Library adventures Pv Cyrus Closed

Athena jumped as someone poked her back. She had intended to watch the entrance, but had instead gotten swept into the book she was reading. When she now twisted around to see who had interrupted her, she saw Cyrus. He giggled and Athena automatically started smiling.
"Hello, Athena. You look somewhat gone from this world, what are you reading?" he asked.
Athena closed the book, keeping her thumb between the pages as a bookmark, and took a quick glance at the titel. It read: "Muggle paradoxes, and how they can be solved by magic".
She lifted the cover so Cyrus could read the words.
"Actually quite interesting." she said. "Magic reallly solves a lot of problems, though some of these so called solutions are a bit weak. But I have always been facinated by paradoxes!" She stood up, looking for something to keep as a bookmark, since she intended to bring this book back to her dormitory, even though she already had a big pile of books piling up on her bedside table. She found a note on the ground with some strange symbols on the ground, that she guessed were aincent runes, so she picked it up and put it between the pages. Then she looked up at Cyrus.
"So, were should we begin, there is a lot to explore at Hogwarts. i really think you could spend multiple weeks only in this library and not be bored a single moment! Athena was practically beaming, this library was almost perfect, she just had to find some normal fantasy novels, and then she would be all set.

Athena also liked fantasy. If she found a book series she loved she would not be able to think about anything else for a while. And some stuff lasted even longer than that, and she would be nerdy about it forever.

When Cyrus started talking about the magic and muggle laws cooperating she became very silent. She had to concentrate hard on his word to keep up with his fast talking, but she thought she picked up on most on it. She nodded thoughtfully, not feeling equipped to answer any of his question, but nonetheless wanting them answered herself.

Cyrus broke her thoughts by asking her a question she could answer.
"Maybe we should... explore the dungeons? Or look for secret passages?" he said. Athena felt excited, she had wanted to explore the castle, but being scared of doing it alone. It was a bif risk of getting lost, and she didn't have a great sense of direction.
"Do you think there is any secret passages here in the library? Maybe there is some secret way to the restricted section?" The thought thrilled her, even though she wasscared of breaking the rules. but just borrowing one book from there and then putting it back wouldn't do any harm. She wondered what kind of books were there. Probably dark magic and such, but she could handle that. It was just to learn more about the wizarding world, and she needed different perspectives to understand it properly, right!

Athena thought about Cyrus question about dark magic. She had thought a bit about this before, but had never talked about it, since her parents, especially her mom who was a witch, didn't think it was an appropriate subject to talk about at dinner. Her father, who was a muggle and thought magic was really cool, would probably love to talk about it. But now Athena could finally talk with someone about it and also get a well thought through response, which wa a big plus.
"I don't really understand why we divide magic into good and bad. You could, if you think about it, use dark magic to do good, and spells that aren't classified as bad could also do a lot of damage. I would say that for example Bombarda is worse than the Killing Curse in some ways, since it hurts a lot more to be killed by an explosion than by the killing curse. But Bombada also has ways where you can use it to do good. And I think that we wizards having access to "dark magic" in itself doesn't make us more agressive, but the fact that hexing and cursing eachother seems like quite a normal part of hogwarts and you can get away with more here than in muggle schools." Athena laughed. That was quite a rant, I realise now, I have just not have an oppertunity to talk about any of this before.

Cyrus then started walking deeper into the library. Athena hadn't gone very deep in there before, since there was so much great books everywhere, she hadn't feel the need to, but now she felt the excitement bubbling inside her. She was really curious now. She followed him quickly and looked at the shelves as she walked. She didn't know where to look, there were so many shelves and they were so high she got a bit dizzy. But it still felt great, and it somehow smelled like library. She felt safe walking in the library with Cyrus, and he was also great talking to, asking great and relevant questions.

Cyrus wandered around the books, looking up and down. Some caught his attention, but he'd forget about them later anyway. Then his eyes caught a flash of "Voldemort's Return", and he had an idea. He swirled around, surprising Athena.

