Pretty well. She encountered no obstacles.

The door swung open with a low creak Hermione winced at. The stairwell beyond was narrow — walls pressing close on either side, stone steps worn smooth from centuries of use, torches at intervals providing just enough light to see by. Cooler than the corridor. More enclosed.

She stepped through and pulled the door shut. The thud echoed upward into the dimness.

Hermione looked up at the spiral of steps and thought about what waited at the top: the first floor, the Restricted Section, and beyond that the main library with its open space and good lighting and Madam Pince.

One problem at a time.

She began to climb.

Hermione moved at a brisk pace. Not running — the tight spiral was too worn for that — but quick and deliberate, each step carrying her further from the basement. The stone was cold beneath her bare feet, the chill seeping in with each contact, but she'd stopped noticing it as anything other than background. What she noticed more was the air of the stairwell — cool and close, moving against her bare skin as she climbed, finding every place her arms couldn't cover. A constant, visceral reminder of her situation. Hermione kept climbing anyway.

There were no landings, no windows, no openings — just the continuous upward spiral and the occasional torch casting moving shadows on the stone. She didn't pause. She'd checked the stairwell was empty before entering, and it remained quiet all the way up; her own footsteps and her breathing were the only sounds.

As the first floor approached, Hermione's focus shifted forward. She'd emerge into the Restricted Section — the back corner of the library, accessed via this maintenance route. She'd been there before with a professor's note, knew the layout. Tall shelves, narrow aisles, dim lighting. Empty at this hour, almost certainly.

But the Restricted Section was only part of the library. To reach the exit she needed, Hermione would have to cross the main area — larger, better lit, fewer places to hide — where students studied in the evenings and Madam Pince kept watch from her desk.

She'd need to be careful. She'd need to think.

The door to the first floor came into view above her. Hermione climbed the last few steps and stopped at the landing, breathing slightly harder from the sustained climb. Her hand rested on the door.

Time to find out what she was walking into.