Toby had never really been all that into reading for fun. Could never sit still and concentrate long enough, see? And then, this past year, with every single second of his free time spent studying for his OWLs, reading for leisure wasn't something that he'd made a lot of time for. Except for ONE book, and that was the one he'd brought along today. Well-worn and slightly battered and very obviously read like a kajillion times, Tobias had bought along Quidditch Through the Ages.

He was still... hesitant about the library. Hadn't set foot in here since the last little... traumatic incident. But the noticeboard had mentioned bringing along a smile to the book club, and Toby was quite happy to go to where the smiles were.

And so here he was, flopping straight into a blue beanbag, instantly comfy, and looking around at who else had turned up. Wait... was that food? Well... Toby was settled now, nestled quite comfortably in the huge beanbag and not willing to get up again. He'd pick up something later.

People got little smiles in greeting though, including all the professors, and Soph, but Toby didn't seem as able as he usually was to really put much exuberance into anything. No bouncing, thank Merlin. And so he half-sat, half-lay in his beanbag, quite content to just... exist there. Though he did say a collective, "Hi," to the room at large.

WAIT, HAD THE MEETING STARTED YET?!

Noooooo!! He was here! He was coming!!! Don't start yet guys he was-- Oh. They weren't really doing book cluby things yet now were they? HEh. Zander totally didn't run all the way over here. PFT. That'd be ridiculous. The heavy breathing was just from, erm, things that didn't involve running all the way to the library because that's not what he was doing. And um, yeah.

Why were there so many Professors here?

O___________O

Sweeping his now-messy hair out of his face, the Gryffindor approached each Professor? individually to say hellos. First was to Kitridge the leader of the whole shabang. "Hi Mr. Kitridge, is that your kneazle?!" Granted he was more of a crup person, but kneazles were pretty freaking amazing too!!! Then he spotted Professor Botros, to whom he gave a polite a wave. And lastly Professor Morgan who he felt obligated to say something too. Every time he saw her it was like BOOM GUILT. "Hi Professor, I hope you're having a good day," ahem.

And then, he looked around to find a place to sit and there were quite a few familiar faces. He smiled at Sophie and then also at AJ's crew before finding a seat near a newer friend, Eden "His kneazle is really cute, huh?" he smiled as he sat down slowly.

"Hello Jasmine!" Leo greeted cheerfully as one of his house prefects walked in. "How are you? How is the newt revision going?" he was of course referring to her big newt exams at the of the year.



"Hello Kace!" Leo greeted with a wave and a flashed smile.



Turning to Ian he smiled warmly. "I’m glad to hear it. If you need someone to talk to then you know where my office is." It couldn't hurt to offer even if Ian seemed happy and excited. "There is tea and juice and cinnamon rolls if you want something to munch on before the meeting starts."



"Hello Benjamin." Leo greeted as the lion boy found his way over to the gathering to find a seat near Adi. "Feel free to help yourself to a cinnamon roll or something to drink before the meeting starts." He suggested with a gesture to the food and beverage table.



Gaze shifting to Botros he responded simply. "It means a lot that you are here." And that came from Leo's heart. He meant it too. Abe was an important friend and colleague.



It was hard not to beam broadly when Sophie Brown arrived and chose to plop herself down on the empty bean bag nearest him instead of grabbing the one near her boyfriend Toby. "Hello Sophie." Stroking Madonna between the ears Leo responded with smile. "I'm lovely thank you. How are you?"

Watching Sophie munch on one of the cinnamon rolls he secretly held his breath waiting for her verdict. When she gave them a thumbs up literally Leo blushed."Thank you, I actually baked them this morning just for the meeting. I wanted to treat you all with something nice."



Gazing around the bean bag circle and at the food and drink table Leo shook his head."No, everything is set Adi but thank you for offering." Fina had made a wise choice in giving him a prefect badge. Eyes widening slightly in surprise Leo beamed. "You want to become a hippogriff breeder? That's an interesting field of work. Creatures are fun to work with. Has Professor Thompson's classes inspired you to want to take up that field after graduation?" If that was the case then Javy must be doing something right when he taught the student about creatures.



The next girl to arrive Leo hadn't seen much of lately but he still remembered her name. "Hello Zhenya. I'm wonderful thank you for asking. It's a lovely day to talk about books don’t you agree?" Cocking his head slightly to the side he wondered. "Is everything all right dear?"



