Libraries - The Answers & Its Our Anniversary
Here's the answer sheet. Were you a good little researcher?
1. A Good Morning by keladry_lupin
2. Touch the Dark by dreamy_dragon73
3. Independent Study by Anastasia aka ttfs
4. Pleasurable Pastimes by tempest_dreams
5. The Research Project by timestep
6. Shining Through by plaidpooka
7. Between the Lines by machshefa
8. Surrender by Dryad
9. Questions Unasked by larilee
10. Fireworks by swooning4a_r
1. I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, that day she first came to St Mungo’s. She was unlocking the library with an ancient key and trembling hands as I was closing up my laboratory, one chilly winter morning nine years ago. I recognized her at once, though I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, and decided to have a bit of fun. I sneaked behind her and reached around, covered her hand with mine, and slid the key in the lock. She jumped, startled, but when she looked up, her immediate reaction was to smile. ‘Hello, Professor,’ she said, smiling as though she was actually happy to see me.
It had been terribly disconcerting at first; I wondered what was wrong with her. But her greetings never changed. Even when she looked tired or ill, she always greeted me as though the sight of me had made her day better … as though I hadn’t insulted and harassed her for the first six years of our acquaintance. I never managed to ask her how she could act this way around me. Perhaps I was afraid of the answer.
It was a mystery I hadn’t unravelled yet. All I knew now was that no day was complete until one of us had stopped by the other’s work space to visit, even if it was thirty seconds of small talk before work demanded my attention or hers again.
Hermione stood and placed a book on the shelf behind her, bringing my mind back to the present. What is it about her that makes me feel fifteen years old? I wondered as I crossed the room. The sunlight streamed through the enchanted window, setting the entire library alight.
A Good Morning by keladry_lupin
2. Lucius politely led the way to the library. When Hermione entered the room, she drew a breath. She had heard a lot about it, but nothing had prepared her for the view that greeted her. Every wall was lined with bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling. Several more bookcases were placed throughout the room. The pale afternoon light filtered in through three large windows in one of the walls. A dark table adorned with two candelabras graced the centre of the room, with several very comfortable looking chairs placed around it. In one corner, Hermione could see a settee that just seemed to invite one to curl up on it with a book. As in Lucius’s study, the flames in the fireplace served to keep the room pleasantly warm while infusing it with a soft light. Full of appreciation, Hermione let her eyes roam along the seemingly endless shelves of books. The room had the typical, very slightly musty smell of well-kept old books that is so wonderful to book lovers everywhere and that no airing can drive away. Hermione inhaled deeply. Life suddenly did look a lot more promising.
She turned to her host. ‘This is very impressive. Thank you for the opportunity to conduct research here.’ Her smile was almost genuine.
Lucius inclined his head. ‘I am always glad to be of service to the Ministry.’
Touch the Dark by dreamy_dragon73
3. "It's here, I know it..." Hermione muttered, tilting her head and trailing a finger along the spines as she walked.
Lifting the lantern higher, she tried to keep it steady while walking along the uneven floor. Each time lightning flashed, she caught a better glimpse of the titles and knew she was in the right section. Warm light shuffled layered shadows as she held the lantern higher, following the alphabetical progression downward.
Hermione mumbled the titles aloud, adding a comment or two as to whether or not they'd help her research. Pulling a few books off of a lower shelf, she placed them on a table and settled down to read. Time passed in quiet contemplation, the sound of her turning pages and the scratch of her quill a soothing melody.
The lantern's flame leaned to the side, then snapped back up, catching her attention for a brief moment. A distant flash of lightning etched harsh shadows across the books, then faded, leaving a slow, cascading tremor in its wake.
The flame flickered once more, swaying, then lay flat down - a quick movement.
Suddenly she was pulled out of the chair, grasped by the shoulders, spun around and pressed up against the shelves. A deep kiss, filled with the desperation of the here and now, his weight against her, the books behind her back, shifting, his hands in her hair. Several books tumbled to the floor around them. Her fingers twisted over in his robes, tearing, pulling him closer. Another book next to her head threatened to fall until his hand left her hair and shoved the book back into the shelf, ramming it flush with the others, rattling the row into submission
Independent Study by Anastasia aka ttfs
4. Severus' office door slammed open without warning. He looked up from his grading to see a very irate Madam Hermione Granger standing before him.
