After returning from Diagon Alley, Lucius Malfoy's greedy, vulture-like gaze became a persistent thorn in Hermione's heart.
Her protective instinct for Lia reached an unprecedented peak.
Back at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters for the return to Hogwarts, Hermione held Lia in her arms almost every step of the way, warily eyeing every Wizard who approached.
It wasn't until the train started moving, leaving the noisy platform behind, that her tense nerves finally relaxed slightly, and she lowered her head to nuzzle the little one's warm ears.
Returning to the familiar Castle, Lia seemed exceptionally happy.
The wildness she had suppressed all summer was completely released in the spacious Gryffindor Common Room.
She transformed back into Lia the Cat, like a queen surveying her territory, pacing elegantly from the warm fireplace to the moonlit windowsill, then running lightly from the spiral staircase to the boys' dormitory door, tapping it gently with the tip of her fluffy tail before laughing and running away like the wind before Ron's complaints could be heard from inside.
Using her scent and gaze, she re-marked this safe zone belonging to her and Hermione.
Harry and Ron watched her jumping up and down in the common room, finding it both funny and cute.
Only Hermione knew that this was Lia's way of completely relaxing after confirming every inch of her territory was safe.
However, this tranquility was soon broken by the new Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
Professor Gilderoy Lockhart's first class brought a "surprise" for everyone.
"Now — be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You face Cornish Pixies in this room today!"
Lockhart whipped the cover off the cage. A group of electric-blue creatures about eight inches high, with pointed ears, were huddled in the cage, letting out high-pitched squeals.
Before any of the students could react, Lockhart opened the cage door.
"Let's see what you make of them!"
Disaster struck instantly.
The pixies shot out of the cage like blue rockets, wreaking havoc everywhere. They shrieked in high-pitched voices, smashing ink bottles against the walls and shredding books into flying fragments; Neville Longbottom was even grabbed by the ears by two pixies and hung, howling, from the ceiling chandelier.
The entire classroom was in chaos as students screamed and hid under desks.
Lockhart tried to control the situation with a spell, but a pixie snatched his magic wand, and the scene spiraled completely out of control.
While everyone else was in a sorry state, a white shadow appeared exceptionally... excited amidst the confusion.
Lia had long since transformed into her Ragdoll Cat form, lying on Hermione's desk.
In her world, these jumping, squeaking little blue things were no threat at all.
They were... top-tier automatic flying cat teasers!
Her hunting instinct was fully activated.
A pixie shrieked as it flew over her head; Lia's hind leg muscles tightened instantly, and with a sudden burst of power, her entire body turned into a streak of elegant white lightning as she leaped into the air, her front paw swiping with precision!
"Smack!"
That pixie was swatted away like a shuttlecock, hitting the wall and sliding down dizzily.
Another tried to pull Hermione's bushy hair; as Lia landed, she made a sharp turn, and her beautiful long fluffy tail swept out like a steel whip, knocking the pixie over directly.
She was having the time of her life, rolling, jumping, and pouncing in the air. Those pixies that gave the young Wizards such headaches were helpless before her, as if she were their natural counter.
Finally, she even managed to catch one, pinning it to the ground with her soft paw pads, tilting her head to sniff it curiously, and then sticking out her pink tongue to give it a lick.
The pinned pixie was so terrified its indigo skin turned pale, and it didn't dare move a muscle.
"Lia, don't lick it! It's dirty!" Hermione, hiding behind a desk, watched Lia "dominating the battlefield" in the chaos, feeling both annoyed and amused as she scolded in a low voice, "Merlin's beard, that's not a chocolate frog!"
The farce finally ended when Hermione used a precise "Petrificus Totalus" to freeze the last few stragglers.
Lockhart slunk away and dismissed the class, leaving the task of cleaning up the mess to Hermione and the other two.
As the days passed, the atmosphere of Halloween gradually enveloped the Castle.
It was also at this time that strange things began to happen.
Harry began to hear a voice. A cold, malevolent, hissing voice that only he could hear, moving through the walls.
He told Ron and Hermione, but they couldn't hear anything.
Lia couldn't hear the specific voice either. But her talent allowed her to perceive that terrifying presence in another way.
Her "Danger Intuition" made the nerve endings under her skin tingle, while her "Soul Protection" constitution, born from devouring the Killing Curse, allowed her to vaguely "smell" an odor.
A cold sensation of some giant snake's scales rubbing, mixed with the musty smell of ancient stone and the decay of death, was slowly traveling through the depths of the Castle's pipes.
That power made her feel a sense of oppression and anxiety originating from the depths of her soul.
Lia had secretly warned Hermione.
"Something is in the walls."
Unfortunately, they couldn't break the walls down.
With no other choice, Lia spent most of her time in cat form, alertly lying by Hermione's side, letting out uneasy purrs from time to time.
Several times, Hermione found her arching her back toward an empty corner, letting out threatening low growls from her throat.
Hermione noticed Lia's abnormality and gently stroked Lia's tense back, a thick shadow falling over her own heart.
Hogwarts was the safest place in the world; surely nothing would go wrong?
The Halloween feast was grand and joyful. But Harry, having heard the voice again, left early in frustration; Ron and Hermione, worried, followed him.
When they reached the second-floor corridor, they felt something wet underfoot.
There was a large puddle of water on the floor, spreading from the direction of the lavatory, reflecting an eerie light under the torches.
Harry followed the trail of water and suddenly stopped as if hit by a Body-Bind Curse.
Ron and Hermione caught up and also instantly froze in place.
The caretaker Filch's cat, Madam Norris, was hanging by her tail from a torch bracket.
Her body was as stiff as a stone statue, her fur had lost all its luster, and those eyes that usually flashed with a snitching light were now wide open like two cloudy glass beads, filled with eternal terror.
On the wall below her, someone had written a line of shocking words in a bloody liquid:
[THE Chamber of Secrets HAS BEEN OPENED.]
[ENEMIES OF THE Heir, BEWARE.]
Students poured out of the Great Hall, and the corridor was instantly filled with terrified screams and gasps. Filch pushed through the crowd and, seeing his cat, let out a heart-wrenching wail.
Everyone's eyes were focused on the bloody words and the hanging cat.
Meanwhile, Hermione felt a sudden weight in her arms, as if she were holding a block of ice.
She looked down in horror to see Lia's sky-blue eyes staring fixedly at the petrified Madam Norris, her pupils shrunk into two black dots smaller than pinheads.
Petrification.
A state infinitely close to death, yet not death itself.
An eternal prison where consciousness is trapped in a cold shell.
This feeling was all too familiar to Lia!
"Meow—!!!"
A shrill, sharp, completely distorted scream erupted from her throat, filled with extreme pain and a fear bordering on collapse.
Her whole body convulsed violently, and she clawed frantically at Hermione's robes—not to attack, but like a drowning person trying to escape from this body that was about to be "petrified"!
Snape pushed through the crowd; his dark gaze swept over Harry, over the bloody words, and finally, landed sharply on the white cat in Hermione's arms that was reacting so violently.
He saw a manifestation of fear toward a specific magic, originating from the depths of the soul. His gaze instantly became more complex and suspicious.
"What are you doing here?" His voice was bone-chillingly cold.
Just then, Dumbledore arrived. He examined Madam Norris and announced that she was merely petrified, not dead.
But the words "Chamber of Secrets" and "Heir" weighed heavily on everyone's hearts like two giant boulders.
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