Solitude (for Maria)

[Kacy Amery]

Kacy took a book from her bag, opening it to wear her worn bookmark was. With a faint smile, she inhaled the smell of the musty book. That had to be her favorite smell in the world. It was just so... Relaxing....

Her brows furrowing slightly with a bit of concentration, Kacy quickly buried her nose in the book, letting the words from each page sink in.

[mariasanchez]

After stepping off the staircase she had been stuck on for about ten minutes, the professor looked over her shoulder and eyed the staircase somewhat curiously. She had been on one of the lower floors preparing her classroom for lessons to come when she decided that she was finished and wanted to roam the corridors and get to know the castle. So, she took the staircase and hoped they would take her to other floors that she had yet to see. Well, they did what she had expected them to do, but there had been several complications before they actually did their job.

She had started walking up what seemed to be a normal set of stairs. However, as she reached one of the middle ones, her foot sank into the stair. For a moment, she thought she had broken a stone step, but that was not the case. The step had disappeared in the area where her foot had been place, and she had gotten stuck! She nearly fell backwards when her foot was caught, but she managed to keep her balance and lean forwards. It took her several tugs and pulls before her leg was entirely free. Once it was, she stared at the step as it appeared to be normal and wondered if she was just dreaming or maybe if it recognized new people and caused them to fall. With a sigh, she had continued up the staircase when it started to move and sent her falling onto the steps. She was glad that she had fallen forward instead of back because that would not have felt good to fall down a flight of stone steps, especially since she had broken her back once before and did not want to break it again. That had not felt the least bit desireable.

Once she managed to stand to her feet and get off the demented staircase, she stood in the corridor and rubbed the back of her head in confusion. A heavy sigh escaped her lips; it was of both relief and frustration. She was glad to be off that staircase, but she had no idea where she was. For a moment she stood in contemplation and decided to just start walking and let her feet and the corridors take her to wherever they willed to take her. She saw a few students in passing who smiled or nodded at her while others rolled their eyes and whispered to their friends. She ignored the whispers and returned to smiles and nods; she even spoke to a few of the students and gave a simple hello. Even though she wished to ask what floor she was on and what could be found there, she did not. She did not want to see that new to the school, nor did she want to look like a total idiot. Usually she did not care what people thought of her, but that was mostly her appearance or her personality. When it came to her intelligence, that was another story entirely. She did not want to be known as some sort of ignorant or stupid person, for she most certainly was not.

Her feet continued to carry her down the fairly straight and amazingly bland corridor. She saw students going into a set of double doors while others departed. She walked closer to it and peered inside. From the doorway and through the passing people, she saw bookshelves and books and students galore. She thought she had smelled knowledge floating around somewhere! Apparently she had found the library, and it was apparently fairly busy that day. Did the students have that much homework already? Sighing, Maria knew that she was going to probably be one of the favorite professors, for she did not give that much homework. Actually, she really gave none at all...

Running a hand through her brown-gray hair and pulling the waist-like of her deep purple robes down so that they were not riding up around her waist and smoothing the robes down her hips, she entered the library and felt carpet beneath her feet. It felt nice as compared to the stone corridors that the rest of the school had. Besides, it drew less attention to her since her heels did not click on the floor as she walked. In the corridors the shoes had clicked lightly and echoed loudly; people had stared at her for that and made her feel nervous. The only thing she had to worry about in here was dropping a book or bumping into someone.

The woman could not believe what she was seeing. How many books were there? A few hundred-thousand? She had been into many large libraries before, but none so large as that. She looked around in pure amazement and interest as her feet carried her slowly and somewhat shakily towards various shelves. She bumped into afew people on the way to a bookshelf whose contents she had no idea what it might be. She apologized in a low voice--a mumble--and turned down one of the aisles to view the book spines and titles. She allowed her chocolate-colored eyes to gaze at the book titles. Apparently she was in the Charms section, for she recognized several titles and even had to use a few of the books while she was in school many years ago. Oh, how fortunate was that! The Charms professor was in the Charms section.