"Professor," she bit out, throwing a piece of parchment on his desk. "What is the meaning of this?"
He lifted a brow and kept his eyes on hers as he reached for it. There were always any number of things that might irritate the Hogwarts librarian; however, he didn't offhand know what he might have recently done to move irritation to ire. Only when he had the document settled in his hands did he glance down to see.
Looking at it, he frowned. What was the problem? "It's my grant proposal, of course, Madam Granger. I am applying for a Ministry-sponsored grant to fund a new Defence Against the Dark Arts practical classroom by reconstructing a section of the North Tower."
"Hermione," she corrected distractedly. "I've told you time and time again to please call me Hermione. And you knew I was applying for the same grant! I'm planning to expand and update the library with texts from other countries, including all the books from that American botanist that you keep asking for!"
Severus felt a mild pinch of guilt, but it was quickly suppressed.
Pleasurable Pastimes by tempest_dreams
5. Severus Snape was the only teacher currently working in the library. Even with the students gone from the castle, he was still dressed in his formal teaching robes. While he didn’t intimidate Hermione anymore, she did find that he was still very unpleasant to be around and she found herself hoping that she would find the book before she was required to search the table he was working at.
As she finished her search of the remaining tables in the library without success, she sighed as she quietly approached Professor Snape’s table.
“Oh, there it is. I’ve been looking for that book,” Hermione said as she looked over Severus Snape’s shoulder.
“I’m reading it,” Snape responded dryly.
“May I please borrow it for just a moment? I need to check a fact.”
“Library protocol dictates, Miss Gran-”
“Professor.”
“Excuse me?”
“My title is Professor, as you well know.”
“My apologies; Professor Granger. Library protocol dictates that I am allowed to finish using this tome and then you may borrow it.”
“But I just needed. . .”
“And I have said that you may have the book when I am finished. In your research circles, you may find it appropriate to interrupt each other, but it is not so in mine. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back to my research.”
The Research Project by timestep
6. On his first day of freedom from students, Severus headed straight for the library. Though he had a rather massive private library, it was little surprise that he owned not one book which had anything to do with personal appearance. Entering the library, Severus was disappointed to find the new librarian, Hermione Granger, going through the stacks while she tidied and straightened the books left in disarray from the end of term exams. When Madam Pince had retired, Miss Granger had jumped at the chance to replace her. For the past year, she had been tending the library and making up the classes she had missed when she had left school at the end of her sixth year. Privately, Severus admired the fortitude it took the young witch to return to her studies when she could have ridden on the coattails of her friend, Potter’s, celebrity. However, it would be a chilly day in hell before he actually told her so. While he knew that Miss Granger planned on staying through the break, he was disappointed indeed to see her hard at work, so soon after the students had fled for the summer. He’d hoped for some privacy.
Spotting him, Hermione gave Severus a friendly smile as she said, “Is there anything that I can help you with, Professor?”
Staring at her for a moment, Severus realized that only Minerva and Miss Granger ever looked straight at him and smiled like that. Though the other professors were friendly to him, most everyone seemed to avoid looking at him outright. It seemed heartening to him somehow, that two witches of his acquaintance were able to ignore his appearance and speak to him like a human being. Perhaps they only had particularly strong stomachs.
“No, thank you, Miss Granger,” Severus said, carefully giving the young witch a small smile which did not show his crooked teeth. “I’ve a bit of private research to do and I can manage on my own. You need not interrupt your work.”
“All right, then. Do let me know if I can be of assistance.” With another smile, she returned to her work.
Relieved when Miss Granger took herself off to the Restricted Section, Severus left the potion journals he had been impatiently thumbing through and headed to the section of the stacks which held spells and charms for personal use.
Shining Through by plaidpooka
7. "I have great need of this book,” he said softly, willing his pounding heart to not leap from his chest. He rubbed the soft leather spine of the awkward tome absently with his thumb. “Despite its deplorable lack of subtlety and often unfathomable language, I find its contents…” the knot in his stomach rose to constrict his throat, “…irresistible.”
