Harry could not help but continue to think about his name coming out of the Goblet of Fire. He had gotten the chance to see the slip of parchment with his name on it.
He was sure that the name had come from a homework assignment. Which got him to thinking about how that had worked. They had to write their name and school then enter that was clear.
So it was not the intent of wanting to enter, as he had not intended to enter. It was not the act of writing a name and school that made the difference. No, it had been the simple name written in his own hand.
So how exactly had that even worked? How had his name written on an assignment parchment been still valid enough to link to him?
Looking up from his homework around the common room he made up his mind. He grew weary of the staring, the whispers, the sneers and heckles. Grabbing up his stuff he made his way to the Gryffindor Commons exit when he heard Ron speak up.
"Too good for us huh Potter? Going to hang out with some slimy snakes. Cheaters and liars like you deserve each other!"
Harry gripped his hand tighter ignoring Ron. Refusing to let him see how much it hurt. Ron was his best mate, through thick and thin. Bloody hell they'd stormed down into a thousand year old chamber together to save Ginny!
Harry kept on moving, he refused to let himself get wound up like the second year again. Harry started down the corridors making his way to the library. That was the one positive about this.
Unlimited access to the library as much as he wanted. Even Pence couldn't argue with him spending to much time or grabbing too many books anymore. Champion rights was a large deal according to what he had learned.
Digging through the massive library was always a chore. The library had aisle upon aisle of books with only minimal arrangement. He had found a few books on magical contracts and decided to give them a read through. If he was lucky his answer would be in these books.
It was hours later when Hermione finally interrupted his slog. He was glad for the interruption, as the words were beginning to blur together.
"Harry, it's time for supper already. What are you reading? Is it for the history of magic essay due Monday? You could have asked me, I would have been more than happy to help out Harry. You don't have anything written down yet though. Your parchment is rather bare. Harry you know I will help you with your homework, don't wear yourself out with it."
As Hermione started her babbling Harry had at first started smiling. At least Hermione was still by his side, unlike Ron. He couldn't help feeling even more hurt though as she started her usual rant about him not doing anything.
While Ron and he needed help it was usually Ron that was the one that needed help. Harry never needed more than a few minor corrections on his work. Still, at least Hermione was there for him, even if it could get annoying.
He was sure Ron would come around soon enough, they were best mates after all. They would look back at this all in the future and laugh about it.
"I'm fine Hermione, let me put this on a holding nook and I'll catch up in the great hall soon okay?"
Hermione smiled at Harry taking care of the books so well. Other students often left the books laying around when they got the chance.
"Alright, Harry I'll save you a spot okay?"
Harry nodded back and began stacking up the book putting them in an alcove nearby. Signing his name on the register so the librarian would know he would be coming back to read more on the books he started to walk away.
It was halfway out of the library that he froze like he was with a freezing charm. Signing his name had magically informed the librarian who, what, when and where someone had placed books.
That was not exactly what he was looking for but there was still something in the writing of his name that had been magic. Making his way to the librarian he steeled himself for what would likely not be a fun conversation.
"Madam Pince I have a question for you if you would not mind. How does the book holding alcoves work when you sign your name? I am trying to figure out how my name worked from the Goblet, I swear I didn't enter it but I still have to compete. I want to know how it works. The register will give me a good idea on how it works. Please!"
Irma had heard many stories about wanting some piece of info or another over the years. Desperate pleas for access to the restricted section, a spell to copy a protected book and many others. This was the first time she had given it more than a second thought. Her answer had and would have likely always been the same, no.
Still, there were two things in Harry's favor this time. For one the reason was almost a reasonable point. Still not enough to convince her though it was a good one. The real reason though was Harry was a Champion and as such had Champion Rights. This included access to all books that Hogwarts had available.
Thinking for a bit she nodded her head and filled out a restricted section slip. The name of two books were written on the slip. These were the books she used to keep the magic of the library up to date so she was well aware of the names.
