"Be a good book. You need to spit out that Standard Book of Spells in your belly-you don't have any stomach acid to digest it."
Brian held the book, which had swollen so much that he needed both hands to support it, and said gravely,
"I suspect you're feeling so uncomfortable that you can't shrink back to your original size, am I right?"
A brush poked out of the book's enormous mouth and laboriously drew a cross in the air for Brian.
The book was clearly being stubborn-it drew the cross extremely slowly, and maintaining its current state was no easy task.
Brian had no choice but to stand the book upright, put on a sterner expression, and say earnestly,
"Book, that copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One you swallowed belongs to the library, and I'm the librarian. If library property disappears just ten minutes after it comes into my hands, how can I possibly ask the students to follow the rules?"
The book remained motionless, pretending it couldn't hear him, so Brian continued to stare sternly at its enormous mouth.
After about ten seconds, the book finally gave in. It rocked its body, laboriously bending backward more than thirty degrees. Only after repeating this several times did it spit the unfortunate copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One out of its mouth.
Almost simultaneously, the book rapidly returned to its original size.
Brian briefly examined The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One after its narrow escape and found it completely undamaged-this convinced him that the book couldn't digest anything, though perhaps it had a hidden space for storing things.
But he had yet to discover exactly where that space was.
Brian nodded at the Standard Book of Spells, relieved that he hadn't failed in his duties as librarian, though he also felt a little disappointed.
Once he realized that the book was highly intelligent and frequently had a mouth, he'd begun entertaining the idea of feeding it ink, sheets of handwritten literary musings, and things of that sort.
But now it seemed that having anything in its belly made the book very uncomfortable, which meant he wouldn't get to experience the pleasure of feeding it.
Rustle!
Just as Brian was about to say something else, the book flipped itself open with a loud rustle.
It immediately caught Brian's attention-he discovered that the book had actually skipped straight past the title page and openly displayed the previously hidden contents he'd been so curious about!
"Oh, you're so considerate. I haven't even had a chance to give you a massage with a brush yet," Brian said, touched.
He lifted the book and saw a wealth of neatly arranged text and illustrations-he frowned, sensing something wasn't quite right. The contents were indeed related to magic, complete with illustrations, but why did all this... seem so familiar?
He grabbed the copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One beside him, opened it, and quickly flipped through a few pages-right, that confirmed it-
The contents of the two books before him were almost identical!
The only two differences were that one book was larger and thicker, and all its printed text shimmered with a faint, firefly-like glow.
Well, this wasn't quite what he'd expected to see, but the book had certainly given him quite a surprise.
"You can copy the contents of other books?" Brian tapped its spine.
The book proudly drew a check mark in the air with its brush.
"You mean you want me to read you instead of other books?"
The book drew another check mark.
Brian couldn't help laughing. His book was a jealous book, but how could he bear to blame it?
"All right, darling, I understand. If you have that ability, I'll read only you-but actually, I'm more interested in what was originally written on your pages-like... that page glowing green?"
The book seemed delighted that Brian had called it darling. Its pages began turning rapidly toward the back until all the contents of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One had passed, revealing a page covered in all sorts of strange symbols.
Brian stared in silence for a while at the page that appeared to be covered in children's doodles, then asked uncertainly, "Is this the page I meant?"
He received the book's third check mark.
With that confirmation, Brian fell silent-for the simple reason that he couldn't make any sense of these strange symbols, let alone understand their meanings. If his impressions were anything to go by, the page depicted things like these-
A one-headed tadpole, a three-headed tadpole, an upturned mustache, a five-legged pot that looked somewhat like a spider, and so on and so forth... The only image he could match to a real creature was a horse with a single horn-that was probably a sacred unicorn.
Brian glanced at the door-outside lay the Hogwarts library, with its thousand-year heritage. Might such a great library contain books documenting this kind of writing?
Then he suddenly slapped his forehead and berated himself for his narrow thinking-Brian, what on earth are you thinking? This is Hogwarts, the only magical school in Britain. There are so many people you can ask for help, so what are you hesitating for?
Brian promptly decided to ask Madam Pince for help first.
"Would you like to come out with me?" he asked the book.
The book obediently flew into his arms, sneakily knocking The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One to the floor on the way. Brian had to pick the Standard Book of Spells up and put it back in the large box Madam Pince had given him.
Brian took the book over to the desk. The quill in Madam Pince's hand immediately stopped moving, and her eyes lit up as she spoke first:
"Oh, what a fine book. It's been ages since I've seen such perfect traditional bookbinding-I can tell it's very fond of you. Don't let it down, Brian-and I'm glad you've made up so quickly."
At the praise, the book flew up happily, circled Madam Pince, and returned to Brian's hands, considerately opening itself to the page of doodles-Brian privately resolved to praise the book more often.
"Thank you, ma'am-I've come with another question. Perhaps you recognize these symbols?" Brian laid the book flat on the desk and pointed to the three-headed tadpole.
Madam Pince raised her eyebrows and hesitated. After examining the page closely for a while, she said, "I'm afraid I've tried my best, but all I can see is a blank page."
"Ah... sorry, I forgot about that..." Brian slapped his forehead. He'd forgotten that, for now, only he could see the words and images shimmering with that firefly-like glow. "May I borrow some paper and a quill?"
"Of course. Help yourself."
Brian began copying the contents of the page in front of Madam Pince-unfortunately, he'd never had much talent for art, which left his drawings so crooked and misshapen that they couldn't even compare to a child's doodles. Fortunately, Madam Pince was very knowledgeable.
After he'd drawn a few unrecognizable shapes, Madam Pince gave him the answer while stifling her laughter.
"Ancient Runes," she said, taking a breath. "Don't get too excited... I only recognize the writing. I can hardly claim to be familiar with it. Since graduating, I've focused my studies on modern magic-but Hogwarts happens to have an expert in ancient runes."
"Then where can I find this expert?" Brian's face felt a little hot. He didn't know whether he was blushing.
God was fair. He could wield drumsticks perfectly, yet a paintbrush left him helpless-he now very much hoped his Charms textbook contained a spell that could imprint whatever he saw directly onto paper. If it didn't, he'd work hard to develop one himself.
Madam Pince finally couldn't hold back her laughter. She covered her mouth, trying not to seem too rude:
"Ha... ahem... in the staffroom, two hours from now-you'll find Professor Babbling there, constantly stuffing cookies into her mouth. There are very few people in the world who know more about ancient runes than she does."
Before you continue