Catching Up On Wizarding News

[Victoire Fontaine]

Semester two was only in its first few days, and Victoire was more than happy to be back. While she had enjoyed the holidays with her family, it had been tricky to explain to them everything that she had done and learned over the past few months. All the spells, the flying and all the little things about the magical world than she was now involved in. her father had asked after her reading, writing, and maths skills, and hadn't been too pleased to find out she had none, so had given Victoire a little bit of muggle work for the semester. She would do it, just not in these first few days back, perhaps in the last week. One thing had been incredibly annoying about being back home, and that was that she was completely disconnected from the magical world. Every aspect of her life back home with her muggle family was without any connection to the wizarding one she held pretty dearly, despite how new it all was to her. This all then meant that as she took her seat in the great hall on that first morning back, she wasn't so concerned with all the food that was placed in front of her, but the rather small stack of newspapers articles that she had been unable to get at home. So that she could be completely up to date with all the goings on in the wizarding world of New Zealand, and with some other wizarding communities elsewhere. It was all to catch up on everything that Victoire had missed in her time away from this amazing magical world.

The first few were fairly boring. News stories on various advancements in New Zealand. Problems in the Aurors department, the rising tide of issues with the so called purest groups. The on the front of the third paper in, which was also the most recent, was the picture of the Minister for Magic. Victoire knew very little about the political system in both the muggle area of New Zealand and the wizarding area. While she knew who the Minister for Magic was that was just about all she knew about it. She also knew that politicians didn't really exist in the same way that Victoire was familiar with when she had lived in Belgium and her father had been a politician. Though the story was interesting. She was stepping down, and an election was being called. Though as Victoire read the story, and the sort of run down of this woman's time in office, it was pretty clear to her that this wasn't the type of politics she was used to. However the story was incredibly interesting to Victoire who found politics fascinating beyond belief. It was just so good. It felt so right to be reading about such things. She noticed that the paper with the announcement was one of the most recent papers about it. Glancing up, the young Belgian girl wondered if anyone in this Great Hall knew about it, or even cared. It was interesting. Maybe they like her, would just be hearing about it. In any case, it would create a definite interesting time in the wizarding community. That much Victoire was certain of.
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[Perseas Stratis]

The new semester had arrived with loads of work for the third years. A bunch of them had been occupying regularly the tables in the library, attempting to deal with the amount of assignments already menacingly piling up. There was just one third year who wasn't willing to surrender to the revision frenzy taking place on the fourth floor. Perseas Stratis wasn't the type of guy who would stress up over homework or anything in general. His morning began with a shower. It was almost a ritual to him. Letting the hot water stream collide into his skin and the steam envelope his body, releasing tension. Feeling that there was nothing more he could do about his history of magic assignment, he put on his uniform and decided to go for breakfast instead of joining the studying group in the library. Using a series of secret passageways, he meandered his way to the Ground Floor where the smell of fried eggs and bacon was wrapping around.

The four tables in the Great Hall were having their morning visitors. The vast chamber wasn't as crowded as when it was during dinner time but a fair amount of Hogwarts' residents were already there enjoying their breakfast. Perseas walked between the middle tables, the enchanted the ceiling above him showing a clear sky today. He reached Gryffindor's table and sat opposite to a blonde girl. Her face was familiar but Perseas couldn't recall the time he had helped her with her first wand-lighting charm. In a matter of seconds, the dish in front of him was filled with almost everything provided on that table. Perseas usually had a light breakfast consisting mostly of yogurt, honey and fruits. Today, eggs, bacon and toast were filling his dish and Perseas poured some pumpkin juice in his goblet before starting eating. While chewing the crispy bacon, he had a good look around him. Perseas couldn't understand how people could skip breakfast. Without a good, morning meal he wouldn't be able to focus at classes or do anything productive. His attention moved at Hufflepuff table were he searched for Rhiannon McGowan. It turned out she wasn't there but possibly at the library, directing the studying group. Finding nothing else worth his attention, he looked at the younger girl in front of him. She looked so absorbed in her newspaper that made him wonder what could have captured her zest. "Anything interesting there?" he asked curiously, gesturing at the newspaper she was currently reading.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire had never paid much attention to the politics of the countries she was arriving at, whether muggle or magical, and to a certain extent she wished that she had before coming, or anything. Since she had no idea how complicated or uncomplicated it would be compared to her own experiences of politics due to her father. She was happily however enjoying the spread that the newspaper had done on the the matter. She liked the pictures, and she liked how easy it was to understand. It seemed like the woman who was stepping down had been relatively well liked by her peers in the ministry and by others who were on the paper, but it seemed by the way the article was talking that it was really all to play for in the coming elections. Everything could be won, it was unclear as to who might be victorious. She was particularly interested to find out that the vice, or deputy had actually run for office himself, and was of the more extremist branch of magic. Those who despised her kind. Born into muggle families, but were in fact magical. She could understand why this was an issue that had a clear base, but that did not mean she agreed with it, or thought that a woman of a standing like that would really want to be around a man with such strong and terrible views.

