Lately I was getting quite bored in the mindscape library. You might be wondering how is that? Didn't I have countless books from the dark lord's memories to read through? But it's actually not all of his memories - it's only up to the end of sixth year at Hogwarts - the time he murdered Myrtle and split his soul to make his first horcrux. And yes I was sure of it as I already read all those bookshelves. Only skimming a few shelves which were just childhood memories before the first occurrence of accidental magic - as they were simply not that interesting, especially before dark lord learned the language - first year or so was just plain gibberish.
It hasn't been that long since I finished the last book, yet now I had nothing to do once again. I didn't even know how much time had passed outside - I had no way of knowing when day or night began - when I went to sleep myself, how could I guess how long I would sleep? How long have I been awake for?
As I gazed with absent-mindedness up into the sky I finally noticed some change in the world. Once again a blue line appeared in the sky, then a black one - not the text I was used to, it actually looked like… someone was testing if their pen wrote?
Hopeful for some interaction I summoned my pen and wrote a hesitant *Hello?*
I awaited response, yet seemingly no one saw my message - the scribbles continued in the sky for a few more minutes until finally stopping. Meanwhile my own Hello was taking a while to disappear - until eventually the sky was back to normal. I was bored again.
After an hour of just lampooning random thoughts, I decided that it was a waste of time doing this. I learned a lot of things from this library, magic theory, dark magic, various rituals, sadly I had no experience in actually performing those feats, but I did read and reread dark lord's personal experience in performing the magic feats - it should speed up my practice… If I ever manage to get out of there.
With nothing better to do, I willed an empty book and a pen to materialise near me - yes I could seemingly create items inside this bookscape, simple items, things like wands or cars - which I only had a rough idea how they worked, very sadly an exception.
Even if I cannot practise spells in this place, I could work on theory - design a ritual to finally get a body, perhaps invent some new spells… Of course I would only be able to verify if it actually works with outside help. I hope I can establish contact soon - anything really, as the previous scribbles in the sky and my blatantly ignored hello made me worry deep inside - what if I cannot even see proper text anymore? What if whoever holds the book cannot see mine?
I pushed my worries aside and started taking notes and sketching diagrams, while occasionally glancing up to the sky again, with hope to see something in it, yet so far it stayed blank.
Filch was humming in his office, the summer holidays were ongoing, it was so cheerful without any students dirtying the halls of the school.
He was currently tidying his office, organising all the 'banned' items in his drawers which filled up during the year. He even had a couple of classrooms, just outside his office, which he used for storage of all those confiscated trinkets.
There were cases in Hogwarts history where students brought actual magical artefacts just for pranks - after one of them got destroyed as a 'prank item', destroying a couple of nearby classrooms, the headmaster at the time implemented a rule to just collect confiscated items, never to destroy.
As Filch was going over his second drawer, a small black book, no a half of a small black book caught his eyes - he suddenly grinned, an idea just struck him - he had been running out of writing supplies lately, and now he just had a perfect idea to find some useful ones from all the confiscates quills and pens he had, surely the 'prank' magics might have wore off for some of them!
He put the book on the table and opened a random page, then he took out a handful of quills from another drawer - those were just the ones confiscated this year.
Then came the process of dipping the quill in ink and writing in the book - broken quills did not write a thing, and the ones charmed with something disappeared almost instantly, even negating the charms like spitting ink back, while regular ones took quite some time to disappear.
Yes, the book he found was not that great for detentions - there was no way to know if students actually wrote the required amount, or just spilled ink bottles inside. But the book seemed harmless so finding such a good use for the book improved the caretaker's mood.
After finding a dozen or so usable writing tools, the caretaker's happy humming continued as he moved on to clean up another drawer, the black book was back in its place in the drawer.
Albus Dumbledore sat in his office - gone was the grand headmasters office, now he was stuck in the dungeons, in some cold small office. He was refining alchemy curriculum for upcoming school year - in his personal opinion curriculum was lightweight and easy, yet seeing a pile of complaints from parents - he realised that students quality dropped over the years - most of those could hardly keep up, hence the former headmaster decided to make it easier for the next year - at least for future generations, by spreading the material over a few more years.
