Ancient Magic and Parseltongue

Chapter 5, The Scriptorium

             Being back in the scriptorium was eerie, especially with it being less dusty and more lived in, but at least you didn't have to go through being tortured to get in. 
You and Sebastian immediately set to work with trying to find anything about ancient magic, while Anne and Ominis wandered around not knowing what to do. 
While Sebastian went for the book shelf, you thought it was too obvious, so you started digging through the desk, though you didn't find anything. So, you moved to glance around, but didn't even see any ancient magic traces either. 
Frustrated, you moved towards a snake torch that was the only one unlit. Taking out your wand, you cast incendio on the torch, it flared up and went out nearly instantly. 
"Curious," you mumbled as Anne and Ominis attention turned towards you. 
You backed up and hit the torch with confringo, hearing something click and a door behind one of the walls opened. 
"I don't recall this passage way being here before," Ominis said as you peeked down the dark corridor. 
"So, do we go down the creepy path or decide against it?" 
When you looked back, Ominis was smiling. "You're asking us now?" 
Giving him a smile, you replied. "Yeah, we're a team." 
He reached out, fishing around for your hand, so you moved it into his path, where he grabbed it and squeezed it. "We are." 
"You two are getting sickly cute, save that for when you're alone," Sebastian teased, getting a whack for it. 
"We're never alone and when we are, you keep interrupting us," you complained as you led everyone down the stairs, still holding Ominis's hand.
"You two just have bad timing on your romantic moments." 
"Sebastian," Anne hissed as you shook your head, mentally reminding yourself to curse him with the leg locker later.
You stepped down into a dimly lit room seeing another desk, but a book on a podium in the middle of the room was swirling with ancient magic. 
"I think we found it," you said walking over. 
"This place is creepy," Anne said wiping at some dust on the nearest shelf. 
You reached out towards the book, but once your hand touched it, a metal snake wove around your wrist and bit down on your arm, while it hissed at you. 
Ominis started conversing in parseltongue while you tried to shove it off, but it only did once the snake language stop. 
You ripped yourself way from the stand, grabbing your arm as you groaned in pain. Ominis was already pushing a wiggenweld potion into your hand after uncorking it. 
"What was that all about?" 
Fire was quickly spreading through your veins, making you want to jump into the black lake in winter. 
"Later, first drink this. That snake had poison in it's teeth," Ominis said snatching the book quickly off the stand as you downed the potion, the fire slowly extinguished. 
"That wasn't exciting," Anne said rolling up your sleeve to see the two puncture marks rapidly healing. 
"I hate this place," you whispered as you took the book back and opened it away from your face just in case there was more magic protecting it. "I hate Salazar Slytherin." 
"That doesn't include me right? Descendant of Salazar." 
You lightly patted his shoulder. "No it doesn't, but I'm starting to think you're not related. You are the exact opposite of Salazar." 
He smiled as he blushed, pleased with that answer, but you weren't saying it to make him feel better, you meant it. 
You heard stone scraping, making all of you look back towards the noise. 
"We have to get out of here!" Sebastian hissed softly, his eyes already glancing around the room as if an exit would magically appear. 
I looked around seeing a familiar swirl of magic on the door.
"This way," you said, grabbing Ominis's hand and pulling him after you.
Ominis groaned once you passed through. "This is unsettling. Are we in the common room?"
"Yeah, that makes me feel better about sleeping here," Anne whispered, getting all of you to nod before heading to your dormitory.
You sound proofed the room as all of you sat down.
"When should we go talk to Godric?" Anne asked after you sat in a moment of silence. "We did promise him."
"I know, but tomorrow," you replied, trying to calm your racing heart. "I still haven't learned the true secret this book is keeping."
She nodded as she flopped down onto her bed. "Alright, then I'm going to go to sleep. We have an early day tomorrow."
You sit against the headboard and opened the book, instantly seeing ancient magic swirling.
"It's empty?" Sebastian half growled as he flipped the pages to the middle.
"No, I can see the words. I think he hid them."
"Makes sense," Ominis replied, running his hand over the page. "You wouldn't want just anyone reading the book."
Sebastian huffed before tossing his robe onto his bed. "I figured that snake was enough."
Sighing, you started to look through the book, as the twins left to get ready for bed.
"Thank you," you whispered, lightly pressing your shoulder into Ominis's.
"For what?"
"Telling the snake to let go."
Blush spread across his cheeks as he bowed his head a little out of embarrassment.
"I'm sorry it bit you," he said, already reaching over to wrap his hand around your wrist.
"It's not your fault."
He rested his head against yours, his eyes closed as his body relaxed.
"How are you feeling?"
Nearly chuckling, you shifting your head to face his. "I'm alright. The pain and the burning are gone."
"That's good," he whispered as his fingers traced along your cheek while he lifted his forehead from yours. "I wish I could see you everyday."
"Ominis, you see me better than anyone else ever could."
He smiled bashfully, his eyelashes casting shadows down his cheeks as he bowed his head.
"Do you mean that? You don't mind that I can't see- you could do better."
Feeling this was more of an insecurity of his rather than him thinking you worried about it, you replied. "I've never once thought that you being blind was a disability. It's apart of who you are and I like you. All of you."
His eyes flickered closed while you ran your fingers under his eye.
"Your eyes are beautiful, especially in the light."
He pressed your hand into his cheek, while a tear jetted down them.
As you carefully pulled him closer, you pressed your lips between his brows, hearing him sigh.
"You're not mad?"  
Confused, you pulled back to look at him. "About what?"
"Me asking about it? About wishing you'd pick better?"
"No, I'm not mad. I couldn't ever be mad about you wanting better for me, even if I'm supposed to decide that. And about you being blind, everyone has things they feel makes them different and people will pick at it until their voice bullies us in our heads long after they've left our lives. It doesn't make it true. Being blind is the same as having magic, it's just a part of us."
His hand left yours before his fingers brushed against your face until they ran across your bottom lip, getting your breathing to hitch. 
Both of you jumped when the door opened and the twins came into the room. 
Ominis sighed as he pulled back. "I swear, they have terrible timing." 
Laughing to hide your disappointment, you moved to begin reading the scriptorium's book as Ominis headed towards the twins. 
The book was mostly Salazar's thoughts and ideas about the magic he had and no one else seemed to, but he felt that it was older magic that seemed to get stronger as he aged. It even had a few spells he had created with it, one being the spell he used to steal Apollo's magic. He ended up finding a cave no one would touch below the castle, further than you had gone with the Keepers. 
"What's wrong?" 
You looked up seeing Anne watching you, grabbing her brother and Ominis's attention. 
"According to this, there are caverns under the school." 
"We know that, the repositories-"
You shook your head. "No, deeper than that," you said moving closer to point out the paragraph forgetting they couldn't read it for a moment. "This says that Salazar tried to find how to open a door down there, but it refused to open. There were no keys, no spells could get through, nothing. He's stealing magic to amplify his own to try breaking in." 
"And he now has his eyes set onto you," Ominis whispered, shifting closer. "What do you want to do?" 
"Well, running isn't going to help anyone, but maybe I can find a way into the cavern to see the door. It might have answers for what exactly this magic is." 
"If Salazar finds his book gone, he'll know we're looking into this. We need this to be a surprise, so maybe we should try to put the book back while we have the chance to," Sebastian replied as he closed the book. "Did you read through it?" 
"Yeah, it was mostly Salazar's thoughts and spells, but nothing that explains why only we have access to it." 
"Then after we talk to Godric, Helga and Rowena, we need to ask then to cover for us while we go digging through that cavern." 
Nodding, all of you moved to head to bed, agreeing to put the book back in the morning.