The Hebridean Black on The Prowl PV Marcia K

It became increasingly more difficult to have a moment of peace. First, she had lost the Common Room as her safe haven after those strange spiders had been able to attack in the middle of the night. She tried to continue as if nothing happened, but her faith to be protected behind password-secured doors has dwindled. In times like this, she wondered what was wrong with the school. Shadow spiders, giant creatures, students with murderous intentions and balls. All those balls that always end up in a firey disaster!

Finally, when the teachers had realised that is was the worst idea to make them happen over and over again, the students went wild and decided to host their own ball in secret. And what a great secret it had been.

A faint red beam of light was blinding her in her seat. She briefly wondered if this was already the first sign of impending doom and if her beloved Quidditch Pitch was turning into a valley of burning death.

Did they have to use the Quidditch Pitch, of all places, she thought as she stood up, making her way to the window. She tried to get a glimpse of the grounds and searched the sky for thickening smoke, but even if there was anything, the Quidditch Pitch was too far away.

With a curse on her lips, she turned her back to the window to return to her seat and her homework. The library was one of the last places that were left where she could experience some peace in order to study. One of the last sacred places without drama, murder or fire and n-

"RAAAAAWR."

She froze in her movement, disturbed by the sudden echo piercing through the serene silence. "You've got to be kidding me," she said through her teeth.

For a second she considered ignoring whoever had the audacity to be an idiot around these halls. Then she decided to not let it slip! No, dozens of students were ruining the Quidditch Pitch right now, the library was off limits! She rushed to the table to quickly grab all her pieces of parchment and her book. She almost lost half of it when she hurried around the corner in search of the idiot who did the shouting.

She found a figure not far from where she had sat, alone between two shelves. Only a moment had passed by and she still believed to hear the faint echo of the scream. Clinging to her stuff she straightened her back. She was collecting all the authority she had, trying to appear larger than she actually was.

As she took a deep breath to call him off, she once again froze in her movement when she took a second glance at to what that guy was doing.

Hands up in a weird angle, he was walking around in a strange manner, moving his head back and forth like a pigeon. She expected a lot but not ... this. The sight was absolutely ridiculous.

Marcia blinked a few times in confusion and shock until she burst out in laughter. "Care to explain, what you are doing?", she said between hiccups. She even had to suppress a few tears of laughter.

Parcel was getting into it now, turning his head twitchely, he wasn’t pretending to be a dragon now, he was a dragon, the dragon. He felt like he would be able to take off if he tried. Dang it must be cool to be able to fly without assistance from a broom. He took a couple of steps to the left, then the right, still keeping up the reptilian movements. Until another sound, something other than his very draconic growl, broke the otherwise serene silence of the library.

Reducio

W-was that… laughter?... Parcel turned his head, and opened them wide. Something had gotten past his razor sharp dragon senses. Parcel straightened up with a snap as he understood he had company. He smiled sheepishly while scratching the scar on his chin. “Care to explain, what you are doing?” The darkish brown haired girl asked him. Parcel caught himself scratching his scar and pulled his hand down quickly as he tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t make him sound like a lunatic.

“Well, um, well- ugh,” He stammered a bit trying to come up with the right words. “Okay, you see, it’s like this, I was reading about dragons you see, and… Well, I wanted to get in the mind-space of a dragon, so I did some dragon movements, and, and, uum, I got a little... well, tangled up in it, and I lost myself…” He was pointing at the opened brown yellowish book about English and Irish dragons which was lying open on the desk in the middle of the rows of books.

Parcel tilted his head a bit to the side when his explanation was done. He was quite unsure if he had gotten out of sounding like a lunatic, but he was pretty sure that outcome was bleak. “Oh, um, I am sorry if I kept you from studying” He gave the girl a once over and noticed the books in her hands. He was somewhat familiar with the girl from class, Kinnsy, Knugsy, Kwinnby something if he wasn’t mistaken. And he was under the impression she was quite the studious girl. Parcel had even helped carry her to the infirmary after a shared harrowing experience they had their first year at the school, when the masked lunatic walked around. “Did you want the table? It is a lot of free tables still though-”

He cut his sentence short. He lifted his head and perked his ears up, as if straining his neck would help him hear better. Footsteps, heavy, too heavy for him to be caught off guard in the empty, very quiet, library. Parcel jumped into a stance as if deciding if he was gonna fight or bolt. But in a split second he seemed to have made up his mind. In a flurry of motion he jumped towards the girl. He gripped her wrist tightly and started scurrying down one of the rows of books. Still pulling the slytherin girl after him Parcel moved his head frantically, his brain working in high gear trying to locate the click-clacking of the footsteps and move away from them.

He looked apologetic at the girl he was pulling along. “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, but we need to leave! The librarian must have heard the shout, I can’t get caught again… I- I climbed on one of the shelf's last year, and I swear I still get the stink eye from the librarian, if I get caught I’ll be in trouble for sure!” He swung his head around frantically again. “By Merlin's blue suspender pants! Where is the exit?! It’s like a bloody mace in here” Parcel hissed under his breath.

Parcel huffed as he was running along the shelf's as silently as he managed while still keeping up a proper speed for a getaway. He twitched his head left and right, and sometimes up or down, looking over under and in between the shelf's in an attempt to keep track of, and at the same time avoid, the librarian.

It was tiring work he thought as he caught his breath rounding another corner, before running down another corridor of books. "That's something I secretly always wanted to do: climbing the shelves!" Parcel turned his head to the slytherin girl he was pulling along as she spoke, before hurriedly turning his head back to keep watch for the librarian. “W-well, how else will we get the books on the tallest shelf's, use a stretching charm on our arms or something?” Parcel huffed a bit, clearly feeling the injustice of being told off for climbing shelves. “Not everyone wanna ask six or seven years to pull their books down from the high shelves like some sort of baby”

He turned another corner, feeling more and more lost as they went. The stress was getting to him. Parcel liked to think of himself as level headed, but he had to admit it was hard to keep track of the way out when every second row of shelves they got to was identical to the last one. The library was a bloody mace.

Parcel was just about to give up when he felt the poor girl he was pulling along resist. "That way," she said, as she twitched her head. Parcel stared blankly at her for what felt like a minute, but probably only was a few seconds. W-... was she dancing? At a time like this? Parcel thought, or maybe she had some neck pain… did she want him to massage her? But he didn’t know how to do that… Parcel gazed over her left shoulder, brows knitted as he thought over having to massage someone he barely knew. THE DOOR! Parcel woke up from his own imagination as his eyes registered the door, his sweet release from the clutches of the librarian. So that's what the girl meant with that way! That way to the door! "A dragon with a bad sense of direction it seems." the girl teased him with, seemingly getting some joy from Parcels daring escape. Parcel smiled gingerly, cheeks still a bit flushed, as he sprung into action.

He started running again, still clutching the girls wrist, seemingly having forgotten he was even doing it, making the girl do a complete 180 to keep her arm at a right angle. He pulled her with him out of the library. Parcel used his free arm to push the heavy wooden doors open as he and his unwilling accomplice escaped from the library, and into the empty hallway. Their uniform shoes made the click clackety sound of running echoing down the hall as he pulled her further away from the library. Parcel noticed the door of a classroom, and taking a gamble, burst into it, dragging them both in and shutting the door behind them. He was fairly certain there weren't any classes going on at this time, at least not in this area. He rested his back on the door as he was catching his breath, his chest going up and down like a deers while he tried to calm himself down.
“Th-Thank you Marciepoo” He said between breaths, “I would have ran right into the counter if it hadn’t been for you”