'This is amazing.' Harry thought with a pleased grin as he wandered amongst the shelves of the Hogwarts Library, picking up any book that fancied his interest and putting them into his inventory for a moment.
It only takes a few minutes, and he would put them back on the shelf already.
Madam Pince would always look at him with suspicion when he appeared from in between the rows, her vulture-like eyes following him closely.
Harry got it that it looked suspicious when he wandered amongst the books without taking any of them with him towards a table or didn't borrow any.
And he spent quite a bit of time in the library these last few days too. But she couldn't throw him out; she had no proof he was doing anything wrong, and he was also the Hogwarts Champion who had the right to prepare himself for a task.
Technically he is reading the books. And he had to keep Madam Pince's attention on himself, so she wouldn't enter the Forbidden Section, where a portal of his was moving through every book, storing it for a while in his inventory before returning it.
All thanks to his new Nen ability, Second Mind.
First he thought about creating an AI chip-like ability or a system or something with a separate consciousness. But he didn't feel comfortable with having an independent Nen Beast based on Voldemort's Horcrux inside his consciousness with access to his abilities.
Instead he decided to create, well, a second mind.
Simply explained a secondary processor for his mind to use that can always run in the background doing menial tasks, with the useful sub-abilities he had come up with for it.
Menial tasks like reading the books in his inventory. While it takes a few minutes, it's still much faster than if he did it himself. And he doesn't need any magical items or potions to do it at a decent speed.
All thanks to the three sub-abilities of Second Mind. The first one being analysis, a pretty self-explanatory ability so far. But it's still slow.
For now. It has no problem with reading a book, since the approach is straightforward and Harry already knows how to do that.
If Analysis were to analyze like one of the spells, Harry had devoured during his high-class exam, it would take far, far longer, since he himself had no idea how to do it and lacked the knowledge on what to base it on. The ability would pretty much guess randomly until it succeeds.
That's where the second sub-ability comes into play, Database. It employs a combination of Manipulation Nen, Occlumency, and his past programming knowledge, especially database-related, to organize the information gathered by Analysis and Harry and supply it to them when necessary.
With the growth of the database, analysis will also become more effective.
And lastly, the sub-ability responsible for his analysis is already faster than it was before when he just did it manually, even without a database to work with.
Zero Distance Processing is a sub-ability of Second Mind that can even be used in combat. It uses his Specialization Nen, which has the Space Attribute, to passively shorten the distance between his neurons, nerves, and any other organs that send information through his body.
It makes basically his reaction time and thinking speed much faster.
"There you are. What did Hagrid need from you?" Hermione asked as she arrived in the library, placing herself at one of the empty tables.
"Hey, Mione, did you have good classes today? Hagrid just wanted to help me with the first task." Harry answered as he also sat down at the table.
"They were fine. What do you mean he wanted to help you? He could get in trouble; the staff isn't supposed to help you." Hermione warned him, worried for their big friend.
"He didn't tell me anything new. Hagrid just showed me the dragons. Harry replied after having set up some privacy charms, "Each Champion has their own, either a Chinese Fireball, a Swedish Short-Snout, a Common Welsh Green, or a Hungarian Horntail."
"Hagrid shouldn't have done that." She sighed worriedly, "At least now you can prepare a plan for each dragon's weakness."
"You are just saying that because I am already ready." Harry pointed out while chuckling, "If I were struggling here in the library, desperately preparing for the task, you would be really grateful that Hagrid helped me."
"Point taken. But he still could get into trouble. She smiled to herself, "And what did Snuffle's letter say?"
Hedwig had returned with a message from Sirius just this morning.
"He thanked me for the non-magical money I sent him; he lay low in the Muggle world for a while. Aurors seem to be really bad at navigating that world, but good for him." Harry summarized, "Oh, and he is on his way back to Hogwarts. Even though I insisted he should stay away, he wants to be close by."
"Sirius is just worried about you. Where did you get Non-Magical Money from? If you exchanged it with the Goblins, wouldn't that alarm the Ministry or at least leave a trace with you?" She asked worriedly.
