Hogwarts: I'm Harry's older cousin

Chapter 191, 189. Grab the back and gently pinch it?

This year, the Hogwarts reading list arrived unusually late.

Perhaps even the owls couldn't find where Dudley and the others lived, and by the time the letter reached them, there were only a few days left before the start of the school year.

So Dudley led the young wizards to Diagon Alley early in the morning.

As one grows older, one needs to replace the robes, purchase equipment for new courses, and acquire new textbooks.

Dudley fell into deep thought as he looked at "The Monster Book of Monsters" on the book list.

This thing seems familiar; I've seen it before.

Inside Flourish and Blotts, upon seeing the book list in Dali's hand, the clerk began to complain incessantly, grumbling as he put on thick leather gloves and walked towards a large iron cage hanging outside the bookstore, containing hundreds of books... well, only "The Monster Book of Monsters".

This thing is a living creature, so using the quantifier "ben" is not quite appropriate.

"Oh, my Merlin, I've been bitten at least five times today. I really want to know who chose this textbook. It's absolutely terrible, even worse than the 'Invisibility Book of Invisibility' that I studied back in the day."

"I really want to kick his ass with my boots."

As he spoke, the shop assistant reached his hand into the large iron cage.

Unsurprisingly, I got bitten by the books inside again.

"Hey, you bastard, let go, let go!"

The shop assistant swung a thick, knotted cane and poked hard at the book that was biting his hand, trying to push him away, but this only made the monster book bite even tighter.

Fiery temper, aggressive, and wants to bite everything it sees. This is "The Monster Book of Monsters".

The key is that the shop assistants don't dare to do anything reckless, because these books are very expensive, even more expensive than Lockhart's books last year, and they would have to pay for them if they were damaged.

How much money does he earn in a day?

Beside his bitten arm came a loud tearing sound; the two monster books had grabbed the third one and were about to tear it apart together.

This thing's intelligence is comparable to that of a vixen.

They're hopelessly stupid.

After much effort, I finally managed to pull my hand out of the iron cage and separate the several monster books that were torn together. But then I accidentally forgot what I was supposed to do and didn't manage to take out a single monster book.

The shop assistant had no choice but to prepare to reach for the cage again.

"Why don't you let me give it a try?"

Standing next to the shop assistant, Dali, unwilling to waste too much time, said.

"Young man, this is dangerous."

The shop assistant looked up at Dali, who was half a head taller than him, and swallowed the rest of his sentence.

"It's okay, I've caught it before."

After hearing Dudley's words, the shop assistant was still a little hesitant, worried that Dudley might get hurt, but to be honest, he really didn't want to touch this thing again.

Nobody wants to be bitten, especially by a bunch of books.

In the end, the shop assistant agreed to Dali's request and handed him his thick gloves.

"Then be careful, even a bite through gloves hurts a lot."

"We don't need that kind of thing."

Dudley didn't even glance at the gloves before reaching his hand into the cage.

If I can break through their defenses, I'll consider it a loss.

Having experienced the power of the Yokai Book, Darryl didn't take it seriously.

"Wait, this is dangerous!" The shop assistant tried to stop them, but it was too late.

"I knew I shouldn't have agreed."

The shop assistant covered his eyes, unable to bear the sight of Dali's hand being bitten by a group of monster books.

"If they ask me for compensation, I'll say he put it in there when I wasn't looking, and I tried to stop him, but I couldn't."

The shop assistant quickly figured out how to explain it.

Sure enough, the moment Dudley's arm reached into the large iron cage, it was like flies swarming towards dung, or like a traveler who hadn't eaten for three days seeing food. Countless monster books swarmed in, each one biting down hard on Dudley's arm.

However, Dudley, whose arm was bitten by the monster book, acted as if nothing had happened. He simply shook his arm slightly, and the book that was biting his arm was bounced away. Then he casually grabbed another book and pulled it out.

The monster books, which had not caused any harm, immediately crowded to the entrance of the cage, staring intently at Dudley with their little eyes on the covers, and making indignant noises.

Dudley ignored them and just stared at the monster book in his hand, which he had taken for Hermione first.

"I remember Mrs. Figg saying something like, 'It's like grabbing someone's back and giving them a gentle pinch?'"

As Dudley was thinking this, he placed two fingers on the monster book.

"It can't be too light; it would be bad if Hermione got hurt."

So I added a tiny bit of force and then squeezed it.

A soft click was heard, and the book "The Book of Monsters" that was struggling in Dali's hand shuddered as if it had been electrocuted. It stuck out two ribbon-like tongues, rolled its eyes, and lay motionless in Dali's hand.

"hiss"

The previously noisy monster books instantly fell silent, all staring at Dali's arm that was gripping the monster book, gasping in shock as if they had been greatly frightened.

"It seems to work. It was really simple."

Dudley handed the monster book to Hermione, who was standing next to him, and was relieved to find that the monsters were indeed behaving themselves.

You need a total of 5 of these.

Dudley's gaze then turned to the large iron cage again. The monster books inside retreated in unison. When Dudley reached his hand in again, the monster books seemed to be targeted by a natural enemy, and dared not move an inch.

Not a single one went up to bite it.

So Dali easily grabbed four more books.

However, these four books remained obedient throughout, barely moving even after Dudley sealed them with ropes.

This puzzled the staff at Flourish and Blotts. Why did they react so strongly when they caught them?

In addition to the monster book, Dali and the others each bought a book titled "Seeing the Future Through the Fog" and "An Easy Introduction to Ancient Magical Script," which are books about divination and ancient magical script.

Divination and ancient magic script are new elective courses added starting from the third year.

Once Dali and the others disappeared from sight, the group of monster books breathed a sigh of relief, but then started causing trouble again.

The shop assistant stared speechlessly at the chaotic jumble of monster books inside the large iron cage.

This thing is also a bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong?

Aside from the minor hiccup with the monster book, everything else went very smoothly when I bought it.

Dali only paused briefly when passing a pet store.

Both Harry and I celebrated our birthdays during the holidays, but Hermione's birthday is just a few days away from the start of the new semester.

For her birthday, Hermione gifted herself a dress with a Seamless Stretch Charm in every pocket. This charm was almost Hermione's most proficient, and it was quite useful for a wizard like Dudley who liked to have many backup plans.

Incidentally, aside from the robes, underwear, and shoes prescribed by Hogwarts, Dudley's entire outfit was hand-knitted by Hermione.

"Mr. Gerald, have you found the pet I'm looking for?"

Dali pushed open the door of the pet store called "Beast Tamer" and spoke to the young man inside who had bangs and squinty eyes.

(End of this chapter)