The Library

Note: Last chapter ended just before Niall was given That Speech. This chapter starts just after a car journey to Dublin. Niall was still curious about magic after That Speech, and Finbar suggested they all drive up to see China.)

Chapter Five:

In which we meet China, and which is also in the first person, because it's more fun to write that way.

I stepped out of the car and my legs felt wobbly. You know when you've been sitting down for a few hours and then you forget how to walk? It was like that, but coupled with a strange nervousness. I had no real reason to be afraid, and I'm not entirely sure why I was frightened at all.
Looking back, I suppose it was because I was taking my first steps into a new world; one that I had only found out about on Friday.
I remember thinking that the building we pulled up outside was decidedly ordinary. The windows were cracked and dirty (where they were still present) and the walls were covered in graffiti, most of it profane. Finbar led us into the buildings foyer and up the disgusting staircase.
We walked up the stairs without stopping until we reached the third floor. Unlike the other floors, the level was clean, smelled nice, and actually had lighting. There was a door with the word "Library" written on a plaque.
Dianne stepped forward and knocked on the door, before turning around to face me. "Shut up. Once we get in, you say nothing."
I knew this was because of The Name Thing, but I wasn't dumb enough to tell anyone my name, not even my first name. Why did Dianne feel the need to give me such obvious advice?
The door opened, and a bespectacled guy who looked a lot like a middle-aged me (scary thought) but with Harry Potter glasses and a Rupert Giles suit. (PS, if you're reading this and you don't know who Giles is, shame on you.) He glanced at me and scowled at Finbar, but he smiled at Dianne. "Finbar, I'm afraid you'll have to stay outside, but you two can come in."
"Okey doke," said Finbar, unfazed by the almost-insult.
The man unlocked the door and let us through. I swear to God, I almost cried when I saw the inside.
Books.
So many books it hurt.
I could live there, I really could. Wall to wall bookshelves, wall to wall. I couldn't help staring.
There were people there, too. Most of them were reading, a few were perusing the shelves, and they all looked bookish and simultaneously odd.
My kind of people.
I was taking it all in, inhaling the musty smell of old tomes and following the man, when we came to a clearing in the librarianth. China stood there.
I'm not sure what I think of China. She's TOO perfect, you know? It seems like she can't be nearly all she's cracked up to be.
If she were all she's cracked up to be, she'd be a God.
At the time, I thought she was. I couldn't help myself. I stared. I remember Dianne tapping my chin, closing the mouth that I didn't know was open.