Chapter 15: Library Rendezvous

The next morning, Justin was stuffing his backpack with parchments, quills, inkbottles and the Advanced Potion textbook. Since that it's Saturday morning, he decided to seize this moment to spend the entire day at the library in the second floor.

Wearing a white shirt underneath unbuttoned blue plaid long sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans and sneakers, he ran down from the boys' dormitory to the Ravenclaw's common room. He stopped by his friends, who sat by the fireplace, and informed them where he will be at.

"See you guys later," Justin said to them. He pulled his backpack up his shoulder and walked out the common room's secret passage to the grand staircase. There were not much of the students roaming around inside the castle this time.

Quite nice actually because Justin could actually looked around closely like the portraits. He was walking passes some of them as he head over to the second floor. Going through the portrait of an old man sitting on an ancient armchair, Justin was now on the hallway to the library. It was quiet there as it was supposed to be.

It's no surprise that not much of the students were around that area which means that Justin have the whole library to himself. This is heaven! He thought to himself as he smiled widely. He walked on with the smile still intact on his face. Looking around, he feels like he wants to skip through the bookcases but something in his stomach make him not to.

Justin took a seat at the right side by the church-like windows. Peering outside, it was a beautiful day and quite soothing. He liked it. But he shouldn't. He's not there to enjoy himself. He's only there because Max accidentally transported him and Alex along with Harper into the book. He reminded himself on that point. Then, he thought of Juliet, his vampire-with-a-soul girlfriend. His smile faded at the thought of her. Wonder what she's doing right now? He thought to himself. He sighed.

Slowly taking out some rolls of parchments, an black ink bottle, a blue feathered quill and a Monster Book of Monsters; he let out another deep sigh before he proceed to his work for the day, write a 700 words on Chimaera and Manticore.

"Chimaera …" Justin began as he wrote down the creature's name on the piece of parchment. He flipped open the Monster Book of Monsters and briefly read the chapter on ancient creatures.

'Chimaera is an early ancient Greek legend of a monster with the head of a lion, body of a goat and a tail of a dragon. It believed to be the sibling of Sphinx and Cerberus…' Justin wrote down. He stopped and thinks. Shortly after, he was now staring at the spine of the library books three tables away from where he sat. Running his index finger while he scans the title of the books, he slow down on few of the titles but move on after.

Justin had his mind glued to his intention so tight that he completely forgets to look at the girl that walking pass him.

"Justin? Fancy seeing you here," a girl murmured.

"Huh?" Justin turned to her. He was completely off of his focus at first but he quickly recognized her. "Hermione! Hey!"

"SHH!!" hissed Madam Pince from the other side of the library. She stood there with her hands on the book trolley staring at them like a vulture stalking its prey.

"What are you doing here?" Justin slowly whispered.

"Studying as usual," Hermione said softly."I see you're on the books too. Looking for the ancient mythical creatures I presume?"

"How do you know I was looking for that?" Justin had to ask.

"We're on the same class, remember?" she replied.

DUH! Justin thought to himself. "Oh yeah, now I remembered," Justin chuckled, nodding his head. "Sorry, I'm a little dazed there. You know… got a lot going on inside my head…" He chuckled again.

"SHH!" Madam Pince hissed again. Hermione looked apologetically at her.

Shoot! Stop it man! It's a library. Where are your manners? He thought to himself.

"So," Justin softly began.

Hermione quickly turned to him. Justin cleared his throat and added, "Have you done yours?"

"Yes, I did it back at the common room earlier. I found it very simple you know. I did a thorough research on them before the school term started."

"Wow…" Justin grinned, feeling a bit moving by her. "That's quite a spectacular dedication, Hermione. You're very loyal to your studies…"

"Really? You think so?" she asked back, quite surprised. "You know, some people think that I'm weird that I constantly study and have books wherever I go."

"No, I don't think you're weird at all." He smiled. "I find that quite fascinating."

Hermione's eyes sparkled when she heard that. She beamed at him with a hint of little crimson on her cheeks. "No one ever said that to me before…"

Wow. She looks so cute when she's blushing Justin thought.

Hermione blinked her eyes and coughed as she looked away from Justin. "Um, anyway, I have to go. I'll you around then…" Hermione lifted up her bag to her side and hugged the books she borrowed. She gave Justin a smile before she went off out of the library.

Justin slightly titled his head and watched her. "Cool. See you then."