"...What... was that... just now?"
Peter Pettigrew stood slightly hunched, gasping heavily. This sudden long-distance chase had truly pushed him to his limits—a rat who spent his days eating, drinking, sleeping, and eating again until he'd grown fat as a pig. Now he felt like his heart was about to burst from his chest.
His left hand hung down, bracing against his knee, while his right gripped his wand, holding it before him to shield against the dust kicked up by the explosion's hot wind. Through the gaps in his clothing, you could see Peter Pettigrew's shifty little eyes squinted into slits, almost invisible.
Just moments ago, Peter Pettigrew, constantly chased by Crookshanks until he was terrified and exhausted beyond measure, finally couldn't take it anymore. It was like a fallen tiger being bullied by dogs—though in reality, Peter Pettigrew wasn't much of a tiger and Crookshanks wasn't exactly a dog. Still, as someone who was essentially human, even if he was hiding and fleeing for his life, being bullied by a cat like this was simply too much, too humiliating.
He couldn't even get properly angry—what was the point of being mad at a stupid cat? It wouldn't understand human speech anyway. The key issue was that he was in his Animagus rat form and couldn't speak human language either. Cross-species communication between cat and rat was pure fantasy. But if he ignored it, who knew how long he'd be chased?
He'd been maintaining his Animagus transformation to avoid Sirius Black's pursuit, but Sirius Black had already discovered he was alive and had even tracked him to Hogwarts. Now there was another pursuer—this damned stupid cat—and this stupid cat was surprisingly persistent. The first time in days he'd heard sounds and opened the Gryffindor common room door to check the situation before returning to Ron's dormitory to hide—a matter of just two or three seconds—it had seized the opportunity. It must have been staking him out the whole time.
At this rate, even if he escaped Sirius's pursuit, he'd probably die of exhaustion from this cat's relentless chase.
So there was only one solution.
Cancel his Animagus transformation, kill this cat as quickly as possible, transform again, and pin the blame on that Black fellow.
So Peter Pettigrew did exactly that—canceled his Animagus transformation, drew his wand to aim at Crookshanks, and cast his most proficient spell: the Blasting Curse.
But...
When he'd just transformed back from his Animagus form to human after so long, his vision still not quite adjusted to the clarity, he could still see that just as his Blasting Curse was about to hit that stupid cat (which had inexplicably turned its head away), a brown, strange object suddenly appeared out of nowhere between them.
"Could it be that someone else is here?!"
Peter Pettigrew's expression grew even uglier. His rat-like face began twitching as fear, terror, viciousness, and cunning alternated across his features, finally forming an indescribably twisted visage. Once again, he raised his wand.
"Then you'll have to die here with that stupid cat... absolutely no one can be allowed to see me!"
..............................................
In the dust kicked up by the explosion, the brown pellet Hermione had thrown out with her left hand while summoning Crookshanks to her side had transformed under her Transfiguration into several layers of shields. These had now shattered into small fragments under the blast's shockwave, scattered across the ground.
Hermione herself was now clutching Crookshanks, pressed sideways tightly against the corridor's battered wall, her face grave with seriousness.
The girl and cat were completely unharmed. The transfigured shields had absorbed most of the damage from the explosion's shockwave, while the remaining impact force and flying debris were deflected by the silent Shield CharmHermione had cast on herself.
After blocking the opponent's attack, Hermione quickly moved, using the explosion-damaged walls as cover to avoid any spells the enemy might continue casting in their direction.
"That Blasting Curse had unusual power... the opponent is a very skilled wizard."
"And... Scabbers is actually an Animagus? That's almost impossible to believe."
"No wonder Crookshanks was interested in Scabbers... did you notice something was wrong all along?"
Hermione's mind simultaneously conducted analysis and internal commentary, constantly processing the information she'd observed. Though she was thinking, the girl's hands weren't idle—she patted Crookshanks' rear, released her left arm from holding the cat, letting him hang from her clothes, then reached forward with her left hand, flinging out a brown pellet while casting Transfiguration on it.
White light struck the pellet, which began transforming until it became a cat completely identical to Crookshanks.
Crookshanks: ?
"Mm, this spell might come in handy. Mobiliarbus."
Hermione murmured quietly, tracing an arc in the air with her wand. When her movement stopped, her wandtip was pointing toward the far end of the corridor's center.
The cat appeared in a lifelike pouncing stance, propelled by the spell's influence as it shot rapidly out of the smoke. Peter Pettigrew naturally saw this scene, and the Blasting Curse he'd been preparing immediately flew from his hand.
"Confringo!"
The red-glowing Blasting Curse shot out instantly, but the vicious expression on Peter Pettigrew's face froze, while Hermione had already begun to smile.
"Secondary Transfiguration."
The girl snapped her fingers.
In midair, the cat speeding forward in its pouncing attack suddenly enlarged and transformed into a bizarre ring.
But it was precisely that ring—empty in the middle—that caused Peter Pettigrew'sBlasting Curse aimed at it to miss completely, passing straight through and disappearing into the distant corridor, where it exploded at the other end.
The other end of the corridor was the area of the seventh floor closest to Hogwarts' main staircase. An explosion there, amplified by echoes through the vast space, would certainly create quite a commotion. Though the students had been told to return to their rooms because the danger was over, given the professors' cautious nature at Hogwarts, they would definitely continue patrolling the castle interior to ensure all dangers were completely eliminated.
So reinforcements would arrive soon.
However, even though her backup was coming, Hermione had no intention of letting that Animagus off so easily.
In fact, after further transforming the flying cat into a ring, she had already cast a Concealment Charm on herself, donned a black cloak, pulled up the hood, and charged out under cover of smoke and darkness, her wand already gathering light.
"How dare you try to harm Crookshanks! I'll never forgive you, you disgusting rat-man!"
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