Chapter 30: Library - Books’ Recovery

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

November 23rd, 1992, 1:28 PM

Selena was a woman on a mission.

During the morning, she had a long talk with her sister, Helena, about what she had found last night, more precisely, about Helena's Diadem. It was a pretty emotional talk between the sisters. Helena had told Selena, half millennia ago, that she had hidden her Diadem for posteriority before she was killed, but she had no idea that the boy that she had told her history decades before had found and corrupted one of her most prized possessions while living. Or even worse, that he had brought it back and hidden it inside the castle. She was devastated. Selena managed to calm her sister down telling her that Erik would fix it with the help of a friend.

Selena had had lunch with her sister wives, while Erik was still in the Headmaster's Office with guests. Almost as the lunch hour was ending, Erik arrived with Dumbledore. They were having a serious talk if the sound privacy barrier that she had felt around them had anything to say. After finishing their talk, Erik sat down to have some quick lunch and managed to put her and her sister wives on par with what had happened during the morning meeting. After that, he had gone to a staff meeting and asked her, Selena, to solve the library books problem.

Selena had some additional ideas for the library that she, as Rowena's daughter, had 'invented'. Well, it was not really her invention per se, but it was her invention that adapted the method to do it with magic and a lot of runes. A library index. A complicated spell that worked together with a lot of runes that indexed all of the content of a library for quick search of a subject. She had already implemented it in the family's personal library and in the Nexus' public library.

Selena, finishing her lunch, walks through the castle together with Leona and Joan and enters their chambers to retrieve some needed material. Some minutes later, she comes out holding a leather briefcase, and, accompanied by her sister wives, she walks to the castle's library. Arriving at the place she immediately walks to the adult in the library, assuming her to be the librarian.

"Good afternoon, are you, perhaps, the librarian?"

Selena asks the woman who had her eyes glued into a book's content. The woman looked up from the book, ready to give the person who was bothering her a glare, but stopped in the middle of it after recognizing who had talked to her.

"Good afternoon, Lady Ravenclaw. Yes, that would be me."

"Good. And your name?"

Selena asks again to the librarian.

"Irma Pince."

"Nice to meet you, Madam Pince. As you already know, my name is Selena Ravenclaw. These, with me, are Joan of Arc and Leona Da Vinci"

Selena greets and introduces herself to Madam Pince, for the sake of formality.

"Nice to meet you too, my Ladies. How can I help you?"

Madam Pince greets back and asks Selena.

"I need you to close the library early for the day. We will be doing some book recovery work and some intense spellwork here, and don't want to be distracted by the students."

Selena explains to Madam Pince, who slowly closes her book, and prepares to warn the students about the early closing of the library. Out of curiosity, and to make some small talk, she asks Selena about what kind of book recovery they would do.

"Lady Ravenclaw, what kind of method will you use to do the book recovery?"

As a librarian she knew a lot of methods that could be used to maintain a book and to recover it from light damage. Selena smiles at the librarian and replies, nonchalantly.

"The kind that summons back to the library every book that has the Hogwarts' Library stamp on it."

Irma Pince freezes in mid walk and slowly turns to Selena.

"Are you serious?"

She asks with wide eyes. Selena nods at the woman, confirming it.

"Yes, very. It's a function that was embedded into the library during its creation, by my mother, so no book could be lost, and all books could be 'called back' at the end of the year."

Selena explained to the librarian. Irma Pince was almost drooling at the idea of recovering all the library's lost books. Selena chuckled looking at the woman's face.

"It seems that you were not wise to this function."

Selena said. Madam Pince nodded.

"I have never read about it in any place."

Madam Pince said. Selena looked around the various bookshelves, and sighed at the vision of so many empty spaces in them.

*sigh*

"I am not impressed that you didn't know about it. I didn't see the Book of Records in your table or in its normal place. In it you would find the instructions about this function."

"The Book of Records?"

