Mamihlapinatapai

is a word from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the "most succinct word", and is considered one of the hardest words to translate. It describes a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start This could perhaps be translated more succinctly as "eye-contact implying 'after you...'". A more literal approximation is "ending up mutually at a loss as to what to do about each other."

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Rowena Ravenclaw was, once again, as always, and would find herself to be many times in the future, at a loss.

For words. For action. For—for anything, because Salazar Slytherin (noted rival and co-founder of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, also commonly referred to as ‘That Damn Snaky Bastard’ by other co-founders, mostly Rowena Ravenclaw) had done something totally and completely, well Slytherin.

(Future students in the Slytherin House would never know it was Salazar who they would get to blame for all the stereotypes perpetrated upon them. Draco Malfoy in particular would curse out loud and in front of children one day when he saw an article describing him in The Daily Prophet, which would be nearly a verbatim quote of what Alfred Littlebottom once wrote in a letter home about Salazar. The letter was never to be read, unfortunately, as the owl carrying it was struck down by a stray arrow. The letter was lost to the swamp. The owl, however, got to be lunch for a pair of travelers lost in the woods. It was the only good Salazar did for anyone, but no one knew about it, and one of the travelers got sick from it.)

What he’d done was sat down, and looked at her.

Rowena stared back, trying to decipher what that look meant. It could mean he was about to murder her with righteous zest and be glad about it. He’d probably dance around wearing her skin. It was just the sort of murderer Rowena had imagined him to be. Helga always struck her as the type to go crazy over the tables in the Great Hall, which they’d never got working just right, and stab one of the house elves. Godric… Well, Godric had murdered, but in the righteous sort of way his family had been trained to kill, which meant only each other, and the occasional Nasty Person, deemed nasty only on how much they were liked by the entire Gryffindor clan. It sounded like a fair system to Rowena, but she’d also been studying the mating habits of giant squids at the moment, so there was the possibility she’d gotten some of it mixed up.

The look in Salazar’s eye didn’t quite say murder to her either. He didn’t seem like the type to go for maiming without going for the final blow, so she felt safe that her life wasn’t in danger.

There were still a lot worse things he could do though, she surmised, and got around to thinking those up.

There was always the de facto ‘make Rowena feel like an idiot,’ which he was quite good at. Rowena had always been sure when the history books were written, Salazar would add, as a footnote, at the very bottom of the page, a note about her, which would probably read along the lines of: ‘Don’t let the bookworm attitude fool you. She really is an idiot.’ She’d always liked to think of herself as clever until Salazar entered the room. Then she spent most of her time fumbling around words to keep up with his…

See, she couldn’t even think up a good word.

“Shenanigans,” she said out loud, and glanced at Salazar again. He was obviously now questioning himself and why he ever even bothered to try. ‘Just came in for conversation,’ he would say, ‘then she said ‘shenanigans,’ and I just bludgeoned her over the head. It couldn’t be helped.’

She checked to make sure all blunt objects were fair enough distance that she might have a chance to escape brain damage.

That gaze, though, like he was seriously considering what life would be like if he buried her in the backyard. Or… Oh! Oooh. Oh.

Rowena now felt herself blushing. She could never discreetly blush, especially when she wanted to hide the blush. It just made her more embarrassed, and her whole face looked red. She’d seen some girls blush like they were applying rogue, but on Rowena it looked like she accidentally fell into some red powder. Oddly enough, she smiled.

It was that sort of stare.

“Slytherin,” she said, not ready to be the first to break the staring match she’d just initiated. “I’ll have you know—mmph!”

Mmph! was the best description for what happened, the more literal being Slytherin leaned in and kissed her.

Once again, Rowena was at a loss. For words, for action, for anything, but that wasn’t as bad, because Salazar seemed to know what he was doing.

“This doesn’t mean I like you,” he added, before reaching in again, and she muttered, “Okay,” because that was the best explanation for anything that happened between them.

Rowena closed her eyes and kissed back.

Notes:

I continue to love languages all over the world. I also continue to write Rowena/Salazar and Harry Potter fanfiction. Odd that I do these things mostly after the series has ended, though not necessarily a bad things.

And, if no one can guess, I’ve finished another Pratchett novel. I tend to write like this after reading, and I’ve already started the next.