"The accumulated library of Nicholas and I, we have a lot of preservation spells on the books and scrolls, and conditions are easier to control in the cave complex that Nicolas had the goblins dig for us." She opened the door at the base of this second set of stairs. "Clean your hands with a scourgify, dear."
Harry pulled his wand, "I'm not going to get in trouble for this, am I?"
"A scourgify? Of course not." Then she noticed his wand. "Mon Dieu(My God!)!"
"Tante Nell?"
"Ta baguette."
"My wand, what about it?"
"Puis-je l'examiner?(May I examine it?)"
Harry handed her the wand.
Perenelle was amazed. She had read legends of elemental wands and those that wielded them. The legends she had read compared them to wizards and witches that had to use a staff. Two hundred years ago when they had been in India she had learned a fair bit about them. She had even acquired a book about an Indian Princess that was a witch who used one.
Historically in addition to their bearers wielding great power, they had unusual cores. The one in her book had had a makara tail feather as a core. Wand lore said these wands enabled their users to harness not just the energies of life that all magicals used but the powers of the earth itself. The balancing stone was said to tie the wand to the mental needs of the user. The one documented in the book had been been bound in copper and set with a star sapphire. It had had runes in ancient Sanskrit. She wondered why Harry's was bound in silver. She mentally noted the many runes on the wand, and translated them mentally as she went: Fehu, aubundance and/or luck, Uruz, physical strength,Kenez, vision and/or creativity, Hagalaz, wrath of nature, Eihwaz, strength and endurance, Algiz, protection, Sowilo, life force and honor, Tiwaz, honor, justice and authority, Mannaz, intelligence of self and humanity, Laguz, life energy and renewal, Dagaz, awareness and change/transformation through force of will.
"C'est incroyable. Quel est le coeur?"(It's incredible. What is the core?)
Harry was puzzled for a moment. "Snow Phoenix," He found himself wanting to share something that only he and Cassandra knew, "Hedwig's, I think."
Perenelle suddenly understood his interest in the mythic creatures and knowing what had been in the Helegutas journals she suddenly understood his interest in Beltharion. "Do the spell now, s'il te plaît."(If you please.)
Harry took his wand back and a second later his hands were spelled clean. He followed Perenelle through the door and promptly gasped. Hogwarts was reputed to have the largest library of magical books in the world. But the library in front of him was easily twice if not three times its size. "Oh my…" he said almost reverently.
"Do you like my collection?" Perenelle asked with a smile. "No one but Nic and myself have ever seen the whole collection before. You are the first I have ever brought here, not even Albus has been here. Over half the collection was in storage while he was Nicolas' student. This vault was a gift to me for our 600th anniversary."
"It's amazing."
"Come I will show you. As I do, I wish to pass on the rules. No food and no drink in the vault, no live flame. Spells are set so that the vault illuminates when someone enters. If you need additional lighting please use lumos." She led him to a book that sat open on a lectern, with a capped ink bottle and a quill next to it. Next to the lectern there was a bin. "You grew up muggle and how do you find a book in a muggle library?"
"You use either the card catalog or a computer."
"Exactement.(Exactly) This is a magical equivalent. To find a book you write the author, title, or subject and it will tell you where to find it. The shelves are numbered. And we use something similar to the Dewey decimals to arrange the books. A third of the library is non-magical, those books follow the Dewey system. Feel free to explore the library and learn the magical equivalent. When you are finished studying with a book you place it in the bin. Spells will re-shelve it."
"That sounds better than Madame Pince. She always seems to begrudge helping us find books, and I think she resents having to re-shelve books too. Maybe you should send her the spells so she could apply them at Hogwarts."
"Je crois que c'est une question de degré. Les charmes pour le replacement des livres travaillent seulement si le plus de la collection est enplace. Je ne suis pas sûr qu'ils travailleraient pour la bibliothèque de Hogwarts." (I think it's a question of degree. the spells to replace the books only work if most the books are in place. I am not sure they would work in the Hogwarts library.)
Harry winced. He liked Tante Nell being willing to help him work on his French, but her tendency to bounce back and forth between French and English was frustrating. He worked his way through what she had said; crois as she'd used it must mean think. Her second sentence was completely beyond him so he said it back to her phrased as a question. "Les charmes pour le replacement des livres travaillent seulement si le plus de la collection est den place?"
....
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