Evening Shift :: OPEN

10 January 1923
8:30 pm
Library Checkout Desk

In all her years at Hogwarts, working in the Library had always been a double edged sword. She hated dealing with the stupid questions, disrespectful students who left stacks of books littered around the tables, the gum under the tables was disgusting and the new influx of candy issues made every shift a nightmare.

But, there were times it was amazing. She liked the later shifts, when most students were hanging out in their common rooms, tucking in for the night or off in the dark corners of the castle doing things that Tilly didn’t care about unless she was on {refect patrol.

Not her circus, not her monkeys. Unless she was on duty.

Tonight, Tilly was on desk duty. Answering questions, checking in and out books for students, organizing lists of books for Professors and studying when things were quiet. Thankfully, she had finished her duties so it was time to sit and work on her Russian.

Yep. She was learning Russian. Did she have other assignments for actual classes that needed to be worked on? Absolutely, but for some reason learning the language had sparked an interest she never saw coming.

Dobroye utro: Good morning
Dobryy den': Good afternoon.
Do svidaniya: Goodbye
Kak dela?: How are you? / How are things?
Gde tualet?: Where is the bathroom?
Govorite medlenneye, pozhaluysta: Speak slower, please.
Nichego strashnogo: No problem / It's okay.

The list of words she knew was growing, but it was slow going by herself. Mumbling under her breath, trying to pronounce the strange mixture of consonants and vowels, Tilly almost didn’t notice the person walking up to the counter. Movement caught her attention, bringing her eyes up to the late night visitor.

“Oh hello, is there anything I can help you with?”

Kathryn had bitten off more than she could chew. Not enjoying the back and forth required of her and the way it had begun to make her arms hurt, she'd gotten the less-than-brilliant idea to carry more than what might have been strictly advised. It wasn't a conscious effort to make her shift more difficult but a product of that stubbornness not many people were able to believe she possessed – unless they knew her.

One book turned into another, then another. The little girl ignored the way her arms began to shake by the time she got to the fifth book scooped off an abandoned table.

She pressed on. One foot went before the other, her footsteps growing more careful when the weight truly began to bear down on her. Even then, she refused to return to the front desk to have them dropped off. She refused to place them on a table while she went in search of one of the book carts. In her mind, it wasn't impossible at all. Rather, it merely required more discipline and determination on her part.

Neither waned, but her strength did.

By the time Kathryn got back to the front desk to have them deposited, she had accumulated a pile higher than her head. It effectively obscured the tiny girl, presenting only a stack of moving books with wobbly legs.

It was Avery's fault, she reasoned bitterly. Had he been working this shift with her, she'd only have needed to stare long enough for him to sigh and then fetch the cart for them. Teamwork was hardly effective when the other half of the team was missing.

“Oh hello, is there anything I can help you with?”

Forgetting that she couldn't be seen, Kathryn shook her head.

It was the nail in the doomed coffin. The unsteady movement provoked the large pile of books into a free fall that sent everything clattering to the ground. She scowled down at the mess she'd made, adding an extra curse in her head for Avery Hale while she was at it. He wouldn't have dropped them, and even if he had, it would've been his mistake that she could silently judge rather than her own.

Folding her skirt and tucking it neatly behind her knees, Kathryn sank to the floor to gather them into her gloved hands once more.

Rather than try to lift them all, she offered them up one by one, Matilda likely to see books popping up from the other side of the front desk, waiting for her to take them.

What Matilda was expecting when she saw someone in her peripheral vision, was a student with a question. What she wasn’t expecting was a walking stack of books that quickly took a tumble.

“Oh shoot, are you ok?”

Whoever was now below the level of the desk didn’t answer, instead a book suddenly came into view. Tilly grabbed it with a questioning look, and then the next, and the next.

“Ok then.”

She was confused at first, until she saw who the hand belonged to. “Oh, hey Kate.” She said with a smile. Benji’s younger sister was a beauty, but there was darkness behind her eyes. Tilly didn’t know the full history, but she knew that Benji and Kate didn’t have a good homelife growing up.

Understatement of the year.

“Well that’s quite the stack. Do they need to get organized and put back?” She asked. Yes and no questions were the name of the game. Once all the books were off the floor, Tilly took the books and arranged them by genre on the counter. ”I don’t know how you managed to carry all these, their taller than you.”

She didn’t expect an answer. She knew she wouldn’t get one.

