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Chapter 10-Serpent's Lounge
Ginny, Ron, and Hermione arrived in the master bedroom panting heavily, having just climbed several flights of stairs at a sprint. Harry, on the other hand, was leaning casually against the wall, looking at his watch.
"What took you three so long," he said, smiling. The other three looked at him from their bent positions, clutching their sides and clearly annoyed.
Harry walked over to the mirror as directed and said "Serpent's lounge." The mirror did nothing for a second, and then it began to shimmer and liquidize. It took on the appearance of liquid mercury. Harry reached out one hand and stuck his first two fingers through the enchanted mirror. "I feels like water." And he promptly stepped through the material that was formerly the mirror. The others followed him, Ron first, then Hermione and Ginny.
Harry had taken only one step further away from the mirror before he got a good look at the room. The walls were covered in beautifully dark oak shelves, all full with books. There was a lone yet large desk in the center of the room, and there were staircases to the left and right of the mirror. The floor was made with black marble, except for a border made of a deep, jade green. Harry let his gaze go full-circle, and they landed on the ceiling; it was in great part a large skylight, with some stained glass encircling the main window. The rest was covered in detailed paintings depicting an array of magical creatures. He heard Hermione gasp behind him and knew that she was as impressed as he was.
"This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Hermione managed to squeak.
"Serpent's lounge isn't really the right name for it. You wouldn't think wizards as deep into the Dark Arts as the Blacks would have this kind of taste," Ron said.
Harry silently agreed, and then said, "I have a feeling they didn't have much of a choice when it came to this room's decor."
"How do you-" Hermione began, intending to ask how he knew, but she let it pass as a 'random piece of knowledge.'
The four walked further into the room, and then Hermione finally lost control and sped away happily to the nearest collection of books. The other three looked at each other and rolled their eyes before parting ways to do some searching of their own.
Harry walked straight over to the desk, letting curiosity take over, and observed the things sitting on it. The desk was made of the same oak as the shelves, and there was a magnificent, very comfortable-looking chair behind it. On the desk were a quill, a few rolls of parchment, and a very hefty book with a black and green binding. He made a motion to open the book, but it did so for him, revealing the title The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black: Library Index. Harry realized instantly how useful the tome could be, so he began to page through it, searching for anything that could start to explain his growth spurt. He quickly found that it was organized in alphabetical order, but, seeing as he didn't really know the subject he was searching for, he didn't have a clue where to start. Thinking about what might pertain to his project, he came up with a few ideas and looked back down at the book. Strangely enough, it had turned its own pages and now had several books highlighted in glowing bright red lettering, all of which had something to do with Harry's ideas. He copied down the book titles and went to search for them.
"Hey, Hermione, you might want to go check out that book on the desk," he half-yelled across the library.
"Why, what is it?"
"Nothing special. Just a Library Index with all the books listed in alphabetical order." He heard a screech as Hermione jumped for joy, and 5 seconds later she was standing at the desk, perusing its pages.
"Oooh, this is wonderful," she said with glee.
"I knew you'd like it." Looking back at the parchment in his hand, Harry walked over to the nearest shelf, in hopes of figuring out how the library was organized. Coincidentally, one of the books he was searching for was on the self just in front of him, one entitled Growth in Magical Beings, by T. L. Augmenski. Harry pulled it of the shelf and looked at the books around it to figure the organization. He easily put together that it was also arranged in alphabetical order, by the author's last name. He glanced at his list again and climbed the stairs that were on his right. Stopping on the landing, he reached again for another book on the list. This one was called Magical Physiology: the Study of Witches' and Wizards' Life and Growth, by Professor P. S. Enigman. Before moving on, he spotted the last of his selections, which was odd, because they were out of place. The title and author of the first being For the Growing Witch or Wizard: Correlations Between the Physical and Magical, by I. T. Slinkt, it shouldn't have been next to a book whose author's last name began with 'E.' The same thing applied for the second book, entitled A Compilation of Ridiculously Complete Biographies of the Most Powerful Witches and Wizards Ever, by C. O. Pyus. Harry assumed the books were simply misplaced, and made his way to the desk to begin his research.
"Anyone found anything useful yet," he heard Ron shout from the highest level.
One 'no' and a 'not really' later, Harry replied, "Yeah, I've got four books here that could prove to be quite useful.
"I'm coming down to help you, Harry. I'm hopeless at searching for books and finding real promising ones."
"Yeah, I'll come help too. I hate researching without knowing what I'm looking for," he heard Ginny from the right side of the mirror.
"You coming, too Hermione?"
"In a bit. I think I'll look a little more."
Remembering that there was only one chair, he flicked his wand in a lazy way and conjured up three more chairs identical to the one he was occupying.
Ron and Ginny arrived at the desk to find Harry happily paging through one of his selections.
"Geez, and I thought Hermione was good. How did you get so many books so quickly?"
Without taking his eyes off the page, Harry said, "See that huge book on the corner? It's an index. I just thought of what I wanted to find and it showed me a few things that might help out." The two Weasleys nodded to show how impressed they were with the book. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work!" he said playfully.
