Harry and Kali spent a day exploring the Districtus Mysterii, the ancient magical settlement that'd been standing since the Romans reigned. It was far, far larger than anything in Britain, and even less restricted, allowing you to buy scrolls, books, and artifacts the British Ministry of Magic regarded as dark or forbidden.
They went on a spending spree... Harry wasn't entirely sure where Kali had earned so much money during his time in Hogwarts, and to be honest he didn't care either, spending it without worry. Most of the books were written in Italian, French, or Latin depending on how old they were, but Harry was fluent in those languages after the debacle with the Lich, allowing him, to read at his leisure.
The dire lack of scrolls dating back to the Roman period that had anything useful in them was damning though, a testament to how much knowledge was still being concealed. Whether it be from the Italian government or the Vatican itself.
Regardless, he found many subjects of magic he'd been lacking thus far, Alchemy, Enchanting, Warding, Legilimency, Bindings, Divination, and many more. He had found some things on Wandlore, but it was all pretty basic information... What kinds of materials you could use as a focus, recorded effects of different types of wood, the age of the tree, and even parts of magical creatures. Useful, but not what he was looking for, there was no information regarding the actual construction of the foci, or the spells used in the process, which is arguably the most important aspect of it all.
Finally, when the sun set the duo decided to make a move for the Vatican...
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"You have to admit, for pompous hypocrites, they have style..." Kali remarks as she walks beside Harry, admiring the beautiful artwork of the Palace. It hadn't been hard to sneak in, some simple spellwork and no one, not even the priests were aware of their presence.
Kali had half a mind to pay Pope John Paul II a visit, and see what he'd do in the presence of an actual demon... Would he dirty his robes? Or would he try an exorcise her like some comedic performer?
"Maybe if they weren't as corrupt as they are self-righteous I could respect them for managing to steal so much from the poor and still declare themselves just." Harry shrugs, running a finger across the marble and granite wall covered in various carvings and paintings. "Do you think they would notice if I stole the 'Creation of Adam'?"
She smirks, "Not fast enough to stop us leaving... Let's find where they're hiding the scroll first, shall we?"
He nods and they continue, venturing through the palace and into the Apostolic Library. They walk easily past the more modern and public section, Harry didn't care for the words of foolish scribes and interpretations of the 'Word of God'. Anything valuable would undoubtedly be held in the more restricted section.
The Hidden Archives were far darker than other sections, and a great many parts were locked behind metal fences, presumably to disallow anyone to take something of importance without the proper authority.
Of course, such a thing didn't apply to Harry... "Hey, I found the concordat Pope Pius XI signed with Hitler in 1933. Nice, I'll hang it on my wall." he grins, tucking the papers in his bottomless bag.
"How about these?" Kali says, revealing the documents regarding Galileo's trial.
"We'll put them back, but first..." Harry traces his finger over the conviction, leaving the imprint of a crappily drawn cock and balls. "That'll do. Alright, let's stop playing around, there has to be a magic section around here."
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"Wait, a hatch..." Kali points out at a corner hidden behind a few lines of shelves filled with scrolls. "And it's warded...?" she adds questioningly.
"They have wizards?"
She shakes her head, "Not wizards, it isn't a wizard ward, but something else...? It's older and more primitive, maybe the magic users who came before wizards?"
Harry steps towards it and feels around, noting the odd tingling on his skin he'd begun to acknowledge as high levels of ambient magic. "An extra secret archive maybe?"
"Well, if they're hiding magic then why wouldn't they use magic to protect it? We can't be the first who have tried to find it." she states and gets to work dismantling the essentialist ward. After a dozen minutes, it fades, and the click of the hatch's lock sounds out.
"Let's take a look then..."
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POV Harry :
Darkness, that's the first thing I see as I clamber down the old stone ladder. Fifteen feet of butt-clenching silence in an area you'd only see in horror flicks... The passage was just a plain, dusty stone tunnel.
Running a finger across the wall, I pull away inches of dust... Creepily however, there was notable footprints on the ground, not very trodden, but not abandoned either. "Aura celeri," I easily cast, clearing the tunnel of dust and revealing the contents underneath.
"Prayers?" I intone, looking over the Latin Catholic phrases.
"Bindings." Kali helpfully concludes.
"Bindings for what...? We aren't going to get trapped down here are we?"
She shrugs, "We'll just break out if that happens. The church is hardly an authority on magic."
I shake my head, curiosity peaked. A snap of my fingers ignites the torches on the walls as we continue, eventually finding ourselves in another archive, this one with a ceiling low enough that the shelves of books and scrolls touched the very top.
I take a nearby scroll and open it, finding an old treatise between the Church and the 'Conclave of Secrets' dating back to the founding of the Roman Empire. Apparently, they'd made themselves out as the Ministry of Magic's equivalent to Britain, a sub-country that handled its own affairs while providing assistance to Rome for 'matters of magical import'.
Interesting, but not useful. I toss the scroll to the side and begin skimming through the rest, going from shelf to shelf to see if there was any categorization at all. Thankfully, there was, but it wasn't exactly 'modern'.
The shelves were set in periods of time, so treaties enacted in 100AD were kept together with magics found or created in that year... Annoying, but helpful in finding the most valuable items, magics most ancient that the people in Britain would sell their entire family fortunes for a single scroll.