Open Magical Translations

[Magne Kleos]

Magne's English to Greek and his English to Norwegian language books were not nearly as helpful when the textbooks he had used words and ingredients he had never heard of. When it listed plants and animals that truly meant nothing to him. So, despite the fact it was lovely and overcast outside, Magne had come to the library. In search of a magical dictionary, one with translations, explanations and more pictures, something he could hopefully use to help his knowledge about this world. He needed to be able to understand what was being said or he'd really struggle in his classes.

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

Rosalind had been looking forward to checking out the library. Hopefully it wouldn't have just normal books - school books and whatever - but actual novels and things she could really dig into. She loved reading, and so it was a perfect spot to check out straight away. She traversed the aisles, looking for something and managed to find something that looked interesting at the least. On her way to go read, she noticed another student. He looked young, maybe about her age, so Rosalind decided to greet him. After all, she had to try and make friends. She couldn't rely on her cousin for everything. "Hey, what are you reading?" she asked curiously, still holding her book and peering over to see what he was reading, not really thinking about personal space.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne glanced up at the girl who got suddenly very close to him. He looked at her, and then down at her book, his brain trying to catch up with what she'd said. He hadn't really been reading, but more looking at a book. "No read, looking for...," he trailed off, and then said, "Μεταφραστικό βιβλίο," he couldn't find the words in english so frustratedly said them in greek before from his pocket pulling out the translation book he had and pointing to it. "Similar this..for..magical...words?" he spoke slowly, he had a heavy accent as he did so.

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

"Oh," Rosalind said, then fully understanding repeated with a more emphatic, "oh!" She backed away a little bit, easing out of his space. "So you're looking for a translator sort of thing? Hmm." Rosalind wondered if she could help him somehow. "Have you checked the reference section? Or maybe it'd be with other languages, if they have language books," Rosalind said confidently. "I'm Rosalind, by the way." She said by way of introduction.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne gave a little smile as she seemed to get it. His english wasn't the best, but he was glad people were understanding him even just a little. He didn't get all she was saying, she was saying a lot and relatively quickly. "This reference?" he motioned to the shelf, unsure if he understood that he was looking for the reference section or if he was currently at the reference section. "Magne," he introduced himself after she did. "English bad...slowly?" he said. "Sorry,"

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

"Yeah, that reference section," Rosalind agreed, feeling like they were making progress. "Nice to meet you, Magne," she said, thinking the name cool. "Oh, sorry. I do speak a bit fast, don't I?" Rosalind laughed a little, trying to ease any tension and speaking a bit slower. "Have you looked in the reference section?" she asked, slowly this time, and pointing towards where the reference shelves were. She wanted to be helpful and make sure he understood.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne smiled at her easily, and gave a little nod. "It okay..." he said, not wanting her to feel bad about the fact that she spoke fast. "In Ελληνικά..greek...I fast," he said before looking back at the books, trying to look. There were a couple of them, but he grabbed one, near the bottom, it had dust on it, and was an English to Greek translation book but did seem specific to magical things. It had some pictures but seemed old. "I think..this..help," he said, before realising he had somewhat made this all about him. "You looking?"

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

Rosalind smiled, feeling a bit comforted. "Oh, so you're from Greece?" she asked. "Is it nice there? Pictures of Greece always look pretty." She remembered to speak slowly. "Oh, you found it! Cool. I'm glad I could help. And, um, I was kind of just taking a look around. I wanted to find a good novel. I like fiction books," she explained. Reference was completely the wrong section to be looking in for it, but Rosalind was glad she could help Magne.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne had to really pay attention to Rosalind as she spoke, she was speaking slowly, but she was also saying a lot. "It is..pretty," he replied. "Here also pretty," he didn't want to make it seem like he didn't find his new home country pretty. magne could figure that she was in the wrong section for finding a good novel, given that this was the reference section. "What..τύπος...είδος," he stopped and then opened the translation book he had. "Ge..genre. What genre like?" he asked, getting frustrated with himself in not getting the word immediately and then having issues pronouncing genre.

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

"Yeah! New Zealand's great," she said, agreeing and not showing much of the usual humbleness a normal New Zealander might. "I grew up here," Rosalind stated happily. "Oh, I read a bit of everything," she said in a rush, then slowed down. "I read a lot of genres. But my favourite...hmm, probably muggle fantasy. It's interesting seeing what worlds they build with magic when they don't realise magic is real. Do you read much?"

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne nodded in agreement that the country they were in was great. He was enjoying it a lot. It was a nice place to be. He was relieved that she understood what he'd been asking with the books, though he didn't catch the first part of what she said. He caught most of the rest of it. "Some," he answered, and was trying to think of the best way to expand on it. "Habitat is boat, little χώρος...." he stopped again and took out the translation book. "Space. No space for books,"

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

"No space?" Rosalind repeated, a little confused, then the phrase 'habitat is a boat' finally clicked for her. "Oh! You live on a boat? Wow." Rosalind hadn't ever met anyone who lived on a boat before. It was a novelty. She had so many questions, but she had to settle on just one. "Are your parents sailors then?" she asked, wondering what circumstances led Magne to live on a boat.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne was glad she's understood him, he knew from her reaction that habitat wasn't maybe the right thing, but he was pretty sure it meant home, the place where one lived. He half nodded. "Pater..father is," Magne replied. "Your parents?" he asked in return, wanting to learn a little more about her and not just to have the conversation be about him.

