Harry Potter and the Staff of Slytherin
Chapter Ten – When Am I?
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Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I rented them from Blockbuster.
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There are many here among us who think that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that, and that is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late
~ Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower
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England was a very different place a thousand years ago. Firstly, it was just England. There was no Britain - Scotland, Wales and Ireland were separate countries.
The language was different - Old English, which was much more like German than modern English.
There were only 1½ a million English muggles compared with over 50 million today.
The country looked very different. Much of it was forest, containing bears, wolves, wild boar and other animals long since gone from England. Muggles lived in small villages.
Most muggles were peasant farmers growing just enough food to feed their families. Their houses were made of timber with thatched roof, mostly having just one room.
Muggles did not expect to live much beyond the age of 40. There was little knowledge of medicine – sick people were treated with herbs and serious illness or injury would usually lead to death.
The Wizarding world, however, was thriving. The Ministry had been established a short time ago and a new game called Quidditch had everyone excited.
In South Scotland, a forest covered much of the terrain.
In this forest, a black haired boy sat up, his head pounding. He had no recollection of where he was, or how he had got there.
He stood up and noticed a sack lying next to his foot. Curious, he picked it up and inspected it.
He did not remember that it was his Inventory. Nevertheless, he sensed that it was important and pocketed it before walking into the nearest clearing, trying to see where he was.
A strange looking man was sitting on a log.
"Hello," said Harry. "Can you help me?"
"oð þæt him æghwylc ymbsittendra, ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan; þæt wæs god cyning!" He replied, standing up.
"Yes," said Harry, not realising what he was saying, "Do you know where we are?"
The strange man continued his foreign rambling until another strange man came out of the woods and they rambled at each other.
"Excuse me, I am lost and I don't know where I am."
The second strange man gave him a funny look before going back into the woods.
Then the first man walked towards him and started speaking the foreign language slowly and calmly, as if he were explaining something to a slow-minded person.
Shortly after he left, the second man reappeared with a whole group of strangely dressed people. They were all muggles and they were all gathering wood from the forest to build new structures in their village. They were very proud of their village.
Harry soon realised that they were 'foreign' from their language. He did not suspect that he had travelled through time and landed in a Scottish Forest, though.
The villagers appeared to be having a conversation. Some of them were gesturing wildly at Harry, others were shouting and appeared to be cross. Some were staring at him with curiosity and some with suspicion at his clothes - after all, jeans weren't in fashion in the late 900's.
A short while later, a woman approached him cautiously and attempted to speak to him. She then tried in a few different languages but Harry only spoke English, a language which would not be spoken for centuries. Harry recognized Latin amongst her test languages but as he didn't speak it, he could not reply.
Resigned, the linguist walked back to the group of villagers and shrugged.
Harry was worried that the villagers would leave him to fend for himself in the wild forest. He had no recollection of being a wizard, and because of this, he could not use magic to protect himself against wild animals.
To his relief, however, they gestured for him to follow them and they led him through the forest for about five minutes before they came to a small village on the outskirts of the wild woodland.
The multi-lingual woman gestured to the village and said Hyran. Harry assumed that was the name of the place. His eyes scanned the village. There were two dozen or so small huts made from wood and straw. There was a near-by lake in which several children were playing and two women were washing their babies and talking.
There was another, much larger tent that Harry assumed was some sort of Conference Room for the Villagers. A fire close to it had a lamb roasting on it for dinner.
The village itself was rather spread out in size but there was a lack in structures and population. It was ideally situated for the future, a lake and a forest for wood and food nearby. Harry could tell that it had been designed for the future, and that they were thinking about the generations ahead, not themselves.
Harry was led into the 'Conference Room' tent in which there was simply a pile of straw in the middle and nothing else. They all sat around the pile of straw and some wood and coal was added to it before the straw underneath was lit. Harry looked at the ceiling above it and was pleased to see there was a hole, acting as a chimney.
As the villagers were holding a meeting, Harry had a lot of time to think. He gathered that they were debating whether or not he could stay in their village. Most were in his favour, wanting him to stay, thinking he was harmless, but there were a few who were against him, especially one elderly grey haired man, who seemed quite cross when the decision was made.
After the meeting, they all left the tent and the fire was put out. The hour was late and Harry was given a pile of straw to sleep on which he placed near the lake and got on, putting most of it at the top to rest his head on.
He dreamt that night and woke sweating. He had been in a dark room fighting a giant snake with a bird of some sort flying around his head, shouting advice in English. He thought this strange. He had lost his memory totally, but he had not lost any of his knowledge, except of the magical world. He found his dream strange because he 'knew' that there weren't giant snakes and also, he couldn't talk to birds.
The next morning saw the men of Hyran and Harry go hunting. He had been woken up around 4 hours after he had finally drifted off and, as a result, was quite tired.
He had been given a bow and a dozen or so arrows and had followed them into the forest to hunt down their dinner.
Harry had never even seen a bow and arrow close up before and so he did not know what to do with it. One of them noticed his confusion and showed him how to use it, all the while speaking in his own language.
At the end of the hunting trip, Harry's skills had greatly improved. The Villagers all seemed quite impressed that he had picked up this new talent so quickly. They had several cows and a stag to eat in the coming days. Harry had not caught anything himself, but was glad that he had picked it up so quickly.
In the coming weeks, Harry joined the villagers on every single hunting trip. He had picked up small bits of their language, though it was too poor to hold a simple conversation.
He was able to greet people and say goodbye and he also knew some labels for objects, particularly animals that they hunted.
None of his memory had returned, which he was slightly worried about one star-lit night. What if he never regained his memory? He also wondered about his life before he was found by the Villagers. Did he have a family? He had a feeling that he had no relatives but always hoped otherwise. Did he live in a small village like this? And how did he suddenly appear where he was?
He had made friends with a few of the men his age, particularly the man who he had first spotted sitting on the log. His name was Rogun and he was trying to teach him the language. Harry had learnt to count to 20 in Old-English, which was more or less useless but Harry felt glad that he might soon be able to understand and converse with these people.
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A/N:
Information about England 1000 years ago was from www.sirbernardlovell.s-gloucs.sch.uk
I got the Old-English from a poem about Beowulf. Don't have a clue what it said, though.
I got about 2 reviews for chapter nine so I think I'll just thank them next chapter.
Please review, then I know if anyone's reading this at all!
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