Disclaimer: Much as I love these characters, they aren't mine. So all you lawyers out there drop your suitcases. Try to sue me and I will curse you. No, seriously. I will curse you.
Library, Ten (or so) Minutes earlier
Harry was not at the library for homework, which McGonagall had assigned despite the day's events. He figured there had to be some sort of cure for what Ron and Hermione had, and figured looking for a cure for Hermione's ailment would be simpler. He had searched all sorts of Charms and Counter-Jinx encyclopedias (Volumes one through two hundred and eleventeen, which Harry wasn't sure was a number until now) and hadn't found anything vaguely related to "permanent Silencing charms", or even a Silencing Charm for that matter. Harry at first was wondering why he was even attempting this, but then he remembered it was the kind of thing Ron and Hermione would have done. Well, more Hermione, but Ron would have helped.
As he scanned the shelves again (he couldn't touch any books he wasn't going to read; according to Madam Pince his "greasy mitts" would ruin the binding) he couldn't find any books worth looking at. All of them were either devised so only someone like Dumbledore could make out a single sentence, or so redundant that each unnecessary point was restated five times. Harry felt like slamming his head against each and every one of these useless tomes, until he saw that small glimmering emerald book that seemed to appear from nowhere.
The book was entitled (or so Harry thought) Malleus Empirum. The writing was unlike anything Harry had ever seen. It scrawled from one form to another, so it never read the same way twice. When it did materialize however, it was in a stranger form. The writing looked Aramaic, but it didn't even seem based in Latin. It then dawned on Harry that this was Parseltounge. Written Parseltounge. What was even more disturbing is what the text read.
Translation provided below:
Bylaws Section Seven:
Purification of Wizardry.
Muggles, commonly called Non-Magical Folk, are no hope to continuing magical supremacy. They must be eliminated on contact, and then sacrificed to the Shiisarhaum (leader), in hopes that they are reborn as a wizard. There is little hope for a Halfling, they are given n ultimatum: join or die. Should they join, they are presented before the Shiisarhaum and must publicly renounce their parentage. In doing so, their muggle parent shall be stricken from record and they are employed under strict conditions. Of course, they must have their memory modified, as not to tell others of their once parentage, and to pass on details to their descendants. As for Mudbloods, special circumstances must occur…
Harry couldn't continue. The pages afterward described demonic rituals, sacrifices, and very detailed instructions of gruesome murder. Why on earth would Hogwarts have a book like this? There was clear cataloguing on it, and it looked as it had been here for a few years. Ron's semi-paralysis, Hermione's sudden silence, this book, they were all connected somehow. This was more than a coincidence. He had to talk to Dumbledore about this.
It was the oddest thing he felt when he went up to Dumbledore's office. Almost as if he was being watched…