She nodded thoughtfully and her cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink. “They are rather, aren’t they?” The silk of her whisper flew from her and wrapped itself around him like a cloak. He was captive to her eyes, an eager prisoner. The butterflies that had been twisted tightly in his belly and his throat burst free, flooding his body with shivers.
“What does one do,” she shifted her hand slightly so that her skin lightly brushed his-both still clutching the soft leather, “with a book such as this?”
He paused, as if considering a weighty problem-as, he supposed, he was.
“One approaches it with… reverence, and adoration, and… dedication, I should think.” He felt his face burn with the memory of countless moments of arrogance and barbed attacks towards her. “And,” he moved an elegant finger to stroke a small scratch on the surface of the leather, “should do everything necessary to repair the hurts sustained from previous errors… intentional or by neglect.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, I should think that apart from the harm that’s already evident, there could also be injury to a book such as this that wouldn’t be obvious at first glance.” The tenderness in her gaze soothed the fluttering sensation and sent a wave of warmth through him. “Care should always be taken with something so precious.”
Between the Lines by machshefa
8. It was cool and bright when they flooed into the main rotunda of the Library at Alexandria. The watery green light highlighted the walls of glistening sandstone, dotted with heavy Spanish oak doors. Balconies above showed there were three other floors of rooms, with wrought iron rails curling in mystic designs. The floor was a well-polished parquet marble of black and green whose pattern would shift on its own at various times. There were a few fireplaces with marble mantles. Orange robed clerics stood at desks to sign people into different reading rooms. Even with many people in a space that would normally echo a pin drop, it was comfortably silent. Above the main fireplace was a portrait of Hypatia. The library’s biggest benefactor had saved the collection from being torched by performing a freezing spell when a mob decided that she was a witch, and attempted to burn her and the library down.
Hermione remembered hearing the story as a child, upset that such a vast store of knowledge had been lost. But when she began to understand the wizarding world, she wondered if it had indeed been burned at all. It was a great relief to know that it still stood.
“Hermione, look up,” Severus leaned over and whispered in her ear.
She turned her head up, and stared at the domed ceiling. It reminded her of the ceiling at the inn, watery, with fish and creatures floating by.
“Wait a minute. That’s real isn’t it?”
He chuckled. “Indeed. The library at Alexandria is actually beneath the Bay of Abu Kir. The whole library is underwater.”
“”Next you’ll be telling me that Atlantis still exists as well,” Hermione chuckled before wondering why she never thought to research that as well.
Severus smirked at her, but didn’t respond.
Surrender by Dryad
9. The morning was unvaried from those preceding it. At eight a.m. precisely, Severus unlocked the front door of the library. At eight a.m. precisely, Hermione Granger smiled, inclined her head and said, "Good morning, Mr Snape."
He never answered her, stalking instead to the desk at the front of the room. For the past year, Severus had held the position, cataloguing the hundreds of books MLE found during their sweeping raids. By careful calculations, Severus decided he could spend the next five hundred years doing just that, and he would never be bored by it.
By far, this was the best job he could have asked for. No dunderhead students trying to blow either themselves or him up (accidentally or on purpose). No idiotic colleagues trying to force him into inane conversation. No direct 'superior' doling out the Cruciatus Curse for a failed assignment. Best of all, the unostentatious, subterranean, library afforded him little interaction with people. Not to mention the fact he could investigate the counter-jinxes and remedies for some of the Darker curses the Dark Lo -- Voldemort, he mentally corrected -- had created.
Hermione deposited the heavy rucksack that doubled as her travelling office on the table she claimed every visit. As the official researcher for the Ministry, she attended daily. Without a word, she disappeared in the stacks of books to recommence her research. He knew, from overheard conversations, that she was working on reversing spell damage. There was the slight suspicion that, like him, the position was a pay-off, Scrimgeour's compensation for fighting and winning a war without support from the Ministry.
The Daily Prophet reported that Weasley was now playing first-team for the Cannons, as well as engaged to Hermione Granger; just like Potter's engagement to Ginny Weasley was announced as 'news'. Neither couple surprised him, though he was a bit disappointed to think of the mismatch that a Granger-Weasley marriage would be.
Questions Unasked by larilee
10. Hermione resisted the urge to say 'If you'd admitted it sooner…' and led the way from the check-in counter to their somewhat dingy room.
