A Leisurely Sunday

The next morning, Harry had dark circles under his eyes.

At breakfast, Loren leisurely sipped his tea. The food at Hogwarts really was quite good.

Harry looked at Loren several times, hesitating to speak, barely even able to enjoy his meal.

Loren felt rather helpless. He really was such an honest kid. When Harry glanced his way yet again, Loren could not hold back any longer. He set down his teacup. "Stop looking at me. I was teasing you last night. I can't read minds at all."

Harry relaxed a little at that, though it was impossible to tell how much he believed.

"I'm planning to go to the Library and take a look around. Want to come?" Loren needed to make himself a study plan.

Harry did not particularly want to study, but Ron was not around, and he had nothing else to do. "Sigh, fine. I haven't even started my homework yet."

Loren wrapped several egg tarts in paper and slipped them into his pocket. "Which subject?"

Harry looked inexplicably proud. "Every subject!"

One of the egg tarts slipped from his grasp and fell outside the dinner plate.

Hogwarts' Library was on the second floor of the Castle. Bookshelf after bookshelf stretched from one end to the other. The shelves only seemed to grow smaller in the distance, while their end remained nowhere in sight.

Loren felt that some magic similar to the Untraceable Extension Charm must have been used here. The space inside was far larger than it appeared from outside, and there were nearly ten thousand books.

Hogwarts' Library had been passed down through generations of students and teachers. It contained many rare editions and books no longer printed elsewhere. The Board of Governors also set aside a special fund every year to purchase newly published books. Aside from the Ministry of Magic, there was nowhere with a richer collection.

Not a single person stood near one section of shelves. Loren saw several books with thick iron chains extending from their covers, the other ends linked to the shelves as though they had grown out of them. They were there to keep people from reading them.

Several other books shimmered in different colors in his eyes, bearing obvious traces of magic.

That must have been the Restricted Section.

There were plenty of spells in there that Loren wanted: Fiendfyre, Legilimency. But borrowing them required a professor's authorization and credentials. No matter how gifted a First Year was, they had no reason to borrow books from the Restricted Section—unless they wanted Dumbledore to put them on his watch list.

Harry pulled out the homework he had been piling up and began rushing through it.

Loren figured Ron must have been a bad influence. There was not much homework in the first week; Loren had finished his during breaks between classes. Still, at least Harry had not learned to copy homework yet.

In fact, if Loren had not dragged Harry to the Library, Harry would have waited until the day before each assignment was due to start it. He thought that was more efficient.

Loren selected several books he needed from the shelves: Basic Principles of Transfiguration based on Gamp's Law, Properties of Basic Potion Ingredients, and Underlying Principles of Simple Charms. These covered foundational, yet not quite basic, knowledge of Transfiguration, Potions Master, and Charms respectively—like the relationship between an Abelian Group and addition within ten.

The study grinder's experience: once you built a rough knowledge system from the foundations up, studying became faster and easier.

Hermione came to the Library not long afterward, which did not surprise Loren or Harry. However, she was not reading textbooks or any reference materials. It looked like she had a novel in front of her, her head buried in the book as a faint smile occasionally appeared on her face.

Loren was getting drowsy from chewing through Thick Books. When he looked up, he saw Hermione staring at her book with sparkling eyes, occasionally laughing and showing her cute front teeth before pressing her lips together again.

"Wandering with Werewolves?" Loren read directly from the cover.

Hermione looked up, still looking delighted. "Yes. I saw you buy this book when we were at Flourish and Blotts. The Library had it too, so I came to find it and give it a read."

Loren was a little surprised. "I was hoping to find something related to Werewolves, to look up some information about them. Later, I realized this book barely had any actual content."

Hermione frowned. She liked this book very much. Since they could not speak too loudly in the Library, she leaned closer and demanded, "Why would you say that? The story is wonderful, and it's based on the author's real experiences."

Loren noticed that the little Witch had very thick eyebrows and leaned back slightly. "There's very little actual knowledge about Werewolves in it. Most of it is spent describing or emphasizing how brilliant and heroic the author is."

After a pause, he added, "If the experiences themselves were not so exciting, this book would be awful. The author's narcissism is practically spilling out of the pages."

Loren did not mention that even those exciting experiences had been deceived out of or stolen from others by Lockhart. He had known Lockhart was a fraud when he bought the book, but he had still hoped to learn some useful knowledge about Werewolves to help Grandpa Bates. Unfortunately, he had nearly been blinded by that man's smile.

Hermione thought back on it. While she had been immersed in the story, she had not noticed, but now that she stepped back and looked at it, it really did seem as if the author praised himself over and over. Even the smiling illustrations in the book became glaring.

Hermione reluctantly realized that she could not refute him. It really did seem that way. She had spent day and night memorizing books and had finally found a way to relax, but now she could not keep reading it. She was even a little annoyed with Loren. "Then what are you reading?"

Loren spread his hands to show her. Seeing that they were all subjects only covered in higher years, Hermione began lecturing him again. "These books cover things we won't encounter until later. We should learn what's in our textbooks first."

Loren tried to change Hermione's mindset as well. "Just burying your head in books and relying entirely on memorization won't work. If you understand the principles and organize your knowledge system, you'll learn faster and more easily."

That touched upon the authority professors held in Hermione's mind. Could he possibly understand magic better than the professors? Her voice turned shrill. "Then why don't the professors teach these things first?!"

Madam Pince instantly appeared behind them and smacked both of them on the backs of their heads. "Out! This is not the place for you to argue!" She drove them out of the Library.

Harry thought it was a good thing that was not a topic he could join in on. Why think so much? Whatever the teachers taught, they learned. He did not get it. These people were really strange.

"Ahh..." Harry yawned. He was so sleepy; he had not slept well last night.

Maybe he should go back and catch up on sleep first. Homework could wait. Once that thought arose, he could not continue doing his work at all.

The atmosphere between Loren and Hermione remained tense even after they were kicked out.

Loren found it strange. If she disagreed with him, she could just say so. Why was she so angry?

Hermione found it strange too. She clearly should not have been so worked up, yet she simply could not stop herself.

They parted at the Staircase. Hermione could not focus on her book anymore, so she wandered through the Castle absentmindedly. It was not until she reached the Third Floor that she realized she had entered a room filled with Cups, medals, and similar items.

Hermione looked along the displays. Quidditch Cups, House Cups, polished until they gleamed and arranged neatly in glass cases... and group photographs of Quidditch players from all four Houses over the years.

Among the many unfamiliar faces, one girl caught her attention. Sensing Hermione's gaze, the girl in the photograph happily jumped up and waved at her.

Hermione knew this was because the photograph had been treated with Developing Potion, preserving the girl's movements from that moment—but that was Professor McGonagall!

The girl in the photograph was younger and possessed an abundant vitality that Professor McGonagall no longer showed, but she was still easy to recognize.

Hermione was deeply surprised. She had never expected Professor McGonagall to have been a Quidditch player as a student—so lively, so uninhibited, completely unlike how she was now.

After standing before the photograph for quite some time, Hermione continued onward and soon made another discovery—it was a small gilded shield embedded in a larger one. The smaller shield read:

Seeker

James Potter

1971