Hunting

Julie stalked through the rows of books, utterly irate. It had to be here! It just had to be! "Damnit!" she muttered angrily, running her fingers along the line of books. "Where are you..."

She rubbed her head, pursing her lips in annoyance.

Annabelle grinned as she wrapped her fingers around the Transfiguration text book in the row of shelves, she had been looking for this book for a while. Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean, while she hadn't signed up for Herbology at Hogwarts, that didn't mean she didn't have the desire to learn about the subject. It just meant she was too lazy to do all the work that came with it.

However her grin turned to fright as she heard a voice close by, not expecting the company Annabelle jumped and yelped as the book fell from her grasp and onto her head before landing with a thump on the floor. Hissing in pain and annoyance she rubbed her head and pout/glared at the book on the floor.

"Meanie" She muttered at the book before begrudgingly picking it up.

Julie heard a thump and a yelp with a muttered word around the bookshelf from her, and walked forwards a few steps to peer around the shelf. It was a familiar face, one that helped to dispel the irritated mood she was in.

"Oh hey Belle," she said with a wide grin. "Being attacked by ferocious, man-eating books now are we?"

Annabelle glanced up as she heard the familiar voice recognizing it as both the one that distracted her and befriended her, the witch nodded, pouting slightly at Julie's question.

"They're being mean! And I didn't even do anything to them this time!" She complained childishly pointing at the accused book.

Julie sniggered. "Well maybe this time is just it," she said, nodding sagely. "They didn't get enough revenge last time you did something to them so they're making up for it now."

She leant against the bookshelf and grinned wickedly at Belle. "You didn't accidentally pulp one did you? They can get quite irate when that happens."

Annabelle paled at the suggestion and glanced warily at the book in her hands "B-b-but that was ages ago..." She argued meekly still staring worriedly at the book. She didn't feel any better when she looked up and saw the wicked grin on the other girls features.

The young Hufflepuff recalled a certain incident back at Beauxbatons as Julie spoke "...It was an accident..." She bit her lip looking like a guilty child who had done something wrong.

Julie couldn't help it and burst out laughing, bringing both her hands up to her mouth in an unsuccessful attempt to muffle the sound. "W-well there you ha-have it th-then," she spluttered. "It's payback!" She slid down the bookshelf to the floor, giggles overcoming her.

"I'm sorry," she managed to get out. "It's just - how on earth do you accidentally pulp a book?" she asked, giving up on trying to explain herself.

Annabelle blushed crimson, embarrassed that she was being laughed at, she pouted while attempting to hide the blush "It was!" She whined, hugging the book in her arms and hiding the bottom half of her face with it as her blush grew steadily redder.

Attempting to recover from her furious blush she decided to change the subject "What were you doing here, Julie?" she asked half curious, half desperate to shift the attention off of herself.

Julie's sniggers died down. "That didn't answer my question," she teased lightly. "And at the moment I'm poking fun at you," she said facetiously, grinning at Belle.

She shook her head a little. "I came in looking for a book on invisibility, only the gods of irony are working today and I can't find it."

"You're being so mean~" Annabelle whined, pouting she turned away from the other girl refusing, quite childishly, to answer the question.

Sulking she turned back to Julie when she answered her question, cocking her head to the side the Hufflepuff blinked at the other blankly. "Have you tried a summoning charm?"She asked curiously, momentarily forgetting that she was meant to be upset.

"First thing I tried for all the good it'd do," Julie said. "Last week a couple of fourth years were in here practising their summoning charms and accidentally tipped three shelves over - the first thing the librarian did after telling them off was ward the shelves against summoning charms," she said ruefully.

"So now I'm trying manually, but it wasn't in it's correct place, and the librarian said it hasn't been taken out, so..." she trailed off with a shrug.

"Eh~! That's such bad luck!" Annabelle said, surprise lacing her tone, then, after recovering from her surprise she nodded determinedly to herself and proclaimed to Julie

"Since you're having such a hard time finding it, how about I help you? We might have better luck if two people are searching for it." She grinned at the brilliance of her plan, looking very much like a child who was proud of themselves.

"That'd be awesome help!" she said enthusiastically, earning a shushing from a student a few bookshelves away. She flushed a little. "It's called The Origins of Invisibility, and it's by a woman called A. Noni Mus."

She grinned at Annabelle. At leats it wasn't The Invisible Book of Invisibility!

"Alright!" Annabelle cheered, jumping to her feet, book tucked securely under her arm and noted the title of the book. "Great! So where have you searched so far?" She asked a happy smile on her face.

Julie grinned and clambered to her feet. "I've searched up to this point from the section on 'Hidden and Shadows'," she said, pointing about eight shelves back. "No luck so far, but I figure I must be getting close," she said cheerfully.

Annabelle nodded grinning broadly "Alright then! Lets go book hunting!" She exclaimed happily before 'eeping' at the Librarian who came around the corner glaring at Annabelle and promptly telling her to "SHHH!"

Blushing, Annabelle nodded, she turned back Julie with a bashful grin on her features "Er... yeah, book hunting..."