With an obvious amount of interset upon her face, the woman scanned the shelves and looked for books that might give her something to read and enlighten herself upon as she finished her planning for lessons. She started at the lower shelves and then allowed her gave to turn upwards towards the higher ones. She squinted her eyes as she looked at them and saw a few she wanted to get her hands on. She stood on the tips of her toes and reached for them. They were just inside her reach, but she still found trouble grasping them. Her hand would touch them, but when her fingers managed to grip it, the book would slip from the tips of her fingers. She was pulling it out little-by-little as she hopped up and down her her toes and touched it barely each time. Within moments, the book was almost entirely free. However, before she managed to grasp it and bring it down in her complete grasp, the book slipped from the shelf and fell to the floor. A loud BOOM noise filtered the library, and several people stared at her. She turned and looked around with an embarrassed and apologetic look upon her face as she bent over and picked up the book from the floor. She carefully smoothed the few bent pages and closed it. She then walked towards the tables in hopes that she might find one to sit at alone and read. Sadly, the tables were all being occupied by students doing their work in groups. She sighed and looked around for a less-crowded one. The only one she saw was occupied by a girl that appeared to be in Gryffindor house.

The professor approached the table and sat the book down slowly and silently and place a hand on the back of the chair. She cleared her throat and swallowed as her upper teeth consciously bit her lower lip. Her voice came through what little silence was surrounding them.

"Would you mind if I joined you?" she asked the girl, her accent light but noticeable in her voice. She shuffled her foot a bit against the floor as she glance around. She hoped the girl would say yes because she did not want to leave the library with the book, for she had the tendency to misplace things without meaning to. If the girl said yes, they could both sit there and read their books unless, of course, the girl wanted to talk or something...

[Kacy Amery]

Though Kacy would be embarrassed to admit it, she had been one of the many students that had been watching the woman with mild interest. Usually, she never really stared, as it was never any of her business, but watching the awkwardness that surrounded the woman was just one of those things that you couldn't help but watch, no matter how much you wanted to look away.

Kacy winced as the book slammed against the floor, feeling the embarrassment for her as various students in the library sent her very peeved glares. Shaking her head to herself, Kacy turned looked down at her book, her ocean blue eyes scanning the pages again.

"Would you mind if I joined you?"

Kacy looked up quickly at the sound of a voice, relaxing slightly when she saw who it was.

"Not at all," she said, shrugging and giving her a small smile. Most of the students Kacy knew definitely would not have approved of a professor sitting with them (it would cramp their style), but Kacy felt rather sorry for her. What an impression she's made so far.

[mariasanchez]

As Maria stood at the table waiting for a response from the girl, she looked around the library over her shoulders and saw that there were still people looking at her and pointing at her while talking to their friends. She swallowed somewhat and realized that she should probably be a bit more subtle about things so that she did not gather so much attention; she really did hate it at times, and it was hard for her being the apparent new person at school. Turning her dark chocolate gaze slowly back to the student sitting at the table as she responded, the professor offered her a thankful smile and pulled the chair from beneath the table. She then lowered herself into it and smoothed her deep purple robes as she did so, nodding lightly at the girl.

"Thank you," she said in a light voice and looked at the book in front of her. She ran her gentle hand across the cover and allowed her fingers to gentle touched the seemingly engraved lettering that spelled out the title. She opened the cover to the first few pages and skimmed the words and the text inside the book. She then glaced at the young blue-eyed girl and watched her as she read whatever book it was she was reading.

The book was tattern and torn; it seemed to be from overuse of the simple object. Maria understood though, for she, too, loved to read books over and over just to make sure she got every single detail the book contained. She knew that she had read many books several times to the point where the titles on the cover started to fade, or better yet, the cover had come entirely off. Of course, most of the books whose covers were missing was not her fault. Her dog, as a puppy, had gotten hold of the books and chewed them for some strange reason. That had lost Maria many books, but she always went out and rebought them.

Opening her mouth lightly, the woman wished to say something in hopes of starting a conversation. However, it closed shortly afterwards since she was not sure of what to say. She breathed heavily in and then back out in a sigh, but she made sure that her breaths were not that noticeable; she swallowed to regain the moisture in her throat.

"What are you reading?" the woman finally asked. She sounded much like a young child playing twenty-questions. She offered a light smile and blinked a few times as she looked at the worn book and waited for a response.

[Kacy Amery]

"Thank you,"

"No problem," she said, not looking up from her book. Being careful not to rip the pages up any more than they were, Kacy turned the page. She readjusted herself in her seat to get comfortable, lightly scratching the back of her head.

"What are you reading?"

Kacy did her best not to laugh at the tone the woman used. Usually, by now Kacy would have murdered the person who dared tear her away from her book, but this just amused her. A professor had never approached her in the library to ask such a question.

"To Kill a Mockingbird.... It's a muggle book," she added, just in case she didn't know like most people who ask.

