Bedeglet's unique copy

Luo Bin switched to trying to drive her out with potion mists—Purple thistle mist, drowsiness mist, frost mist, and so on. He even tried insecticide spray. Not only did she show no reaction, but his ear ended up red, swollen, and painful. After that, he no longer dared to use potions recklessly!

Forcing her out with potions: rejected!

In the end, he dutifully buried himself in the library, searching for translations of Ancient Elvish. First, he needed to understand the Flower Fairy Care Manual.

"Oh, Robin Sear, you've been wandering around for a whole week. What exactly are you looking for?" Madam Pince, the librarian, asked as she approached.

Madam Pince rivaled Filch in strictness. She forbade students from dirtying or damaging books. If anyone lingered too long by the shelves, she would march over with her feather duster and stare at their every move until they left the library!

But she loved books obsessively. No one knew better than she did which aisle, bookcase, and shelf each book belonged on.

Luo Bin returned the Overview of Magical Sprites to Bookshelf and said politely, "Madam Pince, when I lived at the orphanage, I often heard fairy tales about Bedeglet the flower fairy. I've always dreamed of raising a house-elf, and I'd like to study Ancient Elvish, too. But... I haven't found any relevant books!"

"Be... deglet, Ancient Elvish. That sounds familiar. Wait, let me think. I'm sure I've seen it somewhere!"

She muttered as she plucked at the feathers on her duster. By the time she finished, feathers littered the floor, and all that remained in her hand was a wooden stick wrapped in wire mesh. She still had no idea!

"Madam Pince, I think I'll just keep looking."

Luo Bin shook the feathers off his Wizarding Robe and turned to leave, but she called him back. "Stop! You're not leaving. I'm going to remember which book I saw it in, even if it takes all day!"

She paced in agitated circles, sending feathers puffing into the air underfoot!

"Ptooey!" Luo Bin spat out a little down feather and quietly raised his sleeve. "Take your time, Madam Pince. I'm in no hurry!"

"No hurry? You've come here eighteen times in a week! Wait! Eighteen... oh, heavens, I finally remember! Follow me!"

Coming to her senses, Madam Pince saw the mess before her and shrieked, "Oh, heavens! Did I do all this? Robin Sear, why didn't you warn me?"

"Madam Pince, you would have had to listen to me first!" Luo Bin said with a helpless shrug.

"Oh! Thank goodness I didn't dirty any books. That would have been a dreadful offense!"

She drew her Wand and cleaned up the area, then led Luo Bin through a series of turns to the outermost aisle and pushed hard against the last Bookshelf!

"Madam Pince, does the library have hidden bookshelves?"

"Not many, just those few. They hold books with damaged pages, printing errors, or questionable contents. They don't qualify for the Restricted Section, but they can't be displayed openly either, so we leave them on the disused shelves! There, that's the box. Number eighteen. I took a few extra looks when I put it away. Obscure, incomprehensible, muddled sentences—but of everything in the library, it's the closest match to what you want!"

Uh, nearly ten days of searching, and all I've found is a book that might not even be reliable?!

"Madam Pince, might the Restricted Section have the books I'm looking for?"

"Listen, that is not a place you should be going!" she said in a low voice.

A book... no, a stack of scraps landed in Luo Bin's hands. "Madam, are you sure this is a book?"

The first sheet was slightly thicker blue cover paper, faded almost white and printed with black, gilt-edged lettering. Mottled corrosion made the words impossible to distinguish. As for the pages beneath the blue cover, they were worse still: covered in dried mold and so brittle that the slightest pinch seemed liable to crumble them into dust that would scatter on the wind!

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Once the blue cover floated up, Madam Pince pointed to a line of small print at the bottom of the second page. "There, written by Bedeglet, the Rose fairy! Robin Sear, this book is bilingual. Each line of Ancient Elvish has its equivalent in the current common language underneath. Nothing could suit you better!"

Luo Bin glanced down. "òóШЩ" corresponded to "water-loving root vegetables," and "òó" had appeared in the Flower Fairy Care Manual. Excellent—he was finally no longer fumbling in the dark!

Cough, cough!

The blue cover settled slowly, stirring up dust that sent him into a coughing fit. "Madam Pince, may I borrow this book?"

"And return a pile of crumbs? Listen, you're only a student. You can't bear responsibility for damaging a unique copy!"

Well, she had a point. It really might crumble if I tried to read it. "Then I won't take it away. I'll read it here in the library!"

"No!"

With a tap of Madam Pince's Wand, the tattered book returned to its cardboard box. The lid snapped shut, and the box flew back onto Bookshelf.

So all that fuss had merely been to prove her memory and her knowledge of every book in the library.

"Madam Pince, I truly want to read this book. Could you perhaps..."

"No. Students may not borrow unique copies. Those are the rules, and no one may break them!"

Seriously, why bring me here to find it if she wouldn't let me borrow it?

Frustration churned inside Luo Bin. He wanted nothing more than to draw his Wand, fight her, and seize the book. Unfortunately, that was only a fantasy.

Rules, damned rules! Now he understood how students felt when Filch caught them breaking regulations. It was utterly infuriating!

"Suppose—and I only mean suppose—a professor came to borrow it. Could they take it away?"

"Yes, but they would have to sign a liability agreement. If the unique copy were damaged, they would bear full responsibility!"

"All right, I understand!"

On the way back to his Dormitory, Luo Bin came up with two plans.

The first was to drink Polyjuice Potion, impersonate a professor, and borrow the book. But the recipe for Polyjuice Potion was in the Restricted Section, and he vaguely remembered that one of its ingredients, African Tree Snake Skin, was extremely rare. Even Snape, a veteran potions enthusiast, treasured only a small jar of it!

The second was to sneak out at midnight and take it, copy its contents, and return it before Madam Pince noticed. Perhaps he ought to learn a duplication spell beforehand. That way, he could return it as soon as he took it, making the chance of discovery practically zero!

After a late-night snack, he returned to the dormitory. Strange—the cowards Crabbe and Goyle were nowhere to be seen. Didn't those two cling to Draco, unwilling to leave him for even half a minute except to sleep?

"Luo... Bin, is that Robin Sear back?"

The voice came through two thick quilts. Without his keen hearing, Luo Bin would barely have understood a word. He walked over and yanked the quilts aside. "Uh, who did this to you?"

Draco's hair stood stiff and straight like a broom. His eyelids had turned outward, and the swollen flesh around his eyes looked like walnuts. Unable to close his eyes for so long, he had been left red-eyed and streaming tears. His upper lip was pale and bloodless, while his lower lip had swollen into a sausage, with eight blisters on it.

"That Mud... blood. My father... won't let her get away with this!"

Mudblood?

Hermione!

Luo Bin narrowed his eyes and studied him for a moment. There were purplish-red spots of blood at the corners of his eyes and in the middle of his lip. Guessing that something venomous had stung him, he asked, "Did you get a good look at what stung you? And you should go see Madam Pomfrey right away!"

Draco nodded, then shook his head. "Not going. Too embarrassing! I saw it clearly. A bee, a huge bee. Its body was very thin and long, like a caterpillar, with yellow and black markings and blue fuzz on its antennae. As soon as it came near, I smelled a strong rotten-egg stench!"

After hearing the description, Luo Bin had a fair idea of what it was. "It's a great king hornet. The swelling won't go down unless you remove the stinger. In a few more hours, if it starts festering, they'll have to cut the skin open and thoroughly clean the wound with alcohol before applying medicine. Tsk, that'll leave scars!"