Surely getting Harry to attend it was also one of his objectives, but seeing as Lucius' son was in the same year and quite skilled in potions, senior Malfoy should not find fault with this proposal at the board meeting tomorrow.
Suddenly he felt magic in the room - not his own magic, also not one of his tracking devices. He furrowed his brows - did Lucius bug his classroom again? This was already the third time! The first two were in the process of moving his stuff from his former office - it was understandable former Slytherin would try to utilise this opportunity. Yet now in the middle of summer…
All items in the office rose to the air - wrapped around in professor's magic - he felt each item with his magic sense, which was more efficient then inspecting everything one by one. He could just beeline to the source, yet inspection allowed to find any unwanted magics that were simply inactive.
He frowned as most items flew back to their place, yet a pile of documents remained, flying to his side.
Just a glance was all he needed to figure out what it was - he had so much paperwork mountains from his other positions that he could not precisely distinguish it with magic.
It was the same stuff he was writing - study plans. Not his former ones, but ones from various teachers, he simply forgot to pass them on to Severus.
Albus shrugged - he could not specify where exactly the magic was coming from, but he knew just a strategy to find it. A strategy with muggle origins in fact.
The paper pile split in half - the half with foreign magic remained in the air, while the other half flew back to its place.
He then repeated the same thing again and again. And after the thirteenth time, only a single paper remained.
Albus furrowed his brows - it was a small parchment, not standard sizes a bit smaller - which was completely empty.
He turned the page and saw "Hello?" written on it.
He stared intensely at the page, noting the word disappearing, then cast a few diagnostic spells on it. His mouth went wide with astonishment - he actually had no idea what the spells on that thing did! He, the only archmage alive!
He rubbed his beard in concentration as various diagnostic spells showed the spell structure to him - it was alien as if not from this world.
Albus hesitated to write back - he was curious what would happen, yet afraid at the same time - he eventually decided to keep this thing as a puzzle - perhaps with time he could decipher what the hell it was and what it did, he did enjoy puzzles.
As a precaution he waved his Elder wand and a magic bubble appeared, covering the parchment. The bubble would prevent anything from entering inside - except the spell's caster or if the bubble is dispelled. The only drawback was that its duration was not lasting forever, but Albus could afford to recast the spell every week or so, it was trivial for him.
Daphne cursed - she assumed she would crack the book as soon as she got home for summer holidays - she somehow forgot to bring it with her to the school during her third year, yet now she already spent a couple of months trying to crack the thing to no avail!.
It was so complex and did not match anything she learned at school!
She sighted - perhaps Tracy was right - she did tease me last week about the absurd complexity of this thing being the actual 'prank'.
The girl then smiled - well if this book is meant for 'fun' she would have hers. A wave of her wand later, a regular notebook flew up, its pages tearing one by one, then flying to the black one.
The pages attached seemingly randomly, with the first few or so being regular pages, then the cover seemingly merged with the orange one from a new notebook - it now appeared as a regular new notebook.
Daphne giggled as she imagined her sister's reaction for this 'gift' - it was payback for all those pranks she did at home.
I already had not one, not two but three rituals ready. Surely one of them might work, yes I was not sure, the young dark lord did dabble in those things a lot - but he was too young, perhaps I still lacked the experience.
At least, according to my calculations if they fail then nothing bad should happen… probably - I realised I needed to double check some calculations.
As usual, for my small break, I lazily glanced up at the sky - it was a habit by now, yet this time the familiar emptiness did not greet me back - there was a picture of sorts?
I could see various mountains and the sea and a ship sailing in it, with more and more details being added, the foam of waves, the grain of wooden boards…
Yet moments later things started disappearing! Seeing there's no time to waste I grabbed my pen and wrote into the sky, just below the painting.
*Hello?*
I stared hopeful at the sky, watching as the beautiful drawing was erased, wave by wave - soon only my words remained, yet they too disappeared eventually.