Motioning for the senior eagle to find himself a bean bag Leo said "Hello Gabriel." Not being able to not catch the wide-eyed stares Gabriel sent off in the direction of Cassie and Abraham he asked worriedly. "Is everything all right Gabe?" As in did he need to seek him out after the meeting in the Ravenclaw Tower?



Eyes trailing over to Cassie as she responded to him Leo murmured with an affectionate glance down at his kneazle that had now climbed up into his lap. "Madonna knows her way around the library better than I do sometimes. She rarely ventures into the restricted section unless of course she thinks there are rats or something in there," like students who shouldn’t be in there without permission. "Wonderful." Leo echoed with a glance at the kitty purse before he raised his gaze finally to Cassie’s eyes. "Can we talk after the book club meeting is over?" And hopefully clear the air between them?



The next student to arrive was Toby. Waving at the senior Hufflepuff student Leo called over. "Hello Toby, I’m glad you could come. Did you remember to bring a book?" He vaguely remembered running into Toby in the study area many days ago where he they had chatted about books and his girlfriend Sophie.



"Hello Zander right?" Leo greeted the lion with the messy hair that had just walked over to the gather. Nodding he confirmed. "Yes, Madonna is my kneazle." he confirmed with an affectionate stroke of the feline between the ears. "Do you have any pets?"

**********
When Leo estimated that a good group of student's and staffers had arrived he scrambled to his feet ignoring the look he got from his kneazle to address everyone assembled with a warm smile pursing his lips. "Welcome everyone to this terms first and only book club meeting. I see that most of you have remembered to bring along a book. I take this as a good sign that you all have been reading outside of your class work. That's really good. Reading is a big part of accumulating knowledge that you might need or find useful to have acquired when you least expect it." Wink.

Retaking his seat on his bean bag Leo gazed around expectantly at the students mostly but Cassie and Abraham could of course chime in too as he asked. "So, has anyone read a book they'd like to recommend others to read? Or read something they'd like to bring up and talk about?"

Ooc: The meeting has officially started. Feel free to answer either or both of Leo's questions.

Slipping into the room just moments before the Book Club Meeting was about to start the small first year silently settled herself into an empty seat. It wasn't that she had intended on getting there just in the nick of time really. It was more of a she wasn't sure if she'd be coming at all. She did quite a lot of reading outside of classes actually but no one really knew that.

So shifting around in her seat until she was comfortable she'd given everyone a small but friendly greeting, her book laying on her lap. Was she really the only first year here? It seemed that way. Chewing on her bottom lip she glanced around wondering if this had been a good idea or a bad one to show up. So far it didn't seem like neither they hadn't really gotten into anything just yet.

Keeping her mouth shut for now she listened to what some of the others had read. Maybe it would be good and she could add another book to the list of books she'd like to read.

"Protogonists and the portrayal of 'good guys' in literature interests me, Mr. Kitridge. Can we talk about that?" Came the late in coming Cutty's before he'd fully entered the room. Where the hell had Cutty been all year? Present, but unaccounted for. Invisible to the naked eye, perhaps. He wasn't at this moment as he entered the old haunt after Adair and took a seat near the brick-stupid and unabashedly handsome Gryffindor boy, letting him sandwich between he and Eden McGee. He looked around at the room at large. "I'm not too late, am I? Ooh, are those cinnamon rolls?" Cutty was not a sweets person due to the occupational hazard of having sold them for 4 years now, but he knew that their presence in the library was a rarity and wondered why. What was the occasion?

Kitridge and his kneazle perfectly reminded Cutty of the Muggle villain from the books he was carrying. No Cambridge, though. No Hirase. He supposed that meant that Mr. Kitridge wouldn't be struggling to hold it together this meeting in the case of the latter. And Professors Morgan and Botros had decided to join as well. What a delight! And Sophie Brown and her boy-toy too. Heh. She didn't like him and he was sort of oblivious as to why.

Adi nodded. Everything did look set. Including those delicious looking Cinnamon rolls...yummy sugar. Hehe. "Actually, my er, like for the creatures started when I first came to Diagon Alley. Took a ride on a Hippogriff carousel. But Professor Thompson and his classes did make me realise that Creatures had my full attention.'' So yes, thank you, Professor Thompson!
............................

Adi seemed to be doing quite a bit of eyebrow raising. This time Ian got one. He was quite tempted to say, ''Thank you, I know I'm awesome'' but he decided not to. Instead he said, "Er, thanks.'' Was Ian sucking up? Hmmm.

