Not So Much Silence in the Library
"Out! Everybody out!" shrieked Madam Pince, flapping her arms around as the students began to pack up their bags, grumbling as they did so.
"What is wrong with that woman?" muttered Ron as he roughly shoved a copy of Unfogging the Future into his bag. The book was snatched out of his hands by an irritated Madam Pince.
"Don't you dare treat books like that, boy!" she hissed, before gliding away to another part of the library to prey on yet another unsuspecting student.
"Bloody hell," muttered Ron, followed his friends out of the library. "She's a mad old bat. That book belonged to me."
xXx
Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock
BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG
xXx
The clock chimed out the hours. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Midnight.
For a brief moment, the library was almost silent, the only sound audible being the constant tick tock tick tock of the clock now that the hours had been counted.
And then the rustling began.
It sounded like pages being turned. Slowly at first, from one shelf right at the back of the restricted section, as if a student out of bed had managed to sneak in, past the librarian's jinxes and intruder alarm charms and was sitting there, nose buried in a book. Probably under an invisibility cloak. But even if someone knew where to look, they wouldn't find anyone, because there was nobody there.
The rustling got louder. And it spread, the sound sweeping across the shelves like waves on a beach. First gently; a quiet day at the seaside. Then rougher, until it reached tsunami level, the roar filling the library as the books started to speak.
"Eeeek! I can't believe that another child has read me with sticky fingers!" Magical Me rustled its pages, as if to shake off the sticky finger prints.
"It's all of those girls chasing after you," muttered Charm Your Own Cheese. "I just don't know why you complain so much. I haven't been opened in years!"
"You're not exactly in the right place for your target audience, Cheesy," chipped in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
"Just because you're always being taken out!" snapped Charm Your Own Cheese. "You constantly have students wanting to read you."
"Yeah, that's the problem with being a set text," said Fantastic Beasts. "It isn't exactly easy, you know. Just the other day one of my pages was torn out. Torn right out!"
"Which page?" asked Magical Me.
"Well I don't know! It's gone!" replied Fantastic Beasts.
"What I'd give for just one person taking me off this horrid, dusty shelf," muttered Charm Your Own Cheese, but none of the other books were listening to it any more.
xXx
Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock
BONG
xXx
As the clock chimed one, the rustling ceased. The library was quiet again, the only sound being the ticking of the clock.
The books were silent, waiting for the dawning of a new day.