"What do you think of Voldemort? Harry Potter? They're both very controversial nowadays." He was curious what she thought, really. He hadn't ever talked about this with anybody, as it was a somewhat avoided subject. "Also, what do you think of trying to be immortal? You know, one of my wishes would be to become omnipotent, so I could create worlds and watch them grow and evolve and *live*. Being omnipotent would be incredible, right? I think most people fear living forever because they're scared of change. Or they're scared of ending up alone for all of eternity. I kind of empathize with Voldermort's fear, I won't lie. I really don't want to die."

Cyrus paused. "Cuz, you know, life is great? So lively and... full, colorful, and interesting. Losing that, not being able to explore all that there is and instead falling into the void and stopping existence as we know it seems really sad, when there's all this life behind."

"Although I don't think Voldermort wanted to be immortal for the same reason as me, really." He chuckled again.

"What do you think of Voldemort? Harry Potter? They're both very controversial nowadays." Cyrus asked. Athena got a bit taken aback by the question anf ifnally looked away from the books. Her family didn't talk about it a lot, so she hadn't thought about it. And trying to be immortal?
"I don't know, I haven't thought about Harry Potter and Voldemort a lot. Last rhing I read about him, there was some problem in the ministry that was about him. But I guess he is a hero or something. But there are so many heroes, and there is most definantly people who are kinder and less self absorbed than him, but they don't get recognision, because they haven't killed Voldemort. And even though you were a good person 20 years ago does not mean that you are that now. And immortality... being omnipotent sounds very cool now that you are explaining it, that's probably what most of the computer games I play are about too. But if I were just a normal person I wouldn't want to live forever. I think life would be boring after some time. And if it didn't get boring you would have to live through the sun exploding and then be left in space for an eternity. So I think I would pass on that, but I understand that it sounds compelling." Athena finally finished by taking a huge gulp of air. then she realised that she had one more point.

"And we don't know what happens after death, so it must not be just a dark void, or nothing at all. I have no idea what happens after death, but I try to tell myself that something will happen in order to not be scared of it." She finsihed and looked at Cyrus. The conversation had turned really dark really quickly, and she hadn't meant it. But she didn't know what to say to get it back on track.

Cyrus raised an eyebrow at some of her statements. "Yeah, but that's where magic comes in. Magic exists, and magic allows... many things. You know what I mean? I don't think it's impossible that there's a way to cycle through time eternally if immortal, to change the universe's fate, to switch to another universe, really. The only limit we put on it is the limit of our own imagination and power."

"And, well, thinking about it, imagination and change don't amount to much in the wizard lifestyle. We're using spells that are millennia old and that haven't been changed. Once. Although I can understand why, since such massive change to an entire society wouldn't be very productive or truly change anything, if executed badly. But still... we're not even taught how magic works here, or how to craft our own spells. There's a serious limitation to progress around here." Cyrus paused, and turned a corner.

Looking at the library around him, the ancient books, the castle, the people. "Muggles have done more without magic than we ever have with magic. No use, no creativity, no progress." Cyrus patted some books on the back. "What about you Athena, what do you want to be? What are your dreams?"

Athena listened to Cyrus. She wasn't sure that she agreed, but she just nodded. She had said her opinion, and didn't have anything else to add to the conversation. Also, it wasn't that long since she met Cyrus for the first time, and she had pretty conflict scared tendencies. Not like she thought that Cyrus was the type to start arguing over philosophical questions in the middle of the library, but anyways.

She agreed that they didn't have a lot of space for creativity in the school, even though there were so many possibilities with magic.
"Yeah, even though the wizards have magic, the muggles are soooooo far ahead. I think it's both that wizards don't learn to use their imagination a lot, and also that they have to use a lot of energy and resources to keep hidden from the muggles.

The last question was hard. What she wanted to be? She didn't even know if she wanted to work in the wizarding world or with muggles. But she had thought about a lot of different proffesions.
"I don't know, but by going to Hogwarts it's like forcing me to choose a job in the wizarding world. if I wanted to get a job in the muggle world where you need a lot of education, I would have a lot of catching up to do. Here in the magical world there are actually not a lot of options, especially if you don't want to work for the ministry. But I would like to work either with arithmancy or maybe inventing things and trying to modernisethe wizarding world. Maybe find a way to make electronics compatible with magic. Just thing about the possibilities then! What would you like to do after Hogwarts Cyrus?"