Madam Pince asked.

"Yes. The record book is a book that automatically records all the borrowed books with the student's name and date. Lucky us that it too has a Hogwarts' Library Stamp on it."

Selena explained. Madam Pince still had wide eyes and seemed frozen. All these years, she had been manually taking notes of all borrowed books from the library. But she was just human, and surely some students managed to take books without her noting it. At least most of them were brought back. Selena then snapped her fingers in front of the woman's face to wake her up from her daydreams. It worked. Madam Pince looked at Selena, as if asking 'what?'.

"The library, Madam Pince. We need to close it."

Selena explained. Madam Pince seemed to blush in shame remembering what she was going to do before the daydream, and tried to hide it quickly.

"Right, close the library. Sorry."

Selena held in a chuckle at the woman's visage, just like Joan and Leona. Madam Pince then walked to the entrance of the library and took her wand out.She first pointed it to a control by the doors' side that made the lights dim in and out, gathering attention from the students focused on reading. Madam Pince then points it to her throat and silently casts a sound amplifying charm. She proceeds to talk.

"Attention all students, the library will close in five minutes. Please grab all of your material and exit the library. Don't bother in borrowing any books, they will all be recalled back to the library. The motive for early closing is renovation. I repeat."

Madam Pince repeats the message two more times, and the students start to leave the library while talking rushedly with each other, some stopping to ask more about the early closing. One of them being a bush brown haired female student from Gryffindor, that looked like she would start a revolution because the library was closing early and her borrowed books would be 'called back, but the student seemed to relent when Madam Pince said that they would recall all books back, even the ones that were lost times ago, meaning more books available. Why the girl was a Gryffindor and not a Ravenclaw could be a mystery to her. But then, again, the hat took in consideration your strong assets and what you desired to become into consideration when sorting the house. So, if a girl with love for books and knowledge wanted to be more brave and courageous, she could be sorted into Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw.

As the last student exited, Madam Pince waved her wand and the doors to the library closed, showing a signal that read 'CLOSED' on it. She then made a quick round around the library to confirm that every student was out.

"Done, the library is empty of students."

Madam Pince said while she walked to Selena.

Selena gave her a nod and walked to where the librarian's desk was situated with the others following behind her. Arriving at it, she went to where a lonely and old empty lectern was situated by the desk's side. Selena went behind it and caressed the engraving in the wood that depicted the Hogwarts' shield with a book holding the big 'H' and the motto that read 'Scientia non solum in libris est'.

"Madam Pince, have you ever wondered why this lectern is located here, by the librarian's desk side?"

Selena asked the librarian, who shook her head.

"I always thought that it was for the reading of a special book. When some old and rare volume is borrowed to the school."

Selena nodded at the reply.

"You are right in part. It is indeed to hold a special book. The Book of Records to be more precise. See the engraving here?"

Selena asked Madam Pince, who walked around the lectern to take a better look at the engraving. She recognized it, of course.

"It is the library's shield, and holds the power to call back all the books that are owned by the library. If it is done once per year, the 'call' should not take more magic than you use to cast a lumos. I will do it this time because it has been a long time since the last 'call' and I will give a little of my magic to help the 'call'. Please, observe."

Selena explained and touched the library shield's engraving with the palm of both hands. She closed her eyes and intoned loudly.

"I, Selena Ravenclaw, by the powers invested upon me by the castle of Hogwarts as Lady Ravenclaw, call back all books belonging to this library, Scientia non solum in libris est."

As Selena finished chanting the library motto, the lectern made a sound of thousands of book's pages being flipped at the same time, and books started to appear in the empty places of the bookshelves.

"Oh… There are some books behind 'ok ish' wards."

Selena murmured and pumped magic into the lectern.

