Chapter 94: Extra 6: The Old Cat's Revenge, Ten Years Are Not Too Late (Crookshanks' Perspective)
My name is Crookshanks, and I'm probably the smartest yet most depressed cat in the world.
I am not some random, ordinary house cat you find in a pet store. As a hybrid of a noble magical creature, a Kneazle and a Persian cat, stupid humans are not worthy of being my master.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very likeable.
I once had an owner. Back then, I was a carefree, optimistic kitten, and not yet Crookshanks.
I have long forgotten what my name was at that time - no one has called me by that name for many years.
I only remember my master, who had beautiful long red hair, which was even brighter than my ginger hair.
People liked to call her "Lily." She loved to caress me gently while reading. She would look at me with a smile from her emerald green eyes. She was always kind to me and would prepare my favorite dried fish for me.
I like her. I like to lie in front of her, on her knees, and at her side.
Her husband, "James," was a natural troublemaker. He was always teasing me, making fun of my flat face three times a day. Every time I tried to catch that mouse, he would pick me up by the scruff of the neck and throw me out of the house to stop me from picking on his friends.
Friends? Ugh! I've never had a friend who smelled so bad!
Her son, Harry, was as naughty as her husband. He always liked to ride his childish flying broom around the house and scare me for no reason.
Alas! The human cub—what can you do with him?
Not only can you not get angry, but you also have to worry about him falling off his children's broomstick and falling on his butt!
Oh, and that guy who bought him the broomstick—Sirius Black—is the worst! He always turns into a big black dog and scares me! Just because I want to catch mice!
Other than that, cat life is happy and there is nothing to complain about.
But I didn't expect that the happy days would be so short.
On the morning of Halloween, I completed my usual inspection of Godric's Hollow and returned to my home triumphantly, only to find that it had become a ruin.
People came from all directions, talking and pointing at my once beautiful home.
I jumped into the ruins frantically, looking for my mistress - Lily was lying on the ground, motionless, her beautiful eyes wide open, with dried tears in the corners of her eyes.
I licked her cold face with my rough tongue - she was probably playing a joke on me - but she didn't move.
I meowed and begged, hoping she would look at me.
Her stiff gaze remained on the empty crib in the middle of the room.
Where's the little master? I jumped onto his little bed. The blanket was still a little warm, but he was gone.
Harry must be hiding, ready to jump out from somewhere and scare me.
But I searched everywhere.
Under the bed, on top of the cupboard, behind the sofa. None.
The toy broomstick fell strangely to the ground—telling of its loss—and the little hands that always loved to hold it were gone.
Something was wrong. Nothing was right.
This must be some kind of Halloween prank. They're trying to scare me as a group.
The male host is always the most impatient one.
I turned back to the stairs to look at James, wanting to expose the weak link in this family.
I glared at him and had the audacity to step on his face.
He didn't move at all, and didn't grab the back of my neck to discipline me like he usually did.
There's something wrong with him.
I was uncharacteristically servile to him, hoping he would go check on Lily and look for Harry.
But he didn't move, wasn't responsible at all, wouldn't go look for his wife and son, and wouldn't even make fun of me.
I bared my teeth and growled at him, scratching the new clothes Lily bought him with my claws, even though he grabbed the back of my neck and threw me out!
But he was cold as stone.
The people who had gathered were like, "Oh my God, who did this?"
Lily and James - their eyes were empty, with no light in them anymore.
They snatched them from my grasp, saying they were going to bury them.
Bury them.
Why bury them?
They're not dried fish! Why bury them?
In short, I lost everything.
What's the point of living? I slammed my head against the solid wall beside me, intending to follow Lily.
But I'm not dead. I'm a magical creature, how can a wall kill me?
The only difference is that my face seemed to be flatter.
I heard voices from the crowd.
Someone said, "Poor cat."
Someone tried to reach out and touch me.
