Free time at the library Closed

Siobhan was humming gently to herself as she wandered the shelves of the library in search of a new book on wand lore. Information about wands just scratched a part of her brain that other information didn’t.

Her fingers skimmed the leather bindings of the books along the aisles of 34 and 35. What shelf had the kind librarian stated? It was somewhere in the thirties but- AHA! The wand lore section! Siobhan grabbed several books included one on Troll Tail Hair because, well to be completely honest what the heck did that even do?? Siobhan pulled her wand out of her pocket and studied it as though it would shrug at her with a “who knows! find out!” kind of look.

Siobhan quickly exited the shelving units and looked for a table in which to read at, spotting one that wasn’t completely packed by other students at the far end of the study area. Unfortunately there was someone sleeping at it…

How could anyone fall asleep in the wonderous world of the library? Siobhan asked herself as she walked over to the sleeping student. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind if she just scooted herself in on the opposite side of the table. She’d be very cautious not to wake him up. She slowly placed the books on the table, and made to pull the chair out as quietly as possible before sitting down and kicking her feet up onto the chair next to her, stuffing her face in the book to begin her search.

The troll roared, swinging its club menacingly at Joseph. Heart thumping wildly against his chest, Joseph brandished his wand, pointing it bravely at the troll, as the gruesome creature prepared to crush him in a single motion...

Joseph woke up with a jolt.

His eyes darted around quickly, scanning the surroundings like one of the machines muggles used. There was no troll. No club. He was in the library. He was not going to die.

Joseph heaved a sigh of relief. It had been a dream after all. None of that had been real. What was he doing, sleeping in the library? How did he get here?

Still slightly shaken by his dream, Joseph turned his head and almost did a double take when he noticed a Gryffindor girl, that couldn't possibly be any older than him, seated about an arms length away, her face buried in the thick book she was reading. She probably hadn't noticed Joseph had just woken up.

"Better keep it that way," Joseph muttered to himself, standing up cautiously and attempting to sneak away unnoticed.

Of course, unsuccessfully. With a cry of shock, Joseph tripped over a thick pile of hefty books, (why had he left them there??) causing him to crash into a shelve of leather-bound books, laying sprawled on the ground as heavy volumes of fascinating information hit the floor near him, a particularly heavy one unceremoniously landing on his head.

Joseph groaned in pain, his cheeks flushed in humiliation. Any time soon, the librarian would surely be here to reprimand him. Ban him, even. He could feel a thousand pairs of eyes fixed on him, stifling giggles as Joseph lay helpless, vulnerable on the ground.

Siobhan was still thumbing away at the properties of Ash wood in wands. Something the wand-maker had said when she’d gotten her wand had been that the Ash trees chose owners who were stubborn. She wasn’t stubborn! She had five siblings for crying out loud, you don’t get anywhere in that life being stubborn.

Still she supposed he knew what he was talking about. Wand lore was just fascinating to her muggle-born brain.

Suddenly a loud crash followed by several thumps drew her from her fixation on the trees in her book. She peeked around to see that the spot in front of her was now vacated but that the original owner of her table seemed to have taken up residence in a bookshelf where books were falling around him.

She looked around the library noticing that many of the students alerted by the crash were giggling and not making motions to help before someone alerted the librarian. She quickly placed her book on the table and moved to the shelf bed that the Hufflepuff was stuck in.

“You know the shelves are for the books to sleep in not us.” Siobhan commented with a smile, as she thought her comment was funny. She extended a hand out to him offering her help up.

Joseph winced, his head throbbing painfully. His pain nonetheless, was nowhere as agonising as the shame swelling up within him, as he lay motionless, trapped in a bookshelf and crushed by books that had pelted down him moments ago.

"No point complaining," he murmured to himself, thinking desperately for a way out of his prison of books. Perhaps if he managed to escape the library quickly enough, he'd be able to throw this incident to the back of his mind, pretending it never happened at all.

"Think, Joseph, think!" Joseph scolded himself, wracking his brain for anything he may have learnt during lessons that might be useful for his current predicament. He found none.

Frustrated, Joseph tried to shove the books away to no avail, ignoring the giggles of many onlookers Joseph was too embarrassed to raise his head to see. Numb with pain and resigned to his fate, Joseph gave up all hope of getting away without the librarian's notice, fearing the worst to come.