"From here we can Apparate to the library and back," she reminded him, "so let's get a good fix on this room before we leave." Depositing their minimal luggage, they ventured out for a light supper in a nearby bistro, Hermione handling all the money and Severus eating very little of the food, which he clearly found less than appealing. But conversation overtook them, and it was well after nine o'clock when they finally returned to the hotel. They took a final look around, and then clung to one another as Hermione Apparated them both to the Bibliotheque Magique Consolidee de l'Europe, the largest library in the European wizarding world. Hermione had worked at the B.M.C.E. for three years before taking over the post of librarian at Hogwarts upon Madame Pince's retirement. She still corresponded regularly with the European library's director, and he had helped her arrange to meet Severus' last-minute request for a change in plans.
"Why haven't you ever come before, if you always wanted to see it?" she pressed him, as she led him up the darkened stairways of the library. "I mean, England's not so far. If it was your dream holiday, why not just take it?"
"Such frivolity was never encouraged among the Death Eaters," he reminded her. "Is it much further? We must have come up ten stories already."
"Not much further. Four more stories. We're nearly there. It will be worth it." Hermione continued doggedly up the steps, Severus lagging behind a bit as his energy flagged.
At last, they reached the final landing. With a flourish, Hermione opened the door to the roof of the monolithic library, and led Severus out to a view of Paris by evening that took even his jaded breath away. The sea of rooftops spread before them, an endless vista of warm windows in dark walls, surrounded by the white and red lights of cars, all unfurled in a glorious sparkling carpet beneath the deepening blue-black of the sky.
Fireworks by swooning4a_r
Happy Anniversary to quiz-sshg. Today marks our 2 year anniversary-whoa!!! Princess of the Quiz, Ms. Morethansirius, made this wonderful banner. Isnt she a gem?
Artwork Credits
Top Row
Left: Mark by Marquise
Center: Aperio Veneficus by Perselus
Right: Snape/Hermione Comic - PotterPuffs by Naomi Noelle
Middle Row
Left: Snape and Hermione 2 by Azraelgeffen
Right: Cravings by Elyse Camille
Bottom Row
Left: Something New by Keladry Lupin
Center: Checkmate by Maaiker
Right Ssssh He's sleeping by Usagistu
1. A Good Morning by keladry_lupin
2. Touch the Dark by dreamy_dragon73
3. Independent Study by Anastasia aka ttfs
4. Pleasurable Pastimes by tempest_dreams
5. The Research Project by timestep
6. Shining Through by plaidpooka
7. Between the Lines by machshefa
8. Surrender by Dryad
9. Questions Unasked by larilee
10. Fireworks by swooning4a_r
1. I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, that day she first came to St Mungo’s. She was unlocking the library with an ancient key and trembling hands as I was closing up my laboratory, one chilly winter morning nine years ago. I recognized her at once, though I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, and decided to have a bit of fun. I sneaked behind her and reached around, covered her hand with mine, and slid the key in the lock. She jumped, startled, but when she looked up, her immediate reaction was to smile. ‘Hello, Professor,’ she said, smiling as though she was actually happy to see me.
It had been terribly disconcerting at first; I wondered what was wrong with her. But her greetings never changed. Even when she looked tired or ill, she always greeted me as though the sight of me had made her day better … as though I hadn’t insulted and harassed her for the first six years of our acquaintance. I never managed to ask her how she could act this way around me. Perhaps I was afraid of the answer.
It was a mystery I hadn’t unravelled yet. All I knew now was that no day was complete until one of us had stopped by the other’s work space to visit, even if it was thirty seconds of small talk before work demanded my attention or hers again.
Hermione stood and placed a book on the shelf behind her, bringing my mind back to the present. What is it about her that makes me feel fifteen years old? I wondered as I crossed the room. The sunlight streamed through the enchanted window, setting the entire library alight.
A Good Morning by keladry_lupin
2. Lucius politely led the way to the library. When Hermione entered the room, she drew a breath. She had heard a lot about it, but nothing had prepared her for the view that greeted her. Every wall was lined with bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling. Several more bookcases were placed throughout the room. The pale afternoon light filtered in through three large windows in one of the walls. A dark table adorned with two candelabras graced the centre of the room, with several very comfortable looking chairs placed around it. In one corner, Hermione could see a settee that just seemed to invite one to curl up on it with a book. As in Lucius’s study, the flames in the fireplace served to keep the room pleasantly warm while infusing it with a soft light. Full of appreciation, Hermione let her eyes roam along the seemingly endless shelves of books. The room had the typical, very slightly musty smell of well-kept old books that is so wonderful to book lovers everywhere and that no airing can drive away. Hermione inhaled deeply. Life suddenly did look a lot more promising.
