Аннотация: Physical education classes. Lunch with Snape. Naruto learns about languages.
August 16, 1988
England, Cokworth, Spinners' Cul-de-sac, Severus Snape's house
I spent my afternoon training thinking and mentally cursing at my own stupidity. I did ten sets of twenty push-ups, abs exercises, and squats. All this while continuing to "conjure" with the levitation of a matchbox. Between sets, I meditated, recovered, and did eye exercises.
I began to see much better than when I woke up in this body for the first time, but it was far from ideal. However, the result was felt almost immediately, so I tried. I turned the eyes of the "eights", "squares" and "circles". He adjusted the focus and concentrated on several points in the room at different distances from me. He squinted, hiding his eyes in his palms so that the pupil would dilate, and then looked at the window so that the pupil would narrow from the light*. All this is to force the eye muscles too. I absolutely do not want to be a bespectacled person. Like a weakling and a weakling. (Real eye exercises that can restore and improve vision up to several diopters. It is useful even for those with good eyesight. Strengthens the muscles of the eye, allowing it to adjust faster to different distances, see better in the dark and in bright light.)
As lunch time approached, I listened to what was happening downstairs on the first floor of Sensei's house. More precisely, in the kitchen. My stomach began to howl slightly, clearly getting used to a fairly clear feeding schedule. I wonder if he'll kick you out, will he feed you one last time, or will he leave you without food as punishment? Exactly two o'clock. You don't have to look at your watch. I've completely regained my sense of time. Meditation helps with this well, because the local sun is constantly hiding in thick clouds.
Downstairs, dishes clattered and there was a soft creak of the refrigerator door. I crept to the stairs and caught a view of the kitchen with a small mirror that Aunt Petunia let me take from her old compact. The second device! There is! They're going to feed me!
I put the mirror back in my breeches pocket and quietly went downstairs. Severus Snape was well studied by me. Sasuke's character is definitely somewhat similar. The main thing is not to make him angry again, because if he's going to feed me and I'm late for lunch, he'll get mad again. However, he didn't even yell at me when he kicked me out of the lab. But it would be better to yell, because when it's said so softly, it's scarier. Maybe he was afraid for me at all? Well, yes, I'm under his responsibility, and suddenly I'm soaking these crusts.
On the corner of the table, near my place, was the promised bottle of "Rowan Broth", appropriately signed, and the jar in which I mixed the ointment. Like, for me too? Oh, of course it didn't mean something like, "take this and get out of my house."
The first thing I did was go to the bathroom and wash my hands.
Sensei was silent, but when I sat down at my place, he pushed the bread and knife towards me. I cut the pieces into half-inch pieces. While I was cutting, I could feel his black eyes on me. Well, yes, they gave the child a knife, and he let's chop himself up. It's completely inadequate. There's even a saying: "Whatever a Shinobi does, as long as he doesn't cut his own people," and here I started myself. The last stage of mental breakdown of some kind. In this body, the pain feels a little sharper than it should, and the little civilian Harry Potter's body is more tender, but not to say that the pain was completely unbearable. It's possible that wizards also have a high pain threshold because of their magic. And that's good, you don't have to worry about that either.
I put down the knife and looked up at Sensei. He immediately turned to the stove, as if he didn't want to look at me, and poured the broth into deep plates. At the same time, the pieces of bread I had cut flew to the toaster. And four boiled eggs rolled up to me. That's cool, he wasn't even looking! That's control! And with so many objects at once!
I quickly peeled the eggs, cut them into halves and put them in the broth. I threw the shells in the trash and rinsed my hands again. The first toasts were ready, and we sat down at the table. Lots of meat! Parsley greens. I wish there were more noodles, and it would be almost ramen. But it's also so delicious, mixed with toast. My aunt cooks thicker soup more often, but I definitely like liquid soup better. Probably because it's more familiar.
There was also a second course of potatoes with vegetables and pork pieces mixed together. It's also delicious and satisfying. After lunch, I collected the dishes and took over the sink. Sensei hesitated behind his back, but he was the first to break our mutual silence.
"It looks like it's going to rain..." he said.
"And why does it "seem"?" I was surprised, looking up from washing the pot in which the broth was being cooked. "Can't wizards tell for sure if it's going to rain or not?"
Sensei froze and somehow got lost, but I realized that this was a "local flavor."
