Hey folks, standard disclaimers apply.
It's good to be back! Our move from Oklahoma, USA to Germany went fairly smooth and we are settling in. With that, enjoy the latest installment of No Time For Epilogues.
No Time For Epilogues
Chapter 18- Phonetics
September 14, 1998
A week after her trial appearance, Hermione was ready to begin her Centaur language project. Her parents wished her luck and she departed for Hogwarts. Breakfast was over when she arrived, so she went to the Headmistress' office.
Minerva greeted her with a warm smile and hug. "So good to see you my dear, you're looking well," she said.
"Thanks, you too," she said and nodded to Dumbledore's portrait.
"Would you care for some tea and chat before you meet with Firenze?"
"That sounds good."
Minerva didn't have to do much talking. With the right prompts in conversation, Hermione did most of it. She loved how Hermione's eyes shone when she talked of her work, Ron, and their pending marriage. She then talked of her work, and Minerva was glad to see that love hadn't muddled her bright mind.
"Well, you certainly have a chore ahead of you," she said. "I'm surprised they even agreed to meet with you."
"Whatever Firenze must have said, it must have been good."
As it turned out, it was good. When Hermione approached the Centaur professor and told him of her idea, he was skeptical. He agreed to bring the matter to their leader for consideration and spoke of her intelligence and bravery, and her genuine interest in their race and welfare. Bane, their leader, reluctantly agreed.
"This witch, she's one of the younger ones, she might be tolerable," Bane had said.
After tea, Minerva wished her good luck. She straightened her robe, the simplest one she owned, took a deep breath and walked into Firenze's classroom. Although his classes were at night, he still maintained a minimal presence during the day, mainly for staff meetings and any other staff issues that arose. He agreed to meet with Hermione this day. Hermione knocked, waited for a response and walked in upon hearing "You may enter."
She walked confidently toward the Centaur, noting that he looked considerably better than the last time she saw him, injured during the Battle of Hogwarts. As with Centaur custom, she waited for him to speak first.
"Well met, young one," he said with a nod of his head.
Hermione stopped before him and nodded in return. "You're looking well, Master Firenze."
He indicated a seat for her to take and looked out the window, hands clasped behind his back. "Our leader has agreed to meet with you. I will accompany you into the forest. Since the battle, I am once again accepted among the herd."
"That's good to hear, and thank you."
"You are welcome, young one. I cannot speak for the herd, but I must commend you for the bold steps you are taking. In the event that Bane dislikes your idea, I will work with you. Is that acceptable?"
"Yes, quite acceptable."
"Ah, there they are. Are you ready?"
Bane observed Firenze and the young witch walk across the grounds toward his spot at the edge of the forest. He watched the young witch talk easily with Firenze, gesturing with her hands as she spoke. Firenze nodded politely at points in the conversation. When they came to a stop in front of him, Firenze nodded and spoke.
"Greetings, Bane. I present Miss Hermione Granger."
"Well met, Miss Hermione Granger."
"Please Master Bane, it's just miss or Hermione, my whole name is quite a mouthful."
Bane's lips twitched, ever so slightly. "Very well, miss."
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me today. In light of that, here are my credentials," she said and held a scroll for him to take.
Firenze and Bane looked at each other and nodded in approval. Intelligent beings they were, however, Centaurs had no written language, so he couldn't read, but they were nonetheless pleased that this human assumed their intelligence. Bane held a hand up.
"That is not necessary. We talk instead."
"Certainly."
"What is your age?"
"18, Master Bane."
"Bane will suffice, miss."
"Are the ones that sired you still in this world?"
"Yes, they live in Surrey."
"Do you have a mate?"
"Yes, I do...umm..well, he is...I hope I do."
"I beg your pardon?" he inquired.
"I am seeing someone..well, it's a bit more than seeing him, we're a couple you see. We're not married, not yet, but I hope he'll ask me someday."
"I see. "Why do you want to make known our language?"
"For the same reason I'd do it for any other species, knowledge and communication. Centaurs have been shunned for many, many years and this would be a good way to bridge the gap between our races. I'm interested in the welfare of all sentients, Bane."
"Well spoken, Miss. Now tell me, how do plan on accomplishing this?"
"Phonetics."
"Please explain the meaning of this word."
Hermione removed a dictionary from her satchel and flipped to the word 'centaur'. "This word is centaur, and see the letters beside the word? It tells how the word sounds out, that's phonetics."
"And you can do this with our words?"
"I don't see why not."
"Come, let us walk and discuss the matter further."
After two hours of talk, Hermione was tired, hungry and sore from trekking through the forest. I'm woefully out of shape! She looked at her watch, grateful that it was lunchtime.
"Bane, may we stop so that I can eat lunch? I brought it with me."
"Ahh, eating. We centaurs eat in the morning and in the evening, but I understand humans eat throughout the day. Very well, we can stop for a time."
Bane settled in a pile of cool leaves and observed her settle on a tree stump. From her satchel, she took a sandwich, crisps, an apple, and bottle of juice. She opened the sandwich, sniffed it and began eating. Halfway through the sandwich, two more Centaurs joined Bane and talked quietly with him. They glanced at her from time to time and she knew she was under scrutiny.
Well, with our history, can I blame them?
