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This year, the Hogwarts booklist arrived especially late.
Perhaps even the owl could not find where Dudley and the others lived. By the time the letter reached them, only a few days remained before school started.
And so, early that morning, Dudley brought the young witches and wizards to Diagon Alley.
Robes that needed to be replaced as they grew older, equipment required for new subjects, and new textbooks.
Looking at The Monster Book of Monsters written on the booklist, Dudley fell into thought.
This thing seemed... familiar.
Inside Flourish and Blotts, after seeing the booklist in Dudley's hand, the shop assistant began complaining wildly. Cursing under his breath, he put on a pair of thick leather gloves and walked toward a large iron cage outside the bookshop. Inside it were several hundred copies? Mm, several hundred creatures? of The Monster Book of Monsters.
This thing was alive. Calling them copies did not feel quite right.
"Oh, my Merlin. I have been bitten no fewer than five times today. I truly want to know who chose this as a textbook. Absolutely dreadful. Even worse than The Invisible Book of Invisibility I handled back then."
"I would love to kick his backside with my boot."
As he spoke, the shop assistant reached his hand into the large iron cage.
Unsurprisingly, he was bitten by the books inside again.
"Hey, you bastard! Let go, let go!"
The shop assistant waved a thick, knotty cane and jabbed at the book biting his hand, trying to push it away. However, this only made the monster book bite even tighter.
Explosive temper, full of aggression, wanting to bite whatever it saw. This was The Monster Book of Monsters.
The key point was that the shop assistant did not dare act recklessly, because this kind of book was very expensive, even a little more expensive than Lockhart's books from last year. If he damaged it, he had to pay for it.
How much did he earn in a day?
Beside the arm it had bitten, a loud tearing sound came over. Two monster books had grabbed a third and were preparing to tear it apart together.
This thing's intelligence was about the same as a Doxy's.
Stupid beyond saving.
After spending quite a bit of effort, the assistant finally managed to pull his hand out of the iron cage and separate the monster books tangled together. As a result, he accidentally forgot what he had been trying to do and had not taken out a single monster book.
Helpless, the shop assistant could only prepare to reach into the cage again.
"Why not let me try?"
Dudley, standing beside the assistant and unwilling to waste too much time, spoke.
"Little... sir, this is dangerous."
The shop assistant looked up at Dudley, who was half a head taller than him, and swallowed the second half of his sentence.
"It's fine. I have caught one before."
After hearing Dudley's words, the shop assistant was still somewhat hesitant. He worried Dudley might be hurt, but honestly, he truly did not want to touch this thing again.
No one wanted to be bitten, especially not by a group of books.
In the end, the shop assistant still agreed and handed his thick gloves to Dudley.
"Then be careful. Even through gloves, being bitten hurts a lot."
"I don't need that kind of thing."
Dudley did not even glance at the gloves and directly reached his hand into the cage.
If these things could break his skin, he would admit defeat.
Having experienced the power of the monster books before, Dudley did not take them seriously.
"Wait, that is dangerous!" The shop assistant tried to stop him, but it was already too late.
'I knew I should not have agreed.'
The shop assistant covered his eyes, unable to bear seeing Dudley's hand being bitten by a group of monster books.
'If he asks me for compensation, I will say he reached in while I was not paying attention. I tried to stop him, but failed.'
The shop assistant instantly came up with how he would explain things later.
As expected, the moment Dudley's arm reached into the large iron cage, countless monster books swarmed over like travelers who had gone hungry for three days and suddenly seen food. One book per bite, they clamped tightly onto Dudley's arm.
However, Dudley, whose arm was being bitten by monster books, acted as if nothing had happened. He merely gave a light shake, and the books biting his arm were bounced away. Then he casually grabbed one and pulled it out.
The monster books, which had caused no damage at all, immediately crowded at the cage entrance and stared at Dudley with the little eyes on their covers, making angry, indignant noises one after another.
Dudley ignored them and only stared at the monster book in his hand. This was the one he had taken first for Hermione.
'I remember Mrs. Figg said something about grabbing the spine and giving it a gentle pinch?'
Thinking this, Dudley placed two fingers on the monster book.
'It can't be too light. If it hurts Hermione, that would be bad.'
And so he added just a tiny little bit of force, then pinched.
Crack.
A faint sound came over. The copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which had originally been struggling in Dudley's hand, shuddered like it had been electrocuted. It spat out two ribbon-like tongues, rolled its eyes, and lay motionless in Dudley's hand.
'Hiss.'
The originally noisy monster books instantly quieted down. They all stared in unison at the hand Dudley had used to pinch the monster book and sucked in a breath, as if they had suffered an enormous fright.
'It seems to be fine now. As expected, it is very simple.'
Dudley handed the monster book to Hermione beside him. After confirming it was indeed obedient, he felt relieved.
They needed a total of five of these things.
And so Dudley's gaze turned once again toward the large iron cage. The monster books inside all retreated in unison. When Dudley reached his hand in again, these monster books seemed to have been targeted by a natural enemy and did not dare move randomly at all.
Not a single one came forward to gnaw on him.
And so Dudley very smoothly grabbed another four.
These four, however, were obedient the whole time. Even when Dudley tied them shut with rope, they barely moved.
This left the shop assistant at Flourish and Blotts quite confused. Why did they react so violently when he tried to catch them?
Aside from The Monster Book of Monsters, Dudley and the others also bought books titled Unfogging the Future and Ancient Runes Made Easy. These were books for Divination and Ancient Runes.
Divination and Ancient Runes were new elective subjects added from third year onward.
Only after Dudley and the others disappeared at the end of the street did that group of monster books let out a sigh of relief and begin making trouble again.
The shop assistant looked at the chaotic monster books in the large iron cage, speechless.
Did these books also only pick fights they could win?
Aside from the small episode with the monster books, buying everything else went very smoothly.
Only when passing a pet shop did Dudley stop for a moment.
His and Harry's birthdays had both passed during the holiday. But only a few days after school started, it would be Hermione's birthday.
On his birthday, Hermione had given him a set of clothes. Every pocket in the clothes had been given an Undetectable Extension Charm. This charm was practically Hermione's most practiced spell now. For a wizard like Dudley, who liked preparing as many backup plans as possible, it was extremely practical.
Incidentally, apart from the robes required by Hogwarts, underwear, and shoes, Dudley's outfit from top to bottom was basically hand-knit by Hermione.
"Mr. Xellos, have you found the pet I wanted?"
Dudley pushed open the door of the Magical Menagerie and spoke to the young man behind the counter, who had straight bangs and smiling, narrowed eyes.
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