A Fake
“Ugh, I can’t see a thing!” Hanna complained as she tried holding up the small print closer to the light. The book she was holding was one of the many that they were looking through from the library. It seemed that witches from the past didn’t believe in having a consistent format because the writing between them vastly varied. Some used large fonts, some used mostly pictures, and some, like the one Hanna was holding, wrote in absolutely miniscule characters.
“Hanna~” An annoyingly familiar voice distracted Hanna. “Did you find anything?”
Sherry sat next to her and looked at the book she was attempting to read. “Woah! That’s tiny!”
“Tiny indeed…” Hanna leaned back, trying to rest her eyes. “How did anyone read these?”
“Hm…” Sherry closed her eyes deep in thought. “Maybe they had something to help the text large? Oh! What if the author’s magic was making things bigger and smaller!”
That was a possibility but that didn’t help the problem at hand. Sherry tapped her chin with her magnifying glass. “If only there was something we had to make things larger…” Sherry muttered.
Oh, right. Hanna sighed. “We do.”
“We do?”
“Yes, you idiot detective! Look what’s in your hand!”
Sherry looked down at her hands, and then looked up at Hanna. “I don’t see anything that would help though?”
Did she do this on purpose? She had to be, right? Unable to deal with her anymore, Hanna reached over and snatched the magnifying glass out of Sherry’s hands.
“Hey!” Sherry pouted.
“Ugh, just be quiet!”
Hanna put the magnifying glass over the book and… Huh. It didn’t seem to be doing anything. That couldn’t be right. Maybe Hanna was just using it wrong. She flipped it over and the same results.
“Just… How do you even use this thing?” Hanna looked at Sherry.
“Use?”
“You know, to magnify things!” Hanna couldn’t believe that she had to explain this to Sherry who seemed like she still didn’t seem to understand what she meant.
“Oh!” Sherry punched her hand in understanding. “You mean as a magnifying glass!”
“Yes!” Hanna let out a sigh of relief. Finally.
“You don’t!”
“…What?”
“You don’t!”
“I heard you the first time! What do you mean you don’t?”
“It’s not a real magnifying glass silly! It’s just a piece of regular everyday glass!”
Hanna stared at the object in her hand. Then she stared at Sherry.
“Do you mean to tell me that all the times you looked through this, it wasn’t actually magnifying anything?”
“Yep!”
“That’s it!” Hanna stood up with magnifying glass in hand. “I’m getting rid of this useless thing!”
“Eh~ But it’s important for me to look like a detective!”
“Why don’t you act like one first you muscle brained idiot!”
Afterword
One of the first things I noticed and always wondered about is that Sherry’s magnifying glass never seems to actually magnify anything. Obviously the answer to this is as simple as the artist didn’t want to draw it magnifying Sherry’s face as we look through it, but my funny head canon is that it was never real in the first place and just a simple prop. That’s basically how this very short and simple fic was born!