Went back and bought a second one the same week

Started with the Hogwarts crest cover for myself, then ordered the Gryffindor one for my daughter four days later because she would not stop picking mine up. The cover has a padded leatherette feel instead of the thin plasticky stuff you usually get at this price, and the gold tooling on the corner flourishes is still sharp when you look at it up close. The lock is why I bought it twice - three digits, set with the little lever, and it stays shut rolling around in a backpack. Setting the combination the first time takes a minute, and I would write it down somewhere. Inner pages are colour printed with small house motifs, which my daughter spotted before I did. Both arrived in about nine days, flat and padded, no bent corners.

Did not expect it to come boxed like this

Picked this up as a last-minute birthday extra and did not expect it to arrive boxed. It comes in a black lidded box with a Harry Potter paper band wrapped around it, so it already reads as a present before anyone opens it. The first page inside is a print of the Hogwarts supply letter - the book list, the wand and cauldron line, Dumbledore's signature at the bottom - and the birthday girl read the whole thing out loud before she even got to the notebook itself. The cover is soft-touch brown with the Gryffindor crest in gold, embossed rather than printed, so it catches the light when you tilt it. Setting the three-digit lock took a couple of tries the first time; after that the dial has not slipped. Cream pages, colour printed inside, spine gold stamped. Ten days with tracking that actually moved, box arrived undamaged.