When my aunt and I went somewhere, almost all the neighbors started the conversation with phrases like: "The weather is good, isn't it?" or "Did you hear that rain was promised in the evening?" and my aunt also kept up the conversation, and they could talk about the weather for ten minutes before saying what is needed or what they want to ask for. It sounded like a High-Pitched Speech. I had to deal with aristocrats more than once, and they could also spend hours discussing some flowers, the taste of tea or a painting. Then Ino told me that there are a lot of nuances in the seemingly meaningless chatter, and the whole policy is based on whether your thoughts coincide, whether you can guess what they are so "clearly" hinting at. You can stand guard with your ears hanging open and not realize that the two aristocrats have already agreed on something and discussed a lot of political news when they compared tea from Nanbu province with last year's harvest, brought from the Land of the Bear.
What kind of day is it that I fucked up for the second time?!
It's just that he didn't make small talk with me and was quite specific, and then suddenly we were talking about the weather....
"Basically, the wizard will be able to tell if it's going to rain or not," Snape-sensei interrupted my racing thoughts with a grunt. "But for this you need to have some gift of prediction."
"It's strange," I couldn't resist. "But it shouldn't rain for the next hour. The clouds are not the same as they are before the rain, and the wind is too slow today to apply others and change the weather within an hour," explaining his conclusions.
"Okay, clouds..." Sensei drawled incredulously, studying me like one of his ingredients. "But how did you find out about the wind? You're in the house."
"The window is enough," I shrugged my shoulders. "There are no trees here, but the neighbors have hung the laundry. And the clouds are slowly passing in the sky. The big one over there, which looks like a chicken, is still hanging in the window opening, it hasn't moved much, and I've been washing dishes for ten minutes. That means the wind speed is low up there too. I'm just being observant."
"Observant..." he repeated after me.
I nodded. It feels like I'm not the smartest Shinobi from my world, I'm almost a genius here! What if Sasuke got here? Oh, it's a pity... My best friend could draw such conclusions even at his real age of eight, and not like me - brazenly using an extra nine years of combat and life experience.
"I've been thinking about your actions in the lab..." Snape-sensei said slowly and as if with difficulty. Your conclusions were... logical enough. Besides, I gave you permission to test the ointment myself. It just seemed to me that you already have some kind of abrasion. And I didn't expect you to be so... bold in your experiments. I hope that next time we brew "Bone growth", you won't break your fingers to test its effect."
"No, sir," I said, shaking my head. "The ointment is new and has unknown properties. And the Kosterost in that reference book that you gave me, quite clearly describes all the features. Besides, your opinion is enough for me that it should help in case of fractures or, as far as I understand, with the return of missing bones. And I kept wondering, where are the bones supposed to go?"
"Fractures can be quite problematic," Snape-sensei chuckled. "For example, if there are bone fragments that threaten the work of other organs. In this case, a coldomedic can make a particular bone disappear from your body along with its fragments, and this bone is grown anew. Sometimes it is faster and more convenient than to splice complex and fragmented fractures. Also, sometimes "kosterost" is prescribed to not very tall children as a strengthening agent for the overall growth of the skeleton."
"Would they have prescribed it for me?" I asked. "I think I'm a little small for my age. I'm eight, but I look like a seven-year-old. Also, my vision is not very clear, maybe there are some strengthening eye drops or spells?"
Sensei thought about it.
"You're quite tall enough for your age, so you won't need a "Bone height". As for the eyesight, I must disappoint you, there are no such potions and charms. Quite a lot of wizards wear glasses. However, I have heard that there are healers in Japan who restore even very poor eyesight. I was there once at a potions conference. I even learned their language once, I wanted to... In general, it doesn't matter..."
"Is there another language in another country?" I asked, interested.
Okay, when there are different languages in different worlds, but what about countries?! I remember that those scary dwarfs from the bank were muttering something in a strange and incomprehensible language, but they weren't people at all. Draft toads are also supposed to speak toadish. And ninja cats have their own "nya dialect".
"Of course," Sensei raised an eyebrow. "In England - English, in France - French, in Japan - Japanese."
"How many languages do you know, sir?"
"I am fluent in English, French, Italian, Spanish. I speak Japanese, Russian and German a little worse. I understand gobbledook a bit. If you include runes, then Ancient Germanic. Well, Latin, too.
"Wow!" my respect for Sensei is growing. "You're cool, sir! Are they very different? Are there many of them?"
"There are more than seven thousand different languages in the world, among them about forty of the most used and about a dozen spoken by the vast majority of people. There are a lot of dead languages. For example, the same Latin. By the way, this is the only actively used dead language. Medicines, herbs, and a lot of spells, especially ancient ones, have Latin roots."
In short, I don't care about this world at all. Seven thousand languages!
"And their writing is also different?" I asked.
"Yes," Sensei grinned.
I guess I'm glad I didn't turn out to be such a genius....
"Wash the dishes, and I'll show you some books in different languages."
"Very good, sir!" Ugh! Well, it's good that he decided to keep me after all! So we live!