Rewrite 12

To begin with, the two boys walked in a comfortable silence. They did not know each other really, and neither was confident enough to begin a conversation. Madame Robin and Remus walked in front of them, talking in French about lesson plans, and books. The library was seperate from the school, so the quartet walked down the gravelled path outside. Adam eventually, after going through it in his head for a while, said to Harry 'Thank you very much Harry Potter.' Harry smiled, replying slowly, 'That is okay Adam Yilan.' They laughed at the formality of their speaking, and soon arrived at the double door to the library.

'Okay then boys.' Remus stopped the two boys at the door. 'We will go and see the librarian first, to get you two sorted out with cards.' They nodded, and followed Remus towards the counter.

'Bonjour Madame! Nous tenons deux nouvelles cartes de bibliothèque s'il vous plaît ? Si c'est possible ?'

' Pour vos nouveaux étudiants Remus ? Et appelez-moi Polly, pas Madame! Je ne suis pas vieux, qui n'est pas encore!' Turning to Adam and Harry, she asked. 'Quels sont vos noms?'

Madame Robin was about to begin translating for Adam, but Remus threw his hand up. 'Wait Madame' He whispered. Harry turned to Adam after a moment of thinking, and translated. 'She asked what your name was.' Adam then swiftly replied 'I am Adam Yilan.' 'And I am Harry Potter.'

'Ah, oui, oui!' Polly began writing on the cards for the two boys 'Ils proviennent de l'Angleterre Remus ?'

'Non, Adam est le turc, mais Harry est l'anglais'

'Oui, Oui.' Quickly switching into English, she spoke to the boys.

'Here are your cards then boys. You can take three books out at a time, and keep them for four weeks. Please make sure to take good care of them. Also, you can reserve books if we someone else has it, and we can keep it back until you visit again.'

'Merci Madame!'

'Merci!'

'Now, call me Polly, none of this Madame!'

'Merci Polly' The boys said in unison. 'Mr Lupin?'

'Yes Harry?'

'Can we get some books now?'

'Of course. Don't spend too long in here though, you still need to eat your lunch. Can you find your own way back to the playground? Janus and Gaelle will probably be there once you have finished here.' The boys both nodded, and then wondered off to look at books. Madame Robin handed in her book, and picked up one she had reserved before the holidays. 'Merci beaucoup Polly! Aurevoir!'

'Aurevoir Madame! Aurevoir Remus!' The two adults walked out of the library, and back towards the school, where Madame Robin headed towards reception, and Remus went back to his classroom.

Harry had had an idea, and one that he was very eager to carry out. He had ended up over by the language books, and was looking very hard for one in specific. 'Russian no, Spanish no, Turkish, aha!' He picked a copy of a Turkish to French, and two copies of Turkish to English. He then went to find Adam, who was sat down, looking through a comic book

'Adam? Hey. Look what I found.' He held up the books.

Adam smiled widely. 'Thank you Harry. May I?' Harry gave over one of each book to Adam, who looked inside them and smiled. 'Thank you Harry.' Looking back up he saw the book Harry had in his hand. 'Why do you?'

'Why do I have a copy? Because I want to learn your language, silly!'

Adam blushed, embarrassed but happy, that he seemed to have a friend who wanted to learn his language. 'Can I take these?'

'Of course you can, Ad. Do you want that one as well?' He said, pointing at the comic that was in Adams lap.

'Yes.'

'Hang on here then, let me go and grab another book.' Harry walked away, over towards the entrance, where he had seen a section of English books. Picking one at random, he also went and picked up an English to French translation book, and then walked back to Adam.

Once Adam saw his friend returning he stood up, closing the comic and walking over. Together they strode over to the counter. 'Hello Polly, could we take these books out please?' Harry spoke to her as they placed the books on the counter, with their cards on top. 'Of course.' She smile a little when she saw the books they had chosen, making a mental note to tell Remus later. 'There you go. They're due back in 4 weeks time.'

'Merci Polly.'

'Thanks.'

They put their books into their bags, and together walked out of the library.

'Shall we go to the playground Ad?'

'Yes. There is someone I want you to meet.'

Harry assumed it would be a friend or relative of Adam's, so followed him, expecting another boy. But when they headed towards the trees at the edge of the playground, he was a little confused.

Adam walked into the trees, seemingly searching for a specific spot. He sat down on a collapsed trunk, and motioned for Harry to do the same. 'Don't be scared.' Harry nodded, a little confused, but trusting all the same. Adam crouched down a little, lifting up a large slither of rock.

-Hello Sssamuel- a small green grass snake with a yellow collar of scales slithered out from the space underneath the rock

-Hello Adam. I ssseee you have brought another human sspeaker-

-He iss my friend. He isss a sspeaker?-

-Yessss. You ssseee, he understandsss me, don't you human?-

Harry mutely nodded.

-Sspeak talker-

-Hello Ssamuel. My name iss Harry-

Adam looked at Harry with shock, his jaw literally dropping open. Harry reached over and shut it.

