The spot that had displayed a huge gilt-lettered spellbook in previous years was now occupied by a large iron cage.
Inside the cage were about a hundred copies of The Monster Book of Monsters.
Clearly, even the store manager didn't know how to deal with these books and could only keep them locked up together.
The result was that they were furiously engaged in wrestling matches, biting and fighting like crickets locked together, with torn pages flying everywhere.
Seeing four young wizards enter at the same time, the manager hurried forward.
"You... surely you're not all from Hogwarts, are you? Here to buy new books?"
"Yes," said Ron, "we need—"
The manager first showed a look of helplessness, then impatiently pushed Ron aside. "Please step aside a bit."
As he spoke, he put on a pair of very thick gloves and picked up a thick, gnarled stick, walking toward the iron cage containing The Monster Book of Monsters.
"Wait!"
Seeing that the owner seemed about to fetch the book, Harry quickly said, "I already have this book."
"You already have it?"
The manager's face immediately showed great relief. "Thank God, I've already been bitten five times this morning."
He showed them his damaged gloves and the gnarled stick covered in bite marks.
Just then, a loud tearing sound came from nearby.
Everyone looked toward the iron cage to see two copies of The Monster Book of Monsters grabbing a third one and tearing it apart together.
"Stop! Stop!"
Seeing this scene, the manager shouted. He stuck the stick between the iron bars and beat the books apart.
"I'm never stocking these books again, never—which professor chose them as textbooks? It's absolute chaos!"
The manager cried out hysterically. You could see he was nearly driven mad, frantically beginning to rant.
"We once stocked two hundred copies of The Invisible Book of Invisibility. I thought nothing could be worse than those.
Those books were so expensive, and we could never see where they actually were...
Well, never mind that. What other books do you need?"
Harry looked at the manager with pity. "Well, although I already have this book, my friends don't."
"Oh, no—!"
The manager looked at Harry in shock, with an expression that said "Are you kidding me?"
Then his face showed a look of pain. However, as a businessman, he had to face this situation.
He took a deep breath and walked toward the large iron cage with fearless determination.
"Wait!"
Just then, Sherlock suddenly called out to the manager.
"What? Don't want them anymore?"
The manager looked at Sherlock with joy.
Sherlock looked at Harry and pointed to the cage. "Harry, you go get them."
Harry looked at Sherlock in surprise.
"Me?"
Hermione, Ron, and the manager also looked at Sherlock in surprise.
"Are you crazy?"
The manager held up his gloved hand. "I just said I've been bitten five times this morning, five times! Are you sure you still want to get the books yourself?"
"Of course," Sherlock said with certainty.
Hearing Sherlock's words, Harry understood.
Now only he and Sherlock knew how to deal with these books—as long as you could get one out and stroke along the spine, these incredibly violent books would immediately become docile.
The key problem was how to extract one book from among a hundred books that were fighting each other.
This must be Sherlock's test for him, right?
If he couldn't even do this, how would he face Sirius Black in the future?
Yes, that must be it! Harry quickly convinced himself internally.
"Well, if you're willing to get them yourselves, that's even better."
Seeing that Harry himself had no objection to this, the manager handed over the gloves and stick to Harry.
Harry accepted the tools, swallowed, and prepared to approach the cage.
"No!"
But just then, whether it was the manager's conscience suddenly awakening or his professional ethics kicking in, he suddenly realized.
"I can't let customers do this kind of thing. You're still young wizards—if you get bitten, it would be terrible!"
He reached out to grab back the gloves and stick from Harry's hands.
Harry instinctively stepped back, then felt his hands suddenly lighten.
When the manager thought he could reclaim the gloves and stick, someone was faster than him.
Everyone saw a flash, and the gloves and stick had somehow ended up in Sherlock's hands.
"So fast!"
The manager was startled by Sherlock. What was this person's background?
Sherlock glanced at the gloves, smiled, and tossed them back to Harry, then picked up the stick and walked toward the cage.
Hermione was startled and instinctively cried out.
"Don't... you can't!"
Harry, Ron, and the bookstore manager all looked at Hermione.
This made Hermione blush.
Her words seemed somewhat ambiguous.
Fortunately, with her tanned skin tone now, it wasn't visible.
Just then, Sherlock had already reached the iron cage and, like the manager before, stuck the stick into the cage.
