In an abandoned potion-making workshop in Knockturn Alley.
The air was thick with the acrid smell of moldy herbs mixed with cheap alcohol. A large, dry copper cauldron stood in the center of the room, surrounded by broken glass bottles and decaying wooden shelves.
"Cat" sat on an overturned wooden crate, meticulously wiping her handful of faintly glowing silver daggers with a rag stained with an unknown liquid. Her movements were focused and graceful, as if she were tending to precious art rather than cleaning deadly weapons.
The brute, "Tank," was a silent iron tower, arms crossed, leaning against the only relatively intact wall. His eyes were closed, seemingly dozing, but the slight twitching of his nostrils indicated he remained highly vigilant.
In the corner, the skinny man was fidgety and anxious. He continuously rubbed his hands, occasionally glancing up at the doorway, then greedily darting his eyes toward the bulging leather pouch at "Cat's" feet, which periodically rattled with the sound of metal colliding. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down, his eyes flashing with a complex mix of fear and greed.
Just then, the workshop's creaking, broken door was gently pushed open from the outside.
A figure slipped in—it was Jerry.
The effect of the Polyjuice Potion seemed to be wearing off; the outline of his adult body appeared blurry and unstable in the dim light. His expression carried a hint of fatigue, but his eyes were still sharp as a hawk's, quickly scanning everyone in the room.
"It seems you all made it out safely."
Jerry's voice was slightly hoarse. He walked to the large cauldron, tucking his stick-like wand back into his sleeve.
Upon seeing Jerry, the skinny man immediately felt both reassured and terrified. He licked his chapped lips and asked eagerly, "Boss... what... what happened out there? Those Aurors..."
"Dealt with."
Jerry's answer was simple and cold, as if he had merely crushed an ant. He offered no further explanation, only looking toward the leather pouch at "Cat's" feet.
"Cat" stopped wiping her knives at that moment. She slowly lifted her head, her eyes, placid as an ancient well, silently watching Jerry.
The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.
"Bring the goods out," Jerry said. "As we agreed, let's tally it up and split the haul."
The skinny man's eyes lit up instantly at the word "haul." He impatiently stood up, reaching for the leather pouch.
However, "Cat" extended a leg, lightly but effectively blocking his path.
"Not so fast," she finally spoke, her voice husky and cool. "Before we split the money, I think we should discuss something else first."
Jerry raised an eyebrow slightly. "What?"
"The plan," "Cat" smoothly slid the silver dagger back into the sheath at her waist. "Your plan had a glitch. You didn't mention that the bank's alarm would directly summon Ministry Aurors."
The brute, who had been resting his eyes, now slowly opened them. A cold glint flashed in his seemingly dull eyes.
The skinny man's face went white again at "Cat's" words. He remembered the soul-shattering terror of being chased by Aurors moments ago. Suspicion and fear crept into his gaze toward Jerry.
"Just an unexpected complication," Jerry's expression remained unchanged. "Any plan can have complications. What matters is the result. We got the money, didn't we?"
"The result?" "Cat" sneered. "The result is that we were nearly cornered in that alley. If you hadn't pulled through at the end, we'd probably be on our way to Azkaban, waiting for a Dementor's Kiss."
Her implication was clear: Your plan failed, almost costing us our lives. Though you salvaged the situation, it doesn't erase your fault.
Jerry was silent for a moment. He knew this kind of negotiation was inevitable before the division of spoils. He slowly walked to the other side of the large cauldron, facing "Cat" squarely.
"Sixty-forty split. Sixty for me, forty for the rest of you. That was our agreement."
"Sixty percent?" The skinny man nearly shrieked; his greed momentarily overpowered his fear. "Boss, that's... that's too much, isn't it? We risked our lives too!"
Jerry didn't spare him a glance, his focus remaining entirely on "Cat." He knew she was the one truly in charge here.
"Cat" stood up. Her small frame seemed to harbor a suffocating pressure.
"Sixty percent was your payment for formulating the plan and providing the intelligence. But now, your plan failed, and your intelligence nearly killed us."
She slowly paced, like an elegant, deadly wildcat. "So, I think we should renegotiate the proportion. Say... fifty-fifty. Half for you, and we three split the other half. Or, we three split it, and you just..."
At her words, "Tank" grinned cruelly and took a step forward, his immense shadow instantly enveloping Jerry. His massive, fan-like hand slowly lifted, knuckles cracking, seemingly ready to crush Jerry's head like a walnut the next second.
However, to everyone's surprise, the brute's devastating punch did not smash toward Jerry! His body twisted abruptly at the last moment, and the fist, powerful enough to shatter rock, slammed into the skinny man standing behind him, who was watching the scene eagerly!