Looking up from her paper, as the person in front of her spoke, a smile graced her lips. A boy by the name of Perseas, whom she had met once before. She nodded at him, before closing the paper and turning it so that he would be able to see. "As much as it might depend on your definition of interesting, I would say so, the minister of magic has quit. Which means that we will be having an election" She smiled happily, almost giddy at the thought of what that might mean for Hogwarts. She was sure that too most having such a reaction was not normal of a young, eleven year old girl, but having grown up around politics she was pretty interested in the subject. "Elections are a lot of fun" She continued to smile at him, as she point to the article which covered most of the front page. She wasn't sure how interested this boy would be in politics, and therefore she realised he might laugh at her enthusiasm. She shrugged slightly, "Did you have a nice break?" She asked, as she realised that he might not be interested in what the article was, and it would be nice to just catch up with a friend over breakfast. There would be other people to discuss the interesting matter of the days to come for the ministry, should this boy be uninterested in the matter. ​

 

[Perseas Stratis]

Perseas would have guessed that the girl's keen interest was coming from news about a male celebrity being single again but she was actually hyped about the latest news in politics. News that Perseas had been ignoring up until the girl showed him the headline above the moving picture of a woman, who had to be the quitting Minister of Magic. He took a moment to read the small, omnibus paragraph underneath the picture and then took a bit of his scrabbled eggs.
"This should be important to everyone." he began saying. Perseas had never talked before about politics. In a smaller scale, Hogwarts was a community and he was obviously the one breaking the rules of that community. He should be the last one caring about politics when he was constantly disregarding it. "Although I must say, nothing is going to change. In the advantage of the wizardry community at least." he was going to confess his opinion about the people who were ruling and were holding a high position in the political system.

It was a generic opinion, he would have better keep it for himself but Perseas was the type of guy who was always speaking his mind. "Power corrupts. No matter who you are it turns you from a provider to just a talker. From a caring person to a self-centered, greedy pig who cares about nothing else but money." he said and paused to have a sip of juice from his goblet. "I'm sure this lady had all the will to help our local community at the beginning but then she got comfortable and did nothing to be remembered of, like so many others before her. I don't see necessarily a change to this." he said and gestured a couple of time at the paper and the minister's picture. His grey eyes lingered on the girl, wondering if this conversation was a right one between him and a first year and then focused back on his breakfast.

He must have spoiled the girl's appetite for the political debate as she changed the subject to the lighter topic of school breaks. That was a more suitable conversation for a first year and for a third year as well. "Same old things." he said with a dispirited expression across his face as he served neatly more scrabbled eggs on his plate. "Apart from that pack of werewolves that raided our camp in Ireland, I had a relatively boring break." he continued as if being raided by a pack of werewolves was the most common thing to happen to him. "What about yours?" he asked in return, still trying to remember where she had met her before or it was just they were both Gryffindors.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire had grown up in an environment that was highly political. It felt a little strange to come to a place where it played a very small role. She was glad when the boy in front of her seemed to actually be interested in the story that she pushed in front of him. "It should" Nodding in agreement, Victoire was sure that most people would care if they knew anything about it. Victoire didn't know a lot about the magical system, but she knew a lot about the muggle version, it was all about see if that translated well enough so that she would be able to at least be able to follow the unfolding events, but everyone from this article, and the few that she had found, Victoire was realising that there was really little that she knew about the magical system, or had even seen about this magical system. She shook her head at him, nothing is going to change. Well that was a different way of looking at it. "Nothing? That's a little pessimistic" Victoire's knowledge of the muggle way of politics was perhaps playing a lot on her mind as she said this. Knowing full well that of course there were times when nothing changed, and others when it could. All it really took was someone determined with a big enough vision of what they wanted to happen. Perhaps the magical world, of which Victoire still knew too little, was different from the muggle, and this was true of the politics sphere also. The boy then continued, and she realised that she had been perhaps right about his pessimistic nature. Power corrupts, "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" She shook her head ever so slightly.

