Chapter 107: Striking the Dog Without Considering the Master
The Halloween feast was in full swing, and the Great Hall of Hogwarts rang with laughter and cheer.
Hundreds of bats fluttered beneath the storm clouds gathered across the enchanted ceiling, while enormous pumpkins carved into all sorts of ridiculous faces glowed with eerie light from within.
Tamara sat at the Slytherin table, elegantly cutting the steak on her plate.
Thanks to that absurd inter house Room of Requirement tutoring session a few days ago, her reputation at Hogwarts had reached an unprecedented height.
At the nearby Gryffindor table, Harry, Hermione, and Ron looked at her with undisguised admiration. Even the Hufflepuffs, usually timid as mice, would blush and greet her first whenever they met her in the corridors.
At the high table, Albus Dumbledore occasionally cast her a gratified, affectionate look through his half moon spectacles.
Everything was proceeding according to the most perfect script for her disguise.
Tamara picked up her goblet and took a light sip of chilled pumpkin juice.
Just then, a faint, cold, blood soaked hiss pierced through the clamor of the Great Hall and reached her ears with startling clarity.
"...Rip... I want to rip... Hungry for so long... The time for slaughter has come..."
Tamara's fingers paused slightly around the goblet.
Then, hidden behind the rim, her lips curled into a spine chilling sneer.
Of course she knew exactly what it was.
Judging by the direction of the sound, it should be slithering through the walls of the second floor corridor right now.
"Go on, my lovely little pet."
Tamara savored the coming panic in the comfort of her own mind.
"Go and let these fools, so comfortable they are practically going mouldy, taste the shock of the Dark Arts."
After the feast, the crowd poured out of the Great Hall like a tide and surged up the marble staircase.
However, when the students reached the second floor corridor, all chatter was cut off as if an invisible hand had seized their throats.
In its place came a deathly silence.
Tamara unhurriedly pushed through the stiff crowd to the very front.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood frozen in the middle of the corridor, their faces pale.
On the wall before them, two lines of bloody letters, each nearly a foot high, glowed with an eerie red light.
The Chamber of Secrets has been opened.
Enemies of the heir, beware.
Tamara looked at the arrogant handwriting, and a flicker of mockery crossed her eyes.
Her sixteen year old soul fragment's style truly was disgustingly flamboyant.
Following Harry's horrified gaze, Tamara slowly looked up.
A cruel smile hid in the depths of her eyes as she prepared to enjoy the sight of whatever poor, unfortunate soul had received the honor of becoming her little pet's first sacrifice.
However.
When Tamara's gaze actually fell on the animal hanging upside down, its body stiff as stone, the sneer on her face froze.
It was not Mrs Norris.
It was a slender cat with pure black fur and a patch of white on its belly.
Though it had been petrified, a very familiar madness still lingered in those cat eyes staring fixedly ahead.
That was her cat.
The black cat that lay so obediently at her feet every night, the one she had casually named Nagini.
A suffocating, icy killing intent erupted from Tamara's body in that instant, almost tangible.
The temperature of the surrounding air seemed to plunge to freezing point beneath that extreme malice.
This was not merely about a cat.
In the Dark Lord's dictionary, anything branded as belonging to Tamara Riddle, even a mere stone, was absolutely untouchable.
And now, that fool in the diary, with only sixteen years of memories, had dared use her Basilisk to attack her pet, then hang it here as a display before the whole school.
This was striking the dog without considering the master.
This was the vilest and most unforgivable violation of the main soul's absolute authority.
"...I am going to throw you and that wretched diary into Fiendfyre and burn you both to ash."
Tamara gripped her wand so tightly her knuckles turned white. In her extreme fury, she did not even pause to consider why the cat had come to the second floor in the first place.
[Ding! Extremely malicious event detected! The host has suffered the tragic loss of a beloved pet!]
The system's haunting notification sounded in her mind at the worst possible moment.
[What a cruel killer! To ruthlessly murder a defenseless little kitten!]
[As the purest and softest hearted light of Hogwarts, please immediately shed tears of grief for your murdered kitten in front of all the teachers and students! Then publicly swear to find the true culprit and seek justice for the little animal!]
[Quest Reward: Life +2]
Tamara's vision went dark. The rage surging in her chest nearly caused internal injury.
Shed tears?
Make her wail in public over a petrified cat?
[Penalty: If you refuse to comply, the system will automatically take over your vocal cords to sing a poignant and mournful rendition of "Where Has the Kitty Gone," accompanied by three minutes of pounding the ground in grief.]
[Countdown: 3, 2...]
"You... just you wait."
Tamara spat the words through gritted teeth in her mind.
The next second, she forced the overwhelming killing intent and rage back into her eyes, physically turning them into a stinging bitterness.
Under the shocked gazes of hundreds of students from across the school, the deep black eyes of Hogwarts' ever aloof, ever cold, and powerful Slytherin actually filled with mist.
"Nagini..."
Tamara's voice trembled slightly, carrying a heartbreaking sorrow.
Ignoring the water on the floor around her, she stepped quickly to the torch bracket and gently gathered the petrified black cat into her arms.
"Tamara..."