But unlike the manager, Sherlock inserted the stick with purpose.
Most books were separated to one side, with only a few books driven to one corner of the cage.
Just then, he thrust his other hand into the cage with lightning speed and pulled out a book.
Two nearby books saw Sherlock's hand and both opened their mouths to bite.
Unfortunately, Sherlock was too fast, and they all bit empty air.
After extracting the book, Sherlock stroked along the spine from top to bottom.
The book immediately shuddered violently, just like that night, then lay quietly open in Sherlock's hand.
Under the amazed gazes of the others, Sherlock handed the book to Hermione. "Very simple, isn't it?"
"Oh my God!"
"Holy hell!"
"There's such a technique?"
Hermione, Ron, and the manager once again showed shocked expressions.
Especially the manager.
As he himself had said, just this morning alone, he had been bitten five times.
Those thick gloves and the gnarled stick covered in bite marks were proof.
But he never expected that the trouble that had tormented him for almost a whole month would be solved so easily by this young wizard!
Harry already knew how to deal with these books, so his surprise was the mildest.
With Sherlock having demonstrated, Harry naturally knew what to do now.
He took a deep breath, took the stick from Sherlock, and put on the gloves—after all, he wasn't confident he could succeed on the first try like Sherlock.
Facts proved his caution was correct.
Using the stick to separate the books was simple enough, but when he pulled out a book, he was bitten hard by another book that seized the opportunity.
Even with glove protection, he felt like he'd been bitten by a dog.
It really hurt.
But once the book was out, it was easy to handle.
Harry stroked along the spine like Sherlock had, and it immediately quieted down.
Handing this book to a bewildered Ron, Harry was about to return the gloves and stick to the owner.
But Sherlock stopped him.
Harry looked at Sherlock questioningly.
The latter said to him. "Continue."
Harry immediately understood and resumed action without a word.
The manager also saw Harry's intention, but didn't stop him.
For him, being able to make these books docile was exactly what he wished for.
Next, Harry repeatedly stuck the stick into the iron cage, striking the books to separate them, then seized opportunities to pull out one book, stroke it, and calm it down.
Again and again.
As they say, practice makes perfect. After being bitten several times, Harry's movements became increasingly skilled, and he was no longer bitten.
Later, Hermione and Ron found it interesting and joined in.
Watching the three working together happily, Sherlock smiled and handed his book list to the manager.
"Prepare three sets according to this list, well, except for The Monster Book of Monsters."
The manager nodded and hurried off to find the books.
When he returned, he found that the hundred-plus copies of The Monster Book of Monsters in the large iron cage were now neatly and quietly laid flat on the ground.
At this moment, the manager couldn't help but shed tears.
God knows how much he had suffered during this time!
Looking at these four young wizards, he felt they must be angels sent under Merlin's spiritual guidance to redeem him!
Out of gratitude, the manager gave all four a fifty percent discount on their books.
Originally, he had planned to give them everything for free.
But Sherlock, Harry, and Hermione were buying quite a lot of books—three bulging bags worth.
A free offer would be more than he could afford.
However, fifty percent off was already quite a generous discount.
The happiest was Ron.
Because every year before school started, textbooks were always the most expensive part of the shopping expense.
"I should have brought Ginny along too—she wanted to come with me anyway," Ron said, glancing at Harry.
Sherlock and Hermione exchanged knowing smiles, while Harry looked a bit embarrassed.
All four knew very well that while Ginny claimed she wanted to go with Ron, her real intentions lay elsewhere.
Ron continued. "...but Mother wouldn't let her, insisted on coming with her. Percy, Fred, and George are with them too."
Undoubtedly, as the youngest child of the Weasley family and the only girl, Ginny was the most pampered one.
So, such treatment wasn't surprising at all.
Next, they had the bookstore deliver their purchases to the Leaky Cauldron while they went to the apothecary to stock up on ingredients needed for Potions class.
After that, it was time for new robes.
All four were going through puberty, with rapidly increasing height and weight, and some characteristics beginning to appear.
Especially the three boys. Both Sherlock and Ron were tall for their age.
Harry had seemed rather small and thin in his first year, but had begun growing robustly over the past two years.
The result was that all three boys' school robe trouser legs and sleeves were several inches too short.
So, the four made a special trip to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to buy new ones.
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