[Library] Omniscient Forces

[Kohana Engel]

It was not unknown for the rooms of Hogwarts to rotate, orbiting like one thousand moons within its walls, kept in check by its own gravitional pull. There was evidence to suggest this had a bigger truth behind it – that Hogwarts followed the movements of the solar system with as much purpose as though it were its youngest planet. An intelligent, conscious realm, there was no other place on earth that bore the raw elements of magic quite like it; it was thus thoroughly conceivable that it must be, indeed, the only one.

However, playing such a significant role in the universe had left Hogwarts rather distracted for, apparently, there were more pressing concerns than the welfare of its residence, whom it often left to fend for themselves – right now, in fact.

Kohana Engel was a perpetually cursed example. Tonight, she sat in the library under the silence of books and lamps, slowly turning pages, occasionally stopping to make notes. This may have seemed exceptionally usual, but even she was distinctly aware of being crept upon by omniscient forces. Her suspicions were not helped by the voice that sought to influenced her, no louder than a whisper, but real nevertheless.

‘Keep going, Koko.’

Picking up her textbook, Kohana switched tables to one further away from the walls, where row upon row of empty nighttime landscapes hung. The room burned bright and benevolent, but Kohana sat frozen still, blind to the words on the page. There was no use in looking for it, she knew. It didn’t have a body.

‘Don’t look now...’

[Myles Bentley]

"Don't look now... But Kohana Engel might actually be studying."

Myles was unsure what had led him to the library, he wasn't known to be there often. He preferred the dim lit comfort of the Slytherin Common room despite the damp cool of the dungeons, where even near the fireplace his hair stood on end. Yet, as soon as Myles entered the ancient atmosphere, the anxiety that had been with him for the better part of a week immediately evaporated. It only seemed to simmer still when he spotted a familiar Gryffindor, inexplicably disturbing her though he would have liked nothing better than to study alone.

Noticing her grim expression, and the stubbornness set on her face to ignore him, Myles frowned. "Oh, excuse me. I mean Koko." Ungraciously he leaned against the table next to her, his bag a heavy weight on the surface.

Unlike his counterpart, Myles had long since withdrawn his interest from the peculiar Hogwarts decor. He didn't notice the rather desolate portraits slung against the walls, decayed scenery scattered among them like frayed embroidery. Instead, he took notice of the textbook she was looking at, noticing with an all too familiar intrigue that it focused on Ancient Runes.

"Hey," His change of tone, inching away from condescending boredom and toward neutral inquiry would be enough to capture interest from most. "Does this book have specific Rune symbols in it?"

His thumb violated her schoolwork and flickered through yellowed pages. Unknowingly, they paused at the glossary under 'G'.

[Kohana Engel]

The voice solidified, plummeting from its ethereal state to ground itself right in front of Kohana. Unfortunately, it chose the form of one Myles Bentley. Wonderful.

At the mockery of her name, Kohana’s eyes swivelled to glare at the intruding Slytherin, though her head did not rise from the page. ‘What should I call you then? Mylie? Saying that, I don’t think I’d ever get a nicer response out of you...’ she shot back, face screwing up petulantly. The truth was, Kohana was immensely relieved to no longer be alone.

The neat piles of her work were disturbed. Thumbing through them, knocking several tawny sheets off onto the floor and almost tipping over the inkwell, it seemed Myles’ concept of personal space was a lacking. He did not seem to be doing maliciously, however. ‘Yeah, they’re here. I don’t look at them much, though. Ames doesn’t check homework anyway...’ She gestured to the pages Myles held, one depicting several scratchy symbols of what resembled a bird perched atop a lion’s mane. They were all obscure, secretive depictions, reluctant to be understood.

Kohana’s eyes wandered over Myles absently, coming to rest on his hair. ‘That colour suits you,’ she smirked, raising one eyebrow.

It seemed Myles had not been able to remove the enchanted paint from their previous adventure, either. Whereas one side of Kohana’s hair had turned a deep, velvety purple, Myles’s swept-back fringe was an earthy green, touched with gold. Despite running into one another since that day, neither had attempted to bring up the memory of it. It had been surreal, more like a dream than an experience, and it did not feel easy to talk about until now.

