Ch. 2 Leaf Tree Star

Later that week, she found an afternoon to herself and decided to pull out her book of High Elvish. It read:

We will pursue language

Roitauvelmet tengwesta

Here are a few words to get you started!

Leaf – lasse

Tree – alda

Star – elen

Shine – sil- or cala-

Grow – lo-

All the verbs have been conjugated in present tense:

Sila i elen. The star shines.

Loar i aldo lasser. The tree's leaves grow.

Note that in present tense, "a" is added to root verbs and pluralization is achieved by adding an "r" unless the word ends in a consonant, in which case an "i" is added. Also, changing the ending vowel to "o" in this case (alda—aldo) creates the possessive. "i" is of course "the." Absense of "i" makes the object indefinite which means that the word a or an is inferred.

Take a break now and digest!

Adri studied the first page intently. The patterns would eventually need to come naturally to her. She walked to the window and looked at the yard. The lasser of the aldar were ready to turn colors. Turning away from the window, she put the book away to answer Mrs. Malfoy's call to dinner.

The morning she was to depart for Hogwarts, Adri looked in the mirror and studied her face. What kind of face was it? Did her dark honey hair befit a brave and virtuous Gryffindor? Did her grey eyes study the reflection with the wisdom of a Ravenclaw? Seeking to distract herself, she ventured to open the book once more. The second lesson read as follows:

Ómëar Vowels

For vowel pronunciation, use the following system

Father

Bed

Sick

Hot

Brute

Vowels with an accent acute (á, é, í, ó, ú) are merely longer sounding but do not resemble English's "long vowels"; thus if bed were to become béd (which it never will), the speaker would merely prolong the e sound instead of creating a word that sounds like bead or beed.

"ë" changes the sound to a long "a" so that the following word, taurë sounds like ta-oo-ray with a stress on the "e".

Now, use the vowel pronunciation guide with our previous words and the following:

Things that can grow—löte (flower), taurë (forest)

Things that can shine—malta (gold), mírë (jewel)

Fun phrase to share with your enemies!

Aut- go

Milqul- kiss

Orqu – an orc or other goblin

Thus—Aute milqula orqu. (the e on the end of aut- signifies either past or, as in this case, the imperative or command)

Now go put it to use, or if you don't, aute miqula orqu!

Repacking the book, she mumbled to herself. "Aute miqula orqu, Draco! Silar Mrs. Malfoyo malta an míri." In an attempt to use taurë, she decided she needed to find the word for "forbidden."

On her way down the stairs, Adri almost tripped on one of the cats and wished for it to kiss a goblin. At the bottom she placed her trunk upright and walked to the kitchen for her morning tea.

"Well you look cheery this morning, child," marveled Mr. Malfoy when he entered to see her mind wandering. Blinking quickly, she smiled and sipped from her cup. She couldn't get her new fun phrase out of her head, and it was taking all her strength not to arbitrarily use it whether she felt hostile or not.

Draco soon after entered with his hair already perfectly combed. This made her realize that she had not yet taken the time to properly attend to her own locks, and she made a mental note to do so. She imagined she might look like she had several handfuls of toasted hay glued to her head. No wonder Mr. Malfoy felt it necessary to make a comment.

Stopping in the hall on the way out, she rearranged her hair with her fingers to an acceptable level of messiness and turned and started to drag her trunk out of the door.

Platform 9 ¾ was bustling with people along the side of the shiny train. Adri followed Draco up to the train and stepped on behind him. As she started to enter the same car, he turned at the doorway and raised his eyebrows at her before closing the door in her face. "Of course," she said aloud. Mumbling something about stupid fifth years, she wandered down the corridor looking for a sparser car.

Near the far end she heard an earful of girlish laughter and decided to peak behind the door from which it came. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door halfway and stuck her nose in curiously. The laughter died down as three girls looked back at her.

The one on the left bench had curly auburn hair and eyes that spoke of shyness of strangers. The other two had variations of dark hair and seemed as curious as Adri. The closest one on the right spoke.

"Oh, hi. Sorry, were we disturbing you?"

"Er, no," Adri said searching for words. "As a matter of fact, you sound like you're enjoying yourselves and I came to see if you could use company."

After glancing at each other, the same girl nodded and gestured for her to sit. The shy girl to her side inched away, and Adri felt vaguely uncomfortable. "I'm Adri. Adrianna Prospero."

The girl from the other bench who had not yet spoken leaned forward and smiled. "Hi Adri. I'm Sandy, this is Barbara," she said gesturing to her left, "and the flustered hen next to you is Lisa. Don't mind her; she's the world's most unlikely Slytherin."

Lisa sat up immediately. "It's because of my family. And I want to succeed for them." She spoke with an awkward American dialect. She clearly seemed to be reciting something that she said often, as if trying to convince herself as much as others.

"Well Miss Lisa, I am sure I will fit no better wherever I end up," Adri said in her most congenial tones. "Anyway, you seem to have come a long way from home."

Looking directly at Adri for the first time, she said intently, "Well, it's because all the schools in America are disorganized." The subject was obviously one that she felt strongly about, so Adri turned her torso to the girl to give her full attention. "You see, it's such a big country and our overall population of wizards and witches is less than the entirety of Great Britain. So, they can't put enough kids in the schools because there are so many—they feel like they need to make another school in every state—and so there aren't enough teachers and so the teachers are all under qualified."

Adri blinked. "America? You mean the States or the entire continent?"

"The States," Barbara interjected. "They like to call themselves America over there.

"Oh," Adri said. Something told her that she should have known that. "What year are you guys in?"

"Fourth years!" Barbara and Sandy chimed at once. They went on to explain the importance of no longer being in the lower half of the age group, but to Adri it seemed that they were not yet in the upper half yet either. When they asked what house she would be in, she shrugged.

"You don't know yet?" Sandy asked concernedly. "That's strange. Do you mean they'll sort you with the first years?"

"Before the first years," she corrected. Adri had forgotten that she still had to deal with the sorting ceremony. With that, the train's whistle blew to signify that the train was stopping.

Once off, she was allowed to travel in the carriages with the other fourth years to the castle where destiny and decision awaited her. Looking out the window she studied the scenery and whispered, "Loa i taurë."