25 December 1991, Hogwarts
Harry suppressed the grin as the redhead got over two weeks of punishment for starting a fight. But the Potter scion didn't even care. After all, he was planning on sneaking into the restricted section using his new cloak. After all, he did need to get started learning the mind arts, and wouldn't that be a good place to start?
Later that night, Harry crept out of his dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, and went past the secret entrance. He moved up his way up the stairs, into the library. Finding himself in front of the locked entrance, Harry used his Arcane hearing to get a feel of the magic inside the lock, to find the correct combination to temporarily disable the locking protection.
After manipulating his magic to counteract the enchanted lock, he combined it with an unlocking charm and muttered, "Alohomora!"
The library door unlocked itself. Satisfied with his casting, Harry put on his cloak and went inside to sneak past the library wards. They weren't anything special, really, since the library was technically public for all Hogwarts students and alumni, the books didn't really need to be hidden away. Oh, Harry wasn't under the illusion that, if someone actually tried to damage the books, much heavier wards wouldn't be activated. At least, Harry assumed they would, since if that wasn't the case then it would be a large security flaw, where a student might sneak into the library and burnt it into the ground. The Hogwarts library was a huge asset to the school and provided a certain status to studying in this castle, even if the curriculum started getting restricted decades back.
The library was pitch-black and very eerie. Harry decided to use a Lumos Maxima to light the way. A ball of light appeared floating alongside the invisible student, guiding him towards the Restricted Section. It was right at the back of the library. It seemed separate from the rest of the library by a rope, but Harry could certainly hear the invisible wards stopping any intruder. They were very complex and very powerful, that's for sure. Without the cloak, Harry wouldn't even dream of trying to get past them.
Stepping carefully over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library, Harry suppressed the urge to laugh in glee. The cloak really was overpowered. It turned the protections of the most dangerous books in the castle into a simple magicless rope.
Harry waved his hand to move the ball of light, allowing him to see the restricted section tomes properly. A few minutes later, the young Slytherin was slowly getting frustrated. It seemed like the restricted section lacked even the fundamental organization that the rest of the library had. Even the tome titles didn't tell him much. Their peeling, faded gold letters spelt words in languages Harry couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood. The hairs on the back of Harry's neck prickled. Maybe he was imagining it, maybe not, but he thought a faint whispering was coming from the books, as though they knew someone was there who shouldn't be.
Yeah, Harry was pretty unsettled by the damn place, but he was right to be. Harry remembers Tom Riddle's diary in the story and how it possessed anyone who wrote inside. Yeah, the Potter scion was right to be wary of unknown books, especially when their melodies reeked of malice and bloodthirst.
Seeing no point in just walking around endless books and decided to use a certain spell that he had found weeks ago. He waved the wand in a complicated manner and muttered, "invenire libros verbis 'Mind Arts'!"
A glowing beam of golden light was released from his wand and dispersed into countless smaller beams, each one connecting to a certain book. Harry smirked to himself. This was his modified spell of one that researchers used to find certain terms in a book, only on a much larger scale. It was a bitch to get down, but Harry had practised it in secret with his schoolbooks. The original spell was particularly helpful in potions when trying to find out about certain ingredients quickly.
It was based on divination, weirdly enough. It didn't work on books protected against scrying, but people tended to neglect divination as a magical field. Harry still hasn't really tried to look into the magical field, but he was planning to in the future. If it wasn't nonsense, then it would be a very useful field to master.
Still, it wasn't foolproof by any measure, and Harry wanted to fine tune the spell to be invisible and have him use it in conjunction with his Arcane hearing. Alas, he didn't really have the time to do it. Still, Harry noticed that most of the books with the words 'Mind Arts' were grouped together in the middle of the library. When he walked there, practically every book was glowing, and Harry assumed that it was the section in the field.
Satisfied with his search, the Potter scion removed the cloak and started looking at the titled books. Well, he understood why most of them were in the restricted section. 'Mind curses: How to break down your enemies by Charles Claw' sounded quite sinister. Yeah, there were books on how to curse people to insanity, on how to control their minds, on how to brainwash them, manipulate their very thoughts, and so much more. It was very horrific, and Harry was shaking by the end of it.
He had forgotten how dangerous magic was, how terrible it could be. Magic was supposed to be beautiful, filled with wonder and amazement, but not this. After dozens of horrific titles, Harry found one that didn't sound very dangerous: 'An Introduction to the mind arts by Xavier Harlaw'.
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