Title: There is no statute of limitations on stupidity
Summary: Despite what everyone else thinks, Irma Pince is capable of having a fun day at work.
Characters/Pairings: Irma Pince
Genre: Gen
Beta: n/a
Rating/Warnings: n/a
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 500
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: Yes
If yes, your Tumblr username: monkiainen
Irma Pince took her job very seriously. It was her pride to have all the books accounted for, and in pristine condition, at the vast library of Hogwarts. The fact that it was a school library didn't make her job any easier, on the contrary. Those students! They thought they could treat the books carelessly, dog-earing their pages and writing to the margins! Absolutely not! Those students were the worst kind. Who do they think they were? They had no right to treat Irma's precious books like that! Even if technically they weren't Irma's books at all, but she treated them all the same time. It was her job to do so, and she wanted to do it well.
Then there were students like Hermione Granger, who treated books like they should be. Irma knew it was going to be a good day if Miss Granger returned her books. They were always returned in the same condition they had been loaned out. Irma only wished more students were like her, but that seemed impossibility. People had no respect for books, it seemed.
Irma knew what the majority of students thought of her; that she was a humourless, rigid spinster who hated students. Hate was such a strong word: Irma preferred "dislike" better. Books were far better company than loud children who had the nerve to eat in her library. How rude!
Despite that Irma actually had fun days at work, even if nobody believed her. Oh, those were the best days! The day Irma usually had the most fun was the beginning of the summer holidays: all the students were gone, and most of the professors had returned to their homes. It was only Irma and her books.
On that special day Irma did everything she couldn't normally do with nosy students around: she would curl in an armchair conveniently hidden in the corner of the Restricted Section with a self-filling teacup, a pile of books besides her. And then she would read, and read, and read, until it was time to go to sleep. The next morning she would do it all over again, and the days after that, until she had read all the new books from the library.
A week before the start of the new term also marked a fun day at work for Irma. It was the time she renewed all the jinxes and hexes to all the books in the library. It was so much fun, exploring new ways to make sure that students didn't mistreat the books in any way. Irma was most proud of the nasty little hex that would immediately stick the student's fingers together if they tried to draw or write to the book. That should teach them a lesson.
So, all in all, Irma did have some fun days at work, even if nobody believed it. They just didn't understand the beauty of the books the way Irma did and that was okay. It only meant Irma had all the books to herself.
17 points for Hufflepuff!