Lost in the shelves Open Closed

Colin sat listening to Shiawase's lecture on, how did she say it? Ecka lecktri keys? No, that wasn't it. Ah, Elektra City! That was it. Must be some kind of ancient Greek magic --- Elektra was one of their goddesses. He looked across to Harper to see if she understood any of this.

Colin felt hopeless.

And then Shiawase began to draw pictures. Usually pictures helped a lot, but these looked like complicated wand motions! She had little lines and arrows and everything! Colin took out his wand and tried to follow the little arrows. Maybe he could make some of this lexitrickity himself! That would be brilliant! Though he didn't really fancy the idea of standing under a kite in a thunderstorm.

"So ..." he began when the lecture was done; "this Benjamin fellow was a wizard a long time ago and he stood out in a thunderstorm --- which sounds daft to me, he could have gotten himself zapped to death out there! --- and found some place called Elektra City, which sounds Greek to me. And then there's a key? And the leckitrixicy goes into your chair with wheels and makes it move!"

"Brilliant!" He leaned over towards Harper and whispered: "Did any of that make sense to you? I feel so dumb!"

Turning back to Shiawase, he said: "But, Shiawase, that's ... just ... well, magic! I thought muggles didn't have actual magic?"

At last, she returned to books, which made Colin feel much more comfortable. And then she mentioned rabbit holes, which made Colin's stomach growl with hunger. "Rabbit! ... Mmmm." He wasn't even surprised that the thought of a nice juicy rabbit hopped across his mind! He began to blush all over again! "Oops! Never mind that!"

As Shiawase turned her chair with wheels and headed away, Colin stood up. He turned back to Harper and shrugged: "I'm going to see where the muggle books are. Do you want to go along?"

@Shiawase Mamori || @Harper Jordan

Harper listened to their conversation. She didn't really contribute much as she didn't want to interrupt them, but she did nod a little to show she was listening to the two talk. After a moment, Shiawase had left, and Harper was left standing next to Colin. He then asked her if she wanted to go with him to find the muggle books. With that, she simply nodded and then smiled at him.

"Sure! That sounds like it could be fun!" She had simply stated as she looked around. She wasn't exactly sure where they would even be at. The library was huge and to be honest, it kind of overwhelmed her. It seemed to her that the bookshelves went on forever and that there was no end. She spoke to Colin again, figuring he may or may not have a better idea of where the muggle books were at. "I don't know where anything is at in this gigantic library yet. So I will follow you."

She hoped that he at least knew a little bit of where he was going. If not though, then they would just have to find the books together. Then, if they still struggled then there were professors and librarians that probably knew this library like the back of their hand. So, if in doubt, they could always ask one of them.

@Colin McCoire

Shiawase's eyes went wide for a moment as Colin very incorrectly reiterated what she was trying to say. How . . . ? What . . . ? She must have explained it wrong. Very very wrong. How could she have explained things so badly?! She pursed her lips.

"I'm sorry for confusing you. It's electricity, not Electra City. It's not . . . a place. It's a . . . phenomenon. It's a force. It's . . . how do I explain? Hmmm. It's like . . gravity. Gravity is the invisible force that keeps us on the ground instead of floating in the air. It's the thing that keeps you on your broomstick when you fly, and the thing that causes you to fall off of it. It's . . . an invisible force. A natural phenomenon. Electricity is also just, a force. A phenomenon. The key was part of the experiment Benjamin Franklin did . . . but there isn't a key in every object that uses electricity. It's . . . man. I really wish I could just show you what I mean! But you're right, the electricity can be used to make a power wheelchair move. But the chair I'm currently using isn't electric, it's . . . manual. I move it with my own hands and arms. But the wheelchair I will need at home will need electricity so it can tilt itself, so I don't need someone else to do it for me. I think I overcomplicated this. I'm sorry. The point is that electricity is an invisible thing you can use to power all sorts of machines that do all kinds of things. Is the . . . overall . . . thesis I was going for . . . . "

Well, on the bright side, Shiawase eliminated one possibility of a career for herself in the future: teaching. She certainly wasn't cut out for it. Then Colin said that it was just magic and Shiawase shook her head.

"No, no. That's not magic. It's science. Although . . . science and magic can seem remarkably similar when you don't know the process behind it. All of science is just someone seeing a thing and going, 'What's that?' Or asking, 'Why does that work like that?' It's . . . like herbs. In herbology, you know? The herbs were already there. But we humans were like, 'What are these? What can they do? How can they be useful?' So we started trying them out, right? That's the same principles of science - we just discovered and expanded on different things, asking the same questions."

She then smiled a little bashfully. When he mentioned rabbit and his stomach growled. Her own stomach may have let out a slight growl, too. She got so caught up in reading that she'd forgotten to eat!

"Hungry, Colin? We'll pick up your books and go to the Great Hall straight away after this."

She then wheeled ahead to show them where the Muggle section of the library was. When she got there, she wheeled a little bit further ahead to make space for her comrades in front of the shelves, then turned around.

"This. Is the Muggle section of the library. I admit, I haven't been here much. I know more about my world than a lot of these books could tell me. You'll have to tell me whether you see what you're looking for. I can't exactly reach as high or see as high up as either of you, you know." She offered a smile.

