It was almost time to head home for Winter Break. Not that Winnie would be spending much time at home... A day or two with her family, and then she'd be visiting with Cyhirae over break- staying with the Trishna's- and she was supposed to spend a couple of days with the Peppers to spend some time with her best friend in the whole world, Ambrose. But even if it was supposed to be a fun time away from school, Winnie had been trying so very hard lately to get better at magic and to study and bring up her grades. She didn't want to slack off over the break and accidentally muck up all of her hard work and forget absolutely everything she had worked with!

So she was stopping by the library to check out a few books that might be of some help. She was slowly getting back on track with her spellwork. She could cast first and second year spells now- usually on the first or second try! She was still struggling through her third year spells, though, and spells she should be learning now were exceedingly difficult. But Winifred was getting better, and she had faith that if she kept working hard when she started her fifth year she might be on track. Maybe. She'd never be a great duelist or anything, but she would be able to manage.

The last time she had stopped by the library to get the help of Mr. Morgan he had helped her find some good books to begin with. She had faith he might be able to help her again. She approached his desk in the library with her usual cheery smile. "Good afternoon, Mr. Morgan!" she greeted- careful to keep her voice from being too loud. It was a library after all. "I was wondering if you could help me find some books again! Some stuff to study over winter break. I've still been working very hard. I am all the way up to working on my third year spells finally!" She didn't have her text book from the previous year, unfortunately. She'd donated it to a used book store.

"Can you help me find some stuff I can study over winter break so that I can keep up with my tutoring once we get back to school in January?" she asked.

"Good afternoon," he greeted in return, as enthusiastic as the gargoyle which guarded the library doors. Landis had come a long way with Ms. Oliver from their meeting at the beginning of the year. In his eyes was only deadened acceptance of the lot Hogwarts had dealt him as the Hufflepuff bounced up. He had chosen this. He had accepted this job. Oh God, that was so depressing.

"I've still been working very hard. I am all the way up to working on my third year spells finally!"

"Good for you," he said, the comment neutral, toneless, neither congratulatory nor sarcastic. There was little point with Oliver. Merlin knew the only one who noticed his deadpan snark or God-help-me sighs between the two of them was himself. He inclined his head, came out from behind the counter. It was actually good progress for only one term - though honestly it should mostly all be revision, honing spells she had already learned once though never successfully performed.  At this rate she would be caught up with her classmates by the start of next year. Though Landis found Hufflepuff eagerness distasteful, he could not fault their work ethic. Oliver was doing well. He gestured wordlessly for her to follow him, heading for the textbooks from previous years.

"Did you learn all the spells in the books I picked out for you?" He asked it with only a quick sideways glance as he strode into the stacks. There was a little more tone in his voice now, that warning disapproval so common to professors whether they were asking after homework, note-passing, or in this case - readings.

Good for her! The Head of Slytherin was congratulating her on her hard work! She was surprised. But then again, she'd been a more common fixture around the library since she had started studying to catch up on her wand work. Getting that new wand at the beginning of the year had really made all of the difference in the world! Well, that and working with Zoe.

"Most of them!" she said. "Zoe has been working with me. And I've been working very hard. All of the first year spells I can do just fine, and almost all of the second year ones! I'm even starting to get the hang of a lot of the ones from last year. It's amazing what a new wand will do for a person!" Winifred was still very proud of her new wand. And she was still very mad at Professor Kesali for threatening to snap it in half. And because of that, her performance in Charms wasn't getting much better.

Winifred fell into step behind him as he started to guide her through the stacks. "Zoe says it's all about confidence. And that if you believe you can cast a spell that it helps it work better. So I've been trying to stay positive about everything!" Which wasn't very hard for the little Hufflepuff to do. She was good natured in general, and optimism was her specialty... Despite her dramatic ramblings. Especially when optimism benefited her in some way.

The section of books he wanted wasn't far from the main desk, though it was that wonderful secretive tendency of the stacks to ensure that once one had stepped in, nothing could be seen but the current row like a tunnel made of books. Hogwarts did not have the flimsy cabinets of other libraries, where a book removed would make a nice peephole into another aisle; these shelves were solid wood, and high, and private. It was a deceptive, flimsy privacy, because of course anyone who walked down the center aisle could glance down each row. But the walls of books muffled sound, and it had never stopped the students from trying their luck with a little game called Snog Until the Librarian Finds Us - fortunately considered less popular to play around the current librarian than the previous one.

He had no idea who the student Zoe was, and didn't much care. Probably the girl's tutor. He was half-tempted to make some comment to deflate her (as if it would have worked) as she revealed that in fact she hadn't truly learned all her second year spells, not as she'd originally implied, and so all this enthusiasm was relatively unearned. He did not because he was mindful of her original wand situation, and because however it annoyed him it was not actually realistic to expect all students to be bright. Nor was it realistic to think insulting them into using their brains would be a successful approach. If only he were more the patient mentoring type.... well, that was why he wasn't a professor.