[mariasanchez]

The woman frowned as the young girl responded but did not look up from her book. Maria's fingers gently ran across the corners of the pages and flipped them a bit as she looked down at what was written on the page. It was just information about the author and editors as well as a simple introduction to Charms--something the fifty-year-old woman knew very well already. Maria already knew all of these things. She had learned this during her first year of schooling. A somewhat agitated sigh escaped her lips as she looked back at the girl, curious as to what she might be thinking. The professor did not want to disturb her reading, for she knew that some people really enjoyed reading, but the professor did not really want to just sit there either.

To Kill A Mockingbird. Maria had heard of that book. She had never read it, but she had heard of it somewhere along the line. When the girl said it was a Muggle book, the professor nodded with a light smile upon her face. "I know it's a Muggle book," she responded simply. She did not want the girl to think that she was unfamiliar with the other world, especially since she most certainly was not. Her husband was, after all, a Muggle who possessed no magical abilities of any kind. He knew that she did, of course, but he had no idea how they were used or what they were used for. At home, the Sanchez family lived as Muggles.

Noticing the slight annoyance in the girl's voice an in her face, the professor looked back at her book and tried to read the pages once more. She could read the words, but they were slightly blurry since she did not have her reading glasses. She looked back up at the Gryffindor and offered a small and somewhat nervous smile before asking another question.

"What's the book about? I've never read it..." Maria should have read it. She had had several opportunities to do so, but she never thought that a title about killing a bird was very interesting. Of course, that was one of those times where she had judged a book by its cover, or in this case, its title. She had told herself not to do that, but it seemed that each time she told herself not to do something, she did it anyway. With a sigh, she turned her head to look over her shoulder and saw that people still kept mild attention upon her, but it was fading. Slowly...but it was fading.

[/size]

[Kacy Amery]

"What's the book about? I've never read it..."

Kacy set her book on the table, still open as she tried to figure out the best way to summarize the book without giving the whole thing away.

"Well, basically it's about a small family of three-- Atticus Finch and his kids, Scout and Jem. Atticus is an attorney who's defending a black man who's accused of molesting a white girl,"she said. "It's a pretty controversial book."

[mariasanchez]

The young girl gave a very vague explanation of the book, and the professor tilted her head as she did so. Well, the book most certainly did not sound as if it would be about how to kill a bird of any kind. With a slight smile, the professor nodded lightly and then thought about whether she could be interested in some sort of book or not. She might be; it all depended upon various things. The book looked fairly large, and the professor knew that she would have little time to read since she would be teaching and grading and doing the teacherly stuff that most teachers did. With a sigh, she bit her lower lip and looked at her own book, not sure if she wanted to read it anymore. She probably already knew everything within its pages anyway.

In a somewhat bored fashion, the professor allowed her fingertips to tap along the table one after the other in a very rhythmic fashion. She thought about something to say but could not find anything to come to mind. Wow, she really did need to work on her conversational skills.

"Sooo..." the professor started and fell silent for a few moments. Well, what was she supposed to say after this? She clicked her tongue somewhat loudly, and the nearby people looked at her. She bit her lower lip once again. "Are you ready for classes to start?" she questioned finally and figured that it was better than nothing...even if it was a sucky thing to try and start a conversation with.

[Kacy Amery]

"As ready as I could ever be," She shrugged, arching an eyebrow. "What are you teaching this year?"

Kacy pretty much abandoned all hope of reading the rest of To Kill a Mockingbird that day. She leaned forward, resting her elbow on the table in front of her.

[mariasanchez]

The professor smiled as the student said that she was as ready as she ever could be for term. Though there was not a real sense of enthusiasm present in her voice, Maria assumed that she was being honest. If she wasn't enthused about term, then the professor could just play pretend with a smile upon her face the entire time to make things better on her half the deal--having to teach.

When being asked about what she taught, the professor gave another small smile but did not respond immediately. It was as if she had to think about it even though she knew her position good and well. "I'm teaching Charms," she said simply and then gently brushed the hair from her face using her right hand. She tucked it neatly behind her ear and closed her own book and pushed it off to the site. There was no sense in trying to read if she and the student were going to sit there and talk.

The professor's eyes traveled the perimeter of the room and studied the students sitting at the tables as well as those looking through the bookshelves at books. She said nothing and showed no sign of expression upon her face as her eyes scanned the room. She just wanted to see how students reacted in an environment such as the library. It was amazingly quiet, but that was probably because the librarian was making them to be quiet. After all, that was one thing most librarians did frequently--quited the students.