Amulet of time 1: The Age of The Founders

Chapter 16: The Wonders of Wandless Magic

Sunday found all seven friends sitting in a remote corner of the Hogwarts library, stacks of books on all sides. Ron, Hermione and Harry were all reading their copies of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', whereas the others, having non-magical forms, were looking through some of the library books. Galatea couldn't help looking over at Harry's book every now and again, staring in wonder at the English words written on the page.

"Harry?"

"Yes, 'Tea."

"Will you teach me your tongue?"

"Will I teach you what?" he asked, confused.

"The language you are reading. Is that what you speak at home?"

"Yes it is, it's called English. From what I remember from primary school, English is based on Anglo-Saxon, so you'd probably recognise some of the words. There are a lot of Latin and Greek words in it too, so I don't think it would be too hard for you to learn. Why would you want to, though? No one else will speak modern English for about 800 years!"

"It would be interesting. I could write a book after you have left. A chronicle of your year here from my perspective. Ginny's book will tell it from your viewpoint, so I think it would be good to have mine as well. I could write it in English and then people would be able to read it in your time. It would also be fun to have people trying to work out what it said for the next few hundred years!"

Harry couldn't help but laugh. She did have a point. Ginny's book would only give them the whole situation from their point of view. It would be interesting to see an Anglo-Saxon person's take on the whole thing. Harry went back to looking through his book, as he thought of the best time to teach Galatea what she wanted to know. After a while he came to a decision.

"'Tea?"

"Yes?"

"How does this sound? On Sundays, we spend the mornings in the Gryffindor room and I'll teach you English. In the afternoons we can practice our transformations and do more research."

"Sounds good," the girl replied, turning back to her 'Encyclopaedia of Raptors'.

Harry took one more look at his book before surmising that his animagus form was unique. He couldn't find any information on it at all. The closest he could find was a golden gryphon. Unlike the common gryphon, which had the head, forelegs and wings of a bird and the hind legs and tail of a lion, the golden gryphon was a whole lion, with wings on its back. This was the real symbol of Gryffindor House, as he had discovered from the founder himself. Harry's form was similar to the golden gryphon, in as much as it was a winged 'big' cat, only it was a snow leopard rather than a lion. Very curious. Putting his book aside, Harry pulled out the animagus book Sirius had given him for his birthday and sat down to read through it.

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Later that day found Harry making his way to the hospital wing. He'd grown bored with his book after a couple of hours and the others were all still researching their animals, so he decided to go and visit the elf healer. She had intrigued him when he had seen her the other day and he thought he might be able to learn something useful from her. After all, as Ron had said, elves were never seen in his time. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

Pushing open the heavy door, Harry scanned the room for any sign of the tall woman. The only inhabitant he could see was a sleeping Horatio. He considered playing a prank on the other boy, but decided against it. After all, the healer probably wouldn't be too impressed with him if he attacked one of her patients. Moving over to the small office at the far end of the hospital wing, Harry knocked on the door and hoped the elf was in. After a moment, the door was pulled open and the elven woman poked her head around the door.