"PUFF!"
It was a sickening, muffled sound of flesh and bone shattering together! The greed and schadenfreude instantly froze on the skinny man's face. He didn't even have time to scream. His small head was punched backward by the brute, resting at a bizarre, impossible angle. Blood and brain matter erupted from his orifices. His body crumpled limply, like a broken ragdoll from which all bones had been removed.
The brute, having successfully struck, wore an even more savage grin. In his view, eliminating the most useless and untrustworthy skinny man first meant more money for him.
But this sudden, bloody turn of events was like a bomb dropped into a placid lake, instantly igniting the fuse of "betrayal" in everyone present!
In the fraction of a second before the skinny man's body collapsed and his life completely extinguished, his last remaining consciousness was filled with boundless malice! He used the last of his strength to pull a slender, poisoned dagger from his pocket, viciously stabbing it toward Jerry's nearest calf!
"CLINK!"
The tip of the dagger was stopped a half-inch from Jerry's calf by a suddenly appearing, almost invisible magical barrier! Sparks flew. The skinny man's wrist went limp from the shock, and the dagger clattered to the floor. His already fading pupils were filled with resentment and despair before they completely glazed over.
All this happened in a flash!
Though Jerry blocked the skinny man's dying counterattack, he was distracted for a tenth of a second by the sudden turn of events. And for "Cat," a tenth of a second was enough!
She moved! Her target was not the treacherous brute, but Jerry, the biggest threat in the room!
Her figure was like a ghost. A faintly glowing silver dagger, which had appeared in her hand, sliced through the air in a cunning arc, stabbing straight for Jerry's throat!
But she was fast, and Jerry was faster!
The moment "Cat" attacked, Jerry moved too! As if he had eyes in the back of his head, he didn't turn around. The jewelry and ornaments on his left arm, charged with stored magic, flared brilliantly!
"Reducto!"
This time, Jerry didn't even use his wand! He merely swung his hand backward, and a thick, horrifying pale white beam of light, like a breaking dam, erupted from his palm, slamming into the attacking "Cat" with a completely unreasonable, devastating force!
At the same time, the instant "Cat" thrust her dagger, her other hand, which had been tucked into a sheath, also moved! Her target was the brute who had just "cleared out" the skinny man for her! She flicked her wrist, and three needles as thin as hair, tipped with dark green poison, shot out silently, like three black bolts of lightning, aimed for the brute's back!
In an instant, the small workshop was a nexus of murder! Betrayal and counter-betrayal, sneak attack and counter-sneak attack, interwove into a symphony of death!
"BOOM!"
Jerry's critical-hit Reducto struck "Cat" squarely! No matter how elusive "Cat's" footwork was, she couldn't escape unscathed from this near-zero-distance, blanket magical assault! She only managed a short, muffled grunt before her entire body was ripped apart and pulverized by the savage magic, turning into a cloud of blood mist, leaving no complete corpse behind.
On the other side, the three poisoned, hair-thin needles accurately buried themselves into the brute's back.
The savage grin on the brute's face froze. He looked down incredulously at his chest, where three tiny black spots were rapidly expanding. Dark green poison spread beneath his skin like vines. He opened his mouth, trying to say something, but only managed a gasping, wheezing sound like a leaking bellows before his massive body crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The chaos came and went quickly. In just a few short seconds, Jerry was the only living person left in the room.
The air was thick with the stench of blood, burnt magic, and... the sickening metallic smell of money.
Jerry stood in the center of the three corpses, his face devoid of emotion. He slowly walked up to the leather pouch filled with Galleons, and was about to bend down to pick it up.
Suddenly, a sharp, body-shredding pain surged through his limbs!
"Ugh!"
Jerry let out an involuntary groan of pain, dropping violently to his knees, his body convulsing! He could feel his bones shrinking and diminishing at an alarming rate! His muscles were atrophying, his skin becoming taut and smooth! His adult face, like melting wax, rapidly dissolved and reformed!
The effect of the Polyjuice Potion... had worn off at the most inopportune moment!
After a mere ten seconds, the violent transformation finally stopped. The once tall, cold-eyed adult wizard was gone. In his place was a boy, appearing to be about eleven years old, dressed in a completely ill-fitting, oversized wizard's robe. His face was pale, his lips bloodless from the pain, and a trace of residual agony remained on his still-childish features. Only his eyes remained icy, sharp, a stark contrast to his current harmless, childlike appearance.
Jerry had reverted to his true form.