"Good," he said, having paused long enough after her cheerfully chirped answer that his own seemed an afterthought. She hadn't returned them yet, so he presumed she knew there were still a few third and fourth-year spells in there to learn.

"Zoe says it's all about confidence. And that if you believe you can cast a spell that it helps it work better. So I've been trying to stay positive about everything!"

"Hmmm," he said, considering this outlook carefully. "I suppose that is true." Confidence... or the ability to command. He rarely doubted his own ability to perform any spell, and could not imagine going into one expecting it not to work. Arrogance was the most truthful trait in Landis Morgan's approach to magic, as much as either confidence or command.

He paused at the shelf of books containing textbooks, both a copy or two of the previous years' assignments, and half a dozen each of this year's texts. "Do you already have textbooks from previous years to study?" he asked, nodding towards the 2nd and 3rd year books.

Winifred shook her head. "No, I don't," she told him. "My mother donates my old school books to used book stores, so that people who don't have much money can buy them for their kids." Of course, most of her books were used as well. Her family wasn't particularly wealthy, but there were a lot of people a lot worse off than they were. Her mother had a nice job at the ministry, and that helped. And her father did what he could- but being a squib made him less useful in the wizarding world.

"But I really need help with third year stuff," she told him. "I still have the books you gave me for first and second year spells, and I use it a lot to practice. But third year stuff is just so much harder. But I really am trying!" And she was. It seemed her Hufflepuff was finally starting to show. After almost four years at Hogwarts, it was about time. Hard work was a definite Hufflepuff trait.

"The ones you found me had lots of pictures. And diagrams and drawings of wand movements and everything. That was especially helpful. Do you have anymore like that for third and fourth year?" Winnie asked. "Lots of them were also charmed to move, and had the colors of the spell if you did it right."

"Fair enough." A little less compassion would have saved her daughter some effort now. Landis started choosing likely-looking textbooks, flipping them open quickly as he looked for diagrams. He did not know the curriculum off-hand, nor whether these were so helpful as Winnie wanted, without looking.

"These are just textbooks," he said. "They're rather drier. But take some of the third-year ones, and then use what you learn from the other books I'll find you to get through them." He pulled out the third-year Charms, Transfiguration, and DADA textbooks, the classes most likely to have learned new spells. A quick wave of his wand had them bobbing in the air like ducklings following Winnie's every step - if he'd learned anything from the last time she'd come looking, they would end up with too large a pile for her to carry.

Then he strode off again, headed to a very familiar shelf just down the row which Winnie would be familiar with from her first visit. It was the shelf from which he had taken the books with all the moving pictures and helpful colors, big print and easy to understand.

Winnie watched with bemusement as the text books started to float in the air behind her. Oh how fun! One day she'd be able to cast spells like that! She bet Lord Fluffybutt would love to be levitated like that- then he wouldn't have to walk! Fluffybutt was such a fat, lazy cat after all. The only time he ever moved about was his weekly date with Duchess. But she and Imogen didn't spend nearly as much time together as they used to. Which made Winnie sad. Imogen was the only Slytherin in the whole world Winifred had ever actually liked.

Winifred fell silent as she followed in step behind him, glad when he finally headed toward the shelf that had been most helpful to her. Pictures, colors, and everything! "You certainly are very good at your job," she said to the librarian. "You always know exactly what I need and exactly where to find it! I can't imagine knowing that about so many books! I can't even remember how to get to the library at all half of the time!"

She crouched down, looking at the helpful books on the shelf. Then one caught her eye... Hogwarts had beauty books for beginners? She let out a quiet ooooh and pulled the book from the shelf. Her attention was now entirely diverted from the librarian as she flipped through the pages. These looks liked charms even she could do! To make herself prettier and look more grown up! Then boys would like her more! (Priorities- Winnie had them, even if they were the wrong ones.)

"Do you think I could-"

Her sentence cut off quite abruptly, and Winifred's usual slouchy posture immediately stiffened. One hand gripped a bookshelf so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Winifred's eyes rolled back into her head, and she let out a long breath, then inhaled sharply... But it didn't sound like one person breathing, but more like many people breathing. The voice that spoke was most certainly not Winifred Oliver's. It was deeper, stranger, and not the sort of sound to be expected of a fifteen year old girl. "The reunion must not happen-"

As she began to speak, two things happened. One, the book she'd been holding full of beauty charms fell from her hand, landing on her foot with a loud thud. Second, one of the books that had been bobbing along behind her also clattered to the ground- barely missing her. "OUCH!" Winifred exclaimed, shaking her head. And just as quickly as her strange behavior began, it ended. "That book was heavy! Anyway... Do you think I could check out this one, too?" Winnie asked. Winifred bent down, picking up both the beauty book and the one that had fallen from the stack floating behind her. "You know, for fun. It would be a neat way to get extra charms practice. I promise I won't cast them on anyone but myself!"

His back to the girl as he scoured the shelf, now Landis allowed himself to roll his eyes. "I'm sure there are many things you cannot imagine," he said dyly, knowing as he did so that his sarcasm was unlikely to be either noticed or heeded.