"You know the shelves are for the books to sleep in not us," a voice rang out from above him. Startled, Joseph raised his head to find the Gryffindor girl that had been sitting at his table when he had just woken up smiling down at him, her hand outstretched in an offer of help.

Gratefully, Joseph seized her hand with his free arm that was thankfully not pinned down by books, and allowed her to with great effort hoist him back up onto his feet.

"Gee, thanks," Joseph muttered, his face redder than a tomato, no longer able to ignore the chortling and whispering of several students clustered around him. He tried to give his saviour a weak smile, before turning to look at the enormous and messy heap of books next to him. Joseph groaned. Surely someone had alerted the librarian. He'd be in boiling hot water in no time.

Siobhan helped the boy up with some effort, he really was stuck under a lot of books. She could see that he was very visibly embarrassed about the whole situation as the laughter from other students was only getting louder.

“Here let me help put some of these away, if both of us do it maybe the Librarian won’t notice?” She offered. Thankfully there was a rolling ladder attached to this specific book case meaning they could easily put the books back where they belonged with some quick work. Siobhan grabbed a book off the pile, a book called “Supersize Spells for Petite Problems” and began looking for the area of similar subjects to put the book back in. Thankfully the bookshelves seemed enchanted to keep the spaces empty where the books had fallen out.

Siobhan made her way over to the ladder and climbed up to the second rung where the book magically returned itself to the right place. Oh! So the books knew where they were going. How smart of the librarian or some previous witch or wizard to enchant the library this way.

“Here you pass me the books and I’ll put them away. It seems like they know where their going, so if we hurry the librarian won’t even know!” Siobhan stated with optimism from the ladder. She could see that the boy was visibly embarrassed from his tumble and she hoped that her offer of help would be accepted.

Lord knows she’d had her own share of tumbles into things, it was always nice to have someone help you up.

"Here let me help put some of these away, if both of us do it maybe the librarian won't notice?" The Gryffindor girl offered, as though she had read his mind. Face still hot, Joseph nodded gratefully, biting his lips.

Joseph watched, slightly amused, as the girl skillfully scaled a rolling ladder leading to a certain book case, a purplish, slightly torn book clutched tightly in her arms. Being born in a "pure-blood family", as his parents liked to call it, there was hardly any need for muggle gadgets and tools like ladders, as objects could easily be summoned with a simple flick of the wand. How could one climb up a ladder without falling off accidentally and (Joseph winced at the thought) causing a huge mess like he had?

Remembering he was supposed to be helping with the packing of books, Joseph bent over and hauled up a heavy book titled "Perplexing Pixies: An Unabridged Edition". Frowning down at the small, blue creature jeering at him on the cover page, Joseph searched for the book case this book belonged to.

“Here you pass me the books and I’ll put them away. It seems like they know where their going, so if we hurry the librarian won’t even know!” the Gryffindor girl called down happily, in her thick Irish accent. Not reluctant to part with the ugly pixie, Joseph entrusted the book into her open hands without hesitation.

As he passed each thick, heavy book to the girl, he couldn't help but let the questions quickly clouding his mind run wild. Who was this girl? Why was she so keen to help him? She wasn't even from the same house as him. In fact, they were utter strangers; he didn't even know her name.

Joseph grinned, noticing that the crowd of onlookers seemed to be clearing gradually. Nothing helped his nerves better than the fact that there weren't a hundred pairs of eyes fixed on him, jeering and laughing at him. Unless it was a pixie on the cover of a book, of course, then you really couldn't do much about it.

Siobhan looked down for the last book to be handed to her. The Hufflepuff was smiling at it so once he handed it to her she looked at it expecting to see something funny. Instead the grimiest blue little creature she’d ever seen had graced her eyes with its presence on the book cover which made Siobhan giggle so hard she nearly fell off the ladder. She helped the book find its spot on the shelf before she did.

That was one ugly creature! Could such a thing really exist?she thought to herself as she continued to climb and roll the ladder around as the Hufflepuff grabbed more books fo the floor and handed them to her. Soon their pile began to dwindle and it was as though there had never been one in the first place.

With the last book in place, Siobhan hopped off the ladder and flashed a small smile at the clumsy Hufflepuff.

