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Albus Severus Potter (bp_albusseverus) wrote in breaking_point,
@ 2010-10-31 02:18:00

Entry tags:

*complete, 2025 10, character: albus potter, character: severus snape

RP: Al, Severus
Who: Al, Severus
Where: the library
When: 31 October, evening
Summary: It's book cleaning day, so Al follows his schedule

Al figured that Severus would be quite busy in the afternoon with the arrival of the students, so he contributed to the final rush of preparations by staying out of the way.

It's not as if Al didn't have things to do. The thirty-first of the month was book cleaning day. Book cleaning days were important.

Therefore, Al took care of his books, then Severus' books, and then their joint reading material. Afterwards he cast a critical look at their own rooms, patted down the ruffled Compendium which didn't even try to snap at him today, and headed down to the library. In the absence of the librarian's care, the library books deserved to be prepared for the future readers as well.

Al used them often enough, he supposed he might as well contribute here. It was later, after he finished all the clean-up and organizing he'd meant to do, that he stood between the shelves of his sanctuary, and inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent and the twilight and the absolute silence.

He pictured the worn parchment on the inside of many opened tomes, the faded ink of many words and numbers and commas, and wished, for the first time, that he would once again, one day, hear the rustle of flipped pages.

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bp_snape
2010-11-02 04:00 am UTC (link)

Snape had spent the day besieged all over again by the work of his office: this time the siege was the hundred last-minute things that needed doing to help the school cope with a sudden flood of returning students. Now that the work day had faded to sunset, Snape took advantage of one of the perks of his office: he consulted with the castle, and found that Al was in the library.

With an easy twist of magic, he Apparated to the far end of the long canyon of shelves, sauntering down the narrow path between, closing the distance on Al, in a way that would hopefully give him enough visual warning to avoid startling him.

Thin lips curled in a tiny, reminiscent grin as he realised what Al was doing. "Book-cleaning day, I see. How was it? I trust the volumes weren't too dusty."

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bp_albusseverus
2010-11-02 04:11 am UTC (link)

Al met Severus with an answering smile that brightened his face as soon as he noticed just who was approaching. He guessed the first part of Severus' words by watching his lips move, consulted the parchment at his ear for the rest.

Book-cleaning day, yes.

"The dust has been neutralized," Al confirmed, with the same flat expression he once used to suggest the neutralization of Riddle, Bellatrix Lestrange, and that one Former Administration Ministry official who dissolved their marriage. "The books should be safe to read now."

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bp_snape
2010-11-02 04:27 am UTC (link)

"So I noticed," Severus turned on the spot, craning to look around the tall shelves with interest. The books were in excellent condition; gilt titles glinting, leather and cloth spines free of fraying and inky marks. "You're a natural at this," he declared appreciatively.

"I've never seen the place in a better state," he concluded, and it was quite true. It wasn't Ms. Weasley's fault, but the upheaval of the war hadn't helped her do her job, and before her, Madam Pince had been too obsessed with catching student miscreants to do terribly much about maintaining the books themselves.

He stepped up to Al and lifted one hand, fingers kneading slow and firm at the point of his shoulder. "You've done such a good job with the books, it'd be a tremendous help if you'd consent to be Librarian. I don't want to pressure you into anything; if you don't feel like doing it, just say so. And if you try it, and it turns out that it doesn't suit you, well, it's not too long until the end of the school year."

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bp_albusseverus
2010-11-02 04:48 am UTC (link)

Al leaned back with the ease which came from familiarity with Severus' touch. He tilted his head up, looking from Severus' handwriting on his parchment to Severus himself.

His eyebrows drew together.

"Do you think I can do it?" he asked. "With all this..." his right hand rose to touch the curl of the Quick Quotes Quill hovering over his shoulder, then his own ear.

How will Al ever catch anyone being loud in the Library, if he couldn't hear them?

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bp_snape
2010-11-03 01:36 am UTC (link)

Severus nodded gravely. "I wouldn't have asked you, if I didn't think you could handle it."

A scimitar-slim smirk slid onto his face; he thought he knew the reason for Al's uncertain reaction. "As for student misbehaviours, I've always taken the view that prevention is better than punishment." He shrugged elegantly. "A Library-wide Silencio Minimus will enforce whisper-level conversations." It really was the simplest solution; Snape didn't give a doxy's arse for any theoretical 'right' of students to break school rules.

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bp_albusseverus
2010-11-03 03:40 am UTC (link)

"Oh," Al said. "Silencio would be sufficient, true." He bit his lip. "I'll need to consult Madam Pince's portrait with regards to the filing system... and keep an elf around just in case."

He tilted his head, looking up at the rows and rows of books, then at Severus. "I might need to remain here for the rest of the evening to prepare for the opening tomorrow."

It wouldn't take all night, but still... Al supposed he'd best be ready early.

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bp_snape
2010-11-03 03:48 am UTC (link)

Severus nodded; Pince's portrait would be flattered to be consulted, and knowing her, she'd be full of advice about filing and all manner of other procedural details.

"You'll be fine," he murmured soothingly, slipping an arm around Al's shoulders, like a spindly stork taking a downy owl under his wing. "Knowing the students, they won't be hitting the books the instant they arrive at Hogwarts. You'll have plenty of time tomorrow.

C'mon," he steered Al gently but firmly doorwards, "It's late. You won't help anyone by falling asleep among the stacks."

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bp_albusseverus
2010-11-03 04:06 am UTC (link)

"Hmph," Al said. "Well, all right, but I'm opening the library an hour early tomorrow, just to make sure everything's in place!"

Knowing his former Housemates, they will be living between the stacks soon enough.

Once at the door, he slipped his arm around Severus and beamed, tugging at his sleeve in a mute request for a side-along.

On occasion, Al supposed, he was allowed to be lazy.

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bp_snape
2010-11-03 04:10 am UTC (link)

"If you must," Severus drawled, smiling indulgently, "I suppose I can kick you out of bed early."

He wrapped his arm around Al in return, and slipped them both through space and the school's shields, landing in their bedroom: actually, landing in the middle of the bullseye circle of their bed. The mattress gave under them with a *flump* and Severus collapsed to his knees, rolling to sprawl on his back under Al.

"Banish your clothes?" he inquired lightly, amusement glinting in dark eyes.

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bp_albusseverus
2010-11-03 04:18 am UTC (link)

Al held on for the ride, grinning. He didn't need a glance at the quill and parchment by his ear to guess that particular question. In fact, with a wave, he sent the parchment rolling to the nightstand and the quill perching sleepily on top of it.

"Please," he mouthed, with a nod and a bright stare and made it all the more difficult to do so, by sprawling on top of Severus, the best he knew how, in one warm, heavy, wiggling lump.

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bp_snape
2010-11-03 04:23 am UTC (link)

The Severuspillow under Al's sprawled body shook gently as he chuckled. "Because you asked so nicely," he grinned, nipping softly at Al's ear, as he banished their clothes to a pile beside the bed. He wrapped his arms close and tight around Al's waist, then summoned the duvet; it slithered up over them both with a feathery rustle, soft and thick and warm.

"Mmmmnight," Severus rumbled, the goodnight wishes a deep, thrumming vibration throughout the length of Al's body, plastered as it was along Severus'.

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bp_albusseverus
2010-11-03 04:36 am UTC (link)

"Mmm," Al agreed, with an answering rumbling hum. He liked the way it made his bare skin feel, pressed against Severus' chest.

And so he twisted and turned until he got quite comfortable under the duvet, and then Al smirked, dove underneath it like a backwards-springing jack-in-the-box, and set out to prove precisely why warm lumps of various origins must not be neglected.

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