"You, miss," the new Centaur called out and pointed. "I remember you, that night those years ago, with that older, unpleasant witch and a young green eyed wizard."
Not a fun night. "I beg your pardon for not recalling you, Master...?" she asked.
"I am called Dorn, and this is my mate, Lina."
"Pleased to meet you both," she said, wiped the crumbs from her lap, wiped her mouth with a napkin and stood.
Firenze spoke. "Miss, I agree that your idea has merit. For now, we three will teach you about our language. You must understand that we will never leave this forest or the grounds of the castle. On the middle days, we will meet with you after the sun rises until it reaches the highest point in the sky."
"Middle days?"
"The days...between your days of rest," Firenze said.
Ah hah! From morning until noon during the week. Hermione thought.
The next morning, Hermione met Bane and his companions in the same location as the previous day.
"Good morning, miss," Dorn said.
"To you as well," Hermione replied and opened her satchel. She learned that Centaurs weren't much for small talk, so she took a pen, pieces of paper and a voice recorder from her satchel.
"Shall we begin? What I propose is that we start out with the basics of conversation, things such as hello, how are you, my name is... things of that nature."
The Centaurs nodded. She held up her voice recorder. "Okay, I'll say a word and you repeat it in your language."
She pushed a button, said 'hello' in the recorder then held it to them. Firenze responded with the Centaur hello.
"Great!" Hermione said, played back the recording and wrote on her paper.
"May I examine that?" Dorn said and gestured to the recorder. She nodded and gave it to Dorn. He turned it over a couple of times and tapped on one of the buttons. Not realizing Centaur strength would be no match for the plastic, the recorder shattered in his hands. Firenze looked to the sky as if he would pray for help. Lina shook her head, took the shattered device from Dorn's hands and gave it back to Hermione. Dorn's tail hung limply in embarrassment.embarassment.
"I apologize for my clumsiness," he said, looking woefully at the recorder. "My curiosity sometimes gets the best of me." Lina patted his shoulder.
"Accidents happen, I'll just buy another this afternoon," she said cheerfully. The Centaurs looked at each other pointedly. She's not angry that her property was destroyed?
"I'm not mad, really I'm not," she said. "We can do something else. How about some background information about your race?" She took a seat on a log and readied her pen and paper. "Since you three, and Firenze, are the contributing Centaurs, I'm sure the readers of the book will want to know a bit about you. Centaurs are of Greek descent, am I right?"
By the end of the afternoon, Hermione couldn't have been more pleased. She had enough information for practically a whole book. She learned that their equine halves (they agreed not to use the word 'horse', as it made Lina, in her own words, 'feel like a nag') were based on existing breeds, while their human halves were as diverse as those of humans. The three spoke proudly of their sires, although Bane disclosed that he and Firenze were of the same mother, but different fathers. "It was quite the scandal among the herd," he said. When Hermione brought up Minotaurs out of curiosity, all three flicked their tails and let out loud breaths through their noses.
"Filthy, mannerless-" Bane started.
"Stupid and heartless-" Dorn said.
"Spiritless...cattle," Lina finished.
She returned to her office after lunch and told her boss about the events of the day.
"Priceless," he chuckled when she got to the part about the Minotaurs and gave her an envelope. "You need to sign for this as well."
She opened the envelope to find a Gringotts draft in the amount of three hundred galleons.
"What's this for?" she asked.
"Order of Merlin First Class recipients get a monthly pension, in the event that the circumstances in getting the award rendered the recipient unable to be gainfully employed," he explained.
"But I am gainfully employed."
"The Ministry knows this, but look at it as a way of saying thank you for all that you did, it's tradition, so take it. You're getting married aren't you? You'll need it," he urged kindly. "The other paper authorizes the payment be made directly to your account at Gringotts."
Ron must be thrilled! When she sent the Gringotts authorization back, she flipped through the Daily Prophet to find the latest Galleon to Pound exchange rate. WOW! Three hundred galleons looks to be around fifteen hundred pounds!
After work, she went to Gringotts and cashed her draft, depositing most of it in her account and stopped by the market with the rest. She had a good day and felt like treating her parents. She bought a bottle of the best vintage Elvin Wine she could find (at a hefty Good Lord, seventy galleons!) and picked up lamb chops to make for supper. When the Grangers came home that evening, the scent of Rosemary Lamb chops greeted them. They went to the kitchen to see Hermione basting the chops and stirring a pot of stewed tomatoes.
"What's the occasion? Elizabeth asked.
"I had a great day, wanted to celebrate a bit," Hermione said. "There's a really good wine chilling by the table."
Over dinner, Hermione told them about her day.
"So they don't like to be called horses?" Ian asked.
"Not Lina anyway."
"And here I was thinking that Minotaurs were mythical creatures," Elizabeth said. "I suppose unicorns and fairies are real too?"
"Of course they are," Hermione said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Pixies and dragons too."
"I suppose you've seen them?" Ian said, now too fascinated to eat.
Hermione sighed. "Yes Daddy, I've seen dragons, fourth year during the Tri-Wizard cup at school, and Ron's brother works at a dragon reservation in Romania. Pixies, nasty little buggers, second year. Fairies I've seen as decorations mainly, and I saw a unicorn this afternoon," she said casually and took a bite of wild rice.
"And to think, all I saw this afternoon were molars," Elizabeth said.