Her fingers glided lightly over the spines, feeling covers made of leather, cloth, metal, and materials she could not identify. Some were cold, some warm, and some had that living sensation of "when you touch it, it touches you back."
She did not linger. The book Professor Binns had mentioned was on the innermost row of shelves, third column from the right, second shelf from the top. She counted her way over, passing row after row of silent, dust-covered bookcases, like enormous beasts crouching in the dark.
Her footsteps echoed through the aisle, tap tap tap tap, like someone walking through an empty house, hearing their own heartbeat answer every step. She found the book.
Its spine was black, with no title, only a string of gold-stamped numbers—she knew they were the library classification code, not the book's name.
A huge glass cover sealed the book inside, dim blue magical runes flickering in the darkness. There was a keyhole at the bottom of the case. Clearly, without the key, there was no chance of getting the book.
She raised the special key in her hand, gently inserted it into the keyhole, and turned it half a turn to the left. With a click as the mechanism sprang open, the glass cover lowered automatically into the base, the magical runes deactivated their ward, and the black book was revealed.
Hermione took the book from the case. It was lighter than she had expected, so light it felt like a fake book with only a cover and no pages. But when she opened it, she saw the title page. There were words on it, printed rather than handwritten.
Her gaze swept over the title and paused.
Soul Shackles.
She turned to the first page and read a few lines, then turned to