Around dozens of personal libraries, scattered through all the British Isles and some in the European continent, and some sebos, books started to disappear, setting off the alarms in some of the most 'secure' ones just to have them reappear in the bookshelves of Hogwarts' library, a place that they should have never been taken from without the thought to bring back. As Selene pumped more and more magic in the lectern, more and more books continued to appear. Under the lectern, in its own little bookshelf, a big red leather bound book had appeared too. After some seconds had passed without any more books appearing, Selena took her hands from the lectern and opened her eyes, smiling at the vision of a now really full library. There were so many books that all the bookshelves were full, and some of the tables in the center of the library had books piled on it.

"We will need to add more bookshelves~."

Selena commented and looked back at Madam Pince, who had some tears forming by her eyes' corners.

"So many books…"

Madam Pince said while taking one hand to her mouth.

"Here."

Selena spoke, drawing the attention from Madam Pince to her, and picked the big red leather bound book from the little bookshelf under the lectern. She showed the front cover to Madam Pince, who could read on it, written in golden letters engraved into the red leather cover, 'Hogwarts' Library: Book of Records'. Selena then put the book on the lectern and opened it to it's first page, calling Madam Pince closer, to her side.

"The first pages contain the instructions of how to use the functions of the Book of Records. I suggest that you read it carefully later."

Selena said, pointing the first pages from the book to Madam Pince. She then flipped the pages to the next ones, just after the instructions, that showed a list of names on it. Some of the names were written in dark green ink, while others were in grey ink. The first four names, all in grey ink, got Madam Pince attention when she read them.

'Rowena Ravenclaw - Founder/Owner

Helga Hufflepuff - Founder/Owner

Salazar Slytherin - Founder/Owner

Godric Gryffindor - Founder/Owner'

Under the four founder's names were three more greyed names, followed by two that were the firsts in dark green ink.

'Selena Ravenclaw - Heir/Owner

Erik Ravenclaw - Heir/Owner'

Madam Pince noted the difference, and just above Selena's name, she read the greyed name of her sister.

'Helena Ravenclaw - Heir'

"These are…?"

Madam Pince said, expectating that Selena continued the phrase for her. She didn't disappoint the curious librarian.

"These are the names of all people who once had or have access to the library's functions. Here."

Selena said and flipped through some more pages, which were full of grey names, and stopped at the last name in the long list, which was in dark green ink, and pointed it to Madam Pince, who read and recognized it.

'Irma Pince - Librarian'

"It's my name. And above it is my predecessor's name."

The librarian said. Some names above, she noticed another pair of names that she recognized very well, the first of the two was in grey ink, the second was in dark green ink.

'Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster

Minerva McGonagall - Deputy-Headmaster'

With that she noted the pattern of the book too, but Selena explained it anyway.

"The names in grey ink are from people who once had access to the library's functions, the names in dark green ink are from people who still have it. The names are automatically updated by the school itself, so there's no need for manual input."

Selena then, again, looked at the various books which were piled on the tables and called for a house-elf.

"A house-elf, please."

*pop*

"How can Parchy help Lady Selena?"

With a soft pop, an old looking female house-elf appeared by Selena's side. Selena looked at the old looking house-elf and asked.

"Hello Parchy. Does Hogwarts still have house-elves specialized in carpentry?"

"It does, Lady Selena. Woody and Nally are the best."

The house-elf, Parchy, answered Selena.

"And I suppose that you are part of the library team?"

"Yes, Lady Selena. Parchy and Wordy are the library team."

Selena asked again and the house-elf replied.

"Good, I need two things from you. First, I need you to talk with one of the house-elves carpenters and ask him for a new dozen bookshelves for the library. The standard enchantments on it, and to prioritize two of them. We can't have all these books off their shelves. Second, as you can notice, we recalled a lot of 'lost' books back to the library, so I need you and your partner to check all of them and restore any damaged parts as well as possible."

The old house-elf looked at the now full library and got all excited.

"Oh! So many books back! I will start right now, Lady Selena."

*pop*

And it popped out.

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