A minute later, some text appeared.
*DAPHNE! What did you charm my sketchbook with?!*
I took a moment to process the line - just who in the world held the notebook? How did this happen? I could roughly guess whose hands it belonged now - it must be Daphne's sister - as the handwriting was clearly elegant - not something boys would be able to accomplish at a young age - I assumed she was young as the screaming text was kind of childish. Still I was not really sure if it was that Daphne I knew of - perhaps it's someone else?
Brushing my thoughts aside, I wrote a reply.
*Daphne? I am afraid I do not know her, I go by the name of Tom and I am afraid I did not charm any sketchbooks in my whole existence*
It did not take long for a reply to appear - the rage of the writer still being felt in the words.
*Playing jokes, are we Daph? Well at least this communication method is interesting, can you teach me this charm later?*
I rolled my eyes - being a damned book how am I going to prove I am not this Daphne girl?
*I truly have no idea what are you talking about Ms. writer*
*Just you wait Daphne! I am coming for you!*
I waited and waited - not really sure if the girl would write back to me, I feared the sisters would burn me, lock or abandon me away - a talking intelligent magical book was surely not something a pureblood family would want to keep without some sort of proof that no danger lurks inside of it.
After what felt like ages, the now somewhat familiar writing once again appeared in the sky.
*My sister admitted her prank, yet she did not mention that a book of all things would be the one writing back to me! So who are you, Mr. book?*
*As I mentioned previously I am Tom - just an unlucky fellow trapped in the book. I can ask you the same - who are you?*
*My name is Astoria. How come you are trapped in a book? Are you a special type of ghost?*
*I am afraid I do not remember the specifics.*
*So, Tom, can you stop vanishing the ink? I want to draw*
*I am afraid not, Astoria, the book is like a prison - the most I can do is write back to you, stopping the ink disappearing is beyond my control*
*So should I just throw you away?*
*Please no! It has been so long since I had a conversation with anyone!*
*So what can you even do? Do you even know anything about magic?*
*Of course! I may not be able to cast any spells, but I do know the theory quite well*
A short silence followed - I honestly had no idea how to entice the girl to continue using the 'suspicious' book. Eventually she replied.
*But how good is your knowledge? Can you write, say, at least two pages about mending charm and its uses?*
I rolled my eyes - from Dark Lord's memories I knew this was summer homework for first years - well being just a homework helper for the girl was not too bad - better than being a 'suspicious' book - perhaps we would be friends one day.
in fact anything was better than being stuck here all alone in silence, yes I might have gone a bit haywire from prolonged isolation.
*Of course!*
I wrote not two but three pages - enough length and quality for the Outstanding grade, then seemingly the girl was happy as a rectangle flickered in the sky - I now had a blurry view into what seemed a spacious room. Nearby closet mirror reflected the girl, her features too blurry, yet even with that blur and familiar once seen blonde hair I could be more sure now.
It was not any Astoria, but Astoria Greengrass who was the new owner of the notebook. I also noted that the familiar black book now seemingly had… orange cover.
The girl just finished copying what I wrote as the screen quality improved a little - now I could see a cheeky grin on her face as she wrote something back to me.
*Thank you Tom! Can you write some more paragraphs about the following topics?*
The girl seemingly had no shame and just utilised the opportunity to slack off - a true slytherin trait. Soon the homeworks of all other subjects were written, along with the requirements, this time not for just acceptable grades, but for outstanding ones.
I wanted to curse - surely first year's homework was super easy, yet the act of writing it all out was just… annoying and mentally tiring. I sighted and got to work.
A few hours later, I could finally rest as all my homework was complete. I smiled glancing up at the screen - it was quite clear now, still not the same clarity when Ginny's first possession happened, but nearly there.
Astoria was now in the spacious dining room, where she sat with her parents and sister while eating dinner.
Listening to their conversation I became aware that quite some time has passed while I was alone - in fact Daphne was already going to be a fourth year student.
Iit seems I completely missed Harry's third year in the story.