HP: The Crazy One

There is something about old books that just smells great. It's as if you can smell the accumulation of knowledge that is held inside of them. Even the conditions of the book alter the distinctive smell, whether it's musty or crispy smell.

Most of the books in the library are surprisingly not well kept. Condition-wise, they are passable, with no obvious tears in the pages and the books aren't decomposing upon touch, but their age would make most historians widen their eyes.

Those books are all in Old English / Shakespearean, which is somewhat hard to read and extrapolate meaning from when the passage of text is “thou art no more brain than stone if 't be true thee don't und'rstand this,” then the referenced text is unintelligible. 

Maddening.

Though, I have gotten somewhat used to the method of writing that these books followed. What stood out to me was that there was no ‘updated’ knowledge within the past 10-20 years in the library. In fact, a large portion of it seemed to be missing, as I find bookshelves with no books on them, yet there are obvious dust marks where books once were.

The only section of the library I haven't explored yet was the forbidden section. Much like the Forbidden Forest, it is not open for students and seems to serve as a benefit for the Professors to access. Though I have seen students in there, seemingly running errands for the Professors to get their requested books or to clean the place up.

Getting in doesn’t seem especially hard, no obvious barriers beyond a locked door, probably with magic. Maybe I should attempt a heist to gain access to the forbidden library and gaze upon the ‘forbidden’ knowledge.

---

It was not long before the day broke and I spent another night at the library. At the rate this is going, I might end up turning the library into another nest of sorts, something I am not particularly opposed to. I pack up my workstation and look at my dense notes in Pinky. My effort in making it is already paying off, as I see myself using Pinky for many years to come. It might even be my legacy, for future generations to find.

I have breakfast in the Great Hall, not feeling tired despite staying up the entire night. There was barely anyone in the Great Hall, as it was still rather early. Breakfast was delivered to you instead of the normal buffet style that Is set up later in the day. It seems the elves do care about waste after all.

“What day is it?” I muttered. Lately, I have been losing track of time to a rather extreme degree.

“Sunday,” I got a response from a voice to the left of me. Luna had somehow managed to sit beside me and have breakfast without me noticing. I want to ask how she keeps doing that, but I don’t think I will get a proper answer. It’s not like I am not aware of my surroundings, even while in deep reading you can still ‘feel’ when people walk behind you. Yet, Luna doesn’t trigger this ‘feeling’. 

“You would be a good spy or something,” I comment as she smiled in response.

“Hoot!” 

It seems that enough time has passed that some more students have arrived, and the morning’s mail was being delivered using the Owls who had all fled upon seeing me last night. I watch them strategically deliver their packages as if they were on a bombing run, lining up their targets and releasing the payload, the newspaper that every wizard seems to enjoy.

“Hoot!” 

A particular Owl’s hoot seemed to grab my attention, as it made a beeline for me with an envelope in its beak. 

It landed in front of me, with a loud thud which seemed to rock the entire table. It was Hedwig, Harry’s owl. It eyed me as if daring me to reach out and grab the envelope which it hadn't dropped on the table.  

I reached out with caution to receive the envelope, and suddenly daydreamed Hedwig getting hit by a green light whilst in a cage, and then flopping to the floor like a puppet that has had its strings cut mid-performance [1]. Quickly withdrawing my hand, I look at Hedwig who is not in a cage at all, and not on the floor. 

“Strange...” I muse.

I reach back out to take the envelope from Hedwig’s beak, which it lets go of and flies away. 

“Ah... no snack?” I was confused, Harry said it would want a snack and I was prepared to give it some bacon from my plate, yet it seemed in a hurry to get away from me.

I looked to Luna who was smiling at me, as she opened her mouth.

“It was real,” she said, then continued eating her breakfast.

‘Did she see the daydream as well?’ I couldn’t help but wonder. I am getting overwhelmed with how much stuff I suddenly need to do at Hogwarts. It’s barely my first week into the year... Between researching methods against Nargles, exploring my interest in runes and attending all of the Professor’s classes, I don’t think I have the time to explore random daydreams...

As I was musing to myself, more Owls continued to pour in and deliver random trinkets to the students, sent to them by their parents. An Owl flew directly towards me again, holding a thick stack of newspapers. 

“Uh oh,” The Owl released the papers, targeting me directly. I brace for impact and attempt to grab the papers, but it landed a direct hit on my chest and winded me. Out of breath, Luna starts to speak.

“I wrote to my dad that you wanted to know about Nargles so he did a special column on them in the Quibbler.”

I nod, gasping for air. They are rather accurate...

“Tell him I said thanks,” I spoke in a raspy voice.

As I slowly recovered from the sudden winding, I open the newspaper and read the Quibbler. There wasn’t much information valuable to me in it, as I was mainly after the Nargles, however, it introduced several creatures that were newly discovered in the wizarding world, mostly by a ‘Newt S.’.  All of them had interesting quirks, and could only be found in specific environments. There were even creatures that were still not found yet and Mr. Lovegood was actively looking for them.

