Brian's attempts to solve the mystery had still run into some obstacles-as expected, a book bearing a troublesome curse really was not easy to deal with. Even his good companion, the Book that had eaten its way through the Restricted Section, could not simply open its great mouth and swallow it.
Unlike the curse that made people lose their memories when they opened the title page, relations between books were far less complicated than those between books and people-the Book was knocked flying when it tried to take a bite, tumbling pages-up, and even gave off a scorched, roasted smell from its cover. But the Book did not give up easily. It immediately flew back and rustled out a page covered in words, some of them highlighted, which it handed to Brian-that cursed book clearly held a special attraction for the Book. It had been a long time since he had seen it so impatient.
"What's this?"
Brian tenderly smoothed down the bristling fur on the Book and looked at the densely written page, his eyes momentarily dazzled.
"Billywig stings, castor oil, crocodile hearts, dragonfly thoraxes, exploding fluid, eel eyes, Demiguise hair,
"Powdered Unicorn horn, powdered Graphorn horn, Runespoor venom, Augurey feathers, Quintaped nails, Fire Salamander skin, the mixed juice of seven herbs, Acromantula venom, and the skin of a Basilisk over nine years old-half of these are related to the animals in Ancient Runes. Hmm, some materials that are hard to get, but I should be able to find them all in Snape's storage room. So, are you planning to have these ingredients as side dishes with your meal?"
As Brian spoke, he shook the page in his hand in some puzzlement-the fact that the Book could produce this oddly assorted list of ingredients so quickly meant that it