Being the little sister of Benji, Kate held a special place in her heart. She wouldn’t push her to talk, but she would always be there if needed.

“I was just studying Russian, which might be the most difficult language of all time.I was planning to stop, maybe do some library duties. Wanna help me?”

“Oh shoot, are you ok?”

Kathryn nodded as she continued reaching for the books, forgetting for a second time that silent gestures were just that, silent. For her, there was no need for further response. She hadn't hurt herself and checked each book before lifting it to be taken by Matilda to ensure it hadn't been damaged. While she knew that her mother would be able to fix them with a flick of her wand – and that Matilda could too, she supposed – the first year preferred not to have it be necessary in the first place. She had a real reverence for the books within the library, unlike many who came in and treated them as poorly as they did their own personal property.

“Oh, hey Kate.”

Kathryn.

There was no end to it. Just over four months into the school year, and Kathryn kept running into the same unfortunate problem over and over. There were too many students who felt comfortable calling her outside of her name. Benny was at the centre of that dilemma. He only ever introduced her by nicknames she didn't want to be called, disdain following her every time it happened. This was no different. The little girl rose stiffly, placing the last book atop the desk, while she ignored the bitterness that manifested in the back of her throat. Telling them never helped. It certainly hadn't stopped Avery. The others didn't care to remember the corrections, forcing her to accept "Kate" and "Katie" with nothing more than a stoic exterior.

“Well that’s quite the stack. Do they need to get organized and put back? I don’t know how you managed to carry all these, their taller than you.”

Kathryn sorted through Matilda's questions, deciding which needed an answer and which were simply social commentary. That was another thing she'd learned about many of the students. More than half the things they said didn't require a reply. It was a lot like the many adults she'd interacted with. They said things they didn't need her replying to, only listening before they moved on.

Her quill and notebook pulled themselves from her shoulder bag, positioning themselves before the Gryffindor so she could effectively read the solitary word the quill scribbled.

Yes.

Yes, they did need reorganising. Yes, they needed to be put back. No, the stack of books hadn't been taller than her. Gryffindors were far too comfortable living in the realm of exaggeration.

Much like the comment on her height in relation to the stack of books she'd been carrying, Kathryn chose to ignore the comment on Russian. What the older girl chose to do in her free time was no concern of hers and held no particular place of interest. It didn't take any particular wit to know she was learning it for her betrothed. It was their business, not hers. So would pass the information on to Avery, and he would decide how useful it might be or might not be to him. The latter words were worth a reply.

Kathryn moved herself around to the other side of the desk, positioning herself beside the girl. The quill and notebook lay themselves on the desk before her while she gave a simple nod of agreement.

She would help. It was her job for the next half hour.

Matilda looked at the note, seeing the “‘Yes,” from Kate and smiled. It was nice to have company, even if she didn’t add to the chatter.

The library always had things to do. Even when it was quiet or late at night there was a list. They worked together in a comfortable silence, sorting and organizing a cart of books that needed to be returned to their shelves. The bulk of the go-backs seemed to belong to the Magical Creatures section, so Matilda took an empty cart and started loading it up.

“Ok, we can use this cart for these three stacks, all belong in the Magical Creatures section. Easy enough.” Taking stock of what was left, it was a mixed bag of genres. ”The rest of these belong all over, but we can separate them into general areas to save some time.”

Once all the books were on the carts, Matilda looked over the list of duties, crossing off two items. It always felt good to cross stuff off. There was one other item on the list that stuck out, something she had been avoiding.

”We need to start on the carts, taking the books back and collecting any others that need to be sorted. I swear, it’s never ending. The other thing that needs to be done is a list of books for Professor Quilton. There’s a lot. He dropped it off yesterday and needs them for tomorrow’s History of Magic class. Everyone’s been avoiding it. I know your shift is almost over, so I’ll let you choose. Would you rather put books back or start on the Professor’s list.”

Most of the Professors found their own books, or on the occasions that they needed help, gave plenty of notice. It was also typical for their lists to be a few books from their subject matter, but not Quilton. Last she counted there were twenty-seven books, from various areas of the library. Most would be found in the History section, but she noticed at least two on the history of magical law, one on the history of magical healthcare and five or six on the Ministry and Muggle politics. That was where Tilly stopped reading. The list would take hours to complete.

