"You should be out celebrating, Diana. Not stuck in the library all day."

Diana sighed as she shifted the phone against her ear. She should have known that telling her aunt about her new Pagan friend, and Gillian's offer to join her family for Mabon celebrations, would be a bad idea. Sarah had been so worried about her niece's move to Oxford, even if she had hidden it well. Diana had hoped that telling her aunt about her new friend would ease some of Sarah's fears, but instead, it had only seemed to increase them.

"I think you're doing this whole guardianship thing wrong," she chuckled. "Aren't you supposed to be encouraging me to study, rather than going out to party?"

"All you ever do is study. A little partying wouldn't kill ya," Sarah threw back at her.

"Yeah, well … I can party when I've handed in this proposal. Speaking of which …"

"You should get back to the library," Sarah finished for her. "Try not to spend all night there."

"I'll try. Have fun celebrating and send my love to Em."

"Talk soon," her aunt promised, before disconnecting the call.

Diana took a moment just to enjoy the silence in the courtyard of the Bodleian Library. Ever since term had started, silence had been difficult to come by. But with the weight of her deadline pressing down upon her, she quickly found herself pocketing her cell phone and heading back inside.

It was September twenty-third, the day of the Autumn equinox – which was also known as Mabon for Pagans. Gillian had mentioned a gathering that her extended family was hosting to mark the occasion, and she had invited Diana to join them for the evening. While Diana appreciated the offer her friend had made, she wasn't much in the mood for celebrating a day she didn't really find all that important, with people she didn't really know. She hadn't wanted to offend her friend, however, so she'd offered Gillian a solid 'maybe'. That 'maybe' became a concrete 'no' when one of her professors requested a research proposal draft the week after the celebration. Diana had been thrilled to finally get the opportunity to throw herself into the area of work that had fascinated her the most, and so, she'd decided to spend Mabon in the Bodleian, fleshing out her proposal with references and quotes so that it would stand a greater chance of being accepted.

She was surprised to find just how empty the large library was, given that it was a Monday evening. It was only a little past six, but as Diana made her way back to the Duke Humphrey's reading room, and the place she'd been camped out since her lectures for the day had ended, the only other person she saw was Sean, who worked at the call desk. Either there were more Pagans in Oxford than she'd expected, or the student body had thrown one hell of a party that weekend and were collectively busy sleeping it off.

Diana made herself comfortable once more as she began working her way down her to-do list, ticking off the books and quotes that had come to mind as she'd begun formulating her research proposal. Every now and then, Sean would interrupt her with a small smile and another old manuscript, tucked safely inside its grey cardboard sleeve. Diana would offer him a smile of her own, along with her thanks, and then he would whisk away the books she'd already finished with.

The hours seemed to fly by and as the library began to darken, Diana's to-do list started shrinking while her proposal grew.

About half-way down her list was a small quote from the book Notes and Queries, that Diana knew she'd find on one the upper shelves. A quick glance around her showed that the reading room was still empty, and she knew she'd feel bad sending Sean a message asking him to come and get the book for her, when she was closer than he was. So she stretched her legs to work out the aches that had developed from sitting still for too long, and then headed for the spiral staircase behind her.

It didn't take her long to find the section where she knew the book would be located, and once she had, Diana began scanning the many spines on display in search of her target. Of course, the book she needed happened to be tucked between two black, leather-bound volumes on one of the shelves that was just out of her reach.

With a slight huff of frustration, she abandoned the books for a moment to scan the area for the step stool often used for such situations, but let out a much louder sigh when she realized there wasn't one in sight. Given the size of the library, Diana knew it would probably take her longer to hunt one down than it had to locate the book to begin with.

"Typical," she mumbled to herself. She pushed up as high onto her toes as she possibly could before stretching out her arm to try and get some kind of purchase on the book. Diana grunted a little with the effort, but every wiggle of her fingers seemed to inch them that little bit closer to her target.

She'd just managed to get her thumb and index fingers around the covers when she felt a familiar flurry across the small of her back.

Diana twisted around in shock and the book went flying from her grasp, sailing over her head to land perfectly in the waiting arms of Professor Clairmont, who was staring up at her with confusion written all over his face.

"Shit," she cursed. "I uh … I didn't mean to do that."

Diana wasn't entirely sure how she'd done it. She didn't think her grip on the worn leather had been tight enough to pull it from the shelf, let alone throw it over her head.

"What did you mean to do, Miss Bishop?" he asked, his head tilting slightly to one side as he surveyed her carefully. Diana brought her arms up to wrap around her chest in an attempt to shield herself from his piercing gaze.

"I uh … I dunno. I was just trying to get the book," she replied, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "I wasn't trying to take you out with it or anything."

Professor Clairmont cracked a small smile at her follow up, almost like he knew that it would take more than a grad student and a textbook to do some serious damage to him.

"Nice catch," she added, as a part of her mind urged her to fill the loaded silence between them. She had a feeling that the professor was looking for one answer in particular from her, but she didn't have a clue what it was. "You have excellent reflexes."

"Yes, I do," he agreed, as he finally turned the book over in his hands to read the title from the spine. While he was distracted, Diana used the time to make her way down from the upper floor and over to where her work was spread across the bench.

Somehow, Professor Clairmont made it there before she could. He gently set the book down into the free space to her left, where she'd set every book she'd been reading that day, before allowing his fingers to trail over the notes and manuscripts already open and waiting for her attention.

"Alchemy?" he asked, raising his eyes to meet hers.

"Yeah. I uh … it's always fascinated me." Diana shrugged her shoulders, suddenly feeling self-conscious about her choice of research proposal.

"It's a very fascinating subject," he replied, turning his eyes back to her notepad. He pushed aside the to-do list resting on top and scanned through her scrawled plans beneath it. "Impressive," Professor Clairmont declared. He then straightened up and took a small step back.

Diana flushed a little at his compliment as she brought a hand up to push her hair back behind her ear.

The professor's eyes followed her movement and he swallowed heavily before speaking again. "Is there anything else you need help reaching before I leave?" he asked. "I'd hate for you to take out someone with slower reflexes than my own."

Diana couldn't stop the chuckle that left her lips at his words, even as she shook her head. "No. Thank you, Professor. I'm sorry to have ruined your night."

"You didn't," he assured her. He then turned on his heels and strode confidently out of the reading room. The slap of his fine leather shoes against the hardwood of the floor echoed throughout the empty room with every step he took away from her, perfectly matching the thrumming of Diana's heart inside her chest.


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