Breaking The Silence PV Dorian Gray Closed

For the rest of the day Ingrid tried to act and look as if nothing had happened at all. She tried to push the stupid Gryffindor cub out of her mind, as well as the awaiting detention that she'd have to attend later in the evening. She tried her best to concentrate in the remaining classes but it turned out to be extremely difficult as she couldn't hold the anger and irritation inside her towards the show-off Gray. In the early evening she killed some time at the Quidditch pitch with her two brothers, not mentioning the incident that had taken place earlier in the Library - she knew she could tell anything to her brothers and get them stand them beside her and face whatever was ahead of them, but now it was not the time - not yet. Quidditch was an excellent way to let out all the angry and frustrated emotions that had persistently followed Ingrid for the whole day, and that said, she was already able to smile and laugh a little as she left the field alongside her brothers only a short moment before dinner.

When everyone else gathered together in the common room to play games and exchange the newest Chocolate Frog Cards, Ingrid sneaked out - unnoticed - from the basements and quite unwillingly made her way up to the fourth floor. The moving staircase as well as the corridors were quiet and unoccupied as the clock would soon hit the hour when students weren't allowed to wander around the castle any later. As Ingrid walked down the corridor that lead to the double-doors of the Library, she could hear the paintings on the walls talk and whisper hysterically around, clearly wondering whether they should quickly travel to the nearest classroom, any of the professors and report a student for this wrongdoing! Ingrid rolled her eyes as she walked past them, wondering if she indeed could get punished with a detention for walking to attend another one. As she then finally reached the end of the corridor and entered the Library with long, confident steps she saw that fool of a Gray a bit further away, apparently deeply focused on a book in front of him.

As she approached him, a complacent smile crossed her lips. She stayed some feet away from him and leaned her shoulder against a corner of one of the bookshelves, tilting her head slightly. "Well, good evening Gray. I can see you're doing your best to enjoy it here until the very last minutes, how touching - I wonder how you will manage without all this." The tone of her voice indeed was sympathetic, but that small vicious smile on her lips told another story as she let her glance wander around on the thousands of books. Books that had never held a special place in her mind or heart, as she had always been way too impatient to sit down and read, her mind simply being too wild to take in hundreds of pages. After a fleeting moment her strong gaze reached the pair of blue eyes in the dusk of the Library. What she felt towards him was pure anger and indignation, he had dragged her into this without even admitting his own guiltiness, and moreover, stepped over the line by getting into that pitiful squabble with her.

"Ah, there they are." The Head Librarian approached them with two house elves who carried long wooden ladders in their small hands. Ingrid rolled her eyes slightly and sighed deeply, crossing her arms on her chest as she already could guess what kind of a plan the old wizard had come up with to punish them. "Miss Winterwood," he said with a low voice and looked at the girl, then turning his gaze slowly to the Gryffindor. "And Mr. Gray. Here we are then, I'm glad that you both are in time so we can begin." He clapped his hands twice, enchanting the ladders and whirling them through the air, placing them in front of the bookshelf behind them. Their task was to wipe the dust and alphabetize the history books in their right order as they were in total chaos after a long summer. "And, I guess I do not need to remind you to not use your wands." The Head Librarian said, rising his eyebrows a bit at them, waiting for a signal of understanding the instructions given.

Somewhere along the way in his reading, he came across mention of the Homorphus Charm, which by its description was used to transform an Animagus or transfigured object to its original shape. Intrigued, he read further into the spell, studying the intricate patterns and mechanics that surrounded the spell's proper use and control. It was a fairly whimsical charm, only truly useful in case he ever met an Animagus that he would ever need to force into their true form or anything that had been transfigured that he wanted to return to normal. He could think of one recent incident that fell into the realm of the latter and couldn't help but chuckle at how useful it would have been if he had known of this spell at the time.

He thought of procuring his wand and transforming something so he could attempt the Homorphus Charm to return it to its original state, but thought better of it, remembering why he was here in the first place. An added sentence to his detention would most likely mean an entire month if he did something as stupid as having bunnies hopping around inside a library without being able to change them back before they spread. The thought alone was enough to stay his mind on the path of theoretical know-how for the time being. Not much time elapsed while he was deep in reading when a familiar voice grated at the edge of his nerves and edged his teeth. It belonged to the reason he was to suffer these punishments in the first place. Resignedly, he closed the book and pushed it carefully aside, no longer able to focus, what with the new arrival and all.

