Generally speaking.
Mice and cats were not unusual at all.
However, the cat-and-mouse chase that unfolded at Hogwarts School tonight was far rarer than Aurors from the Ministry of Magic capturing a Dark Wizard...
To be honest.
Many wizards might not even witness such a thing once in their entire lives.
This was a duel between two masters of the Animagus Transformation, and in nearly the entire twentieth century, only seven new Animagi had been officially registered in the world!
A brown mouse scuttled along the baseboards of the hallway floor, looking no different from an ordinary foraging mouse in the ancient castle.
Until a tabby cat suddenly appeared, giving chase at high speed, causing the mouse to instantly pick up its pace and scurry toward the stairs!
The cat and the mouse rushed onto the stairs together!
Relying on its small size, the mouse nimbly darted back and forth through the gaps in the stair banister, terrified of being caught by the tabby cat!
That tabby cat indeed could not squeeze through the gaps.
The next moment!
The tabby cat's body suddenly transformed back into human form!
"Stupefy!"
Professor Minerva McGonagall searched for the mouse, swiftly raising her wand to cast a spell!
As long as an open space was created...
A mouse could not possibly escape a cat's pursuit.
Almost the instant the spell appeared, the mouse's body simultaneously turned into that of Peter Pettigrew. His palms grabbed the stair railing, and with a flip he vaulted upward. His chubby body possessed extraordinary agility, leaping directly onto another staircase.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Professor Minerva McGonagall stared fixedly at Peter Pettigrew as he constantly shifted positions among the stairs, continuously casting her spells!
"Reducto!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Spell after spell flew forth!
Yet this failed to stop Peter Pettigrew at all!
Whenever the spells were about to land on Peter Pettigrew, his body rapidly morphed into rat form, dodging Professor McGonagall's magic!
This fellow was truly clever!
Seeing that the mouse was about to get away, Professor Minerva McGonagall grabbed the stair banister with both hands, and her body abruptly transformed back into the tabby cat form of her Animagus.
The tabby cat's hind legs pushed off the stair railing for leverage, and her athletic form glided across the stairs as the two resumed a new round of the chase!
A chase between Animagi...
Was far more thrilling than any chase between ordinary wizards!
Whenever Peter Pettigrew found himself unable to shake off the tabby cat, he would transform from human back into a mouse, hiding inside one of Hogwarts's many storage rooms!
Yet this ultimately failed to escape Professor McGonagall's pursuit!
The moment Professor Minerva McGonagall saw Peter Pettigrew about to vanish into a storage room, she swiftly reverted from cat form to human form, waving her wand to directly blast open the cluttered room!
For the two of them, the Animagus form and human form could be changed with almost seamless fluidity, which was practically the highest art of Transfiguration!
Within the span of a few minutes.
Peter Pettigrew and Professor Minerva McGonagall lost count of how many transformations they had performed, the two of them having actually chased each other all the way from the second floor to the seventh!
Along the way, the pair had dashed through the library, passed through the armor corridor, traversed the Restricted Section, and rushed through classroom after classroom!
Even if it were any other Animagus, such complex environments would have allowed them to seize the opportunity to slip away, yet Peter Pettigrew simply could not escape!
Peter Pettigrew was chased relentlessly by Professor McGonagall!
However...
Next time might not be the same!
Now they were on the seventh floor. Once they reached the eighth-floor tower of Hogwarts Castle, given the intricate layout of the eighth floor, it would become even harder to find Peter Pettigrew once he turned into a mouse!
The eighth floor was also the area Peter Pettigrew was most familiar with. It was the floor with the most rooms in Hogwarts, and simultaneously the most dangerous yet safest floor!
The next level up...
The eighth-floor tower...
Just happened to be the Gryffindor dormitories.
Trying to catch an Animagus who had snuck into the dormitories was nearly impossible, because an Animagus possessed the exact same life aura and heartbeat as an animal.
"Impedimenta!"
Seeing the little mouse about to head upstairs again, Professor Minerva McGonagall swiftly reverted to human form and waved her wand!
A spell quickly flew from the wand!
A section of the staircase seemed to appear out of thin air, bearing down with oppressive weight to block passage!
Left with no other choice, the mouse into which Peter Pettigrew had transformed was forced to retreat from the stairs back into the seventh-floor corridor to continue searching for a hiding spot.
"Now, you can't escape."
Professor Minerva McGonagall's body instantly twisted and shrank, turning back into a tabby cat as she lunged directly onto the banister, using the momentum for a flying leap toward the mouse!
This time...
There was definitely no escape!
Just as the tabby cat leaped into the air and suddenly pinned the mouse, thinking she had finally won this Animagus duel...
A development that left the tabby cat utterly stunned suddenly occurred!
The tabby cat stared in bewilderment as the mouse she had pounced upon suddenly grew over a hundred times larger in size...
No!
This wasn't just a change in size!
Instead, this mouse had transformed into an entirely different animal!
This wasn't a mouse!
It was a majestic, powerfully built male lion!
A lion just like the crest of Gryffindor!
The tabby cat seemed frightened out of its wits.
Because she had never before witnessed anyone able to turn into such a large animal as a lion, nor had she ever seen anyone possess two different Animagus forms!
That's right!
It had never happened before!
This intruder suspected to be Peter Pettigrew unexpectedly possessed both rat and male lion Animagus animal states, completely subverting the understanding of the wizarding world!
Any wizard would surely find it unimaginable, wouldn't they?
That someone in this world could actually transform into two different animals!
This formidable and imposing male lion shook its head, seemingly still unaccustomed to this state, with a dazed tabby cat perched upon its back...
After lingering in a daze for a few seconds, the lion snapped back to reality, quickly shaking its body to pitch the tabby cat straight off!
Clearly both were felines...
Yet the stark contrast in size between the two created a sharp discrepancy. Whether in terms of intimidation or lethality, there was almost a world of difference between a lion and a cat!
A lion's temperament was far more savage!
As the male lion perceived the cat's presence, it abruptly whipped its head around, extending a massive paw to pin the small feline directly to the ground!
"Roar!"
A bloodthirsty maw snapped toward the kitten's head!
With just a single bite, it could crush and devour this little cat!
The kitten looked as though it had been frightened out of its wits, staring blankly as the male lion opened its jaws to bite at its head.
However...
A bloody tragedy did not occur.
This seemed to be merely a form of intimidation by the male lion.
Or perhaps Peter Pettigrew was simply unwilling to truly harm his respected Head of House.
Finding that the tabby cat pinned beneath its paw showed no reaction, the male lion shook its head of its own accord, lazily flicking its tail as it slowly turned and walked toward the corridor's window ledge.
Under the watchful gaze of the tabby cat transformed from Professor Minerva McGonagall...
The male lion's body rapidly shrank, turning into a small sparrow in the blink of an eye, and fluttered its wings out of the castle.
Not two.
Peter Pettigrew could turn into three animals.
This was undoubtedly the most formidable Animagus in history.
As a Dark Lord, how could Mr. Pettigrew possibly only know how to turn into a rat!
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