AN: I do read reviews ^^ Posted in my profile is a link to the comprehensive list of all the foreign phrases and words I've used so far. I had to reread previous chapters to find them, starting with Chapter 4, so if you find something you don't recognize, tell me! Also, for native speakers of those languages I use... you must understand I'm a beginner, but I am learning these languages. Any helpful critique you can offer is appreciated.

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Saturday morning, Harry slunk from the darkness of the dorm he shared with Draco and crept down the cavernous hall into the warm, circular common room. The architecture breathed with the old stone, and the whole world seemed to glow a steady, green heartbeat. Harry passed within a finger's breath of the glowing fountain, letting fingertips caress the edge of the stone bowl as he moved.

He hadn't taken much time to seriously poke around the Slytherine House, and that was bad form. But it was the morning of Saturn, and would stay quiet for a good time longer; his curiosity should be uninterrupted for the first time he arrived. An appropriate metaphor was that the whole thing was a writhing serpent's nest on school days.

Which today wasn't, the young Saint mused as he glided into the antechamber.

And froze, staring at the elder students who were scattered around. Several sat in plush chairs, knees tucked up and noses in books. Others were shoulder to shoulder on couches, a single scroll between them. Even more still had found the chess tables.

Harry's hope dissolved. He made to backtrack, hoping to get out of site before he was seen, and decided quickly the Fates were working against him when he bumped into solid matter behind him. A single, strong hand gripped his shoulder, and Harry nearly jerked away.

"Are you all right?"

Tall, was his first thought, followed shortly by sick. His hair was a pale white, but lacking the shine that promised good health, and combined with pale, thin skin it made him look like a ghost. Harry could see blue veins underneath his jaw from this angle, and swallowed hard, fighting the sudden urge find an altar prey to Hekate. It wasn't even an honest preconception; most of his teachings when he'd been very young had been an oddity of half-lost confusion. And none of them painted albino's very nicely.

But Harry looked up further, at glossy pink eyes, and felt all that get pushed away. "You're blind..."

The other's lips quirked up into a gentle smile. "I am."

Confused, Harry glanced down and around, green orbs drawn to the stone floors and landings. "...how do you get around without falling?"

"Very carefully, and sometimes with aid." The young man told him, cocking his head to the side like a bird. And then he smiled a bit wider. "I don't suppose you could walk to the down-step for me? I fear I've lost my count."

"...okay..."

X-X-X-X-X

A ma, Harry began, twirling dark ink on pale paper with his brush, welcoming the site as ink began to dry. He had missed writing with familiar characters, this last week, and the letter would be a welcome change from the schoolwork he had attended before. He dipped the tip against his whetstone, removing a bit of ink. The words needed to be fine to be legible, and letters had never been his forte.

"Herja. What is that sound?"

Pale hair shifted in his peripheral, and Harry hesitated in his stroke, listening to the curiosity in Eskel's voice. He tried very hard not to look at him, and would probably do so until he had convinced his mind that Eskel was certainly not a ghost.

The fourth year had decided to sit himself next to Harry while they waited for Snape and the other first-years to arrive. The idea of a Saturday class- whatever a Saturday happened to be- was rather appealing to him, and so instead of wandering off to do his exploring, the young Saint had decided to remain. It was dangerous, to not know his area, but he excelled when there were extra activities for him to partake in. Something, anything, for him to think on instead of pay attention in the ridiculous Transfiguration class.

Magus could say what they wanted. Violating Gaia wasn't something Harry intended to do, not in this life or the next.

Yet, in the loud quiet of the sitting room, Harry had actually managed to forget that Eskel, as he had introduced himself, could not see what he was doing. What he was writing. That he even had a writing board on his lap. Any of it. It was embarrassing that such a detail had slipped from his mind.

"I am writing letters home. Before I left, I promised my parents and my brothers I would write to them as often as I could. But these past few days have been trying my patience." To his credit, Eskel said nothing on the matter of why, and Harry frowned at his paper. Perhaps a letter in his native tongue would be too long... He wasn't sure Hedwig could carry more then one at a time, and he had so been hoping to write to the others and see who had tales to tell.

