"Hey, Gemma, do you want to go to the library with me?" Harry asked as they were leaving the dining hall.
She tapped a slow "yes" on his arm. He thought there might be a question in there.
"Some things came up in my lesson today with Professor Lupin that I want to try to research. Maybe you could help me?"
She tapped a quicker "yes" in response this time and he smiled toward her as he took her offered arm.
They greeted Besel as they entered the library and made their way to their favorite table—but Gemma slowed as they approached and Harry could hear someone turning pages—the newspaper, he guessed by the sound of it. Gemma turned slightly toward Harry and made their sign for Aminah on Harry's chin.
"Hi, Aminah," Harry greeted, "Is it all right if we join you?"
"Sure—there is plenty of room, and yeah, it'd be nice to have company," Aminah said, sounding subdued. "Gemma's with you, right?"
"Yeah, sorry. I should have said so. Thanks. What are you working on?" Harry asked.
"Oh, I'm just reading the newspaper," Aminah said, tapping her reader gently on the table.
Gemma placed Harry's hand on the back of a chair across from Aminah and sat at the end of the table between them—Harry guessed so that she could communicate with both of them. He listened to Aminah's side of the conversation and decided she wasn't just subdued, she was sad. He guessed it had to do with her father and wondered if anything else had happened over the weekend.
Gemma signed "writing" on his palm. He got the notebook and pencil out of his staff for her. He also summoned the anagnóstis out so he'd be ready when she'd written her question for him. She guided his hand holding the anagnóstis to the spot in the notebook where she'd been writing.
"What do you want to research?" Gemma asked.
"Oh, I want to look up Basilisk venom—like what it does to people. I mean, besides kill them. And Phoenix tears. And I want to look up rainbow-colored Reparo charms and Protego charms, but I'm not really sure how to do that. And also, I want to see what I can find out about Remus Lupin, my parents, and even…" he paused and Gemma wrote a question mark on his hand.
"Never mind. Let's just see what we can find about Basilisk venom. That's a good place to start. Is there a card catalog?" he said.
She wrote a question mark on his hand.
Of course, there isn't a card catalog. That's a muggle library thing.
"How do wixen know how to find the books they need?" Harry asked. "Isn't there a way to find out what's in the books?"
I should have listened more closely to Hermione. I bet she knows.
Harry waited as Gemma pulled the notebook back to respond.
"Oh, I think my pa was talking about something like that. He goes to the muggle library sometimes and was describing a big box with lots of drawers that had slips of paper that someone had written all the information about the individual books on. What a lot of work! Is that what you meant by card catalog?" Gemma said.
Harry nodded at the same time that he tapped yes on Gemma's arm. She jumped up and he heard her walking over to the reception desk where he could also hear Besel's chair. Harry got up.
"I guess we're going to ask Besel," Harry said to Aminah who made a small noise in response as if she were absorbed in her reading.
Harry followed Gemma, not bothering to shake out his staff, but instead trailing his knuckles on the backs of the low bookcases along the aisle to the entryway since he was pretty sure there wasn't anything in his path. He hadn't heard anyone else in the library.
He could hear Besel responding to Gemma's signed questions and guessed that she was answering verbally for his benefit.
"Yes, we do have a system—it is different than what muggles use, but it is very useful. Here comes Harry. I'll explain it to both of you," Besel responded. "Hi, Harry. Gemma was asking about how to search for books with information on Basilisk venom and its effects. She said that you were asking about a catalog system used by muggles?"
"Yes, a card catalog—that's what my school library used," Harry said. "Do wixen use anything similar? How do I find information about the effects of Basilisk blood and Phoenix tears?"
