As she stepped in the library, the seventh year took a deep breath. She had missed this place. Such a Ravenclaw. Passing by the study tables, the girl made her way to the bookshelves, and more exactly to the Potions section.

Of course, she was AWARE that it was just the beginning of the term, and that she shouldn’t worry about exams... but... ehh. She was here to look for some light reading. Like umm... ‘Elaborated Potions’. Heh. So Gwen started walking along the aisle between the bookshelves, hoping that a book, if not the one she was actually looking for would catch her eye.

She took a couple more steps, reading the titles written on the spines of the books as she passed by them.

Zeke skipped around with a fresh vibe. Honestly, this is the second time I'm asking this, WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH YOU MR. GRUMPY DUDE? What, did you turn into a firstie all of a sudden with all this skipping about? No really, what is it with him?

He happily entered the library, as if he was on cloud nine. Since when did you take interest in books, Mister? No...sorry, he was following a tune in his head while he AGAIN skipped his way over to one of the shelves in hopes of, I dunno, finding a book? The oddly-overjoyed Gryffindor had no specific book in mind, maybe a good 'ol story book to pass the time? Yes, because stories are wonderful, as Zeke would put it.....today. This was definitely not something he'd say or even think of, but you know what? Spare the guy, he has his moments of happiness. I mean, everyone had a right to that, yes? Yes. So there.

However, he did see the lack of books and dust. Hmm, strange. Weren't these shelves filled with books before? Last year, he did visit the library a couple of times. Not to read though--to sleep. Until now he never did understand how he did not get caught. Spy skills.

Anywhoo, maybe the librarian was sick? Aha! He'd volunteer to help. Yes, because life is good and he would like to contribute as much as he can to ease the lives of those around him. That's future Zeke talking, looking ahead to a bright tomorrow. Or what if Hogwarts was really going very poor that they had to let go of certain staff? Not good news. He'd be willing to pay as much knuts as he could to get the people needed back on their jobs. Helpful dude.

OH HEY. Look. It's Gwen. He bounced over to where she was, careful to keep quiet. "Hello Gwennie," the brown haired boy had a big smile on his face on seeing her. Or better yet, he had been wearing that smile since he woke up this morning. Strange. Maybe there was a special occasion today? He was feeling all...pumped up. Or is he hitting manhood now? Was this what being a grown up's all about?

Tsk. Tsk.

Where was it?

Gwen eyed the books carefully. Hmm. She was looking for a potions book she had been meaning to read last year. And now she just couldn’t spot it. Erm. The Ravenclaw spent some time looking around, and still, there was no sign of the book. As she drew her attention to another part of the bookshelf, something caught her eye.

Hmm.

It may not be exactly what she was looking for, but still... She eyed the green covered book which was placed on a higher shelf. She rose on her toes, trying to grab the book but ehhh. FAIL. Still, she couldn’t reach for the book. Gwen was about to try again, when she heard someone say something.

Gwennie? Really? Gwen just raised an eyebrow. Pft. That didn’t sound good. But still... it was better than ‘Ice Princess’. ‘Hey Zeko’, she replied, giving a small smirk. Erm. Something was wrong. They were at the library... Zeke was actually at the library?

Bahahaha.

Good one.

Gwen just eyed the Gryffindor for a moment, trying to keep a straight face. ‘Erm... what are you doing here?’ Zeke. Library. Really. That was just odd. Anyway... Gwendolyn drew her attention back to the bookshelf. Pointing her wand at the green-covered book, she used a non-verbal ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ in order to get the book down. And it worked. Smirk.

His eyebrows raised at the mention of Zeko. Surprisingly, the Gryffindor liked LOVED it. It was the first time he's been given a nickname..by Gwen, of all people. You remember that big wide grin on his face? You think it couldn't get any bigger? WRONG.

'..............what does she mean "what am I doing here?"' Blink. The happy face turned into a puzzled one.

"Erm, reading?" Silly Gwennie. He placed his right hand on her head and ruffled her hair, turned and walked a few steps towards the aisle where the stories were. HAH. Who knew he knew his way around a library? Gwen picked a book about potions...hmm. He never took her for a potions girl. But then again, there's a lot about her that he didn't really know.

