A Lot Of Knowledge Is A Beautiful Thing (Open)

[Deleted]

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A popular Muggle quote Usha had heard once when visiting her mother's job at Oxford University. The quote originated in a poem written by Alexander Pope in his 1709 An Essay on Criticism.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again."

Usha disagreed with the quote. She had never found knowledge to be dangerous. Fulfilling, Satiating, perhaps Intense at times, but never Dangerous. A high intellect craved knowledge like a portly individual craved a good roast pheasant or a drunken individual craved spirits. The intellect could be filled, but seemingly never become full.

Usha sat in the Great Hall, reading over an Advanced Alchemy book. She had to wait three more years to take the course, but she had already gotten the basics of it in her head. She wondered if she would even need to take it by her Sixth Year.

[Deleted]

Through the bumbling hallways she walked; her strides steady and purposeful, unbroken. At her side, two large bound volumes were clutched tightly; both altogether weighing as heavy as her combined textbooks and assignments. Her exquisitely tangled mind had always been fascinated with many subjects, always keen to pursue and ravage knowledge like it was her sitting prey; and currently, the object she was beholding was Arithmancy. Although the Dark Arts had now become her priority, she could not bring herself to read them openly in the Hall and risk her peers suspecting her true darkness. Anna read them in the quietest cavities of the school library, or in her little secret place, a stretch from the boathouse.

Into the Great Hall she stepped, keeping the cumbrous books balanced in her left arm. Walking over to a bench, she stepped over and sat; beginning to peruse her precious. With anxiousness and excitement, she held her breath as she opened her books: Sanctum: Sacred Divinity in Numerals  and an old, tattered, untitled foreign book; a meticulous creation of the German Muggle doctor Rosenkreuz. Although she knew that her special someone would not be pleased with her listening to what the Muggles had to say, but to her, this was a pleasant encounter; some of them could indeed write and think as enchantingly as the magic folks.

It had been a few quarters before dinnertime, and around her, the grand space was barely filled with students. Of course, Anna had not noticed this, for she had been so engrossed delving into the authors' mind; their silent voices reverberating thoughtfully in her head, still sublimely clear as though they still live. Her eyes pored and scrutinised through every margin, between those spaces and letters diligently; her mind beaming now and then with wonderment at the brilliance of those men. Until she heard the sweet, slow, silent rustling of pages nearby. Unconsciously, she turned her head towards the familiar flips; her thought still searching for a revelation in the maze of number charts.

The sound had come from a book that she could recognise at once, and there, a few spaces from where Anna was, sat Usha, who looked as if she was reading nothing heavier than a little storybook. Anna smiled to herself as the sight brought several things to her remembrance. They had scarcely ever talked, but Anna knew that she was one of the few brightest amidst the brilliant ones in her House; and as twisted as Anna had become, she was also one of them. She had not talked much with her fellow Ravenclaws nowadays, defiant of letting herself be open to anyone but Thad; but seeing the girl learning so enthusiastically let her miss the enjoyment of those esoteric exchanges she used to have. Anna observed that she was doubtlessly lovely and charming; yet her confidence emanated so energetically that she would not be taken aback if even adults would reserve their high respect for such a young girl.

Closing her books gently, noting the lines at which she left them; Anna walked casually over to the Third Year, her mind searching, recalling the contents of the text Usha was reading. It had been nearly a year ago, but she still managed to gather them. "The transmutation of a simple, single cure into a panacea; as was postulated by some, necessitated a precise method of desegregation and interpenetration of each known solute, henceforth creating a compound encompassing all of them, while being none of them," she recited as best as she could, smiling eagerly at Usha, harboring no harmful intentions save to traverse a little intellectual adventure. No one book was ever read in the same manner twice, and Anna was thinking that perhaps another mind would unveil another insight, and share it with her.

dust behind you

@usha

heyaaa ^.^

THANK YOU MALIA TATE FROM ADOXOGRAPHY

[Deleted]

Usha watched as the two girls seemed interested in what she was reading, taking turns reciting information. She knew both girls fairly well as they were in her House after all and shared her thirst for knowledge. She found Nienna a bit odd, especially given the boy she had often seen her with. She didn't know a great deal about Sae given their age difference. But she assumed Sae was currently taking Alchemy given she was a Sixth Year.

Usha decided to join in the random knowledge fun:

"Human beings receive this Golden Elixir from Heaven. . . . Golden Elixir is another name for one's fundamental nature. There is no other Golden Elixir outside one's fundamental nature. All human beings have this Golden Elixir complete in themselves: it is entirely realized in everybody. It is neither more in a sage, nor less in an ordinary person. It is the seed of the Immortals and the Buddhas, the root of the worthies and the sages."

