Chapter 24: The Notebook

Fred and George were throwing pieces of paper across the table to the annoyance of Percy. The bookish Weasley quickly excused himself to go to another table after his complaints fell to the twins' deaf ears. Simon and Cedric politely bade Percy goodbye and continued to finish their potions assignment.

"I am surprised Percy even sat with us, to begin with," Cedric mused out loud.

"Well, Fred and George had been doing very well so far in terms of grades and stuff…Percy probably thought they turned a new leaf or something," Simon shrugged.

Honestly, Percy did not seem as annoying as in the books. Yes, he cared a lot about his studies and was not a fan of Fred and George's ongoing "Parent Trap" style switcheroo prank war. But he definitely seemed to care about his siblings. Simon wondered if his family's influence on the twins, i.e. making them somewhat less rambunctious, made Percy a bit more willing to try and connect with the twins than in canon. Although the twins were not making it easy, as they were making a mess in the library in front of Percy.

Usually the twins were a bit more controlled in the library when Phoebe studies with them. When the girl had a deadline to meet, you could feel this focused 'don't mess with me' energy exude from her small frame. She may have even used a levitation charm to whack Fred with a book once when he started chatting loudly with his brother. Sometimes, Simon wondered if the twins purposely study around her to force themselves to finish their work quickly so they had more time to do pranks.

However, with Phoebe suddenly gone to support Row at her Frog Choir audition, the twins had fallen back to their old ways.

"You know you could always go back to the Ravenclaw common room to finish your work, since your brother seems to be causing you quite a bit of a distraction," Cedric said to George, who was now building a fort with his textbooks to protect himself from Fred's attacks.

"Nah, if I go back, Sharon's going to keep trying to talk to me again! Ask Simon, she is literally 10 times the distraction Fred is!"

Simon nodded at this comment. Since that one kitchen visit, Sharon seemed to think she was best friends with George and him, interrupting their study sessions in the Ravenclaw common room all the time. Since Sharon appeared to favour the resources of the Ravenclaw common room's private library, the Hogwarts library had become the prime group study spot for Simon and George.

"And…I'm done," Simon grinned, flicking his wand to cast a spell to speed up the drying of his ink. Lord Lian's *"Kuai Gan"* spell was truly a lifesaver in this world where people did not use pens!

"Do you mind staying around a bit longer? One more round with Fred and I will get on this essay! We can grab dinner together at the Great Hall afterwards," George muttered as Simon began packing his bags.

"Sure, I'll just look around the library for a bit."

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Simon found himself drawn to the section about the Great Lake. Honestly, he was not sure why he should bother checking these shelves – it was mid-November already and he had accessed all the books about the Great Lake from the Room of Requirement and the Ravenclaw common room. Actually, most of the Ravenclaws in his year had read the two books about the Great Lake in the common room after the Halloween horror show. Regardless of their respective grades, they were all definitely a curious bunch. The first week after Halloween, Simon and his roommates would often bounce theories around before bed about why Brunt's eyes turned white. Simon was sure the girls did the same in their room. However, the two books only focused on the lake's marine biology and did not glean any information that could explain the phenomena. The books from the Room of Requirement also did not provide much more information. It had gotten to the point where Simon even began reading some books on mermish. Maybe knowing the language, he could converse with the merpeople colony living in the lake to learn more. Anyways, he had begun taking notes of what he knew so far and was going to consult Lord Lian later this week to get some advice.

Simon scanned the books on the shelves, his eyes moving quickly across the titles that have now all become familiar to him. Suddenly, his gaze fell on an old musty notebook peeking out between two mermish textbooks. Upon a closer inspection, Simon noticed a thin silver chain around the notebook. Simon recalled the words in the Room of Requirement's library search functions: *"I have ensured that a copy of every unwarded book that has passed through Hogwarts may be accessed in this room."* That would explain why he never saw this notebook from his research in the Room.

Noticing he was alone in this aisle with nobody watching him, Simon pulled out his shrunken suitcase from his pocket. With a simple *accio*, he tossed the warded notebook into the suitcase. If *Harry Potter and the Chambers of Secrets* had taught him anything, it was to never touch dog-eared notebooks in the Wizarding World!