The best thing about the library was is its unique brand of silence, heavy and muffled.  It was punctuated by the rustle of heavy pages being turned and the scratch of quills on parchment.  Occasionally a book would start speaking or playing music in the stacks somewhere.  These faint noises had become associated with the peace Katy had only been able to find in the library since attending Hogwarts.  Here only here could she let the everyday struggles of magical life slip away.  Here she could focus and concentrate on her studies.

Katy finished scratching out the passage she was copying.  From the Mists: How Seers are Born and Made was  a useful book for comparing the differences between various methods of determining the future.  The inherent ability to see it and the learned ability to divine it.  Katy had chosen the reliability of numbers in Arithmancy over Divination this year but she wasn't certain anymore that it was appropriate.  So, she was studying the foundations of both.  She still had time to change which elective she was taking next year, as long as she was willing to study in order to catch up.

Snapping the book closed, Katy stood and walked to the shelf nearby from which it was pulled.  She slid it back into place, pushing on the spine until she heard the clunk of cover against the back of the shelf.  She stared at it for a moment, a strange idea niggling at the back of her mind.  With a look over her shoulder, sweeping her gaze over the bowed students around her.  Her eyes mapped them out, recalling their movements and patterns, the ones she'd witnessed since sitting down here.  Katy looked back at the book and pulled the spine out until it was out further by a couple of inches than books around it.  Satisfied, Katy sat down and opened her book on Numerology.

With only two hours between Herbology and his evening classes, Sasha moved through the library bookcases with the clear determination of one who was on a tight schedule.  Which was a fair and just assessment.  Despite Figaro's attempts to break Sasha's dependency on his non-class schedule, he'd continued to rely heavily on the document to keep abreast of projects, homework assignments and test preparations.  He rarely took note of the heavy quiet of the library; he was far too focused on whatever task was at hand. 

As was the routine today.  Sasha hardly paid the fourth year any mind as he moved between the bookcases in the Divination and dropped his far-too-heavy book bag on the desk just past her.  Before taking his seat, Sasha tugged out the non-class schedule and surveyed it.  Three essays due Friday - they'd be worked on overnight.  He had a DADA essay due tomorrow and a journal entry due for Divination in two hours.  The later, of course, took precedence and Sasha dug out that roll of parchment, looked over his last notes and left his table to browse the books for something that would be applicable. 

It was no secret Divination was Sasha's weakest academic subject.  His brain was far too dependent on logic to mesh well with staring at lumps of soggy tea leaves for vague, hidden meaning.  He was supposed to be focusing on flame scrying - the technique he'd chosen at random for this term's major project.  But, over the last few weeks, his mind had kept drifting to one form of Divination that had, yet, to be addressed in class.  One that Sasha knew better than to expect or mention in class.  One which, typically, wasn't found in the main part of the library.

Curiosity was quickly getting the better of him, fueled by the urgency of the waning month.  Leaving his things on his desk, Sasha moved past the fourth year once more and wove through the bookshelves until he reached the restricted section.  A few moments later, he returned, a dusty, charcoal grey tomb in his hand.  Rites of the Silenced was etched in deep blank, barely visible against the grey.  But, Sasha knew he needed to finish the assignment due in an hour before he could venture into the book.  He set the grey book down, tugged the most easily accessible book (one that had just been protruding) from the shelf and returned to his desk with both books. 

Magical books, like a lot of other magical items, had their own personalities.  Some of them screamed, others bit, and still more purred when you treated them right.  It was a strange feeling to look at a book and feel it looking back at you in its own way.  Most of the time, though, the feeling faded to the background.  But when that book was placed before her, she was pulled towards it.

It whispered in her mind, dark and seductive thoughts.  Rites of the Silenced was a book with a lot of secrets.  Katy stared at it helplessly, enthralled by the feeling.  A cold, wet prickle grew up her spine.

The spell was broken when the book was swept away.  The boy sat at the next table with his book and, she glanced over, the divination book she pulled out.  His quest for that book had revealed to her something else.  Katy stood and dropped her quill in the valley of her book.  She rounded her table.  Her hands were shaking so she put them firmly down by her sides and gripped her skirt to stop them.  She waited for a minute, gathering her composure so that when he finally noticed her standing there, she was calm again.

"What is that book?" she asked, unable to look away from the dark grey cover.

His books and assignments had finally been stacked in order of urgency with From the Mists upper most on the pile.  His physics text lay just underneath with Rites of the Silenced now at the bottom of the first pile.  Partly because it was the most extracurricular of the selected subjects.  Partly because, as curious as he was, Sasha knew it would be better if he left delving into that book for later in the evening when the library's tenants started thinning out for the evening. 