"Always a pleasure to see you Winterwood. I had hoped on your way here a freak accident would've occurred and put you out of my misery." The bored monotone that he used to address her and the unwillingness to make eye contact were ploys that he hoped would assuage her ego that rivaled his own. If she was anything like him; as one of his self-defense teachers had always taught him to 'know thine enemy', then she would take his demeanor to mean he had waved the white flag and had ceded victory to her. He wanted her to let her guard down as much as possible so his plan could be more effective. It hinged vastly on the aid of someone he didn't even know if he could trust. She had been all he had to turn to at such short notice and he hoped she would come through for him.

Dorian completely dismissed the Slytherin girl's presence and rested his head in the palms of his hands that were plopped up on the table by his elbows. It wasn't long before Mr. Quarren approached them with an almost surprised expression as if he hadn't been expecting them to show. Two house elves accompanied him with wooden ladders. It took Dorian a second but he came to the conclusion that they would be no doubt sorting through books for their time spent here. As soon as the ladders were in place and their task was verbally confirmed and outlined, Dorian smiled, knowing that this was something he could breeze through, no sweat. Maybe if he did a good enough job he could get the Librarian to ease up on the punishment a little. The stated prohibition of their wands' use gave him pause. Not that he intended to use the thing for the work they had been given, but in case his improvised partner in crime failed to show he had hoped to use it to cause some trouble for Ms. Winterwood and defend its use by claiming to make the work easier.

Now the wand had been expressly banned and there would be no forgiving any magical trace that came from him. Why was it starting to seem like so much of a chore to prank the girl? It was as if unknown forces were conspiring against him to see no harm befall her. Dorian pushed himself away from the table and got to work. When he walked past the girl he held his head straight and didn't even acknowledge her presence in the slightest. He would not give her the satisfaction of self-importance. Her time would come even without the boon of magic. Being a veteran of the library and the systematic sorting of its various texts, he knew exactly where to begin and what to do. Only once, casually and without expression, he chanced a glance in the girl's direction to see how she was faring.

Ingrid sighed and rolled her eyes as the old wizard turned to look at Gray. The task they were given would take ages without a wand! It seemed like the old man couldn't care less if they had to spend the whole night in the Library and attend the morning classes without the slightest amount of sleep. Ingrid was annoyed - not only for the punishment they were given but also because that fool of a Gray was smiling and seemed slightly relieved for some reason. She gave a quick glance at him and shook her head quietly as she could not figure out a single reason to smile in this moment. Clearly the Gryffindor cub was up to something - in addition to currying favor with the old Librarian, of course, as for an attempt to get eased up on the punishment. Or something else as pitiful. As the boy then walked pass her, he seemed to have decided to not notice her presence in any way - well, better that way, at least the evening would not be a brutal torture of listening to him.

The old wizard then finally turned his back at them and walked away with the elves, leaving them alone by themselves and hundreds of unsorted history books. Ingrid watched his distancing back for a long while, sighed deeply once more and then slowly walked to the other end of the shelf - Gray had already began with the task so she could not do anything else but do her own part. She was not planning on staying here for the rest of the night, let alone to come back the next day. If they were lucky, they would get to finish the task in time and would not have to see each other again for a good while. Ingrid stepped on the wooden ladders and climbed a few steps to reach the books on the highest row. As she started to sort the books in their correct alphabetical order, she changed a quick look with Gray before getting into her own thoughts in the remaining silence.

After giving a further thought to it, Ingrid came to a conclusion that the detention could have been hundreds of times worse. Instead of spending their time in a silent, warm Library, they could have been sent to the Forbidden Forest to find ingredients for Herbology or, even worse, to collect garden gnomes under the Whomping Willow. This task did not, at least, cause any danger to them and they did not have to work together to be able to complete it.

