There was a licking on my face, damp enough to wake me up with a prickly tongue. It was Perry, trying his best to wake me up.
Stirring awake, I took sight of my surroundings. Sun clearly up, none of my fellow room mates to be found.
"What day is it?" I muttered aloud, before getting out of bed. There was a pain in my side, looking down its clear I slept on Dororthy again. Since I didn't even have the energy to change my robes yesterday, I didn't need to do it today, though I smelled awful.
A quick visit to the bathroom had cleared that up, making me smell like a soap dispensery in the process. Perry was clearly waiting for me on my bed, eyeing me intensely.
"Squeak!" Perry had squeaked right at me, getting my attention.
I picked Perry up, to which it started to nibble on my hand that was cupping it.
"Hungry?" I said aloud.
"Squeak!" It sounded desperate.
In my exhaustion it seems I've overslept.
"Tempus!"
[10:40]
Thankfully today is a Sunday, or, I hope it is. Frankly I wasn't sure. After putting Perry on my head, I made my way towards the great hall, hopeful that there was still food. No shoes, as they had gone missing some time ago now. It's not like you can mail order them in.
Reaching the Great Hall, there were random groups of students socializing amongst themselves. Various years and houses were clearly separated into their own groups. Even the Gryffindor's were no exception to this. There appeared to be an unspoked rule between years that limit your interference with the lower years. Perhaps this is a good thing.
If the older years, with their more applied knowledge of spells decided to pick on first or even second years, the outcome wouldn't be a pleasant experience for those lacking the means to defend or stand up for themselves.
Suppose you had a minor disagreement with someone who knew a curse that could bind you until the counter curse was cast, would you still have a strong disagreement or will you give way? What if the spell could instantly kill you? Perhaps this is also how Voldemort maintained control over his group, maybe even a motif like 'Might makes right' was spread somewhere internally.
"Zane," a voice sounded out beside me, breaking my line of thought. The great hall had gone silent at this point, with most eyes looking in my direction, as I stared back vaguely.
"Ah," I looked to my right to find one of the twin's looking at me.
"George?"
"No man, I am Fred!" He seemed exasperated at the mix up, it probably happens all the time in his family. I nodded in sympathy, which made his face scrunch up. Maybe he wasn't used to sympathy?
"Don't mind me," I muttered, and made my way towards the end of the Ravenclaw table. Sitting down, Perry came off my head at this point and looked eagerly at the table.
"Julis, some food please," I spoke to the table, which was then populated with some eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and water.
I fed the hash browns to Perry, they aren't my favourite but it seemed to like them, though probably not exactly nutritious for a magical creature. A visit to Hagrid to get some Niffler feed off of him from last time seemed necessary.
Finishing up, Perry climbed back up top my head, and made my way towards the great library. The task was to enrich my knowledge of the wizarding world, to understand the unfathomable. There was thousands of books in the library, but most kids here wont even read a tenth of this ancient knowledge.
Perhaps most of this information was out of date, or maybe lost to the waves of time over the process of centuries. Languages lost to the erosion of time would make those books scribed in them functionally useless for any library. This is also why Hogwarts has the biggest collection, as people regularly donate books that have no clear meaning as a means to clean up their house.
Only the long standing 'Noble' families would keep these books, flaunting them as some long lost legacy that only their family can train in, disregarding the fact that they cant even read it themselves. I imagine their ancestors are swearing at them as ghosts, cursing their ignorance. Saying that, its not unreasonable to assume there are lines of magic that only these families monopolize. Imagine a magic that's uniquely yours, or your families. A bit like schools of thought. A cult, even.
Whilst thinking to myself, I had already arrived at the library, walking between the shelfs of books slowly wandering further away from most of the students cramming their surface level knowledge books in an attempt to pass their classes.
The surroundings quieted down, and the dust started to become more pronounced on the books themselves, though it doesn't seem like they are decaying. The library seems to be enchanted against that. I picked a random book and opened it.
The book's title stared at me, ᛏᚺᛖᚱ ᚱᚩᛟᛏ ᛟᚠ ᚠᚩᚱᚷᛟᛏᛏᛖᚾ ᛗᚨᚷᛁᚲ.
I sighed and pulled out Dororthy, taking a note of the books title before putting it back. I need to learn the languages of these forgotten books before trying to understand them. Wandering back to the more 'mainstream' area, I took a random book out and started reading.
[2 weeks later]
Time had passed without me even knowing.
