Couples Conflict – Chapter 2 - Library Mice

"I've never even see it. How am I suppose to know what size his is?" she asked herself out loud thinking that she was the only one left in the library.

Brown eyes in a soft face watched her as she quickly jotted down notes to go over later. She then placed her quill down and looked at her hands before looking back at the book, then down at her hands again. She moved her hands together until her fingers inter locked. She looked back down at the book and brought her wrists together.

Lavender pushed her face against Neville's as she too wanted to see what the girl was doing. They were quite happy being alone until she showed up five minutes ago. They had chosen a great spot in the last row of the great tomes. Hardly anyone came to the library that late during this time of the semester and hardly anyone came to that section.

"She made a basket weave," Lavender whispered to Neville is slight shock.

"What's a basket weave?" he whispered back at her.

"I can't believe she's studying that," Lavender whispered again.

"Studying what?" Neville asked a little louder. Lavender clamped her hand over his mouth.

"Shhh. Not so loud. I'll show you later," she said as she lowered her hand. He nodded and they both looked back at the brown haired girl as she continued to read and jot down notes. She stopped writing again and was looking at something with a very puzzled look on her face. She lifted a hand and aimed three then two then three fingers at her face.

"Is she going to cast some kind of spell?" Neville quietly asked Lavender.

"That's not for casting a spell," she told him.

"Then…"

BOOM!

"A…" Neville covered Lavender's mouth in time to keep her from screaming out in surprise and possibly fright. They blinked as the dust that had been tossed up from whatever it was that hit the floor just feet away from them. They turned and saw that it was one of the tomes from up on the higher shelves. Even now as they looked upwards they could see the old dust that had covered it and its place on the shelf as it more quietly fell down out of the darkness that appeared at the fiftieth level and went upward.

They heard a noise and moved close to the book to see if something had been caught under it. When they leaned over it they heard it snoring.

The couple leaned back and looked up together as they heard something else. They pulled back against the wall holding on to each other as another one fell next to the first.

"I think we should leave," Neville told Lavender.

"But we can't. Not with her here," Lavender replied. They inched back to where they were standing before to see if the girl was reading or writing or doing something with her fingers, but she was gone. They looked in both directions along the long row of study tables. She had left. They grabbed each others hand and quietly but quickly made their way to the door, before another tome got lucky and fell on one of them.

When they got to the door, they counted off the bricks on the wall to the left of the door before pushing on the one they wanted. They exited out into the hallway and closed the opening before they ran back to their house hand in hand. The Fat Lady stood in their way asleep and they were waking her up so they could supply the password for entry when Hermione Granger walks up to the portrait. She stood there and looked at them as they tried to wake the lady, but with no success.

"You have to use a coherent spell to get her up," Hermione says as she pulls out her wand to wave it at the framed lady. As she does so a book falls from her robes and lands face down at their feet. Lavender bends and picks it up before Hermione had a chance to. Lavender looks at the cover briefly before holding it flat against her chest.

"That's my book. Return it," Hermione demanded as she held out her hand. "Please," she added after a moment.

"Of course, I was just picking it up for you," Lavender said as she stepped closer. She bent in closer and whispered something into Hermione's ear. Neville watched as the other brown haired girl turned red in the face until she looked over at him.

"I won't say anything," he heard her say before Lavender stepped back and returned to his side.

"What's all this racket at this time of night?" was heard coming from the Fat Lady as she started to wake up over them. Lavender and Neville placed some distance between themselves so it didn't look like they were a couple.

"We need to get inside," Neville told the Lady.

"What's the password?" the Fat Lady asked as she started to get comfortable again.

"Caput Draconis," they all said together. The Fat Lady waved her hand for them to go inside as she swung her picture open for the three of them to enter. Once they were in the hall that lead down to their common room. Neville held Lavender back as Hermione walked on without them. They both watched to make sure that she rounded the corner before they kissed.

"See ya tomorrow at breakfast," Neville told Lavender before she kissed him back. She smiled up at him as she rubbed his shoulder before she ran off to the staircase that lead to the girl's dorm. Feeling bashful, happy and tired, Neville scratched the back of his head as he slowly walked towards his own dorm to get some sleep.

Lavender walked in to see Hermione sitting up in bed hiding the book that she had walked in with.

"I already know that you have it. Why hide it now?" Lavender asked her as she changed for bed. Parvati stayed asleep while her roommates engaged in a mental battle while both kept their distance and held their tongues.

Lavender climbed into bed without saying another word to the girl she considered an enemy. She did so to such an extent that Hermione believed that she was being ignored. Hermione pulled the book back out from under her blanket and read the first five pages again once Lavender appeared to be sleeping. As interesting as the information was, the words started to blur together for her. She closed the book and slid it under her pillow before going to sleep. As she started to dream, she saw Ron riding his new broom during one of his Quidditch games.