"These books are not to be taken from the restricted section. You are not to share them with anyone, and you are to keep any secrets of the library secret. Champion or not I will bring my full wrath down on you should the library be compromised. You will return this note to my desk or I will ban you from the library for the rest of your time here."
Harry took the note from the stern-faced witch. He had no doubt she would follow through on her promise. Snape may be a bully who enjoyed taunting children, Madam Pince was an avenging god striking down on any who defiled her books or library.
Supper forgot Harry made his way over to the restricted section looking for the books. Madam Pince had labeled where the book wore so he found the section easily enough. Though the name was a bit strange. The Teachers Section was Located Three Rows in the Restricted Section on the Right. After that she had given better instructions for the shelf he was looking for.
Finding the section, he grabbed the two books and sat down at the table next to the shelf. The first was a book on library spells that Hermione would likely sacrifice her firstborn to get hold of. These spells would make searching through the library significantly easier for anyone. Why were they not public knowledge?
Reading further into the spells he found his answer rather quickly. Many of the spells were either delicate to outside magic meaning any other active magic would collapse them, or they would react badly causing chaos. If all the students went about casting these spells it would be a nightmare.
Still, he wrote the name of the book down, he would be getting his own copy and a copy for Hermione. After she graduated, as she would not be able to stop herself from using the spells while still in Hogwarts.
Within the tome was part of the answer he was looking for though. When a name was written in the registers a student's magic was imprinted with that name. It was not an important line and the book did not go into much detail on the register spell work.
It was a start, more of one than he had found so far. He skimmed the book over again taking a few notes along the way. There were a few spells that he could use if he did so without anyone else finding out that would be helpful.
The second book was even more helpful. It was a sort of handmade trouble workers guidebook to issues that had come about in the library over the ages. Some of the issues were quite ridiculous while others scared the daylights out of him.
Compulsion charmed books that would make the user read until they died due to lack of sleep, food, and water. What the bleeding hell was wrong with people? Finally, after skimming heavily, some of this stuff was gruesome, he found his big breakthrough. It was a recent entry, only being written in the 19th century.
Pens, and later fountain pens, had become in vogue for brief periods. The ease of use and cleaner delivery of ink had made them popular. That was until a serious issue was found with them at least. The metal of the pen reacted as a blockage when people signed with them. They made magical contracts useless as their magical signature was wrecked with the non-organic material introduced.
When a wizard or witch wrote anything the naturally imbue a sliver of their magic when they do. Even a doodle or quick note had traces of the user's magic embedded in them. When a wizard signed their name, their magic reacted even greater pushing more of their magic into the signature. This gave the writing more weight magically speaking.
Only through using natural items, such as bird feather quills, organic inks and such, could a user's magic be properly written.
Harry made a note to get himself a metal-tipped quill charmed to hide the metal tip as soon as possible. He did not want his magical signature just floating around everywhere he wrote anything.
As he put the books back he began looking over his notes in thought. So by signing his homework with his name with the correct writing tools he had imbued enough magic to count as his magical signature.
It did not matter that he was not using that signature for anything related to the Goblet. Moody had said it was confounded into accepting the name. So a confounding charm and a signature had been enough for the powerful artifact to tie his magic to the tournament. Shaking his head in exasperation he returned the note to Madam Pince thinking on what all he had learned.
Thinking about what he had learned over the next few days it had begun to really bother him. He could not help but feel that there was something about what he had read that was important.
Finally giving up remembering on his own as a bad shot he looked up to speak to Hermione before stopping. That's right, Madam Pince had made it clear he was to not share anything he had learned.
Hermione saw his pensive face and started talking. She was trying to keep things on an even keel for Harry. The less he worried about this awful tournament the better he would do.
Hoping to keep things as normal as possible she smiled encouragingly at him as she went on.
"Harry, what is it? You know you can talk to me about anything. Is it about the potions assignment we are working on? Having problems coming up with Yellow Snouted Iris reactions?"
Harry had to admit Hermione was a good friend but this time she couldn't help him. Huffing he let her know his dilemma.