Let's see here...what to pick. It is his first time reading a book from the library though so he can't seem to choose which one to read. Ask help from the Ravenclaw? That was the smart thing to do. His head turned to the right where Gwen was, SMILEEE. "Hey Gwennie, d'ya think you can recommend a book for me over here?" His hand beckoned her to come forth, and his attention turned back at the books. Weird titles. Zeke wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for. Adventure? Comedy? Horror? Ehh.

Reading.

Well... that was obvious.

Gwen just thought about that when--- Zeke ruffled her hair. Heyy. She attempted to pull an angry look, but the stupid smirk on her face was ruining everything. She was obviously not mad. As Zeko started walking away, Gwendolyn glimpsed back at the book she had just grabbed from the shelf. Hmm. She still had to find ‘Elaborated Potions’. But that would have to wait---

‘Hmm?’, she mused, hearing Zeke say something. Recommend a book? ‘Sure’ SMIRK. Gwen started walking towards the place where the Gryffindor was staying. Now. What book to recommend to someone who didn’t seem to be a great reading fan? Erm. The Tales of Beedle the Bard? No, it was too rude to give him a children’s book. And Gwen was going to try and be nice.

Hmm. So what should she pick? The Ravenclaw eyed the books on the shelve in front of her. Then the one nearby. Still looking for something. Fly away? She read that a couple of years ago, but didn’t really like it. Hmm. Moving on. Still looking around... until.. Bingo! She pointed her wand at the book and levitated it to the Gryffindor. ‘Here’. Fearless. A book by a wizard whose name Zeke probably hadn’t heard of but mehh. She remembered having read this book. Good reading.

Blink.

Zeke watched as Gwen did her thing with the book finding. Expect an eagle to know her way around the library. It's also a plus that they knew which books were best to read. An angel of intelligence.

Once she handed him the book, Zeke took a quick glance at the title and his eyebrows raised. Curiosity. Again, expect that from a Gryffindor. Before reading he always made it a point to know what he would be reading. "What's it about?" BIG SMILE. REALLY BIG SMILE.

I guess having her pick a book for him made him happy? After that question, something inside him made him want to hug Gwen. So he did. Tightly. The sort of bear-huggish kind. Then a lion growled from his stomach, making him loosen his grip on the girl in front of him while his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "Sorry about that," he mumbled. The food around hasn't been really fitting his appetite. To be honest, the food they served was bleh. BLEHH.

Then a certain food entered his mind. No it didn't just enter his mind. It pulped in his heart. It seeped through his veins. EZEKIEL ANDREI DE FERREIS CRAVED FOR ICE CREAM NOW MORE THAN EVER.

His bewildered eyes stared at Gwen's innocent ones. Trying to control the obvious excitement inside of him at the thought of that delicious ice cold delicacy, he spoke in such a voice, "Do you want to go and get some ice cream?" As if that would help his hunger. But who cares? Zeke simply needed it. He looked like a wild lion who hasn't eaten for days.

It actually didn’t take her long to find books around the library. She could, apparently spot the things she was looking for rather quickly, minus that potions book. Gah. She had to find that. It contained some great instructions and pieces of information on ingredients. And anyway- She had been planning to go practice brewing some potions at the laboratory. Well... it was, after all, her favourite subject. And she was going to invest time in working for the Potions OWL.

So anyway...

Back to Zeke-

What was the book about? Mhm. Alright. She could give a brief summary. ‘Well, it’s about a wizard, who----‘And she suddenly stopped, as Zeke hugged her.

Erm.
. . .
A hug? From Zeke? Just for having picked out a book? She was just... confused. The seventh year just thought about what she wanted to tell the Gryffindor--- But that will have to wait. Her attention was drawn back to Zeke. Really? Was he hungry? Again? It seemed like every time they met he was hungry. Heh. But what was he saying? Ice cream? ‘Sure. Why not’ She was going to tag along in the search for ice cream.

Gwendolyn started making her way along the bookshelves, heading towards the exit door. ‘I never got to ask you about your summer’ Since they hadn’t talked much at the feast. And she had actually seen him around Diagon Alley just once so mehh. ‘Did anything interesting?’

