HOL Ravenclaw

You and your team follow the directions, racing through the corridors until you reach the library. You stumble inside, shushing each other, but you are all immediately reminded of just how many books there are inside. Finding a badge that could be anywhere amongst these pages is certainly going to be a challenge, and will take a great deal of time and teamwork.

Task:
Write a short story of at least 100 words about your team's attempts to find the badge. Did you have a strategy? Did you look in any specific sections, or around any specific books?

My team and I decided to split into two groups to cover my ground in the library. My group agreed to check out the dragon, legal, and poetry sections and any section surrounding them if needed, and the other team decided to search the invisibility, reference, restricted, and alchemy sections and any surrounding sections. In the dragon section, the Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland book stuck out to me, as the spine didn't seem right. I pulled the book out, flipped through the pages, and found the badge placed amongst the pages like in a bad spy movie. I called out to my team, informing them I had found it so we could move on to the next!

My team and I had one thing clear right from the beginning, wherever this badge was, it wasn't going to be easy, it would take some work, nor was it going to be in the restricted section. They can't want us asking permission to visit the restricted section en-masse, that can turn nasty soon with the kind of books in that section.
So we split up and divided the shelves and sections amongst ourselves doing one section at a time. We didn't want to damage the books, so we tried Accio badge but we knew already it wasn't going to work. We relied on agililty, speed, and most importantly organization, checking the books in systematic order, replacing them in their exact positions on the correct shelves, so we don't check the same book twice. We quickly flipped the pages and gently shook them. A badge would be thick and heavy enough to fall out with a gentle, and not so violent as to harm the book, shake. "Don't tear anything", we reminded each other as we worked. Then suddenly we heard a loud clang. The badge had fallen out of a book one of our teammates was shaking. We had done it.

Entering the library, my team all sighed, realising quite how big a task finding this badge was going to be. After a quick discussion, we divided the library into sections to search, with me assigned magical creatures and transfiguration. My team began searching as fast as possible, while still taking care not to damage the books or miss anything. Suddenly, I hear shout from one of my teammates and rush over to the charms aisle where I see him pointing to the top of the bookcase where the badge was sitting. Failing to bring it down with spells, we carefully levitated our smallest member up to retrieve it. Congratulating each other, we rush of to the next location.

We rushed into the library, trying not to laugh too loud as the doors shut behind us. The place was huge and honestly kind of overwhelming. Shelves went up so high I couldn't even see the top, and there were way more rows than I expected. We decided to split into pairs to cover more ground. My teammate and I went straight to the Magical History section. We figured if the badge had something to do with Hogwarts, maybe it’d be there. Other members of my team checked Creatures, Charms, and even the Restricted Section, though I didn’t ask how they managed that. I started flipping through dusty old books, checking behind them, under them, and inside the covers. Eventually, someone found the badge wedged between two books on ancient runes.