FicFan.org

Hermione Granger took possession of the library with an authority and implicitness that seemed more than a bit creepy to Sirius.

She navigated stairs, corridors and turnoffs with the blind ease of someone who'd been there and done this a thousand times, and so quick and eager were her steps that Sirius, Harry, Remus and Snappy could barely keep pace.

But when she threw open the doors to the Great Library, she simply stopped for a moment, stood there with a dreamy half-smile on her face, eyes darting from shelf to shelf, from corridor to corridor.

"Hello, old friends," she whispered longingly, and then she was in motion again, commandeering the largest table in the middle of the room, gesturing absently for them to be out of the way and then flickering her wand once in a complicated figure that had taken Sirius ages to learn.

A large number of tomes, as different in age and size as it was possible, began drifting over to the table and organizing themselves in neat stacks left and right to her working station.

Hermione frowned. A few quick steps carried her over to where the restricted section began, and she slashed her wand through the air aggressively, once, twice. She repeated the catalogue-summoning spell, and this time, a truly huge amount of books detached themselves from the shelves.

Sirius suppressed the impulse to gleefully rub his hands. Had Hermione really just sliced through the wards around the restricted sections as if they were a first year's? He smirked at Remus and bathed in the look of shock and outrage on his friend's face – Remus was rather particular about the library.

Sirius wanted to ask the girl where she had learned to slice wards like an expert – the answer was bound to be delightful, but Hermione was muttering to herself, pacing from one end of her table to the other. One of her hands was tangled in her thick curls, the other was touching books, short, fleeting brushes against covers, lingering caresses of their spines. Despite her nervous energy, she looked happier and more relaxed than he had yet seen her.

"And she's off," Harry commented before casually strolling away and hiding behind a book case.

This, Sirius would realize a few minutes later, was his sanest action to date, because once Hermione had snapped out of her reverie and remembered that there were other people in the room, the situation degraded into a study session from hell.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6892925/9/