Usha was always interested in Chinese Alchemy and how it meshed with the Muggle belief system of Taoism.

She then looked at Sae curiously when the girl spoke of Hatfield taking apprentices.

"Interesting," she said. "I've offered my services as an apprentice to a few of the Professors, but there seems to be an overwhelming issue regarding my age, despite the fact that I satisfy the qualifications of the position intellectually." She then looked at them both and smiled, though her voice had been a tad bitter just then. "And by the way, hello Nienna, Sae."

@saeren @niennaryou

[Deleted]

The clearness of that brilliance brought Anna to alertness, her eyes widening its circle and a curious look touched her features; and with each word she heard, an innate premonition stirred within her and faded her smile. She had not noticed the Prefect from her previous angle, being obscured by Usha's figure, but as she stepped further and craned her head a little, her hunter-green gaze fell on Selwyn, the Ravenclaw whom some students had even hailed as the intellectual lovechild of Professor Hatfield. Anna had never seen Sae much outside her Prefect duties, yet from her outstanding diligence; she thought her as someone who did her duties not only out of absolute responsibilities, but something more sincere. But Anna had not felt as safe as she was with Thad. Her presence impressed of one that promised redemption and assurance, yet still veiling something behind her back; like a healer who saw through her patient's wrongs and rammed a shock treatment in, not unlike diamonds hammering on glass.

As Anna continued to listen to the exchanges between her junior and senior; her mind, full of wit yet thirsty for more, silently beamed at the impressiveness of them both; but she felt like the stranger, the oddball of Acceptance; just as she had felt all her life. The darkness in her beckoned to shut herself in; to once again, for the last in an indefinite episodes, enclose her twisting soul in that secret chamber of her mind, one where she could know she was safe and at peace. An internal battle she endlessly struggled with in both dimensions, in conscious and subconscious.

She had needed to be careful whom she was seeing, and to whom she was talking to; now that she had only begun to bloom in darkness, now that each cinder block she previously trod on enragedly fades and crumbles into the briny depths of Hell. Yet Anna had not caught sight of Sae's fleeting frown besides Usha, and had she, perhaps she would have meekly obeyed the instant instincts that shouted within her as gentle thunders, pulling and dragging her away from the girls.

Yet as always, she chose to disregard the alarm which her mind had knowingly set off, downgrading them as her latent paranoia; as always that had been evident of her gravitation towards the most dangerous of schemes. You venture through polished paths and see glass shards between those toes, she told herself. Anna pursued the question further, "I do find the subject of Arithmancy voraciously fascinating, as I was reading them then before I came to you," said Anna solemnly, drifting the unusually heavy books unto the table with her wand, placing them carefully next to Sae. "Besides the said subject, I should think the idea of giving, and receiving, help from the professor to be profoundly satisfying," said Anna, being her old-hand self at speaking in half-truths. The idea of dogging after a professor whom the entire school had known of being a strict disciplinarian, and the reverse, had unnerved her a little, of course. It would restrict her from seeing him, and her private time hidden away from the lights; but Anna was not keen to admit those yet.

"Hello, Usha. Call me Anna, if you'll please, and good evening, Saeren," she answered the greeting Usha extended, smiling faintly at them both and asked if she could sit beside them for the evening. A long evening full of pretense and tension, she thought to herself.

flick the switch

@usha @saeren

interesting!

THANK YOU MALIA TATE FROM ADOXOGRAPHY

[Deleted]

Usha listened to the duo. They seemed as interested in Alchemy as she was, and perhaps in advanced magical academia in general. She was hardly surprised though. They were in Ravenclaw for a reason.

"Arithmancy is indeed a fascinating subject," said Usha to Anna. "But I find it hardly strays from the mundane in the long run. Arithmancy is, after all, a subject practiced in a more common fashion in our society every day. I doubt the wizarding world could survive without it, and I suppose that in iteself makes it fascinating. However, as Saeren has explained, Alchemy goes somewhat deeper as a subject, and that is why I have chosen to study it long before I am permitted to attend the class."

She then nodded as Nienna asked her to call her "Anna".

"Fair enough, Anna," she said. "And yes, Saeren it is a very lovely night. I was thinking of enjoying it with a herbal tea before retiring back to the Common Room. Would either of you care to join me?"

@saeren @niennaryou