26 The Challenge

After the small party, the families decided to stay the night and Jack, Hermione and Theo talked Sirius into showing them the Black Family Library. ``Ok, Ok! But a few rules before you go in. don't touch books that I tell you aren't safe to do so, don't take anything outside the library and keep behind me at all times.'' The three nodded like chickens in a pen, they all knew that the magical world is dangerous and that even a book can be a cursed object. When they arrived in the library, they were shocked. Not because of the size, the library at Hogwarts was much bigger but because of the age of the books around them. Some of them were preserved for over a thousand years, just thinking of the knowledge and understanding they could gain from these books made their eyes twinkle like stars. ``Come on now, this section of the library is forbidden for you unless you have one of the adults with you. I have charmed the cabinets that contain the dangerous books but there is still a substantial amount of books that would be of interest to you.'' The three nodded in response and thanked Sirius for sharing his family's heritage with them.

As soon as Sirius left, Theo and Jack were about to dive in to pool of knowledge but were stopped by Hermione, ``Hey, I have an idea for a challenge!'' Theo and Jack stopped in their tracks and Jack asked her with curiosity in his voice, ``What did you have in mind?'' Hermione smiled at her friends' reaction and told him of her plan. ``We can all come I tomorrow and each of us gets an hour or two to read what ever we want. At the end of the set time, whoever can shock us with their newly acquired knowledge wins!'' Theo and Jack were both happy with Hermione's challenge and were excited for the next day. ``Splash!'' ``Oh My God! What's Happening?!!'' Dean, Seamus, Ron and Harry were all woken up to a surprise the next morning, a balloon sized bubble filled with water smashed in their faces. Looking at their soaked friends, Theo and Jack were both laughing with their stomachs held in their hands. ``Oh No! I think I am gonna die, IT's too funny!!!'' Theo was on the floor, kicking the air while Jack was using the door as support so as to not fall down laughing. ``You were right man, I should listen to you more often!'' while Jack and Theo were laughing at their friends, the said friends had picked p their wands and had fired several dangerous spells at them, ``Stupefy! Confringo! Incarcerous! Glacius! Fire Storm!''

Luckily Theo was standing next to Jack and was saved from getting a severe injury and was instead traumatised by his friends reaction. ``Hey Theo, Theo! Hey guys, I think Theo's gone!'' `Smack!' ``Don't say things like that you idiot!'' the group had now come outside their room and when they heard Jack, they all went up and smacked him in the back of his head. ``Now, you two better have a good reason as to why you woke us up in that manner!'' Ron spoke with a slight hint of anger in his voice and he even brought out the outline of his Phantom. Theo and Jack were sweating and hurriedly explained the challenge in hopes the guys would forget about their little prank, and they did. They all were excited for a challenge and happy that it came so soon. Within an hour, all of them were in the Library and were ready to start the challenge.

``Ok, now that all of us know the rules, the challenge starts in 3, 2, 1!!!'' at the sound of 1, all of them sped away to different areas of the library. For the next two hours, books opening and closing, notes being written down and people walking back and forth were the only sounds that came out of the library. Sirius watched them with a felling of surprise and pride and at the end of the two hours, he once again spoke to tell them to stop, ``Ok, Stop! The time to read has finished, now it's time to present your findings.'' Even Sirius was excited at the prospect of hearing the presentations, even though he had lived in this house, he hadn't been much of a reader and hadn't explored the library like the kids had done today. Jack was very happy at the moment, even though he hadn't been able to read all the books because of the restrictions, he had used his Golden Sharingan to jam as much knowledge in his brain as he could. And the new knowledge helped, within the texts, there was information on how to gather and purify Soul Energy and increase cognitive functions without any side effects. Jack's soul was already very pure, under the effects of the Magical Thunder and Magical Flames, it had been cleansed.

And due to him being a Reincarnator and his Phantom's benefits leaning towards the Soul, he had high amounts of Soul Energy. All he needed was a way to use it and now he did. With his talent, Divided Mind, he was able to continue reading and use the skill to gather his Soul Energy and shape it into a sort of Nascent Soul that once again increased his Mental Abilities and control over his Magic. And it was very lucky he was able to control his Magic and Mental Talents, otherwise, the library would have been destroyed by the onslaught from the massive energies. ``Ok, Now come on forward. Tell us what you found and we'll keep track of whether it was something new and exciting or not.'' Sirius was sitting in a excited mood and he waited for the kids to get up one by one and tell him what they found. Theo went first and he spoke about what he found, ``Well, I found this book which told how to use different elements to form Magical Spirits like Jack's flame and how to use them to not only attack but also how to use them in potions, alchemy etc. oh yeah, there were also ne and different potion recipes in the books, some of which were helpful in keeping a person healthy others were about killing them!''

Everyone including Jack was excited about the knowledge Theo brought forward and couldn't wait to hear what the others found as well as sharing what they found themselves. One by one, the whole group went and they were all incredible finds, Hermione found a way to make or even evolve wands, Harry found out evidence that the Three Deathly Hallows existed in reality, Dean found new Charms that were highly useful while Seamus found jinxes that could ruin a person's life. Neville went and found where several Magical Herb depositories were while Ron found a famous wizard's research notes. Padma and Parvati both combined their heads and found information about ancient magic formations and runes which they theorized could be used to advance their Mana Control Training. These pieces of information could literally cause wars in the wizarding world but no one was stupid enough to go against the backgrounds of the people present.

``Ok, Jack, now it's your turn. Man, I can't believe that we found all of this information in one library.'' Harry was excited to hear what type of knowledge Jack had uncovered and was still excited about the information he had heard from his friends. ``The Black Family has a long history and we have books and artifacts from long before we were called the Black Family.'' Sirius was the one to explain and clear their confusion and they all turned their heads towards Jack and waited for him to unveil his discoveries.