Sasha hunched himself over his Divination journal, slowly scripted out the first sentence and only then noticed that the fourth year he'd passed had followed him to his table.  She wasn't looking at him, though.  Her attention was fixed on the short stack of books. 

"What book?"  At first, the question was earnest.  Sasha followed the girl's line of sight down to the stack of books but, from where he sat, it was impossible to tell which, specifically, had so fully grasped her attention.  He shifted the stack, fanning out the books so as to look at each individually, finally tugging the physics text free from between the two wizarding books.  It was a reasonable guess - the slick, plastic coating on muggle textbooks gave them a highly distinctive shine, especially amongst the organically bound magic books.  And, he was currently much more comfortable with the idea of explaining the physics text than Rites. 

"It's a textbook - science.  Similar stuff to what we cover in Astronomy?" 

She shot the blonde a withering look. "I know what physics is," she growled.  Even if she didn't, as most wizarding students would not, why would she ask about the book he'd kept squirreled away in his bag until he sat down?  Intentionally avoiding the question then, she concluded.  Her bad feeling about the thing compounded.  If it were just idle curiosity, or important to a school assignment, he would have just come out and told her about the he'd accidentally laid on her table.

Sensing but not understanding his unease, Katy lowered herself into the chair across from him and folded her hands before her.  She needed to know more about the book.  She needed to know what kind of secrets it held, what kind of darkness it whispered about.  Books this bad were kept in the Restricted Section, used only by older students and professors who'd been deemed capable of handling them.  So she wasn't leaving until he told her what she wanted to know.  If only to satisfy her curiosity and put her mind at ease.

"What is that book?" she asked, pointing but not touching.  She didn't want to touch it.

The Ravenclaw flinched slightly at the younger Hufflepuff's response.  So, she'd been paying closer attention than he'd assumed; his attempt to divert her attention to something for more mundane (literally and figuratively) hadn't quite worked. 

With a slightly resigning sigh, Sasha tugged the grey leather-bound book from the bottom of the stack and straightened it in front of him.  He, of course, didn't actually owe the girl any explanations.  He could have, just as easily, told her to bugger off and leave him to his studies.  There was absolutely no reason he needed to defend himself to an underclassman whom he barely knew. 

But, given the girl's uneasy demeanor, it was clear something about the book was already unsettling her.  If he tried to send her on her way, chances were good she'd go straight to Mr. Morgan.  And, Sasha had no desire to enlighten the librarian about his current curiosities. 

"It's just an old Divination text," Sasha offered, swiveling it around but keeping a finger on it so she could read the title but not open it.  Not that that seemed like a substantial risk.  The girl looked like she was afraid the book would eat her.  "It's just, you know, a specific form of Divination.  For N.E.W.T projects."  Everything had been partial truths up until that point.

"It's a little archaic.  Just ... academic curiosity."  At least for the time being.  To be honest, Sasha didn't know enough about the topic as a whole to know if it could achieve what he wanted.  Or needed.

Katy didn't know what was a bigger lie, that the book was just a Divinations textbook or that it was for purely academic interests.  Books with power like that were rarely for idle curiosity and hated to have her time wasted.  Her chair screeched and groaned against the stone floor because she stood up so quickly.  With her lips pursed with anger, she stared into the boy's eyes for a minute.  He looked vaguely worried but said nothing.  Katy whipped around and walked away.  He didn't owe her an answer, but that didn't matter to her.  She'd asked an honest question and he just kept dodging it.  Whatever, it was none of her business. 

Shoving her books into her bag, Katy stopped, thinking better of it.  Her eyes narrowed, staring off into the distance.  Once again turning on the spot, she stormed over, snatched the book closer to her, and flipped it open to a page in the middle.

She pulled back and swallowed hard.  Necromancy.  Her gaze flickered over the boy's face again, several pieces beginning to click into place.  Older boy, blonde, influenced by death perhaps. 

"What is your name?" she asked suspiciously, certain she already knew who he was despite her inability to connect his given name to the rumors that floated around the castle.

Okay.  Maybe the fourth year knew he wasn't telling the whole truth, exactly, but did she really need to make so much noise.  The Ravenclaw flinched, again, casting a quick glance around them to make sure the noisy chair hadn't drawn anyone's attention.  He wasn't looking to make his current extracurricular activities public knowledge; he'd especially prefer it if Mr. Morgan didn't catch wind of it.  He was certain, the sound of chair legs marring library floors was the type of thing to catch the librarian's attention from halfway across the castle. 

At least, she was going away.  Sasha turned back to his stack of homework and hunched over his notes.  A moment later, the black-bound book next to him slid across the table and the girl was back. 

"Keep your voice down, please," Sasha hissed, waving both hands in a vague gesture, either beckoning her to sit down or be quiet or both.  "I ... and it's really none of your business," he added on for good measure.  Sasha leaned forward across the desk, drawing the book back towards him and sliding it definitively on the bottom of the stack. 

