[Library] The silence of a yawn

[Offley Marsh]

Offley stifled a yawn with the back of her hand and blinked furiously almost hoping that it would help wash away the tiredness that seemed to have taken hold of her. Once the yawn had petered out the librarian lowered her hand to join the other that was rested upon her lap and carried on reading the book that was propped open on the table in front of her. Her eyes danced from one side of the page to another and the silence of the library was only disturbed by the odd ‘hmmm’ she would make when she reached a part she did not agree with in the text.

At the end of yet another chapter the librarian lifted her head, tucked the lose strands of her fiery red hair behind her ear and slammed the book shut. The thud of the pages closing sounded out around the empty library and it was accompanied by a small cloud of dust just proving how little students cared to read up on the magical properties salt water had compared to fresh water when it came to the growth of Northern Watermilfoil.

Standing up, book tucked under her arm Offley pottered of to the other side of the library picking up other lose books that the students had left lying around during the day. The library was still open, Offley never in fact locked the door in sheer belief that if a student wanted to learn then the library should always be open weather it be two in the afternoon or two in the morning. It was very rare for a student to actually turn up in the middle of the night and due to this it surprised Offley greatly when she heard the slight squeak of the doors opening.

[Professor Jackson Shaw]

Two in the morning, not the usual time to go and read up on tomorrows apprentiship topic now was it? Well this was Jackson we're talking about and he wasnt exactly known for being usual. Though, what was usual about this place? Nothing, where else in the world would you ever hear of a plant that likes to make you its dinner, okay so you have the Venus Flytrap, but who's counting that?

Walking into the library, he winced as the doors gave off a high pitched squeeking noise, similiar to that of stepping on a field mouse or something. Peering around the door, he couldnt see the Librarian, which was a good thing, Jackson always used to get into trouble off her when he was still a student. You could guarentee a book would be ruined or he would collapse shelves or make too much noise when he was in here. Jackson could be so scatterbrained sometimes, he could swear he came so close to being banned.

He shuffled behind stacks upon stacks of books, running his finger over the spines of books, being an Ex-Claw meant he did appreciate them, but he read them that many times they often fell apart in his hands which of course, Offley hated. Picking up a book of the shelves he scanned it quickly before deciding it wasnt the book he wanted and put it back. Going to a different row of books he began to look again.

CRASH!!

Oh dear.
Jackson looked behind him from where he was stood only seconds ago, and whatever he had done when he put that book back was clearly a fact of how clutzy he actually was. The whole shelf had collapsed, causing the four others below it to collapse aswell sending books flying everywhere. Infact the only shelves still standing on that bookcase were the top two. Jackson looked wide eyed at the mess and half thought about running. As he went to put the other book back, he fell over a fallen book on the floor. Though out of reaction he grabbed ahold of the shelf, never clever as we know, which collapsed in his hand. Obviously Jackson fell to the floor anyway and was soon covered by a mass amount of books. In fact, only his arm holding the Defence book and his left leg could be seen poking out of the mess on the floor.

"Im gonna get it now!"

[Offley Marsh]

Offley was just running her finger down the old fashioned gold lettering on the spine of another Herbology book when there was a sound…a sound that Offley Marsh had always feared. Bookshelves falling down along with its very precious cargo.
Pricking her eyes Offley tried to locate where the sound had come from but it was not long until another crash sounded out meaning more bookshelves were being sentences to their death. It was radiating from the Defence Against the Dark Arts section and lo and behold when Offley reached that section their was the destroyed bookshelves, books sprawled everywhere…the pages creasing, spines bending and covers ripping…it was a nightmare.

Amongst all of the librarians panic she had failed to notice the hand sticking out from the pile of books until a few moments later when she was scanning over everything once again to analyse the potential damage. However as soon as she had noticed it she knew the person almost instantly from just the hand…and of course the amount of damage that had been caused on the whole of her library.

“Mr Shaw!” Her voice was wavering and she was finding it hard not to burst into tears or go into a mad rage and hex the boy to oblivion. “Might you be able to inform me why you have thought it fit to destroy my library?”

Offley tucked a rouge bit of hair behind her ear with a shaking hand and her left foot was tapping repeatedly on the floor as she tried to focus all her emotions into one place so that in some shape or form she was able to keep a clear head when dealing with the fool of a boy otherwise known as Jackson Shaw.

[Professor Jackson Shaw]

"Mr Shaw!"

Crap. This wasnt going to end well. He winced at the sound of her voice and couldnt place if she just wanted to go mad at him, hex him, beat him around the head with a stick or just simply murder him. Jax was covered in a mass amount of books and yet he still had hold of the book he needed in his hand, not that she would possibly let him check it out now. For an ex Claw, he was definatly clutzy.

Pushing himself out of the books, balancing on his feet as he stood up, trying to tiptoe around them so not to destroy anything else, though this was Jax and something was bound to happen right? He looked at the extent of the damage now and realised why she was going mad, or was going to go mad anyway. Precious books ruined, even Jax felt a stab of upset. Right now, the only words in his mind were, oops, and, im going to die.

"Miss Marsh," He answered politely and tried to give her a sweet and innocent smile which clearly failed as she was too peeved at him to go for niceities. "I didnt find it fit... It just sorta happened in a dominoes effect kinda way!" He tried to explain, "It was unintentional!"

As he went to walk forward, he slipped on a book and fell backwards, his back landing heavily on them. This was really turning out to be an effort. All he wanted was a damned book and instead he makes his bed on them. And not, might he add, a very comfy one!

"Ow"

[Offley Marsh]

As the body of Jackson appeared out of the books, like a phoenix from the ashes (although not as gracefully) it took Offley a lot not to draw her wand and turn him into a bull frog. Instead the librarian stood firm, her wand safely in her pocket and she just watched the ex Ravenclaw mutter away trying to give an explanation of why he had decided to pull down half of the defence against the dark arts section.
With a long, trembling breath Offley bent down and picked up the book that was closest to her foot and gently shut the pages brushing the dust off its cover, tending to it like it was a small child that had fallen over and graved its knee. However when Jackson explained his argument Offley’s eyes flashed up to look at him of almost pure hatred.

“Nothing ever ‘sort of happens’ Mr Shaw are you so elegantly put it.” She stood up pulling the book closer to her “Any one of intelligence would know that at the velocity of an average human being falling to the floor would be enough to pull any of these shelves down. With that in mind it would have made perfect sense not to lash out wildly and take hold of one.”

She had barely finshed talking when Jackson started to move towards her, Offley’s first instinct was to take a step backwards in fear of the havoc he may cause, but the fool never got that far as he stepped...stepped on a book and then fell over backwards crushing even more. Strangely enough through Offley’s first fear was not that more books were being damaged but that the fool was learning.

“See Mr Shaw you did not reach out for a shelf that time, it seems we can teach old dogs new tricks.” A cruel little smile filled the librarians face. “However you are still lying on top of my books…I shall give you five seconds to stand up before I set the Care of Magical Creature books on you.”