Chapter Eight – One step forward, a hundred steps down

When they had paid for their books, they departed the bookshop, running for cover from the still pounding rain. They ran into a small pastry shop, located down a small alleyway. When they entered they saw a table hidden towards the back of the shop, with four comfy seats surrounding it.

Hermione walked over to it and plonked her books into the spare seat. She sat down next to it, and started rinsing her hair out. A small puddle appeared, from the water, which had accumulated in Hermione's hair.

Harry followed Hermione moving between other chairs to get to the table Hermione was sitting at. He sat down next to her, and looked at her while she tried to get rid of some of the excess water her hair had soaked up.

'Eh, this hair must have absorbed all the water. It's soaking. I can't wait to get back, and then I can get changed out of these clothes. They're drenched.'

'I think you look beautiful.' Harry said.

'Yes, well you're supposed to say that.' Hermione replied stubbornly. She relaxed back into her chair and picked up a menu. She placed it in front of her face, so that she could hide from Harry. In truth, Hermione was feeling crabby. She hadn't much sleep, Hermione went to bed early but she didn't go to sleep for hours. She blamed herself that Harry had to carry the world on his shoulders, and made a promise with herself that she would try to come up with as many possible ways of defeating Voldemort. She had countless amounts of brainstorms in her mind, and every night like the night before she came to a dead end.

Harry frowned when she put the menu up, especially after a couple of minutes when she hadn't chosen anything from the menu.

She lowered the menu, when Harry pulled it down. He suddenly noticed how tired her eyes seemed. Ron seemed not to notice as he recited from the menu what he wanted. Harry chose a couple cauldron cakes, and a hot chocolate. Hermione however ended up choosing a herbal tea.

'Don't you want anything to eat?' Harry asked.

'No thanks. I'm not hungry.' She said, while rummaging in her purse for her list of things to get. She plucked it out, and smoothed it out on the table. Taking her pencil she ticked everything she had and looked at what she needed.

'What do you have left to get Hermione?' Ron said when the lady came over to give them what they had ordered. Hermione picked up her cup, took a sip, and answered.

'I need some books that I'm interested in, and some ingredients. Do either of you need to do anything before we see your mum?' Hermione asked.

'Well I'm definetly going to the Quidditch store. I haven't been there for ages; I really want to see the latest gadgets. You wanna come with me Harry?' Ron asked. Harry looked at Hermione. He knew something was up with her, but he also really wanted to go to the Quidditch shop.

'Harry, go to the shop with Ron. I need to check some things so I'll be fine. It's alright you can go.' Hermione said, when Harry still looked uncertain.

'Fine, shall we meet you at the Leaky Cauldron at 12?'

'Yes, that'll be fine. I better get going, I want to look at as many books as possible.' She said while draining the dregs at the bottom of the cup. She took a galleon out of her purse and made to put it down when Harry's hands closed round it.

'Keep it, I've got the tab.' He said. Hermione looked at him and smiled she stood up and reached down and kissed him on his forehead.

'Thanks, I'll see both of you later.' She picked up her bags and left the shop as fast as she could.

Harry turned to his friend who sat there having taking a bite of a small pastry.

'Something's up with her,' he said.

Ron chewed slower, and when he swallowed he nodded 'I was thinking the exact same thing. She just isn't acting like Hermione. It's hard to put my finger on, but she seems edgier.'

'Precisely'

Hermione scurried down the street, with a small piece of paper in hands. She had received this pamphlet from Dumbledore. He knew she was always interested in unusual books, and apparently this place had all the rare books people had never heard of, or if they had heard of them, then they hadn't seen them. She wouldn't be allowed to buy them, but she would be able to read up as much as she liked there.

Hermione walked to the signpost that directed her to all the different alleys. She saw that Knockturn was towards her right. But pointing towards the east was the alley she was looking for –Trumain. She made her way down the alley, and past numerous shops. The shops were nothing like Diagon. Instead of the friendly, welcoming, variety of shops, here the place was disserted. All the shops held cobwebs in the windows. The place held on air of age. Even the atmosphere felt stuffy, and compressed.

