#3 - The Tale Begins

They could not determine the exact reason, but the hat didn't answer their newest questions. It remained still and quiet, as if it were any ordinary hat sitting on a bare shelf.

It had clearly heard them, though either chose not to tell them or perhaps it was not meant to be the source of further information. Wherever the truth and task lay ahead, it was up to them to figure it out if they wished to discover more.

Meanwhile, Headmaster Rickard continued writing letters and notes at his desk - showing no signs of having heard their conversation or if he noticed they were occupied with something other than arranging books.

"Maybe, but I don't the Headmaster would tell us" He began to ponder this. it seemed like an incomplete book. He could see how it might end, but the path was unclear. Everything would make sense later, if they could find a hint of some kind.

"Um, lets check the books. Maybe there is something on the Founders here. If not, Uh, let's try the Headmaster. On that note, do you remember how the song went this year?" He could remember it mostly, but he might have misheard sections. Hmming, he began to see if there was a record of previous year's Songs.

The academic books were in good condition but looked old and as if they were no longer in typical bookstore circulation. Some heavy, leather-bound ones covered a specialised variety of less-common yet powerful magics.

Being only first years, they couldn't determine exactly how rare or complex a lot of the potions and magical practices were, but they had a feeling these books wouldn't be found in a common library. Yet nothing seemed too dangerous either - and yet, for as old as most of the books seemed, there was a significant lack of historical books. The subjects pertained to potions, spells, creatures, divination, transfiguration, and various other aspects of magical learning...Except history, the wizarding world itself, or even politics.

The hat remained unresponsive.

There were too many books for the first years to fully go through and might be overlooking something helpful to their task, but from what they could see on the surface - the answers they sought probably wasn't among the pages of these books. Even those already on the bookshelves had no relation to history, Hogwarts, or anything connected to the founders of the school.

"Yeah, let's ask the Headmaster." He was clueless. The Hat had told them so much, that he didn't know what was important."

Maybe it might be a useless task, but it might also put them a step in the right direction. "So what will we ask him?"

He followed her over. She seemed to know what she was doing.

"Yeah, I was also wondering where all these books came from, for there to be so many" Maybe the History books were all left behind. If nothing else, it might also be a good place to look for more books possibly related to the search.

"Alright, thank you, sir." Grace said before nodding to Gerald, a signal that she'd be leaving. It was nice to have something to do in the afternoon, especially if it wasn't homework. She began to head to the staff room, saying to Gerald "I think we should talk to Professor Archerose..."