"Well, I'm not really sure what the card-catalog system is that muggles use—but here at the Center we have this ancient clay tablet from Sumer," Besel explained as she tapped an object to her left. "It's another one of the Flamel's finds from their journeys—salvaged from the ruins of the library in Alexandria. You write what you want information about using this stylus…" she said as she tapped the stylus against the clay tablet. "It's kept to the right of the tablet in its own sheath... and it will alert you to where the books can be found in the library. You can write using standard text or braille. If you write in standard text, the books you need will light up. If you write in braille… (oh, and it's just like your Quick Quotes Quill—just press on the word 'braille')," she had pressed the stylus into Harry's hand and he found the letters she was talking about.
"When you use braille, the books will have a bell charm alert you to their location so that you can find them easily. You can also ask the table to summon the books to this bookshelf over here. If there are more than it can hold, it will let you know and once you look through the ones that are on the shelf, you can get another row of books. If you summon the books using braille, the books will be translated into braille—so that's handy—once you know how to read braille."
"Oh, wow—that's so cool," Harry said. "I don't think they have this kind of system at Hogwarts."
"No, they should though. I think at Hogwarts you just have to search the shelves—not the most efficient system."
"Do they have braille books at Hogwarts?"
"Well, the spell to transform any text into braille is pretty standard—so the librarian —Miss Pince—should be able to do it, but I know that Godric and other students complained that there was a lot of reluctance to use adaptive magic while he was there. It sounds like things might be changing, though. I hope so," Besel said—the paper slip of translations for Gemma making their fluttering noises as she spoke.
"So, I just write on the clay tablet what I want to research and the tablet will collect the books I need on the shelf? I want to try that," Harry said and he listened attentively as Besel walked him through the process. He decided to not request the books in braille since he was still learning how to read it, and he'd be able to find things a lot faster using his anagnóstis especially since Besel taught him a spell that would open a book to the page that contained the information he was looking for (Invenire notitia).
Besel gave him a heavy piece of parchment that had a long narrow rectangle cut out of it in the center as a writing guide—to make it easier for him to keep his letters even as he wrote on the tablet.
"Oh, this is really handy. I should make one to keep with my writing supplies," Harry said after he used it.
"Here, I'll duplicate it for you," Besel said as she tapped the parchment and uttered, "Geminio," She nudged his hand with a sharp corner of parchment.
"Oh, wow! Thank you," Harry said, tracing his fingers over the exact copy. "Hey, can I try that charm?"
"Sure, you need to have a good understanding of the object that you're copying. So, make sure you feel it completely and then hold the idea of it in your mind and say the charm while touching your wand to the object you want to copy with the intention of making an exact replica of it," Besel explained and she pronounced the charm slowly so that Harry could hear the intonation.
Harry tried and Gemma scratched across his back in the sign that he understood as laughter.
"Oh, wow," Besel said.
"It's a rainbow, isn't it?" Harry asked.
"Yep," Besel said as Gemma tapped yes on his shoulder.
"Great," Harry said dully.
"Why is that upsetting?" Besel asked. "I think it is beautiful—it is like a prism."
"Just that Professor Flitwick thought that it has something to do with my grief over losing my sight," Harry said.
"Oh, well. I guess that could be why it is happening. But there could be other explanations. I mean, it is really an excellent first attempt at the charm. Most people don't manage anything so close to a functional object. Did you think about what color the paper might be as you cast the charm?"
"I was really focused on what it felt like—I wasn't really concentrating on color," Harry said.
"Why don't you try it again?" Besel recommended. "Think about the color—it is that kind of brownish-yellow color with a marbleized texture."
Harry tried again and Gemma tapped a "yes" on his shoulder right away.
"There you go, you did it. It isn't the exact color of this parchment, but it is a parchment color. It's really close. Wow. That's really impressive, Harry," Besel commended.
"I guess I can give these extra ones to Aminah and Peter," Harry said.
Gemma snatched up the rainbow-colored one and made the sign for Peter in his hand.
Harry turned his attention to the sizable collection of books that appeared on the shelf with information about Basilisk venom and Phoenix tears. Besel sent them to their table, so he didn't even have to figure out how to manage carrying the towering stack of books.