"I do not necessarily believe that to be so." She gave a shrug. "It corrupts many, but not all. There are still good people left in political systems." The girl then paused. "I don't think you can brush all of one profession together. But, I concede that I don't know much about wizarding politics, or even what this election may bring." She was determined to learn more about it, though she wanted to go into it with an open mind. "How different is it from the muggle system? Perhaps someone new will be able to do something good. Actually make a change." Once again, the girl shrugged. Then, of course the conversation shifted. She listened as he described his holidays. She didn't think that seemed liked a normal thing to happen. "Does that happen a lot?" Victoire seemed a little surprised, and she made no move to try to hide that she was surprised. "Mine were pretty boring really. My brothers joined my family in Australia. They are still in attending school in Belgium, we had a very different Christmas to what we are used to. Much more sunshine." She smiled happily at him. "What will your camp do, since they were raided?"
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[Perseas Stratis]

Perseas was wolfing down the eggs he had just added on his plate but he was listening to the girl at the same time. For some reason he had wake up that morning with a huge appetite.
"I call it realism." he stated after succeeding to gulping down his mouthful of eggs. Perseas Stratis enjoyed conspiracy theories. The books he was reading were full of them and politics couldn't remain untouched by his fantasy that there was always something secret hidden behind the obvious. For her young age, the girl had really integrated views that made Perseas keep listening her with reverence. He wasn't necessarily agreeing with her but it was nice to see that there was some consciousness in some people's minds. "Good people who actually want to do something, are silenced one way or another. It's a cannibal world full of liars." he said and paused for a moment to refill his goblet. "If voting changed anything it would be illegal." he added a quote he had come across once, though he couldn't remember who had first said it.

The young Gryffindor had no interest in politics whatsoever so he didn't know what exactly was the political system for muggles nor for wizards. "Dunno. I guess, they are pretty much the same." he shrugged and cut a slice of toast with his knife. "I know for a fact though that the muggle Prime Minister and the Minister for Magic collaborate." he said and cut the browned slice of bread in smaller pieces. "Oops. There you go. The muggle Prime Ministers are keeping secrets." he sneered, guessing that the muggle born girl had no idea about this close cooperation.

Perseas shrugged again as he forked a square piece of toast with a bit of bacon. "I don't know. It was the first time I went camping. Next time I'll make sure I won't go if it is a night with a full moon." he said despite being the only interesting event that weekend. He took his time to savor the flavors and textures on his fork as she talked about her own vacations."Oh, your European as well." he responded when she revealed she was from Belgium. "Yeah, it's quite a bummer if you're used to white Christmas but you'll get used to it." said Perseas, knowing well this feeling. Greece might was southern that Belgium but the weather during Christmas was cold as well and snowy at the mountainous areas. Santa Claus, Christmas trees and heat didn't quite mix well in his head when he and his family moved at New Zealand.

It seemed that the whole story about his vacation had intrigued the muggle born girl because she took him back to this topic. "We just collected our stuff and left anyhow. I was lucky I wasn't bitten. My older brother actually saved me and my twin brother. If it wasn't him, I would be eating now this bacon raw." he chuckled as he forked another rasher of bacon. Perseas had no idea how much this girl knew about werewolves but he could enlighten her if she wanted. After this event, he bought a book about werewolves that he finished in just two days. They were fascinating but he preferred eating meat well-cooked. "We never found one of my older brother's friends. He's either dead or joined the pack." his attempt for black humor wasn't so successful. Perseas had been talking all this time with this girl, yet he hadn't asked her name. "What's your name again?"