I bared my teeth at them and jumped out from a corner of the house on the second floor that had been blown out.
There was no looking back.
From then on, I became a grumpy, pessimistic, ugly cat.
I should have had a happy and complete family, and I shouldn't have experienced such displacement.
The only thing I need to worry about in my cat life is how to become the boss among the cats in Godric's Hollow!
I should have been patted on the head by Lily all my life, held by the scruff of the neck by James all my life, and frightened by Harry on his broomstick all my life.
He even cursed the big black dog and the werewolf all his life, and wanted to catch the dead mouse all his life!
Now, now, that's shattered.
During that time, the flowers in my eyes withered. The sky in my eyes was filled with haze. The sounds I heard seemed far away, and the sunlight often seemed glaring.
I was always in a state of impotent rage, which the Muggles called depression.
I wandered around in impotent rage for a while, and finally returned to Diagon Alley in a daze.
This is where it all began—where I first met Lily.
I lay down again in the same spot in the pet shop where I had been lying before, waiting for her to come to me.
Lily, James, Harry, you guys are kidding me, you know that?
It's too much for you to treat a cat like this.
That's too much.
never mind.
I forgive you.
When you have had enough fun, come find me. When you have had enough of playing Halloween games.
Yes, I figured it out. You're playing a game. A Halloween stunt.
How can you scare a cat like that?
The cats around me avoided me in fear, having experienced my sharp teeth and claws.
People who wanted to buy me were always scared off by my bad temper, and I would yell at them viciously and swear at them like a truckload of profanity.
Although to them it was just a meow, my posture was always intimidating.
The days passed one by one.
They didn't come.
Never.
From the sporadic conversations among the pet shop staff, I finally understood.
There was never any Halloween fun.
They are dead.
die.
They didn't scare me.
Lily, James, guess what? I can be scared by you.
It doesn't matter. As long as you don't die, I can be scared.
It doesn't matter how many times you get scared.
——As long as you don't die.
But people say that only one person survived.
Lily's son - my little master - Harry survived the disaster and became a celebrity in the wizarding world.
A faint sense of anticipation arose in my heart, perhaps the little master would come here to find me one day.
I suddenly remembered that day, when the people gathered and said, "Oh my God, who did this?"
Who did it?
No matter who did it, one day, I will take revenge.
I want revenge with my young master.
I started forcing myself to eat the cat food. It wasn't as delicious as the dried fish Lily gave me, but I wasn't picky anymore.
I have to work on getting stronger.
I grind my teeth and claws every day and fight with other cats three times a day, for fear that I will grow old before he comes.
Unfortunately, my wishful thinking ultimately failed. I waited for him for almost ten years, but he never came.
A respectable young wizard, couldn't he even afford a pet? It was an embarrassment to Lily.
Later, I heard that some idiot took it upon himself to buy a snowy owl for the little master - no wonder he didn't come to see me.
Such a sad miss...
Destroy it, I'm tired...
This is how I'll live my life, I thought as I sharpened my claws.
If the little master doesn't come to find me, I will go to find him.
One day.
Later, I heard that the person who betrayed Lily and James was caught.
Caught it!
I didn't even seek revenge or go looking for the young master, someone else did it for me.
My years of anger were like a balloon without a tether, deflated before it even burst.
The little master has his own pet and won't come to find me.
Harry, you've probably forgotten me.
No one in this world remembers me.
Gradually, I lost my fighting spirit and turned from a strong cat with tendons into a fat otaku... Alas!
Later on, when I was trying to muddle through the day, a brown-haired girl came into the store.
She wants to pick a pet.
As usual, I bared my teeth, hoping to scare her away.
Yes, that's right. A flash of fear flashed across her eyes, and then she would definitely turn around and look for another docile and well-behaved cat... I licked my paw lazily, and I could already predict her reaction...
Unexpectedly, she bought me anyway.
She held me in her arms and walked out of the store with a dazed look on my face.
