33 Chapter 33: Board Meeting - part 1

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

November 23rd, 1992, 7:25 PM

Erik was just finishing assembling the last search station in the lectern built by the house-elves. He had already put the linking crystalline cube in place, together with its linked monitor and keyboard, and was now applying the keyed semi-permanent sticking charms to them, securing everything in place.

Having finished, Erik passed the new assembled station to Selena, who linked it to the index.

He was watching her finish the linking of the last station when a pair of arms embraced him from behind and he felt Leona's big pair of boobs on his back. He didn't say anything about it, just enjoying her touch.

Selena linked the last Index search station and retrieved a fountain pen and a notepad from inside the briefcase. Both of the items were enchanted ones. The fountain pen had an internal infinite well of ink, and the pen itself was enchanted to reappear in its designed place if taken more than half a meter from it. The notepad was an enchanted one that provided infinite pages, and they would disappear if the paper was crumpled. The paper on it was not the normal parchment used by wizards, it was normal paper. The notepad was fixated in an indentation by the side of the embedded monitor of the search station with a keyed semi-permanent sticking charm. The fountain pen designed place was a carved hole a little above the notepad that was lacquered with metal that let the fountain pen stay in position ready to be used. Both of them were to be used by the students to note down the name and location of the searched books. They, together with their enchantments, were the perfect combo for the search stations.

With the last Index search station ready, it was moved to its desired position and fixated on the floor. Fifteen of the Index search stations were positioned and fixed near the entrance of the library.

"And that's done."

Selena announced. Madam Pince was inspecting the stations with curiosity. She had learned about them from the Index manual.

"Lady Ravenclaw, could you go through the usage of the stations with me, please? I want to make some written instructions on how to use them for the students and have them fixated on the lecterns."

"Sure."

Selena said to Madam Pince, and walked to the station where the librarian was.

"The ideal use of the Index search stations is as follows: the student will enter the library and approach one station; he will then type the subject to be searched about using the keyboard and press the 'enter' key; the monitor will then show the results for his search; The student will take the fountain pen and note down the book name and location inside the library in one page of the notebook; after noting it down, he will then tear the page out of the notebook and use it to search for the book; after locating the book, the student can just crumple the paper in his hand and the paper will disappear. You don't have to care about the fountain pen, it is enchanted to reappear back in its resting place if taken too far from it."

Selena explained, going through the motions she was talking about, without really doing a search because the system was still not ready. The last steps she demonstrated by writing her name on a page using the provided fountain pen and tearing the page of the notepad. Selena then proceeded to crumple the piece of paper she had just torn and showed it to Madam Pince as the crumpled paper disappeared in her hand. She then demonstrated the part about the fountain pen by holding it in her hand and stepping away from the Index search station, and as the pen went beyond the half a meter from it, it disappeared from Selena's hand and reappeared in its resting place on the Index search station.

"That's ingenious. The way the paper disappears when crumpled and how the fountain pen reappears on the station. It will null the parchment usage and the need to replace the fountain pen."

Madam Pince said after Selena's demonstration. Selena agreed with the librarian, nodding at her comment.

"Come on, Madam Pince. We have to talk with all the Professors if we want to reopen the library tomorrow."

Selena spoke to Madam Pince, who then checked the time with a quick 'tempus' charm.

"At this time, we can find most of them having dinner in the Great Hall. Those who we can't find there, we can send a message with a house-elf."

Madam Pince said, waiting to follow Selena out of the library.

Selena walked to Erik and took one of his arms.

"Let's go to the Great Hall."

Erik just gave a nod to Selena and felt Leona taking his other arm. Then, with Leona and Selena occupying one arm each and with Joan and Madam Pince following, he exited the Library and walked to the Great Hall.

Two minutes later, the group was entering the Great Hall. It was still full of students having dinner. The group walked between the tables and reached the staff's table.

"Madam Pince, do you want to give them the news?"

Selena asked Madam Pince, who nodded and walked to the front to give the staff the news.

"I will enhance the sound coming from your mouth so that the entire Great Hall can listen too."

Selena waved her hand and gave a 'go ahead' nod to Madam Pince.

"Hogwarts' staff and student body, this afternoon, while Lord Ravenclaw was conducting the meeting with the staff, Lady Ravenclaw went to the library and presented to me some of the forgotten functions from the Hogwarts' library."

Madam Pince spoke and made a dramatic pause. She could see that the staff was enthralled by her words and she had managed to get the attention of almost all students present. Madam Pince then continued.

"One of these functions is the Book of Records. It automatically records the name of all books being borrowed together with the name of the student that borrowed it and the date. That function alone was already marvelous for the library, but the thing is that the Book of Records itself was missing."

Madam Pince made another dramatic pause before continuing.

"It was then that Lady Ravenclaw presented to me a second function of the Hogwarts' library, and it was because of that function that we had to close the library for the rest of the day. The function had the ability to 'call' ALL books that were part of the library's collection. No matter where they were in the world, if the book had Hogwarts' library mark, it would be called back 'home'."

Most students from Ravenclaw's table were almost jumping in their seats, just like some students from other tables. They were visibly excited with the result of the announced function.

"After the students had left the library, we proceeded to 'call' back the books. And after having finished it successfully, we managed to call more than five thousand books back 'home'."

