Since Lupin had agreed to teach Sean the Patronus Charm, his evenings from Monday to Saturday were now fully booked. If it weren't for his Time-Turner and a generous stock of mental recovery potions, he probably wouldn't have been able to keep up.
Sean's campus life, packed from dawn to dusk, was running at full tilt — but over in the Gryffindor common room, something big happened.
The guardian portrait had been slashed to pieces, and no one knew where the Fat Lady had gone. Worst of all, according to Peeves, the one who destroyed the portrait was none other than Sirius Black — the escaped convict from Azkaban.
Sirius Black was inside Hogwarts!
The news spread like wildfire, throwing the entire castle into panic. At night, the corridors were deserted — everyone huddled inside their common rooms, though even that didn't bring much comfort. After all, if the Gryffindor common room could be breached by Sirius Black, who could say the others were safe?
Meanwhile, Sean sat calmly in his own room. Unlike everyone else, he wasn't nervous at all — he knew perfectly well what kind of person Sirius Black really was.
"Ugh, so noisy outside. Can't even sleep properly."
Kulkan woke up complaining, her larger body slithering out of a snake nest that had clearly grown too small for her. She crawled over to Sean's side, lifted her heavy head, and rested it on his shoulder.
"Sean, I'm awake. Give me something to eat."
Setting down the quill in his hand, Sean turned to look at her.
By now, Kulkan had truly become a big snake. Around her head, sharp, slightly protruding scales were beginning to form, like the buds of small horns. Her scales had grown shinier and smoother, cool to the touch — Sean thought half-jokingly that he might not need an air conditioner in summer with her around.
He summoned a Hogwarts house-elf to bring fresh eggs and meat for Kulkan, then took out the basilisk blood he had saved. Watching Kulkan devour it all with gusto, Sean sighed.
"Kulkan, if you keep growing like this, it won't just be whether I can afford to feed you — even Hogwarts won't be able to let me keep you here. They allow pets, but not ones your size."
Kulkan paid him no mind. After sleeping so long, the basilisk flesh and eyeballs she'd eaten before — powerful as they were — hadn't been nearly enough to fill her. If she were human, she'd have starved by now. Talking could wait; eating came first.
When she'd finished every last scrap, Kulkan let out a deep burp — Sean had no idea how a snake could burp, but she did, and it was so loud he heard it crystal clear.
Kulkan, shameless about her loud and unladylike burp, lifted her head and fixed Sean with a look.
"So what you're saying is, you're going to throw me back home, huh? Can you really live with yourself, being that irresponsible? No way, right? No way you're as rotten inside as Blaise, right? No way, no way, no way!"
Sean tapped the table with his fingers, staring at the now-quiet Kulkan. "Then what do you suggest we do? You know perfectly well you're not the same size as when you were little. Unless you can stay put quietly in my room, you won't exactly fit in the Slytherin common room anymore."
Truthfully, there was a way. Sean had been thinking he might have to take Kulkan out of Hogwarts altogether — maybe let her live on her own in the Forbidden Forest or the Black Lake. He could bring her food now and then, or worst case, ask Hagrid to help look after her. As long as she didn't stray too deep into the forest, she should be fine.
But Kulkan clearly had other plans.
Before Sean's eyes, Kulkan's huge body shrank at a speed visible to the naked eye, until she was the same slender snake she'd been when he first bought her.
Sean froze for a second, then raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Is this an ability you awakened while you were asleep?"
"Food rich in magic can help me unlock certain bloodline powers," Kulkan said calmly. "The unicorn blood, the basilisk flesh and blood, and the basilisk eyes — each gave me an ability."
Sean blinked. "The unicorn blood gave you one too? Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"I was lazy," Kulkan replied without a hint of shame.
"…" Sean was speechless. He scooped Kulkan up, letting her coil in his hands, and asked, "So, shrinking is one. What about the other two?"
"It's not just shrinking — I can change my size within a range. The other two are: I can turn invisible, and I can petrify people for a while with my eyes."
Sean mulled this over for a moment, then smirked. "Well then, I've got a job for you. There's a mouse in Gryffindor — with your invisibility and size control, you're perfect to catch it for me."
Though she always claimed to be lazy, Kulkan agreed without fuss. She'd been stuck inside Sean's bedroom for so long that she was itching to stretch out and explore. Now that she had these new abilities to protect herself, she was eager to try them out.
Just as Sean promised to find her some magical creatures as a reward, an announcement came through the Slytherin common room: all Slytherin students were to gather in the Great Hall and spend the night there, while the professors patrolled Hogwarts to hunt down Sirius Black.
Hearing this, Sean and Kulkan exchanged a glance — it was the perfect chance for Kulkan to slip out and hunt down that mouse, Scabbers.