"It's definitely Malfoy!"
In the Gryffindor common room, Ron lowered his voice and said firmly, "Think about his family; they all look like the Heirs of Slytherin!"
Harry nodded in deep agreement.
Only Hermione sat in an armchair by the fireplace, holding Lia, her brow furrowed.
Lia, in her arms, also felt her anxiety and rubbed her furry head against her chin.
She had already recovered from the petrifying fear she felt from Madam Norris.
"Suspicion alone is useless; we need evidence," Hermione analyzed calmly, while unconsciously and naturally stroking Lia's smooth back fur.
"Then what should we do? Just go up and ask him, 'Hey, Malfoy, are you the jerk who opened the Chamber of Secrets?'" Ron gestured exaggeratedly.
A bold idea gradually took shape in Hermione's mind.
"Maybe... we can get him to tell us himself." Hermione's eyes lit up, sparkling with the light of wisdom and adventure. "With Polyjuice Potion."
Harry and Ron were both stunned.
Polyjuice Potion—a Potion that could turn someone into another person for a period of time—was complex, dangerous, and carried explicit warnings in the book Moste Potente Potions.
"That's too hard! And where would we get the ingredients? Bicorn horn and Boomslang skin are both in Snape's private stores!" Ron countered, shivering at the mere thought of Snape's somber face.
"That's why we need a plan," Hermione said in a tone that brooked no argument.
She had fully entered her top-student battle mode.
The heavy responsibility of brewing the Potion naturally fell on Hermione's shoulders.
The secret base they chose was the abandoned girls' bathroom on the second floor—Moaning Myrtle's territory.
A large, dusty cauldron was set up, and Hermione meticulously prepared the initial ingredients, following the instructions in Moste Potente Potions, which she had borrowed from the library's Restricted Section.
"Giggle... what mischief are you up to?" A translucent ghost of a girl with pigtails emerged from a toilet, floating in mid-air and eyeing them curiously.
She was Moaning Myrtle. Myrtle's gaze was soon drawn to Lia in Hermione's arms.
Lia was sitting on the sink in her Cat-girl form, her snow-white long tail twitching occasionally as she looked back with equal curiosity at this "person" who could pass through walls.
"Wow, a girl with cat ears!" Myrtle floated over, circling Lia. "You're so cute! Much more fun than those smelly boys!"
Lia found this non-corporeal, icy-cold existence very novel.
She wasn't afraid of her.
As Myrtle floated closer, Lia reached out with a soft paw pad and swiped tentatively.
Her claws passed through Myrtle's translucent body without resistance, bringing a strange, chilly sensation.
"Giggle..." Myrtle was amused, letting out a series of shrill laughs.
Lia tilted her head and tried again, with the same result. She seemed to find it interesting, and for the next while, she stayed on the sink, constantly using her claws to "catch" the floating Myrtle, having the time of her life.
Brewing the Potion took time, and the most crucial ingredients had to be stolen from Snape's office.
The plan unfolded during Potion Class. As planned, Harry threw a lit Filibuster Firework into Goyle's cauldron.
Bang!
Thick green liquid erupted from the cauldron, and the entire Dungeon was instantly shrouded in foul-smelling smoke. Students screamed as they dodged, and Snape roared as he went to deal with Goyle, who was covered from head to toe. The scene was chaotic.
That was the signal!
Hermione's eyes met Lia's, and she gave her a tense look.
Lia's body instantly turned into a streak of white light, silently darting out from Hermione's arms. She remained in her petite Ragdoll Cat form, her four paw pads making no sound on the cold stone tiles—a natural master of stealth.
In the chaos, no one noticed this white lightning flying close to the ground.
Using her memory of the terrain and her natural Feline stealth, she moved under the desks and chairs, easily slipping into Snape's unguarded office. Outside, Hermione blocked the doorway with her body, pretending to be choked by the smoke and coughing violently, her eyes fixed on the office out of the corner of her eye, her heart in her throat.
Lia jumped onto a shelf. The office was filled with the mixed scents of various herbs and strange materials, but her nose was exceptionally keen, quickly identifying the scents described in Moste Potente Potions.
Bicorn horn... Boomslang skin... Found them!
The storage cabinet door was only ajar. Just as she was about to hook it open with her claws, Snape's increasingly impatient roar echoed from outside the Dungeon, and footsteps seemed to be moving this way! Lia's fur stood on end, and her heart hammered in her chest.
Just then, a violent cough from Hermione—as if she were trying to hack up her lungs—rang out in the classroom, successfully making Snape's footsteps falter and turn toward her.
"Miss Granger, if you wish to cough up your lungs, I wouldn't mind helping you along!"