Hm, guess the story would have to wait for later. Or he could just get on with it and read the book. It's always nice to be surprised once in a while. Plus he had a headstart. 'It's about a wizard. Period.'

Placing his arm around her shoulder, Zeke walked together with Gwen going outside. HAPPY HAPPY. ICE CREAM DAAAY. But her next question took him by surprise. Not that it was an out of the blue kind of question. It's just that.....summer.

Was he gonna tell Gwen about that? About Evie? About what happened?

.......

An awkward moment of silence ensued after that, where his smile disappeared, his heart felt guilt, and his arm fell right back to his side.

Haha....summer.

Erm.

Maybe that hug took her by surprise, but, apparently, the question she had asked left Zeke almost as confused. Not that she actually noticed that something was wrong.

Not yet, anyway.

Somehow, Gwen failed to notice that his mood suddenly changed after she asked about his summer. Mehhh. Whatever. She generally didn’t pay much attention to mood swings so mehhh. Not hearing any reply, the seventh year stopped walking, and, still with a smirk on her face, drew her attention back to the Gryffindor. ‘Well?’

"Huh, what?" Wake up to reality, Zeke. What were they talki- OHH, right. Summer. Before the seventeen year old could answer, flashbacks of summer came by his head. He was walking down the memory lane. Good and bad memories. Memories with Gwen at Diagon Alley. Memories of staying alone at home. Memories of times spent with Evie. His whole summer revolved around three persons: his Ice Princess, his girlfriend, and himself.

No wait, practically his whole life (the way he remembers it, at least) only revolves around the three said people. "Uhm, it was okay." That was an understatement. He stopped walking altogether just when they were in front of the door.

............

'No, Zeke. You will not tell Gwen about "that."'

At this moment, Gwen was beginning to wonder if he had even paid attention to what she was saying. Maybe not. And it wouldn’t be the first time that happened. Mehh. She raised an eyebrow at the Gryffindor, still not figuring out if something was wrong. But... what was he saying? ‘Okay’. That was it. Just that.

Mental eye roll.

Hmm. Wait..., she told herself. Maybe he didn’t actually want to talk about the summer. Was that it? No, probably not, she finally came to this conclusion. ‘Fine’, she finally said. Whatever. ‘So umm...’, she started saying, trying to move on to another subject. Because summer was clearly not a good topic of conversation. ‘Where to?’, Gwendolyn asked. They were going to get some ice cream so- Kitchen? Great hall?

Ethan set the gargoyle down again, this time on the floor near the bookshelves. He had the idea that maybe he could get the gargoyle to learn somersaults well enough that he could do them around the library, then maybe move up to cartwheels and more advanced acrobatics. Noting that the gargoyle did not look animated anymore, he waved his wand over it again. "Piertotum Locomotor!" Again, the little statue came to life.

"Let's try this again.. Somersault!" Ethan watched as the gargoyle attempted another somersault. It was sloppy, but much better than the first attempt. "Not bad," he smiled at the statue and nodded his approval. "Want to try another? Somersault!" The gargoyle somersaulted further past the bookshelves, a little bit neater than before. Good, it was getting better. Thinking of an idea, Ethan glanced behind him then pulled a couple books off the shelves.

Zeke breathed a sigh of relief when she let the subject drop. With a few blank stares and some involuntary blinks, he finally replied, "Someplace with Ice Cream, I guess?"

His hand reached out for the door knob and opened the door for Gwen. The confused Gryffindor's mind was still wandering somewhere far off.

Somewhere deep in his head, hidden behind his act of nonchalantness. "Shall we?"

Some place with ice cream...

Obviously.

Anyway. Gwen wasn’t really sure why she had even asked. Mehh. She just started making her way towards the door. She smiled to the Gryffindor as he opened the door. So. Going to the Great Hall, then?

