It was many hours later when James finally looked up from his books, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the changed light in the library. The sun had shifted position dramatically, now slanting through the western windows at a steep angle that spoke of late afternoon rather than morning.
He'd spent hours researching, completely absorbed in the challenge of magical detection. He had a list of half a dozen detection spells to try, carefully noted in his ever-present notebook, but he was unsure if any of them would actually work on Founders' level magic.
Detection Through Absence: Finding Magic By What's Missing by Felicia Greenhart had been the most useful by far. Not that the other books were bad, exactly, but they simply weren't addressing what he was looking for. Most of the Curse Breaking texts were geared toward identifying traps and curses, focused on detecting malicious intent and harmful enchantments.
Which made sense for tomb raiding, where the preference was to kill intruders and prevent robbing. But Hogwarts was the opposite of a tomb. People were supposed to come here, to live and to thrive here. The Founders wouldn't have layered their castle with the same kind of defensive magic that protected Egyptian burial chambers or goblin vaults.
There had been hints scattered throughout the texts, tantalizing fragments of information that suggested deeper mysteries. Every mention of Hogwarts referenced the Founders using "ancient magic" to create the castle, spoken about with reverence and awe. But no book actually explained what that meant. None of them discussed specific spells or methodologies. No mention of what made this ancient magic different to the more modern spell and casting styles.
Even texts specifically about Hogwarts mysteries mentioned the castle's ever-changing nature and the rumors of its sentience, but no book actually explained how that was achieved. It had been a thousand years. Someone ought to have been able to figure out what made it tick. He couldn't have been the only one ever to have researched this.
There should be considerable information on the topic considering the role Hogwarts plays in the British wizarding world. And even the whole of Europe. Hogwarts is the oldest school in Europe and 3rd oldest in the world, with the African and Chinese school being founded before it.
James had seen spells older than a thousand years in the foreign language sections. They were long and unwieldy, often requiring multiple pages of incantation and complex ritual components. But they existed, preserved in ancient texts, their mechanics documented and explained.
So why didn't anyone talk about what kind of spells were used to build Hogwarts?
And there was the matter of the runes. James had read in Architectural Enchantments Through the Ages that runes and charms played crucial roles in making architectural projects more durable and long-lasting. The two forms of magic worked in concert, runes providing structural stability while charms added functionality and flexibility.
Yet James couldn't find any runes anywhere in Hogwarts. Well, except in the Ravenclaw common room, and those were so heavily encoded that no student had managed to decipher them. Or if they had, they hadn't publicly claimed to do so. James was hardly the only student to notice the moving runes slapped across the common room walls.
But if runes were essential to magical architecture, where were they in the rest of the castle? How were they hidden? And more importantly, why were they hidden?
On the other hand, James didn't think most other students had noticed the peculiarity of the Hogwarts walls and the castle's structural magic being invisible to detection spells. That seemed to be a discovery unique to his late-night experimentation.
From what he'd read so far, it looked like most peculiarities of the castle were just lumped together with a dismissive "it's Hogwarts" phrase, as if that explained everything. The moving staircases? It's Hogwarts. The doors that won't open on certain days? It's Hogwarts. The rooms that appear and disappear? It's Hogwarts.
But surely people had been curious before. Surely someone had researched this properly. There was bound to be information somewhere, hidden in some obscure text or forgotten archive.
James checked his watch and swore under his breath. He'd missed lunch entirely in his research endeavor, and it was nearly dinner time. His stomach growled in agreement, reminding him that food was actually necessary despite how boring he found Hogwarts cuisine.
He needed to find more books before the library closed. Specifically, books about magical architecture, about how old magical buildings were constructed and maintained. About Hogwarts' architecture in particular.
James gathered his current stack of books and approached Madam Pince's desk. The librarian looked up from her cataloguing work, her sharp eyes assessing him with that perpetual mix of approval and suspicion.
"Madam Pince," James said politely, "where can I find books about magical architecture? Specifically about old magical buildings and how they were made? And anything about Hogwarts' architecture in particular?"
Madam Pince's expression shifted slightly, showing what might have been professional interest. "Those subjects span multiple sections. Historical architecture in the History section, magical construction theory in Applied Magic, Hogwarts-specific texts in the School Archives section."
She paused, then pulled out her wand. "However, since you're looking for books on a specific topic rather than browsing, I can teach you a useful spell. Pay attention, Mr. Acton. This is Libris Revelio, a targeted search charm."
She demonstrated the wand movement, a complex spiral pattern that ended with a sharp tap. "Libris Revelio: Hogwarts Architecture."
Golden light spread from her wand tip, flowing through the library like water seeking specific channels. In various sections throughout the vast space, books began to glow with the same golden light, marking their relevance to the search term.
"The spell highlights books related to your search query," Madam Pince explained. "The brighter the glow, the more relevant the content. It will last approximately ten minutes, so work quickly."
"Thank you, Madam Pince," James said, genuinely grateful. "That's incredibly useful."