Chapter 745: She must be waiting for her boyfriend, right? (Edited)

"Hey!"

(ω´≡ω´)

Realizing this, Fish spun around...

And nothing happened.

"Why?! Albus is against Fish again!!"

∑(ΦДΦ)

Fish expertly placed the blame on Dumbledore's shoulders.

If there was something he couldn't understand, it was usually because of this mean old grandfather!

"Well... Fish, could it be that you're... basically human now?" Hermione guessed with a strange expression.

Most of the time, she managed to overlook the fact that Fish wasn't really human, but occasionally she still remembered, and whenever that happened, Hermione felt a bit weird...

It was especially strange when she read in a book about some Scottish "custom" related to sheep.

Hermione shook her head, trying to dismiss the peculiarity. Fish wasn't like sheep!

Besides, he could still transform into a cat!

While Hermione collected her thoughts, Fish changed into his cat-man form and then attempted to transform back.

"Crack!"

With a deafening snap, Fish turned into a black and white vortex, but halfway through its contraction, the vortex swelled back up as if rewinding a clock, and Fish landed back in his original position with a bewildered look on his face.

"Why does this happen? Fish was thinking about the table!"

∑(=`Д=)

Fish shouted defiantly, pointing at the food-laden table in the distance.

"Don't worry, Fish." Hermione reassured him, "At least in this state, you're not completely ineffective. Maybe if you were in full cat form, you could successfully use the spell."

"But Fish can't hold the wand like this!" Fish wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms. "Even if Fish wanted to practice wandless spells, the circumstances wouldn't allow it!"

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

"Isn't the Apparition class still coming up on Saturday?" Hermione said, "Fish, you're so good that you'll probably be able to use Apparition Charm wandlessly in a few classes."

"That's right." Fish nodded naturally and then stopped dwelling on the question.

He had decided to wait until after his birthday, so even if it didn't work in the end, he wouldn't lose anything... or miss out on the snack!

Fish resolutely turned his attention to the nearby food, pulling Hermione along with him and leaping onto the table in a few steps.

...

The next day, Sunday, instead of waiting until nighttime to take Harry and Ron to the headmaster's office as he had done before, since there were no classes today anyway, Fish found both of them with Hermione after breakfast.

"New memories?"

Harry's expression was a bit complicated... he had hoped to organize a Quidditch training match over the weekend.

"We can train again this afternoon," Ron advised him from the side.

The sight of Cormac McLaggen, who had taken his place as the goalkeeper, had dampened Ron's enthusiasm for Quidditch, and while he still enjoyed it, he wasn't as excited about it as before, and he even felt a lingering desire to avoid it.

Ron hadn't even noticed it himself, simply attributing his recent lack of interest in Quidditch training to a bit of boredom from exhausting classes and practices.

So when Fish gave a reason, he couldn't wait to encourage Harry to postpone the training, and as for the memories Dumbledore had prepared, he felt equally curious but not particularly interested...

Harry didn't know the intricacies of his friend's mind. He was very interested in learning about Voldemort's past and finding clues about the Horcruxes.

So when Ron said so, he agreed to go along with it.

The four of them headed to the Headmaster's office, and once Fish learned from Phineas where Dumbledore had stored the memory vials, he quickly retrieved them.

Dumbledore had left only a few memory jars, just two, and to make it easier for Fish to distinguish between them, they were labeled with the names "Hokey the House-Elf" and Dumbledore himself.

"Which one should we look at first, nya?" (?ω?)

Fish asked, finding it difficult to decide after a while, as he brought the two bottles closer to the group.

Dumbledore's memories had the potential to reveal a fight, but the memory of a house-elf appearing for the first time piqued Fish's curiosity.

"Dum..."

"Look at the house-elf!" Harry was about to decide when Hermione interjected, "Look at the house-elves!" She repeated, nodding heavily.

Harry and Ron, who were more interested in seeing Dumbledore's memories, were wise enough to keep their mouths shut in the face of the know-it-all's intimidation.

Fish opened the jar containing Hokey's memories, poured the pearly silver substance into the Pensieve, and gently stirred the stone basin.

A few moments later, the four of them appeared in Hokey the house-elf's memory.

It was an opulent-looking parlor where a very fat old woman sat in a chair, holding a small jeweled mirror and applying rouge to her already red and shiny cheeks with a large powder puff. A beautiful pink dress billowed around her, making her look like a melting ice cream cake.

The owner of this memory, the house-elf named Hokey, knelt on the floor, fastening a pair of tight satin shoes on the old woman's chubby feet.

She seemed even older than Kreacher, and thinner than any house-elf Fish had ever seen.

"Hmph!" Hermione couldn't help but make a disgusted face.

"Come on, Hokey!" The old woman, who was the size of Dudley, bossily said, "He said he'd come at four, it's only two minutes past, and he's never been late before."

Then she put away the powder puff and, turning her head to admire her face in the mirror from every angle, asked, "How do I look?"

"Lovely, ma'am," Hokey said.

"Puchi!" While it was impolite to make fun of someone's appearance, Ron couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"I guess she's waiting for her boyfriend? Fish saw him on TV!" (ΦωΦ) Fish said, pointing to the old woman who kept looking at herself in the mirror and adjusting her clothes from time to time.

"Most likely, I wonder who has that 'taste'... cough cough..." Ron said, suppressing a laugh.

Shortly after, the doorbell rang, and both the fat old woman and the elf jumped up.

"Come on, come on, he's here!" the old woman shouted, and the elf immediately ran out of the house at a speed completely uncharacteristic of its appearance.

Curiously, Fish ran out with Hokey, followed by Hermione and the others, naturally.

The room was crowded, with cabinets of painted lids, shelves lined with golden books, stands of astral bodies and astrolabes of all sizes, and many lush plants growing in brass containers... it resembled a mosaic of magical curio shops and greenhouses.

Hokey skillfully and swiftly navigated through the gaps in these objects without touching anything.

And Fish and the others didn't have to worry about bumping into anything because they couldn't touch anything in this memory unless they were part of it.

Hokey ran as fast as she could to the door, stood on tiptoes, and turned the doorknob.

On the other side of the door stood a tall young man dressed in a black suit, his hair longer than when he was in school, sunken cheeks, and a paler face than before. But all of that suited him well and made him even more handsome.

This dashing young man was none other than the young Voldemort, with his nose and his hair, or as he could be called, Tom Marvolo Riddle.