Welcome!

Tens of thousands of leather-bound books occupy the overwhelmingly gigantic bookshelves which surround you in almost every direction -- books on every topic imaginable. A few tall ladders can be seen leaning against the bookshelves, enabling you to reach great heights to get a book from one of the top shelves. Be careful though, and don’t let the books frighten you, or you might just break a bone on your way down.

Sparroe peeked her head through the huge wooden door and her jaw dropped. Booooooks!! Millions of then. Okay, maybe she was exaggerating a little, but there were still alot of books in there. SHe slipped through the slit in the door and roamed up and down the shelves.

She picked a random book an ploppeddown on the floor in front of the bookshelf, leaning back against it. "Hmm..." SHe flipped the book open and crossed her legs, laying the book on her lap. "Alrighty then.." She said, before starting to read.

Struggling with her book bag, she sighed slightly as she heaved the heavy thing onto a nearby wooden table. Seeing a few scraps of spare parchment fall out as she pulled up a chair, she grimaced and uunceremoniously shoved it back into her bag, not caring that they were probably going to be useless the next time she needed parchment to take notes on.

Digging through her messy bag, she pulled out a textbook with a thunk as it landed on the polish surface. "Whoops." She said, wincing slightly. Charmaine was afraid that the librarian was going to round the corner at any moment and yell at her for making such a loud sound. Opening it up and flipping to the right page, the young Hufflepuff began to read the assigned reading.

Finn scoured the library breezily, a hollow sneeze disrupting the silence every other five minutes. Dust. Allergy. Finn was a sheltered case. His Gran kept the house immaculate. Scowl. Nodding his head to a song only his mind plated, his eyes wheeled across epochs of strange, stupid, and somewhat revolting titles. So boring that they were revolting, that is? Did they keep anything revloting outside the Restricted Section? Or as Finn would have liked to call it, the Braniac V.I.P room. Scooting near the very door, he bitterly strained his ears for the sounds of laughter. Probably having some mutated, and genetically altered milk and cookies with on of the monsters that the hidden volumes contained.

Finn would give up his head for a glimpse.

Alas, he brooded on, not actually browsing, his vows of perpetual slacking making him a nomad in this foreign land. His blue eyes searched the floor for reasons of why he was here. Oh yeah, nerdy girls hung here. Maybe his raging hormones would give him a break.

Unlikely when he turned the corner. "Songbird," the nickname slipped past his lips like a tricksy cat and he stiffened, eyeing her and the other female that reveled in clumsiness. "Hiii...Sparroeeee," he drawled out the two words that clumsily redeemed the silence. She was not nerdy. Definitely not? Finn's hormones were whistling Dixie inside his head and playing Double Dutch with his intestines.

"Hi." He repeated, fixed to the ground, a perfect irony among the smartness of the library. Finnley Kher the Inept Idiot. Oh, that so beat Barnabas the Barmy.

Sparroe had just stood up to put her book back, when she heard the word "songbird". She blinked and looked around, a small smile spread across her face when she spotted Mr. Manners. "Haiiiii Finnn." She drawled, in the same voice, but with a bigger grin on her face.

She reached up to put the book up, but wasn't quite tall enough. "Finn. Can you help me?" She asked, looking over her shoulder with a pout on her face. "Pleeeease?"

Sweat built beneath his glasses. Finn looked around at the opening line of 'haiii'. Was there another person named Finn behind him? Guess not. He was suckered into this, despite not really wanting to make a fool of himself in front of Sparroe. I mean, my hair's messy, my tie's loosened, and bloody hell! My robes are dusty. While Songbird, looking as...lovely as ever distracted herself with putting books away, his hands hurriedly scuffled up and down his Hufflepuff robe. Making a choking noise, he straightened and rapped his fingers against his chin, focusing all his might on a languid storm cloud that was making its fat buttock comfortable in the horizon.

Right fine. Stupid manners. Stupid, stupid, OCD. Finn fancied that maybe she didn't see him. Maybe he'd take off now and return in a tux, with a rose, or something stuffed and smiling. Girls didn't turn those kinds of guys away. Sparroe should already have Saint before her name for enduring the company of him.

He began to wheel on his heels, self-loathing phrases that would make a sailor slap him running through his mind. "Sure," he surrendered to his kind, heroic tendencies and sauntered over, enjoying the little ego boost. Too short? Aww, too cute. And that's precisely what he was here for. Finn's face bore a grin the size and weight of the book. "Gee, you like your reading material." His puny muscles protested as he shoved the book back into its slot and dusted off his palms. "Not a problem, m'lady."