@Harper Jordan | @Colin McCoire

Colin cocked his head as she switched from lickatrackity to gravity. "Oh! Gravity! Sure --- that's what pushes us down to the ground. And you're right, it's pain in the bum when it pushes you off your broom! But I'll bet Old Benjamin knew about gravity too, when he went off to get some of that trickyliexity stuff!" He nodded sagely. "Hmm. You know what, Shia. What you're saying makes so much sense now that I think about it! Like, when he was out in the storm, which I still think was daft, the gravity in the clouds pushed all that leckistrickity down to his key. Brilliant! And then all he had to do was put his all acktetrick key into some machine, wind it up and away it would go. Huh! Muggles really are clever! They've got magic, and they don't even know they've got magic!"

Then Shia described the difference between her wheelie machines --- twas brilliant the way she had different machines for each different need! "That makes sense too! I can't imagine you'd want to have to bring that lacktrix wheelie machine here to Hogwarts. I don't see how all that forest of bat trees would fit through the door!"

And then Shia said something that really didn't make any sense at all. Colin looked over to Harper again to see if she was getting it or not. "But --- just when I thought I was understanding you, Shia. What do you mean it's science and not magic? It's obviously both, right? I mean, what is science but the study of of things. Things like herbs and stronomy and mundane forces like lexitrickimi and magical forces, too! How can something be sciency and not magical? Er --- no. I mean the other way around! How can something magical not be scientifical?"

And then it happened again! "Hungry, Colin?" she said.

His eyes widened with fear and he tensed up suddenly. She KNOWS something! She has to. He wracked his brain to try and remember if he'd said anything damaging on the train or in any classes.

He muttered to himself: "How does she KNOW? Oh, I'm so doomed!"

But fortunately, Shiawase didn't take any notice of his reaction --- or at least she didn't seem to! She turned and wheeled off towards the muggle book section of the Library. The thought of that shoved his worries about his, um, condition right out of his head. He was really excited to read more of the kinds of muggle books they had at home.

Colin smiled as Shia sped away, then shot up out of his chair! She's getting away! "Come on Harper! We'd better hurry up! If you're following me, I'd better follow Shia! I don't care if it is manual and not lecky trick. She's too fast on that wheelie machine of hers! And this Library's too big --- we'll be lost if we don't catch up!" So Colin turned and took off after the receding figure of Junior Master Librarian Mamori.

Harper understood what Shiawase was saying. She was a half-blood and had lived in the Muggle world as well. Her father was a wizard, but her mother was not. So, she thought it was cool how she sort of got a foot in both worlds. So, she knew what wheelchairs were and found it interesting that Colin did not. She thought that it was common knowledge to know? But, seeing this situation unfold before her, obviously it wasn't.

Harper listened to the two talk, and was glad to hear that Colin wanted to learn more about the Muggle world. It was quite interesting and quite different than the Wizarding World. She knew that for sure. As Shiawase quickly moved on to show them the Muggle books Harper hesitated before following. Mostly, because she already knew what it was like to live in that world because she had all the way up to the point that she was admitted to Hogwarts.

She hadn't budged until Colin had spoken aloud to her telling her to quickly come along. Suddenly, she jumped, realizing she hadn't actually moved from where she was standing. She nodded to Colin and then spoke aloud to him.

"Right! How silly of me! Let's go!" She stated with a smile before quickly following after Shiawase. She was interested to see what Muggle books the library had. She didn't need the knowledge herself, but she understood why others might need it.

As she listened to the two of them talking she thumbed through the books that were beside her on the shelves. They had everything a witch or wizard would need when it came to Muggle knowledge. Harper was definitely surprised by the giant collection of Muggle books Hogwarts seemed to have. There were even books on things she, herself wasn't familiar with.

@Shiawase Mamori @Colin McCoire

As Colin seemed to make progress in understanding electricity, Shiawase was about to open her mouth to correct him again, but this time, she stopped herself. He was close enough, wasn't he? Maybe it was best to let this one go for a bit. Besides, her explanations seemed only to confuse him more. It would be better for him to pursue knowledge on his own at this point.

So, she smiled and said, "Good. And you're right. Electric wheelchairs are huge."

Then Colin asked her to clarify what she meant about it being science and not magic and started asking how something could be magical and not scientifical. She shook her head.

"I meant that things can be scientific without being magic, not necessarily the other way around. It's like, not every single plant has some magical property, right? At least . . . the grass on the grounds doesn't have anything magical about it . . . does it? I mean, it didn't seem magical in any way . . . point is that, even in the wizarding world, there are things that aren't inherently magical, right? Like, dirt isn't inherently magical? And yet, studying that not magical grass or not magical dirt or whatever is still science. It's just science without magic. And what you can do with that knowledge is probably incredible. Wondrous even. But it's still not magic."

And after she wheeled off, Shiawase . . . didn't even seem to notice that Harper and Colin had struggled to catch up with her as she scanned the shelves.

"Let's see . . . let's see . . . ." She was hoping to find some books about video games on top of her search for books on electricity, only to find that there really kind of weren't any. Unfortunate. She was hoping to find an art book or something so she could finally show Colin the truth about them, and how beautiful some of them were. Oh, well. But she did find other things she was looking for. Encyclopedias. The most fundamental of starting points! But she couldn't reach them . . . hmmm.

"There!" she declared as she pointed at one. "This should tell you more about the world I'm from, as well as electricity in general! But, well, one of you will have to grab it. I can't exactly reach it from down here. And there!" She pointed at a dictionary. "That should also be helpful in understanding things."

@Colin McCoire

@Harper Jordan