She turned to her host. ‘This is very impressive. Thank you for the opportunity to conduct research here.’ Her smile was almost genuine.
Lucius inclined his head. ‘I am always glad to be of service to the Ministry.’
Touch the Dark by dreamy_dragon73
3. "It's here, I know it..." Hermione muttered, tilting her head and trailing a finger along the spines as she walked.
Lifting the lantern higher, she tried to keep it steady while walking along the uneven floor. Each time lightning flashed, she caught a better glimpse of the titles and knew she was in the right section. Warm light shuffled layered shadows as she held the lantern higher, following the alphabetical progression downward.
Hermione mumbled the titles aloud, adding a comment or two as to whether or not they'd help her research. Pulling a few books off of a lower shelf, she placed them on a table and settled down to read. Time passed in quiet contemplation, the sound of her turning pages and the scratch of her quill a soothing melody.
The lantern's flame leaned to the side, then snapped back up, catching her attention for a brief moment. A distant flash of lightning etched harsh shadows across the books, then faded, leaving a slow, cascading tremor in its wake.
The flame flickered once more, swaying, then lay flat down - a quick movement.
Suddenly she was pulled out of the chair, grasped by the shoulders, spun around and pressed up against the shelves. A deep kiss, filled with the desperation of the here and now, his weight against her, the books behind her back, shifting, his hands in her hair. Several books tumbled to the floor around them. Her fingers twisted over in his robes, tearing, pulling him closer. Another book next to her head threatened to fall until his hand left her hair and shoved the book back into the shelf, ramming it flush with the others, rattling the row into submission
Independent Study by Anastasia aka ttfs
4. Severus' office door slammed open without warning. He looked up from his grading to see a very irate Madam Hermione Granger standing before him.
"Professor," she bit out, throwing a piece of parchment on his desk. "What is the meaning of this?"
He lifted a brow and kept his eyes on hers as he reached for it. There were always any number of things that might irritate the Hogwarts librarian; however, he didn't offhand know what he might have recently done to move irritation to ire. Only when he had the document settled in his hands did he glance down to see.
Looking at it, he frowned. What was the problem? "It's my grant proposal, of course, Madam Granger. I am applying for a Ministry-sponsored grant to fund a new Defence Against the Dark Arts practical classroom by reconstructing a section of the North Tower."
"Hermione," she corrected distractedly. "I've told you time and time again to please call me Hermione. And you knew I was applying for the same grant! I'm planning to expand and update the library with texts from other countries, including all the books from that American botanist that you keep asking for!"
Severus felt a mild pinch of guilt, but it was quickly suppressed.
Pleasurable Pastimes by tempest_dreams
5. Severus Snape was the only teacher currently working in the library. Even with the students gone from the castle, he was still dressed in his formal teaching robes. While he didn’t intimidate Hermione anymore, she did find that he was still very unpleasant to be around and she found herself hoping that she would find the book before she was required to search the table he was working at.
As she finished her search of the remaining tables in the library without success, she sighed as she quietly approached Professor Snape’s table.
“Oh, there it is. I’ve been looking for that book,” Hermione said as she looked over Severus Snape’s shoulder.
“I’m reading it,” Snape responded dryly.
“May I please borrow it for just a moment? I need to check a fact.”
“Library protocol dictates, Miss Gran-”
“Professor.”
“Excuse me?”
“My title is Professor, as you well know.”
“My apologies; Professor Granger. Library protocol dictates that I am allowed to finish using this tome and then you may borrow it.”
“But I just needed. . .”
“And I have said that you may have the book when I am finished. In your research circles, you may find it appropriate to interrupt each other, but it is not so in mine. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back to my research.”