After hearing that enormous number, the Great Hall exploded in cheers. The quiet and proper Ravenclaw's table was the one doing most of the noise. It was so tremendous that it could be compared to when Gryffindor won the house' cup. Let the Ravenclaws party when the subject is more books, because that they could do. Madam Pince had to wait for the noise to subside to continue.

"With so many books back in the library, we had to expand and re-sort the books in their bookshelves to their specific sections. Lady Ravenclaw also took the opportunity to install a new system in the library that will facilitate students, and staff, to search for any desired subject inside the library. She said to me that muggleborn and muggle-raised students could recognise the system because it is already being used in a lot of public libraries around the world. Just that while they do it using their technology, we do it using magic. So, tomorrow, when the library reopens, you all will find it different. Thank you for your attention."

Madam Pince finished and the Great Hall, again, erupted in cheers from the interested ones, which meant mainly the Ravenclaw's table. Selena waved her hand again and said to Madam Pince.

"Great speech. Your voice is back to normal."

Madam Pince gave Selena a smile and took an empty glass from the staff's table and served her some water from a pitcher. She was not a very talkative person, and her throat was parched. While she drank her water, Selena addressed the staff.

"The thing that we will need now from all Professors and teachers, is that you go through all the books from your disciplines and sort them in five diferent categories…"

Selena then explained to all the Professors and Teachers what were the categories and what kind of knowledge was expected to be found in each one.

"Lady Ravenclaw, how many books does the library have now?"

Asked the head of house Ravenclaw, Professor Flitwick.

"A little more than sixteen thousand books."

Selena replied and Professor Flitwick gave a 'squeak' and almost fell out of his chair.

"That's a lot of books to go through."

Professor Sprout commented.

"Yes, but don't worry too much, you will only have to go through the books that pertain to the discipline that you are teaching. If we take the sixteen thousand books and divide them between the twelve main disciplines taught right now in the school, each Professor and teacher will have to go through about a thousand and three hundred books. But since there are more than twelve sections in the library now, I calculate that you will have to go through about eight hundred books each. And taking the number of repeated titles, that number will have to drop by half at least. So, this takes us to about four hundred books each. Ah, and you don't have to move the books to the restricted and prohibited sections, the system is set in a way that it will recognize your voice when you choose the level of a book and it will transport it automatically to its place together with its duplicates."

Selena explained to the staff. She then complimented.

"From what I could see, the biggest collection is the Defense Against the Dark Arts section; it had at least double the number of books than the second biggest collection. That's because it contains books for Dark Arts too."

Selena commented.

"I will help sorting the Defense section as soon as I finish with the Potions one."

Professor Snape commented. Seeing that he could very well assume that Office next year, he decided to help sort its material. Professor Flitwick offered his help too.

"I will help Professor Snape with it as soon as I finish the Magical Theory and Charms sections."

"Thank you for your help, Professors. The unsorted sections will be barred from students for the time being. That way we can avoid accidents from happening."

Selena said. As she was speaking, Selena, together with Erik, Hagrid and Professor McGonagall felt the wards alerting them about the arrival of visitors to the main gate.

"And it seems that the members of the Board of Governors have arrived for their last meeting…"

Erik made a backhanded comment to the staff. Most of the staff's faces went into a bloodthirsty grin with that comment. They knew that heads would roll in this meeting, metaphorically speaking, of course, not literally… Maybe? They could only hope, after all.

"Hagrid, could you guide the guests to the meeting room assigned for them on the first floor?"

"Of course, Lord Ravenclaw. I would love to guide them."

Erik asked Hagrid, and the big man accepted it with an almost maniacal grin on his face. The Board of Governors had tried more than one time to fire him without any base for the action. He only managed to keep his position because, at the time, Professor Dumbledore refused to let go of him. Hagrid stood up and, with large steps, walked out of the Great Hall.

"If you all would excuse us, we have a meeting to attend."

Erik excused himself to the staff, and walked out of the Great Hall accompanied by Selena, Joan and Leona. The group soon reached the designated meeting room and entered it. Inside they encountered tables disposed in the shape of a circle with chairs behind each one. It seemed that the house-elves had already organized the place. Besides the twelve desks and chairs, one for each member of the Board, there was a larger desk with two chairs behind it, each one with high backs and the Hogwarts' shield in the top. On the desk a tea set was present exclusively to it, where a tea set was present in between tables in the rest of the room. Erik smiled at that. The Hogwarts' house-elves really liked to pamper them.

"Joan, please keep guard outside the door."

Erik asked Joan, who nodded at the request.

"Ah, and be sure to 'wear' your mean face."

Erik spoke, looking at Joan and giving her an evil smirk. Joan answered the evil smirk with one of her own, and her armor shined a white light. There were no visible changes in the armor, but her hair was now braided in a ponytail. She then walked out of the room and positioned herself by the door's side. Erik could hear from inside the room the sound from when Joan unsheathed her sword and the 'clink' that it made when she rested the tip of her sword in the ground.

"They will enter the meeting room already with fear…"

Leona commented, getting a chuckle from Erik and a giggle from Selena. Erik then walked to one of the chairs with a high back and Hogwarts' shield on it and took a seat. Selena soon followed him and took the other chair, at Erik's left, with Leona positioning herself standing a little behind and to the right of Erik's chair.

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