"Here, Aminah—this is a writing guide in case you need to use the clay tablet to request information—and I think it would be useful in other situations—like writing a letter or signing forms," Harry said as he gave the guide to Aminah.
"Oh, that's useful—thank you, Harry," Aminah said, sniffling. "You're very thoughtful."
"Aminah, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Harry asked, perplexed.
"Oh, nothing…" she managed to say and after a long pause, she continued, " it's just that the Daily Prophet… well, they wrote a horrid story about my father. Morgana, they are so… closed minded. Everything is so black and white to them."
Harry was put in mind of Mei and her comments from earlier in the day. It seemed so long ago.
"Everyone says that the Daily Prophet just prints things that will sell copies—they aren't really interested in telling the truth," Harry said.
"Well, that's the truth. It's just so hard to see it directed at my family. I mean… I know what my father did was wrong and … and … he scares me … but they also don't get it. They just think he's some religious fanatic—some deranged Paki. I don't think he meant to hurt me. I don't know… it's just so complicated. And mum is really pushing. She wants us to move to the States. And I don't know. I don't know anyone there. We have some cousins. But I don't know them. Everything I know is here," Aminah said.
Harry could tell that Gemma had wrapped herself around Aminah by the way her words were muffled at the end and Aminah dissolved into sobs. He summoned one of the handkerchiefs that he'd bought when he was out with Hermione and Dr. Granger, and did a quick Geminio charm on it, then stuck the original one back in his staff. He'd thought carefully about it being a crisp white linen while he charmed it and hoped that it wasn't rainbow-colored—then remembered that Aminah wouldn't know the difference.
"Here you go, Aminah—here's a handkerchief," Harry said.
"Thank you, you're both so good to me," Aminah sniffed. "I'm pretty tired. I think I'm going to go to bed."
Harry could hear Gemma giving Aminah another long hug. He patted her on the shoulder across Gemma's back.
"Goodnight," Harry said.
"I'll wash your handkerchief and give it back to you later, okay?" Aminah said as she headed out of the library.
"You can keep it, if you like," Harry said.
Harry and Gemma settled into the work of looking through the books and scrolls that Besel had sent to the table. Pretty soon they had written notes about both Basilisk venom and Phoenix tears in the notebook (Harry using his quick quote quill and Gemma using the pencil and sometimes they were both writing at the same time).
Harry smiled thinking about how surprised Hermione would be at his investigative skills… though he had to admit that the clay tablet and the Invenire notitia made it a lot easier than Hermione's method of just reading pretty much every single book in the Hogwarts library and memorizing the content.
So far he had learned—from a dusty old tome that the ashes of Basilisk bones could be used to convert goblin silver into gold, that the venom would imbue Goblin silver with the same power to poison anyone stabbed with it, and could be used to damage powerfully magical objects such as a horcrux—whatever that was.
He thought about how he'd carried that sword back to Professor Dumbledore—stuck into his belt, letting it flop against his thigh and that any little nick with the blade by any one of them—they could have died before they even knew they were in danger.
He learned that there were very few survivors of Basilisk venom as the only antidote was Phoenix tears which are very rare.
I already knew that, didn't I.
They found an interesting little scroll put out by the Ministry of Magic that had cataloged the deaths of wixen (muggles were sometimes mentioned in footnotes) by magical creatures between 1708 and 1968 … it was used to justify the reasonable restriction and regulation of magical creatures within the British Isles. Most deaths caused by Basilisks came from being caught in their gaze, long before the beast was close enough to strike. There were 72 known deaths during that time, with 52 occurring in between 1793—1794 with one rather sneaky Basilisk that lurked in an unknown cavern within the Butterley Gangroad tunnel. It was eventually defeated by a young milkmaid who had polished a silver platter from her mistresses' manor to such brilliance that reflected the Basilisk's own image upon itself, promptly killing it and freeing the terrorized country of the beast. Sadly, her name was forgotten, though the silver platter was still on display in the Hall of Artifacts in the Ministry of Magic. The body of the petrified Basilisk, trapped within the tunnel, was misidentified by muggles of later generations as ruins of a Roman aqueduct system and labeled as such.
