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