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

"Oh, that's pretty cool," Rosalind replied with enthusiasm. She really wanted to know more about what it was like to live on a boat, and to have a father who was a sailor, but she didn't quite know what to ask. "My dad's a lawyer," Rosalind then answered in a moderately boastful manner. "He works in magical law stuff. I don't really understand it," she admitted. She didn't mention her mother; she was used to avoiding the subject. It's what she was used to at home.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne nodded in agreement, equally thinking it cool that his dad was a sailor. He was able to figure out what her dad did from what she said, and of course it made sense, there would have to be magical lawyers for the laws which only applied to magical people, and all professions likely had a magical counterpart. "Your mum?" he asked, wondering if she did the same as Rosalind's dad.

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

Rosalind shifted awkwardly. "Um, she's...she passed away when I was little," Rosalind said, feeling the same awkward feeling she always did when she explained that. She thought she'd be used to it by now, but somehow the words always felt distant when she spoke them. "But she was a lawyer too, yeah. What does your mum do for work?" Rosalind asked, deciding to shift the focus onto Magne once more.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne frowned at what Rosalind said, feeling bad for having brought it up. He reached out a hand and tried to place it on her shoulder. "Sorry," he knew that was what people said when someone had died, but it felt awkward when he couldn't really say more. "She work...re.." he paused and had to look up the word. "research, oceans," he was frustrated that he wasn't managing this conversation well. "Want study with?" he asked, motioning to a nearby table where they could sit.

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

Rosalind gave a sad smile. She was used to people saying sorry when they found out, and while she found it a little uncomfortable for reasons she didn't know, she thought she understood why people said it. She perked up a bit when Magne mentioned his mother was a researcher. "Oh, that sounds really interesting," she said, and then nodded at his suggestion. She wasn't really one to study much, but she figured why not. Magne seemed like an interesting enough person. She took a seat at the table he gestured to. "What would you like to study?" she asked politely, then a thought occurred to her. "Oh, wait. What class are we both in?" Rosalind asked out loud, taking time to think about it. "Potions!" she suddenly blurted out, remembering what class she'd seen Magne in. "Let's look at potion ingredients, that could be fun."

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne nodded lightly, thinking it was interesting. He was glad that she agreed to study with him before nodding in agreement to do potions. He had looked at the potions book though little of it had made sense. He knew some of the instructions seemed to be just cooking, but there were just a lot of words and phrases that he didn't entirely understand that were in it too. Magne took the potions book out of his bag, and then his dictionary and the reference book he'd just picked out. "Have...," he trailed off, trying to form the sentence in his head. "You learnt potion before Hogwarts? Early school?"

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

"Oh, no, nothing like that," Rosalind said, forgetting to speak slowly for a moment. She shook her head to be clear. "I was bored during the holidays, so I read a bit of the textbook. I think knowing the ingredients is important, they seem to go into it a lot," Rosalind explained. "I guess the textbooks are kind of confusing for you. Is there anything you don't understand? We could try figure it out together." Rosalind smiled. She enjoyed being helpful.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne nodded as she spoke, he glanced back at the book and then at her and gave a little nod of agreement. "Was hoping for....greek version," He said with a little shrug, he knew having the greek version would make the initial understanding of it a little easier, even if none of the rest of it was. It would put him on slightly equal foot to those in his year who were from non-magical backgrounds. "There lot don't understand," he said with an almost shy smile. "Just need more time to read, and translate," he said, motioning to the translation book he'd just got from the shelf.

 

[Rosalind Montgomery]

"Yeah, they should have them translated into different languages," Rosalind said authoritatively. "It's not just English-speakers who come to Hogwarts in New Zealand, so they should make it easier." Rosalind nodded. "You've got something to translate things now at least. I'm just going to go grab a textbook," Rosalind said, leaving for a moment to fetch the book they needed. She brought it back and sat down, opening up the book to a random page. It was more fun if you looked through things randomly. There were potion ingredients pictured on the page, though Rosalind didn't know if all of them were important for them to know or not but they were interesting. "Asphodel...that one's kind of pretty. Used for draught of living death. That doesn't sound so nice," she commented out loud.

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne was sure there would be translations, it was just more likely they weren't in this library. Perhaps he could ask for them. The ravenclaw wasn't sure what the process was to getting books to this library or even if the librarian could help him in purchasing such books. He watched Rosalind leave for a moment and then when she came back he looked at the flower she was showing him. Living death didn't really make sense to him. "Living...death?" he said. "Like...a" he paused, unsure of the word and took a moment to look it up. "A coma?"