章节_70

the room, s with tiny icicles,

some glittering with hundreds of dles.

”how many days you got left until yer holidays?” hagrid asked.

”just one,” said hermiohat reminds me -harry, ron,

weve got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library.”

”oh yeah, yht,” said r his eyes away from

professor flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his

wand and was trailihe brahe ree.

”the library?” said hagrid, followi of the hall. ”just

before the holidays? bit kee yeh?”

”oh, were n,” harry thtly. ”ever since you

mentioned niel weve been trying to find out who he is.”

”you what?” hagrid looked shocked. ”listen here -- ive told

yeh -- drop it. its nothin to you what that dogs guardin.”

”we just want to know who niel is, thats all,”

said hermione.

”unless youd like to tell us arouble?” harry

added. ”we mustve been through hundreds of books already and we

t find him a give us a hint -- i know ive read

his name somewhere.”

”im sayin nothin, said hagrid flatly.

”just have to find out for ourselves, then,” said ron, and they

left hagrid looking disgruntled ao the library.

they had indeed been searg books for flamels name ever

since hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to

find out e was tryirouble was, it was

very hard to ko begin, not knowing what flamel might

have do himself into a book. he wasnt i wizards

of the tweury, or notable magiames of our time;

he was missing, too, from important mical discoveries,

and a study of ret developments in wizardry. and then, of course,

there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books;

thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

hermio a list of subjed titles she had

decided to search while ron strode off down a row of books and

started pullihe shelves at random. harry wandered

over to the restricted se. he had been w for a while

if flamel wasnt somewhere iunately, you needed a

specially sige from oeachers to look in any of

the restricted books, and he knew hed hese were

the books g powerful dark magiever taught at hogwarts,

and only read by older students studying advanse against

the dark arts.

”what are you looking for, boy?”

”nothing,” said harry.

madam pihe librarian braher duster at him.

”youd better get out, then. go on -- out!”

wishing hed been a bit quicker at thinkiory,

harry left the library. he, ron, and hermione had already agreed

theyd better not ask madam pihey d flamel. they

were sure shed be able to tell them, but they t risk snape

hearing what they were up to.

harry waited outside in the corridor to see if the other two had

found anything, but he wasnt very hopeful. they had been looking

for two weeks, after a, but as they only had odd momeween

lessons it wasnt surprising theyd found nothing. what they really

needed was a nig sear pihing down

their necks.

five mier, ron and hermione joined him, shaking their

heads. they went off to lunch.

”you will keep looking while im away, wont you?” said

hermione. ”and send me an owl if you find anything.”

”and you could ask your parents if they know who flamel is,”

said ron. ”itd be safe to ask them.”

”very safe, as theyre both dentists,” said hermione.

ohe holidays had started, ron and harry were having too

good a time to think muel. they had the dormitory to

themselves and the tier than usual, so they

were able to get the good armchairs by the fire. they sat by the

h anything they could spear on a toasting fork -- bread,

english muffins, marshmall