The library wasn't as quiet as it could have been. There was the undercurrent thumping of drums coming from within the librarian's office. And with it, male voices chanting in latin, and with that the cat wail sounds of some eye-liner wearing lead singer that Blair Sandburg, current librarian at Hogwarts, had never heard of, but which he was
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So we do have a librarian these days, she thought. Maybe he'll have some idea if this place has anything on American Indian shamans.
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"Pardoning, sir." There was a look in the eyes, that wouldn't have been out of place behind a prim demeanour and pince-nez. "But there's another student in the stacks who seems to be lost. Shall I direct her here?"
"If that's where she wants to be man, sure."
The House Elf gave Blair another look, which might have been fond, or exasperated. Blair was good with books and good with organization, no matter what his quirks and on top of it all, he taught and liked teaching. Tally appeared before Laura.
"Please Miss, if you'll be coming this way to the librarian. You should not be mindless in the stacks."
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"Um, hi. I wasn't actually lost, exactly. More like looking for something that doesn't want to be found."
She grinned. "God, that sounds ridiculous. Are you the new librarian? I'm Laura."
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Blair motioned for her to sit, knowing that taking her seriously and not bringing up that she didn't sound ridiculous would do more than actually saying it.
"Tea? Juice? Cookie ?"
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"You're looking for a concept in books ?" If she was as unfamiliar with magic as he was, though he wouldn't assume it, he had to wonder who had told her it was possible. And he had to wonder if it was, cause whoa, that was interesting.
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She took a sip of tea and sat back, considering him. "Do you know if this library has anything on the practices and religious beliefs of shamans of American Indian tribes? The closest traces of the old legends I've ever found were in the Salish and Cowichan tribes near where I lived. But they couldn't or wouldn't tell me much."
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He sat suddenly, as if the thought had just that minute occurred to him, but all his focus was on her. "What exactly are you looking up in the old legends ?"
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"I'm looking for information about the old legends about animal spirits. Most of what I've found are the sanitized versions, with old fables overlaid onto the original information passed down about the spirits - like using Coyote for the classic Trickster stories. But I'm looking for anything on the actual spirits themselves, not the folktales they star in, do you see what I mean?"
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Blair looked her over a moment, deciding then nodded to himself. "I'm kind of in the dark myself. I had the way of the Shaman passed to me from an Chopec Medicine Man. But I didn't find out about my animal spirit until I died and realized I was a wolf. Of course, legend says a Shaman has one foot in each world. But dying isn't how I'd have wanted to find out about the next level and I'm still not certain I know everything I need to know."
Because he wasn't the one in the partnership of him and Jim who got visions. Jim did.
Blair looked at Laura, wondering if she'd open up now as well and tell him more.
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She swallowed hard. "I died too. I was murdered. That's why I'm looking into this stuff. Physically speaking, I was murdered by my father. But he wasn't himself, it wasn't him I saw. He was possessed by an evil spirit. It had a human avatar, called BOB, and it was always BOB's face I saw, until the very end. I'm told my father killed himself after he was caught, but BOB escaped from his body before he died."
"Do you know Twin Peaks, Washington, at all? It's next to an old-growth forest, and there's a portal in the woods to another dimension - a place the Salish and Cowichan call the Black Lodge. BOB told me he lived there. Most of the bits and pieces I've gotten about him come from the tribes - I think they think he's an animal spirit - but they don't talk about their religions with outsiders much."
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His eyes sobered a moment. "I was murdered as well. But she was not possessed. She was..." He thought of Alex and despite his best intentions he couldn't think she'd been simply misguided. "Evil. And power hungry."
Blair got up and took up a plate of cookies, resting it between them and nodding, subtly encouraging her to continue.
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"I know where to begin to look. How about I write you a reference profile, standard librarian helpmate and you take it from there, do whatever cross-references you can and I'll find out how the Board of Governors and the Ministry of Magic deal with inter-library loans with muggle libraries. Because I can think of a couple of places in the States that'd have information you wanted."
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Laura finished off her cup of tea. "Did you say you're a wolf, before? Do you mean like a werewolf, or like an animagus wolf?"
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Blair made another few notes.
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