Harry Potter and the Friends of the Swan

2. The hidden Library

Harry left detention and Snape's pleasant company by lunch time. He was very excited about the discovery he had made. He always thought about his mother but, besides being good at potions, having green eyes like his, and being a good person, he knew nothing about Lily. Now, at least he knew her friend's names. As he walked to the Great Hall, he thought about the names he read. Who are they? Do they work for the Order? Why didn't anyone mention those names? Where are they now? Harry asked himself. He was sure that Sirius, Remus, or even Dumbledore, had never mentioned those names before. Then, Harry realized something. "They are all dead. That's why they were never mentioned. That's why I don't have a godmother. My mom's friends are all dead." He felt his heart become very heavy.

Immediately, he lost his appetite and decided it was time to go to the library. He needed to find out what had happened to them, and he needed to do it alone. Not that he didn't want his best friends near him --he knew that with Hermione around the search would take half of the time to be completed--but this was too personal to share with them right now. "Selene Vance. She must be related to Emmeline Vance," thought Harry. And another thought came into his mind: Emmeline Vance was killed in the beginning of that year.

Harry entered the library and found the very moody Ms. Pince looking at him.

"What can I do for you?" she asked. She had the expression, though, of somebody who really didn't want to do anything for anybody.

"I would like to search for a few witches' names," said Harry.

"Historical or contemporaries names?" croaked Ms. Pince. She seemed to be very bored.

"Ah, contemporaries," said Harry, trying to look friendly. Ms. Pince took a deep breath. Harry thought he had just annoyed her a lot.

"Then you will be looking at the old Daily Prophet's editions?" she said fiercely, almost hysterical.

"I'm afraid, yes," said Harry. Ms. Pince made a face like he had just said a bad word and started to mutter something that Harry didn't understand. She walked through a side door and Harry waited.

"Come on," she grumbled, looking through the door. "Or do you think I'm going to do the job for you?"

Harry walked through the door and found himself in a round room. Many instruments were placed there. At the walls, he could see little clocks over funny doors. The room was dusty and very dark. Now he understood why Ms. Pince got so annoyed. He wouldn't like to go searching behind those doors either. Ms. Pince took her wand and knocked three times on a tiny silver object placed at the entrance of the room.

"Say your complete name and year," she ordered.

"Harry James Potter, sixth year." The object made a funny noise and released a paper that Ms. Pince took. She knocked on it one more time.

"Say the names you are looking for. Surname first," said her.

"Mills, Athena. Vance, Selene. Stwartt (with double 'T'), Alice." One of the clocks over the wall glowed, made a loud noise and Harry heard what seemed to be many hands dropping heavy books over tables. Then the oval door opened with a cloud of dust behind it.

"Well, you are a sixth year. If a boggart shows up, you know what to do." Ms. Pince turned her back on Harry and said. "You have two hours."

Harry entered the room behind that weird door and saw that the newspapers were over an old study table. Many book shelves were there, but no book could be seen. He sat and the door closed. Then, he started to read the news about his mom's friends. And to his surprise sometimes his mother's name showed up.

"Smart girls, eh?" said Harry to himself. "How many prizes they won!" he said, admiring the things they had invented. "Why I can't find any picture of them?" thought Harry.

After reading for almost an hour, Harry could have a nice idea about the subjects that most interested the girls. Alice seemed to love Herbology and discovered the use of Mimblus Mimbletonia. Athena liked Care of the Magical Creatures and studied some creatures that Harry had never heard of. "She would be a nice date for Hagrid," thought Harry, smiling. Selene won many prizes at Charms and Transfigurations contests. Harry had already started to read the papers of 1978 when he saw something that called his attention. Something had moved fast behind one of the book shelves, in the dark. He felt his heart jump. "What was that?" he thought. He held his wand in position to attack anything but nothing came to attack him.

"Lumos!" he said, raising his wand and getting close to place he saw the movement. Nothing. "Maybe I thought I saw something." Then he sat in the table and restarted reading.

All the girls got into the Ministry of Magic as Aurors: all except Lily. She got a job as a Healer at Saint Mungos' but left almost a month later. Selene and Athena published many books in 1979. And...

"Ah!" said Harry feeling very sad. Alice Stwartt married Frank Longbottom in 1979. In the same year, Lily Evans married James Potter.

Suddenly, Harry heard a loud noise of suction as something approached fast. With the reflex he had won as a Quidditch player, he jumped aside when the thing tried to catch him.