Oh, hey Gabe! Adi returned the wave as he smiled in the Claw's direction. Was he slowly coming out of his shyness?
.............................

"I'm good, Angel, now that you aren't trying to get Benny into trouble.'' Cue the smile. Good. One thing settled here.
.............................

So, which book had Adi brought along? The Invisible Man. It was one of the coolest books he had read. The whole thing with the man being invisible really fascinated him. He hadn't even needed an Invisibility Cloak.

The Hufflepuff raised his hand. "I would recommend The Invisible Man by H.G Wells,'' he said.

Zhenya was glad the librarian greeted her, although why did she not realise he would? A nice day to talk about books? Aren't they all good? "Yes, it's a splendid day to talk about books. It always is," she added happily, offering a small smile. She was startled by his next question. Was everything okay? She swallowed hard. "Erm... Erm... I... Y-yes I think so," she said rather nervously. She never knew how to answer that question, and she didn't want to make anyone feel awkward about her spilling her crazy problems. So she embraced her inner strength and tried to smile reassuringly.

Oh! The book! Zhenya reached into her bag and took out a battered copy of 99 ways to charm a mermaid. she raised her hand, unaware if those mannerisms were required for a book club. "This book, 99 ways to charm a mermaids, is a book I've been reading. I'm only half way through but it's about a little mer-village where the head merman needs to marry off his seven daughters before the month is out, or he must hand down his position to someone else. It's very interesting, there's a lot of drama surrounding the other mer-people and who wants to claim his position if he is unable to fulfil his task. There are also a lot of mer-men who have volunteered but it turned out their families were plotting to take over once they were married into the family." She had inherited it from her grandparents on her father's side, thankfully it was in English.

Zander nodded to confirm his name, realizing that maybe he should take more time to get to know some of the other Hogwarts staff... He really only knew a few of his Professors quite well and there were definitely some that he knew a whole lot better than others. Most of them it wasn't really by choice, but he did go out of his way to talk to a few. Anyways, back to the kneazle talk because the kneazle made this meeting totally worth it. Even though the Gryffindor didn't take a particular interest in books. Zander shook his head in disappointment in response to the question before lifting his head up to respond, "No... But I'm going to get a cruppy over the summer! I've been saving up," grrrriiinnn. That was the plan-- well it was also the plan for last summer, but erm... Yeah. It was really happening this time.


So had it been any other time, Zander would not have had a book in mind. Except, this time he did. And it was all thanks to Professor Flamsteed actually. Weird. But the Gryffindor had started working on the book a little while ago and he was slowly making his way through the first few chapters, but already the story was very meaningful-- especially because of everything that was said outside the Astronomy Professor's office. So when the question was asked, the lion reached into his bag and pulled out a big ol' book. With a small smile on his face, he lifted both his hand and the book in the air.

And that's when he realized Cutty had come towards him-- and Eden-- to take a seat. "From Mandrake to Mimbulus Mimbletonia: The Neville Longbottom Story by Abigail Pittiman," He even knew the whole entire title AND the author. That was a rare sighting. Once he lowered the book, he stole a glance over at Cutty to make sure the boy wasn't laughing at him again. Which, by the way, he didn't even understand the laughing in the first place because Neville was a hero!! Not someone laughable. Ahem. Anyways.

Angel looked at the Librarian and smiled, how come she hadn't seen that he was here before after all the Librarian was awesome. "I read a muggle book called The Famous Five." Angel had heard that there was a series of books. "It's about two girl, two boys and a dog called Timmy and they do a bit of detective work." Angel gave the Librarian her sorry face for what she had done when she came in.

Sophie smiled an especially broad, cinnamon-y smile at the Divination professor and took a moment to swallow the cinnamon roll before responding brightly, "Good, thanks, professor. I always look forward to these meetings." Which meant she was ESPECIALLY looking forward to this one since it was the only one of the term. It had been a long time coming, hadn't it?

She sort of wished they'd have these meetings more often, though, so she could enjoy Kitridge's good food and squishy bean bag chairs more than just once a year.

Her Head of House's big grin hadn't escaped her, though, and soon enough Soph had turned her attention to the man sitting near her, quite cheerfully proceeding to devour more of the cinnamon roll as he spoke. After speaking through a mouthful to give him her verdict, she had enough self-control to swallow this time before responding to him again, "M'lovely, too, thanks. S'nice to have a meeting again. Just... please don't, y'know, go wandering back off to the Forbidden Forest again after this one, okay?" Her tone was light and teasing to match the cheeky sort of smile on her face. "We kinda like having you around being safe and healthy and all." That was her way of telling him she was worried about him and cared about his well-being, and she assumed he'd pick up on that well enough without her having to come right out and say so.