‘Actually... umm...’, she started saying, and it sounded like she was about to drop the plan of going to look for ice cream. But that wasn’t her intention. She had finally come to the conclusion that no matter how much she tried to ignore it... that stupid thought was crossing her mind. So yes. She really had to tell him something. And the library was a place where everyone was quiet, so that was not good and erm... the great hall, or wherever it was they were heading to was probably filled with students. ‘Do you want to go for a walk?’, Gwen finally said, figuring out that the grounds was probably the best choice. And now hopefully he wouldn’t say no.

.....a walk, you say?

The Gryffindor shrugged. "Sure, sounds great." The ice cream shindig completely left his mind for a while. For now at least. She seemed pretty serious and who'd pass up an opportunity to spend time with Gwen? Not Zeke.

He returned her smile though his eyes remained empty as ever. He'd have to wait until Christmas until he can resolve his issue with Evie.

Anyway. "The lake?" Their usual place. Yes, it was their place. His and hers. Zeke's and Gwen's.

Hogwarts Library .. finally!

It's a lot bigger than her own library but she missed it but this is all her brothers said, here's the Hogwarts Library. Aphrodite realizes she must remain calm and quiet because many other students who may be working on their own tasks here.

Walking slowly and almost noiseless, it is very much along the shelves and height located there.

Looking for an empty table located in the right side of the room, Aphrodite decides to leave her satchel in here to pick up a book on the shelf that are located on the right and contains books about the Dragon, according to her family name, Dragongrass.

"Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland"

Okay, a book which she coveted was in a very high place, and if she had to take the stairs. After about fifteen minutes trying to grab it with her own, Aphrodite decides to ask for help anyone she met. But .. where she is right now, there was no one. Okay .. she would try it again.

Tag wasn't quite sure as to why he was in the library. He rarely walked in here. Maybe once or twice but that was it, as far as he could remember it wasn't even school related. Yet, there wasn't much for him to do in the common room, so he had decided to take a stroll around the castle. After a few minutes his feet had their own soul and Tag wasn't even aware as to where he was walking.

As he walked into the library he heard a faint voice. Wait. Did someone say Ireland? Tag's leprechaun senses were tingling. Very quietly Tag made his way over to where he thought he heard the voice and saw a girl. "Did you mention something about Ireland?" He asked her quietly.

The library was the perfect place when somebody was searching for some information, and that was exactly what Sonea needed, information! She had been talking with Mack about the food on Hogwarts and how awful it tasted, the two girls wanted to cook their own food, but because Sonea herself didn’t knew how to cook and Mack also had never cooked before, they wanted to search for some cooking books they could use in the kitchen!

It was strange for a Slytherin girl, but she liked it to be in the library, every book has a own story to tell and it was interesting to read them if you were willing to take the time for it. The young girl had never thought that she would like books, at home she had never liked reading, but that was not so strange, at home she didn’t knew how important they were and she had been lazy and ignorant… But she had change now that she was on Hogwarts! Sonea turned around and stood with her back against a old bookshelf, waiting for Mack.

Sara was in the library again. She went htere often *** she like to read. Yet this time she brought her vacuum cleaner along. She had noticed that there was dust on some of the books. This was a perfect place to use her vacuum cleaner. She put the vacuum cleaner on the floor and took out one of the dusty books.

She would first vacuum it, she thought that maybe she should put a dust repelling charm on it so the dust did not come, yet decided nto to do it without the librarian's permission.

She took her wand and tapped the hose "Vacavus" she said. The hose went to life and Sarah aimed it at the cover of the book. When that book was done Sarah reached for another and tehn another.

In the end Sarah did a whole line of shelves. The books were dusty. She wondered why. Maybe dusting books was another job that the houseleves usually did. Sarah was glad she could help though.

Then Sarah decided to vacuum the shelf itself, which also seemed to be dusty. She wondered why . Perhaps students did not read as much as they used to.

After a few sneezes Sarah decided to call it night. She was tired and she felt oversneezed. "finite" she casted and the the hose stopped sucking..

Once she was finished vacuuming the stain glass window area, Minerva moved to the library shelves. She remembered how a few terms ago Professor Hadley had given her permission to gather and shelves books to help out when there was no librarian, so it was even to move around knowing where things were.