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Just because she'd grown up completely surrounded by politics, and politicians, meant that Victoire at eleven years old was a little more interested in politics than most might be. And she believed a lot more in the politics than some did. Still, at this young age, it was easy to assume that she'd know nothing about it, or not even care. She didn't agree with his points. Calling it realism, it was silly to call it that. The power her father had, while small had not corrupted him. It was like saying that when there was a sole leader, one person in charge of a lot they'd always want more, but that wasn't true in places where a leader had to spread power amongst others. Surely, in this young girl's mind an entire party could not be corrupt. It just could not be. Surely it was an impossibility of large proportions. "That's just not true. There are good people in politics. In this system in New Zealand as well as others. I know this. I've " She wasn't just disagreeing with him for the sake of it, she just believed differently. She was surprised to know that magical ministers did talk to the chief executive in countries. "But they have to. If the magical world is to stay hidden, then of course it must be a secret, and conversations between the two must happen. Wizarding citizens must still abide by the laws of muggles."

Listened to him talk about something other than the political system of this country was better. Although it didn't sound that it was an altogether positive experience. From what he next said, Victoire wondered if he too was European, it was pretty clear from his as well, but from what she could tell, he was much better at english than she was. "Where abouts in Europe are you from?" She had to admit that she was very much used to at least a much cooler Christmas. Something a lot less warm. It was just odd, she knew that eventually she'd get used to it. She listened as he continued to talk about his camp. It all appeared to be very scary to her. She could not imagine that happening to her, or her family. She was glad that him and his twin were okay. She smiled simply when he asked for her name. "It's Victoire" She said, her french accent pushing through a little more when she spoke.
​

This is awful. I'm sorry. Kept getting distracted.

 

[Perseas Stratis]

The girl sounded really confident about her opinion that made Perseas wonder from where was stemming all this certainty. Personal experiences were forming opinions and probably from where she was coming from, the political system wasn't corrupted. Well, maybe not that corrupted like the most parts of the world. "It's good to support your opinions. Even when they are not necessary right." he commented, hinting that he was thinking she wasn't right. He didn't insist on promoting his negativity about politics but there he was again to disagree. "I don't know." he shrugged and stirred the food in his dish. "Why should remain hidden the magical world? If I was a muggle, I would like to have the right to know that I'm sharing this planet with people who can use magic. It's only fair for them to know" he expressed another erratic opinion and he expected her disagreement.

Perseas knew that if a pure-blood was going hear him saying that, he was going to instantly get his name in their blacklist. The girl in front of him looked nothing like the snooty pure-bloods roaming around the school like they owned it. "My family comes from Greece but I was raised here ever since I was four years old." he said, having almost null memories from his homeland, except from the time he had spent there during holidays. This was explaining a lot why he had a perfect 'kiwi accent' unlike his older brother who had spent more of his childhood back at Greece. Even if he hadn't the New Zealand accent, his English were going to have a more emphatic accent unlike the girl that just introduced herself Victoire, whose accent sounded to him lyrical. "I'm Perseas." he said his name in return. "Are you interested in a political career?" he asked curious if that was the reason why she had such a passion for politics.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire disagreed with his pessimistic attitude towards the political system. Sure she was pretty young and understood that there just somethings that she did not fully understand. This was not much older than she was from what she could tell about him. Was all the time needed to understand it more, so that this person would be able to have such a negative view of it. Victoire had dealt with negativity in politics, but never from someone who was close to her age, or even in this magical world. The whole idea behind the politics seemed a little different in this world. Which Victoire was more than happy to learn about. She was looking forward to it, though she had no real desire to actually do it when she left school. "But, as a person raised by muggles, it would be difficult to not feel jealousy of the more powerful minority. There are more muggles than magical folks and the sort of frictions between the two that this could cause might not be very good at all." Victoire smiled at him while she spoke. She honestly didn't really know why it was a secret world, but she figured that it had to be secret for a reason.

