Chapter 37: Chapter:35 Start Of The Term(8): Free time(2)
The library... was a bit too packed with books... A bit too much for Victoire's comfort to say the least.
She could have sworn that it was larger than any classroom or room as a matter of fact, which she had seen so far, even the Great Hall. It was simply overwhelmingly vast, if that even was a sentence, with towering shelves filled to the brim with tomes of various shapes and sizes.
There was one as large as tall as a fully grown man titled, 'The Giants Habits', and one that seemed to be bellowing smoke from its pages, another that was letting out sharp hoots of an owl, and yet another that seemed to be made entirely up of mist held together by a metal spine.
The aroma of old parchment and ink, both dry and freshly opened, floated through the giant hall. Students from all houses and every year level were present, some hastily jotting down notes on parchment, while others appeared to be taking their time, meticulously flipping through the pages of their books.
Alicia and Angelina exchanged wide-eyed glances as they entered, their steps hushed by the thick carpeting that covered the floor. Victoire nodded at Madam Irma Pince, the librarian, who shot her a stern look from her desk, her sharp eyes warning against any mischief. The trio of first-year witches made their way deeper into the library, at least two of them marveling at the vast store while the last one contemplated her loss of eating time.
Angelina, always the outspoken one, broke the silence,
"Where do we even start?"
Victoire, scanning the vast room, pointed to a section labeled "Household Spells and Cookbooks" and replied,
"How about there? That seems interesting."
They wandered through the narrow aisles, barely maneuvering through the magical texts and enchanting stories without toppling over piles of books. Soon, they found themselves in a section filled with books that seemed to have been hardly touched, some were on household charms, others on culinary enchantments and recipes.
One book read, 'Madam Maria's Guide To A True Feast,' the painting on the cover was nice too, barrels over barrels of liquor, meat, bread, and cheese. Victoire nearly drooled over another book just below her, but Alicia closed her mouth just in time.
Angelina's eyes widened at a book titled 'The Art Of Culinary Sorcery And Its Uses In Combat,' a Strange title, but she eagerly pulled it off the shelf.
"This one's strange. What's the use of household spells in combat? Mince the enemy?"
Victoire gulped unconsciously, Angelina had just suggested breaking half a dozen protocols from the Geneva Conventions. However, she was intrigued by the idea of dozens of methods by which she could commit murder and cover them up as an accident.
Alicia was looking for something else entirely, and reached out for a book titled "Enchanting Eats: A Wizard's Guide to Culinary Magic."
As the two young witches sat down to read, Victoire managed to give them the slip and looked around the library for something that she had been trying to find for quite some time now.
After discreetly navigating through the maze of shelves, Victoire finally found herself standing in front of a section marked 'Magical Creatures.' Her heart raced with anticipation and eagerness regarding answering her doubts.
In that section, she found books with titles like 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them(Original 1938)' and 'The Monstrous Book of Monsters(1109)'. These were books that had been either heavily modified or had been tampered with in current times. For example, the original book 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' written by Newt Scamander, entailed a detailed description of these magical creatures and their habitats along with the complete method of how to raise them, care for them, and live alongside them. But the Current book was tampered with to only describe the creatures, their habitats, and the dangers one faces while coming face to face with them.
As she shifted through the old books, a sudden rustling sound caused her to turn around, she saw Madam Pince watching her with a scrutinizing gaze. The librarian's stern expression seemed to convey a silent warning against mishandling or mischief. Victoire nodded respectfully, trying to convey her sincere intention to learn. Satisfied, Madam Pince returned to her desk, and Victoire turned her attention back to what she had been looking for.
Suddenly, a dusty rag covering a pile of books came off revealing books with strange titles such as "Magical Lineage: Exploring Half-Blood Ancestry" and "Wizards and Their Otherworldly Kin".
Exactly what she had been looking for!
These were books on half-bloods, not the muggle and wizard kind but for people such as herself, Hagrid, and Professor Flitwick. People with half-human, and half-magical creature bloodline.
Victoire carefully rummaged through the pile before selecting a volume titled "The Hidden Realms: A Comprehensive Guide to Half-Bloods."