I had ended up giving Perry to Hagrid for the time being, as I didn't have the means to raise a Niffler properly. Hagrid, of course, seemed delighted and promised that I could come back at any point.
"Zane," Luna was beside me, looking at me.
Turning my head in her direction, I responded. "Yes?"
"Do you want to come to my house for Christmas? We are going to go on an adventure." She sounded cheerful, there was a week left until the Christmas break after all.
I was silent, deliberating it. I realistically had no reason to refuse, though my desire to get stronger had been pushing me to spend all my time in the library and self study, leaving little chance for recreational activities. Even speaking with Jarvis occasionally, asking what I should do.
"You have time," he'd told me once, though he couldn't say why. He'd sounded regretful. Most of our conversations weren't about power, anyway. They were more about knowing each other, understanding each other.
Ending the flashback, I responded, "Sure, it will be interesting."
She nodded happily, and ran off, probably to Owl her dad.
That's when it really hit.
And it was harrowing, the realization that this is my first Christmas without my parents, possibly not even the only one. The wish to bring them back sat so heavy in my chest, I half expected Santa to fall out of the sky under its weight.
Looking around at the library, there were no students aside from myself. Most had already checked out for the Christmas period, there was also the pang of paranoia still hanging in the atmosphere as the culprit behind the attacks still hadn't been found. Nor had Collin or Norris been revived. It was a quiet reminder that the magical world isn't safe, even in a school.
As a result you would rarely find students wandering around solo, or even adventuring into the more remote regions of Hogwarts. It had been a great chance to do so myself. I trusted Florb to protect me long enough to run if anything went wrong. And if all else failed, I could always beg Julis to teleport me away though I have no idea how that works.
As a result I stumbled across various rooms that had no real function, secret passages, and even a painting that would mimic your actions mindlessly, even in compromising positions. Terrible for someone you know to see if they walked past.
Luna still brings that one up from time to time, I gave up explaining when the painting didn't copy her like it did me.
At this pace, it wasn't long before it was the Christmas period. Dororthy had expanded alot, and I did some maintenance on its weighless-ness charm out of paranoia. It was at a point where if that failed I would need a forklift.
Would the levitation charm would on heavy items? Something to test during the Christmas break, after all, Luna had once mentioned you can use magic there without worrying about the trace.
During all this grinding, I also briefly touched on my Core again. It had been some time since I last tried to absorb the suns 'energy'. With the weather around Hogwarts trying to act like a magical solar panel under perpetual cloud cover. Its efficiency was laughable compared to actual spell practice, even in direct sunlight. Still, if my magic core's growth ever stagnated, this method would work.
One thing to note is that I haven't read a single thing regarding magical cores. I have an inkling that it is protected knowledge, looping back to the 'pure blood' and 'noble house' theory. It wouldn't be hard for the nobles in the government to apply pressure to suppress this knowledge.
Ending this thought line, I got up, left the library and made my way towards the nest 2.0. It was where I spent the most time outside of the library in recent weeks.
It had changed dramatically from when we first found it. Luna's corner was, putting it nicely, chaotic. Various creations made of plants littered the floor, tassels all over the walls made of a dark vine and some silver leaves. When I asked her what plants these were, she shrugged.
In fairness, my side is no better. Papers littered everywhere from my late night inspirations, various experiments with magic and diagrams for more runic devices in the future. I had suspended my physical experiments after Luna's stern talking to me in passing. I lacked the means to realistically protect myself to begin with, and Luna always seemed extremely against the tiny experiments I did want to do.
I feel like I should mention I take all my notes in the cipher that I started ages ago. I have had other students more than once look at my notes and whisper that I am too far gone right next to me. It is somewhat amusing, though its given me a bad reputation. Aside from the twins who periodically try to prank me I don't make an effort to talk to anyone else as a result.
Whilst brooding, Luna had opened the door and walked in, directly flopping on her leaf mattress that had slowly appeared. Smiling briefly, I sat in the rocking chair that I found whilst exploring and decided to have a small nap.
--
Trying a new method of taking notes called Obsidian, works pretty well so far.
Am i back? I want to be back. I will take my time writing these, no daily chapter commitments etc.
I know my writing style has changed compared to 3 years ago. Let me know if you prefer the monologues that Zane has or to, and i quote, 'get to the fucking point'.
I am also considering a perspective shift with the novel to speed it up abit but it will be extremely jarring since you have all read it from first POV.
In other news, had a heart attack scare and was focused on not dying for abit but it seems to be subsided? idk im not a doctor.