"And, not that I'm not being careful with your books, but there's 'valuable possession' and there's 'maybe a person' on the scale of whether I can put it in my backpack or not," says Juliet.

"Well, I sometimes sit in my Isabella's bag, if she's flying quickly and I can't keep up or hold on to her as usual," Path says. (He's just as covered as Amariah by the notice-me-not spell.) "Backpacks aren't so bad."

"The books are not self-aware," he assures her.

"How can you be sure?" Juliet asks.

"I can try to whip up a spell to check for it if he doesn't have a good answer, although I don't think I'd better cast it while there's someone in the room, it might break my notice-me-not," Amariah says.

Juliet attempts to disguise her nod as a roll of her neck.

"I have never heard of a book becoming self-aware. I have heard of possessed books, but even those did not have actual awareness except as lent to them by their demonic residents. And none of my books are possessed."

"Do you check for possession on the first Wednesday of each month?" Juliet snickers.

"Just because he hasn't heard of it happening any other way... I'm going to go ahead and whip up at least a verse-and-herb for it when we go back to your house," Amariah says. "Don't nod again, he'll notice you're acting funny."

He removes his glasses, cleans them, and puts them back on.

"You weren't kidding about him having nervous habits," snorts Amariah. She sits down and goes back to looking through Juliet's books.

Juliet doesn't answer aloud, just goes back to her own reading and notetaking.

"Would you mind answering a question for me?"

"What is it?" Juliet asks, twisting around in her chair.

"You can see me?" demands Amariah. Not loud enough to break the spell; someone else might walk in.

Juliet holds very still and waits for Mr. Giles to answer Amariah's question.

"I have no idea what you just said," he says in Amariah's direction.

"...But you can tell that she's there and that she said something," Juliet says slowly.

"I'm sure I cast the spell right. I'm sure," exclaims Amariah. "I was following you around all day, no one saw me -"

"Yes," he says. "Should I not be able to? Who is it? It seems to me that if you know someone who can summon invisibility that well, you have no business applying to a, a dusty old librarian for lessons in magic."

"Is there somewhere less - accessible - we can go so she can take the spell off and we can explain?" Juliet says. "Your office maybe?"

"I don't have one," he says.

"Do people ever come in here after hours besides me...? I guess I'd know better than you would, I've been here longer. Okay. Amariah, do you know any kind of spell to - you know what, nevermind, this is Sunnydale and everyone here has their certificate in advanced rationalization. But please don't break your notice-me-not by screaming this time. Do something else."