Sarah walked up to the door and knocked, she hoped the librarian could help. It might be funny coming to him for something that is not library related, yet she did not mind. As she waited her mind began to do the thing it had been doing non stop fsince the term started - brainstorming,

Leobald was busy cleaning the dust, dirt and moth balls out of his office while his cats did their best to not help. Two kitten's contributed to the mess in the office and with no house elves at Hogwarts cleaning it was up to him with the aid of his wand to create some order. Leo was ordering a broom to dust when he heard a knock on the door.

Pocketing his wand, he went to the door and opened it to look out. "Hello Sarah!" Leo said with a wide smile. Opening the door wider he asked "Do you want to come in and talk?"

"Hi" said Sarah beaming. She was happy he was available. "Yes Please". She came inside and looked around, her eyes immidiately fell on the fishing rods. This made her excited as this added hope to her mission. "Any luck in the lake with fishing?" she asked. It was better to start with small talk that will lead on to her mission. She wondered if it was okay she was doing this or maybe she was just a busy body. Yet she saw a need and wanted to get involved.

Following Sarah inside Leo gave his two cats a brief glance. They were now fighting for space in the same basket. He shook his head at them and then focused his attention on Sarah that was eyeing his fishing rods. "I actually haven't fished for a while. Not since i attracted that stomach bug that Healer Tillstorm was positive came from eating lake fish."

"Did you have a good summer Sarah?"

"That is bad" Sarah said sympathising. Maybe it won't work... NO She will make it work,
"My summer was great- I read a lot-" this small talk was bugging her, she had to get to the point.
"basically, I am sure you heard about students being charged for meals, as Hogwarts tries to get funds its needs, which by the way is strange as a lot of money was raised last year. Yet anyway, if one wants to eat three meals a day it is 30 knuts per day and over the year plus the charge for entering the commonrooms and dorms adds up to 17 Galleons. There are some student in the school who are unable to afford it, including some orphans. I an myself am growing my own food, as I cannot afford to pay that much money. Yet I feel bad for the orphans here, they have nomother to send food and the like. So I was thinking, maybe we can go fishing for them. If the fish in the lake is not good enough, we can breed our own and then fish then and give them to the students". The whole time she talked Sarah was looking at her hands, she was scared to see his reaction yet slowly she looked up.

"It's not a big thing dear. I can fish during the term breaks." If the urge got big enough Leo could always take a few hours off during one of the less busy weekends and go fish somewhere but at the moment the library need his attention, it was in a desperate need of a big clean up. And apparently Sarah had been reading books over the summer. Leo beamed at that revelation as he asked curiously with eagerness. "What books did you read this summer? Any favourite authors?"

Going over to take a seat behind his desk he motioned for Sarah to sit down in one of the comfy chairs in front of his desk. Pulling out his wand he moved the ice cream, bowls and spoons over to his desk. He had just now gotten a huge wish for some ice cream. Gesturing towards the ice cream bowl Leo asked "Would you like some ice cream Sarah?"

Sitting back he listened as the fourth year lioness presented her fish breeding idea to him. Watering his suddenly dry lips he asked "Have you considered how many student's that actually go to Hogwarts? Have you talked to the groundskeeper or the COMC professor about this idea?" Leo wasn’t saying outright no or yes, he needed more information first.

Sarah was vey agitated and in no mood to answer questions about books or whether she wanted ice cream or not.
Sarah looked at her hands again, looking about momentarily to say, "no, yet I know some students that would need the scheme. I never spoke to them, never thought I had to, yet I did owl Professor Bently about it and other things. I have not recieved a reply yet though. I would have visited her personally, yet now you have to book. in order to see her." Then Sarah looked at her hands again. Why did she not think ahead?

Gemma walked up to the familiar door with a smile on her face....why had she not thought of this before she thought as she glanced at the picnic basket hanging over her left arm....she smoothed out her white skirt and knock on the door and waited anxiously for the Librarian to answer.

Uh-oh!

Sarah was not looking happy now. Was it his fault? hmm. She looked agitated or something close to it. Leo wanted to turn the unhappy face into a beaming face eating ice cream. But he needed to be patient and well first deal with the matter at hand.

Placing his hands on his desk and closing them in front of him Leo said softly "I admire your wish and will to help your peers Sarah but starting to breed fish in the lake is not a good idea." It really wasn't. "The giant squid will most likely think that the fish is for him. And we wouldn't be able to breed the amount of fish needed to feed the whole castle if the giant squid and maybe even the Merpeople eat the fish in the same pace we breed. Besides you've got your studies and classes to go to and I can't leave the library unattended for long periods of time."

"I'm sorry dear but we can’t breed fish." He shook his head slowly."Do you want me to see if I can arrange an appointment for you with Professor Bentley?" Leo offered.

With his wand in one hand and a book in the other Leo focused all his concentration on the repairing task at hand. The leaking ceiling had water damaged a few books. Hopefully they could be repaired. So focused on what he was doing he almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of a loud knock on the door.

Eyeing his watch he wondered who it could be at this early hour. Placing his wand back into his holster Leo went to answer the door. Opening it he looked out to see Gemma with a basket hanging over one arm. "Good day Gemma!" he greeted with soft smile. "What brings you by? Do you want to borrow some books?"