Text Cut: Start of meeting

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch

When Leo estimated that a good group of student's and staffers had arrived he scrambled to his feet ignoring the look he got from his kneazle to address everyone assembled with a warm smile pursing his lips. "Welcome everyone to this terms first and only book club meeting. I see that most of you have remembered to bring along a book. I take this as a good sign that you all have been reading outside of your class work. That's really good. Reading is a big part of accumulating knowledge that you might need or find useful to have acquired when you least expect it." Wink.

Retaking his seat on his bean bag Leo gazed around expectantly at the students mostly but Cassie and Abraham could of course chime in too as he asked. "So, has anyone read a book they'd like to recommend others to read? Or read something they'd like to bring up and talk about?"

Sophie was glad to see that Tobes had made the meeting and he got a big smile, though it was a bit surprising, honestly - he had absolutely been one who chose the creatures meeting over the book club one last term, and she couldn't recall him attending a book club meeting prior... actually, she couldn't even remember him reading a book for pleasure. He knew a whole lot, certainly, and was sometimes a little surprisingly like a walking textbook full of knowledge and insight, but... she was interested in seeing what book he HAD brought. Would his choice astound her?

Kitridge was starting the meeting, though, and Soph wished she had grabbed another cinnamon roll before it was too late. She was tempted to summon one over to her, but she thought that would be disruptive, too, so... there she sat, her cinnamon roll all eaten and wishing she had another. She briefly considered offering up some insight on the book she brought - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, sent to her by Caterina Moretti earlier in the term - but she was too distractedly longing for another cinnamon roll.

Would someone see her staring and pass her the plate? She could only be so lucky.

As Kace was getting prepared for the meeting, he smiled and nodded towards the professor's greeting. Oooh he was supposed to bring a book? Woops well actually let's see if he had one in his backpack. He usually did incase he got bored waiting for his classes to start. Once he was done digging through his backpack he actually found a book. Aahh success! He smiled and wondered what he had.

He flipped it over and noticed it was Quidditch Through the Ages. He snorted and thought it was soo obvious. "Erm Professor I brought Quidditch through the Ages actually.." he held out his book. Being the quidditch nerd he was he had no shame showing his book. "But I did read a muggle book during the christmas vacation called Poison Princess and I thought it was pretty cool.." he grinned.

Toby smiled over at Mr. Kitridge at his greeting and waved in return, before nodding.

"Sure did, sir," the Hufflepuff replied, holding his Quidditch book up in the air. He now figured that the notice had probably been talking about novels or stories or autobiographies or whatever. But Tobias still didn't regret bringing Quidditch Through the Ages along. He loved it, and, of course, he'd read it. And oh hey, Kace had brought the same book! That was pretty funny, being that they shared a dormitory and all. Fifth year Hufflepuff boys were on some sort of wavelength or something.

They were starting, and jumping right into it. Toby could tell already that this was going to be one of those meetings that he wouldn't have a whole lot of input in, but that didn't matter so much to him. It would just be neat to be able to sit and listen to what everyone else thought, and find out what they enjoyed, what made them happy.

Sooooooooo... he said nothing. For now at least, just turning his head to look at anyone else who spoke. It wasn't like Toby had NEVER read other books, though, it was more that a lot of the topics he pursued were more niche market sort of things.

Her fidgeting was awful while she was near Leo and she tried to distract herself with the Kneazle. Glancing back up at him, he did know about her animal talent didn't he? She just nodded, "Well that's good that she knows the library. I'd hate to see her really lost." Green eyes jumped to his face when she heard his question. "Oh, well.. umm yeah, I mean I don't have anywhere to go, I.. well I mean. Yes Mr. Kitridge after the book club meeting is fine." Her cheeks red she moved to her seat, that was just awful and she knew what it was about. She had to. He was going to be professional here, but then tell her how upset he was at her actions later. She sighed thinking about what the girls had told her. That just had to be it.

Sitting she tried to focus on his voice as he started the meeting. Listening to the others talk about their books she started getting interested until she notice Cutty walk in late. Well at least he had something to talk about. Hmm all such interesting books, some which she hadn't heard of, but would love to check out. Though Kace made her wince a bit, Princess books. She had enough of the princess things.

