The Founders' Library And Map

Devi, following her nature, gasped, "Sweet!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, 'sweet'. And, no, I don't know really if the Founders' Library. I don't even know if there is such a thing. Nobody's mentioned it, and it's not in Hogwarts, A History. But if there was, and is, such a thing, it's right here, and we've discovered it."

"Strange that they would have to walk so far to get to it, never mind suffering a broken leg. Oh, speaking of that, I needs a new cast." She swiped away the remains of the last cast.

I sighed, muttered, "Utilis aqua carpo sano," and performed the wand motions. Immediately the water cast appeared, and Devi sighed with relief.

"That's better."

"Well, about your last comment concerning how they got here, I would assume there was another way that's been blocked, or the exit out of here is not quite so winding. Or they just Apparated. Wait, never mind. They couldn't Apparate on the school grounds."

Devi chuckled. "Forgot that, did you? Haha."

"Shut up, Dev. Now, what are we going to do with this? It's not as if we're going to forget it."

"No, we're going to explore. First we're going to find the exit, then we'll read some of the books and explore more in here. There's got to be tons of nooks and crannies. Then we'll memorize all the things we can, and then go out and show up at Hogwarts. Then there'll be a fuss and maybe we'll see Dumbledore. I'll stay one more night, and leave nice and early in the morning. All good!" Devi was a little out of breath after this, and looked extremely satisfied about the whole thing.

"Well, I'm glad you finally took a breath. You were becoming blue in the face," I commented. Then I smiled, and said, "I like. Let's get to work."

Work we did. We worked, searched, and explored, trying to find the way out of the library. It was, by Devi's watch, noon, and we were becoming hungry.

At long last, we found the way out. First, you had to stand on a certain piece of the rug, right in the middle of the crest, in the main room. Next, you twisted your wand counter clock-wise and said the word 'down', and you dropped onto a table in a secret meeting room. Finally, you saw a door in the far wall, and, going though that, you followed the tunnel and, through the last door, emerged onto a outcropping of rocks, just inside the Forbidden Forest's edge.

Once we had found this, Devi and I turned around, with me in the lead. Going back into the secret room, I started. Across from me was a huge map.

"Devi, did you see this coming down here?"

"Nope. What is it a map of?"

"Um," I approached the map, going around a central table. "Hogwarts."

"Really? There are no complete maps of Hogwarts." Devi came over and started tracing several passage-ways with her fingertip. "Here's the third floor corridor. Here is the –" Devi broke off suddenly, and gasped.

"What?" Instantly I was at her side, looking where her finger lay. "Oh, my God. The trap-door. They actually have it!"

"Is it in the Marauder's Map?" Devi's dark eyes bore intently into mine.

"No. And neither," I paused, searching though another floor, "is the Room of Requirement," I said, finally pinpointing my classroom. "While it's on here. Which is strange," I pondered, "because Sirius, one of the Marauders, goes in there almost daily."

"Maybe it was too much of a secret," Devi offered, but that didn't seem plausible.

I shook my head. "Anyway, this is obviously a totally complete map of Hogwarts. I bet that not even Dumbledore has this. Now, there's one thing missing. The Marauder's Map shows the people. Who they are, where they are, what they're doing. This doesn't."

"Well," said Devi, "you probably have to activate it. With the right word, or something like that."

"Right words ..." I muttered, thinking hard. Suddenly I pointed my wand at the map and said, "Hogwarts!"

Nothing happened.

I tried the same thing with the twist that was required to get down here, and nothing happened.

Devi tried to say something, but I held up my hand to stop her. Oh! Brain flash! I thought excitedly.

I leveled my wand at the map and twisted my wrist counter clock-wise. "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus!" I said powerfully.

With a whooshing sound, tiny dots appeared on the map. Some were scurrying about, while others stayed in place. And, in one corner, I saw two dots. I pointed at one with my wand while Devi pointed at the other. Once the wands came into contact with the paper, labels appeared. One was 'Sanya' and the other was 'Devi'.

"Dev, we're bloody brilliant!" I said bloody on purpose. I loved the way that word was used, and occasionally remembered to put it in my speech. "Not only have we discovered the Founders' Library, but also the Founders' Map!"

My friend did a little jig of happiness. "Oh yeah, oh yeah, we're good, we're good!"

I laughed. "Of course we are. Now what're we going to do?"

"Well, deactivate the map, and continue exploring this whole place, of course."

I twisted my wand clock-wise and said the school motto. All the dots on the map disappeared. Then I made an impatient noise. "No, I meant about this. Should we tell Dumbledore? Anyone else?"

"If we tell anyone, it'll be Dumbledore. And I'm not so sure about telling him. It just seems like ours. Our secret."

I frowned, not sure if this was a good idea. "But, remember, he uses Occlumency. I mean, Legilimency. And we don't know Occlumency. So we can't really keep it from him, and he might not trust us if he knew we were trying to keep secrets from him, especially ones that are so important to the school."

"I think he has enough honor not just to probe into our minds," Devi said, more confidently than she looked. I muttered dubiously, but finally nodded my head.

"Good," Devi said briskly. "Now, how do we get back up?"

"Probably by doing the opposite of what we did to get down, only standing in the same place. So we stand in the middle of the table," here I agilely scrabbled up, "and twist our wands clock-wise and say 'up'," I did, and suddenly I was floating towards the ceiling. Except that part of the ceiling gave way to a tunnel, and, emerging from that, I found myself in the center of the main library. I walked off to one side, and soon saw Devi emerge much the same way I did.

"Okay, Dev, time to explore." We separated and padded around, and every so often the heavy air was punctuated with cries of, 'Cool!' and 'Hey, come look at this!' We discovered that each private library had a small suite off it, complete with bathroom, bedroom, kitchenette, and living room.

Every so often I took a random book off the shelf, and skimmed through it. The finds were interesting. There seemed to be a copy of every spell-book ever written on the outer shelves or Ravenclaw's own library. Exploring the personal libraries, I found that Helga Hufflepuff had been very fond of soppy romance novels, and that Godric Gryffindor had an affinity for mysteries.

It was seven thirty at night when Devi decided that there was nothing more to explore and that she was hungry.

"I've gone almost twelve hours without food," she said decisively, "and it's time to get some. Oh, and you need to do the cast again."

I groaned. This wasn't the first time I had done that since first finding the library. However, I performed the Water Cast, and despite my curiosity about the library, I agreed that going up was important, and followed her as she made her way to the exit. This door also had a bolt on it, but that was easily moved, and we made our way out into the open air, and the topside world.