-He does sspeak, ssee Adam? You are not the only sspeaker-

-Harry? Did you know you were a sspeaker?-

-No Adam. But I can undersstand you perfectly now-

-Could you not before Harry? Why can humanss not undersstand each other- Samuel looked a little disgusted, and flicked his tongue.

-Sssamuel, isss it jusst you here? Do you have a nesst mate?-

-I hass a mate. Ssshe iss incubating my children-

-What iss her name, Sssamuel?-

-Sshe iss my lovely Ssiena. You musst go, non-sspeaker friendsss iss looking for you Harry-

-Goodbye Ssamuel. We will ssee you sssoon-

Samuel slithered away into the trees, towards the river, to find some food for his mate.

-Adam? Can we usse sssnake sspeaker to talk to each other then?-

-Yess, but not in front of otherss. Sssamuel sssaid ssome people think it iss bad.-

-How iss it bad? It iss jusst another language?-

-Yess, but ssome people think it iss bad. I do not know why.-

The boys stood up, and began walking back towards the treeline.

-Englissh?-

-Yesss-

'We will have to see him again tomorrow. I wonder when snake eggs hatch?'

'I not know Harry.'

'Oh, Ad, I wish we could use snake speaker all the time.' Harry sighed, knowing that he had to, just had to, learn how to speak Turkish, so he and Adam could hold a proper conversation.

'Yes, but it is danger to Harry.'

'I know Ad. Come on then, let's go eat our lunch and see Janus and Gaelle.'

'They walked over to the playground, flopping down next to Gaelle and Janus, who were sat in the same place they were yesterday.

'Where'd you go you two?' Asked Janus as they reached the ground.

'We were in the library, got a bit distracted reading, and then walked back the long way round.' Harry didn't really want them to know their secret, not yet anyway, and judging by the small smile of thanks he gave him, Adam didn't either.

'Oh, okay. Me and Gaelle are gonna go play tag, you wanna join us once you've eaten?'

Adam looked at Harry, then they both nodded, reaching for their bags to remove their lunch. Harry had just his sandwhich in a bag, which had now been squished by the books. He ate it anyway, it was a much better meal than the one he would usually get. Adam's lunch was in a small plastic box, so it wasn't squished from his school equipment. He noticed the little amount of food Harry had compared to him, but did not wish to question it. They soon finished their lunch, and walked over to Henri, who was supervising the younger years on the playground.

' Bonjour Henri. Ca va?

'Ca va bien Harry. Hello Adam.'

Adam smiled, 'Hello Henri.'

'Are you finding it easier in Mr Lupin's class?'

'Yes, much easy. Madame Robin helps me as well.'

'Good, good.' Turning back to Harry, he asked. 'Harry, I've been meaning to ask you, why didn't I see you around the Dursleys when we had to visit?'

Harry's flight instinct nearly kicked in, he fought to stay still, and to think of a lie, so he didn't break his Uncle's rule.

'Um, I was out at the time? Yes, I was out exploring, and lost track of the time. My watch broke, so I didnt realise what the time was, and by the time I did get home, you had already left.'

'Ah, I understand. But why did they not have a place set for you?'

Harry was by now really fighting the urge to run away and hide. 'Well, um, there's not enough sets, so either me or Dudley would sit on the corner on a spare chair if we had visitors, our tables not really big enough is it? Not for two families.' Adam could now see that Harry was getting really nervous and agitated, so although he couldn't understand much of the conversation, attempted to save him from it.

'Henri. We come to ask you if you could watch our bags for a bit. We want to go play, but not really enough time to go back to class to drop off. Please.'

'Of course Adam.' Ad and Harry dropped their bags, before walking off. 'But Harry, one last question, where's your bedroom? Dudley seemed to have three?' Pretending not to hear, Harry hit Adam, yelling tag and gesturing him to run. They ran over to the other side of the playground, where Janus and Gaelle were having a breather.

'Adam, did you play tag in Turkey? Or shall I explain the rules?'

'I think so, we may have called it differently though.'

'So basically, normal tag is where one person is IT, and has to chase the others, and tap them, telling tag. Once hit, that person becomes IT, and has to chase and tag someone else. It ends with either the bell, or everyone giving up.'

'Yes, yes, we played that in Turkey.'

'Okay then.' Harry stood up. 'Tag you're IT!' He ran off, closely followed by Janus and Gaelle, and then Adam. 'Come one slowcoach!' The four ran around, tagging and hitting each other, and incorporating others into their game, either by tagging them, or dragging them up to run. Soon the whole of Year 6 was playing, with students from both Mr Lupin and Madame Julien's class, as well as a few from other years, including the 9 year old, inseparable best friends, Star Goldenbark and Beth Cluckward, who used some 'unique' ideas to escape being tagged, such as climbing to the top of the playground, or using their small sizes to scramble inside hedges. They seemed to escape being tagged the most, but the older students claimed they were taking it easy on them due to their age. Towards the end of lunch, all the students collapsed onto the grass together, looking up at the sky, and panting. They soon rushed indoors though, grabbing bags and drinks of the ground, as it started to rain. Adam and Harry ran past Henri, picking their bags up mid-stride, and yelling 'thanks' over their shoulder as they headed into the dry school.