Once the students were done she sat a little straighter, "Well do to some things that students have told me recently I wanted to do a little research so I had brought muggle stories 101, it goes through different muggle children stories especially fairy tale ones." Though she really didn't want to speak about the one she was researching, the more she read the worse she was feeling.

Thankfully he had remembered to bring a book to the meeting, having not been to many if not any at all of the previous meetings because of conflicts with other things. A bleak reminder of the drama that had come out of the last time meetings of any sort had happened in the library. The fourth year fought off a shiver, instead listening to the suggestion of others before finally speaking up for his own choice when it was his turn. No way around it.

"I brought an older book," he said, having noticed the date of the first publication when it had first been bought. Something he had found on a trip with his parents. "Its called Eragon." Perfect book for him though...plenty of talk of dragons with the pages.

When her Head of House asked how she was, Jasmine responded. "I'm doing just fine sir" Then he spoke of the forbidden topic. Sigh. "NEWTs? Ohhhh things are coming along. I'm just trying to stay on top of my studying." The truth was, she had barely had time to read a for fun book because of her studying. Jasmine supposed that bringing a text book to a Book Club meeting would not be cool. Not that she hadn't considered it mind you.

Then the meeting started and some students were sharing information about their books. Jasmine started to raise her hand, but then she had second thoughts. Of course the point of a book club was to discuss your book. For some reason though, she didn't feel quite ready to share......yet.

Ian wasn't sure if Adi took the compliment well, but it seemed he would leave it at that. Ian took another sip of his tea and pulled his book out as the librarian spoke.

When he heard the question posed about what direction it would take, Ian looked at his title, Muggle relations in the wizarding world and determined this was probably a topic only he would be interested in at present. One thing did intrigue him though. Mr. Kitridge. How do books end up in the restricted section and how might they cause problems if 'released' ? Ian had used the air quotes as he thought about one particular glow-y book he'd encountered and seen about and heard rumors of other students interacting with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch

Gaze shifting to Botros he responded simply. "It means a lot that you are here." And that came from Leo's heart. He meant it too. Abe was an important friend and colleague.

He smiled back at Leo in an of-course-I-would-come way and listened as the meeting officially started.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Once the students were done she sat a little straighter, "Well do to some things that students have told me recently I wanted to do a little research so I had brought muggle stories 101, it goes through different muggle children stories especially fairy tale ones." Though she really didn't want to speak about the one she was researching, the more she read the worse she was feeling.

Ab didn't bring any books with him, to be honest. Instead, he listened to what the children were reading these days, he'd done quite a lot of reading in his past seventy years, barely anything could interest him anymore.

Until Cassie brought up muggle stories, the fairy tale-y kind especially. His interest spiked at the mention of it, and he raised his hand to add. "I do think I'm familiar with those stories, professor Morgan, and some of those stories are really fun, humorous and teach a socially accepted moral from the Muggle world." He liked them. And... yes, no need to point out the elephant in the room, right? That they'd been seeing some fairy-tale related things going on around the castle, giant beanstalks, mistresses of evil and whatnot...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edward Penguin

When he heard the question posed about what direction it would take, Ian looked at his title, Muggle relations in the wizarding world and determined this was probably a topic only he would be interested in at present. One thing did intrigue him though. Mr. Kitridge. How do books end up in the restricted section and how might they cause problems if 'released' ? Ian had used the air quotes as he thought about one particular glow-y book he'd encountered and seen about and heard rumors of other students interacting with it.

Ooh, a good question. Ab turned to Leo to hear about this, the old professor never managed a library as big and thorough as Hogwarts library, Leo must know how the restricted section worked.

Leo watched silently as Cutty Mordaunt made his entrance to the gathering albeit a little late. His lateness was weighed up by the fact that he jumped into the meeting straight away and offered up a good discussion topic. Turning his gaze to the snake boy Leo said "It's good that you wanted to join us Cutty. You brought up an interesting topic for discussion that we will need to discuss and immerse ourselves in at another meeting. I want to bring you examples from literature that will aid the discussion." Pulling up his parchment he wrote down Cuttyäs idea on the back. It'd make for a potentially good discussion next year.



"The Invisible Man," Leo echoed thoughtfully. "Can you tell us something about the book Adi? Why do you recommend it?" It sounded like a book written by a muggle author or at the least someone that Leo wasn’t accustomed with.