Hermione glanced back down at the piece of paper, and read the directions to get there.

Trumain Alley

Past 'Rusty's Antiques' and before 'Pandora's Box'

In between is a dustbin, lift the lid, get in, place lid back on.

Welcome to the World's Oldest Library

Hermione saw 'Rusty's Antiques', and the dustbin standing outside between the shops. Hermione stopped and looked around, nobody was there. She took the tin lid off the bin, and placed the lid on the ground next to her shopping.

Looking around again, she flung her shopping into the bin. Then getting in, she rolled her eyes at how weird this seemed. She was squashed with her shopping, but when the lid came down over her, the bottom gave way and she found herself falling, her shrieks echoed against the tin surrounding. Her hands reached out, to find that it was no longer tin surrounding her, but instead stone. The speed she found herself at caused her clothes to get snagged in some places and her hands got scrapped when she reached out. Suddenly she emerged into a light room, and landed with a thud a soft mattress.

The mattress also stopped her shopping. When she had gotten over the shock of falling so far, she looked around at the surroundings she had fallen into.

Dumbledore was right this had to be one of the oldest libraries. Instead of books standing up, and resting between others. Here the books were laid out on a glass cabinet that surrounded the room. Glass cabinets stood in the middle of the room, which is where she found a man putting spells on one of the books.

He looked up and smiled at her. Hermione immediately noticed how old this man was. He had very little hair on the top of his head, but the little he did have was a brilliant shade of white. He was also small, which Hermione was glad of, she rarely got to meet someone on the same level as her.

As he walked out from behind the glass table he hobbled over towards her, she stood up and straightened her knee length shirt, and positioned her hand so that he would be able to shake it.

'Lovely to meet you, how can I help you?' he said in a clear voice.

'Hello, I'm here to look at some books please, Professor Dumbledore told me about this place.' Hermione said feeling the need to explain how she knew how to get here.

'Of course, please be aware of the protective spells surrounding each book. If there is a book you are interested in then please just tell me, and I'll remove the spells for you.' Hermione smiled, this place felt very safe, the air she breathed in relaxed her, and filled her up. She left her bags by the place she had fallen on to, and padded around the room looking at the titles of the books. She found herself gasping, and salivating at the names that she had read about. She wished she could stop and read all of the volumes, but she need defence books.

When she came across one of volumes her feet stood rooted to the spot, she couldn't believe her eyes. Before her, sitting on the glass, covered in spells was Merlin's secret diary. Where he wrote all his secret magic spells down. That was the caption that hung below the small leather bound journal. The pages were made out of horse leather, and the ink was used from crushed beetles.

Hermione took a deep breath, she just couldn't believe it. She turned around to try to find the gentleman. When she found him, she called out.

'Excuse me sir, I would like to read this please.' Hermione apprehensively, not sure whether this was still possible, or whether she was living in a dream.

The short man shuffled over, and lifted his wand, muttering numerous spells under his breath, the multicoloured spells that had been hovering over the book slowly disappeared.

'Merlin's personal diary, it's a very interesting read, the book has to stay here, I try not to move these volumes around, it helps to preserve them. Also we have some instruments, which we use to read. The pages are extremely delicate so we have these.' He pointed to some instruments. He handed her a spatula looking one. Turn the pages with this.

'You use muggle methods?' Hermione asked interested, as she had seen ancient books handled in the same sort of way when she went to a museum.

'Yes, I have found that the magic seems to damage the artefacts, you cannot control how strong you turn the pages. I put magic on all the books when they are not in use because it helps to preserve them. It prevents air, moisture and light from damaging them. Enjoy it.'

A chair appeared next to Hermione, which she dragged over. She sat down and picked up the instrument. Turning the pages gently she opened to the beginning. The pages were jagged and she could see that the horse leather must have been cut with a blunt knife.

She slowly began reading the works that all wizards and witches worshiped. Hermione was surprised by how clear the text was. The ink seemed to have fixed to leather, and his writing was very clear. She closed her eyes, made a small prayer.

'Merlin, help me.'