"Although, I do agree that it would be nice to know who I was sharing a world with, and keeping this from my old friends is hard, but it is the price paid for the magic we have. Maybe one day, when the time is better we can be more open about who we are." Victoire would like to tell her old friends. They hadn't even told the rest of her muggle family, who just believed that Victoire was at a really exclusive school for gifted children. Which was true in part. She nodded as he spoke, she wondered if he remembered anything about Greece, or if he'd been too young. She was of course curious about what had lead his family to moving here but it didn't matter really. "That's nice. Do you remember anything from your time in Greece?" Victoire smiled at him as she said this, doubting really that he would remember anything concrete about it. She wondered what it would be like to have moved here when she was four and not just before she'd turned eleven. He introduced himself and she smiled at him. before she had time to say anything about it, he asked essentially why she had such an interest in politics. "Not particularly, my dad was a politician in Belgium. He now lectures part time on the topics of Politics and Political theory. I've grown up around it. Are you looking for a career in politics?"
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[Perseas Stratis]

Perseas smirked widely and looked down at his food as Victoire was keep fueling further this debate. It was hard for him to just nod his head and just accept what other people were telling him, especially when it was contrasting his opinion. "Everything is a matter of tact. With the right diplomacy, the wizardry world could have been revealed to muggles without any issues. Of course, most wizards and witches of pure magical heritage, wouldn't give a single knut for muggles. They believe they are inferior beings. They even sometimes look down to mixed blood and half bloods, let alone muggleborns." he shook his head, disapproving the whole philosophy developed around blood status.

His half smile returned on his features but this time it was hinting mischief. "You have muggle friends?" he asked initially while mischief flashed in his grey eyes as well. "If I were you, I would have told them already about my 'diversity'." he plainly said, despite stating something that most magical individuals would condemn as reckless. "I'm more than open about who I am. I just don't have any muggle friends to share." he said, thinking it would be nice to be hanging out with non magical people for a change as he admired their advanced technology. Maybe if he had spent more time back at Greece, he could have met some muggles at the little town his family used to live. Now that the Stratis were residing in a concealed property somewhere hidden in the Rangipo Desert, they didn't have any neighbors, magical nor muggles. "Not much from then but I have memories from my summers there. The sun and the sea there are just enough to make me consider to return there when I grow up." he said with a sunshiny smile while visualizing a sandy beach.

The bubble containing the sound of waves, the cry of seagulls and the soft sand under his bare feet, burst when she talked about her father having a political career in the past but now teaching to future politicians. He felt slightly embarrassed for what he had said previously about politicians. He had roughly called her father a corrupted pig but he chuckled when she asked him if he was going to pursue a political career after school. "Who? Me? Hell no!" he snorted as if he had heard a bad joke. "I don't want to turn into what I'm reproving, nor become a greedy man sitting behind a desk with my fat belly ready to explode and the whole magical community wrapped around my finger. I would rather prefer to be trampled by a herd of unicorns." he absolutely turned down the idea. Although a thirteen years old, Perseas had considered of what he would like to have for a career after the end of his studies at Hogwarts. "I would like to dedicate my life on the things we still don't understand, so it will be an Unspeakable for me." he shared a fragment of his future plans, feeling already comfortable with Victoire. "I let the politics for you. We might need more muggleborns politicians after all." he said and his eyes focused on a poll on her newspaper, showing that a pureblood man was the most popular candidate. He hoped that blood supremacy wasn't included in his agenda. "And what memories do you have from Belgium." his question came as a breathing space for their heated conversation.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

It seemed that they were going back and forth over this topic. Victoire was finding it quite fun. She liked the fact that they were going back and forth. She didn't think that this school had a debate team, and she felt a little like it was lacking. She loved arguing, it was always, in her mind a good time to be able to solidify what she already believed, or even make new opinions because of what was being said by others. She nodded when he spoke, listening to his points, but disagreeing. She didn't think that muggles and wizards could just get a long. It wouldn't work that way. And in her small experience of this school, it seemed that a lot of the wizards, well at least some had problems with muggles or even muggleborns. The worlds were too divided. "The worlds are better divided." she said. "There has been too many issues and bad feelings of pure wizards towards muggles. Muggles wouldn't take likely to feeling themselves below wizards, which would happen with the fact part of the population can do magic." Victoire wanted in part to be able to tell her friends about the fact that she was a witch, or about this amazing school, but she couldn't. "it's not a silly law, it works for the benefit of the majority" Victoire gave the boy a small smile, though she was sure that he probably disagreed with her about it. Though, it really didn't matter all that much.