"What exactly are we looking for?"
"Anything that could explain why I look so different all of a sudden."
Ginny and Ron each grabbed a book and set about the work they were instructed. A few minutes later a very disappointed and slightly envious Hermione came to sit with the rest of them . "I couldn't find anything! Nothing about growth spurts, charmed watches, or beauvols! How the heck did you find so many, Harry?"
He frowned. "You did check out the index, didn't you?" After Hermione nodded, he continued, "Well, it should've shown you what you were looking for. That's what it did for me. I started thinking about what I needed to find out, and it highlighted a few hopefuls."
"Well, that's not what happened for me at all! After a while I realized it was set up the same way the whole library was, so I decided to abandon it and look at the actual books instead." She sounded so thoroughly disgruntled that Harry just looked at her, then offered the last book that he had found (or that had apparently found him, as it were). She took it, though reluctantly, and squashed herself into the remaining chair.
Harry had decided to look through For the Growing Witch or Wizard: Correlations Between the Physical and Magical first, and paused as he came across a promising paragraph.
Most witches and wizards grow at the same pace a muggle might, their primary times of growth occurring when they are a baby and during puberty. However, there are too many cases of larger-than-life witches and wizards to be overlooked. These scenarios can be explained by the magic that resides in witches and wizards, which often expands to take up too much space to fit into an average-sized body. So, the body grows to accommodate the magic. This is seen in cases such as...
Harry copied this piece of information onto a parchment and continued until he found another passage. There were two charts, side by side. The one labeled Age vs. Amount of Magic was a line graph, showing that as age increases, the amount of magic (commonly known as power) stays the same. Next to it there was a note that said, "A witch or wizard might increase her or his power through experimentation and dangerous rituals, but most are not willing to go through so much and are content with their power status." The other part of the chart showed another line graph, labeled Age vs. Volume of Magic, and it showed a slow but steady increase of Volume with aging until around 12 or thirteen, during which the line jetted upwards severely; after that the line became flat. Harry also copied this chart, underneath his other notes.
After searching a bit more and finding nothing else that could help him, he looked up at the others and asked, "How's it going?"
Hermione, who was writing on a piece of parchment with extreme vigor, said, "Great! I've got loads of notes, this book is really fascinating." Harry shifted himself in his chair to get a look at which book she had. It was A Compilation of Ridiculously Complete Biographies of the Most Powerful Witches and Wizards Ever. "There is just so much information."
"Are you finding anything about growth patterns?"
She finally looked up from her paper to give him an annoyed look. "Of course I have. I've been writing down every bit of information having to do with the physical and magical growth of every person in this book. I haven't come across anything like what happened to you, yet, but I'm sure I will." It appeared that her trust in books had been restored from the let-down of earlier.
"All I'm finding is a bunch of garbage on what happens during puberty," Ron said, a slightly disgusted tone in his voice. He had the copy of Growth in Magical Beings.
"Ron, I think you should probably skip past the first few chapters if you want to find something useful." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Right, I knew that."
"What about you, Ginny? Finding anything?"
"This guy is mental," she said, referring to the author of Magical Physiology: the Study of Witches' and Wizards' Life and Growth. "He just keeps stressing how uncertain everyone is about the growth patterns of magic."
"Sound a bit like Firenze," muttered Ron.
Ginny ignored him and continued on her rant. "'Even through extensive study, one cannot predict the way a witch or wizard will grow.' I mean, honestly, why even write a book, if that's all you're going to say?"
"Feel better," Harry asked her.
"Hardly."
She sat back down and moved the book so that it sat on her lap. Harry was about to go back to his work when something caught his eye. "Ginny, could I see your book?" She nodded and handed it over to him.
He took it, straining to keep his hopes down, because he wasn't sure of what he saw. Turning his eyes to the page, he read:
There has even been one case of a sudden growth spurt in which the wizard in question sprouted from 5 feet, 5 inches to an amazing 6 feet, 1 inch overnight. This occurrence has yet to be explained, though there are many theories. One such theory involves the magic which resides in the being bursting and taking up a considerably greater amount of space than before. Another, more far-fetched theory involves the amount of magic. However, it is a known fact that unless dangerous experiments or rituals are performed to increase the amount of magic, there can be no change in power. For proof of this, see I. T. Slinkt's For the Growing Witch or Wizard: Correlations Between the Physical and Magical.
Harry glanced at his own notes to be sure that the book mentioned was the one he had earlier. It was. After adding the new information to his notes, he rolled up his parchment and said, "I'm going. I need to think this stuff over. Anyone else coming?" After no response from any of the others, he walked over to the mirror and stepped through. He traveled back to his room intending to owl Dumbledore about this. He couldn't wait for Thursday to find out if he was right.
A/N: Well, there she is, how did you like her? A bit longer than usual, but that shouldn't bother you. Slight cliffie, mwahaha. ahem, well, don't forget to REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!!!!!
