Silence in the Library

With a skip in her step, Hermione Granger headed up the stairs to the Hogwarts School Library.

Today had been amazing. More amazing than she'd hoped for. Not more amazing than she'd imagined, because despite a month having passed since being informed that she could use magic, and that she wasn't the only person in the world who could, it was hard to imagine a world that she'd never been to. Diagon Alley had been amazing. Slipping onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters had been amazing. But in spite of all that, it had been hard to imagine what Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would be like. Yes, she'd been in castles before. Yes, she'd been in an alley that shouldn't exist, and rode on a train to a town that wouldn't appear on any Muggle map. But arriving in the castle had put it all together. The enchanted roof above the Great Hall. The constantly shifting staircases. The portraits that would speak to each other, as well as the students who made their way past them. And of course, there were the lessons themselves. Subjects that she'd never imagined existed until a month ago, utilizing powers that she'd have once dismissed out of hand. Come dinner, as she'd finished off the last of her pumpkin juice, she'd immediately shot off. Because it was her first day, and in spite of her giddiness, she knew she had to keep ahead of the game. Start getting some supplementary books to help with her homework.

She reached the library entrance, and took a breath – partly because she'd gone up three flights of stairs, partly because she was at the entrance to a world of wonders. Gingerly, she pressed her hands on the oaken doors and walked in, ready to see students of all ages seeking to further their magical education, so that they could be the best they could be, and reach their full potential.

Um…

Instead she saw no-one. Books, shelves, desks, and more books, but no sign of anyone using any of them. Not even a ghost. In fact, as she looked around the library, the only person present was a woman sitting at the front desk. A pink feather duster was sweeping up the desk on its own, sending the dust into a pan that was levitating in mid-air. The woman was reading some kind of magazine, her eyes glued to it. Taking yet another breath, Hermione walked over.

"Um, excuse me?" she asked softly.

The woman didn't answer. This close, Hermione could see that the magazine was called Wicked!, and was covered in headlines like "Minuette's Secret Affair Exposed!" and "Archie Crow: What's He Hiding?" For a moment, Hermione was reminded of the magazines her mother read – the magazines that she denied reading at all since Hermione had first asked what a "secret mistress" was.

"Excuse me," she repeated.

The woman looked up at her through a pair of half-moon spectacles. So did the images of "Minuette" and "Archie." Hermione however, tried to keep her eyes on the librarian, who was staring at her as if she'd never seen an eleven year old before.

"Are you Miss Pince?" Hermione asked.

The woman slammed the magazine shut and put it face down out of Hermione's sight. "Madam Pince," she said. "And what are you doing here?"

"Um…"

Pince cleared her throat. "Here for a book I assume?"

"Um, yes?" Hermione asked. "Isn't that why people usually come to libraries?"

"Watch your tongue young lady."

Hermione decided not to joke that not everyone came to libraries for books. For instance, her mum and dad liked to borrow audio cassettes for the long drive to work, while her Gran Gran had taken an interest in the VHS tapes her local library was stocking. Almost as much interest as those Barnes & Noble books that her dad had always said "when you're older Hermione," when she asked what they were about.

"Bit early isn't it?" Pince asked. She looked Hermione up and down, like she was inspecting her. "First day of your first year?"

"Yep." She smiled, though it diminished when Madam Pince didn't return it.

"And they're already setting assignments?"

"Um, no?" Hermione asked. "Should they have?" Her eyes widened. "Oh dear, I didn't miss an assignment did I? I was so thorough in taking notes for my homework diary, but maybe I missed out on taking notes for my assignment diary, and…" She trailed off. Three minutes into the conversation, and the librarian had yet to smile even once.

"Very well," Pince said. "If you're after a book, I can help you find it. Fiction or non-fiction?"

"Um…"

Pince pointed a finger to one cluster of shelves. "Over there is children's fiction. Ages eleven to fourteen. And over there…" She pointed to another group of shelves, "is fiction for ages fourteen to seventeen."

Hermione got the sense that the woman before her had delivered this speech more than once.

"Have magazines and…comics," Pince continued, sniffing at the mention of the latter. "They're over there."

Hermione glanced. More issues of Wicked! and everything from Magical Geographic to Witch's Weekly, to softcover compendiums of comics such as The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle, Arithmatix, and The Meano.

"And of course, the bulk of this library is for non-fiction," Pince continued. She gestured at the shelves that formed the bulk of the library – thousands of shelves that appeared to stretch on forever. "Everything from apparition to zenoats. And further beyond those shelves is the Restricted Section. Don't ask me about that." She leant back in her chair and smiled. "Any questions?"

Hermione had two. One was why Madam Pince had told her about the Restricted Section if she didn't want her asking questions about it. However, the second question was the one she sought an answer to.

"What's a zenoat?"