It seemed like some sort of weird rivalry on who can discover what first. Those are usually the best kind, as the outcome can never be bad unless it was discovering a new breed of basilisk or something.

It was all very interesting to read.

“Do you like it?” Luna asked, somehow a bit worried though her tone didn’t convey it.

“Yes, it is good. It has some rather interesting articles...” I trailed off as I continued to read.

After I was done reading, I put the newspaper down and organized my thoughts. The information on Nargles was shockingly bare as if they haven’t been discovered before, and only its environment has been somewhat documented, which could be summarized into one or two words. 

“Mischievousness.”

That is the only way you can properly describe a Nargle, according to the newspaper. There has been varying degrees of their effects, ranging from harmless acts of mischievousness, to near-death experiences. They only seem to affect those with magical prowess, and can't be directly seen.

The most interesting piece of information is that there have been no recorded deaths that were the direct cause of Nargles, which is to say, it is not a life-threatening creature. The extent of their influence stops just before death it seemed.

Of course, I don’t want to be number one...

I look back to the table and see the Envelope from my parents, and open it. However, the contents of the letter were exactly what I had written the night before, but returned with some scorch marks and dirt on the outside.

Perplexed, I look up to see Professor Flitwick approach me. 

“Young Ravenclaw...” He paused.

“Please follow me to see the headmaster...” He seemed sombre, making me panic at what could have happened to my parents.  I look at Luna who was giving me a reassuring look and left with Professor Flitwick.

---

“Ah, Zane. Sorry to call you in such unfortunate circumstances...” Dumbledore seemed remorseful. I was too panicked to say anything and stayed silent, focusing entirely on what he was about to say.

“I recently got news regarding your parents... They have gone missing,” He took a pause and pursed his lips as if he was debating with himself.

“It appears their house was subject to a dark wizard attack; however, your parents were not confirmed dead...” My eyes started tearing up at the thought of what could have happened. I don’t know what they did for jobs, but they never had people over, the only exception I could think of was my mother’s sister.

I look at Dumbledore, begging for more information.

“This letter was found in amongst the rubble,” He handed me a dirty and scorched letter.

“Rubble?” I asked, with my voice breaking. His face dimmed.

“Yes... your old house was burned to the ground...” He lamented.

My hands were shaking as I took the letter and began to read it through my tear-filled eyes...

 

“Dear Zane,

If you are reading this, then the letter we have prepared for the worst case has been released.

We don’t know what the ‘worst case’ is, but your Mother likes to be prepared with stuff like this when it comes to the family.

This letter means that all our assets have been transferred to you, including whatever we have left at Gringotts. 

Don’t misunderstand, we are not rich but there should be enough there for you to finish your attendance at Hogwarts (if you end up going.)” [2]

“Why…” I let out a sob.

“You might be asking ‘Why?’ we had to prepare for a situation like this.

The truth is our family didn’t use to be so small, but we ran away when you were conceived. Your mother was since disinherited from everything that she was entitled to as the heir to the Douglas family.

We had to hide, as the Douglas family is one of the firm supporters of Voldemort’s ideals, sending ‘wizard hitmen’ after us every time we slightly revealed ourselves.

Our last chance we gave the family came when Abagail visited us, but you know how that turned out.

After Abagail left, she went back to the Douglas family and told them where the approximate location of our house is, Doncaster. 

We have erred on the side of caution ever since this, taking great lengths to avoid their eyes. 

But if you got this letter that means we are either missing or dead.”

That is where the letter ended. That was very much like my father, stopping like that. I could no longer make out the words on the parchment, as my tears had started to ruin the ink. I held the letter to my chest, sobbing.

“Zane,” Dumbledore started.

“They are only missing, and we are searching for them now. The Douglas family was also put under surveillance so nothing can escape our eyes.” He said. “Rest assured we will find them, whether its now or in the future. Hogwarts will always be your second home…”

I got up and left the headmaster's office, leaving my parting words “I want to be alone,” before closing the door. The Castle read my intentions and took me directly to the Astronomy Tower, where no students were and actively locked the area off from other students, as I heard the door latch when I closed it.

I ascended the stairs and made my way to the top, and looked out upon the distance, calming myself down.

 

----

Author Pit:

Hoooo… Didn’t see this coming did you?

Or maybe you did.

I am not great at writing emotional scenes, but something similar enough happened to me and this is about how a handled it…

Also, another chapter with a month?!?!?!?! Crazy… ;)

 

[1] In the Deathly Hallows book, Hedwig dies in the cage on the back of Hagrids/Sirus's motorcycle which is infinitely sadder than the movie’s version. 

[2] The letter was written at a time when his acceptance to Hogwarts was unclear.