Switching his gaze from Adi to Zhenya he smiled warmly. "I'm glad to hear that dear. If you ever need an adult to talk to my office door is always open." Because Leo had a feeling that there was more to the story than what Zhenya was willing to bring up in front of everyone. It was not the right time or place but Leo was just a teeny tiny bit curious as to why the snakette wore gloves inside. The library was usually a warm place if you weren’t visiting the restricted section.

******
Leo listened silently but attentively as Zhenya shared with everyone what book she had chosen and what it was about. When she finished Leo asked. "Who wrote '99 ways to charm a mermaid'? It sounds like an interesting book that I might need to order for the library."



Eyes moving from Zhenya to Zander Leo couldn't help but grin. "That's a good book. Do you like herbology then?" Maybe Zander was a budding botanist in the making or plant expert even.



Turning to Angel he noted with satisfaction that she had decided to join in the discussion instead of misbehaving and even seemed a bit ashamed of her actions as she should be. "'The Famous Five' sounds like an interesting detective story. Do you remember who wrote the book Angel? I'm always looking for new muggle books to put up on the shelves,"[/b] Even if Leo ordered in mostly books written by magical authors to the library.



Turning to Sophie with a warm beam Leo responded almost crossing his heart. "I promise dear. I have no plans to wander off to the forbidden forest after our meeting." Or on any day for that matter unless the situation required him to. The forest was Archie’s domain.

Feeling his heart warm up by Sophie’s statement Leo reached over and gave her a quick hug. "I like having me safe and healthy too. But you know sometimes things happen that I have to deal with that might be dangerous that’s just a way of life but I can though promise you to be cautious and to protect myself."



"Quidditch through the ages is always a good read Kace." Leo commented with a smile to the badger youth. "Do you want to become a professional quidditch player when you leave school?" Many boys and girls did but not everyone. Some just liked to watched the sport and play it occasionally with friends.



Shifting his gaze to Cassie again Leo said simply. "Great, we can meet in the observatory before dinner then?" He wasn’t angry at her. He just wanted them to clear the air and hopefully begin anew. He really liked her and this oddness between was driving him nuts.

*****

"What things have the student’s told you?" Leo wondered interest peeked. "And more importantly why did it urge you to research muggle fairytale stories?" Was something alarming going on in the castle that he wasn’t aware of? In the library he usually picked up rumours and information but to what Cassie was referring he was oblivious. He needed more information.



"Eragon, hmm," Leo echoed. "That title sounds familiar. Is it an adventure and fantasy novel about a boy that finds a dragon egg that later hatches and gives him a dragon for companion?" It was possible that he had mixed it up with another story. It wasn’t uncommon.



"That’s good to hear Jasmine. If you need to borrow some old NEWT exams stop by the Front Desk when you have a minute I’ll help you out." Leo offered. He had no doubt that Jasmine as the proud eagle she was had things under control but practicing and seeing old exams had proved in the past to be fruitful for NEWT and OWL exam takers.



Lastly Leo turned his attention to Ian once more. Nodding he said excitedly. "Good question Ian. I don’t think we’ve ever discussed this in a meeting before. If this was a lesson I’d given you house points. I’ll share the answer to your question with both you and the whole assembled group because I think this is something they should know too."

**************

Clearing his throat Leo did just that. “Everyone, Ian brought up a really good question. He asked 'how books end up in the restricted section and how they might cause problems'." He paused to gather his thoughts briefly before he continued. "Most books that come to the library I order from companies that sell or make books. Or someone donates them to us like many of your parents did after that fire burned up parts of the library and many books."

"For a book to end up on the shelves in the Restricted Section they have to need special handling, have a curse placed upon them or just have advanced knowledge in them that require you to have permission to read. Books in the Restricted Section have been placed there by staff members or the librarians that have proceeded me in the position since Hogwarts came into existence they don’t just show up out of the blue. Someone has to have put the books on the shelves."

After a short stop to take a mouthful of juice from a glass Leo fetched with the use of his wand he finished. "What potential damage a book from the restricted section can cause if it was as Ian put it 'released' depends on the book and its nature. It's hard for me to guess unless I get an example."

"Does anyone else have a book they'd like to recommend?” Leo asked. Taking another mouthful of juice he let his eyes wander over the assembled students and staff.

Angel smiled at the Librarian, he seemed to have forgiven her which was good. "I don't remember off the top of my head but I've got a copy in my trunk in the common room, I can bring it for you to read one day." Angel smiled...she had gone onto another book at the minute.

