The Library: Between The Stacks

Andi walked in, trying her hardest not to cry. Bella had just ruined her evening, and all she wanted was a nice book to make her forget everything.

Ted noticed her looking upset and despite the fact that they had fought the last time they'd seen each other he didn't like to see a girl cry. As she walked down his aisle he spoke, "Hey, Andromeda right? I don't mean to be pushy but you look upset, can I help?"

Andi spun around in surprise and tripped over her robes. Down she fell to the floor in an ungraceful heap, as tears rushed to her eyes. "Ted?" She choked out, so confused and out of it. The kindness in his voice served only to further confuse her. "Why... I don't..." She sniffed, waving her hand at her face as if to ward off tears. "You have no reason to ask. I am nothing to you."

Ted scooted over to sit next to her on the floor, "No one is nothing Andromeda. No one." He leaned up against the shelves and watched her, "Did you hurt yourself when you fell?" If it was any of his other friends he would have his arm around her and be letting her cry it all out and even if he hadn't has the best first encounter with her that didn't mean he wanted to see her hurting like this, whatever had caused this.

Andi shook her head, struggling back up to her feet. She didn't think she had it in her to lie out loud. She had hurt herself, falling on bruises Evan left, plus her body was still sore from the sex they had a few days before. "That's not true. I'm nothing." She wanted to say more, but she couldn't hold the tears back. She began to cry silently, hiding her head in her hands, as her shoulders shook violently.

Ted watched as the tears started to fall from her eyes and couldn't stop himself. He moved over and put an arm around her shoulders gently, in case she decided to push him off. "What happened to you?" It was a scary difference: this girl and the one he had met just a week ago.

Andi immediately flinched away from his touch, as even his gentle arm pressed uncomfortably on her bruises. "Please... please, don't touch me." She gasped, arms wrapped around her body protectively. "Nothing happened." She tried to stop crying, but all she could do was continue to sob. "I am fine. Everything is fine." Andi angrily wiped her tears away.

Ted gave her a worried look and took his arm away from around her, knowing that look of of pain. He watched her wrap her arms around herself and his worry ratcheted up even higher. Something was really wrong and he wanted to find out what wrong. He took her hand as she wiped tears away, "You're not fine, please, tell me what's wrong."

"It's just..." Andi began, but she quickly pressed her hand over her mouth. Taking deep breaths, she calmed herself down, unaware that tears still spilled down her cheeks. "It's nothing. Nothing worth bothering about." She carefully began to smooth down her hair. "Just some family drama. My sister isn't always the easiest to get along with. And when she loses her temper... it can get bad. And she enjoys making me upset. Because good pureblood never show anything but a serene face." Andi fumbled for her wand and conjured up a handkerchief and wiped her cheeks. "She likes upsetting me, and decided to torment me about my wedding."

Ted shook his head, "Family shouldn't ever treat you that way. Family should be there to support you and pick you up when you're down and tell you that you're beautiful even when you're having the worst hair day ever. No one in family should ever try to ruin something like your wedding." He brushed her hair back, pausing for a moment before speaking quietly again, "What did she say?"

"It is just... See, as a pureblood woman, my only worth is as a bride. I have known that my entire life. So, as long as I can remember, ever since I was five, I have been planning my wedding. It is the one day I matter, the one day I am the center of the world." Andi shrugged, not meeting Ted's eyes. "What she pointed out was valid. I mean, Evan would never put up with my dream wedding. It was just how she pointed it out. I deserved most of it, but it was painful."

Ted couldn't help but feel bad for her, no matter how obnoxious she been the last time they had met. He reached out again and gently, slowly put a hand on her shoulder. "It's your wedding, you should be able to do whatever you want. You said it yourself: it's your day. No one should even try to take that from you." He knew that high society had strict rules and politics were key but that didn't mean he liked it. His own parents had taught him what was expected of him but had never enforced it, to do that to a young child was just cruel.

"But that is what I learned just now. It isn't my day... It's never been my day. It has always been about my family joining forces with another equally powerful family. And if my husband, or husband to be, doesn't want something, then I am obligated to obey, as I have been my entire life. My life will always be about obeying men, my father, my husband, no matter what. And that means turning a blind eye to my husband's infidelities because according to Bella, he isn't willing to give up other women. Because I am not good enough. I never have been!" Andi began to cry again. "I was the girl who should've been a male heir, a girlfriend who will never be good enough." She glared at Ted. "And I hate being this weak."

Ted still couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew that in her society she was born to be married but he'd never seen that thought affect someone so badly. He stroked the back of her hand, trying to comfort her. He didn't know what he could tell her to help because this was obviously something she needed to work out with her boyfriend. She needed to stand up to him and explain what it was she wanted out of the relationship, yet somehow it seemed as though maybe her boyfriend wasn't the kind of guy you stood up to. Ted stayed silent for a little longer, letting her cry it out before speaking again, his voice still quiet and low, "I'm sorry."

At this final display of kindness, couples with the soft touch on the back of her hand, Andi turned and began to sob on Ted's shoulder. After a second though, she realized what she had done and pulled away. "If they caught me talking to you... Merlin, I touched you..." Her body began to quake with fear. "Thank you, I won't forget how lovely you've been. But Bella knows I am here, and if she saw us talking, she'd kill you. Or make you wish you were dead. Either way, it would be no way to say thank you." She stood up and began to walk away, looking over her shoulder once, a confused expression on her face. "You Mudbloods certainly do compassion better than us purebloods."