The Research Project by timestep
6. On his first day of freedom from students, Severus headed straight for the library. Though he had a rather massive private library, it was little surprise that he owned not one book which had anything to do with personal appearance. Entering the library, Severus was disappointed to find the new librarian, Hermione Granger, going through the stacks while she tidied and straightened the books left in disarray from the end of term exams. When Madam Pince had retired, Miss Granger had jumped at the chance to replace her. For the past year, she had been tending the library and making up the classes she had missed when she had left school at the end of her sixth year. Privately, Severus admired the fortitude it took the young witch to return to her studies when she could have ridden on the coattails of her friend, Potter’s, celebrity. However, it would be a chilly day in hell before he actually told her so. While he knew that Miss Granger planned on staying through the break, he was disappointed indeed to see her hard at work, so soon after the students had fled for the summer. He’d hoped for some privacy.
Spotting him, Hermione gave Severus a friendly smile as she said, “Is there anything that I can help you with, Professor?”
Staring at her for a moment, Severus realized that only Minerva and Miss Granger ever looked straight at him and smiled like that. Though the other professors were friendly to him, most everyone seemed to avoid looking at him outright. It seemed heartening to him somehow, that two witches of his acquaintance were able to ignore his appearance and speak to him like a human being. Perhaps they only had particularly strong stomachs.
“No, thank you, Miss Granger,” Severus said, carefully giving the young witch a small smile which did not show his crooked teeth. “I’ve a bit of private research to do and I can manage on my own. You need not interrupt your work.”
“All right, then. Do let me know if I can be of assistance.” With another smile, she returned to her work.
Relieved when Miss Granger took herself off to the Restricted Section, Severus left the potion journals he had been impatiently thumbing through and headed to the section of the stacks which held spells and charms for personal use.
Shining Through by plaidpooka
7. "I have great need of this book,” he said softly, willing his pounding heart to not leap from his chest. He rubbed the soft leather spine of the awkward tome absently with his thumb. “Despite its deplorable lack of subtlety and often unfathomable language, I find its contents…” the knot in his stomach rose to constrict his throat, “…irresistible.”
She nodded thoughtfully and her cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink. “They are rather, aren’t they?” The silk of her whisper flew from her and wrapped itself around him like a cloak. He was captive to her eyes, an eager prisoner. The butterflies that had been twisted tightly in his belly and his throat burst free, flooding his body with shivers.
“What does one do,” she shifted her hand slightly so that her skin lightly brushed his-both still clutching the soft leather, “with a book such as this?”
He paused, as if considering a weighty problem-as, he supposed, he was.
“One approaches it with… reverence, and adoration, and… dedication, I should think.” He felt his face burn with the memory of countless moments of arrogance and barbed attacks towards her. “And,” he moved an elegant finger to stroke a small scratch on the surface of the leather, “should do everything necessary to repair the hurts sustained from previous errors… intentional or by neglect.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, I should think that apart from the harm that’s already evident, there could also be injury to a book such as this that wouldn’t be obvious at first glance.” The tenderness in her gaze soothed the fluttering sensation and sent a wave of warmth through him. “Care should always be taken with something so precious.”
Between the Lines by machshefa
8. It was cool and bright when they flooed into the main rotunda of the Library at Alexandria. The watery green light highlighted the walls of glistening sandstone, dotted with heavy Spanish oak doors. Balconies above showed there were three other floors of rooms, with wrought iron rails curling in mystic designs. The floor was a well-polished parquet marble of black and green whose pattern would shift on its own at various times. There were a few fireplaces with marble mantles. Orange robed clerics stood at desks to sign people into different reading rooms. Even with many people in a space that would normally echo a pin drop, it was comfortably silent. Above the main fireplace was a portrait of Hypatia. The library’s biggest benefactor had saved the collection from being torched by performing a freezing spell when a mob decided that she was a witch, and attempted to burn her and the library down.
Hermione remembered hearing the story as a child, upset that such a vast store of knowledge had been lost. But when she began to understand the wizarding world, she wondered if it had indeed been burned at all. It was a great relief to know that it still stood.
“Hermione, look up,” Severus leaned over and whispered in her ear.
She turned her head up, and stared at the domed ceiling. It reminded her of the ceiling at the inn, watery, with fish and creatures floating by.
“Wait a minute. That’s real isn’t it?”
He chuckled. “Indeed. The library at Alexandria is actually beneath the Bay of Abu Kir. The whole library is underwater.”