Ingrid stepped off from the ladders after finishing one long row of history books which dealt with The First Wizarding War. She straightened her pleated skirt, stretched her arms and looked up at the books, satisfied with her own work and effort. A slight smile crossed her lips as she approached Gray with confident yet unhurried steps. Crossing her arms on her chest and tilting her head a little, she looked down at the boy and measured his work with her eyes. "Seriously, could you be any slower with this?" she said with a slightly annoyed yet clear, sarcastic tone in her voice. "I have already finished one whole row and you don't seem to be even half way - I wish you were as sharp in your actions as your tongue is. Hurry up!" She shook her head a little and turned around, heading back to where she had left the ladders. She really needed to speed up as the Gryffindor had - not surprisingly - turned out to be such a slug and they definitely would never be finished before the dawn! "How about reading less while doing your part-" Ingrid's sentence was suddenly interrupted as a bemused breath hissed through her teeth.

She could swear to Merlin's beard that she had sorted a whole bunch of history books, yet still the row looked the exact same as it was before she had started working on them - the books did not stand in any kind of order, the least in an alphabetical one. Some of them stood in the row the wrong way around, and now that Ingrid took a closer look, she noticed that some of the books were missing. Her eyebrows creased closer together as she quickly looked around - Gray was still there, in his own spot, just like he had been for the whole time. At least Ingrid supposed so. She turned her eyes back at the books, trying to see behind them - and as she did, she could see a glimpse of an electric blue glint in the dusk of the Library. "Gray. I think we might have a tiny problem here." Her voice was low as she looked into a pair of curious, mischievous black eyes of a small Pixie.

To see that she was dutifully at work completing her portion of the task they had been given gave him some semblance of satisfaction, though he was still hardpressed in understanding how a learned man in the Librarian's position could have allowed a biblioclast like Winterwood to remain within twenty yards of the very things she seemed prone to ruin. As much as he didn't, or rather refused to understand it, he resigned himself to accept that this was happening. He was here serving a detention that he had to admit could have been a thousand times worse than this, in a library full of books no less. If one really stopped to consider this fact then could it really then be said that this was truly such a bad thing? For a bibliophile such as himself, this was basically heaven. Unrestricted access to a library full of books was the best thing that could ever happen to him.

Given his proclivity to browse through the contents of each book he picked up with the intention of replacing on its correct shelf, it was safe to say progress on his part was clocking in at snail's pace. The latest book pretty much assimilated him into the pages written in stylish cursive on some of Hogwart's lesser-known history. It was clearly someone's own account of things from ages past that had made the school into the grand monument of education that it was. Dorian seldom blinked as he read, engrossed in the words and the work all but forgotten. Having been so deep in what he was currently doing, he had missed the sound of the girl's approach and the first few words she had said, her words only registering from the point where she mentioned "...finished one whole row..." To think she had left her own solitude to come over to him just to say that.

Dorian didn't so much as lift his head from the book, and his back remained turned to her, so she could not have noticed the twinkle that alighted in his eyes and the vain smile that he now wore like a badge. "Awww! You think I'm sharp. Why my dear Winterwood, you should be careful. You're starting to sound suspiciously like a fangirl with all these positive observations." So he elected to paraphrase and omit most of what she had said. The fact remained that he enjoyed his comebacks and one-upping her at each step possible. Their little back and forth seemed as if it would continue when she started on how he was wasting time reading rather than finishing his task, but something had silenced her midsentence. Dorian's heart began to flutter slightly in his chest. Could it be? He wondered if the girl he had met before had finally come to do her part.

He did not turn around or spare a glance, not wanting to give himself away if that was the case. A minute or two more and he would allow himself the satisfaction of seeing what had been done. He could already imagine the look on Winterwood's face. Maybe she had been so stunned by whatever had happened that she simply could no longer speak. That would have been a blessing to everyone who had ever had to listen to a single insufferable word that came out of her mouth. When he felt enough time had passed he lifted his head without turning around and spoke. "Is that you giving up?" She didn't answer, which piqued his curiosity to its limit, causing him to turn to see what had happened. It was then that her next words sent a chill tiptoeing up his spine. It was the somber tone with which she addressed him that wiped the smile from his face. As soon as he had his back turned to his own shelf he heard shuffling among the rows followed by a high-pitched sound like a laugh. Turning back, he noticed the tiny blue creature peering from between the shelves at him. "If you're seeing what I think you're seeing then we have a problem over here too."