Standing up, Kohana leaned forward to gather her work up – a small stub of yellow chalk rolling out of her pocket.

[Myles Bentley]

"Ames doesn't check anything. Especially not his mental health." Myles murmured, staring at the page Kohana had distractedly mentioned. His eyes absorbed it, irises admitting to interest even though his mind vehemently denied anything to do with the hazy professor. "And if you do call me Mylie, the last thing you'll be worrying about is his health."

He didn't look away from the textbook until Kohana mentioned his less than welcome souvenir from their previous encounter. Self-consciously, Myles held a hand over his fringe and flattened it to his forehead while glaring. "What? How can you see?" He had used a glamour charm since that night after the sinking realisation that no product, magical or not, would discard the entwined gold and green colour. He stared at her purple strands uneasily, removing his palm and grimacing at the fading cold colour outlining the shallow lines on his hand. "Does it happen to you, too? Sometimes when I touch it, my fingers stay gold for hours."

But, Myles' turmoil was forgotten when a clatter caught their attention. The chalk was mostly yellow, but gold, green and purple slashes accidentally marred it, allowing it to roll down an aisle like a mixture of elements - rainbows and hurricanes.

"Did you steal that? Allion's probably lost somewhere in the desert without it." Myles did not have a clean record himself, so his shock was just slightly over his threshold. Standing up, having several inches on Kohana, the Slytherin followed the yellow trail absently, only once catching a vague shadow in a portrait beside him.

It wasn't until they reached the other end of the library that the clattering had stopped. Sending Kohana a perplexed look, the Slytherin crouched down and shoved his arm under a bookshelf, feeling for the powdery chalk. His eyes lit up as soon as he caught it between his fingers, but when he slowly pulled it out, his arm knocked into the wooden frame hard.

Three books came toppling down over him, making him wince as he reared back. "Bloody library! Why are there so many books?!" Myles pulled away finally, absently handing the chalk to its new owner. Tactfully, he picked the first up and was about to put it away, before noticing the title.

"This is getting out of hand," He muttered, showcasing the first one to Kohana. It was a fictional one about a famous Griffin Breeder, but in the midst of their curiosity, the flying creature on the cover let out a loud shriek, making Kohana's chalk vibrate agitatedly.

[Kohana Engel]

Kohana exposed the palm of her left hand, revealing the faint wash of purple colouring. ‘I forget it’s there sometimes. It gets everywhere when I touch my face and arms.’ With her uncontaminated hand she gingerly rubbed at her cheek, foundation coming away to bare mauve fingerprints all over her skin. Kohana did not care for makeup, but had found no other alternative to disguising the paint’s magical permanence. It even seemed to burn through her flesh-coloured cosmetics, determined to be seen.

At the appearance of the chalk, Kohana gave an incredulous stare. ‘I don’t believe it,’ she breathed hoarsely, though in frustration rather than disbelieve. ‘Every time I throw it away – it comes back!’

As though to contradict her, the canary yellow fragment suddenly leapt to attention. By way of its own momentum, the chalk rolled off the table and onto the floor with a soft clattered, pausing only to gain its bearings before heading off. Kohana and Myles exchanged reluctant expressions before rising from their perches, trailing after it with a sense of purpose. It skittered over the flagstones with a mighty speed for its size, its yellow trail broken every now and then as it tripped over a crack or margin in the floor, unhindered by any obstacle. Kohana found its enthusiasm almost endearing.

With one last burst of energy, the chalk dove under the last bookcase in the room. Myles went on ahead, crouching to retrieve it from its poorly chosen hiding place. ‘Careful!’ Kohana warned unhelpfully, Myles having already bought on a shower of books.

Cautious of his bad mood, Kohana approached his side, peering at the book in hand. The griffin hovered before an enormous moon of silver leaf, embossed wings rising and falling in mechanical flight as it smiled up at Myles and Kohana.

‘That’s cute,’ Kohana said inconsiderately, though she did not notice Myles’s wintery glare as the chalk began to reverberate in his palm, suddenly jostling free. It hit the floor with such force that it could have fractured itself, but without a moment to recover it launched at the bare wall before them – one of the few intervals in the library that did not bear wall hangings.

