The underground passage leading from the dungeons remained as inhospitable as ever. The temperature differential between the cold dungeons and the warmer upper levels created tiny droplets, making the corridor glisten as though the castle itself were sweaty.
Yet despite the physical discomfort of padding through this miserable environment, Tom's heart blazed with warmth, and was practically purring with contentment.
Not only had he escaped punishment after being summoned to Snape's office but he'd actually walked away with tangible rewards. Complete exemption from all Potions homework for the foreseeable future!
The privilege was so unprecedented, so utterly unheard-of for a non-Slytherin, that Tom half-suspected he'd hallucinated the entire conversation.
More importantly, that "wealthy benefactor" Snape, probable millionaire from his prestigious brewing commissions had agreed to finance Tom's entire shopping list!
True, Snape had emphasized that "all purchases must directly relate to Ariana's resurrection."
But here was the beautiful loophole: what precisely constituted "essential for resurrection" and what didn't? Who would make that determination?
Why, Tom himself, naturally.
After all, one could argue that anything might prove essential to such an unprecedented magical task.
'I could probably request a small dragon and claim it's essential for guarding resurrection materials,' Tom thought with immense satisfaction. 'Though that might be pushing my luck...'
Anyone blessed with such extraordinary good fortune would be delighted enough to have their tail standing straight up and Tom's tail was doing exactly that, swishing back and forth with glee as he trotted through the corridor.
However, the moment Tom padded through the entrance into the Great Hall, his euphoria vanished.
Because he'd spotted Ariana. And beside the ghost girl sat another girl. A very much physical, living girl with a wild mass of bushy brown curls. Prominent front teeth caught the candlelight as she spoke rapidly.
Tom's whiskers drooped.
'Oh no.'
This was none other than one-third of canon's legendary Golden Trio—the girl who would eventually be dubbed by countless readers (with varying degrees of affection and exasperation) as "the future Minister of Magic and her two somewhat useless accessories."
Hermione Jean Granger herself.
Hermione Jean Granger herself.
To be absolutely fair, Tom harbored no particular animosity toward the girl.
In Rowling's notes and interviews, she had described his owner Luna Lovegood as "Hermione's opposite in every way."
Hermione was logic, Luna was intuition.
Hermione was rigid structure, Luna was flowing creativity.
Hermione collected facts, Luna collected possibilities.
But that characterization was ultimately just authorial commentary, external analysis that didn't necessarily reflect the lived reality of character relationships.
Within the actual story of canon, Hermione and Luna's dynamic hadn't been bad.
No, Tom's current unease had nothing to do with any potential conflict between Hermione and Luna.
What truly soured his mood, transforming his triumph over Snape into ashes of anxiety, was the singular reason for Hermione's presence beside Ariana right now.
There was only one logical explanation for why these two specific girls from the vast population of Hogwarts students would be sitting together, clearly already on friendly terms after barely a day of school.
'That manipulative old schemer Dumbledore!' Tom's mental voice practically spat the words. 'Is he seriously calculating even his own sister into his grand designs?!'
In Tom's view, this was the only explanation.
Hermione's personality, especially during these early Hogwarts years, before experience and friendship sanded down her rougher edges wasn't particularly conducive to easy social bonding.
She was brilliant, certainly, but that brilliance came packaged with less appealing qualities: intellectual arrogance that manifested as constant corrections, stiff adherence to rules that made her seem like a miniature professor, stubborn inflexibility that couldn't accommodate viewpoints contradicting her, and a tendency to lecture.
Ron and Harry had only befriended her after the troll incident which was a unique, life-threatening situation that forced bonding through shared trauma.
Before that, she'd been the 'intolerable know-it-all' nobody wanted to partner with.
For someone like Hermione to rapidly show such closeness with Ariana, comfortable enough to be chatting energetically over lunch showed more than random chance or natural affinity.
The only possibility was... she was Ariana's roommate.
Tom's tail lashed once again.
'And if they're roommates, that's not random either. That's intentional placement.'
Whether Dumbledore had orchestrated the formation of the Golden Trio in canon was a debate that raged forever among fans, with compelling evidence on both sides and remained technically uncertain.
But this? This absolutely reeked of Dumbledore's particular brand of benevolent manipulation, where he gently arranged circumstances to produce his desired outcomes while maintaining plausible deniability about directly interfering.
Consider the implications: Hermione Granger was, without question, the female student closest to Harry Potter in their year. Not in terms of existing friendship, that hadn't formed yet but in terms of sheer proximity to the developing story.
She sat near him in classes, lived in his House, would inevitably be drawn into his orbit through the natural social changes of Gryffindor Tower and their shared academic schedule.
By placing Ariana in the same dormitory as Hermione, Dumbledore had created an elegant chain of connection: Ariana ↔ Hermione ↔ Harry.
The moment Harry encountered trouble which, given his track record, was basically guaranteed to happen with clockwork regularity, Hermione would investigate, intervene, become entangled.
And when Hermione got pulled into danger, when she came back to the dormitory bruised or frightened or bubbling with some wild theory about Fluffy guarding something in the third-floor corridor... how could the kind-hearted, protective, brave Ariana possibly stand aside?
Dumbledore had effectively built a pipeline delivering his resurrected sister directly into the Chosen One's orbit, positioning her to become part of Harry's support network, potentially even his inner circle.
In reality, as Dumbledore's most cherished sister and his lingering guilt for so many years, he'd protect her before anything else, how could he possibly let her face danger?