This was unexpected. He hadn't felt his fellow Gryffindor would have released pixies in the library. Where did she even manage to find them? Dorian knew he had told her to make it look as if he had absolutely nothing to do with whatever plot she set loose on the Slytherin girl but wasn't this going a bit far? He had to admit this was a good way to make him look like just another victim, but once released the pixies became an extreme nuisance. These two seemed very ready to impart their special brand of mischief. Not wasting any time thinking about it further, he decided to get his problem under control before it had time to make things worse than they already were. Dorian lunged at the thing where it etched itself between the shelves, coming so close to wrapping it in his fist when it jumped at the last minute and started tossing books off the shelves and straight at him as it ran away.

Having to bob and weave so as to evade the incoming books, he dove to the ground where the pixie had landed and was sure he had caught the thing in his grip, but when he opened his hands just a crack to see he noticed they were empty. He felt something tugging at his hair painfully and pulling his head back. The current position he was in, prostrate and with his head being forced back by his hair, was undoubtedly painful, vocalized by the sharp yell that came from him. It was both a good and a bad thing that the library was empty or he might have made quite the disturbance with all the tumbling and shouting that he was doing, but the absence of others meant they were on their own with the two vile creatures that were up to no good. As the thing pulled he snatched it with his hand and held tight, squeezing the little thing with much force. "Gotcha you stupid blue glorified bug!" It chomped down on his hand, hard, and his fingers loosened as if on their own, releasing it. By now its friend had started causing all sorts of trouble for the girl as well. As he got to his feet Dorian looked over, slightly concerned about how she was faring.

Lisabetta had to keep the giant grin off of her face as she hurried along the corridors towards the Library. Thankfully it was late enough in the day that most of the students were already tucked away in their common rooms, leaving the corridors mostly empty. She had gotten a note from her Prefect to go the Library, saying she had forgotten a book she desperately needed for an assignment that was due soon. Because Lisabetta could almost always been found studying or doing school work, it was an easy story to sell.

 Getting the two pixies was a different story though. She wasn't even sure that she would be able to, but she had formed a good relationship with the Professor of Care of Magical Creatures. She had expressed that she had always been intrigued with pixies, and wanted to examine them more closely. She had promised to not take them out of the cage, and only go as far as the edge of the Forbidden Forest with them. She didn't even want to think about the trouble she would get in if she was caught doing what she was trying to do. She had chosen pixies cause it was easy to say that they had simply gotten out somehow and decided to wreak havoc on some students. 

She entered the Library silently, knowing that she was bit earlier than Dorian had told her he would be here, but she hadn't wanted to risk him seeing her before she could exact her revenge on him for disrespecting her. This was unlike anything that Eliana had ever done. She couldn't keep the grin from spreading across her face as she thought of how her best friend, Elvira, would react if she knew what she was up to. Elvira would probably have been very proud, Eliana having done this without a push from anyone else. 

She didn't have to wait long before before Dorian entered the Library, joined by a Slytherin girl that Lisabetta assumed was the one who ripped the book. Although Lisabetta was sure Dorian was at fault for their misunderstanding, there was no excuse to damage school property, and especially not something as sacred as a book. She waited until they were sent on their task for detention, and the old Librarian went off to do whatever he did, vanishing among the tall bookcases. Lisabetta set the cage down, grinning at the pixies. 

"Do what you do best, but be sure to mess with those two students in particular." She had moved the cage so that the pixies could see the two young students she was talking about. She knew that pixies would do whatever the heck they wanted, but she was hoping that they would want to do what she asked, I mean, it's what they would have done anyway. She released the cage door and quickly moved away, not wanting to get in the way of the pixies and their path of mayhem. 

She continued to watch from far enough away where she wouldn't be noticed, hopefully, and couldn't have been more proud with the outcome, Dorian Gray would wish he had never upset Lisabetta. After a few moments and seeing that her plan was definitely going how she planned, she left the library as silently as possible. It was a great start but I no way was this over, Dorian Gray was going to pay.