Infinity and Magic

*Anos’s POV*

“Why in all the nine hells are there more books about languages in this castle? Even a Ravenclaw would die from old age before they even finish all of the Poetry let alone the language or History ones.” Anos exclaimed, sitting in a very isolated Bestiary corner of the library alongside Simon, Hermione and Harriet.

He supposed he should have been happy, Hermione had indeed found out the name of the language. That been ‘Drachenrede’.

But that was rendered moot when they had found that the language didn’t have any book or tome or even a single scroll about it that actually explained how to translate it!

The farthest mention of it they had was in the 1400s by some King of the Isles boasting about having learnt the language in front of his court. The world had infuriatingly been cheated from the chance to hear more from the King as he had promptly managed to drown himself in his chamberpot in a manner not even the King’s hired wizards had any answer to.

Which led Anos back to the current time as he sat in a remote corner of the library wanting to both scream and weep but instead forcing himself to try and learn more from the books that almost seemed suspiciously similar to the ones he had read a day ago, or was that two days ago?

He honestly didn’t know and that was a source of anger as well. He wanted to know things not just run in circles, finding another question to follow up his previous dozen questions, adding to the pile like some cumbersome Hydra and Sphinx hybrid.

It was already early April and while his exam preparation had been going as smoothly as it  could possibly go, the small matters were gnawing at him more than ever.

The most recent mention of the language he had found was in another language book, written by an apparently famous writer with the pen name of ‘Regen’. At least that book also mentioned Vampires, Faes and Pink Mermaids so it was an interesting read at the very least.

“Will you stop whining? You’ll get your answer in a day or in a month or in a year but you’ll get it. There must be some dusty old Castle with answers for you but for the love of all the gods keep calm about it.” Simon said, in an equally sour mood from having to study religiously every day.

Hermione and Harriet looked up from their books for a moment before returning to them, the former reading more about Magical Theory while the latter was having her fun finding out the effects of various spells taught in Defense Against the Dark Arts. 

It had been their plan anyway to start studying for the exams that were still so very far away and Simon had surprisingly volunteered to come together with them even if he loathed the work, while Draco had made himself scarce.

“Sorry.” Anos apologised, scratching his neck in embarrassment.

“Maybe you should try to take your mind off of the work for a moment, here help me with these questions.” Harriet said, scooting closer to him along with her messy sheet of papers.

‘ Easy for you to say.’ Anos mused, for Harriet had been working tirelessly at finding out everything about the Philosopher's stone.

But instead of complaining, Anos focused on the pieces of parchment Harriet handed him, beginning the slow and meticulous task of helping her with remembering the Flora and Fauna mentioned in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, thankful for the fact that she hadn’t asked for help regarding Transfiguration.

So slowly time passed, as the early morning turned to late Noon and they moved from Herbology to Magical Theory.

“And this is why Goblins aren’t allowed access to Silver anymore.” He finished explaining and waited for Harriet to digest them.

With this Harriet would be a quarter of the way done with her syllabus, or so Hermione said.

Simon had pitched in between to help, providing a more…stark view of events, since he did happen to be a self proclaimed connoisseur of Silver and knew a lot about some of the common herbs,

The monotony of Anos’s wait for Harriet to speak  was broken by a sharp jab to his side, making him glare hatefully at Simon who was the cause of it.

“What?” Anos asked, annoyed more than hurt.

Simon raised his eyebrows before inclining his head sharply to the side.

Anos followed the motion to see Hagrid, apparently gingerly opening and closing a few books after looking at them for mere moments.

‘Well he certainly isn’t putting them back in the correct order.’ Anos considered, wanting to feel offended on behalf of the books, but Hagrid standing taller than the bookshelf looked so utterly out of place in the library that Anos instead smiled.

“Well let’s help the man.” He said getting up.

By now Harriet had also noticed Hagrid and quickly followed Anos towards him alongside curious Hermione and Simon, the latter walking lazily while stretching his arms outwards all the while.

“Hagrid! Catching up on some reading?” Anos asked, startling the half giant who had somehow not noticed them till now.

“Just lookin’ ” He said, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

“What have ye lot been up to?” He asked, peering at them. 

Anos had meant to answer with some lamentation of exams and languages but Hagrid continued without waiting for them to answer.

“Not lookin’ for Nicolas Flamel, I hope?” He said, gazing at Harriet.

‘Well I shouldn’t be surprised she would tell him.’ Anos considered.

“Oh we found out about that one long ago, say you  know anything about three headed dogs? And what else is guarding the Sto-” Anos prompted and as expected Hagrid cut him off.

“Don’t go screamin’ about it! What’s the matter with yeh?” Hagrid said shiftily, looking around to see if anyone had overheard them but Anos had checked beforehand, this part of the library was empty for the most part and certainly empty currently.

“Well I  just thought that since you’re the Hogwarts GameKeeper you would know about it.” Anos said, shrugging for effect.

“I don’ know nothing about Fluffy.” Hagrid said before putting a hand on his mouth.

‘Wow, I almost feel bad about making him speak about it.’ Anos considered but continued prodding and picking at the half giant with a half dozen questions, while Harriet and Hermione, already aware of the answers to some of the questions, watched on.

Simon was looking at his friend with a mixture of pride and horror.

‘Wow, he doesn’t even have to beat someone to get the answers.’ Simon thought in wonder, making mental notes to follow up on.

After finally getting tired and being unable to keep his mouth shut, Hagrid relented.

“Listen ere’, come an’ see me later, I’m not gonna promise to tell all of ye anything but quit hoppin about around ere’ and askin questions. Someone will think I told ye.” Hagrid said, sighing.

“Deal.” Anos said with a smile, and suddenly the half giant felt like he had been cheated but he didn’t know why. So instead Hagrid decided to quietly shuffle off after saying a quick goodbye to Harriet.

“What book did he have there?” Hermione asked, noticing Hagrid put on a poor display of quietly putting a large book into his coat.

“The Old, the Large, the Deadly. It’s a compendium of Dragons.” Anos answered.

He would have recognized the cover of that book anyday, all bright green and with flutters like Dragon scales.

“Why was Hagrid reading about Dragons?” Hermione pondered.

“Who knows, maybe we’ll find out after we meet him.” Anos answered.

Having answers to some things did feel good.

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