Looking over the list once more, she smiled at Kate. “Just looking at this list makes me want to skip class tomorrow. I vote for a girls day, let's tell Rae and Morgan, but make sure Benji and Drago go to class.”

Did Tilly think Kate would take her up on the offer? No, but stranger things had happened. ]b]”We can have snacks and tell stories about your brother. Did you know in first year Rae got mad at him and told him to marry me? Rumors went crazy. We almost killed a Ravenclaw with a muffin. It was quite the day.”[/b]

Kathryn appreciated the clear instructions. The little girl found that, often, when others asked for help, they seldom knew what help they actually required. A vague wave of a hand and words that suggested she look around and made herself useful – she had learned to ignore them with a silence that brokered no room for negotiation or discussion. The older Gryffindor hadn't chosen to add herself to that list of silly people. Instead, she pointed out the cart, the books, and what she'd like them to do with them.

It was easy enough, and Kathryn set to work immediately.

The quiet that fell between them went entirely unnoticed. After all, it was the library, and silence was the default. It was the hooligans who screamed and set off the baubles that always caught her attention. Her mother had insisted that first and sometimes even second infractions were not enough to warrant a permanent ban, but she was of a different opinion. Anyone who walked through the doors understood the purpose of the library and the expectations to be met while inside. To do otherwise was nothing less than flagrant disregard for established order.

That was enough to ask anyone to never return. If they failed their tests as a result, it might encourage them to conduct themselves with greater decorum in their next life.

This silence was fleeting. Soon, Matilda filled it with more instructions and a question at the end that she didn't find necessary.

"Would you rather put books back or start on the Professor’s list.”

It didn't matter.

Work was work, and if something was needed of her, she would get it done right up until the exact moment her shift was over. Kathryn waited to see whether the girl would eventually lose patience and simply assign her a role as many were wont to do, but when that didn't seem to be the case, her quill and notebook reluctantly rose.

Professor's list.

With all the time she'd spent in the library, even before beginning her formal education at Hogwarts, it was fair to say that Kathryn knew where every book belonged and thus could be found. It would require less of her to move from aisle to aisle collecting them. She took the list, already shifting into retrieval mode, but was stopped by the next words the Gryffindor allowed to fall from her lips.

“Just looking at this list makes me want to skip class tomorrow. I vote for a girls day, let's tell Rae and Morgan, but make sure Benji and Drago go to class.”

Any other child and the look of being scandalised would've been strikingly clear. As it were, Kathryn was a typically expressionless child who'd chosen to contain her horror behind a porcelain veneer of stoicism.

Skip? Her? Class? Any of them?

It wouldn't do. Classes were mandatory, even the ones she didn't like. It wasn't alright to not go because of a long library list, and the badge the girl wore on her robes only served to amplify the horror that Kathryn felt. She'd barely managed to process the ludicrous suggestion when the other girl began prattling on about Ruth and her brother and muffins and murder. Why were they all so dramatic? Why did every endeavour end in violence and someone being furious enough at someone else to give in to barbarism?

It wouldn't do either.

But, perhaps, most egregious of all...

Snacking will make you fat.

Kate was taking the Professor list, which was fine by here. She would leisurely walk through the stacks and put books away. And undoubtedly find just as many, if not more, that needed to be reshelved. It was never ending.

Snacking will make you fat.

Tilly looked at Kate in shock. She didn’t take offence, hoping the girl wasn’t saying SHE was fat. She wasn’t, she knew this, not that she cared.

”Kathryn Barlowe! Don’t say such disparaging things about snacks! And besides, if that were true, your brother would be 400 pounds. That boy snacks more than any human on the planet.”

She would take her simple response as a no to her girl day invitation. Disappointing, Tilly really had no desire to attend classes. Loading the cart with the remaining books, she adding some more from another section. The cart was piled high, but she would rather get them done without having to come back to the desk ten times.

”Ok, let's get to it. Once you find all the books, leave them at the desk with the list on top. Any books you can’t find circle and I’ll see what I can do about those. I’ll be in the Magical Creatures section first, then moving on to Astronomy.”

Unlocking the wheels on her cart, Tilly began walking down the aisle towards the Creature section, but then stopped when she remembered one more thing. ”If you change your mind about the girls day, let me know. There are healthy snacks too, you know.” He smile was friendly as Tilly turned and walked away. Maybe one day she’d get Kate to let her hair down and relax.

Doubtful, but Tilly was an optimist.