Looking around the area, Min noticed someone clearly had already been here and cleaned some of the area. Which was good, because this job would probably take a few days to finish. Now it wasn't going to take as long.

Starting in the charms section, Minerva gently moved a few books from the shelf, making sure not to get them out of order and placing them next to the shelf, not to forget to re shelve them. Pulling out her wand she waved it over the vacuum, "Vacavus" Once the vacuum was on Min then moved around the shelf and behind the books, clearing the dust on and around that shelf. Once finished she set the vacuum down and reshelved the books she had moved.

She repeated this process clear through the charms sections, then moved on to library. Coming up to knew section, Minerva pulled the books off a few shelves and waved her wand again. "Vacavus" Moving the vacuum around the books and in the corners of each shelf, she quickly cleared up the dust and dirt that were threatening the poor books.

As Minerva was placing the books neatly back on the shelf, she noticed a title of one of them, A Universe from Nothing, wasn't this one of the books that was on her list of extra reading she needed. Pulling her list out of her bag she smiled. It was, she had fallen on the astronomy section without even realizing. Well that was good, because she needed to get a few of these books anyway. Pulling A Universe from Nothing aside, she began looking at the other titles and pulled a few more. Astronomy today and Hubble's Universe. Well that should keep her for now, Minerva took the three books and her vacuum to head and check out.

Mack rushed into the library, she had been running late after working on divination homework. She searched for Sonea, trying to be as quiet as possible. Finding her leaning against one of the bookcases.

Huff Huff Huff

"I'm" inhale "So" inhale "Sorry" deep breath "I've been doing divination homework and lost track of time."

She was excited that Sonea and herself were going to find out if Hogwarts possibly had any cookbooks. She could always just owl home to her gran's maid. But in this rough time at home she didn't want to send too many owls home. The thought made her frown, and the tears that had been threatening to spill over all day seemed impossible to blink back. One escaped down her left cheek and she quickly reached up to wipe it away before anyone noticed. She really didn't feel like telling anyone else. She had told the fifth year from Hufflepuff Alec, and there was also Susan another Hufflepuff but second year. She didn't want the entire school to know, but she felt that she had no other choice to tell at least her head of house or even the Headmistress. Sigh.

After a few minutes of waiting Sonea just had decided to grab a random book to read while she waited when she heard how somebody ran toward her. She closed her book and put it back on the bookshelf and saw that Mack was standing before her, but she seemed… Tired. “Is everything okay?” Sonea watched the other girl worried and wondered why she had been running, she hadn’t waited long so there was no problem.

The young girl grimaced when Mack told her that she was busy with her Divination Homework, she still needed to start, but she had so much homework to do! She was already depressed if she looked at the pile with homework she still needed to do… Divination was not difficult but she had other homework she didn’t liked, like arithmancy… She had thought that it would be easy, but it wasn’t! She had never seen a more difficult lesson than those!

“Don’t worry, I haven’t waited long” Smiled Sonea while she still watched Mack worried. “Do you want to drink something first? Food is not allowed here but I’m sure that we could find something outside the library.” The young girl waited for Mack to answer her and looked at the same time inside the bookshelves if there were some cooking books, and if they could not find them, then they could always ask it the librarian.

Sophie had finally decided to start studying for her OWLs. Well, at least something other than practising Charms, of course. She already did that quite often.

The library sounded like the best place to do that, so the Hufflepuff quickly found herself browsing the shelves for... Charm books. Alright, she knew she should study something else, but... she just couldn't help it! Charms was way too good!

Maybe she could take a DADA book just to have something else besides Charm books with her. See? She could read other stuff, too!

She was fighting herself an awful lot lately, she knew she should tell her friend about what happened, and why she was really late, but she couldn't bring herself admitting that it was true. So instead she nodded and smiled her best fake smile when Sonea asked if she had been okay. "Good, I'm glad I didn't keep you waiting, no i don't need anything, Ready to start looking?" The blonde nodded towards the shelves, and then realized just how many books their would be to look through "Do you think that maybe we should just ask the librarian? She would know whether or not we could even find some cookbooks" Because of quidditch she really wouldn't have time to spend days looking through all the books in the Hogwarts library.