He shrugged and sighed.  "Sasha.  Sasha Schlagenweit," he finally answered.  "And, I can already tell - you're worrying too much.  It's just curiosity." 

She hadn't believed it before; chances seemed slim she'd be more likely to believe it now.

That's where she knew him.  The Daily Profit, those posters.  Accused of murder, the death of his family.  Death followed this boy.  It haunted him still.  Which of the myriad of losses did he want to contact?  She absolutely did not believe that it was just curiosity.  If it was curiosity, it was tempered by the very real temptation born of sorrow and grief to go through with it.  It was dangerous indeed.

Katy sat down, suddenly understanding why he seemed so on edge and why he kept glancing around like there was a professor breathing down his neck.  This was serious.  If he got caught, there was no telling what the professors might do.

"I should tell the Professors," she whispered, staring at Sasha unrelentingly.  She wasn't exactly sure what she should tell them but shouldn't they know?  Even curiosity in this kind of thing should be monitored.  Suddenly, she was uneasy.  All her firm certainty had vanished.  The only thing still certain in her mind was that it shouldn't go any further.

One moment the girl was stalking away in a huff, the next she was inviting herself to his table.  Sasha cast another quick glance around their vicinity but, as before, there was no one within earshot.

For the briefest of moments, Sasha bristled and glared across the table at the girl.  She should be telling the Professors.  Her little threat to run off and snitch to the nearest authority figure was obnoxious and frustrating at best.  But, once beyond the initial bristle, Sasha reminded himself she hadn't said that she would.  Perhaps she had already decided not to in hopes she could convince him to abandon the book on her own.  Or, worst case scenario, she was still undecided.  Perhaps he could convince her not to.  Convince her there was no need.  Of course, the bigger of a deal he made about it, the more likely she was to defer the situation to those with authority. 

"There's nothing to tell," Sasha said, forcing himself to relax back in his chair, drawing the tome back to him.  "It's a book.  It's not going to..."  Sasha hesitated a moment.  If he was being perfectly honest, he knew next to nothing about necromancy or what, exactly, it did.  Which had been the initial and primary motivation for fetching the text.  "I don't know.  It's just a curiosity.  Even if you ran off to tattle, that's what I'd tell them, too.  That it's just research for a Muggle Studies essay." 

It was close enough to the truth that he could make it believable.  It would raise concerns from those that knew enough to be concerned but nothing more than that.  For now, it was just for research.  Whether it ever would be anything more depended entirely on what he discovered. 

"I have permission to be borrowing from the restricted section and I can make a legitimate argument for needing it for academic reasons."

Katy leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest.  She didn't understand what Muggle Studies had to do with Necromancy.  The connection seemed tenuous at best.  Perhaps he meant to say Divinations, that was the topic of the other books on his table.  The slip of the tongue, however, seemed to reveal that class was not the primary reason.  Curiosity Katy could understand, she often picked up strange books above her year's ability to comprehend or perform but she'd never picked up a book so dark.  She could almost hear it whispering in her mind.  Not words, mind you, but a deep and pervasive feeling of loneliness and need.  Curiosity for a book like that could easily turn into something more.

 Maybe he didn't feel it the way she did.  Maybe he did feel it but just didn't care.  There were too many unknowns and Katy didn't like it.

Suddenly she wondered to herself,  Why do I even care?  What business is it of mine if he tries to communicate with the dead?  He could raise a whole army of inferi and it wouldn't have anything to do with her.  Just because she'd been fool enough to get involved in someone else's personal drama didn't mean she was required to somehow fix it.  It wasn't her problem.

And yet... the book, From the Mists.  Hadn't she left it uneven for a reason?  She'd known the book was important and hadn't it led Sasha to her in a way?  Her head was beginning to hurt.  She shook her head to rid herself of the bothersome thoughts and stood.  She put her bag over her shoulder and left the library, thinking to herself that she would never understand why some people couldn't see the things in front of their own faces.

No.  Whatever the girl might have been feeling, it wasn't the same for the Ravenclaw.  Perhaps it was for the same reasons Sasha struggled so much with divination.  Perhaps it was a difference in motivations.  Perhaps he'd just become desensitized to it - he'd seen more than his fair share of dark magic.  More than most might guess. 

Whether the Hufflepuff was convinced was impossible to tell.  But, in the end, that wasn't important.  Sasha watched as the Hufflepuff moved away through the library.  He was confident in any explanations he might need to give and they would really only be necessary if it wasn't the librarian she went straight to. 

What was important was the girl had moved off to whatever else she had to do and Sasha could return his attention to his studies.  Shaking his head, he turned back to the pile of textbooks and tucked in for another long study session.