"It must be very rewarding.. what will you tell them?"

A letter? Rewarding? Yes, if he wrote it well. But he'd never actually had to write to them before, and that was half the problem he was facing now. "That half the classes are pointless."

"They are," Eskel agreed, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees."Even the Aesir cannot freely see the future, as Divination claims. Though there might be merit in their cards."

"...oracles?" Harry ventured as he looked over, and found the elder had bridged his fingers beneath his jaw. It was a pose Harry knew well enough. But it was horribly uncomfortable to sit in. Eskel's brow furrowed in confusion. "Those who can see the future? That's what we call them."

"Ah. We do not have a name for them. But it happens on occasion. A..guardian will see a danger to occur upon the settlement, or one of the elders will move us beyond the spread of a coming drought. It is rare. But I have heard the Aesir see their own futures and deaths. It must be disconcerting."

"But you do not like Divination?"

Eskel smiled faintly, turning his head to him, but sightless lids were closed. Though he couldn't see, Harry wondered if the light in the room bothered him. "Herja, nobody goes hunting for omens, for good or ill. It invites trouble, and is more then often not wrong."

X-X-X-X-X

Magus, Harry decided firmly, were entirely insane.

This conclusion came to him as the elder students ushered the first years into a classroom he had previously presumed to be empty. It should have been layered top to bottom with dust, but the room had been charmed to project the false sense of being in the woods.

It might have worked, had he not known they were underground.

"Eskel, please tell me there are more classes outside the castle."

"Besides flying lessons?" The elder mused quietly, lips twitching into a smile as they walked. "There is. Not all Slytherine's classes are held in this little room. But it's the first Saturday; the professor has to assign tutors to the first years."

"Why?"

"Because some of you resolutely refuse Transfiguration."

The young Saint ducked his head, cheeks reddening.

X-X-X-X-X

Lucifer Yule accounted as something of Eskel's best friend, near as Harry could figure. They had the same sort of relationship he and Aiacos had- give a little, take a little. He kind of wished he didn't recognize the other from the Feast at the beginning of the year, but he did.

"Awesome, man. You got Harry Potter for your student." The fourth year had been sitting at the end of the table. He remembered seeing him when he walked past to get to Draco; pale skin, lavender eyes. Petite, feminine face.

Eskel tipped his head to the side, just a little.

Harry seethed.

"My name is Diskopotiro. Not Potter. Diskopotiro."

"But-"

"The Transfiguration teacher is an over-glorified house-cat and should never have been permitted in a classroom with impressionable youths."

Eskel rested his hands on their shoulders, but his face was turned in Harry's direction, not Yule's. "Perhaps you shouldn't put that in your letter home, Herja. Hogwarts gets better with time. I promise. Let's just find Miss Tanner, and we can give you a proper tour of the castle. Outside of the dungeons, where you may see the beauty."

X-X-X-X-X

"These are the Moving Staircases. They change places every ten minutes-"

Harry stared beyond the redheaded Perfect at the white marble, and then tipped his head up to take in the site of the rest as he tuned out scientific nonsense about how they were built. Virginia wanted to be an architect when she graduated, to follow her Muggle-born father into his choice profession. It was an honorable profession.

It didn't help Harry comprehend the stairs.

"Who's bright idea was it to let blind students in if the staircases move of their own free will?"

He could feel their attention. Virginia's upset at being interrupted, and then the quiet confusion of his question. Eskel's outright blind-sided wonder, as if he had never actually wondered this question himself.

"….that's a good question."

X-X-X-X-X

Mitera, the letter began, and Mu ran her fingers over it in fondness. It was touching that even his letter would admit that relationship. Heartwarming, in fact, and she pulled Kiki into her lap so he could read the characters along with her.

First and foremost, her emerald belonged to them before he belonged to Shaka or the other's students, and while she had full intentions of taking these to them soon, they were not moving until this letter was at it's end. The boys could get theirs later.

Magus are insane.