Chapter 10 - An Office

'Shit!'

She exclaimed in her mind as she realized that it was an alarm going off.

Was it because of her?

Was it because she left the room?

Thoughts rushed into her mind just as fast as she ruled them out.

It wasn't possible that the alarm would be caused by her— she would've known if someone entered the room because her darkness would've warned her.

No one entered the room since she left.

It also didn't make sense that the alarm would be caused by her leaving the room— because she made sure to search the entire room throughout the days she was here for any sort of device that would record her.

There wasn't any.

So when the panic calmed down, she moved forward to check out the room further.

It looked somewhat like an office— with a work desk and a chair behind it. The desk had a stack of paper and other files on it— stuff you would expect someone to be working on.

The other side of the room has a single bookshelf with some books on it. Which at a glance made her happy— even in her current unsure state.

Looking back at the desk as she inspect it more closely, she noticed a device on it that was flashing a red light and beeping— the cause of the alarm, she was assured.

Stepping closer to the device, she examined it to try and figure out what it was.

One must keep in mind that she was currently in the year 1989, in a place where most of the devices that existed were either made by wizards and witches, or were heavily modified by them.

So her not recognizing that the thing before her was a house phone right off the bat was understandable— especially when the phone was in such a weird shape.

It was shaped like a flat disk, and instead of the phone piece which you would pick up and speak through, it had a flat surface that seemed like it could open up.

Definitely, some weird wizarding device that was made based on the phone, or the other way around.

Either way, it was odd— and beeping.

But the beeping was definitely not caused by her since it seemed to be some sort of alert sent by someone across the phone— or so she hoped.

She decided to ignore it since it had nothing to do with her— she once again hoped— and instead check out the wall of books before whoever the phone was meant for return.

She walked over to the bookshelf and ran her finger along the binds of the books while looking at the names of them— something she has always wanted to do in her life.

Most of the books were normal stuff— stuff about history, some magic theories, wizarding law books, even some books about the ministry, but nothing groundbreaking.

And especially no book that had spells in them— which was disappointing.

But after about 5 minutes of searching through the books for something useful— not much coming to mind— she finally had some luck.

She found an interesting book that seemed to have been written by a witch many years ago.

A book about a type of magic that most people didn't care to learn— illusions.

The girl knew how useful illusions could be, seeing as she is currently using it in order to sneak around the place— but she also knew it could be used for much more than that.

She just didn't know how. But she believed this book would help with that.

Flipping through the pages, she read up on illusions— mostly focusing on information she could use to improve her current darkness abilities since she had no way of using this world's magic just yet.

She skimmed over the chapters, not having the time to truly delve deeper into the theories that were written in the book.

Yes— theories.

The book didn't hold any information on spells, not how to cast them, nor their names, just some theories about how illusions could be used to trick all the senses of a person.

And it did mean all— even touch.

There was an entire chapter in the book that was dedicated to trying to explain how it is possible to have an illusion affect a real person in such a way that they could feel it.

It was based on a scientific study that some muggle humans did in the past— however, this one was much better— thanks to magic.

This chapter was rather useful— it explained to the girl how she would be able to do something like this and thus gave her many new ideas for her ability to test out at a later time.

But as she came to an end of skimming through the book, she closed it and sighed softly.

She wished she could take the book back with her, but she knew that it would probably be missed. And she had no way of hiding it in the room because they might find it somehow.

It would expose her in a big and bad way— she couldn't risk it.

Not unless she had a way to store the book, which she didn't.

Or did she?

'Wait a minute.'

She thought to herself as she remembered her ability to go into the darkness completely.

'Would it be possible to store the book in the darkness? It's much smaller than me, much lighter, and also made of non-organic matter. Would that work?'

She thought to herself as she looked at the book in her hand— she wasn't sure.

She wasn't sure because she had never tried it before, and she never tried it before because she never had anything she wanted to keep before.

She had nothing to hide.

So this was the first time she actually thought about testing it.

If it worked it would give her a way to store books so that she could read them while in her room without worrying about being caught.

And it wasn't just books— she could store other things she found around the buildings while sneaking off.

Snacks— which they didn't let her have often. Money that was left laying around, items that no one would miss.

She basically had a way to collect things while waiting for the right time to come.

'Let's give it a try.'

She said to herself as she placed the book against the shadow of her body— and pushed it in with little force.

It went in without issue— storing itself in the darkness.

She could even feel the added drain of energy it was causing, but it was so minuscule it would be able to be replaced by just resting.

It drained less than she healed.

That is— without the three other abilities she had running at the same time. So this really cut her wandering time down further.

Now she had a little under 20 minutes before she had to return to the room— so without celebrating too much as to not waste time— she left the office to wander further down the hall.