Room 308, Sunday late afternoon

[smartestone]

Hermione had started out deciding to clean her side of the room, not that it needed much cleaning. Organizing might be a better word.

The problem with this was that it required opening the trunk at the foot of her bed that had long ago been spelled to be a bit on the bottomless side, and that was where Hermione had been storing most of her books. In order to organize her books while including the ones that had been stored atop her desk or the chest itself till now, she was going to have to pull all the books out first in order to arrange them so that they could be found easier when needed.

The pile of books on the floor was getting somewhat ridiculous now.

[See previous note re entertainment.]

Comments

[isourking.livejournal.com]

And outside the door there was a red headed fellow rolling his eyes.

"Are you opening a new library? Or perhaps a new bookstore?"

[smartestone]

Hermione sighed, placing another book carefully on the teetering pile. "I'm cleaning. And if you're going to go on joking about my studying again, I'd really rather a different topic."

[isourking.livejournal.com]

"Fine. But did you really expect me to not say anything?" Ron said leaning against the doorway. "Hear anything from back home?"

[smartestone]

"Not lately," she said, looking up at him with sudden interest. "Why, have you heard anything?"

[isourking.livejournal.com]

"Just the usual rubbish," Ron said with a shrug. "The new potions professor seems to have taken Gin under his wing. And she's still dating Dean."

And yes that was punctuated with an eyeroll. "You going home for the holidays?"

[smartestone]

"I was planning on it. Probably at least for Christmas itself," she answered. "I expect you'll be back at the Burrow?"

[isourking.livejournal.com]

"Probably not," Ron replied. "I'm sure Harry will do his standard holiday plans so as to keep away from his aunt and uncle. Might as well keep him company. I probably should get some shopping done soon."

[smartestone]

"I wanted to be done by now, but I keep wanting to be able to get back to Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley to shop," Hermione admitted. "Maybe it's silly, but it feels more... normal."

[isourking.livejournal.com]

"I know. It feels kind of odd to go into town anytime you want," Ron said. "I feel like I'm sneaking off every time I leave school grounds."

[smartestone]

"And there's no reason to use the invisibility cloak. It still takes some getting used to sometimes," she agreed.

[isourking.livejournal.com]

"I know," Ron replied. "Part of me wonders just how insulated we are from the threats back home. The other part keeps expecting the death eaters and you-know-who to show up on our doorstep."

[smartestone]

"Normally, except for Umbridge, I wouldn't be expecting any of the things we're used to. With Harry here..." She trailed off, figuring she didn't need to finish that sentence.

[isourking.livejournal.com]

"I know," Ron said with a nod. "Outside of everyone getting sick that week I think this is the safest I've felt going to school in a long time."

[the_merriest]

Rikku bounced back into the room. "Hiya! Oooh, are you cleaning for break? I --"

She blinked. At the immense pile of books. And blinked again.

"Dude."

[smartestone]

"Sorry," Hermione said, frowning at one that she didn't remember ever getting. "I'm trying to do some reorganizing and it's a bit out of control."

[the_merriest]

"That's okay," Rikku said, shaking her head. "That's. Whoa. What are all of these? Are they yours or is the library gonna come after you when they know they're missing?"

[smartestone]

"I abide by all library rules," said Hermione. Except for when she needed to get to a book she really needed or something, and those times didn't count. "All mine. I didn't start out having all of these here, but I figured with all the things that go on, I should be as prepared as I can and sent for them."

[the_merriest]

"Probably a good idea," Rikku nodded. "I usually abide by the library rules, except when I went into the restricted section. But that was for the plague-stuff so it's okay. I'm not good with rules, but books are awesome."

She eyed the trunk. "Do those all even fit in there? Or did you make the space a little bendy?"

[smartestone]

"It's spelled," Hermione answered. "Otherwise these piles would have to be lined against the walls, and toppled over every time a cat walked past it."

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded. "My leg-pouch thing kinda does that. There's way more in it than should be in it. I don't know how to set it up, I just know where to buy them so they do, you know?"

She eyed the stacks again. "Are these all, like, research on magic stuff?"

[smartestone]

"Mostly. I've been trying to branch out. I have a few books on dinosaurs, for instance, because there were things I didn't know and now I do," she shrugged. "Luckily I can explain this to my parents as furthering my education."

[the_merriest]

"'Cause of the dinosaur invasion?" Rikku sat down on her bed, making a face. "Still can't believe I missed that. Every time I go away, big exciting things happen. Kinda makes me worry about going home for break."

[multiplez]

Z happened to glance through Hermione's doorway on her way down the hall. She stopped dead and said, "Wow, that's a lot of books.

[smartestone]

Hermione poked her head around a stack of books to see her. "No one can say I'm not prepared," she said, which was pretty much an admission that she knew she had a problem.

[multiplez]

"Do you, like, own all of them?" Why yes, that was just a hint of jealousy.

[smartestone]

"I do," she said. "Or they were gifts. Do you read a lot?"

[multiplez]

"Yeah, I do, we uh, we read a lot where I'm from," Z said. "I just...never owned a lot of books." She owned the entire Angelica Demesnes Jewels of the Caribbean series and her SPD manual, and that was about it.