A bright red ribbon fluttered down from her ankle, like a feather severed by the wind.
An instant before it touched the ground, Lia's figure vanished.
It wasn't Apparition.
Nor was it any known form of magic.
She simply took a step, her body turning into a white afterimage that the naked eye couldn't capture.
The air was torn open in a sharp rift, letting out a mournful cry like fabric ripping.
In the Gryffindor girls' dormitory, the warm air was stirred by this rapidly passing figure, forming a small whirlwind that picked up the falling red ribbon before gently laying it down again.
In her vision, a foul-smelling, decaying black-green line, emitting a heavy aura of death, was wriggling rapidly like a maggot along the deepest veins of the Castle.
That was her prey.
The last Horcrux.
A living Horcrux.
Lia's body didn't pause for a moment; she passed through the wall as if passing through a curtain of water.
Physical barriers were meaningless in her eyes; she followed only the shortest straight line, chasing that black-green "scent."
Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, in the Headmasters Office.
The heated argument came to a sudden halt.
Hermione, who was arguing her point with Sirius, suddenly stiffened. Her brown eyes, slightly dull from exhaustion, instantly became as sharp as an eagle's.
A throb from the depths of her soul made her heart suddenly tighten.
It broke.
"Hermione?" Professor McGonagall noticed her abnormality.
Hermione didn't answer.
The slight warmth that had risen from the tactical debate just a second ago vanished in an instant.
"Sorry, Professor McGonagall, I have an urgent matter."
She dropped these cold words, not even giving anyone a chance to ask further, before turning abruptly and rushing out of the Headmasters Office.
Leaving behind a room full of bewildered Order of the Phoenix members looking at each other.
"What's wrong with her?" Ron asked blankly.
However, no one could answer him.
Deep beneath the Castle, in the ancient drainage pipes.
Damp, cold, and filled with the scent of a thousand years of filth.
A giant snake over six meters long was traveling rapidly through them.
Its scales gleamed with a sickly luster in the darkness, and its blood-red vertical pupils were filled with the cruelty and vigilance belonging to the Dark Lord.
Nagini.
Voldemort's last Horcrux, and his most trusted eyes.
Fear drove it.
Its master had ordered it to sneak into the Castle and find the source of that power.
But now, it only wanted to hide, to retreat into the safest place that even its master had felt awe for in his youth—the Chamber of Secrets.
Once inside, with the help of the scent left by the Basilisk, it could hide completely.
At the end of the pipe, the circular door carved with coiled stone snakes was right before its eyes.
Nagini flicked its tongue, preparing to use Parseltongue to open the secret door.
At that very moment.
The scales all over its body suddenly went cold!
An irresistible fear from the deepest depths of its bloodline gripped its heart.
It wasn't a Wizard's magical pressure, nor any threat it had ever felt before.
Rather than being treated as prey, it was more like being treated as a snack.
Like—spicy strips.
No.
Nagini stiffly turned its head to look behind.
In the dark pipe, at some unknown point, stood a slender figure with bare feet.
Silver-white hair moved without wind, and in a pair of sky-blue eyes, there was no emotion, only an indifferent void.
"Sss—"
Nagini let out a threatening hiss, the Dark Lord's tyrannical will overriding the beast's fear.
It suddenly opened its bloody maw, revealing two fangs sharp enough to pierce steel plates, and struck at Lia like lightning!
Lia didn't move.
She didn't even look at the fangs that were right in front of her.
She simply raised her right hand.
Five slender, fair fingers silently elongated and turned black the moment she raised them, transforming into five hideous claws shimmering with an eerie green light.
She swung down casually.
"Riiip—"
A sound so faint it was almost inaudible rang out.
Nagini's attack came to an abrupt halt.
Its massive snake head still held its lunging posture, its blood-red eyes filled with confusion and terror.
The next second.
A smooth line of blood emerged from the center of its forehead, running all the way down, piercing through the entire snake body.
"Splat."
Nagini's body, along with the soul fragment of Lord Voldemort residing within, was split neatly in half and fell into the sewage.
No struggling, no twitching.
Even the blood only flowed for a moment before being completely devoured by an invisible force.
The whole process took less than a second.
Lia looked indifferently at the two halves of the snake's corpse. In the air, a distorted, struggling, and screaming black-green soul phantom emerged.
It was Lord Voldemort's soul fragment, more complete than the one in the diadem, filled with the violence and resentment of a living thing.
A ripple finally appeared in Lia's eyes.
She opened her small mouth and took a gentle breath toward the soul fragment.
"Whoosh—"
The black-green soul phantom let out a shrill scream and turned into a streak of light, uncontrollably sucked into Lia's mouth.
"Burp."
Lia let out a burp, a hint of disdain appearing on her delicate face.
"Still... tastes terrible."
She murmured to herself.
Finished.
As this thought flashed by, the indifference in Lia's eyes quickly faded, replaced by a hint of panic and urgency.
Oh no!
I have to get back quickly!
Before Hermione finds out!
Lia's figure turned into a white light again, returning rapidly along the way she came... on the way back, she even saw Hermione's angry figure.
Gryffindor girls' dormitory.
Lia's figure slipped in through the window and landed precisely by the bed.
She looked at her bare ankle, then at the broken red ribbon lying quietly on the floor, and the expression on her small face became more serious than ever before.
I have to fake the scene!
She quickly picked up the ribbon and started measuring it against her ankle.
How did Hermione tie it again?
It seemed to be one loop first... then through... then a knot?
Lia frowned, clumsily fiddling with the soft ribbon with those same hands that had just torn Lord Voldemort's last Horcrux in half.
No.
Two loops first? Then through from underneath... still not right.
No matter how she looked at it, this knot was ugly, completely different from the exquisite bow Hermione had tied!
A fine bead of sweat broke out on Lia's forehead.
She could analyze the most complex Ancient Runes, perceive the secrets deep within others' souls, easily tear through space, and obliterate souls... but she didn't know how to tie the kind of knot Hermione did!
A sense of panic even stronger than when facing Lord Voldemort gripped her heart.
It's over... If Hermione comes back and finds the ribbon broken and tied into this ugly mess, she'll definitely be angry!
Lia's Danger Intuition sounded the alarm for her once again.
She hurriedly untied the ugly knot, preparing to try again.
Just then.
"Click."
The sound of the dormitory door opening.
It rang... [Well... I've only been home for three days! My status at home is already lower than my big brother's!]
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