"Oh, run!"
"It's Mrs. Norris!"
In the trophy room, Harry fled in panic with Ron and Hermione, their three pairs of short legs moving quite rapidly.
"Meow—" (?_?)
Mrs. Norris followed them unhurriedly, occasionally letting out a cry to alert Filch in the distance.
"What did you find?"
"Mrs. Norris..."
Filch came following the sound, his faintly glowing lantern swaying in the dark corridor.
In the dead silence of night, any slight sound would be infinitely amplified—let alone the ear-splitting crash of armor being knocked over.
Hearing the commotion and exclamations echoing through the castle, Tiger, who had been chatting idly with Venom, leaned out halfway to look down at the winding staircase below.
Seeing Hermione and the others running up to the fourth floor in their panic, his fierce eyebrows raised slightly, and a trace of surprise and amusement flashed through his calm eyes.
He hadn't expected that Hermione, the model student and good girl, would also break school rules.
Too bad she was following two idiots—like a headless rabbit bumping into walls everywhere...
"Alright, Gunpowder."
"Go help this little rabbit who's charging around blindly. Remember not to come back too late—Gryffindor doesn't welcome you."
"Meow~" (?_?)
The seemingly soft cat's cry was full of disdain.
A breeze passed by, and Gunpowder, who had been sitting on Tiger's head, leaped down. His blue-green glow flickered like stars between the stair railings.
Tiger shifted his gaze back and continued toward the Ravenclaw common room. As if remembering something, his conversation with Venom became more serious.
He planned to have Venom split again and form symbiotic relationships with his brothers.
However, Venom indicated that killing Tiger's brothers was something it dared not do—parasitism and symbiosis were two different concepts.
The previous split had come from Venom itself.
The Gringotts dragon's aging had made it unable to resist Venom's erosion.
Venom could use its biomimetic abilities to reconstruct a dragon brain and control the dragon.
To be precise, that was merely Venom's avatar. When it withdrew the avatar, the dragon would die instantly.
And to split off offspring of Venom would require the most important component of this world—souls.
Very evil souls.
"Alright."
Standing before the Ravenclaw common room door, Tiger sighed somewhat helplessly.
"We'll discuss this matter during the holidays."
What this world lacked least were evil souls, whether inside prisons or outside them.
On the Ravenclaw common room door, the enormous eagle-shaped door knocker gleamed even at night, as if it possessed life.
As Tiger approached, the eagle-shaped knocker slowly lowered its head and calmly posed a question.
"Not all hope is born from desperation. In the history of human development, what is most indispensable?"
Perhaps recognizing that Tiger's identity wasn't Ravenclaw, the eagle-shaped knocker's question had a very broad scope with dramatically increased difficulty, leaving Tiger stunned in place.
"Tools?" he answered tentatively, but the eagle-shaped knocker showed no reaction.
"Ideals?"
Tiger tried a different angle, seemingly leaning toward philosophy, but the eagle-shaped knocker still showed no response.
(?_?)
His fierce brows furrowed tightly. Tiger thought impatiently for a moment, then answered again.
"Competition?"
The surroundings remained silent.
Only Venom's gloating laughter echoed continuously in Tiger's mind.
"Alright... alright... damn it... shut your stinking mouth, Venom... let me think again!"
(_)
"There are students running around at night!"
"Over by the Charms classroom!"
"There are students..." Peeves' shrieking suddenly rang out in the silent castle.
As if his heart was being tightly squeezed, Harry stopped desperately at the door at the end of the corridor, Ron's face equally pale.
Filch's footsteps were getting closer and closer.
Fortunately, Hermione reacted in time.
A not-quite-skilled Alohomora allowed the two little wastes to perfectly experience the thrill of narrow escape.
"What are you standing there for, idiots!"
Under Hermione's somewhat irritable urging, Harry and Ron pushed and shoved their way through the door.
As the door closed, a familiar touch and warmth suddenly leaped into Hermione's arms.
"Gunpowder!" After seeing the cat in her arms clearly, Hermione couldn't help but exclaim. "How are you here?"
Realizing that Tiger might be nearby, a bright light flashed in her brown-black eyes.
She immediately looked up around them.
"Is Tiger also out—"
Her words came to an abrupt halt.
Through Harry and Ron's rigid bodies, she saw a massive three-headed dog staring at them menacingly, thick saliva dripping from its fangs...
"You've got to be kidding..."
Hermione's face went white.
The opponent had three heads, their side had three children—without thinking, it was basically a one-bite affair.
"Don't just stand there! Idiots! Run!"
"Ron!"
"D'you want to become dog shit as tall as yourself!"
Under Tiger's influence, Hermione's irritable cursing had quite the Shelby family flair.
The three-headed dog seemed enraged, viciously baring its fangs and preparing to attack. The warm, foul breath hit them in the face, nauseating.
At this critical moment, the three of them crowded at the doorway, frantically fumbling at the door lock.
However, Gunpowder suddenly broke free from Hermione's embrace and charged toward the three-headed dog.
"No!"
"Gunpowder, come back!"
All color drained from Hermione's little face.
She anxiously wanted to rush forward but was held tightly by Harry and Ron.
"Hermione, don't be impulsive!"
"You can't save it!"
In their eyes, never mind Gunpowder—even the three of them together could barely fill the gaps between the three-headed dog's teeth.
"Gunpowder, come!"
Hermione didn't give up.
Taking advantage of Harry opening the door, she waved her wand, trying to rescue Gunpowder.
Unfortunately, the Accio charm was only somewhat familiar to her. They could only watch helplessly as Gunpowder was covered by the three-headed dog's claws.
"No..."
Before Hermione could cry out in grief, more than ten miniature Gunpowders shot out from under the claws like afterimages.
Accompanied by shrill cat cries, countless Gunpowders jumped onto the three-headed dog's body, attacking its searchlight-like eyes and ears.
"Awoooo!!!"
Sharp canine wails suddenly arose.
The three-headed dog shook its body in pain, like shaking off fleas, throwing off all the Gunpowders, then ran straight to the corner and covered its ears with all its might.
It surrendered! It couldn't win!
The Gunpowders that fell to the ground merged back together. Head tilted, fur bristling, it let out threatening meows and pressed forward step by step.
In the cat's logical thinking: it fears me = I don't fear it = I can kill it.
Logic established!
Keep fighting!
Under Harry and Ron's stunned gazes, the three-headed dog, not daring to resist, cowered trembling in the corner whilst Gunpowder bit at the scruff of its neck, its pink paw pads flashing like afterimages as it struck, sending fur flying everywhere.
Unfortunately, the three-headed dog was thick-skinned and tough—aside from the fur, it suffered no damage.
Only its three-part whimpering grew increasingly pitiful. Hermione pursed her lips and sighed with her hand to her forehead:
"Gunpowder, stop fighting."
"It knows it was wrong..."
"How is that wrong again!"
Time passed minute by minute.
Tiger's eyes were wide as saucers.
He gritted his teeth and gave more than ten answers in succession, but the eagle-shaped knocker's silence was deafening.
Venom was almost dying of laughter.
Before the Ravenclaw common room door, the visible aura of irritation grew increasingly thick.
"Sour turnip bitch!"
Tiger's face completely darkened, angry light flashing in his amber fierce eyes.
Immediately after, Venom's black liquid covered his arm, and his thick arm transformed directly into a giant axe, crashing down on the ground. The solid floor tiles were instantly carved with a deep groove.
Whether he could get in or not didn't really matter!
"Perfect answer."
The eagle-shaped knocker's wings quickly retracted, and the heavy door slowly opened.
Tiger: "???" (?_?)
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
The story isn't over...
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