Sarah was not goint to be put off, she was determined to see this through. "we do not need to breed them in the lake, we can make a pond or use the duck pond. I don't care about being busy, my father always says a busy person is a happy person, and that if you want to get something done give it to a busy person. I can handle it, really, I don't mind. Its just that I know people that would need it. Don't worry my education won't suffer, in fact it will be a learning experience, broadening my frontiers. I was just asking if you wanted to join, yet if you don't all I need is permission and I will do it myself, I have friends that will help too.". By now Sarah was no longer looking at her hands, teh spark inside of her had only grown stronger, she would persevere.
"If you think I need to see Professor Bently first, then I do not mind, yet otherwise I am perfectly capable'.

Gemma beamed as the door opened and she saw Leo. She glanced around the office quickly to make sure she wasn't interrupting anything. She saw a wet book sitting on his desk and raised her eyebrow...that was curious.

She smiled as she met his eyes, "I hope you're not busy..." she said nodding her head towards the wet book, "But the weather is so lovely outside and I was wondering if you would like to go on a picnic on the grounds..." she said sweetly as she glanced down at the basket...yes this was a bold move, but she thought she would give it a try. "I've put together some Muggle croissant sandwiches with chips and some sweet tea...it might be a nice break from working..." she said trying to con him into the endeavor.

Sarah was not giving up on her fish idea. Breeding was a bit well over the top but the lioness’s heart was in the right place. Twinning his thumbs around each other he said as he thought out loud. "We need to go talk to the groundskeeper about this endeavour since he will know if what you want to do is doable or not. I can't give you permission to fish or breed fish on the grounds. That is Mr Firth's area." Standing up Leo glanced at the untouched ice cream bowl with longing. There was always another time.
Pointing towards the door he said "Come on, let's go see what Mr Firth has to say, after that we can go see Professor Bentley."

Drying off his wet hands on his robes Leo followed Gemma’s gaze towards the wet books behind him on the desk. "Um, actually I was in the middle of something. I need to get these books dried off and repaired. It will go quicker if you help me." Walking back into his office Leo explained over his shoulder. "You see there was a leak in the ceiling just over one of the bookshelves and all the books in that bookshelf are now soaking wet. If I don't repair these books then the old paper might fall apart or the writing will be so smudged that the kids won't be able to read it."

Feeling his stomach give off a small growl in reply to what was in Gemma’s basket Leo said "It sounds delicious. Merlin knows that the food in the Great Hall have not been up to its usual standards as of late." Because of the budget cuts and resigned house elves. "But can we go in an hour or so? I really need to get these books fixed." If he didn't do it now then Leo wouldn't be much of a company at all because he would just be thinking about the wet books.

Laura decided it was time to go and speak to the Librarian, for some strange reason after spending the day with him last year, he didn't seem as scary as he had before that and he was like one of only two Professor's she would go for advice from and she needed some now.

*knock knock*

Laura knocked softly on the door, like anyone would, she didn't want to disturb him if he was really busy and only children knock loudly and Laura was growing up, so she was going to act like a lady.

When he instantly mentioned he was busy, Gemma's stomach dropped a little bit...she knew this was a bad idea...stupid Gemma....she forced to keep her smile on her face as he continued talking....and then her face beamed as he asked her to help. "O goodness...that's no good at all...last term I helped you fireproof but we didn't think about waterproofing..." she said with a shrug as she followed him into his office.

She glanced around at the pile of books and figured they could finish this quickly, "Yes, we can def work together to get this done...." she said excitedly as she placed the basket down and flicked her wrist so her wand shot out of her wand holster into her wand hand. She walked over to one of the books and picked it up and as the water dripped out she squashed it back down on the table and turned excitedly to him...."But remember I'm not the greatest at charms, so you will have to remind me of the incantation and wand movements..." she said walking over to him excited that she could help.

She knocked at the librarian's door. She'd never had a chance to meet with him, dang they didn't have any library classes. Some muggle schools did have them, for mysterious unknown reasons. She was here with some idea and a request. KNOCK.

She liked the library for one thing and librarians were always good with her. In all the schools that she'd attended before, the only staff she got along well was the librarian. Weird, but thats that fact. Hogwarts had it's budget cutters, surely it had affected the Library. NO? YES? We'll know.

Leo was treating himself to a well-earned break in his office with some well-deserved ice cream with Madonna sleeping in his lap when he heard a faint knock on the door. Carefully to not wake the cat he lifted her into his arms and over to the waiting basket.

After stroking her fondly behind the ears he crossed the room to open his office door. Peering out at Laura he hid his surprise to see her there by a big smile. "Hello Laura, would you like to come in?"

It was a good sign that Gemma didn’t tail it out of there at the mention of work. Most of his sister’s always had the bad habit of disappearing if they caught wind of work that needed to be done. Grimacing he nodded grimly "I know. I doubt waterproofing them would have helped though. The books under the leak are old and have if my hunch is correct been exposed to water for quite some time." Maybe even during the whole summer vacation. It didn’t feel good in the pit of his stomach, too worried.