“Told ya, all cleaned up. What did you even trip on to send you flying into the shelf anyway?” Siobhan asked as she straightened out her robes from her climb. If it was a loose floorboard she ought to let the Librarian know so that it could be fixed otherwise more students were going to become acquainted with the shelf.

“Seriously though, are you alright? I have some muggle pain medication in my backpack. You know for headaches and all that if you’d like one- Oh! Sorry should introduce myself, my name is Siobhan.” Siobhan started to offer quickly realizing that if this kid was smart he wouldn’t take medication or anything from a random stranger. A name was as good as any to start a real conversation with.

The Hufflepuff was quite quiet, she suspected it was because of the little incident that had just occurred. The gaggle of onlookers had slowly dissipated to nothing which she hoped would help some of this awkwardness. She was more than content to just retreat back to her book if he said no.

Contented, Joseph took a step back to admire the neatly-arranged shelf, which had been a rat's nest a moment ago. "I owe you one," Joseph told the Gryffindor girl gratefully as she flashed him a small smile.

“Told ya, all cleaned up. What did you even trip on to send you flying into the shelf anyway?” the girl asked brightly. Joseph responded with a light shrug, his conscience pricking him as he did so; he had never told a downright lie. Perhaps it was just that his shy personality made it hard for him to engage in conversations with a stranger. But after all, he couldn't exactly call her a nobody either, not after she had just helped him out of a tight spot. Still... Joseph had only known her for about half an hour; he couldn't consider her a friend just yet. Could he?

Joseph was only half-listening as the girl offered him muggle medicine. Lips pursed, he couldn't help but realise how the girl sounded just like his grandmother, the only person in his family that had truly cared about him, that didn't think he was a delusional, good-for-nothing...

"Oh! Sorry should introduce myself, my name is Siobhan." the girl added hastily, breaking Joseph's train of thought.

"Siobhan..." Joesph mused, beaming. "I better write that down somewhere, before I forget. I'm not really good at names," Joseph said apologetically. After all, it had taken him two years to realise his brother's name was Daniel and not dung-head, which was disappointing as he had looked like a dung-head.

"Sorry for disturbing you from your reading..." Joseph murmured guiltily, casting a furtive glance at the abandoned book on the table. "Anyway," he continued, "I'm Joseph, thanks a lot for helping me."

"I owe you one," the boy stated apologetically but Siobhan simply waved it off.

Siobhan smiled and shrugged her shoulders. The boy- Joseph, seemed very apologetic at the fact that he had pulled her away from her book into his mess but Siobhan didn't mind. Information was powerful, and being hit on the head by multiple books was just as powerful.

When she introduced herself, the boy had simply parroted it back to her. Her face carved itself into a state of puzzlement and he quickly followed it with "-I'm not good with names." Well that's fair her name is difficult to pronounce and even harder to spell right. Lord knows that she'd had countless teachers who would automatically deem her name too complicated and nickname her some atrocious version of it such as "Bonnie" or "Shelly." The later one didn't even make sense!

"Sorry for disturbing you from your reading..." he stated looking over at the forgotten book laying open with a leaf in it. "-anyway, I'm Joseph, thanks a lot for helping me."

Siobhan shook her head with a shrug. This boy felt bad and while she could understand, she hoped he knew there was no need to.

"Ach, it's not a problem! You looked like you needed a hand and I had two to offer. Besides I wasn't finding anything that I needed in that book anyway." Siobhan explained without a care. It was true, as much as she loved her wand she didn't like any bit of it at the same time. It was very short, it felt odd in her hand and when she'd heard what the core was made of she was madly grossed out. Because, come on- what muggle-born wouldn't be slightly weirded out that their wand had troll-tail hair?

"I'm not sure if you plan on staying, but if you did I wouldn't mind sharing the table. Well really I should be asking if it's alright that I do share the table since I disturbed you from your nap." Siobhan apologized. What she really meant in the underlying offer was; "do you want to be my friend? because I'm lost and confused and would love to know more people."

But Siobhan was anything but someone who accurately depicted her emotions and feelings on her face. She felt that it got nowhere and only served as burden to others to feel as though they had to be nice. She would rather someone be nice to her because they wanted to. Not because they had to.