"Good heavens!"
Professor McGonagall's cry pierced the dead silence of the corridor, carrying a hint of irrepressible trembling.
She had discovered this scene, more horrific than any nightmare, during her routine patrol.
The two cold "stone statues" were quickly sent to the Hospital Wing.
Madam Pomfrey held her magic wand, the light of her diagnostic spell sweeping over Hermione.
"It's petrification, just like the previous victims; her soul is imprisoned," she breathed a sigh of relief. "As soon as the Mandrakes are mature, she can be cured."
Her magic wand then pointed at Lia, and everyone's hearts leaped into their throats.
The light swept over Lia, but it was like a stone sinking into the ocean, with no reaction at all.
Madam Pomfrey's face turned pale; she reached out to check Lia's breath, then tremblingly felt for her carotid artery.
No breath, no heartbeat. Her body was like a piece of marble just hauled from the polar ice seas, cold and hard without a trace of life's warmth.
"She's dead, Albus."
Madam Pomfrey withdrew her hand with regret and shook her head at Dumbledore, who had hurried over, her voice full of sorrow.
This wasn't petrification; this was absolute death, life completely stripped away by magic.
Dumbledore walked to the bedside. Behind his half-moon spectacles, those all-seeing blue eyes were filled with an unprecedented gravity.
He looked at Lia's lifeless "statue," her pale little face still bearing the vigilance and determination of her final moment facing danger.
He thought again of that other body, equally cold after being struck by the Killing Curse.
"Wait and see, Poppy," Dumbledore said, his voice calm but carrying an unyielding insistence. "Put her... right next to Miss Granger. They shouldn't be separated."
Although Madam Pomfrey was utterly confused, she did as instructed.
Thus, in a corner of the Hospital Wing, a sight appeared that would break the heart of any visitor: a petrified girl's statue and a Cat-girl's cold corpse lying side by side on white hospital beds, like a sorrowful farewell.
Time passed.
Hermione's consciousness was imprisoned in a thick, immobile darkness.
She knew she was alive, but her body didn't belong to her; she couldn't even blink. She felt as though she had fallen into a nightmare from which she couldn't wake, only able to vaguely "feel" Lia through that unique bond deep within her soul.
She felt a massive, evil magic strike, and then she felt Lia like a wall, standing before her soul, bearing the vast majority of that devastating impact for her. She felt Lia's presence... vanish.
"No! Lia!"
She screamed silently within the prison of her soul, but could make no sound.
Just then, upon the hospital bed, Lia's long-cold "statue" suddenly began to emit a soft, milky-white glow.
"Dumbledore! Look!" Professor McGonagall whispered in an excited gasp, her fingers tightly clutching her robes.
Under the shocked gazes of Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey, the stony grey color symbolizing death began to recede from Lia's fingertips, like snow melting in the sun. Life energy gathered within her body once more like a trickling stream.
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