A/N: I don't own Harry Potter
This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Assignment #8 Extinct Languages - Task #2. Sumerian -The ancient Sumerians are most well known for being the first civilization to invent a system of writing. Their language didn't fare as well as their legacy; Sumerian has not had any native speakers in centuries. - Task: Write about a writer.
Word Count: 326
Bathilda Bagshot pulled the scroll from her bag and slowly laid it flat on the table. She lifted the charm she'd placed on it to protect it while it was in her bag. She smiled recognizing the symbols. They weren't the letters the wizarding world used today. Instead, they looked a bit more like ancient runes, but she could translate them well enough.
It wasn't what was written on the scroll, but who had written it that made the scroll so interesting. The symbols scrawled across the parchment in dark ink, a few were smeared as if something had slithered across the still wet ink.
"So you did have a little snake," she whispered. There had always been rumors of him keeping snakes as pets, given that he had been a parseltongue, it was no surprise to see the rumors might have been true. She traced the tracks with her finger, trying to ignore the wrinkles.
Albus had managed to find this scroll locked away in some long forgotten room at Hogwarts. The writing was that of one Salazar Slytherin. Bathilda placed the scroll in a flat box and gently set it to the side. She leveled a ball of light over it, to make sure she could read it clearly. The reason for the box was to protect the parchment against ink spills.
She grabbed a sheet of parchment, her own inkwell, and started translating the symbols. A thrill shot through her. Yes, she was one of the foremost historians of the wizarding world, having written Hogwarts: A History, and many other historical texts. But this might be the scroll, the bit of information that changed her life. For all she and Albus knew, this was simply Salazar's grocery list, or a list of people to feed to the basilisk, but she hoped that it was something more. She hoped that it would be an insight into one of the four great founders of Hogwarts.