(Un)Pleasant Afternoon (open)

[Glen Frederick Quartermane]

Like every Sunday afternoon, Glen found himself walking between two shelves reaching into a cart and gingerly placing a book back in its rightful home. A smirked tugged at the corners of his lips. Thick textbooks filled with knowledge encompassed him, and it was his responsibility to ensure their safe return. As cheesy as it may sound, Glen fully enjoyed the moments when he volunteered within the library. The musty scent of centuries old parchment sent a certain twang of delight to surge down his spine. Unfortunately for him, it was rather muggy within the building for some unknown reason. Since nothing had been done to fix it, Glen assumed that it was some ridiculous prank pulled by a student that the professors still hadn’t quite figured out the remedy for. Tugging at the collar of his knitted, lavender sweater he continued on.

There were not too many students within the library. With it being the end of a weekend he assumed that many were out enjoying their last hours of freedom. Sighing, he grasped the spine of a book and shoved it into place and repeated the process. With eager fingers he pried the gray scarf wrapped around his neck loose, allowing the air to sooth his warm flesh. He made a mental note to kill whoever had cast the idiotic spell. Glancing around, he noticed as red-faced students got up and left, wiping the sweat from their brow. Mumbling beneath his breath Glen continued on with his work, too absorbed in his muddled thoughts to notice much of anything.

[/size]

[Nikki Renee Jolie]

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Crystle sat in a empty round table in the library, with her books surrounding her and papers scattered everywhere. The heat in the room was unbearable. She thought something must have happened with the cooling system or someone was really cruel and purposely heated up the library to almost 100 degrees. She sat in the chair with her legs sticking to the vinyl and her loose shirt was sticking to her body. Grinding her teeth as she found it a little stifling to breathe in the room, she dipped her quill in ink once more as she tried to finish her Herbology essay about Carnivorous Plants. Tapping her bare feet on the wooden floor she started to gain muse. She started to describe an attack of a plant when she turned the page of the Herbology book she had borrowed from the library when she saw the page was torn out. Sighing deeply she let out a low groan. Setting her quill down in a position so the ink wouldn’t run on the parchment, she put a bookmark where the page was missing, covered her ink bottle, and grabbed the book.

Standing up in her short denim shorts, her bare feet, and her red loose shirt, she began to walk through the aisles of old and dampened books she looked up at the markers saying what section she was in. With few and far between books that she found, she stumbled across what looked like a Librarian’s aid, or just a student helping out the library. Sighing quietly she tapped him on the shoulder, and had the torn Herbology book in her open hand. With a un-Nikki like quiet voice, she asked him, Hey.. Um.. I took the book for an essay I had, and it seems the page I need is ripped out.. Do you know if there’s another copy I can use? she asked politely. She had no clue why she was being so nice, but it seemed like the heat was getting to her brain and affecting her thoughts. She shook her head, making her high ponytail swish back and forth, not touching the back of her neck. Looking him over she noticed he looked a little like he would be sweating more than her with his polo sweater and scarf. She looked at his hair, and his shoes, and then back at his face with awaiting and patient eyes. Something was seriously different with Nikki and she didn’t know what it was.

[Glen Frederick Quartermane]

Right when Glen was uncharacteristically about to lose his cool due to the mounting heat, there was a light tap on his shoulder. He turned, arching a brow at whoever had interrupted his thoughts and pursed his lips together into a straight line. She had wavy blonde hair that cascaded gently down her shoulders in a ponytail. He noticed her flushed cheeks from the heat and what had caught his attention were her short denim shorts and red blouse. Glancing down at the book he reached out and took it from her grasp as though her mere touch would cause the object to suddenly combust. Eyeing it closely he noticed that it was in fact missing a page. Irritation coursed through his veins. Many students within the school failed to realize the importance and delicacy of the textbooks stored within the shelves of the library. It almost caused him genuine pain. “Yes, that is obvious,” he said in a low whisper, turning the book over within his hands.

Reading over the title Glen had a fairly sure idea of its original location, but just to be sure he was correct he inquired, “May I ask where exactly you found this book?” His finger gently trailed along the edge of its spine as he raised his gaze to meet her eyes. There was something odd emitting from the girl as though she wasn’t quite acting her normal self but, as Glen didn’t know much about her to begin with, he simply shrugged it off and waited for her response. Loosening the scarf around his neck even more so that it exposed the skin on his neck, he gently set the book down on the side of a cart for future reference. It was lucky she had come to him and not the librarian who might have chewed the girl’s head off, even if she was innocent. The books within the library were old, some hundreds and hundreds of years that had been at the school since the four founder’s time. It was awful to seem them in such a condition.