Angel then suddenly thought of something. "In my primary school there were books only year five and six could read, is that like the restricted section in muggle places?" Angel had been confused about why they weren't all allowed to read every book around.

She had THE coolest Head of House, did everyone know? She loved Flamsteed and all, but Kitridge was where it was at. Sophie grinned huge and nodded her approval at the man's words, "Good. Thanks." That was a nice promise of him to make, and it allowed her to rest easy.

...Until he continued along, and Soph frowned, despite the man's hug. She didn't want him to have to face dangerous situations, though - he was a librarian, and she wasn't sure that having to be the hero should have been in his job description. That sounded more like a job for Romanos or Truebridge. She appreciated his bravery, though, and finally nodded when he was finished. "Okay." She was still a little saddened over the thought of something really serious happening to him again, but... he promised again to try to be safe and look out for himself, so... Soph would have to take his word for it.

Text Cut: Kitridge during the meeting

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch

Clearing his throat Leo did just that. “Everyone, Ian brought up a really good question. He asked 'how books end up in the restricted section and how they might cause problems'." He paused to gather his thoughts briefly before he continued. "Most books that come to the library I order from companies that sell or make books. Or someone donates them to us like many of your parents did after that fire burned up parts of the library and many books."

"For a book to end up on the shelves in the Restricted Section they have to need special handling, have a curse placed upon them or just have advanced knowledge in them that require you to have permission to read. Books in the Restricted Section have been placed there by staff members or the librarians that have proceeded me in the position since Hogwarts came into existence they don’t just show up out of the blue. Someone has to have put the books on the shelves."

After a short stop to take a mouthful of juice from a glass Leo fetched with the use of his wand he finished. "What potential damage a book from the restricted section can cause if it was as Ian put it 'released' depends on the book and its nature. It's hard for me to guess unless I get an example."

"Does anyone else have a book they'd like to recommend?” Leo asked. Taking another mouthful of juice he let his eyes wander over the assembled students and staff.

The conversation about the Restricted Section was interesting enough, but Soph still found her attention wandering back to the cinnamon rolls, and to Tobes, and occasionally she eyed Cutty out of pure distrust in him. He was the worst human being alive, did he know? But then it seemed like Kitridge was giving his last call for book recommendations, and Soph turned her gaze down to the book in her lap. Did she really want to recommend it? Or... could she recommend something else?

Maybe she would. Casually, she slipped her copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory back into her bag and raised a hand to offer up a suggestion. She could give some valuable input to the meeting, surely, and maybe even make Ira Banner shed a tear at some point in his life if she told him she recommended his book at a book club meeting. Heh.

"The Wandmaker at Ollivander's, Ira Banner, wrote a book called... The Will, The Word, and the Wand: A Compendium of British Wandlore. S'kinda a mouthful, but it's essentially a really general book about wands and wandlore, and it's not SUPER technical, like a textbook or anything - it's more for the common witch or wizard who wants to learn a bit more about wands, which EVERYONE should want to do, really, because wands are a huge part of our every day life, y'know?" Except maybe for Tobes, who got a grin as the words crossed her lips. Him and his Muggle ways of doing things.

"It covers the ins and outs of how our wands choose us and how to best harness our wands' powers by looking into like how the cores and woods interact and the properties of them and stuff. I mean... haven't you ever wondered why your wand is best for you? What makes it so uniquely yours?" She sure had, obviously, and she was so fascinated by the whole thing that she was choosing that career path for herself. "So... if y'wanna learn how to get the most outta your spellwork and better understand how it works, s'definitely a good book to read. Ira Banner's a genius."

Totally shameless.

Yep, Adi could tell them all something about the book. He'd try to make it as brief as possible. He didn't like being in the spotlight for too long.

"It's about a man named Griffin who arrives at a village totally covered up. He's wearing gloves, hat and long sleeved clothing and his face is covered in bandages. Griffin did an experiment on a cat then on himself making both him and the cat invisible. That's why he went to the village- to work on a cure for the invisibility.'' Pause. So why would Adi recommend the book?

"I would recommend the book because it is very entertaining, action packed but most of all, it gets your curiosity going. I think from a wizard's point of view, it would be a rather interesting question about if muggles could actually make themselves invisible in the future.'' Of course anything's possible.

Eden waved at Jasmine and gave her prefect a smile. She was so niiiice. Eden did like Jasmine a lot. And then Professor Morgan was greeting her, and Eden waved at her as well. They had...made up. kind of. Mostly. Eden was still a LITTTTTLE apprehensive--but she was hopeful she'd get over this eventually. And THEEEEN

ZAAAAANDER!

