Key Connection

Harry had stars in his eyes. "SOLD. Now give me that shopping bag so I can make myself a poor person."

Minerva didn't even try. She knew exactly what Lily had been like, and if she had bumped into these things... well, reading ran in the family. She frowned slightly, thinking of a young boy with messy hair and too much self confidence. Well, reading ran in half of the family.

Harry had almost winced when he had seen the cost of the master book plus the blanks. Thankfully he had a good idea of his spending limit for today and he still had some leeway. He may only be limited to his trust vault, but it was not a SMALL trust vault. Heaps of galleons had covered the floor.

Now he wandered the many shelves. Some shelves were MADE of books. Some were bound in silk, itsy bitsy, others seemed to growl at him as he passed them by. He had found the school books quickly enough, someone had been wise enough to group them near the front, but he wanted more.

He wandered as he tried to figure out the sorting method. From what he could tell, it was mostly by topic, unless the book looked too dangerous, or too large, or too small, or if it wouldn't stay still. He had found some leashed to a pole that kept fling around, diving their soft covers into the hair of passing children.

He had gone back to Sally a few times, asking advice. He told her he grew up with muggles, and she gave him some suggestions that he added to his basket, including "Hogwarts: A History" and "Common Spells for Home and Hearth", which she said her mother loved. He also picked up some books on topics he had seen or heard about, such as "Runes: A beginners Guide" and "Ward are you thinking about?", which was supposed to give the basics of ward design.

When he had seen the section of "Harry Potter" books, he almost had a heart attack. Needless to say, he moved on.

Harry had promised to Jim already to pick up some books on non-magical animals to go along with the magical "Beasts of the Wizarding Wilds" he had found earlier... or at least, he had promised after a very headache inducing argument and a quick verification with Sally that the master book could handle muggle novels.

As he tried to find history books about the Ministry of Magic, he heard quiet crying. Frowning, he turned the corner and saw the same brown haired girl from earlier, sitting on a huge book with her arms wrapped tightly around the novel he had picked up earlier.

He awkwardly moved forward. "Hey, are you ok?"

She gasped and tried to quickly wipe her eyes. "Ye... Yes, yes I am fine. I was just... I was looking for something and some dust got in my eyes."

Harry sat next to her, leaning against the wall. "Yeah, I saw there was a lot of dust back here. Someone should probably clean it up." He reached into his pouch with one of his ropes, and quickly made a handkerchief out of some of the spare cotton he had bought earlier. "Here, use this. I know how annoying it is to clean the dust out of your eyes and stuff."

She hesitantly accepted the cloth and used it. She glanced at the boy. "I... I really am fine you know."

He nodded. "I know you are. Just a lot of dust." She wondered how old he was... he was shorter than her but seemed more mature some how. She gave a small smile. "Yeah, dust. Bad for books and all."

His grin was huge. "You wouldn't believe it. Wish I could just take em all, you know? I am actually getting close to my spending limit today, but there are SO MANY LEFT!"

She gave a slightly larger smile back. "Well... I mean, I have been looking forward to this place for a while. Lots of new things, you know? Mom says I can't buy too many though, cause we are running out of room in the house."

Harry held out his hand. "Well I can sympathize. My name is Harry. What's yours?"

She shook hands firmly. "Hermione, Hermione Granger. I am about to start Hogwarts, first in my family." She seemed to stop suddenly, as if she had accidentally let out some dark secret. Harry nodded. "Yeah, this is my first year too. My parents went, but I didn't get to meet them. I am the first in my household to go to Hogwarts too."

Hermione's smile made him feel good. Her eyes got back some of the sparkle he had seen earlier in the day. "So have you read the books? This is my third trip to the Alley, but Mom wouldn't let me get a wand until now because she thought I would be too tempted to use it."

Harry shook his head. "I am getting all the books today, but it shouldn't take long. I found a trick where I can learn really quickly, overnight even. I figure it will take about a day per class book for me to memorize the contents."

Her eyes got huge. "REALLY!? Is it a spell? Maybe a potion? I heard there was some sort of head thing that Lady Ravenclaw made that gave you knowledge, or maybe it was a necklace, anyway I heard you could wear it and remember anything at all. Or was it a potion... one that was supposed to make you smart for a short while? I remember it got banned because of cheating in tests, or not..."

He laughed. "BREATH! Don't pass out on me, or I won't be able to answer anything!" He got up and grabbed her hand, pulling her toward one of the creepier shelves. Close to one book that seemed to be bleeding, he picked up a second copy of a book.

She held it and read the title. "Guarding the mind, the Skill of Occlumency."

Harry nodded. "It is part of mind magic, and is one of the few skills that no one can detect you practicing or using at home." He grinned at her sudden interest. "Basically you use a small amount of magic and a large amount of meditation to organize your mind. You gain lots of benefits." He began counting his fingers. "I can actually ADD things to my memory, I can recreate things I have seen, including books, and read them in my head. My world actually has a mindscape, so spending time there moves as fast as my thoughts, which is much faster than outside where I have to wait for my body to catch up. I can read and learn there and every second feels like hours."

He pulled her back to their impromptu bench, grinning at how hard she was hugging the book. "It gives me control over most of my memories, helped me handle traumas from my past, and it even helps me defend my mind from people who try to invade it, which is called 'Legilimency'."

She was almost moving automatically at this point, while her mind thought about all the benefits.

Harry smirked. "But do you know what the best part is?"

Hermione licked her dry lips. "Wh.. what?" He pointed at his head. "You can read books and practice magic and stuff in your head while you sleep, and your body still gets rest in the real world."

At this point he was hugged by a brown haired missile, who almost instantly after ran to her mother to buy a book.

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