Myles and Kohana stepped backwards. With the stealthy artistry of Linus, the chalk began to map out an enormous door.

It started with the basic outline, working in a clockwise spiral toward the centre, where, upon finishing an elaborate design, finally added a lock and handle. Before either student could respond to such an expressive feat, a deep, distant grinding drifted from beyond the wall, the yellow plans taking on new consistency. Within an instant it transformed into a real wood-and-iron door, as real as though it had always been there.

The chalk dropped dead. ‘Now that’s talent.’

With a throaty, beckoning moan, the door opened. Darkness poured out like mist across the floor, though it was so subtle Myles and Kohana did not notice it. Cold air kissed their faces in unwelcome intimacy, yet it drew them forth with punishing need, Kohana first to lay her trembling fingers upon the wood...

Inside, the darkness prevailed in denser textures. However, despite no source of internal light, Kohana’s eyes adjusted to the emptiness straight away, the smooth marble floor, high ceiling and circular walls of the room discernable. It was utterly devoid of any artefact, merely stretching into an impenetrable blackness on the other side of the room.

Something stirred.

[Jinx Collen]

'There's a stirring...' Jinx woke with a start. Something, somewhere, was horribly imbalanced. 'What is it... what is it...' She searched her trunk madly until something felt right.
"Mmm... yes, this will fix it..." she thought, gripping the item firmly. "Now where does it belong..."

She searched the corridors for what seemed like ages, though time always felt funny in the castle at night. What felt like hours could in reality only be a few minutes. None the less, she ran swiftly down hallway after hallway, trying to find the lopsided fragment of the school which was beckoning her attention.
Just when she was about to give up the search she felt a tug in her gut. She turned to her right and the huge oak doors of the library nearly sang to her. "Oh... late night studiers... makes sense," she murmured aloud as she pressed inside.

A giggle escaped her when she saw the state of the library. It was very subtle, most people wouldn't notice it, but part of the library was clearly disheveled to Jinx's obsessive observance. She paced across the room to where several chairs were seperated from their desks, and a handful of books were misplaced in the shelves, and a few were still missing. Jinx followed the trail to a forgotten backpack by a desk stacked with Ancient Rune text books, and closeby was a... a yellow chalk trail? 'Follow the yellow chalk road? Well, okay.'
The trail led to a lopsided bookshelf with several books knocked to the floor, and down to...

"Well that's new," Jinx said as she reached the pair of students in front of a door that had never been there before. "Torch?" she asked and held out the flashlight she'd grabbed from her dormitory.

[Myles Bentley]

"Well, that's spectacularly intelligent of you, Engel." Myles teetered at the edge of the doorway, peering inside though unable to find even a trace of Kohana's figure in the darkness. Squinting, he took a step forward. "Walking into random doors... just brilliant."

The hinges beside him creaked menacingly, and Myles pulled back. The door seemed to have swung open even wider, as if welcoming the newcomer in as well, although Jinx had yet to arrive. Curiously, he checked behind him at hearing oncoming footsteps, holding the edge of the door frame wearily. He was definitely not letting them get trapped inside, not like last time.

Jinx approached nonchalantly, and Myles was speechless for a moment at the change of mood. "Torch?" He repeated, his hand extending despite himself. "Yeah, actually." Hooking his fingers onto it, he aimed it inside the door and at last saw Kohana, who hadn't ventured far from the doorway at all.

Looking at Jinx with arched brows, the Slytherin shifted the light so it pointed at one of the walls, illuminating the floor below. It was absurdly normal, and Myles grew irritated. "She's fascinated by a room as dull as the Great Hall," He muttered at Jinx, giving her a prying once-over.

But a crash echoed abuse just as he was turning to leave. It ebbed toward the walls, humming against bookshelves, and the yellow chalk vibrated in a clatter on the floor distractedly. A force similar to gravity pulled them in, books and dust lifting off the library floor and shoved inside the room as if by a vacuum.

And then the door shut behind them. Myles groaned, sprawled on the floor in an awkward tangle, eyes narrowing at the piece of chalk wobbling toward him.