Eden wiggled to make room for him and grinned. "Heeeey--" she said, and she nodded. "Very. I wanna' scoop him up and huug him." She said, smiling away. And then her NEWEST friend Cutty--came and SQUISHED himself next to her.

"Merlin--anything to sit next to me, eh, Cutty?" she teased, raising an eyebrow at the very LATE Mordaunt. "Seriously--" he smelled like candy so Eden didn't much MIND sitting so close to the boy. And remembering their...last meeting together her blushing in no time--but she tried her best to hide this fact with food--stuffing her face with some. Yep. That was always a good thing to do in awkward situations. Eat.



Lots of book discussin' had happened. WOW. Eden was so impressed by everyone. She went to school with some SMAAAART people--most especially CUTTY. His way of thinking was so...Eden just stared at him a bit as he spoke and had to shake her head out of it a bit before clearing her throat at the second time Kitredge asked if they anything to share.

"I recently read a a series about Peter Pan. Called...Peter and the Starcatchers." She said meekly. "Very good--geared towards younger kids but also very complex in plot--I appreciated the changes they made to the original story without losing too much of what the story is supposed to portray." She said with a nod, feeling satisfied for talking in such a big group that wasn't class and not about class-y things. Sinking back down she sighed in relief and smiled...

Kace smiled and was glad he had a book that the librarian knew and liked. He heard Kitridge's question and he couldn't help but smile. "Yeahh I do, I actually had an internship at Quality Quidditch Supplies this summer. So I hope to work up to that.." he grinned. Just seeing himself as an Quidditch player gave him a huge smile on his face. He heard the professor if he had any other book to recommend. He really had no idea and listened to other people's opinions on what they thought was a good book.

There was lots of books being mentioned right now, and lots of talking about those books, and all kinds of suggestions, and Toby found himself just sort of... staring around. Amazing, really. Everyone in this room probably read for fun, and did so often. That astounded and impressed Toby, it really did. He was forever in awe of those who could just... just read for fun, all the time. Even from what Toby had heard of so far in this room, it was evident that all that reading gave people all that extra knowledge. Made them all super smart.

He looked down at his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages again, before hugging it to his chest. There was no point mentioning it now, not now that Kace had already brought it up. That was interesting, though, hearing about how Kace was aiming to get into professional Quidditch after school too. Tobias filed that little piece of information away later, maybe it would be something for them to talk about.

Right now though? Toby remained quiet. He tried no to let on, but he was attempting to ignore some definite feelings of inadequacy right now, surrounded by well-read, clever people.

That talk of books from the restricted section from Kitridge caught Toby's attention though, and he kind of tuned out for a second while something registered. The librarian had said that books couldn't just appear on the shelves?

"There was a vanishing book," the Hufflepuff suddenly blurted out, as soon as he thought of it. Not exactly on topic with what the librarian had asked but still pertaining to that other topic. "In Div-" ahem "-in class. It glowed and then this girl read it and then apparently it just vanished. And there was a glowing book in our common room, but I didn't get to read it." And now that he thought about it, given the state of Professor Morgan when she'd brought it into the classroom, maybe that was a good thing. And hadn't that girl then been the next person to catch The Bug? Hmm. HMMMM.

He looked at Kitridge again, curious. "Maybe if books can vanish they can just appear too?" Was this too far off topic? "Are there any vanishing books in the library, sir? Or glowing ones?" Just, y'know, curious. If anyone would know, it would be Mr. Kitridge.

The Invisible Man.

That sounded like an interesting book, Benny listening to it being mentioned by Adi beside him. Then there was others that were familiar, like Quidditch Through the Ages, a title that quite a few had brought it seemed. And something about herbology involving Longbottom, a name from the history books. When his own book was reacted to, the fourth year was taken back as he hadn't expected it to be recognized.

"Actually yes....it is," he confirmed looking curiously at the librarian. "Have you read it?" the Gryffindor asked, wondering if the man had or had heard mention of it in one form or another. Was there possibly even a copy of the book in the school library?

But then Ian had caught the librarian's attention with his question and Ben listened intently to the information being given in answer. Maybe there would be a chance, in later years, to see what was actually in the area that fit what all was being said. He might have asked how to do so but mention of a vanishing glowing book brought his attention to a Hufflepuff he reconized from classes. "Best to stay away from them...." he mused aloud, unconsciously shivering.