I didn't create Harry Potter - I'm not nearly that awesome.

"What to you mean there's a limit to how many books I can check out at once?" Hermione's voice quavered slightly, and her eyes widened.

Madam Pince raised a eyebrow and repeated herself in a waspish tone. "No more than 50 books at any one time."

"Bu – but… Madam Pince! I have a research paper due for Arithmancy! I need these books!"

"Then you can complete your research in the library and leave the books here."

"But the library is closing for the night!"

The librarian's voice was gleefully ruthless. "Well, then you should have planned ahead Miss Granger." The craggy woman turned away from the trio to fiddle with her card catalogue.

"Hermione – don't you think you could just return some of those other books you have stashed away by the fireplace in the common room?" Ron looked genuinely concerned.

"No! I can't! I need those for Snape's paper on antidotes!"

"What about the ones by the announcement board?" Harry supplied.

"Those are for Divination!"

"How about that stack that just sits in the corner – there must be like 15 books in there…"

"NO! Those are for my Muggle Studies homework!"

Hermione truly looked desperate now: her eyes were watery, and she chewed furiously on her lower lip. "What am I going to do?"

Harry glanced at Ron – he could feel the corners of his mouth twitching but didn't dare actually laugh at Hermione's plight. His red-headed friend merely looked befuddled for a moment. Then, like dawn, recognition broke over Ron's face. He scooped up the teetering stack of books and rapped his knuckles on the librarian's desk.

"Oi! I want to check out these books."

Hermione beamed, Ron's ears turned red, and Madam Pince glared at her new target.

"Let's just make sure you don't have any overdue books first…" Madam Pince rifled through her records. "We can't be loaning books out to anyone… irresponsible." Ron looked like he had something caught in his throat. The librarian muttered names as she flipped through cards: "Vance, Wallace, Weasley, Weasley, Weasley, ah – here we are. Ronald Weasley…" Madam Pince studied the card through narrowed eyes. A slow grin spread over her pinched lips. "What have you done with Quidditch Quarrels: A Guide to Foul Play?" She pronounced each syllable like a death sentence.

Ron blanched, "I – I definitely returned that – like last year! … Didn't I?"

Madam Pince shook her head slowly her menacing grin still in place.

Harry could see that Hermione was getting desperate and Ron was on the brink of being put on the librarian's hit list. "Fine, I'll check out the books."

Madam Pince rounded on Harry like a bird of prey. "Hm – Potter…" She returned to her student records and sifted through again. "Patil, Patil, Parkinson, Potter… hmmm… HA!" All three students jumped a little at the exclamation. "A 15 knut fine, Mr. Potter, I'm afraid you won't be checking out anything until…"

"Hold it! I'll pay the fine, just… a second…" Harry groped around in his pockets and produced seven little bronze coins, three larger silver ones, and a bit of lint. He held up a sickle. "Can you make change, Madam Pince?"

"No, I can not Mr. Potter, this is not a branch of Gringotts."

"Oh, hold on, we can find exact change…" Harry looked at his two friends wearily. They too began to dig through pockets in search of coins. Hermione produced a further five knuts from her wallet, sifting through a number of muggle coins in the process; and Ron unearthed two from the recesses of his book bag and produced a third from the toe of his shoe. The friends piled the little mountain of bronze on the counter and Harry shoved it toward the sour-faced old woman behind the desk. She wrinkled her nose as she counted through the money.

"Fine," she said at last, after recounting the coins twice and sweeping them into a drawer behind the counter. She stamped the books rather fiercely and pushed them across the checkout desk toward the students. They divided the stack between the three of them and warily retreated – sensing the librarian's stare at their backs until they exited into the darkening hallways and hurried of toward Gryffindor tower.

Hermione was the one to break the silence. She still sounded disoriented. "But how can there be a limit on library books?"