Lia seized those precious few seconds. She skillfully hooked open the cabinet door with her claws, picked up a small packet of dried snake skin in her mouth, and then precisely flicked a small piece of horn out of a jar with her claw, pinning it down with another.
Having succeeded, she immediately retraced her steps, slipping back to Hermione's feet like a ghost before the smoke cleared, and surreptitiously stuffed the items into her bag.
Hermione felt the movement in her bag, and her heart finally half-settled.
A few weeks later, the Polyjuice Potion was finally ready.
It was like thick, dark green mud, bubbling in the cauldron. Now, only the final step remained: adding the target person's hair.
Harry and Ron had successfully obtained hairs from Malfoy's two lackeys—Goyle and Crabbe. Hermione, meanwhile, had luckily plucked a hair from the robes of a Slytherin girl named Millicent Bulstrode.
"Is everyone ready?" Hermione divided the Potion into three parts and poured them into three glasses.
Harry and Ron looked at the revolting liquid in the glasses, their expressions twisting. The three of them clinked glasses and then downed the Potion as if facing death.
It tasted like cabbage that had been boiled for a month.
Harry felt his insides churning and melting. His body convulsed, his skin bubbled, and he watched as his palms grew larger and coarser.
Ron underwent the same painful process. Soon, two tall, burly figures with hairstyles like coconut shells—"Goyle" and "Crabbe"—appeared in the bathroom.
"Hermione? How are you doing?" Harry spoke, but what came out was Goyle's low, raspy voice.
One of the stall doors was tightly locked. Hermione's painful groans came from within, but she refused to come out.
"Hermione, we're out of time!" Ron urged anxiously.
"You guys go first... I... I think something's gone wrong..." Hermione's voice sounded strange, heavy with tears and despair.
Harry and Ron exchanged a look and decided to leave first.
After they left, silence returned to the bathroom. Lia crawled out of Hermione's robe pocket, transformed back into her Cat-girl form, and walked to the locked stall door. She could feel Hermione's frustration, panic, and an... overwhelming sense of shame.
"Hermione?" she whispered.
There was no response, only muffled, shallow sobs.
Lia tilted her head, her body shrinking once more in a shimmer of light, turning into a Ragdoll Cat.
She easily squeezed through the narrow gap under the door.
Then, she was stunned.
Sitting on the floor of the stall was a "monster." The "monster" wore a Hogwarts uniform, but her face... was not Hermione's face at all.
That face was covered in soft brown fur, her eyes had turned yellow with the vertical pupils characteristic of Felines, and several long, slightly trembling whiskers had grown above her mouth.
Most prominent were the pointed, furry cat ears sprouting from her bushy brown hair! Those ears were pinned back uneasily, showing the owner's extreme embarrassment and fear.
Hermione heard the movement, looked up, and saw Lia who had squeezed in.
Her yellow eyes instantly filled with tears, looking incredibly aggrieved.
She instinctively tried to cover her face with her hands, but felt only fur, which made her break down further, large tears rolling down.
Lia stared blankly at Hermione's new appearance. She didn't feel afraid, nor did she find it funny.
She just tilted her head, her sapphire-blue eyes showing a hint of pure confusion and an... indescribable sense of kinship.
The same ears.
The same form.
We... are the same now?
This thought flashed through Lia's mind.
She walked with an elegant Feline gait, lightly jumping onto the sink and leaning in toward Hermione.
Then, under Hermione's stunned gaze, Lia used her own furry cheek to gently and tenderly rub against Hermione's equally furry cheek.
The sensation was soft and warm.
"Purr... purr..."
A satisfied and soothing purr came from her throat, as if she were expressing the most direct welcome and acceptance to a bewildered fellow creature who had just joined the pack. Her tail also curled up, gently hooking around Hermione's trembling wrist.
We are the same now.
Don't be afraid.
Hermione felt the soft touch on her cheek, heard the familiar purring that seemed to soothe all anxiety, looked at her own ridiculous half-human, half-cat appearance in the mirror, and then at Lia's serious "we are the same kind" expression.
Shame, annoyance, helplessness, and a hint of absurd warmth—all sorts of emotions intertwined.
Those newly grown cat ears twitched uncontrollably because of Lia's proximity, and then slowly, very slowly, they perked up.
Finally, she could only let out a long sigh, reaching out with her hands that had grown some downy fur to tightly hug Lia, who was rubbing against her, burying her face deep into Lia's warm neck.
"Oh, Merlin..."
Her voice sounded muffled, filled with a despair that was both tearful and laughing.
"How could I have gotten a cat hair!"
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