Dream Library

early morning.

The distant chirping of birds outside the Castle reached the sleeping little wizard through the glass window of his bedroom, leaving only faint echoes, like the soft breathing of a cat gently waking him from his slumber.

Hermione's eyelashes trembled slightly, and her clear, watery eyes opened. Her gaze passed through the black curtains of the four-poster bed and looked at the sky outside the window, which was deathly pale and looked very cold.

The girl frowned slightly, then lazily shrank further into the blankets.

"!"

Hermione suddenly opened her eyes, realizing with a start that her movements resembled those of a lazybones. Driven by some inexplicable urgency, Hermione mustered the courage to get out of bed.

As Hermione dealt with the unruly clump of hair in front of the mirror, the reflection of the bright and tidy room gave the doubled space a sense of depth, and Hermione was momentarily dazed.

She recalled the dreams she had for two consecutive days, the bright Library in her dreams, and the seemingly endless books Library.

Hermione remembered picking up a copy of "Examples of Translation and Revision of Ancient Runes," an introductory textbook for Runes. The book seemed to be quite old and differed somewhat from the one she was using in class, with some additional content.

Unlike her previous vague dreams, even after a day or two, she could still clearly recall the knowledge from the book:

The Hydra, is used to represent the number 9, but it's not just 9... because when a Hydra's head is cut off, two more heads will grow back in its place, so in Runes, the number 9 often signifies infinity.

This passage was written in the bottom right corner of the beige paper, and the page number was below it.

Hermione could clearly recall the handwriting on the pages, though she was still unsure even though Professor Babbling hadn't covered the topic in her lessons.

Could it be something Loren had casually mentioned that I hadn't paid attention to at the time? Or perhaps, my subconscious was linking the characteristics of Hydra with the number 9?

Then these subconscious thoughts manifest through dreams. Dream memories are often blurry in this way; it's worth noting that this also happens frequently in the Muggle scientific community:

Mendeleev conceived of the periodic table in a dream; chemist Kekulé dreamed of a long serpent of carbon atoms, and upon waking, drew the structural formula of benzene...

The comb lingered at the tip of her hair. Hermione looked at herself in the mirror. The girl in the mirror had a puzzled look in her eyes, as if asking:

What exactly was that dream?

Is that knowledge actually true?

Monday, a busy week begins with elective courses.

This was especially true for Hermione.

Although she had much more free time after dropping out of the Muggle Studies, and no longer had to rush to three different classrooms in an hour for three different classes, Monday were still busy.

In the Great Hall, the young wizards finished their breakfast and left the tables in twos and threes, heading towards their respective classrooms.

"Hermione, did you stay up late again last night?" Loren looked around the girl's eyes, making sure there were no dark circles. "No, but why do you look so distracted?"

Hermione snapped out of her reverie, looked up at him, and paused. "I'll go to my Ancient Rune first, and we'll talk about it in the Divination Class."

After saying that, the girl picked up her schoolbag and ran away, her graceful figure disappearing around the corner of the corridor.

"Let's go, let's go to the North Tower for our Divination Class." Another Hermione suddenly appeared from behind and grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the tower.

"?"

Loren was filled with great confusion.

Hermione walked into the classroom carrying Ancient Rune textbook; Professor Babbling was already there.

The beautiful female professor had also changed into autumn clothes, but even in a thick professor's robe, she still exuded an elegant temperament. Unlike Professor McGonagall's solemn elegance, Professor Babbling wore the lady's magic robe with a touch of charm.

Like a vibrant and striking scene in late autumn, the moment Hermione saw her, she was reminded of Madam Rosmerta of Hogsmeade with her the Three Broomsticks. The two were different, yet somewhat similar.

Professor Babbling seemed to notice her too, looked up at her, and gave her a bright smile, "Oh, it's Hermione. Good morning."

Hermione nodded in return. "Good morning, Professor."

Professor Babbling's smile brightened even more, "Little Hermione, how about you help me collect some of my students' papers?"

Hermione stood there, expressionless, lost in deep thought—

When exactly did I become Professor Babbling's teaching assistant?

Reporting on teaching progress, providing feedback on teaching schedules, collecting assignments... Last weekend, this professor even asked me to help grade assignments!

Hermione was silent for a moment, but finally accepted the job.

One by one, the students entered the classroom and spontaneously handed their papers to Hermione. The papers eventually piled up into a thick stack next to the podium, becoming a makeshift bookshelf for Professor Babbling's lectures.

"We finished discussing Ancient Rune numerals last month. While explaining the numbers, we also learned about many Fantastic Beasts and their symbolic meanings in Runes, extending to some aspects of the culture. However, don't assume you've mastered numbers just because of this..."

"Runes is a profound and obscure language. It mixes Latin intones with the hidden meanings of hieroglyphs... Just like the number 9, it is not only a real number, but also a figurative one, with endless meanings, which is related to the characteristics of the Hydra."

Hermione's quill pen, which had been scribbling across her notebook, stopped moving. She looked up abruptly at the professor continuing his lecture on the stage, and for the first time, she felt an urge to take a nap in class.

Professor Babbling continued, "You will gradually come into contact with this knowledge in your future studies; it's too early for you now."

"..."

The Divination Classroom is located in the North Tower. Although it involves going up North Tower, the third-year students have already figured out all the stairs in the Castle, so they are not interesting and are even a bit boring.

Even more interesting is a Knight Painting. Usually, the frame only shows a chubby little gray zebra strolling on the grass, leisurely grazing on the grass painted on.

When the young wizard approaches to examine the pony closely and tries to tease it with his finger, a knight in armor will suddenly jump out, draw his sword, and berate the intruder for trespassing on its private territory. He might even charge at you—though he will fall halfway down the way.

But if a lost little wizard asks him for help, the knight will lead the little wizard on an expedition.

Ever since the knight's portrait was discovered, the young wizards have enjoyed playing this game during every Divination Class, and the knight has happily cooperated with them.

"Forward, esteemed gentlemen and ladies! Forward! Forward!"

The clanging of armor against armor continued incessantly, accompanied by the cheers of the young wizards.

Hermione, pulling Loren along behind the crowd, her small face tense, asked in a low, serious voice:

"Loren, have you ever heard of the Library in dreams?"

There's one more chapter coming, but it might be late, so I'm posting this as a heads-up.