I know it's short, but nothing more needs to be said.

Happy World Book Day!

The steady ticking of the grandfather clock resonated throughout the silent library. Large, glossy bookcases reflected the sound to every corner of the gigantic room, their shelves loaded with thick volumes not allowed to gather dust. Towards the end of the room was a bookshelf much newer than the rest, with thinner, sleeker books poking out. Tessa had wheedled her husband - with surprisingly little effort needed - into investing in a bookshelf purely for her to fill with classics. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights... She had ensured that her children would grow up reading them, as she had.

Now, Tessa, Will, and their children all sat engrossed in the books they had chosen. Will was settled in an armchair, his five year old daughter cuddled in his lap, and he held a book open in front of the two of them, painstakingly listening as she stumbled over the words in an attempt to read it herself.

James, being old alone to read on his own, had curled up like a cat on a makeshift nest of blankets and pillows just in front of the roaring fireplace. His amber eyes, holding his black pupils like insects trapped in crystallised tree sap, flicked across the page feverishly as he practically devoured it page by page.

Tessa was the only one sitting at the long table that stretched from one end of the library to the other. She had shifted position several times in the almost-an-hour they had been here, those she hadn't broken her concentration on the narrative. Now the book's cover was against the table top, with her hunched over it, a few loose wisps of brown hair floating in front of her eyes.

A solemn but not grave stillness penetrated the air as they all read, caught up in their respective prose's. Tessa had been beyond thrilled when her children had unearthed a passion for reading; without Will's interference she would have had them reading novels by the end of their third year.

Then that long, long moment broke. The ticking turned the sounding of twelve chimes as the two adults stirred and smiled at each other. The smiles were small, but were enough. A restlessness spread out across the family like a ripple as Will gently coaxed Lucie off his lap and Tessa rose from the stiff wooden chair. James rushed his reading in order to finish the chapter in time.

Then the Herondale's left the library, ready to return the next day.