[/size]

[Nikki Renee Jolie]

Nikki breathed heavily as he turned around and she looked up at him. Curse her small stature; he looked at her like he wish he was somewhere else, talking to someone else so she made it short and to the point. He looked her over, and grabbed the book delicately. She cocked and eyebrow and he previewed the page that she said was torn. He noted that ‘it was obvious’ and she rose her eyebrows at him and began to cross her arms but felt her shirt sticking to her, and let her hands fall to her sides again. He started to look at her shorts and she forgot for a second that she was talking to a male in one of the shortest pair of shorts she owned. Sighing she rolled her eyes and waited for him to say something else.

Nikki nodded and pointed to the aisles and said quietly, Yeah, um, it was three aisles down, second row.. she said letting out a deep breath as she let her hand fall and looked back at him. Something flashed in his eyes and she added, But something tells me you already knew that.. she said with a short and softened laugh. She looked up and saw he was taking the hint that it was hot and he loosened his scarf more to expose his light toned skin and she looked at his neck for a minute or so and then back up to his face, waiting to see what he would do, or what he was going to say to her.

[Glen Frederick Quartermane]

”Hmm…” he sighed, glancing toward the area she had indicated. “I thought so.Jerking his head in the direction the book had originally belonged in, he made his way over pushing the cart before him. The wheels for a second froze and with great irritation he rattled it, quickly getting the cart to move forward with ease once more. As time wore on it seemed to Glen as though the library’s equipment became more and more useless. Funds for the school were not poor, but the recent drama involving the murder of Harry Potter and the groups forming because of it left Hogwarts with less money than normal. Apparently the library wasn’t important enough to officials to keep updated. It was just another thing that irked Glen severely. He cast a look back at the girl thinking. “I could be completely off but I’m assuming from the color of your blouse that you belong in Gryffindor?” He did not know her very well and since they were both dressed in casual wear there was no indication of what house she belonged to.

“House of the chivalrous,” he said aloud with feigned interest. Beneath his breath Glen muttered, “And also the arrogant.” He paused near the shelf and examined the row of books, surveying the floor with an eagle-like gaze. There was not even a trace of a missing piece of parchment and he sighed, knowing that there would not be another copy readily accessible on the shelf. The book she had selected was a newer version and had been kept within Hogwarts since Harry Potter had left. He scowled exhaling sharply. There was an older version printed that resided in the restricted section, where it was kept for rare purposes only and could only be used in extreme cases. He himself had never laid eyes on any of the textbooks in the restricted section. It wasn’t a privilege he had obtained. But he wouldn’t mind breaking that one rule. “There is one copy…the original is located within a section of the library us mortals are denied access to." He walked off briskly toward the restricted section. “Let’s go."

[/size]

[Nikki Renee Jolie]

Nikki looked at him and followed him to where she had gotten the book from. She stuffed her hands in her short shorts and wiggled her toes as she looked up at all the books. She loved hiding in the library because there were always places no one dared to look, or didn’t even know existed. So she started to daydream a little as she ran her hand over the row of books as she kept walking along. When she inhaled the scent of musty, dusty old books filled her lungs. She had always liked that smell.. it reminded her of old muggle movies. With a smile she looked ahead of her and noticed she had let him go ahead. She had ran soft footed behind him for her to hear him comment about what house she was in. She nodded and tucked a piece of her blonde bangs behind her ear. Yeah.. I’m a Gryffindor.. she said looking ahead as they neared the bookshelf.

She heard his little side comment and she smirked amused at him. Shaking her head, but deciding not to say anything she just looked at him doing his job. He looked like he was trying to find the missing page. She could have saved him the trouble and told him the page was nowhere to be found, but she just leaned lightly on the opposite bookshelf and watched him scan the floor and the empty shelves for a piece of parchment. She heard a aggravated grunt come from him and she crossed her arms thinking of what he could be mad at. He probably was just mad at the fact the book was damaged and it was still pretty new; but that was just a guess. She snapped out of yet another daydream and looked at him as he moved and held his gaze with her for a second before stating that there was another copy of the book.. But it was permitted to not us-.. He had lost her with big words. She shook her head and decided to just follow him. Copying his paced footsteps she was glad her bare feet didn’t make a noise on the old polished floor.

As she started to rerun the words he said earlier she now understood them. She had one of those light bulb moments and she quietly said, Oh.. So there’s an extra copy in the restricted section? she said her hair whipping out behind her as she walked a little faster, keeping up with him. She glanced over at him and she looked at his neck once more, his scarf blowing by the slight wind as the speed they were making. She could’ve sworn she saw something, but she shook her head.This heat is making you hallucinate Nik..she told herself as they reached the gate to the restricted section. She looked at him, to the tall cage, then back to him. Taking her hand out of her pockets, she held her hand up to the lock and said a nonverbal spell, alohamora.. she thought with a sigh. One second later the door unlocked and she held her breath for any alarms to go off or for Peeves to show up and ruin this. Looking around she opened the door and held it, guesturing for him to come in.