the smell of books.

“Good morning,” Cecilia said quietly as she walked past a row of shelves full of books. Her fingers dragging across their worn spines. Gingerly she pulled one off the shelf and found a quiet corner to sit in. Finding an empty armchair in the back of the library she sat pulling her feet up into the seat next to her and opened the book. A small smile tugged at the edge of her lips as she began to read. Slowly the day passed on as the girl read the book she had picked, if she were lucky, she’d be left to her own devices until dinner time.

“Cecilia! Oh my god, thank god, I’m saved!”

Margo Richards’ usually expertly tailored robes were in a very stylish disarray as she backpedaled. She’d come to the library in search of help from anyone. Molly was off who knows where and not answering her Comm, and Margo had only realized halfway through lunch the trouble she was in.

But spotting Cecilia was a stroke of luck. The girl was always face first in a book, there was no way she couldn’t help.

She collapsed to the ground in front of Cecilia, putting her arms on the girls’ armchair arm (god so many arms) with large pleading eyes. “Hey,” she said, smiling as she popped her gum. “Right, so, you’re like… really smart, right?”

She was just getting to the good part of the book when the silence around her was broken. Then all of the sudden there was Margo less than five inches from her. Could she get any closer? “I guess…” Cecilia answered the girl followed by a long pause as she narrowed her eyes. Glancing from the girl back to her book Cec sighed, she wouldn’t be finishing her book. “Did you need something?” she asked with a cool standoff tone to her voice. Was there no one else around she could ask for help? Did it have to be her?

Margo scanned for a memory of Cecilia. The girl was a year older but they obviously saw each other in the Ravenclaw Tower constantly, and Margo had a tendency to know everyone’s business. Even someone like Cec who kept to herself.

But something to endear her…

“Oh wait, did you ever finish that one book, the one with the, uh, demons I think? I remember asking because the title was something like A Pile of Ash but I THOUGHT it said a pile of-”

“Shh!”

Her head whipped towards the librarian and she ducked her head down, grimacing apologetically. She turned her large doe eyes back to Cec and whispered, “Anyway, I need help. I forgot I have a test tomorrow and I’m freaking out. Do you know anything about the werewolf code of conduct?”

Pile of ash…. Pile of a…. Oh that book. Cecilia struggled not to roll her eyes at one word her classmate might have replaced with ash. Good thing the librarian had caught Margo's attention by shhing her. Going back to the quiet would be nice, but one thing Cec knew about Margo was that she was rarely ever quiet. Sometimes she could even be heard in the dormitories from the common room. “Yes.” Cecilia answered. It was a short simple answer that the dark haired girl thought nicely answered both of the bubbly blonde's questions. “How many tests have you forgotten about now?” she asked in a tone of voice than it had been. She hated when people of authority were upset and didn’t want to draw the attention of the Librarian once again. Being the quiet one did lend many things to the people who had mastered its task. Sometimes it were almost as if you were invisible, you could see and hear many things that went on around you without people knowing you were paying any attention.

Margo had a feeling that she and Cec had different senses of humor.

But Margo liked people. They made her feel safe and, most importantly, seen. She was like Tinkerbell in that sense, she needed the attention to live. Not her fault, of course, blame it on her doting parents and wonderful brothers.

So even if Cec didn’t like Margo much, that didn’t complicate Margo’s pleasant feelings towards Cecilia. It didn’t hurt that Margo did need the help.

“Well,” she said, her voice sounding like a whisper but still much too loud for a library. “I wouldn’t forget so many if there were less of them!”

Well, she wasn't wrong, they did tend to have quite a few tests. More than even, Cecilia would like. They took up too much time. "There really isn't that much to remember. Why are you worried?" She asked. arching her neck to see where the librarian was and lowering her voice. "s'not like any of the wolves came forward to reveal themselves willingly." she commented under her breath. What could it hurt to help the girl? as long as she was quiet, and they didn't get in trouble. "Hold on." she said and got up returning the book she had been reading back to the shelf where she had found it. On her way back to where she left the other Ravenclaw Cecilia spotted an empty table. Then she caught a glance at a book. "perfect" she muttered and grabbed it. Hugging the book to herself she looked at Margo again. "Come on. over here." and she headed back toward the table so they would have room to spread out.

"I'm worried because I'm already shit at tests when I actually know the material," Margo said, trying not to whine, though the frustration was building. She wanted to be a good student. She'd love to be brilliant like her brothers. But she just wasn't. She hadn't inherited their genius.

She perked at even the morsel of information. Info was info, that was at least one answer she could get right. True or false, the werewolves revealed themselves willingly. Tru- FALSE. Ugh, she was hopeless.

With a slightly helpless expression, she watch Cecilia browse, worried the other girl was going to make a break for it. But when she beckoned her over, Margo's face lit up and she scrambled after her, hurrying over to the table.

"Okay, okay, not to be, like, totally useless, but I know nothing. So start from the beginning."

((If you want to time jump to post-studying like after Cec has explained it, that's fine! Or we can go through it, I'm cool with whatever))

Cecilia shook her head slightly, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She took a seat at the table gently laying the book down in front of her. “The beginning is always a good place to start. Harder to work from the end.” flipping the book open, pass the table of contents to the first page. “But how far in the beginning are we talking? First werewolf beginning or just the code beginning?” She asked this mostly to give the girl a hard time. And didn’t leave much room for an answer before she stated, “the code was written by the ministry in 1637 to control the werewolf population.” There were no windows in the section of the library the girls were in, making it difficult to tell how much time had passed. The only judge of time being the coming and going of other students around them. “Any questions?” Cecilia asked when she felt she had thoroughly explained everything to Margo.

Margo always managed to coax a smile out of even the most serious of her playmates, it was perhaps the only way in which she was a genius. Something about the unaffected way she approached seemed to endear herself to so many teens who were so fearful to show their true selves.

She listened carefully, trying to organize the new information into her chaotic mind.

Cec went on and on and when she asked if Margo had any questions, the blonde blinked at her, desperately searching for something. “1637.” She gasped. “Oh my god, I’m rubbish at dates, is that right? Then the rest is just like ‘people are racist to werewolves’ and ‘werewolves were like no, sister, I’m not going.’”

She leaned back. “Wow, I learned something. We should celebrate.”