Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 57: The Power of Muggles
Six hours later.
"Bloody hell… how can they have so many books?" Harry took a moment to rest.
He had been using his magic to quickly assimilate the contents of the books, obtaining an immense amount of knowledge, but it appeared that no matter how fast he went, there were just too many tomes available in this library.
Harry had also noted some restricted sections where they apparently kept the most valuable and unique items in the library, although he personally had no interest in something like the Carta Magan, Shakespeare's First Folio, or some handwritten lyrics by the Beatles.
After recovering for a bit, he took another book from the shelves and looked at it.
"World War II… okay, we are getting closer to current days at least." He had been studying the history of the world in chronological order since the time of his first death, some five hundred years back.
There was much to be learned, but it appeared that he was finally about to be done with history.
His wand was cleverly hidden under his palm, so any muggles who looked at him would think he was just touching the books for a few seconds before placing them back.
He did receive a few odd looks for doing this over and over for the past six hours, but so far, no one had tried to stop him since he was being careful and not causing any trouble.
The adults must have thought it was some childish game they didn't understand.
Much to their own ignorance, Harry was absorbing all the knowledge directly into his mind and storing it thanks to his Occlumency skills that allowed him to keep everything well organized and easily accessible.
"What is this…" He stopped all of a sudden when he arrived at the conclusion of the war and, for the first time, felt the urge to take the book to a nearby table and open it up to take a closer look.
"August, 1945… Hiroshima." There was a picture at the bottom of the page, depicting the effects of the bomb that was used for the attack.
"An atomic bomb… the muggles created something like this?" Harry was truly shocked by the progress they had made over the past five centuries, but never expected them to be able to create something this powerful without magic.
'On the other hand, the magical world has barely progressed… do they not realize how dangerous the muggles have become?' Harry thought back to the days when muggles fought with swords and bows.
Back then, magic was a clear advantage, but if they now had weapons capable of destroying entire cities, that changed things.
Harry took the book to a desk, where a librarian was checking something on her computer.
"Excuse me."
"Yes?" The librarian peeked at the book Harry was holding. "I'm afraid we don't check those books out. There is a different section for that."
"No. What I want is more information about this." He pointed at the page he had been reading. "Where can I find it?"
The librarian glanced again. "Books about World War II? We do have quite a few of those."
Harry shook his head. "Not the war… the weapon. This atomic bomb. Where can I learn more about it?"
"Oh." The librarian raised an eyebrow. She didn't think this was for a school paper anymore. "If you want to know more about nuclear reactions and atomic weapons…" She pointed to a corner of the library behind Harry. "There are some books in that section, but they are very advanced. I don't know if you will learn much from them."
"Thank you." Harry turned around and went directly to that section of the library before he started going through every single tome and taking in all the knowledge in them.
The more he learned, the more excited he became.
'Muggles have proven themselves to be extremely skilled at creating new ways to kill each other in a more efficient manner.' At first, he had been somewhat startled, but now he was thinking of ways to take advantage of this and use it for his own goals.
This finding had also cemented his idea that muggles could not be allowed to continue existing, as they were a massive threat to the existence of magical folk, much more than it was in the past.
If muggles were to find out that wizards and witches still existed and lived among them… a war was likely to start, and it would not be one they could win.
The image of the atomic bomb had become engraved in his mind.
'That was fifty years ago. They must have much more destructive weapons now.' Harry decided that he needed to learn everything about muggle technology so he could one day use it against them.
He would have a big advantage for as long as the muggles were not aware of their existence and what they could do with their magic.
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Harry ended up staying inside the library until seven P.M. and only left because it was time to close. He made a mental note to continue visiting this library until he had acquired everything he could from it.
By the time he returned to the Dursleys, it was dark outside.
Harry had to call a taxi to bring him back to the house. It was a good thing he had taken several hundred pounds from Vernon before leaving the house that morning.
The moment he opened the door, Vernon and Petunia were startled by his arrival.
"You are back…" Petunia said, looking nervous.
Vernon had been sitting on his couch, watching television. He stood up and glanced at him with concern.
Dudley was nowhere to be seen, but Harry heard the sound of a door closing upstairs.
"Vernon." Harry glared at his uncle. "I told you to wait for me outside."
"But… you said two hours. I waited, but you never came out!" the man exclaimed.
It was true that he had been there and even waited for an entire hour before leaving.
"I never said I was coming out in two hours, just that you needed to be there and wait for me." Harry pulled his wand and smiled at his uncle.
"Now I have to punish you for your disobedience."
Vernon's face went pale. "W-wait, please. I'm so sorr—"
"Crucio."
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