Sparroe giggled at the look on Finn's face. "What's wrong? Did you not expect me to say hi to you?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Watching him put her book up, she grinned wider. "I do like my reading material, but that's not the thickest book that I've ever read." She shook her head and sat back down on the ground.

"You can sit here if you wanna." She said, patting the ground next to her. She brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees. "I haven't seen you since the opening feast. Where have you been?" She asked, pouting slightly.

Finn gulped, almost missing her question. "Oh no." Boy oh boy was he put on the spot or what? "Well, I dunno," he shrugged, looking around for anyone that was laughing at his puny attempt to socialize. With a girl. A pretty girl. Bah. Kill me, whatever is up there, kill me now. Watching her grin, he had to do something. There, an uneasy smile. That was good, a good solid way to be...good and solid. "Heh, I don't read," he babbled. "Much, I don't read much. I'm not an idiot or anything."

"Sure," he murmured, sidling over and lightly plopping himself on the carpet, and action which spewed up a thick cloud of dust. "Hmm... don't clean this place too well, do they?" He looked around, disliking the view. "I've been..." Okay, be coy. Don't tell her you've in your dorm all day watching for changes in the sky...or something really dork...like improving the fireworks from the prank store. "...around." He smiled. "Yeah, you were great fun to talk to." Oh, that pout.

Giggling, she shook her head. "Nah. I never thought you were an idiot. Just because you don't read much, it just means that you're intelligent in other ways. Like me, since I read so much, my sister says that I don't have much common sense because I stay cooped up in my room with my nose in a book." She took a deep breath, breathing in a cloud of dust, and broke out in a coughing fit.

After the fit had subsided, she swiped at the tears that were forming in her eyes. "I guess they don't, but oh well. I kinda like it in here. It's...relaxing." She blushed a bright pink and chewed on her bottom lip. "You must think I'm a total dork."

Sainted woman! Finn wanted to jump up and hug her! Or suspend her from a church ceiling for people to pray to! She didn't think he was a dork? Mercy me! What's next? The bloody apocalypse? Finn felt giddy, as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. As giddy as when he broke his grandmother's favorite ceramic...whatever that unfortunate animal was. Though that was a different kind of giddy. One that preceded pain. Eyes sparkling beneath the rims of his glassess, he smiled. A smile that rarely made an appearance after he turned ten and thought frowning made him cooler.

"Oh. Heh. That's nice to hear," he chuckled. "My grandmother just blissfully called me an idiot and shoved more books down my throat." He shrugged. This was not time to talk about grandmothers! This was time to be manly and walk her down the path of great wisdom and skillful thought. If only he had some. Gulping a breath, he braced himself, before blurting, "So, come here often?"

What. The. Hell. Finn.

"Wha..." he began...but all of a sudden she began to cough. And badly, too. Retching and wheezing, and the noise! The librarian would kick them out. None of that occurred to a panicked Finn, who immediately scuttled closer and patted her back like a madman. A madman! With comical facial expressions and a great deal of labor. Well, at least she didn't get to answer the 'come here often' line. Whew.

"Are you okay?" he winced, drawing his hand back, but peering gently at her face. "You...don't have asthma or anything, do you?" How romantic. Talking of inhalers. And her dorkiness? Oh hells no! She wasn't a dork. In that case, you might want to say that, Finnley! "Oh no!" he cried too loudly, frantically protesting with his hands. "You're right cool."

She noticed the twinkle in his eyes and a bigger grin spread over her face. "What?" She asked, clearing her throat. "You look..like you want to hug me or something." She eyed him for a second before shrugging.

She snorted and giggled, clutching at her sided. "I haven't heard that line in forever, but it was never said in a library." She hiccuped and curled her legs under her body, her laughter subsiding. "Actually, this is the first time I've been to this library. It's huge." She looked around, an amazed look on her face. "My sister makes fun of me and tells me that I'm going to get married in a library ad be a librarian. And that my husband and I are going to have dorky little children." She wrinkled her nose a bit.

"I'm fine." She nodded and ran both of her hands through her hair, sweeping it up into a bun on top of her hair. "Just a little dust down the throat. No big deal."

She read minds, too? Finn's eyes bulged and he leaned a centimeter closer, scrutinizing this strange and wonderful human. "Um...no..." he spazzed, the urge to twitch almost overtaking his nerves. "Just sitting here. Probably just a trick of the light." Hug her? Boy, if she even thought such things...oh what a saint! Saint Sparroe! Wasn't she wonderful? "Probably a spot on my glasses." Yanking them off, he looked away, for a blush just hit him hard and square in the cheeks. Rubbing the lenses vigorously against the hem of his robes, he probably cleaned them three times over before he propped them back against the slightly crooked bridge of his nose and flopped back against a shelf.

