"That a famous library has been cursed by a woman is a matter of complete indifference to a famous library."
-Virginia Woolf
Lily hurried through breakfast, not stopping to butter her toast or finish off her eggs. She took a messy swig of pumpkin juice—sloshing some of it over the rim of her cup—as she stood and grabbed her bag off the bench next to her. It was an early Sunday morning, so not many students were around, but the ones that were stared at her as she darted back out of the dining hall, not staying for more than five minutes.
But Lily didn't care that she was getting odd looks. She had to get to the library as early as she could today. She wanted to get a head start on her Transfiguration essay. It wasn't due until Thursday, but it was a long one this time, three feet on the side effects of turning parchment into dinner plates, and she knew she wouldn't have much time to do it during the week. She was sure Flitwick was bound to give them some lengthy assignment, and Slughorn had been hinting about a weeklong Potions exam with extra credit if you stayed after class to work on it. She definitely planned to stay after if the rumors were true, so she would have even less time to work on this essay.
She knew the way to the library like she knew the back of her hand, and soon she was standing in front of the great double doors. They were huge, carved with intricate designs, and the hinges groaned as she swung one of the open and slipped inside.
Weak morning sunlight shone in through the windows, catching on dust particles and making them dance. Lily stopped, taking a moment to breathe in the dusty old book smell and watch the dust swirl. The Hogwarts library was truly one of the greatest she had ever been in, and she loved every second of it. The high arched windows, the shelves and shelves of books towering in every direction, and the sweet smell of knowledge made the library a sanctuary for her, a place where she could come to study undisturbed or just escape from life for a while. It felt almost alive sometimes, like an old friend she could always count on to have her back.
Sadly, her moment of peace was interrupted as Madam Pince came scuttling around the corner. When she saw Lily, she stopped in her tracks and frowned.
"What are you doing here at this hour? You'd best not be here to make trouble." The librarian's face twisted up as she said this. All the other librarians Lily had known loved it when people came in, giving them big smiles and helping them find books to read, but this sour old lady seemed more likely to bite off your head than give you a book recommendation. Still, Lily pasted a smile onto her face and swung her bag around so Madam Pince could see.
"I'm just here to work on some homework, my Transfiguration essay. I promise I won't cause any trouble."
Madam Pince humphed but didn't respond, so Lily thought that was the best she was going to get. She kept going, walking through the aisles until she reached her favorite spot. The desk was right next to a window, giving her lots of natural light when she studied. Best of all, it was in the Transfiguration section, so there would be lots of books around to help her write the essay.
She plunked her bag down and sat in the chair next to it, pulling out her parchment and homework planner. Opening it, she scanned the requirements that McGonagall had set for the essay. Everything looked easy enough, until she came to a note: "Makes use of one historical example. May use Lagunov's Disaster of 1903 or Clarke's Mishap of 1776."
Lily had no idea what either of those were, and she wasn't exactly sure how parchment plates could cause disasters or mishaps, but she pulled out her Transfiguration textbook and turned to the relevant chapter. To her disappointment, there wasn't anything, although there was a footnote that recommended she use Le Chatelier's Principles of Transfiguring Flatware for specific examples. Lily snorted, closing the book. Clearly, this was McGonagall's idea to get them to use other sources and actually put some effort into the essay. Luckily, Lily was skilled in putting effort into her schoolwork.
Her chair scraped back as she stood up, thankful once again to be in the Transfiguration section. She began scanning the rows for her desired book. Fortunately, she found it rather quickly. Unfortunately, it was on the seventh row of the bookshelf. Lily stood there, looking at it. Why couldn't it be lower? Didn't it know how short she was? She reached up as far as she could, but her fingers barely skimmed the bottom of the book.
She waved her arm back and forth in the hope that it would somehow elongate, but it stayed the same short size as it had always been. She huffed in frustration. She needed that book for her essay. How was she going to get it down?
She took a tentative step forward and put her foot on the second shelf. It seemed sturdy enough, so she cautiously lifted her other foot off the ground towards the third, but the shelf groaned as she put all her weight on it and she hastily stepped down. Okay, so climbing the shelf wouldn't work. But what else could she do…?
Lily paused, then sprang into the air. Her hand slammed into the book, but instead of closing around it and pulling it down as she had hoped, she just pushed it further back onto the shelf. And if that wasn't bad enough, her jump kept her moving forward and she smashed into the shelf, half falling and half sliding down it as she scrabbled to gain purchase.
One of her nails bent back as it collided with the shelf edge, and she bit back a scream as pain flared up her finger. She landed sprawled on the floor. Her jumper had ridden up on the side that had scraped against the bookshelf, and she could feel a few light scratches from some books she had collided with. A thump caught her attention, and she saw that a book had fallen to the floor. But not her book. Her book was still lodged up there on the goddamned seventh shelf, but this one had just fallen to the floor because it wanted to. Her book was still sitting up there, all proud and proper, taunting her with its incredible balance and perfect shelf-stayingness.
She could have used magic, but her pride was wounded now, and she was determined to get that book down the Muggle way. Maybe it though it had her beat, but it would see it was no match for her! Trying to ignore how her perfect studying day was quickly going down the drain, Lily clambered to her feet and tried a different approach.
She stood on her tiptoes and managed to hook her fingers under the bottom of the binding. She hopped a little, trying to push the book up and out of its place on the shelf. Thankfully, it jumped forward slightly. She did it again, springing up and down like a rabbit as she nudged the book farther and farther off the shelf. She was sure she looked ridiculous with her jumper riding up sideways and her hair all messed up, jumping up and down like a lunatic to get the darned book, but it was early in the morning, and nobody was around to see her make a complete and utter fool of herself. Hopefully.
Finally, the book was almost loose. She hoped it would come down soon. She was getting dizzy from all the looking up and jumping. She gave one more big jump, putting all of her annoyance at this book into her feet and pushing up, and it gave, flying up and out.
Unfortunately, so did she. Lily slammed into another bookshelf, this time the one opposite from hers. As she knocked into it, she heard the sound of her book hitting the floor, followed by about a hundred echoes of the same sound. All the books on the shelf she rammed into flew back, slamming into the sides of their fellows and making them all fall out the other side of the shelf. They rained down, falling open and sideways, pages getting bent under the weight of their covers, dusty tomes centuries old being thrown to the ground like crumpled newspapers or gum wrappers.
Lily didn't even wait for Pince to come and kick her out. She grabbed the book, her hard-earned trophy, and shoved it into her bag, stalking towards the exit. As she swung her bag onto her shoulder, some of her hair got pinned down under the strap, and she pulled it out with an angry shriek. She slammed open the door and marched down the hallway. The doors closed with just enough time to hear Madam Pince's angry screams as she discovered the avalanche of fallen books.
"Stupid library!" Lilly huffed. "Stupid, stupid library!"
But behind her, the Hogwarts library sat silently, giving no indication it had heard.
AN: Hope you liked that! My teacher decided that we should have an AP Cram Week, so we spent the entire week writing timed essays and answering sample multiple choice questions. The quote at the beginning is from an essay/speech by Virginia Woolf that was on one of the documents we read. I saw it and was inspired to make it into a story, and here we are!