Just as Jerry, kneeling from the physical change, was at his most mentally vulnerable, a husky, cool female voice, tinged with a playful quality, drifted eerily from the deepest shadows of the workshop.
"Heh heh... Well, that's a sight. So our 'Boss' is just a 'kid,' is he?"
Jerry's pupils fiercely contracted! He didn't even have time to be shocked by his body's transformation. Almost instinctively, he swung his hand violently toward the direction of the voice!
"Stupefy!"
A dazzling blue orb of light, charged with savage magic, instantly slammed into the darkness!
"BOOM!"
The dilapidated wooden shelves were instantly shattered, splinters flying everywhere! However, the now-illuminated darkness was empty!
"Quick reaction, I'll give you that."
The voice sounded like a ghost, coming from his left!
Jerry's face changed. Without thinking, he rolled on the ground!
The instant he rolled away, three gleaming silver blades, silent as snake fangs, stabbed into the spot where he had been kneeling, burying themselves deep into the floorboards!
As the dust settled, the "Cat," who should have been reduced to a blood mist, stood unharmed on top of the large copper cauldron. Her posture was still lithe, but now she was juggling two strange, curved short blades that had not been visible before. Her eyes, usually placid as an old well, now held a cold, palpable murderous intent for the first time.
"You're not dead?" Jerry's young voice was sharp with astonishment.
"A cat has nine lives. You merely killed my first one."
"Cat" chuckled, and her figure vanished from the cauldron!
The next second, she reappeared right in front of Jerry! The two curved short blades traced two deadly silver trajectories, one high, one low, slicing toward Jerry's throat and heart respectively!
Too fast! Jerry's current body couldn't possibly keep up with this speed of close-quarters combat! He could only rely on his combat instinct, pushing the magic from the jewelry on his left arm to the extreme. A thick, golden magical shield instantly materialized in front of him!
"CLANG! CLANG!"
Two sharp sounds of metal hitting metal rang out! "Cat's" blades were firmly blocked by the golden shield! However, a massive force was transferred through the shield to Jerry's young body, making his internal organs churn. He stumbled backward several steps, nearly collapsing onto the floor!
"Your magic is strong, but your body is too weak."
"Cat's" voice, like a lover's whisper, was filled with deadly peril. She didn't press the attack, instead circling Jerry at high speed like a ghost, searching for the defensive openings that his smaller body had created.
Jerry knew he absolutely could not let her engage him in close combat!
"Impedimenta! AWAY!"
He roared, shockingly throwing the golden shield directly at "Cat!"
"Cat's" figure floated backward like a phantom, easily evading the shield's impact. But in that brief moment, Jerry widened the distance between them. The stick-like wand, which had been tucked into his sleeve, was finally back in his hand!
"Fiendfyre!"
A vicious, magically constructed fire serpent roared and erupted from the tip of Jerry's wand, rushing toward "Cat" with scorching heat!
"Cat's" brow furrowed for the first time. She clearly hadn't expected a boy who looked no older than eleven to cast such a sophisticated piece of Dark Magic! She dared not take it head-on, retreating rapidly to evade the serpent's chase.
Now!
A cold light flashed in Jerry's eyes. This was the opening he wanted!
He lunged forward, putting his wand away, and shockingly abandoned magic, charging toward "Cat," who was evading the fire serpent, with a burst of power completely unfitting for his child's body!
"Cat" was clearly surprised that Jerry would suddenly abandon his greatest advantage and choose close-quarters physical combat with his weakest form! A flash of astonishment crossed her eyes!
And Jerry seized that surprise!
"Engorgement Charm!"
His small body, moving at an impossible angle, slammed into "Cat's" embrace! Then, giving "Cat" no chance to react, he flexed his arms, wrapping them tightly around her soft, elastic waist, and violently slammed her entire body against the cold, hard wall!
"THUD!"
"Cat" let out a muffled groan. The violent impact of her back against the wall knocked the wind out of her, and the two short blades clattered to the floor!
Jerry pressed his advantage! He used his small head to forcibly press against "Cat's" soft chest, preventing her from gathering strength. At the same time, he extended his hands, gripping her wrists like iron clamps, forcing them high above her head and pinning them against the wall!
A boy who looked at most eleven years old was "wall-pinning" a nimble adult witch in a position of absolute dominance! The scene was utterly absurd and bizarre!
"You..." "Cat" started to curse.
But Jerry abruptly raised his head. His youthful face, still showing traces of baby fat, was now etched with a near-insane intensity completely at odds with his age! He didn't speak. Instead, he used the most direct, most savage method to silence her—by pressing his mouth against hers!