Snodgoblins

**Nasty little creatures...they're all out to get me. **

Madame Pince was not having a good day. She had a sore head, cramps, and a rather nasty bruise on her arm, right where she carried her books. Her warm, silent library had been invaded. All around her were children laughing, screaming and carrying on. It was the day after the final exams at Hogwarts, and none of the junior years were allowed outside on the school grounds due to the threat of Voldemort. So they were stuck inside, and they seemed to have forgotten that being in a library meant you were supposed to be SILENT!

"Silence, all of you!" she whispered poisonously as she passed a group of Hufflepuffs looking through picture books. The nasty little beggars kept on talking, and she wished she were a real witch so that she could curse them into oblivion.

"Hey, Baddock, catch!" the cry came from a group of Slytherins that we running around the central table area, throwing wads of paper at each other.

Some Ravenclaws were arguing in loud voices on whether or not the answer to Question 1843, Option W, Section G was 'curse' or 'hex'.

A large group of first year Gryffindor students were taking turns sneaking up to the Restricted Section and peering inside. Madam Pince stormed past these, a delicately balanced pile of books to be shelved in the usual end-of-year-book-return-madness on her sore arm.

She could barely see over the top of the stack, and had to use her knowledge of where everything was in the library to avoid hitting a table or shelf. Unfortunately, this talent did not seem to apply to wandering students. One of the uncharacteristically rambunctious Slytherins crashed into her and they fell in a heap. Instead of offering her a hand up, he stood up by using her as a push-board and walked away as though nothing had happened. She had just struggled to her feet and was beginning to gather the pile back up when -

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

A strangled scream that was the new alarm for the Restricted Section went off. One of the Gryffindors had actually been brave enough to push the heavy doors open. That was quite enough!
"I want all of you out! Out! OUT!" She marched over to her desk and thumped the button that turned the alarm off.

She picked up the foolish Gryffindor and threw him, bouncer-style, out of the library, not noticing when he hit the opposite wall.

Grabbing the ear of two Slytherins, she dragged them out of the library and sent them careering down a stairwell, chasing the rest of the students at the same time.

She threw one of the heavy folders of Ravenclaw notes out of a window into the lake, and cursed so much at the nerdy bunch that they ran for the doors, clutching their notes as if their lives depended on it.

Through it all, the Hufflepuffs sat beside the bin of picture books, wailing at the loud noises. She shushed them with a glare and said one word: "Bed." They scattered.

Finally satisfied that her library was once again silent, and empty of children, Madame Pince sat down in her office.

**I simply cannot be bothered to shelve all of those. Perhaps if I complain to Albus he will charm them to be self-shelving once I have entered them back into the system...** Still musing on how to make her job easier, she swung her legs up on the desk, and grabbed her copy of 'Playwitch' magazine, and settled down for a nice long...read?