The people in this world who were best at dealing with books were probably the First Emperor of the East and the conscientious librarians in every library. Though Brian had already stepped down from his position as Hogwarts Librarian to make way for someone else, he still had the knack. All it took was a simple Automatic Sorting Charm, and even the most jumbled pages would obediently return to where they belonged.
"Hey, Oh Toodles!" Brian uttered those taboo words that, once spoken in Muggle society, would get the courts involved. In fact, the Automatic Sorting Charm Madam Pince had invented had originally used a different incantation.
But when he tried improving it, he discovered that changing the incantation to the catchphrase of that Big Mouse with two black ears made the spell more powerful. Muggle law had no jurisdiction over wizards anyway, so he certainly wasn't afraid of waking up at Hogwarts one day to a lawyer's letter.
As Brian's words fell, a beam of pure white spell-light flashed. The two stacks of pages scattered into the air like oversized playing cards. Amid the interlacing light and shadows, the pattering sounds of pages sticking together rose one after another. A book took shape, building outward from the middle toward both sides, before the unlettered front and back covers hidden among the pages finally spun around and settled lightly into their places.
Brian held the book with its completely blank cover, exhaled a puff of white breath, and fell silent for two seconds. Then he said to Dumbledore and Snape, "I have a feeling this book is very important to me. It's all in ancient runes, and I'm worried I might misinterpret something as I read. So, how about we read it together?"
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