Seating herself in a quiet corner, away from the watchful eyes of Madam Pince, Victoire opened the book. The pages were yellow and crackling, the kind that could only be found in old volumes stored in Museums, but even then these pages revealed quite a lot of stories and insights into the lives of individuals with mixed magical heritage. There were several people with Veela ancestry, going all the way to having a house-elf as a mother.
"Sick freaks!"
She cursed under her breath while looking at the images of how house elves were being treated, especially how those with human blood mixed in their veins. There were cases from all over the world, England, Nepal, Argentina, India, Japan, Russia, France, and even several African countries. Truth be told, a majority of these cases arose amongst tribal mages, or shamans as they were generally referred to. It took a couple of minutes, but the house-elf chapter was finally finished, the next one was somewhat surprising.
'Merfolk'
Yes, those living in the Great Lake.
Not mermaids, but merfolk, people with half-human and half-fish bodies mixed up. Not like a mermaid who had a human torso but like a mixed porridge of human and fish features.
They don't usually reproduce with humans since they are not mammals. However, there were cases when some Muggle or Wizard got too 'excited' and 'relieved' himself in the ocean from where the current somehow got 'it' to Merfolk nests causing most of the newborns to die from choking on water. In rare cases where the child did survive, they showcased a powerful affinity towards Charms and Care for Magical Creatures.
Almost fifty percent of the cases face the problem of difficulty breathing both above and below the water surface. Cases were found to show symptoms of a Muggle disease called 'Asthma'. Muggle medical specialists have been consulted but so far the only effective method of keeping the subject alive past thirty years is... well... still under study. (Year1985)
Of course, then there were the centaurs.
Victoire hesitated, should she open the chapter? Well, since she had already seen so much, she might as well go through with it.
Flipping the page once, she came across something she didn't quite expect to appear, in bold handwriting the author has written,
"It has been found impossible for a human 'Wizard or Otherwise' to reproduce with any of the known tribes or species of Centaur. Theoretically, there is a small chance that a pregnancy may begin, but the genetic incompatibility will cause it to be spontaneously terminated."
Oh?
There goes about half a dozen fantasies about beautiful female centaurs she saw in her last life. The internet has a strict rule, something like rule 24 or 34, if it exists, there is a 'Sensual art' for it.
Meh, it wasn't much of her concern.
Then there was a chapter on werewolves, or a person suffering from lycanthropy. The chapter began in a mild enough manner, stating that while a human being can indeed reproduce with a person suffering from lycanthropy, the resulting offspring would showcase much milder symptoms of the disease, while the opposite is the case for two people suffering from the same.
The chapter illustrated an experiment done by a dark wizard, Herpo the Foul, in which he took several werewolves into custody. Through a series of dark and evil rituals, Herpo managed to prove that once a lycanthropy patient reproduces with a fellow patient, the resulting offspring would be much wilder as compared to the previous generation. The same is true in the case of the next generation with another patient.
Till the fifth generation, when the patient will lose the sense of self and become a mindless creature that only knows how to hunt and devour.
The moon cycle for each generation would also be affected, while the first generation is only affected on the night of the full moon, the second generation would transform on three days before and after the full moon. A similar pattern of worsening symptoms until the fifth generation can no longer revert back into a human form.
Also, each generation's poison is much more potent than the previous ones. Which meant that while a first Generation of Lycanthropy's bite would take full effect over the course of the next moon cycle, a fifth Gen's poison would take effect instantaneously. Making them even more of a shunned creature.
There wasn't much about human reproduction with werewolves though, it seems that the witches and wizards already despised the first generations so much that if they came to know of the fifth, there was a high probability that it would start a worldwide werewolf hunt.
Though, this made Victoire wonder. What the hell was Dumb-as-a-door doing, keeping a book like this in the non-restricted section? He might as well be inviting people to read this stuff.
She sighed and continued to flip through the pages, searching through the index and pages to find it. It took a while but she eventually found it,
"A Comprehensive Guide To Veela Heritage, Habits, and Hobbies."
This was perhaps the only chapter that had been unfurled so many times that it's pages have worn down to little more than yellow scraps of sheet. The reason was quite apparent too... in fact, it was written on the first page,
"How to Woe a Veelas???"
- Asked By Douglas Mordendite. (Year 1129)
...
- Marcus Lamolse (Year 1202)
...
- Sulivan Armorte (Year 1290)
...
- Asked by...
All the way to the year 1980, asked by someone named Juniper Hale.
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