Pince blinked behind her spectacles. "Excuse me?" She got to her feet, and Hermione felt very, very small all of a sudden.

"Just wondering," she whispered.

"Well, I do wonder myself how one wouldn't know what a zenoat is."

"Well, I didn't know magic even existed until Professor McGonagall appeared in my house."

"Oh?" Something shifted in Pince's eyes. Her lips slightly changed shape. Her hands appeared to tighten. "Muggle-born, eh?"

Hermione nodded slowly. Pince's 'sharper' features disappeared as quickly as they'd manifested, but if she'd felt small before, she now felt tiny.

"Makes sense," Pince murmured. "As a Muggle-born, you'll need all the help you can get."

And now, even tinier. Maybe that was why Madam Pince finally smiled, but Hermione had seen enough forced smiles in her life to know when one was genuine, and when one wasn't.

"So. How can I help you?"

This was a case of the latter. And while she knew exactly what book she wanted, she instead asked, "how are the books organized?"

"Pardon?"

"How are they organized?" Hermione asked. "Do you have an equivalent of the Dewey System, or is it different?"

"The what system?" Pince asked incredulously.

Hermione knew she was pushing things, but she nevertheless indulged herself. "The Dewey system," she said. "It's how Muggles organize their libraries." Pince said nothing, so she continued. "The zero section is reserved for generalities – subjects that weren't around when the system was first conceived by Melvin Dewey. Once you get into the one-hundreds, you deal with philosophy and psychology. Two-hundreds is religion. Three-hundreds is social science. I guess wizard social science might be a bit different, but when one considers that the four-hundreds deal with languages, we can-"

"What absolute twaddle!" Pince exclaimed.

Hermione blinked. "I was just-"

"My dear, weren't you listening? It's alphabetical," Pince said. "Apparition to zenoats. If you want a subject, you look it up alphabetically."

"Oh," said Hermione. "Fair enough." She looked at the shelves, before looking back at Pince. "But isn't that a bit inefficient? Like, suppose I wanted a book on both transfiguration and charms. Both use wand magic, so there's a case to be made that they should be grouped together. But if it's all alphabetical, then I'd have to go to the C's for charms, and the T's for transfiguration. I grant you that looking up astronomy and astrology could make things easier, for-"

"My dear, I'm a very busy woman," Pince snapped. "Do you want a book or not?"

Hermione glanced at the upside down magazine. Apparently librarians in the Wizarding World had a very different definition of "busy" than she had.

"Well?"

She picked out a piece of parchment from her pocket. "Here," she said softly. "Professor Flitwick recommended this."

Pince snatched the parchment out of her hand, giving it a quick read. A second later, she took out her wand and uttered "accio Supplementary Charm Studies by Milton Grover."

Hermione let out a yelp as a book came flying through the air and straight into Madam Pince's hand. Quivering, she looked as Pince handed it to her.

"Here you are," she said. "You want to borrow it, come to the desk. If not, find a table and read."

"Um…thanks?" Hermione asked.

"And don't get any ideas about stealing it. The doors are protected with theft charms, so if you've stolen from Muggle libraries, think again."

Hermione gingerly took the book from Pince's hands. "I've never stolen a book before," she whispered.

"Of course you haven't," Pince murmured. She plopped down in her chair, got out a quill, and began to write on a parchment. "Let me know if you need any help."

Hermione cradled the book close, toyed with saying "thank you" or "goodbye," before thinking better of it and heading for one of the desks. She could tell that Pince didn't like her much. She just didn't understand why. So she made sure to choose a desk that was as far from the librarian as possible.

Maybe it was nothing, she told herself. She'd had her share of crabby librarians, even though she'd never lost a book, or even returned one late. Libraries had always been her sanctuary. Libraries were where she'd come with her friends. Like…like…

Charlotte?

She might have been a friend, though didn't talk that much.

Sally?

Kind of, but when they had talked, Sally had been more intent on talking about boys than anything else.

Janine?

No. She'd invited her to her birthday party once, but apart from that, they hardly interacted.

Karen?

She shook her head and instead opened the book. If she was considering Karen a friend, she was really getting to the bottom of the barrel. Besides, it didn't matter. She was at a new school now. New school, new subjects, new friends. And if she wanted to stay on top of those subjects, that meant supplementary reading. Which meant getting out a quill, a parchment, and some ink, and getting to work.

But not before looking around the library for someone. Anyone who might have come to this sanctuary like she had. Anyone at all.

They'll come in time, she told herself. It's just the start of the year. Give it a few days. Or a week. No more than a month at the most.

She began to read, but not without feeling her initial sense of wonder diminished.

Of feeling the first pangs of being alone in this place.

A/N

So, does the Wizarding World use the Dewey System, or does it have its own?

As someone who works in a library I can't help but wonder. 0_0