At the second thing he said she just nodded. She had muggle friends because she'd been raised muggle and had gone to a muggle school. "I'm muggleborn, of course I have muggle friends" She said lightly, with a small chuckle. As he continued she just didn't agree. As much as she would love to tell them. She couldn't. It would completely change everything. Her relationship with her parents had changed because of her magic. He just didn't know what was like. "It would change the entire relationship if they knew. Things are better as they are." She shrugged slightly. She would like to tell them, but she couldn't. That much she knew. She realised that she'd never be able to tell them. She was a little pleased when he spoke of what he remembered and Victoire nodded along. She had been Athens once, as a young child and remembered little of it, but she wondered what it was like for Perseas, knowing a little about the place, but just not enough. She couldn't imagine not having lived in Belgium during the years that she had. She couldn't imagine having faded memories of the place despite being from it. "Must be hard" Victoire said of handedly. She smiled to herself slightly, glad of her parents decisions. Victoire did not mind what he had said about politicians, and essentially her father. She was used to it, in a sense. She loved politics but she was not deluded into thinking that it was a job that was liked by the general public. It was hard.

She laughed slightly at his reaction. She hadn't thought that he would want to be a politician. It would be a little strange if he had. Instead she listened as he spoke, thinking that it was a little extreme, but it fitted who he was. It wasn't like she expected him to be anything else. However, what he said wanted to do, was a little strange. "Whats an Unspeakable?" She asked, she neither heard the word before, or knew the slightest about it. She knew very little about the magic world still. At the second question, she raised an eyebrow slightly at him. "Well, a lot, since I've only been living in this part of the world for less than a year" She shrugged, "I miss the people, I miss speaking French and Flemish." She stopped. "I miss the delicious chocolate, and being so close to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg you know. Kinda sucks being on an island." She knew it was an exact answer to his question, but memories of her home were really all she had. It didn't make sense to say any of them. "I'm rambling, sorry"
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[Perseas Stratis]

It was quite surprising for Perseas to hear from a muggleborn that she was actually supporting the whole secrecy shrouding wizardry community, keeping the muggles oblivious to the existence of another world. Although he was agreeing with Victoire that muggles wouldn't like the superiority that the purebloods were promoting, he wanted to respond that this was due to the wizardry community's attitude. "If there wasn't this discrimination, we could openly show to muggles who we are, what we can do and help them, teach them and why not, teach us about their remarkable technology." he described a utopian reality that was unlikely to happen. "Personally, I like the object they keep with them all the time." he said and tried to remember how they were called but he couldn't recall the name. "They talk through them like our two-way mirrors." he tried to explain what he was referring to with a similar object from the magical world. Being the child of both magical parents and member of an old wizardry family, Perseas had zero interaction with muggles and their technology. What was foreign to Victoire from his world, was the same for him regarding her muggle background.

It seemed that their heated conversation full of disagreement was going to come to an end but when the girl said that she preferred her muggle friends to never learn she was a witch, he snapped, as if he was stung by a billywig. "Rubbish!" he folded his arms against his chest and leaned back on his seat. "If they can't accept who you are then they don't really deserve to be your friends." he said, this time leaving no room for disagreement. "Okay, maybe exposing the whole wizardry world to muggles is not a good idea but your friends have to know. I prefer my friend to be around me for who I am not who I let them to believe I am but maybe it is just me." Perseas shrugged his shoulders, thinking that people who respected themselves wouldn't hide their true identity to their loved ones.

Then he realized that he was sounding a little bit patronizing and he felt thankful for not having younger siblings. His grey eyes slightly goggled when she asked what was an Unspeakable but he instantly remembered she was a muggleborn. "The Unspeakables are working at the depths of the Ministry, studying elements that are yet unknown to humans like love, time, death, the power of thought, etcetera, etcetera." he disclosed, guessing that she might have thought that magical people were the know-it-alls of the planet. "Who said that wizards and witches have figured out everything?" he smiled mischievously and winked. "It's a world full of mystery and I want to explore it. Of course as an Unspeakable I won't be able to speak of what I'm going to see or study but I guess it is a fair downside the fact that I'll have to take the Unbreakable Vow for the secrets I am going to learn." he said and slowed down his talking after mentioning the words Unbreakable Vow, expecting to find a frown on the girl's features for the possibly new term. Perseas didn't intervene with an explanation for what he had just come out with as he had a query of his own. "What's Flemish?" he asked, guessing it was some kind of language but having no idea where it was spoken and by who.