The Stacks' Allure Closed

Kyden was deep in the stacks. It was good for him that he had a great sense of direction. Well that and he had already gotten lost in the stacks a couple of times. He stopped at a shelve looking at all the books and pulled one off the shelf tucking it under his arm. He continued to wonder around loosing himself deeper and deeper into the stacks. He sat on the floor and started to read. It was very easy for him to loose himself into books. He loved reading. He loved anything that could take him away from reality really. Especially the reality of being a Hogwarts. He loved Hogwarts sure. However he didn't love his House. He also didn't love that his housemates  tormented him for being so much smaller than them all. He was smaller than most girls something that most of his tormentors never let him forget. That is why he spent most of his free time in the library a place that he knew they would never set foot. A place where he could fully and freely be himself and do as he pleased. He froze as he hard footsteps and looked up from the book. He noticed a girl wondering around. He smiled. "Hi. I am Kyden."

Cecily had walked a good five minutes before she heard a voice introduce itself as Kyden.

Cecily almost fell over. She had gotten so used to the not- quite- dead silence of the library. (She found herself referring to it as "not- quite- dead" because of the constant hum of magic in the air. Nothing was audible, yes, but the air itself was alive, and weird as it was, she felt bad calling it dead.) Looking for the source, her eyes alighted on a small boy on the floor reading a book-- first-year, by the looks of it (he couldn't have been bigger than Cecily herself), and a Slytherin, judging by the boy's school tie.

"Cecily," she responded, delighted to have stumbled upon human life; it meant she must be getting closer to the main part of the library. "What are you doing so deep in the stacks? I suppose you must be wondering the same thing about me. Well, I'm here by accident. I got lost whilst looking up," Cecily continued sheepishly. "All these bookshelves look the same! Anyway, I've been looking for a wall to follow back to humanity, but after walking for half an hour through here, I'm not quite sure there really are any walls at all..." she trailed off, looking around again.

He laughed at her saying she didn't think there were any walls. "Well first answer is I like to come deep in the stacks to escape people not many people come back here. Though the librarian comes every once in awhile to check on me and to remind me that it is time to go back to the Common room before I get into trouble at night."

He looked at the girl. So she was lost. He had a choice. He could do the right thing and lead her out taking away from his time alone and chance running into his tormentors or he could just send her off and be a typical Slytherin and only look out for himself. He sighed to himself, he knew right away which choice he could make.

He looked at the girl and smiled. He slowly stood up coming to realize he was the same height as this girl at least he still wasn't the smallest of them all. He smiled again. "Well then I will lead you out. Just stay close by me. Trust me I could guide you out of here with my eyes completely closed." He turned to look at her with his eyes closed. "But I won't do that." He laughed and opened his eyes.

Cecily laughed. She could be friends with this boy, she thought. He seemed nice enough, and apparently shared the same love of quiet spaces. Plus, he didn't fit the typical Slytherin stereotype, which was a nice change of pace, and he was offering to help her, so she figured she'd better stay on his good side so that he didn't abandon her in the seemingly endless library. (Or maybe it really was endless. Cecily didn't know, but she wouldn't put it past this school.)

"I don't usually like people all that much either. I prefer books. Much less likely to make the whole room dumber when they open their mouths. Quite the opposite, actually." She gestured for him to lead the way. "I'll follow you, if you really know the way out of here. How many times have you come this far that you know the way out that well? You're only a first-year, I assume, so you haven't been here that long. Do you just have, like, a mental golden thread? You know, like in Greek myth where Athena gives that one hero a golden thread so that he can go into the Labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur and find his way back out?" Cecily suddenly closed her mouth and suddenly found the floor extremely interesting. She was painfully aware that she had started to ramble again about something that only she found interesting. "I'm sorry. I don't usually talk this much."

He laughed as she spoke. He didn't have a golden thread just an amazing sense of direction. "No I don't have a golden thread. Just an amazing sense of direction. I used to explore the Orphanage I grew up in and would otherwise get lost. I have been here just about every day but learned my way out on the second day here. It's easy really. You just have to remember each turn you make then when you want to get out you just go opposite and backwards. So for example say you came in and turned left, right, right, left, left, right. So to get out you just go left, right, right, left, left, right. And here you are."

He smiled and gestured away from himself revealing that they had reached to where she could easily see the way out of this maze shelves. "Well I guess this is where I leave. I plan to go back into the Stacks and continue reading but it was a pleasure to meet you. Maybe we can meet again in The Stacks sometime. That is if you want to you know." He gave a big smiled and watched her waiting for a reply.