Chapter 12 - Library

Since the second day of the September was Sunday, they had no classes. Although Alder wondered how they would wake up early in the morning, he didn't want to worry about it in his first night at Hogwarts.

But he learnt it hard way.

In the morning a scream echoed in the corridors of the first years. Alder and the others in the room woke up instantly. They looked each other and nodded without saying anything. They slowly got up to take a look what was happening. They took their wands with them before going out.. Although most of them didn't know any useful spell, they felt safer.

The scream slowly faded as the source of it went its way to the common room. Other first years were also wide awake and already walking towards the common room to check if anyone needed help. But when they have reached the common room, a bizarre sight was before them.

The origin of the scream was a plant with purple stem and flowers. But it was hard to call them flowers, since they were forming something like a mouth. The look of it reminded Venus flytrap to Alder. The mouth of the plant was open wide and its scream was continuing relentlessly. The plant was planted in a flowerpot which was sitting on the right hand of Brodie.

Brodie was smiling although it was his normal smile; most of the students thought it looked evil.

"It's Screechsnap. In the following years you have to wake up by yourselves; but in the first year, school will assist you waking up in the morning using different methods." He caressed the plant gently and it ceased screaming. "It's a gentle semi-sentient plant. Although its scream is not harmful unlike Mandrake, it's irritating enough, isn't it. And I hope you weren't waiting a pleasant alarm sound… Even the most pleasant will irritate you in a few days anyway, so it doesn't matter much. So, yeah, that's all. Before the breakfast, this little guy will help you wake up. And I must warn you, don't damage it anyway, it's just doing its work." continued Brodie.

Alder looked at the plant with interest. He heard the grumblings around him but he found this quite entertaining. He quickly freshened up and wore his uniform. He was not sure if he needed to wear it even in the weekends, but since he was going to leave the common room, he did so anyway. And so did the others. The four boys in the room went their way to the great hall for breakfast. On the way Alder checked the common room but couldn't see Tonks anywhere.

But when he came to the great hall, he saw her enjoying breakfast with her new roommates. Noticing his gaze, Tonks raised her head and saw Alder. She waved him a greeting with a smile and after seeing Alder response, continued talking with her friends.

Alder also waved to Tonks with a smile, maybe he should have felt ditched at the first day in the school but he felt nothing like that. Just felt happy for Tonks, he understood how much she enjoyed company and feared being left alone.

"Your friend?" asked Stephen.

"Yeah. She is a good person." said Alder to which Stephen nodded.

Although Stephen found the breakfast as nothing special, Casper and Alder were quite fond of it. They were pleasantly surprised the quality of the food didn't drop after the welcoming feast.

"Did anyone see our curriculum for this year?" asked Alder.

"Yeah, I copied it, it was hanged on the board at the common room." said Thomas, handing Alder a parchment.

The first class of the year was Potions which made Alder thought if Snape also had a prejudice against Hufflepuffs. He also saw a lesson called Magical Theory at Friday; he had seen it previously under the main quest he had received. Alder had no memory about this class from his previous life, nevertheless from the textbook they got for it; he could guess what the class is about.

"Do you have any plans for today?" asked Stephen.

"I would like to visit the library." said Alder. His answer gathered scornful looks from his friends.

"I'm thinking about exploring the castle." said Casper.

"I think I will check out the Quidditch grounds, I heard the teams will be training today." said Thomas.

Hearing everyone's plans Stephen thought a little bit and asked Thomas if he could join him. Thomas agreed readily.

After the breakfast everyone went their own ways.

Alder was very excited to check the library. The importance of talent points was apparent after his various experiments. At first day he thought the difference in experience points he had gained between Avios and Reparifarge were due to their respectful difficulties to practice. But to his surprise the difference was because of his Talent Levels. After his experiments he concluded when he casted a spell with Talent Level of 0, he was gaining only 1 experience points for that spell. His maximum level was Level 4 thus he couldn't see what changes the other levels brought. But until Level 4 from 0, experience increases were 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16.

…

The library was quite the sight for Alder. The number of the books seemed incalculable and seeing the shining books Alder felt relieved. At least until they are all finished or deemed useless by the system after leveling his talents to a certain level, he would not be clueless about his future path.

-Side Quest triggered.-

-Side Quest: Hogwarts Library 1-

-Description: Hogwarts, an over thousand-year-old castle has the most solid foundation throughout United Kingdom. How can you bypass the myriad knowledge while being a student at the school? But the knowledge that could be reached as a student is limited. First read twenty books from the regular sections of the library and two books from the restricted section. This quest is the first one of a chain quest series.-

-Current progress: 0/20 Books from regular section

0/2 Books from restricted section-

-Reward: 10000 experience points, 1 Free Talent Point, 1 Free Stat Point, 1 chance to learn a skill of choice.-

Although the first part of the rewards looked rather plain, not different from the rest of the quest, the last reward showed the importance system showed towards this quest.

'It seems the system really only cares about academic things other than emergency situations. I asked Charlie on the train about his brother Percy's pet, indirectly pulling the conversation towards it with great effort, and couldn't even trigger any quest about Peter Pettigrew or Sirius Black. I wonder what is the system's agenda…'

He introduced himself to Madam Pince, the librarian of Hogwarts, and started picking a book under her indifferent eyes.

Other than elemental magic, the other field of magic he was interested in was the divination. Alder thought the power was not everything in the wizarding world. Since Dumbledore played a chess around the prophecy of Harry Potter, it was clear how great importance both him and Voldemort put into the prophecy. But prophecies were not absolute, since in The Prophecy, it's only stated as 'and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...', Dumbledore had to conduct a great plan to ensure Harry was the one who survived. And Alder was not sure about the future. He ought to change the future with or without intending to do so. Even if he reached the power level of Dumbledore with the help of the system, without his wisdom he could just be a cannon fodder in the war if he was to be careless for a moment. Also one mistake may end up Voldemort changing places of his horcruxes, which could make the future totally different from what he had remembered. So although divination seemed rather unreliable, maybe the future really not set in stone and even the prophecies could change with the power of oneself, it was worth delving into.