"Sorry Hermione, Champion Stuff I actually am not allowed to talk about. I really wish you could help but I can't say any more about it."
Harry figured a half-truth would be easier for Hermione to swallow than that truth. That Pince had made him promise to keep library spells secret. That would go over as well as a Niffler in a jewelry store.
It was Hermione's turn to huff as she was clearly unhappy about not being told something. Still, she was trying to help Harry so she calmed down and offered what support she could.
"I wish I could help Harry. This whole thing is a mess so far and I just want to make sure you make it through fine. Here let's review our homework and make sure there is nothing missing."
Harry smiled as his friend went about making herself, and him, to busy to worry about anything else.
After an hour of checking, editing, and review Harry looked over at Hermione's homework when his answer came once again. Hermione was studying the interaction of a series of runes for her Ancient Runes class.
Runes were an application of written magic, of a sort, that drew from the persons magic to change things. Runes were no different than just writing out an effect you want to happen and having it happen. Well, that couldn't be right, could it? That made no sense at all, surely somebody would have figured this out before now!?
He stood up and looked to Hermione his face intense.
"Thanks, Hermione, I can't tell you what or why, but you were a huge help! Got to go!"
Hermione was startled but smiled anyway. It was great to see that Harry had found the answer he needed, even better she had been able to help him. Though she was rather confused about how she had helped.
He made his way back over to the library as he reviewed his thoughts. He needed to find out the history of Runes, who and how were they first made. What caused them to come about in the first place?
He had spent all his free time these last few days digging through old dusty tomes. Making discrete use of the safer library spells he had found some great books on the subject. What bothered him was there were many schools of thought on how the various runes had come about.
As the tomes got newer they had become nothing more than rehashing of previous works mostly. Sure a new arguments for or against were introduced but the core theories never changed. About three centuries or so ago it had been debated wildly until several ministries had pushed through a change from the ICW.
The ICW riding high from the recent implementation of the Statute of Secrecy had thrown their weight around setting several standards. He noted some of them to look into later though for now Runes were his focus.
The official ICW theory was runes acted as conduits for magic through specific ways. Stroke order, angle of stroke, the distance between runes, and even line thickness. They had written off any inconsistencies before this as previous runes were more primitive. Now the rules of runes were more understood and so the rules were needed to refine the usage of runes even further.
The issue was this flew in the face of several other theories of the time the ICW theory could not explain. Instead of coming up with answers or a better theory they had buried the truth. The ICW came down hard on any person who disagreed with their findings. Three centuries later and a once poorly thought of theory was now considered fact.
"Bloody Hell!" The swear broke from his lips before he could even think about it. Looking about he poked his head out from the corner table on the third level seeing if anyone noticed him or not.
Sighing in relief he was happy to find no one had heard his outburst. He knew what he had found was not something most would notice. It was buried across journals, obscure publications and letters written between notable wizards over the last millennia.
Without the spells he had found it would have taken him years to search the entire library to piece this all together. The truth about how Runes worked was no one knew how they worked.
Instead now Harry had learned the truth and thought that just maybe his idea was not so wild after all. First year they had learned that intent was important in magic. You had to want the spell to work before you cast, or it would never work.
Were Runes the same? Did you have to believe what the rune would do for it to work? If so then Harry had just stumbled into a secret of incredible proportions.
Surely there had to be some examples to prove he was right. Something out there to show his ideas held merit. Items runically enchanted with regular script. Thinking of any examples from History of Magic of Enchanted items something once again niggled in his brain.
Something enchanted he knew on a close level. Something he had ran across that sometime in the past.
The Mirror! It had simple wording written in reverse on it. While he knew nothing else about the spell work, he had read up on it later. The mirror was famous for being a unique work. No one could figure out the spells involved that made it work.
Perhaps it was the words, words that others had dismissed the magic of as they were not traditional runes. If that was what was going on, then Harry would have his proof.
Proof, that was it! Hermione had a rune writing kit she used to test runes safely. Harry needed to order one and keep it quiet.
If he was right with his theory, it could be the advantage he needed to survive this tournament.