A moment later, and his head whipped around as the girl stiffened and began to speak in a deep, echoing drone. His concentration faltered out of the sheer surprise of hearing Winifred Oliver utter what was surely the beginning of a prophecy, and his spell on the books wavered. One fell to the ground with a loud clunk mirrored by Winnie's cry of pain as she dropped the charms text on her own foot.

"Anyway... Do you think I could check out this one, too? You know, for fun. It would be a neat way to get extra charms practice. I promise I won't cast them on anyone but myself!"

Landis stared at her, his hand still frozen on the spine of the next book he meant to pull from the shelf. He didn't blink. He didn't move. His gaze bored into her, diamond-hard and intense.

"What reunion?" he demanded at last, hoping to prompt a repeat. Even as he asked he knew it was unlikely. While some Seers would repeat the prophecy until it was fully heard, they rarely did so immediately. The Hall of Prophecies in the DoM had been full of partially-uttered predictions, scrabbled together and kept in case they held some meaning to the subject. But this one - there hadn't even been enough of it to know who the subject was. Well, Landis knew enough to know there was little use for it now. Winnie was so young (and so stupid! cried some part of his mind, despairing, that he ignored) that she surely couldn't be trained to See on command. He took a breath and tried again. "Ms. Oliver, are you aware that you just attempted to issue a prophecy?"

"Reunion?" Winifred asked, tilting her head to the side. "I didn't say anything about a reunion. At least, I don't think I did. Maybe I said the wrong word?" Winnie suggested, trying to figure out why Mr. Morgan was looking at her with such a weird face.

Then he told her... That she'd attempted to issue a prophecy? She couldn't help the way she laughed in response. "A prophecy?" she repeated. "That's a funny joke, Mr. Morgan!" He must have known that she liked to go around with her crystal ball to tell the futures of first years and was trying to tease her. She never would have thought that the librarian had a sense of humor at all!

"I was just asking you about the charms book- the beauty charms," Winnie told him. "I didn't make a prophecy! Maybe you weren't listening?" Winnie asked. "I know I get distracted sometimes and don't hear people right. Especially in class when the professors are droning on and on about really boring stuff."

"I wish I could give prophecies though!" she told him. "Divination is my second favorite class! And I'm actually quite good at it. I enjoy it very much."

"Hmmmm." It was a very unimpressed sound. "I am not mistaken, Ms. Oliver. I would advise you to speak to the counselor immediately; she is also a Seer." He did not advise her to speak with Trelawney, the balmy old bat. Landis neither forgave nor forgot the way she'd swooped in on him in his fifth year all flutter with delighted sympathy for his "dark and brooding soul." No, best to send the girl to someone who had a lick of sense, and who shared her gift. What's more, Maiko had training in dealing with problematic individuals and was unlikely to scare the easily-excitable Winnie with dramatic warnings of the future.

From her laugh she did not believe him. Landis shrugged. "Would you prefer to call it a seizure?"

Winifred continued to stare at the librarian in total disbelief as he stated, quite simply, that he was not mistaken. "But you have to be!" Winifred exclaimed. "I'm not a seer! I'm just very good at Divination. I don't even know how to give a prophecy!" At least, Winifred did not think she was. She had noticed that sometimes she dreamed things that happened. And lately she just seemed to know things she ought not know... But some people just had a gift. It didn't mean she was a seer! ... Did it?

He suggested that she go and visit the counselor- because she was also a seer. Winnie couldn't help but to swell with pride at the thought that she might actually be a seer. Wouldn't that just be amazing! Her mum and dad would be so proud and Winifred would feel much less awful about things and about her future. Seers always had a future ahead of them, right? She could make people pay her for her divination services! Amazing!

She blinked when he asked if he would prefer he call it a seizure. "But I didn't seize anything!" she protested. "You can't call me a seizer if I haven't taken anything away from anyone! I'm not a thief!" She stomped her foot in agitation. He must be going mad! What on earth was wrong with him? "I just want to check out books to study with! That's why I asked you for help, Mr. Morgan! Getting you to help and checking them out by the rules doesn't make a seizer!"

Landis just looked at her for a long moment, a tactic he frequently found himself employing when around the excitable and confusable Winifred Oliver. As was also frequent, it did little good. He raised his wand. "Accio dictionary."

Then he simply continued to stare at her until the book he wanted came bobbing around the corner, borne from another aisle. It settled in front of him, still hovering in midair. "Seizure," he intoned, emphasizing the second syllable. The dictionary breezed open only to fall still once it had struck the right place, and he ran a careful finger down the parchment of the page. "In its alternative and contextually accurate definition, a seizure is a sudden attack or spasm. A convulsion, as in epilepsy -" he glanced up at her - "or another disorder." The book snapped shut. He looked at her gravely. "I know which of the two I'd rather it be."

This little reading was totally unnecessary. But then, Landis had always been a bit of a prick.