true loves poison • james potter

53

"I've been told you're the one to come to about this kind of thing." Lorelei stated as she sat next to the blonde gryffindor.

Stumbling over his words slightly, Peter answered quickly, "I mean, I probably don't know as much as Remus-"

"Well Remus is busy helping Sirius and James told me you're the next best option. So," Heaving a thick, leather bound, book on the table, Lorelei flipped to page seventeen, "Can you help me?"

Looking quickly between her and the book, Peter settled on the page, eyes darting across each symbol searching for familiarity.

In the book, easily identifiable as a book on ancient runes, there were dozens of symbols scattered across the page. "Well that means wizard." Peter said assuredly, although the shaky quality of his voice remained.

Looking away from his face, Lorelei looked to where he was pointing, "Okay." Reaching into her bag that she'd tossed on the floor, she grabbed a parchment and quill out, scribbling the symbol and writing the word 'wizard' next to it.

Taking the book from the table into his lap, Peter scanned the page, "This means darkness, so together it would be Dark Wizard, or something to that effect."

Hastily scribbling the word and symbol, Lorelei set her things on the table, "Well I know that one," she pointed to the symbol next to darkness, "means temptation."

"Dark wizard temptation." Peter mumbled. "Perhaps it means a specific dark wizard will tempt," he paused, "And then the rest of the symbols complete the sentence."

Pulling another smaller and thinner book from her bag, Lorelei flipped quickly through the pages. "I have some symbols written in here," she mumbled, flipping between a fast and slow pace as she searched the pages as they turned. "Here we go." She said, stopping on one of the last pages. Looking between her small book and the large book in Peter's lap, she pointed between two matching symbols, "I'm not sure about that one, but the one next to it means weak."

"Dark wizard temptation blank weak." Peter let out a soft chuckle, "How clear of a definition."

Smiling as she looked between the pages, Lorelei found another matching symbol, "Dark wizard temptation blank weak spirit, or soul. It could mean either."

"Oh look," Peter pointed at her small book, "The missing word is self serving."

"So, the dark wizard tempts the self serving weak soul. How..." She grappled for the right word, "haunting."

Peter nodded, "The next word is 'beware'."

Finding the next familiar symbol, Lorelei continued the second sentence, "fickle,"

"Allies." Peter finished, translating the last symbol on the line.

"Beware fickle allies." Lorelei said as she wrote everything down on her parchment.

Peter looked at the third line, "The next word is 'danger'."

"Godric, I didn't know this page would be so dark." Lorelei tried to joke as she looked up from her parchment to look at the symbol.

An unconvincing chuckle left Peter's lips. "It's an interesting page for a homework assignment."

"Maybe Professor Babbling is trying to scare me." Lorelei joked, putting more weight behind the jest.

Another weak chuckle left Peter's lips.

"This smaller symbol is for a filler words," Peter explained, eyes back on the page, "'For', I believe."

"And that one means," Lorelei paused, referencing her small book, "the child or the children."

"Oh great," Peter laughed shakily, "Danger for the children."

Scribbling the passage, Lorelei looked at all three together. "Only one more sentence, do you think we can do it?"

Nodding, Peter already had his eyes on the first symbol in the fourth line. "Blood."

Raising her brows she looked at the symbol, "Blood?" She asked.

Nodding, Peter repeated. "That one means blood."

"Great, such a happy theme we have going. Okay  so blood, then what?" Looking at the book in Peter's lap she referenced the next symbol with her smaller book.

"Hold on," Peter pointed to the large book, "It's pretty faded but there's a small symbol there."

Smashed between the two larger symbold was a small backwards half circle with dots around it. "And what does that mean?"

"Can, or could." Peter shrugged, "One of the two."

"Blood can," Lorelei wrote on her parchment before looking at the book again, "And that one means," looking at her smaller book she furrowed her brows, "It says it means 'save or destroy'." Looking up, confusion written across her face, Lorelei asked, "How can it be save or destroy? Isn't it typically one or the other?"

"Those are complete opposites," Peter agreed with a smile, clearly amused at her confusion.

Shaking her head in reluctant acceptance, "Okay, so blood can save or destroy what?"

"Uh, well," Peter started, looking back at the book, "It's a placeholder symbol. Typically it would be for a name or pronoun."

"So which is it? A name or a pronoun?" Lorelei asked.

Peter shrugged, "It doesn't say, it just is a placeholder. If I had to guess I'd say 'him' but that would be the typical answer."

"So blood can either save or destroy him or her or them or whatever. How clear of a passage." Lorelei joked, finishing her page. "So all together it's: The Dark Wizard tempts the self serving weak soul. Beware fickle allies. Danger for the children. Blood can save or destroy him."

Closing the book, Peter shrugged, "That's as close of a definition as we could probably get."

"Well thank you for your help, Peter. I promise I'm usually more competent." Lorelei joked, gathering her things in her bag.

"It was no issue, really." Peter assured, handing her the large book.

<>

"Peter was a big help today, thank you for suggesting him."

James shrugged, "Peter's more intelligent than most give him credit for."

"Although I will admit, the page we translated was a bit dark." She joked, waving her finger in a circle to stir her hot chocolate with wandless magic.

Sipping at his own cup, James asked, "How do you mean?"

"It was about how dark wizards will tempt the weak and to beware fickle allies and the children are in danger and how blood can either save or destroy someone." Shaking her head at the absurdness, Lorelei sipped at her hot chocolate.

James furrowed his brows, "I wonder what it means."

"That whoever wrote the passage was fucked in the head."

Dissapointing her, James didn't react to her joke. "Didn't you say you had an interest in blood magic? Perhaps the passage was speaking on a spell that had gone wrong."

Lorelei considered his statement. "Maybe."

"I wonder what it means by the children are in danger." James mused.

Lorelei shook her head, "It's just an old passage, James, I'm sure it doesn't mean anything."

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I hope everyone is having a happy Halloween ;)