Who am I? Where am I? Is it too late to regret now?
I should have pounced on her and bared my claws at her.
However, the moment I pounced on her, I smelled a very faint scent on her.
A familiar taste.
It's a taste I will never forget in my life—the taste of my little master.
Harry.
She must have known Harry. She smelled like Harry.
She might have shaken Harry's hand, or hugged him.
She might be friends with Harry.
Harry.
I endured it, and let her hold me as I willingly walked out of the store, looking around at the sunny streets, regardless of whether the sunlight hurt my eyes or not.
I saw the boy with black hair.
My little master!
Harry!!!
Harry! I finally see you! You look just like your dad—you're both such a pain in the ass!
But your green eyes are exactly like Lily's...
Exactly the same!
I excitedly called out to him for a long time, but he didn't respond at all.
He doesn't remember me at all.
Stupid human! He didn't inherit any of Lily's cleverness.
Forget it, I'll just work honestly for my new master Hermione.
She likes to stroke my fur and hug me while reading. This personality is very similar to Lily's.
It has been a long time since I got angry because I missed Lily.
When I miss Lily so much, I can stare into her son's emerald green eyes.
It can barely be considered as Lily's meal replacement.
I also met some new stupid humans, one with red hair, and one with platinum hair... Their hair was growing healthy, but not as good-looking as mine.
I have a better impression of the boy with platinum hair because he was the one who caught the culprit who caused Lily and I to be separated forever.
Whoever avenges me is my brother.
I returned to Hogwarts. I learned to be a responsible pet cat again. I slowly regained some of my cat habits, and I was no longer homeless.
I seemed to be loved again.
I even dared to go out and play in the forbidden forest.
The Forbidden Forest really has everything: rats, rats, and more rats... I hate rats!
I catch mice every day. I want to catch a mouse that is particularly different.
It looks very ugly, but its brain is smarter than that of ordinary mice.
It was a filthy Animagus who had escaped from Azkaban.
I bet it'll come to Hogwarts, and I'll be the cat that ends up with it.
More than ten years ago, I wanted to eat the mouse, but James always grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and wouldn't let me eat it.
Now, the person who was holding me by the scruff of the neck is gone.
I want to see who can stop me!
It was a day when the moon was about to be full, and my cat's intuition told me that it was a good day for revenge.
I chased a rat that had escaped from near the basement classroom; it smelled familiar.
I've smelled it, or rather, him.
He once swore in front of Lily and James that he would be a secret keeper.
The most ridiculous secret-keeper in the world hid in the hut of Hagrid, the guy who gave the little master a snowy owl without permission.
It's okay, I can wait. I followed him all the way to the Whomping Willow.
This is it.
I followed the call of my heart and waited in the tree.
He entered from here and would definitely come out from here. They had always done this over the years.
They came out. He wasn't in rat form. I was very disappointed and just stared at them as they left.
Then, suddenly, after a long wait that had exhausted almost all of my patience, I finally waited for that moment.
At that moment, I saw the bald man grinning and saying, "No one can catch me." Then he turned into a big rat and ran towards the hole of the Whomping Willow next to me again.
This moment is it.
I rushed down the tree like an arrow, knocked him unconscious with one claw, and bit off half of his head.
Yes.
No one can catch you.
But I'm a noble cat - not a stupid "human"!
I seized the only chance for revenge that fate gave me.
James, you brainless jerk, this thing was so simple!
You should have let me eat him!
I looked at the stunned faces of the humans and contemptuously bit the rat's head, making it crackle.
Revenge tastes so sweet!
It's no big deal.
You ruined my cat life, ruined my Lily, so I will ruin you.
Lily's darling - Hermione's poor little thing - the mouse terminator - a man of revenge - Crookshanks, who has hidden his merits and fame.
Once again, I warn all those stupid humans who want to destroy my family, stay away from me!
Otherwise you will be the next Peter Pettigrew!
Meow!