Learning pains
Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and its world belong to J. K Rowling. I only own the original characters I made.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
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After breakfast Robert decided to take a tour around town. Since he'll be staying here for a long minute he should at least know where most things are. Certainly he's not just thinking about pigging out on sweets. He doesn't have spare cash anyway. There was one place that he had to visit. The local book shop. Lounging around and doing nothing wasn't in his blood. Especially not for over a month. So maybe he'll be able to "borrow" some books with his newly obtained companion. He got out early. It was eight in the morning. The streets were still mostly empty. Either people were already at work or finishing there breakfasts. Remembering one ginger fellow Robert thought that maybe some are only just beginning. Letting out a slight chuckle he continued his journey. Small shops with trinkets, potion ingredients were seen. He also saw locations known to almost everyone who loved the series. Honeydukes, Zonko's Joke shop, that weird cafe that girls liked for some reason. However, none of them mattered as he saw his goal in sight. Tomes and scrolls banner weathered by time, inviting everone to fulfill their bookish needs. Now it's time to find out what treasures can be found.
Opening the door a smell of dust and paper welcomed Robert. As he went deeper into the store he realized that something isn't right. It's too cluttered. And what's with the boxes? Robert reached the counter and rang the small silver bell. After a few moments footsteps could be heard from the staircase. A young lady appeared. Her skin, brown as nougat and hair curly and dark. Her eyes mahogany red. A curious picture to say the least. She walked to the counter and turned to Robert.
"How can I help you? And make it quick. I'm too busy at the moment for non buyers." She said with haughtiness. Seemingly trying to tower over the young man before her.
"Nice to meet you. I wanted to do some window shopping. However it seems that you are shutting down?" He said with a twinge of regret. His master plan was shot down without mercy. And now this girl is trying to size him up. How frightening.
"Not that it's any of your business. But since you're here may as well tell you that the previous shop owner recently passed away." She said with a hint of pain and anger beaming from her eyes.
"Sorry for your lost. I wish you well and your family in this hour of loss." Robert said trying to show some compassion.
"Thank you. And seeing that you're done, you can show yourself the way out." She harshly stated.
While she was berating him he silently willed his phone out and turned the scan function on. Since there was no way he could leisurely search books that he needs, he'll just what he can. After saying goodbye he left the store and headed towards the inn. He'll have to check if his loot was worth anything. Since it was still quite early he wnet straight into his room and sat down at his desk. Bringing out his phone he checked how many books were scanned. It appears that only two. Judging by the size of the files they where short. It seems that there's no "Hogwarts: a history" for him. Suddenly he felt as if someone was extremely disappointed with him. After shaking that feeling off he chose the first book he grabbed.
'Gibberish!' that's one way to put it. In what language this book was written in? Were these runes? That doesn't help anything. What a disappointment. Even if he learns to read this no one knows if it would be even worth the effort. Closing it he hoped that the next one will be different. "Workings of the mind", how deceptive was the title. If you didn't know any better, you would have thought is was about occlumency. But no. It was a book about illusions. No spells were even in it. Just the concept and how to influence minds with trickery.
'So I should be a con artist? I'm not Mundungus Fletcher!' Robert banged his head with frustration. 'What a load of bull crap that was. I'd rather see that bland book that Umbridge used to kill the spirits of students with. At least I could have had a laught from it's mediocrity.' He couldn't wait when Hogwarts will be open. Maybe he should ask Rosemerta if she had any books laying around. Why couldn't he think of that in the first place. At least he wouldn't have to live through this disaster of a heist. Without waiting he rushed through the door to find her. Fortunately she was keeping an eye on the bar and she greeted him when he came up to the counter. After saying his piece she told him that she had some books in the back. Throughout the years many times students left or lost their books at the bar. She kept them so when the rightful owners came back she could return them. Because only students from year three and above could come do Hogsmeade those were the books he found. After asking for permission he took some of them to his room where he'll continue on his quest to save the rainforests. Or maybe not. Either way he had a long monotonous day before him.
After a couple of hours he finally stopped the scanning process. It wasn't as powerfull as he though it would be. The time the phone needed to scan properly depended on a couple of factors. First the length of the tome. No surprise there. Secondly, on his own comprehension of the topic at hand. When he tried to scan the book for charms for fifth years the loading bar almost didn't budge. So he forgone it for scanning the book for third years. It took almost one hour to finish this process. He tried once again to scan the first book and although it was visibly faster it wasn't worth the wait. It seems that this is the third factor. As long as you scanned basic knowledge the advanced will also be more efficiently copied. Not that it bothered Robert. After all this wasn't a one mind one device cheat. Information from the phone didn't just magically apear in his head. Which sadden him a little bit. But you have to make do with what you get sometimes. No use crying about it. Since it was time for dinner he decided to stop for the moment. It was time to recharge his batteries with some lovely dishes. After that he will continue scanning and hopefully he'll be finished within a week.