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#5 - "ano sa" ("hey, you know...")
Foreign
- in which we learn that sometimes, ignorance really is bliss -
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That day, Pansy, to her great surprise, found Ron in the library. He was sitting by a table, staring rather dejectedly at a book that was lying unopened in front of him on the table.
"What are you doing?" she asked, sinking into the chair next to him.
He looked up at her. "Well..." he began. "I was talking to Hermione the other day. And somehow, we got to talking about languages, and it turns out she's not only fluent in French, but Bulgarian too."
"Bulgarian?"
"Apparently, Victor Krum taught her a few words when he was here, and she thought it sounded interesting, so she kept studying it after he left."
"Should have guessed."
"Yeah, well, anyway, I decided I want to learn another language too."
"You? Why do I get the feeling that's a bad idea?"
"I already figured out it's a bad idea."
"Oh. So what language did you chose anyway?"
He gestured towards the book, and Pansy leaned over to look at it. "Learning Japanese Made Easy," she read out loud.
"It's written by this teenage girl, so it's supposed to appeal to people our age and 'make learning the language fun and easy'," Ron said sadly.
"And you still can't learn it? Aw, poor Ronnie." Pansy sniggered.
"Well... In this case... Oh, you'd better just see for yourself," Ron decided, and reached out to open the book.
"Ohayooo!" it declared in a high, shrill, girly voice as soon as it was opened, making Pansy jump in her seat. She'd heard of books that wrote back to you but books that actually spoke to you were new to her.
"It talks?"
"Yes." Ron sighed again.
"Ron-chan, who's that with you? Is that your girlfriend?" the book asked curiously.
Pansy stared at it. "Umm. I'm Pansy," she told it, feeling vaguely silly about talking to a book.
"Ron-chan and Pansy-chan! Ooooh! That's sooo kawaaaiii!" it declared perkily. "You want to learn Japanese too? Sugoi!"
"Oh. Ok. Why not? Try teaching me something."
"Demo, what do you think I'm doing, silly?" the book asked. "Just speak like me and you'll be fine!"
"But I don't understand what you were saying."
"What about just now when I said you and Ron-chan are so kawaii!"
"What does that mean?"
"Ano sa, aaano saaa, it means exactly what it says, of course," the book said, sounding a bit confused.
"But I don't know what exactly that is! I don't know Japanese. How can I use it if I don't understand it?"
"Demo... I told you, just do like me," the book answered, now sounding slightly annoyed.
Pansy looked at Ron who was rolling his eyes and shaking his head.
"You really are useless, aren't you?" she asked the book.
"I doesn't get better," Ron muttered. "I'v been trying to get it to say something that makes sense for ages, but I haven't learned one useful thing yet."
"Kisama!" the book huffed. "You are so mean! You know what? You two can just kiss my..."
Whatever it was going to say was interrupted as the book was slammed shut. Ron and Pansy looked up to see Madam Pince standing on the other side of the table, a stern look on her face.
"Where did you get this?"
Ron pointed to some shelves to his left. "Language section," he said.
Madam Pince looked over to where he was pointing, her expression softening, and she shook her head a little. "It got back there again?" she said, as if speaking to herself. Sighing, she turned back to Ron and Pansy.
"This book actually belongs in the restricted section, but for some reason, we often find it has wandered back out here. It is a very dangerous book. Too much contact with it can cause your eyes to bleed," she explained seriously. "So if you ever come across it out here again, report it directly to me, would you?"
They both nodded. "How does it get out of there?" Pansy asked, a bit curious as to whether it could walk as well as talk.
Madam Pince frowned. "Peeves, we suspect. But we haven't been able to prove anything yet."
With that, she took the book and headed for the restricted section.
Pansy looked at Ron. He shrugged.
"Maybe it's best if I just wait for the rest of the world learn English," he said.