Chapter 452 - 3: Took a Bite

Chapter 452: Chapter 3: Took a Bite

Professor McGonagall’s office—the scene of the first case in which Bad Cat Yimi assaulted Elder Cat.

After asking Ginny a few simple questions, McGonagall let her go. Keeping Yimi here did not require much interrogation either.

Not only did Elder Cat fail to punish Yimi for her bad behavior, she even gave Yimi a children’s book from the wizarding world.

Yimi held the book and sniffed it carefully. Then she experimentally opened her mouth and actually gnawed a corner off the book, despite it being two fingers thick.

Sure enough, she did not feel herself being edified by knowledge in the slightest.

"Galloping Gorgons! I should have realized you must be starving." McGonagall reached over and tried to pry Yimi’s mouth open, but anything Yimi had already swallowed was not coming back out.

"Sorry," Yimi suddenly apologized.

"And what exactly are you apologizing for?" McGonagall asked, already knowing the answer.

Yimi poked her index fingers together. "Earlier, I smacked your head."

Elder Cat had not only refrained from blaming the kitty, she had even given the kitty a book.

"It seems our Miss Yimi is not entirely heartless. In that case, I imagine she will be happy to explain to the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts why she appeared here in the form of a cat." McGonagall looked at her sternly.

"This is a school?" The kitty’s ears perked back up, and her eyes shone.

"I believe it is. Where else did you think you were?" McGonagall was surprised again. She could hardly imagine someone appearing inside Hogwarts without knowing it was Hogwarts. Apparition was not even possible here.

"Then, can I study here?"

"I think you will have to wait until you are older. You still have not answered my question, and your answer will determine whether I can allow you to stay and enjoy a generous dinner." McGonagall tapped Yimi’s witch hat with one finger. Her tone was very stern, though to be fair, she sounded stern most of the time.

Yimi did not even need McGonagall to repeat the question. She simply recited the usual formula. "I came to study. After studying, I’ll write a magic book, or become the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Then I can see Mama and Grandma. They’re in another world."

"..."

McGonagall sorted through those words, then once again used that mature, serious form of address. "Miss Yimi, what I asked was how you appeared here. It sounds as though an adult is directing you, correct? Is that person also the one who taught you to become an Animagus?"

"Armani-gus?" Yimi repeated in confusion.

"The person who taught you how to turn into a cat." McGonagall could scarcely imagine it. This girl was still so young—how small had she been when she learned the magic?

The side effects were obvious. The animal form of an Animagus was generally related to the person’s personality and body weight. A tiny girl had turned into a round little cat. Clearly, the signs that the magic had gone wrong went beyond just the cat ears.

What sort of intentions did someone have to teach such dangerous magic to a child? The thought made anger rise in McGonagall’s chest.

Yimi was a little baffled by her explanation. The kitty was clearly the one turning into a human, so how had it somehow become a human turning into a cat?

But Elder Cat had gotten one thing right. The one who sent Yimi here and the one who taught her to freely switch between human and cat were the same.

"The System," Yimi answered honestly.

"The System? Is that his name? Is ’he’ male or female?" McGonagall pressed both hands to Yimi’s shoulders and questioned her closely.

"Mm... don’t know." Yimi shook her head.

"You don’t know? You don’t know what he looks like? Do you know where he is?" McGonagall continued.

"Don’t know." Yimi looked increasingly puzzled. This process seemed to be taking much longer than usual.

"..."

Looking at the child’s cheerful little face, McGonagall could only assume Yimi did not even realize she had been tricked into learning something dangerous or what side effects she had taken on.

Professor McGonagall was about to ask more questions when an older student came running over in a panic and interrupted her. "Professor, you have to come see this! The Weasley twins..."

Noticing someone else was present, he awkwardly cut himself off, but once the names were mentioned, the meaning was clear enough.

McGonagall frowned slightly. She told Yimi, "Stay here and behave," then left with her wand in hand, all while wondering what sort of scumbag she could connect with the word "System."

"Reminder to Host: Please avoid exposing the System’s existence whenever possible." The System, which had never said a word when Yimi blabbed about it in the past, suddenly surfaced to defend its reputation.

Yimi sat in the chair, swinging her little legs that could not reach the floor, and flipped through the children’s book Professor McGonagall had given her.

Most of the worlds she had visited in the past used Japanese. Yimi’s English was still only at the average level of a seven-year-old, but children’s books did not contain too many difficult words.

She really did sit there obediently for quite a while, waiting for McGonagall to return and continue the "human adoption ceremony," but the wait became a little too long.

Not even finishing the routine. How halfhearted.

Yimi walked out holding the children’s book. It was not that her storage space was so full that a single book would not fit. Rather, she had seen older students carrying books this way in the previous world and felt that it made her look especially learned.

Once she reached the corridor, she realized she had no idea where Elder Cat had gone. Yimi had no choice but to put the book back into her storage space, transform into a cat, and follow scents instead.

With her sharper sense of smell, she faintly detected a strange odor. It was not exactly unpleasant, but it was not fragrant either. She had barely noticed it when she was a cat earlier. After hesitating, Yimi ran toward that smell first.

...

The library. Classes had already ended.

First-years normally did not wander into the library without a reason; after class, they usually headed straight to their common rooms. Ginny, however, was in something resembling an online relationship and did not want her roommates disturbing her, so she had come here alone.

She stared dreamily at the notebook in her hand and wrote a line. The ink quickly disappeared into the page as though sinking into the sea, and then a line in handwriting that did not belong to her appeared in its place.

This notebook was the source of the strange smell Yimi had noticed. She trotted over and lightly patted Ginny’s foot with one paw. "What are you looking at?"

Ginny ignored Yimi.

"Mm?" Feeling that something was wrong, Yimi immediately used Love Train on Ginny.

Some clarity returned to Ginny’s eyes. She jumped to her feet in shock and looked down at the cat she had met before.

Yimi jumped onto the table, drawing a few people’s attention, but she ignored them and pointed at the little notebook in Ginny’s hand. "What is that?"

"Nothing. Th-This is a book from the library." Aware that something about her condition just now had been wrong, Ginny suddenly felt frightened of the diary in her hands.

After a fierce struggle with herself, she shoved the notebook between two random books on a library shelf, clutched her head, and hurried away in a daze.

"Meow?" Yimi watched her go until Ginny disappeared from view.

Then, right in front of the other students in the library, she transformed into human form. Now that she knew this world had big-big cats, Yimi had no reservations about doing it.

She stood on tiptoe and reached up, then used psychokinesis to pull the notebook into her hands and opened it.

The memories belonging to Tom Riddle inside the diary—memories of the young Voldemort—felt a little irritated. He knew the person holding the notebook had changed.

He had almost managed to manipulate that boring little girl into strangling Hagrid’s roosters. Roosters were the basilisk’s natural enemy. Now, for no apparent reason, his control had suddenly broken, and he would have to start deceiving someone else from the beginning.

Yimi flipped through two pages without writing a single word. Tom knew that was perfectly natural. Nobody picked up a new notebook and immediately started writing in it.

Then Yimi took a bite out of the notebook.