LUNAR (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

Four. The London Public Library of Magic

In just over two weeks, Evelyn had blown through all six of the books she'd bought at Flourish and Blotts. She had done almost nothing else in all the time she had lived in London. Sean had begun to joke that the sofa was going to have a permanent imprint of her body stuck in the cushions. (She had whacked him in the shoulder with her paperback for this comment).

She had done a minimal amount of job searching during this time, mostly comprised of looking at the Classified Section in the Daily Prophet for Help Wanted Ads. So far, nothing had struck her fancy. Evelyn felt much less guilty about her lack of a real effort when she was busy pouring through a novel, but just guilty enough that she didn't feel okay about going back to Flourish and Blotts. She had no business buying another book when she was supposed to be helping Sean pay the rent. She knew perfectly well with his new job and his 1000 galleon prize-winning from the tournament, he could have paid it on his own, but she would not let him do that. She wasn't his dependent.

That was how Evelyn ended up taking herself on a field trip to the London Public Library for Wizards. It certainly wasn't going to help her make any progress on the making money portion of her problem, but it would help her not to spend any money.

Libraries as Evelyn knew them, especially in large cities like this, were usually grand and stately buildings. This was not. There was a closed down petrol station across the street and a number of muggle boys, probably in their early twenties, shouted rude comments at her. Evelyn tried to ignore them. She wished she could have taken the floo network, but there was no fireplace in their flat.

On her side of the street was a cheap corner market, a dry cleaners, and a dingy red door leading up to the flat above the cleaners with a sign that read "No Public Access."

She was sure this was the street Sean had directed her to, but there was nothing here that looked remotely like a library. She was afraid to stick around much longer with the boys across the street still trying to chat her up, but she couldn't very well disapparate right in the middle of the sidewalk in plain view of muggles, so she started walking past the dry cleaners, past the red door, towards the market, and then she stopped and she double took. She frowned at the sign. She had sworn she had seen something, but it had not changed. She nearly kept walking again. One of the boys had started to jog across the street towards her.

Instead, she took two steps backward, curiosity getting the best of her, and then, standing directly in front of the red door, she was able to see it. The sign had changed. It now simply read "Library."

Before she could think about it, Evelyn grabbed the door handle and turned.

"Can't go in there, love," laughed the boy who approaching her. But Evelyn had already stepped inside and shut the door behind her. Heart pounding, she stood just inside the door, hoping that she had indeed ended up in the right place, but it was hard to tell. There was nothing here, but a a grungy looking staircase. Not interested in going back out the door (the kid was now shouting back to his friends wondering how she'd gotten through what was supposed to be a locked door), Evelyn headed up the stairs, careful not to touch the wall.

Beyond the landing was a second door, and she pushed through this as well. Inside, the worn down atmosphere of the street disappeared completely. She had come into the most perfect room she thought she had ever been in. It was a circular with black marble floors and white walls. Natural light streamed in from all sides, including from several skylights in the domed ceiling. Several witches and wizards in navy robes bustled around behind a round desk in the center of the room, stamping in returned books. She watched one witch flick her wand at a stack of books and send them flying across the room and through a door on the opposite side into what she assumed must be the main library.