“”Next you’ll be telling me that Atlantis still exists as well,” Hermione chuckled before wondering why she never thought to research that as well.
Severus smirked at her, but didn’t respond.
Surrender by Dryad
9. The morning was unvaried from those preceding it. At eight a.m. precisely, Severus unlocked the front door of the library. At eight a.m. precisely, Hermione Granger smiled, inclined her head and said, "Good morning, Mr Snape."
He never answered her, stalking instead to the desk at the front of the room. For the past year, Severus had held the position, cataloguing the hundreds of books MLE found during their sweeping raids. By careful calculations, Severus decided he could spend the next five hundred years doing just that, and he would never be bored by it.
By far, this was the best job he could have asked for. No dunderhead students trying to blow either themselves or him up (accidentally or on purpose). No idiotic colleagues trying to force him into inane conversation. No direct 'superior' doling out the Cruciatus Curse for a failed assignment. Best of all, the unostentatious, subterranean, library afforded him little interaction with people. Not to mention the fact he could investigate the counter-jinxes and remedies for some of the Darker curses the Dark Lo -- Voldemort, he mentally corrected -- had created.
Hermione deposited the heavy rucksack that doubled as her travelling office on the table she claimed every visit. As the official researcher for the Ministry, she attended daily. Without a word, she disappeared in the stacks of books to recommence her research. He knew, from overheard conversations, that she was working on reversing spell damage. There was the slight suspicion that, like him, the position was a pay-off, Scrimgeour's compensation for fighting and winning a war without support from the Ministry.
The Daily Prophet reported that Weasley was now playing first-team for the Cannons, as well as engaged to Hermione Granger; just like Potter's engagement to Ginny Weasley was announced as 'news'. Neither couple surprised him, though he was a bit disappointed to think of the mismatch that a Granger-Weasley marriage would be.
Questions Unasked by larilee
10. Hermione resisted the urge to say 'If you'd admitted it sooner…' and led the way from the check-in counter to their somewhat dingy room.
"From here we can Apparate to the library and back," she reminded him, "so let's get a good fix on this room before we leave." Depositing their minimal luggage, they ventured out for a light supper in a nearby bistro, Hermione handling all the money and Severus eating very little of the food, which he clearly found less than appealing. But conversation overtook them, and it was well after nine o'clock when they finally returned to the hotel. They took a final look around, and then clung to one another as Hermione Apparated them both to the Bibliotheque Magique Consolidee de l'Europe, the largest library in the European wizarding world. Hermione had worked at the B.M.C.E. for three years before taking over the post of librarian at Hogwarts upon Madame Pince's retirement. She still corresponded regularly with the European library's director, and he had helped her arrange to meet Severus' last-minute request for a change in plans.
"Why haven't you ever come before, if you always wanted to see it?" she pressed him, as she led him up the darkened stairways of the library. "I mean, England's not so far. If it was your dream holiday, why not just take it?"
"Such frivolity was never encouraged among the Death Eaters," he reminded her. "Is it much further? We must have come up ten stories already."
"Not much further. Four more stories. We're nearly there. It will be worth it." Hermione continued doggedly up the steps, Severus lagging behind a bit as his energy flagged.
At last, they reached the final landing. With a flourish, Hermione opened the door to the roof of the monolithic library, and led Severus out to a view of Paris by evening that took even his jaded breath away. The sea of rooftops spread before them, an endless vista of warm windows in dark walls, surrounded by the white and red lights of cars, all unfurled in a glorious sparkling carpet beneath the deepening blue-black of the sky.
Fireworks by swooning4a_r
Happy Anniversary to quiz-sshg. Today marks our 2 year anniversary-whoa!!! Princess of the Quiz, Ms. Morethansirius, made this wonderful banner. Isnt she a gem?
Artwork Credits
Top Row
Left: Mark by Marquise
Center: Aperio Veneficus by Perselus
Right: Snape/Hermione Comic - PotterPuffs by Naomi Noelle
Middle Row
Left: Snape and Hermione 2 by Azraelgeffen
Right: Cravings by Elyse Camille
Bottom Row
Left: Something New by Keladry Lupin
Center: Checkmate by Maaiker
Right Ssssh He's sleeping by Usagistu