"Stupefy!" yelled Harry. But the thing moved really fast and the spell did not hit it. He saw something darker then room coming again to get him. "Rictumsempra!" yelled Harry. "Is Ms. Pince not listening to this rocky?" he thought. And when the spell came out of his wand, he finally saw the attacker. He thought his heart would come out of his mouth. What kind of beast was that? It had the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a dragon. "How could something that big be hiding behind a shelf?" thought Harry, when he was almost hit by the beast's tail.

"Petrificus Totalus!" but the spell hit the wall behind one shelf. It opened with a loud bang. With the darkness, though, Harry couldn't see through the door. "What is..." thought Harry, when he realized that the beast was preparing to attack him again.

"Stupefy!" But now he got it, right between the eyes. The beast fell and Harry knew he had just a few minutes before it to wake up again. "I still have forty minutes," he thought and decided to cast a Freezing charm on the animal and check what was behind that door.

"Lumos!" Harry looked at the hidden door and saw a stair. He couldn't see the end of it, though. He came closer. "Lumos Maxima!" he saw that the stairs would lead him up in the castle. There was another door in the end of it. He raised his wand to make sure that no other unfriendly beast was hiding in there and started to go up. It was a big door but it had no knob. He pushed the door and it opened. So much light came into Harry's eyes that he got blind for a while. "Nox!"

It was a study room of somebody's. It was messy, as if a fight had taken place there many years ago. The place was full of spider webs. He could see an old broken cauldron, books and papers, all full of dust. It seemed to Harry that room had not been used for ages. The room was so dusty that Harry couldn't see how it was decorated. Just old chairs and a large table seemed to have resisted the time and the fight. Now, looking more carefully, he saw that the room had many old books. Some of them looked dangerous. Some of them completely destroyed. "Why would somebody want to have a hidden access to the library when he already had that big, private library?" thought Harry. He turned to see through a large window. He could see the mountains behind the school and the trail of Hogwarts express. It was an amazing view.

Harry moved to go to the book shelves but something reflected the light outside into Harry's eyes. It was the huge mirror placed over the fire place. "It's so big. How couldn't I see it before?" he approached to see the mirror carefully and when he looked into the mirror, he saw not his image but the Great Hall. "Wow! Can this show some other place?" asked to himself. As an answer, the mirror showed a room like that, but that room was not destroyed. Harry distractedly looked to his watch and said, "Holy sh**! My time is almost over! Better hurry." He went running downstairs and was able to close the hidden door, just a second before Ms. Pince open the other one.

"Oh! Precious!" she screamed and holding the walls like she was about to faint.

"It's frozen, Ms. Pince. It can't harm you," said Harry.

"Did you? How?" asked her. She seemed very shocked.

"Mmm. I think I had luck. Ms. Pince, could you please ask Professor Dumbledore or Professor Hagrid to come? I have to go. I still have a lot of homework to do."

Harry got is bag and went running to the Gryffindor's Common Room when he heard somebody calling his name.

"Harry!" said Hermione. He stopped and waited for her and Ron to get closer.

"Where have you been? We were worried about you," she said.

"Why are you so sweaty? Ah! You've been practicing Quidditch without me," said Ron, looking upset.

Harry rolled his eyes and said, "No, Ron. I've been in the library," and started to tell them about the hidden library and monster. A few minutes later Ron started to talk.

"Oh! Hermione, you were right all the time!" he said, looking very serious.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, surprised by Ron's compliment.

"Going to the library can be exciting! You don't know what his hidden behind a shelf waiting for the chance to attack you!" said Ron with a giggle, and Harry started to laugh.

"Ron!" started Hermione, with a little anger in her voice. "Harry was almost eaten by the chimera and you are making fun of it?"

"Ah! Really?" asked Ron sarcastically. He grabbed Harry's arm and said, "Poor devil! It would starve! Look at this, Hermione! Harry is so skinny that he would be just a snack!" said Ron, almost crying because he was laughing so much. Harry pushed Ron away, but was also laughing a lot. Hermione gave a sigh and rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, Harry, what were you looking for at the library?" asked her.

"Ah! Nothing special, just recent facts for my transfiguration essay," lied Harry. He did not want to tell them what he had discovered. Not yet.

"You taking another lesson with Professor Dumbledore today aren't you?" asked Ron.

Harry had completely forgotten about that matter.

"Yeah, better go take a shower. It's almost time," he said.