Gripping his own wand he instructed as he demonstrated on a soaking wet book. "The incantation is aquamarino and the wand movement is a circular motion and tap over the book." Leo wasn’t worried. Gemma could most effectively do her part if something needed to be done.

"So, in what state is the muggle studies classroom? Dust covered?"

Stepping by his office on the way out to pick up his coat Leo was met by the sight of a girl waiting outside his office. "Hello!" he greeted with a soft smile. "Were you looking for me?" Going past her, he unlocked his office door and opened it wide asking. "Would you like to come in?"

Laura smiled at the Librarian. "I would love to come in sir, I want to speak to you about a few things." Laura said speaking normally, there was a time to be silly and a time to be grown up and now was the time to be very mature and grown up.

And she had been knocking at a door for which she wouldn't get an answer? BWAH! She flushed a little as she spotted the librarian behind her. Silly her, just knocking on doors!

"Uhm..yeah...yyes" she coughed. Now what was that? Regain, regain... "Yes, sir. I thought I could ask you something" He went past her to open the door for her. Now THAT was a good older person, unlike the so many other staff she'd seen at the school. This is why she liked librarians. YEP. "Ofcourse..yes" and she walked in with a smile.

Turning to head back into his office Leo called over his shoulder. "Come on in don’t forget to close the door shut behind you Laura." He didn’t want his cats to prance out of the office in search of rats at this time of day.

Taking a seat behind his desk he gestured for Laura to sit down in one of the comfy chairs in front of the desk. "Would you like some ice cream while we talk?"

"Of course." Leo responded as he headed into his office after the lioness. Closing the door behind him on the way, he went past the lioness and sat down behind his desk. "Would you like some ice cream dear?" he wondered. He had a strong urge to eat some himself. Fetching himself a bowl and a spoon he helped himself to some melon flavoured ice cream. Leo ate several mouthfuls before he stopped to give the lioness his full attention.

"Come sit down. What was it you wanted to ask me?"

Laura smiled at the Professor and went into the office and closed the door. "I would love some ice-cream sir." Laura thought it was nice of him to offer, she was starting to think the Librarian was cool, she sat down on a chair and waited to let the Librarian speak before starting on with her things.

Beaming Leo stood up and walked over to fetch the ice cream from a side table, along with two bowls and two spoons. Placing everything down on the desk in front of Laura he said "Help yourself, there are quite a few flavours to choose from like chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and a few others."

Following his own instruction Leo put two chocolate ice balls into his bowl along with a small strawberry one. Tasting some chocolate he asked "What was it that you wanted to talk about Laura?"

Laura smiled at the Professor and put a couple of scoops of chocolate and then a small scoop of vanilla into her bowl and then had a small taste at the chocolate ice-cream before sighing and thinking for a few minutes before speaking. "Sir basically over the summer holidays I started to think about thing." Laura sighed. "You see I didn't go home, I sort of stayed with a friend and we got talking." Laura sighed. "You see for the first four years here at Hogwarts, I totally misbehaved and wasn't really a student, some of the pranks I pulled I can't believe." Laura sighed her boyfriend was in america and he was the one that had pulled the pranks with her and so she was sad about that, but that wasn't the main reason.

Laura looked at the Librarian with tears in her eyes. "I'm scared sir." Laura said truthfully. "I'm really scared sir, you see." Laura stopped there, she couldn't say it, it was too painful, what if it came true and then it would be entirely her own fault, why had she messed about for four years.

Gemma studied the wand movement carefully and then practiced it once before trying out the incantation on a book that didn't seem to be too squishy. The book lit up in an aquamarine blue color and then just sat there...she raised her left eyebrow and walked over to it and picked it up. Dry as a dessert. She turned and winked at the librarian proudly and grabbed another book to work on.

"Well my classroom, I cleaned up....but my seating area is a mess...I didn't realize it was such a mess until Erik came for a visit...It looked like habob had come into town..." she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

She glanced at the pile of books, "How many books were affected?"

Enjoying his ice cream Leo leaned back in his chair as Laura started to spill her beans. Sitting up a little straighter he stopped rising the spoon of ice cream to his mouth when Laura finished. He had seen some signs that the badgerette was slowly maturing into a responsible young woman. This was only another step in the right direction. Furrowing his brows, trying to understand he asked "What are you scared off dear? That you won’t be able to keep yourself from pulling more pranks during the years you have left?"

It was hard to connect the dots. Throwing out another idea that came to mind Leo asked "Or is this about your possible owl grades at the end of the year and how they will be affected by your years of misbehaving?"

Gemma had no problem with waterproofing a book as she showed on one of the more heavily water damaged books. Why she doubted her abilities Leo didn’t know but everyone he reasoned had their own insecurities. Just like him with his hair. Pulling a hand through the curls just because he thought of it Leo shook his head. "I'm sorry. I guess the whole castle needs a good clean from top to bottom."

Glancing behind him at the two full boxes of books he resolutely turned his back on them. "I can fix them later. There isn’t that many left to waterproof." Lie. There were like 50 books. Re-pocketing his wand in its holster Leo asked. "Should we go on that picnic before the day leaps away from us?"