The Advent Tree PV Helen Aletheia Doukas

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6 December, 2025

News arrived in early November that Hogwarts would have a new Librarian at the helm. That news both excited AngelFyre and brought forward a little trepidation, but she was eager to meet Librarian Doukas and welcome her to Hogwarts.

The Library had always been one of AngelFyre’s favorite places in the castle, for a lot of reasons. First and foremost was the smell of the place. There was absolutely nowhere else in the castle to compare to the heady combination of thousands upon thousands of floor-to-ceiling shelves, each lined with aged, leather covered tomes, a few of them newly waxed, while some sat stiff and brittle from centuries of exposure to drafty, medieval castle syndrome. Add the multitude of subtle woodpulp or linen scents the various parchments off-gassed, mixed in with the dust motes blanketing the ancient scrolls and the circular cubbies they were stuffed into, and AngelFyre found herself in an olfactory heaven of sorts with every visit.

Hogwarts was not an untidy place by any stretch, but it was old and drafty. It was not like this venerable institution kept the air quality to hospital standards as in the Muggle world, so the dust just added to the charm from her standpoint.

Magic could certainly take care of it in nothing flat, but she often thought those who loved to read as she did, enjoyed the whole experience... the feel of a book in one's hand, the sound of the spine cracking a bit and the rustle of a turning page. Those folk of the same ilk probably enjoyed the smells as well, and without a little dust, it just would not be the same.

She rested her chin in her hand as she looked around and noted that the Library was also the first place she remembered ever seeing Simon. He was, not surprisingly, coming to a girl's rescue that day. He was good at that... then and now.

She was here, studying for her O.W.L.s, unsure whether Colin would be joining her later or not, so she was not in the make-out corner as Simon referred to it, or the snogging section as she referred to it. That area, by any name, was another reason the Library was one of her favorite places, and she knew she was probably grinning like a loon.

So be it. He was worth any embarrassment.

But that area was also a cause for her to be a little wary of the incoming Librarian. Both she and Simon had always been respectful... and respectable... while in the Library, even while snogging, but maybe that would be frowned upon if they were ever to be discovered by the new sheriff in town? Had they ever been discovered in the past and it was simply ignored? That she honestly did not know, but doubted it to be the case. Still, she hoped if they had not been discovered in the past, the same would hold true for the future.

As she sat at the table with her Transfiguration books and notes surrounding her, she found herself unable to truly focus. It was a real struggle she had been having since the trauma of the summer, and it took everything she had now to do what used to come so easily... like studying.

She sighed, knowing she needed a bit more of a break, so she looked over to the checkout area. No one was currently manning the Librarian's desk, so AngelFyre decided now was the time to make her move.

She reached into her enchanted satchel and grabbed the long, rectangular package wrapped in festive Christmas paper. Her mother had sent it to her with her Thanksgiving package, as requested, but the wrapping paper had been a surprise. She had no idea what Librarian Doukas felt about Irish wolf hounds wearing Santa caps, but AngelFyre was all for it! Funny how they all looked exactly like her wolf hound, Hillary. Bonus!

When she got to the desk, she did discover someone was there, but bent over looking through some files with their back to her. She could not tell if it was the head Librarian or one of the house elves because of the shock that someone was there, so she hurriedly left the package on the blotter and hightailed it back to her seat.

She had noticed a beautiful, but undecorated, miniature noble fir tree sitting off to the side of the checkout area since a few days before Thanksgiving. Noble firs were her favorite kind of Christmas tree, and that had given her an idea for a welcome gift.

A year or so ago, she had seen in one of her mother's catalogs an advent calendar that looked like a tall, narrow bookshelf. When opened, there were 24 miniature boxes, each numbered, and each containing a miniature book, with real text and black and white images. Each book had been made into an ornament.

Librarian Doukas would be free to do whatever she wished with the books, but AngelFyre thought they would look lovely decorating the tree. A card was attached, that simply said:


Merry Christmas!
-A Friend




@Lyanna Oak @Simon Kincaid
@Colin McCoire