Ted watched as she walked away, hugely confused by this interaction. He couldn't seem to reason out how this crying woman was the same person he had fought with two days ago. At least not until she turned around and spoke again. Then he sighed and shook his head, realizing that no matter what he did she wouldn't be able to ever accept that a "mudblood" was just as good as a "pureblood".

Hermione wanders the stacks, a dull look in her big brown eyes as she scans the titles. She doesn't even know what she's looking for right now, which is a first because Hermione always has a project or six on the go, always knows what she's looking for. Right now, though, she's just searching futilely for a distraction from the loneliness that seems to follow her everywhere now.

Remus has been spending probably more and more time secluded in the library these past few weeks, though half the time he doesn't even know what he's doing there. He spends most of the time just wandering about or sitting at a table halfheartedly working on homework or flipping through pages of books he has no idea what they're about. The occasional distraction of meeting new people - like Reed - or seeing his brother on his birthday, sort of cheers him up, but the feeling never lasts. Sometimes he just wishes he had never given in to the whole idea of 'having romantic feelings about someone' because then he wouldn't be in this situation. He's so busy lost in his own thoughts that he doesn't see the girl in front of him when he turns the corner and runs into her. "Ah, sorry! So sorry!" he'd automatically reached out, grabbing her shoulder, to keep her from falling over, but now he dropped his hand quickly, stepping back.

She is just reaching for a random book, her fingers grazing the spine when someone crashes into her. Hermione gasps in the flurry of activity; she stumbles, the book falls, a hand grabs her shoulder. She turns to see a boy with Amber coloured eyes apologising to her and tries not to stare. Eyes fascinate Hermione; sometimes they're windows and sometimes they're brick walls, but they're always interesting and Hermione has never seen eyes quite like these before. She realises she's staring and blushes. "Oh, no problem at all," she rushes out and glances down. The book she'd mindlessly been reaching for is laid at her feet, having thudded to the ground and fallen open at the title page: Sex and Torture in the Medieval Wizarding World. Oh. This is what happens when you don't look at book titles before you reach for them. Hermione bends down and snatches it up, clutching it to her chest while a blush stains her cheeks.

Luckily for the girl, Remus is too busy staring awkwardly everywhere but at her to notice the book and how she quickly snatches it up. He's always been uncomfortable around girls, especially good looking girls like the one he had just accidentally bumped into. "Good...well, I mean, not good I bumped into you, but good that you're okay- you know what I mean." he was quite quaffley by this point. "Er...I didn't mean to interrupt, I'll just be...going now. Sorry again. I normally watch where I'm going, honestly, I was just distracted and now I'm rambling, I'll shut up now." he bit his lip and decided now was probably a good time to just escape and avoid further embarrassment.

"I know what you mean," Hermione squeaks, and when she notices the boy going quaffley, she assumes it's because of her poor taste in literature and hastily stuffs the book back on the shelf. She takes half a second to line it up neatly with all the other books and folds her arms over her tummy. "It's fine. You don't have to go, if you were looking for something. I'm sure we can avoid bumping into each other, now that we each know we're here," she says, her face still afire. She stands there awkwardly for a minute, then goes back to scanning the shelves.

"Actually...I really don't know what I'm looking for." Remus blinks, staring awkwardly down at the floor. He sees the girl's shoes moving away as she starts scanning the shelves again and he looks up, stealing a quick glance at her. She was quite pretty. Especially her hair. (Yes. The hair. What? He still really really likes Herms' hair.) There was a soft fluttery feeling in his stomach and Remus turned away quickly, deciding to go around to the next aisle, not entirely sure what that had just been. He was gay, only interested in guys, right? He hadn't felt a thing that time he had kissed Molly and he had never really been all that interested in girls, always tending to shy away from them and find some excuse to leave. Besides, Remus had had enough with things in the romance department lately and he wasn't really interested in just jumping back in anytime soon. He slowly walked down the aisle, slowly approaching the end, his eyes scanning over books he had seen before from his constant visits to the library.

Ah, the hair, the hair. *giggles* Hermione feels a strange sinking feeling when the boy moves to the next aisle and frowns to herself. What's she doing? She doesn't need anymore friends, she barely seems to find the time amongst all her studies for the wonderful friends she's already somehow lucky enough to have. But she feels a pull, an affinity, to this person, something that compels her to say softly, "I don't know what I'm looking for anymore, either," even though she doubts he would hear her through the stacks.

Yeah...the hair. *is super amused* Remus is about at the end of the aisle when he hears the girl speaking softly, as if she's talking to herself. It might have been difficult for anyone else to hear, but Remus has a werewolf's senses on his side and his hearing was all the more stronger. He pauses at the end of the aisle and wonders what he should do. He could just go into the next aisle away and eventually just meander off but for some reason he kind of wants to go back into that aisle and see her again, or at least get her name. It was so confusing and he was so distracted thinking about it that he looked up in surprise when he found himself back in the first aisle, standing a bit away from the pretty girl who, he finally noticed by looking at her robes, was in Gryffindor as well. "Er...hi again." he looked at the floor, standing there awkwardly.

*giggles*
This is so cute!

Hermione, having busied herself with looking for a book not aboiut awkward subjects like sex and torture, blinks as she's greeted more gently this time. She looks up and even though confusion is etched on her face, she smiles slightly. "Erm, hi." She pushes her annoyingly bushy hair back off her shoulders. "Was there something you wanted, erm...?" she trails off, realizing then that she doesn't even know his name.