In fact, the only survivor of a Basilisk bite that was mentioned in more than one book was the legendary Merlin himself who kept a Phoenix as a familiar. Harry found himself falling down a rabbit hole of legends about Merlin, King Arthur's court (which he had read about in Primary), Morgana and the Roman invaders who brought their Christian religion with them—eventually overcoming the druids and their religion of the natural forces of the earth. He had never considered that there was a wixen version of the story that told a different tale from the one he'd grown up with.
A number of authors dismissed the story about Merlin as a trumped-up legend with no foundation in truth. While some wixen proposed that the story had been started to make Merlin out to be more powerful than he was, others thought it was started to discredit Morgana. She was a controversial figure—lauded among wixen as a witch with considerable healing power who had been trying to protect magical communities from the Roman invaders. The Christians who came with the Romans were fearful of the wixen community and tried to equate their pagan religions to devil worship and didn't try to understand the delicate balance between dark and light magic. In the stories circulated at the time, the Roman sympathizers in King Arthur's court suspected that Morgana was nurturing the devil beast in her caves that sat on the navel of the world and then set it upon Merlin, whom, they supported even though he was a powerful wizard.
Harry wondered if these same books were available at Hogwarts—he didn't remember ever coming across anything like this. Of course, when he, Ron, and Hermione were scouring the library for information about the creature who lived in the Chamber of Secrets, they didn't know they were looking for a Basilisk. He was tempted to call Hermione on the phone to talk about all the things he'd found out, but he thought that it was probably too late tonight and at any rate, she was coming on Wednesday anyway. He'd be able to talk to her in person soon.
Harry wanted to spend more time investigating—they'd learned that there is only one Phoenix at a time in the whole world and the average lifespan was 500 or 600 years old. This meant that Fawkes was really incredibly rare. Harry could hear Gemma yawning next to him. She had stopped researching and had started working on her homework—practicing signs related to astronomy.
He closed the book he'd been reading and turned to her, "Let's put the books back and… wait, where do we put them when we're done?"
He heard Gemma writing in response.
"We put them on the shelf next to the one where they appeared when we requested them. I think it sends them back to their spots on the shelf," Gemma said.
"Do they fly through the air or do they disappear and reappear?" Harry wondered.
"Disappear and reappear. Flying through the air sounds chaotic and hazardous," Gemma said.
"Yeah, and so magical!" Harry said imagining a library with books flying around with their covers and pages spread out like wings.
Harry made a stack of the books, touched his staff to them and said, "Wingardium leviosa," then guided the floating stack to the shelf that Gemma had described. He set the stack down gently on the shelf and ended the floating charm. He listened as the books popped off the shelf and he could hear them popping back into existence throughout the library. He imagined little puffs of dust as they reappeared in their spots, but then thought that the library must have charms to repel dust.
I should learn those charms so that I don't have to dust at Privet drive anymore.
Gemma guided his hand to the notebook and placed the anagnóstis in his hand, tugging him to sit down again.
"Tomorrow after classes, let's try flying brooms again, okay? I practiced some at home this weekend and I want to practice more," Gemma said.
"Okay, that sounds good. I learned some stuff, too, when I was at the Weasley's yesterday—about how to use the vibrations better. I want to do some more flying, too. Maybe this time we won't get locked out of the Center!"
Gemma tapped "yes," on his arm, then made the "let's go," sign on his arm. He put away their writing tools and all the notes they'd gathered about Basilisks.
As they were walking back, Harry thought about Mei and how she'd just left in the middle of their conversation… and he really didn't get what she was trying to tell him—she'd said she was more wixen than witch (aren't those the same thing?) and they were talking about things being black or white and she felt more grey. He felt dense. He wondered if Gemma knew—but they were walking now and it was nearly impossible for them to carry on a conversation while they were walking because she couldn't see his notes. He sighed and for some reason, he thought about the Sorting Hat and how it spoke inside his head. How does it do that? Could we figure out a way to use that kind of magic to communicate?