"I don't think the Goblins would tell the Ministry anything. But I didn't exchange with them. I exchanged some old jewelry in a pawn shop in London." Harry replied, not mentioning where he got the jewelry.
"That's smart." She nodded, "Well, do you need help with your dragon research?"
"No, I've got it handled. Focus on your homework, Mione."
———
"Hey Harry!" Two voices approached him as he continued on his quest of documenting the Hogwarts Library, one of the biggest libraries in the Wizarding World.
His fellow Gryffindors, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, had approached him carrying a stack of Defense Against the Dark Arts books. Lavender is a cute blonde with a beautiful face. Her long blonde hair hung over her shoulders as she pushed her chest forward, showing off her well-developed curves.
She doesn't look like her movie counterpart, rather like the fanart one you could find on the Internet.
Parvati is a pretty Indian girl with long black hair. While her curves couldn't compare to Lavenders, there was nothing she could complain about.
Both of them smiled at him prettily as he asked, "Lavender, Parvati, nice to see the two of you! How can I help you?"
"Oh, we just spotted you here. It's been a while since you came by the common room, even though you seem so much more approachable. Can we join you?" Lavender asked happily.
"Sure, feel free, but what do you mean by more approachable?" Harry asked, confused.
"Huh, you didn't know? Usually when we try to approach you, Ron tells us that you have some private matters to discuss or some other excuse. Even though Hermione always says how happy you would be to talk with us." Parvati explained, while Lavender looked a bit uncomfortable. They were playing it down.
"He did? Good to know," Harry said calmly, the comment merely confirming what he already suspected. He offered a small smile as he continued, "I'm always happy to chat or spend time with you. That said, I'll admit there are a few secrets I wouldn't share with anyone—not because I don't trust you, but because some things need the right time and place to be discussed or can be quite dangerous. But I'd never push you away."
His tone grew a touch more serious. "If Ronald ever tries anything like that again, please tell me. I've always wanted a bigger circle of friends, and honestly, getting to know two such lovely ladies better sounds like a win to me."
This made the two girls smile and put a blush on their cheeks. "I didn't know you were such a flirt, Harry." Lavender giggled.
"Hmm, I wasn't aware that simply stating a truth is flirting, Lavender." Harry laughed, "So what brought the two of you to the library?"
"Just our DADA essay. We have to research ways to hinder or blind the vision of our opponents. Even worse, we have to find at least 5 different ones and discuss them all." Parvati sighed as she pulled out one of the books she brought. "You wouldn't know any? Just to ease our workload a bit?"
"Coincidentally, I would. I recently even learned one possibility for the First Task." Harry replied with a smile. Fake Moody got a bit obvious here. Trying to help him with the tournament, "But aren't you covering the unforgivables right now?"
"Yes, right now we are going through ways on how to protect us from them. Not getting hit, to be precise, is one method." Lavender replied, before making doe eyes at him, "Can you help us? Even the one would help!"
"Sure, I can even tell you all five. Although a bit risky, since it can hit yourself, you can always overpower a Lumos if you got nothing else. In a one-on-one situation, the Obscuro Spell to conjure a blindfold is an option. Still, it can be easily blocked by any shield.", Harry counted some of the options that came to his mind: "Against multiple opponents, or if you don't want to bypass a shield or hit your opponent, then the smokescreen spell Fumos or the fogging spell Nebulus are viable options to either conjure smoke or fog. A more powerful curse that isn't as easily blocked would be the Conjunctivitis Curse that directly causes blindness."
"Wow, you are really good in DADA, Harry! That will save so much research time! Thank you, you are a lifesaver!" Lavender gushed as she quickly noted down what he mentioned.
"No problem. If you want to vary your answers, you can add some magical objects or substances like instant darkness powder. Or you can simply use your environment to create a sand or dust cover by casting a Bombarda onto the ground." Harry added nonchalantly.
They both wrote that down.
Harry spent the rest of the afternoon with the two of them.
At first helping them with their homework, before just chatting with them, learning more about the two Gryffindors. Something he should have done years ago.
And while he enjoyed his youth, he never stopped reading more and more books in the library to further expand his database.
( End of Chapter )
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