Damaged (A Marauders Era story)

First Year, Part 18 (The Restricted Section)

"That's it," I said, slamming the book I had been reading shut with a loud noise in the silence.

We were in the secret room Aileen had found, the one by the portrait of the knight, and we had been in this little room all day.

It was a Sunday, so we had no classes. Aileen and I had brought a small stack of books from the library and some drinks with us to go study, and for hours we had been in the room, each of us quietly reading the books, occasionally making a comment or two on something or another we read about. The sudden noise startled Aileen, making her jump slightly in her chair.

"What's it?" She asked, getting comfortable again in the red cushioned chair by the fireplace.

"Do you have any idea how many books we have read?" I asked.

"A lot," Aileen said, "And we're probably going to need to read a lot more before we do find something useful. Why?"

"We have read at least a hundred books between the two of us," I started,

"I don't think we've read that many," sHE said, laughing. "Maybe fifty at the most."

"And we've looked at about a thousand in the library," I continued, ignoring her. "I think it's time we do something different,"

"What do you mean?" She asked, taking a sip from the steaming mug of hot cocoa that sat beside her. "What else can we do? We've been doing everything we are able to do at the moment. We've been going to the library every day, checking out any book that might be useful, and then coming here and scanning through it. There are millions of books in the library, and we haven't even looked at a fourth of them yet. The only thing to do is continue to look every day, and sooner or later we will stumble across something useful. It's a shame Madam Pince isn't more helpful, I bet she knows where lots of books are that would help us."

"Continuing to look for a book in the rows upon rows of books in the library is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. We need to narrow it down a bit." I said.

"What do you suggest?" She asked, yawning and standing to stretch.

"We need to look in the restricted section," I stated.

"What?" She asked in surprise, stopping mid-stretch, "But you need a permission slip from one of the professors to go back there. There's no way they're going to let a couple of first years browse the restricted section."

"That's why we're going to need to sneak in," I said, sounding more confident than I felt.

Aileen was silent for a moment, mulling it over.

"I don't think we can pull that off," she said. "For one thing, if we get caught, we will be in huge trouble. And for another thing, even if we managed to find a book that looked like a useful book, we wouldn't be able to take it with us."

"Why not?" I asked, frowning.

"Have you ever tried taking a book from the library without Madam Pince's permission? " She asked.

"No," I replied, "Why?"

"Consider yourself lucky then," Aileen said. "The library books have spells on them to stop students from stealing them."

"Oh," I said, "Well, surely there's a way we can take one or two without her knowing. Did you ever try?"

"Not on purpose," Aileen said, "I accidentally had put one in my bag and forget about it. As I was trying to leave, the book flew out and kept whacking me on the head, screaming for Madam Pince."