"Hope it won't be a particularly dangerous animal..." Hannah sighed. "Shall we hurry? Hector?"
"Yes?"
"You still need to practice spells, right?"
"Would be nice."
"Then, let's go to the same classroom? Clubs will be closed for another week and a half anyway. And there is nothing else to do."
"True enough," agreed the others.
Until lunch, we practiced various spells from the school curriculum. Although, it would be more correct to say that mainly only I practiced. The rest of the guys spent about a quarter of the time on this, and everything else—on conversations, discussions, rumors, and other nonsense. And after lunch in the Great Hall, I went to the library. Justin undertook to accompany me, to the great displeasure of Ernie; he wanted to question him about ordinary people. Again.
The abode of knowledge even impressed me. If one believes shards, far from every school of magic existing longer and teaching a larger number of students can boast such a big library; cabinets and shelves with books were towering, on two floors, and rows with them went deep into the huge room.
"Are you looking for something specific?" asked my comrade when we approached the librarian's counter.
"Information on various pureblood families."
"Ho-o? Curious."
"What are you curious about, Mr. Finch-Fletchley?" asked strictly a stately lady in large glasses and a wide-brimmed witch's hat.
"Madam Pince, hello," nodded Justin. "Brought a friend to you."
"Mr. Granger?" Madam Pince looked at me. "I hope you will treat books as respectfully as your sister. Very talented young lady."
"Undoubtedly, Madam Pince."
"Anyway," Justin put a hand on my shoulder. "I'll go from here. Sure Madam Pince will help you if such information exists here at all."
Justin with an important look left the library extremely quickly, leaving me one on one with this excessively strict, and clearly incorruptible lady.
"Madam Pince, I am interested in information on various pureblood lines. Of social character. Who does what, where noticed, newspaper clippings, articles, journals with significant achievements..."
"I understood you, Mr. Granger. True, I assumed you would choose educational literature."
Madam Pince came out from behind the counter and headed somewhere deep, striving to hide behind monumental cabinets with books. It seems she doesn't even wish to make sure if I follow her? No, naturally, I went after, but what phenomenal presumption! Just like elves... And yes, now I myself ended up in the place of an ordinary person who gets annoyed by this trait of character fairly common for elves. Passing almost into the very depth of the room, Madam Pince led me to one of the rows with cabinets and, turning around, pointed at them with her hand.
"Here is the archive of various periodicals and other non-educational publications, one way or another connected with the activity of families of pureblood wizards of England, France, and Germany."
"I didn't even hope that such could be found in a school library."
"Mr. Granger," Madam Pince looked at me even more strictly. "Hogwarts Library is the most complete library both on the islands and in Europe. Even such a ridiculous journal in the eyes of the majority as 'The Quibbler' is honored with its place here. You, I dare hope, know how to handle books?"
"No, what are you saying, I don't even know how to read."
It seemed to me that Madam Pince's eyes would simply pop out of orbits right now.
"Mm-yeah, irony and sarcasm have no place within these walls," I shook my head. "Of course I know."
"No need to be ironic. My question was not out of idle curiosity, Mr. Granger. You would be surprised if you learned how strikingly illiterate young wizards occasionally enter this school. Food and drinks are forbidden. Hands must be clean. Do not apply spells to books. Ladder..."
Madam Pince pointed to a ladder with wheels attached to one of the cabinets.
"Reading tables..." now she pointed toward the window, where a pair of tables were located at this end of the library. I saw the same at the ends of other rows, as well as in the reading hall.
"Have a useful pastime," Madam Pince said goodbye peculiarly and went to her counter, but turned around after a couple of steps. "And one more thing. There must be silence in the library."
As soon as Madam Pince disappeared from view, I examined this huge number of most diverse books, notebooks, files, and journals.
"As I used to say, without a couple of gallons of noble ale a good dwarf won't cope with the set task..."
Having examined everything once again and properly estimated the volume of work self-imposed on myself, I spat on everything. If I decided to study local magic, this does not mean that I will limit myself in such ambiguous circumstances. Properly straining will and mind, "heaved," releasing finest tendrils of invisible energy around. If one could see these tendrils, then I would resemble a plasma lamp.
Making sure that I can perform this trick in principle, I took a notebook from my triangle backpack, put it on the table, and directed one of the tendrils to it. Now need to focus, wish to find a word in books. Malfoy.
Tendrils began to feel literature on shelves. If one of them found the word "Malfoy," then the tendril connected to the notebook outputted book title, page number, paragraph, and line in a string. Later it will be possible to find a specific book in a similar way; the tendril that found it will sort of tense up, and since they are connected to me, I will simply understand which tendril exactly gave the signal.
Well, time to work monotonously.
Mental fatigue is an extremely unpleasant state. But precisely in such a state I returned in the evening from the library to the House common room. Managed to find mentions of Malfoys in a fairly large amount of literature, but if compared with the total volume of books in that section—very little. The remnants of time were enough to deal with three books and five journals in which this surname was mentioned; nothing particularly significant.
Entering the common room, I noted that the atmosphere here, as always, is quite friendly. Students discuss something peacefully, five bustle with some strange and suspicious vegetation in pots, several more people play chess that moves by itself. Several girls, gathered in a friendly collective on large sofas, actively and cheerfully discuss magazines, sometimes giggling after guys. Glancing into that corner where I sat last time, I noticed all five classmates there.
"Hi, folks," I nodded as soon as I approached.
"Oh, Hector," Justin immediately smiled. "And I saved a seat for you here."
And nods at the armchair in which I sat before. Comfortable, and the view of the entire common room is generally chic.
"And didn't even occupy it?" I asked, sitting down and crossing my legs.
"It was a sin to occupy a place where you sat so regally," the movie villain shrugged.
"Yeah-yeah," Ernie nodded. "Walked past yesterday, saw. Even stumbled."
The guys themselves settled here no worse; dragged a sofa and an armchair, replaced a small table with a quite full-fledged one. In general, everything like people do.
"Tell us, did you find what you were looking for?"
"Not quite, Justin. But moving in the right direction."
"And what were you looking for?" Susan gathered herself.
"Information about the world around; nothing more."
"Oh, well, you can always ask us."
"As soon as the need arises, I'll turn immediately," I answered with a smile to the girl, who blushed a little because of something. "And what are you doing?"
"Checking if all tasks are done."
"Hmm, let's check..."
Monday is a hard day. So everyone says. However, other people make it hard, succumbing to laziness; this is not my style. Exercises, shower... In general, adherence to schedule. And of course, wake-up for neighbors! But my cunning roommates adapted suspiciously quickly in the simplest way; they now have an alarm clock. As soon as I returned to the room, they had already woken up and were rubbing their eyes. And yet in the common room, I heard about the existence of certain silencing charms. Could learn them, and that's it.