This time, Dumbledore was truly taking the blame unfairly.
The truth was far simpler: Hogwarts had only so many first-year students. The female Gryffindor population was particularly sparse—perhaps six or seven girls total in Harry's year. Dormitory assignments were based on availability and year level.
Hermione's dormitory was currently the only room with a vacancy. When Professor McGonagall learned of Ariana's wish to join Gryffindor and needed to assign accommodations, she'd simply placed the new student in the only available space.
However, Ariana knew nothing of this. At the moment, she was chatting with Hermione in a random fashion, her gaze was occasionally drifting toward the Great Hall entrance.
When that familiar blue figure appeared, padding on cat feet, her eyes instantly lit up: "Tom! Over here, over here!"
She was so excited she nearly floated upward. Fortunately, remembering her identity was still meant to be secret, she hastily settled back onto the bench. To outside observers, her movement looked no different from jumping up.
'Whatever. I'll let tomorrow's Tom worry about tomorrow's problems~'
Tom shook his head, dispelling his minor gloom:
'Anyway, Voldemort's just another obstacle on the roadside to me. If I could only remember what backup method he used for resurrection, I could finish him off right now!'
Thinking this way, Tom's mood lightened considerably. He pulled out his whiteboard and gave it a shake:
[Good afternoon~]
Then Tom strolled over leisurely and sat down beside Ariana.
Honestly, his action drew quite a few sideways glances from the little lions, but no one expressed dissatisfaction. On the contrary, their eyes held curiosity and friendliness.
Though Tom hadn't spent long in Snape's office, his "heroic deeds" from Potions class had already spread:
Tom Lovegood, a Hufflepuff first-year cat, had earned House points from Severus Snape. From a professor who treated point-giving to non-Slytherins as a personal failure, who'd rather eat Flobberworms than acknowledge excellence in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff students.
More importantly, Tom had openly "challenged" Snape's authority to his face, completely ignored conventional brewing procedures, treated Snape's instructions as optional suggestions... and emerged not only unscathed but victorious.
He'd left Snape speechless. Multiple witnesses confirmed that their potions professor, famous for having a cutting response to literally everything had simply stared at Tom's perfect potion in baffled silence for nearly a full minute.
It was unprecedented. Legendary. The kind of story that would be told to first-years for the next decade as proof that Snape could, theoretically, be beaten at his own game.
For Gryffindor as the House most enthusiastically dedicated to opposing Slytherin, most frequently victimized by Snape's bias, most likely to lose points for breathing too loudly in the dungeons, Tom had become a folk hero basically overnight.
His status in their regard was second only to Harry Potter himself, the actual Chosen One.
Forget merely eating at their table. If Tom wanted to eat on the actual table, sprawling across the serving platters like some feudal lord's pampered pet, most Gryffindors would probably applaud the display of dominance.
'Any enemy of Snape is a friend of ours,' was the general Gryffindor philosophy.
Unaware of his newly elevated social status or perhaps pretending to be unaware, Tom walked toward the vibrant Ariana.
"Tom, this is Hermione Granger! My roommate and the very first friend I made in Gryffindor!
And Hermione, this is Tom—the one I've been telling you about! I know I've probably talked about him too much already, sorry about that but he really is amazing! He knows so many magic my brother doesn't, and he's only just started learning magic!!"
Ariana introduced them enthusiastically.
At this, Hermione carefully closed the absolutely massive book she'd been reading—A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, Tom noted, recognizing the cover.
Hermione set the book aside and directed her full attention toward Tom.
"Hello, Lovegood. I'm Hermione Granger."
She spoke much faster than usual, the excitement in her heart was nearly overflowing:
"Ariana's told me so much about you. Is it all true? Like how you took her into the world inside paintings?"
[Pleased to meet you, Miss Granger,] Tom said gently. [Just call me Tom~ As for what Ariana told you... if you're willing to believe it, then it's true.]
Sensing Hermione's burning gaze, Tom muttered internally: 'Why is this girl looking at me so strangely? I can't shake the feeling she wants to devour me whole!'
"Oh, you can just call me Hermione too," Hermione said brightly. "No need for formality—we're classmates after all!"
As she spoke, Hermione extended her hand toward Tom.
Tom instinctively reached out his paw to shake it. However, the next moment, he suddenly felt something wasn't quite right: Hermione before him was blushing, unable to meet his eyes, while her small hand gently squeezed his soft paw pad!
'She's totally taking advantage, isn't she? Absolutely is!'
Startled, Tom hastily withdrew his paw, eyeing Hermione with wariness.
"(⁄⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄⁄) Sorry, I lost control of myself a bit there..."
Hermione also realized her action had been excessive, her cheeks were flushing slightly as she forcibly suppressed her excitement.
She'd always loved cats, especially those distinctive ones full of mysterious charm. And as a cat who could communicate, use magic, and had become her classmate—her curiosity had absolutely skyrocketed.
She coughed lightly, attempting to salvage her image:
"Um, Tom, Ariana said you can freely travel through portraits. Is this a natural ability you have as a magical creature? Also, can you tell me what species of magical creature you are?
I've read through Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them several times but haven't found any records of animals similar to you! And this morning's Potions class, I heard your brewing technique was completely different..."
Questions shot out of Hermione like machine-gun fire, startling Tom into quickly raising his paw in a "stop" gesture.
[(;゚Д゚) Stop, stop, stop! You've got way too many questions! And I'm not some magical creature—just an ordinary little cat, okay?!]