He hoped that Mei wasn't still mad at him. He thought about Aminah—how distraught she was over the story in the Daily Prophet. Part of him was tempted to read the story and learn more about what had happened to her… but he resisted the urge. She'd tell him when she was ready.
He was also thinking about how Professor Lupin had said he'd been good friends with his father. Maybe he was in the photo album? He picked up his pace—he had slowed thinking about Mei and now he wanted to get back to their dorm so that he could look through the photo album. He felt Gemma twist to look at him.
"I just was thinking—Professor Lupin said he knew my parents. I wonder if he's in the photo album," Harry told Gemma. He heard her snatch the paper. She put her hand over his hand that was resting lightly on her arm and squeezed. He smiled weakly at her.
He thought about the photo album that Hagrid had made for him. He hadn't looked at it yet with his digitus. It took a really long time to look at the photos tactilely … but maybe he'd pull it out tonight.
oO0OooO0OooO0OooO0Oo
Harry stayed up a bit too late looking through the photo albums and found several photos from Hogwarts of four boys who seemed to spend a lot of time together—it was clear that they were the best of friends. They ran in and out of the photo frames and it was hard to keep track of who was who—except for the short, stout boy who stayed on the edges more—the three taller boys were constantly pushing each other, wrestling, putting each other in headlocks and casting playful hexes on each other. When they were standing still, Remus Lupin seemed a bit more serious than the others—and he made half-hearted attempts at trying to reign in their rambunctious behavior. Harry could tell Remus apart from the others (a Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew from the scrawled captions) because he had scars etched across his face as if a bear had swiped at him. They were less prominent as he aged in the photos. Harry wondered what had happened to him. Maybe that's why he was more serious than his friends.
Harry had used the Indica color charm to learn that they were all Gryffindors and figure out their hair color. James and Sirius had dark black hair—he could tell them apart by his dad's glasses and the length of their hair, but other than that they seemed almost like brothers in their appearance. Harry memento'd all of the people he came across in his photo album with his staff—even the ones he knew were dead—in case he came across them again in a Mirror of Erised or a pensieve.
People kept telling him that he looked a lot like James, but he wondered until now how much of that was actually true. Before now, he'd only seen photos of his dad as an adult. This was the first time he could tell how similar they were at the same age. They had the same black hair that stuck up in all directions (though it seemed like his dad liked to make it stand on end—constantly running his fingers through it and tousling it) and they both wore glasses—but Harry was a lot thinner than his dad and his dad seemed to always be laughing and joking around—snatching Peter's hat or transfiguring his shoes into bunny slippers were some of his favorite pranks.
From the photos, he could tell that his father had grown up in a well-to-do wizarding manor. He wondered what happened to their manor. His parents (Harry's grandparents!) were pretty old—they died shortly after James and Lily were married and before Harry was born—and in all the photos with James his parents seemed to really dote on him. James had been loved by his parents in a way that Harry could barely fathom… it kind of reminded him of Dudley and that made him a little sick to his stomach.
He was soothed though, by the realization that it seemed that his own parents had loved him deeply by the way they held him and played with him in the photos.
And Remus had been in some of the early photos of Harry with his parents and it was clear that he had a fondness for the wriggly little boy with a flopping mop of hair who ran through the photos and pounced on him when he wasn't looking. While Sirius would grab Harry and throw him up in the air, catching him and laughing in delight, Remus was the one who'd soothe him when he'd been hurt and distract him with a book. Peter didn't show up as much in the photos with Harry, Lily, and James—but when he did, Peter would offer Harry sweets from his pockets.
All these images of a happy family surrounded with loving friends made going through the photo album about as gut-wrenching as his sessions with Besel. After staying up far later than he should have, Harry fell into an exhausted sleep filled with technicolor dreams.