That little heater that was always warm, for the first time, felt bone-chillingly cold.
"Lia..."
She lowered her head, nuzzling the unresponsive fur with her cheek. Tears fell, soaking a small dark wet patch on the pure white fur like stains on snow.
"I'm sorry..." broken whispers escaped from her throat.
Just then, a flame ignited silently at the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets, and Albus Dumbledore stepped out from it.
He saw the tragedy in the room at a glance: the unconscious Harry, the pile of ashes, and... Hermione holding the white cat, her soul seemingly drained.
"Hermione..." Dumbledore approached, his voice heavy with grief.
Hermione slowly looked up, her face streaked with tears.
"She's dead, Professor." Her voice was so dry she could barely make a sound. "Lia... she took the Killing Curse for me."
Dumbledore looked at the cat, his blue eyes showing pity and grief.
Before his words of comfort could be spoken.
"Crack."
A tiny, crisp snapping sound.
In the silent stone room, the sound was clear enough to make one's scalp tingle.
Hermione's crying stopped abruptly.
She stiffly lowered her head, her gaze focusing on Lia in her arms.
The spine that had been broken by the Killing Curse—the pale bone fragments were moving on their own, making a grating sound as they slowly reconnected.
There was no blinding light.
An extreme cold erupted from within Lia, greedily snatching the surrounding heat. Hermione's arms felt a piercing chill; a visible layer of thin frost was rapidly condensing on her forearms!
Stiff limbs spasmed and stretched in reverse-jointed, puppet-like postures. The "crack-crack" of bones resetting continued.
Hermione's mind was blank; she seemed to "see" things that did not belong to this world.
Wisps of sickly green mist, invisible to mortals, were being forcibly stripped and parsed from Lia's soul by a brutal power!
The sickly green glow surrounding Lia was being turned into nourishment, greedily swallowed by the "repairing" body!
The vitality cleared by the curse was being violently snatched back into this shell!
All anomalies vanished instantly.
The white cat in Hermione's arms turned back into a young girl.
Lia's clouded, grayish-black eyes suddenly lit up with sky-blue again.
Deep within that pure blue was a faint, almost imperceptible ring of ghostly green light.
Deep, mysterious, and ominous.
*...So cold...*
*Green light... eaten...*
*Hermione's scent... so warm...*
"Meow..."
A weak, raspy cry that seemed to pierce through death.
Lia looked up and saw Hermione's tear-streaked face, a mix of shock, ecstasy, and deep fear.
"Her... mione?"
A soft call, just like usual.
Hermione's breath hitched.
Her vision narrowed until only those relit eyes remained.
The next second, she tightened her arms, pressing the lost-and-found treasure into her chest with all her strength.
"Thank goodness..." She stopped crying, only whispering in a hoarse, trembling voice in Lia's ear over and over.
"Lia... Lia..."
In a peak of emotional release, Hermione lowered her head and pressed a hot, trembling kiss onto the forehead still carrying tears and cold.
Dumbledore stood by, witnessing this scene that defied common sense and even desecrated the laws of life.
There was no relief on his face; behind the half-moon spectacles, his blue eyes were filled with unprecedented gravity and vigilance.
He looked at Lia, safe in Hermione's arms, then at Harry, unconscious on the ground after reflecting the Killing Curse with his mother's love.
One was a miracle bathed in the sacred protection of blood.
The other... Dumbledore's gaze locked onto the ghostly green ring fading deep in Lia's pupils.
She hadn't "resisted" the Killing Curse.
She had "endured" it, and then... "devoured" it.
The old man slowly knelt to check Harry's condition, but his entire focus was on the cat that had just finished "feeding."
Hogwarts had gained two "anomalies."
One was the savior of the prophecy.
One was a cat that could feed on death.
Fortunately, both were good children.
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