She noticed. What else could go wrong? Hercules come down and take her attention? Why not? Finn clenched his jaw and guiltily looked back five seconds after she finished her laughing spell. He sure wasn't patting her back on that one. Girls! Didn't they know how hard it was? He wanted to tap her head and knock the sense into her. "Yeah, big, huge, and...book-ky." Booky? Ok, apparently he invented a new word. Cool dudes made new words all the time. Radical. A confident smile leaned against his face. "I don't see anything wrong with that. You like books. I'm sure your sister likes something that you could tease her about." Who'd tease Sparroe in the first place? She was so sweet.

"Ah. Yeah. I wouldn't know," he admitted diffidently. She nearly elbowed his face when she fixed her hair, but he'd suffer a bloody nose. "My house was immaculate from the day I was born and I have a feeling my gran's ghost will keep it that way after she dies." He heaved an exasperated sigh. Sparroe was not the person to unload his psychological qualms about his family. She was a frie---no that wasn't right. Girls never found him as friends. She was a someone. Someone he enjoyed being with.

She shrugged and looked around. "Whatever you sayyy." She said, in a sing-song voice. She scooched a bit closer and watched him clean his glasses. "If it was a spot on your glasses, then why are you blushing?" She asked, her voice just above a whisper.

"Not that I'd really tease her. She's the one who raised me. I'm not going to risk it." She wrinkled her nose again and sighed. "I can't imagine not having her home cooking." She pouted again, her lower lip sticking out. "It really sucks. The food here is really good, but it's not like home cooking."

"Really? Eeeks. As much as my sister and I try, we can never keep the house spotless. I don't mind if it's not spotless, but it totally bugs my sister." A strand of her hair had fallen out of her bun and unconsciously, she reached up to twirl it around her finger. "She has to have everything PERFECT."

Finnley's neck turned fifty shades of red. Ten of which had never been seen by human eye. As the chameleon circled through his rosy hues, his eyes traveled to every blasted corner of the library just to avoid the look he imagined on Sparroe's face. Sweet, sweet Songbird. And the disconcerting geek that was in her presence. It was never really fair, but whatever strain of luck diseased it, Finn thanked it. Whatever he said? Waaaall, that was more like. Gaining the pride of a massive ego boost, he turned toward Sparroe and nod---whoah, when did she get THAT close! "Uh...." his mouth caved it, 'uh' being the sole word---or sound surviving. "Because the spot had an embarrassing resemblance...to...a moose's behind." Oh. He did it this time. Brilliant. Moose's behind. Lovely. May a moose trample him!

"Oh." Nodding softly, he reached up an arm and stretched it far above his head, exploring the air and his mind for something of brilliance to say. Raised by her sister? That was unique. Not bad. He wondered faintly if it was anything like his mostly motherless life. By the way she wrinkled her nose, it must not have been, Finn smiled easily, eyes twinkling at the serene picture this planted in his head. "Must have been nice----the home cooking. As I've said before, I didn't get much of that," he stated dryly, lowering his arm against his other, curling his hands into a ball.

Her next memory brought a great laugh. "Me and you both," he simpered, his knuckle unconsciously twitching to tuck the strand of hair away. Oh, she'd gotten it. A fallen stomach. "I am a relatively neat person, but I don't do the spotless thing. Too hard. To much time killed." Like Finn didn't waste enough time sleeping.

"So---the castle---is the library all the fun to be had?" In all his years, he'd seen as much as his dorm.

Sparroe nodded, staying exactly where she was. She stopped twirling the strand of hair and put her hand down on the ground to steady herself. Eyeing the hair, she blew air out of her mouth, trying to get it out of her face. "Ugh. Stupid hair. Oh well, I'm comfortable."

"A...moose's behind?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "How would you know what one of those look like up close? Have you ever really been that close to a moose's behind?" She asked, a small smile playing on her lips.

"It was, most of the time. She was a very good cook, until she decided to experiment with different food." Her nose wrinkled again and she stuck out her tongue. "Ugh. She tried to make kidney pie. It sounded nasty, but it tasted even worse. I'm hoping she never makes that again."

"I'd much rather spend my time sleeping. I am a very lazy person and love my sleep." She noded and leaned her head against the bookshelf, stretching her legs out in front of her.

"Well, I like going for walks out on the grounds, but it's boring to go by myself."