Everyone around her saw the crystal tear slide from the corner of Tamara's eye, and their hearts felt as though they had been squeezed by an invisible hand.
Harry immediately stepped forward, explaining anxiously and incoherently, "It wasn't us! Tamara, believe me, we only just got here, and it was already..."
"Get lost, Potter!"
With a furious roar, Draco shoved through the crowd and squeezed in.
When he saw the petrified black cat and the rare trace of vulnerability at the corner of Tamara's eyes, the habitually arrogant Slytherin heir turned livid with rage.
"Who did this? How dare they attack Riddle's pet!"
Draco whipped out his wand, standing before Tamara like a loyal knight, and glared fiercely at Harry's trio.
"This is a declaration of war against all of Slytherin!"
Immediately afterward, Pansy, Zabini, and a large group of Slytherin students surged forward.
They spontaneously formed a semicircle, shielding Tamara like an indestructible wall, and glared at everyone around them with shared indignation.
Harry was pushed aside. He frowned, gripping his wand tightly.
The Slytherins in front of him had shut him out without mercy.
Harry watched coldly as Draco shouted like a protective rooster and Pansy offered a useless handkerchief. A strong sense of resentment and frustration welled up in his heart.
He hated this feeling of being forcibly separated from her just because of the colour of their robes.
What angered him even more was that these Slytherins, who were now fussing over Tamara, had no idea what had actually happened here.
They could not hear the bone chilling voice in the walls. They could not understand the pain Tamara endured from being tormented by the trauma of the Dark Arts.
"Only I know..."
Harry gritted his teeth, and a spark of stubbornness lit his green eyes.
Handkerchiefs and empty denunciations would not solve anything.
These Slytherins, who only knew how to make a show of loyalty, could not help her.
Since Tamara had sworn to find the coward hiding in the shadows, he would uncover the truth for her.
He would prove through his actions that, compared to these young lords and ladies who were all talk, he, Harry Potter, was the one who truly understood her and could fight beside her in the darkness.
While the Slytherins were still glaring at Harry, Tamara's muffled voice came from the centre of the crowd.
"I know it wasn't you, Potter."
Tamara buried her face in the black cat's stiff fur, using it to hide the feral killing intent in her eyes.
Then she looked up, her eyes red as she scanned the surroundings.
"This is an extremely evil form of the Dark Arts."
Tamara's voice was tearful, yet firm and clear.
"I swear."
She stared fixedly at the bloody words on the wall, enunciating every word.
"No matter who this coward hiding in the shadows is, no matter what his purpose may be, I will personally drag him out and make him pay for this cruelty."
As soon as she finished speaking, hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor.
Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Snape, and several other Professors pushed through the crowd and arrived at the scene.
Dumbledore's gaze swept over the bloody words on the wall before finally landing on Tamara, who was holding the black cat with red rimmed eyes.
A flash of deep shock and pity crossed the old Headmaster's bright blue eyes.
If it had been the Tom of those years, he would never have shed such genuine tears for a cat.
"Oh, you poor child..." Dumbledore sighed softly.
Snape, meanwhile, drew his wand at once and stood in front of Tamara, his dark gaze sweeping across the room like a venomous snake.
"Who was it?" Snape growled through gritted teeth. "Who attacked Miss Riddle's pet?"
While the entire corridor fell silent beneath Snape's oppressive aura, the crisp notification of quest completion rang in Tamara's mind.
[Ding! An absolutely perfect tragic performance! Your tears have awakened everyone's sympathy for a weak life!]
[Quest reward issued: Life +2. Current Life: 21]
[Congratulations, host! Your Life attribute has officially broken through the 20 point mark!]
[Unlocked high level life side White magic: Vulnera Sanentur.]
[Skill Description: Able to heal torn wounds and reunite lost life force. It is a beautiful elegy praising life! Please use it to save more people!]
Feeling the magic circuit in her mind, so pure with healing aura, Tamara felt her vision darken.
A healing spell.
An elegy praising life.
She had spent most of her life exhausting her mind on how to kill cruelly and efficiently.
For a Dark Lord who always placed survival first, she certainly did not mind gaining another top tier trump card for self preservation.
But the system's disgusting rhetoric, forcing a saintly halo upon her and compelling her to radiate some ridiculous light of humanity, truly made her feel physically nauseated.
Tamara held the stiff Nagini tightly in her arms, her nails almost digging into the petrified fur.
"My sixteen year old self."
She swore in her heart, her tone cold and vicious enough to be a curse.
"You had better pray you stay hidden in the sewers like a rat forever."
"Because on the day I drag you out, I will crush that ridiculous arrogance of yours bit by bit and erase your consciousness from this world completely."
Tamara slowly raised her head, her dark eyes still misty as they swept over the terrified crowd in the corridor, sharpness hidden beneath sorrow.
Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw...
No.
The red haired girl who always clutched a tattered black diary and had been dazed lately was nowhere to be seen in the crowd.
Tamara lowered her eyelids, perfectly concealing the coldness in her eyes within her grief.
"It seems I will have to find some time soon to have a... nice talk with that little red haired mouse holding the diary."
.....
[Check Out My Patreon For Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/Eldryx]