the equation; rumor had it that she was a squib. He sighed once again, he couldn’t just let the girl sit there with glass shards in her arms.

“Ok, I’m not very good at healing magic, so I hope I don’t make matters worse. Um?” he thought for a moment for the correct words to translate it into French, “Non bon pour curatif, laissez-moi essayer.” He stated in broken French which translated loosely into: “Not good at healing, let me try.” He once again brandished his wand and gave it a loose twirl, all the glass shards embedded in the girls arm slowly dissolved into the air, leaving the wounds open and bleeding slightly. “Hopefully that worked correctly.” He muttered to himself since he had no idea whether or not all the shards had been removed. Zeak was still holding onto her wrist and he used that as a guide point and tapped her arm with his wand. Bandages materialized out of the air and quickly began to wrap around her arm.

The job wasn’t exactly neat, but at least it covered up her wounds so that they would not get infected. Zeak put his wand away and fumbled around for a second before finding his walking stick again. “There, I hope that worked and it feels better.” He said with a warm smile. “Comment se sent-il ?” He asked, ‘How does it feel?’ Zeak quickly turned to Madame Pince, “How about I take her to the hospital wing? Just to be sure?” Zeak could almost feel the frown on Pince’s face, but he took her receding footsteps as a confirmation. Zeak turned his attention back to the girl. “My name is Zeak, what’s yours?”

[Aline Le' Fountenelle S4]

It was incredible. Aline had never seen healing magic performed before. The pain had been excruciating during the spell, but had only lasted a minute. Aline looked at her arm as she watched him tap her wrist as bandages appeared.

"Comment se sent-il ?” He asked. Aline thought about that. She should probably just say what he wanted to hear.

"Beaucoup mieux, merci. Seul le temps nous le dira." Much better, thank you. Only time will tell.

He started talking to Madam Pince, and as soon as she heard Hospital Wing, the blood drained from her face. Needles. Long, pointy, sharp, fluid filled needles.

Aline was terrified of them, and still is. The fact that they stick you, even just going into her skin made her feel queasy. It wasn't the blood. No, certainly not the blood, but the needle.

He introduced himself as Zeak, a very charming name for a very sweet boy.

"Mon nom est Aline Le 'Fountenelle." My name is Aline
Le' Fountenelle.

She felt so much better speaking to someone who understood how she felt, not to mention what the the hell she was saying.

"I am sorry, but I am new here, you see. I haven't made it very far in my travels across ze school. Where, exactly, is ze Hospital Wing?" Aline wondered. She felt so stupid for not knowing by now.Well, I would have to find out sometime, correct? she comforted herself.

Zeak fumbled for his walking stick. Blind, Aline noticed. But she was not one to speak. It's just as bad as having no one understand what she was saying. She decided not to ask about it. She figured that everyone must do that, and if she was in his shoes, it would be very frustrating. He is just the same as everyone else, and his other senses would be very sharp, too.

[Zeak Nitesh G2]

Zeak sighed a breath of relief as the girl answered him with a good answer, perhaps he wasn’t as bad at healing magic as he thought. He grinned at the thought of becoming a doctor, come one come all and be healed by the blind doctor, he may not be able to see what ails you, but he will cure it! She quickly introduced herself as Aline Le’Fountenelle and Zeak’s super computer of a brain immediately kicked into action. “Aline Le’Fountenelle, Slytherin 4th year if I’m not mistaken. Its nice to meet you. I gotta say your not like the other Slytherins, most of them would have chased me off already since I’m a Gryffindor.” Zeak grinned warmly in her direction before listening to her next question.

“Oh, the Hospital wing. That’s no problem, it took me forever to memorize this school.” Zeak pointed with his walking stick and than used it to accentuate his directions. “If you take a left into the corridor you’ll reach a staircase. Just go up two levels, hang another left at the top of the stairs, follow that corridor and take a right at the T intersection. From there you can’t miss the Hospital Wing.” Zeak placed his stick back down to the ground. “If you feel like going there I could take you if you’d like? Unless you feel well enough to skip that trip.” Zeak turned his head from side to side to pick up any side noises from the others in the library.

There didn’t seem to be much commotion from the other occupants, so it was safe to assume that all the birds and glass had been cleared away. Still, this girls presence might make a few people nervous after her last disaster. “If you don’t feel like going to the Hospital Wing how about going for a walk through the halls with me?” Zeak leaned down closer to Aline, “I think some of the other students might be a bit nervous that you’ll attack them with another wave of birds.” He whispered to her with a grin.

[Aline Le' Fountenelle S4]

He was right... Another wave of birds would create absolute peril among the students, not to mention that Madam Pince might ban her from the library. Aline rubbed her forehead, still trying to forget about that "episode".

"A walk might be the safest thing for me to do, that is, until the students aren't terrified of me," Aline answered simply.

Hmmm... Associating with a Gryffindor. That wasn't too normal for a Slytherin, but then again, when it boiled down to her, nothing was normal.

"I don't understand why the sorting hat even PUT me in Slytherin. I'm really not that bad... right? Well, actually, don't answer that. But still, I would have probably been better off in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff," Aline told him.

They left the library together, as Aline listened to his answer.