The Queen of Vipers || Fred Weasley

iii.

The first time Electra remembered magic up close was at the age of six, which coincidentally was also the time she was reported missing for two hours and forty-three minutes.

The last time Sister Geraldine had laid eyes on the raven haired girl was shortly after arriving at a New York Public Library —the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to be exact— on their annual (and only) trip to Midtown to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller. Sister Geraldine and Sister Francine scheduled the whole outing down to the hour, but neither had going to the library on their itinerary. But after waiting for all the girls to go around on the carousel in Bryant Park, the chill had settled in their old bones and a warm place to sit and rest their legs was sounding nicer by the second, so snack time came a bit early.

So that's how Electra found herself in the New York Public Library's Rose Reading Room in early December as the snow falling was beginning to stick to the ground. Sister Francine was busy scolding Vivienne for stealing another girl's snack while Sister Geraldine was getting a bit too cozy with her legs kicked up on a second chair when Electra wandered off.

At that age her déjà vu sense was as prominent as it was now at eleven; then it was more like a mere blind feeling that she could act on if she so chose. This time, she acted on it.

Electra had always been very independent —a trait she had no choice but to develop— so this was not her first time sneaking off. It didn't take her long to find a map and follow the stairs down level after level. She reached the ground floor and stopped her in her tracks.

A man, seemingly, walked right out of the marble wall at the end of the hallway. Electra drew back onto the stairwell so he would not see her. She stayed still as could be as he walked by, adjusting his hat, and dressed in a long brown coat and shiny shoes that clipped loudly on the floor. He passed in a breeze and disappeared out of the library as abruptly as he had appeared out of the middle of nowhere.

Electra tiptoed out of the shadows. This was where she was blindly heading towards.

She snaked down the hall and stepped in front of the wall. How could a man walk through marble like it were a curtain? Electra lifted her hand. It sure looked like a solid wall... She reached for it, ready to feel the cool marble under her skin. But she didn't. Her hand phased through it. A small squeak crawled up her throat as she pulled her hand back out.

What Electra did next, well even a child would think twice about doing. She stuck her head right through the wall. She blinked in the dim light to find there was a slender set of stairs winding further within the depths of the library.

The saying 'curiosity killed the cat' was never part of Electra's repertoire, not when her curiosity would so often keep her up at night with theories and thoughts swirling around her in head. It was a curse to the clever. So it should come to no one's surprise when Electra stepped through the wall and descended the stairs. Electra went round and round the winding staircase, dizzying and disorienting, as candles on the marble walls lit by themselves in front of her, guiding her.

Finally, when Electra's legs felt like jelly, her oxfords clunked onto the landing. There was no hallway or door to this part of the library, only a carpeted runner welcoming her. When she stepped forward the room flared to life; the three fireplaces around the room lit magically, giving the massive room a warm glow, allowing Electra to take it all in. And what an incredible sight it was.

Bookshelves were carved into the marble walls in rows with books stacked to the peak and overhead stalactites reached for the ground, the warm light of the fireplaces making them look like glowing fingers. In the middle of the round room was a seating area, desks made of perturbing marble stalagmites and dark leather sofas scattered around without a forethought.