Chapter 68: Kitty's thoughts are always complicated (Edited)

As night fell, Fish, tired of pouncing on the Snitch in the common room, put away his newest toy and climbed out of the hole in the wall to begin his routine patrol of the territory.

The last few days had been a happy one for Fish, not having to read all those magical books that made his head spin, not having to smell the stinky guy he couldn't avoid, and having an endless supply of flying toys to play with.

Not to mention a steady supply of delicious food and a variety of good friends to play with.

Although Fish had accidentally lost one of his Snitches two days earlier, he had taken an extra one with him just in case, and even if he lost it now, he could go to the strange room and get a new one.

Fish is smart! ( ￣ ︶ ￣ )

A cheerful Fish held his tail high, with the tip slightly curved in the shape of a question mark, as he strolled around Hogwarts castle.

Unlike the jubilant Fish, Quirinus Quirrell, who had snuck back into Hogwarts, was distressed.

He had managed to lure Fish to the Room of Requirement, but the boy had not played his cards right and had kept him waiting all night.

When the mission failed, the Dark Lord punished Quirrell so severely that he thought he was going to die, and Quirrell didn't want to remember the process at all.

He had to ask Dumbledore for a leave of absence to recover from his punishment, under the pretext of going on a business trip, so that Madam Pomfrey wouldn't find out.

And the culprit in all of this was the bloody cat-boy wandering around Hogwarts castle.

Hiding, Quirrell gritted his teeth and looked at Fish, who was bullying a portrait, wishing he could appear behind him and cast a Killing Curse on him.

However, all he could think about was that, and even if there was no risk of Dumbledore finding out, the Dark Lord wouldn't let him, as they were still using Fish to find out where the Philosopher's Stone was hidden.

Although there seemed to be a good chance that the stone was hidden in the trapdoor under the three-headed dog, it could have been a smokescreen thrown up by Dumbledore.

Besides, Quirrell and Voldemort had no idea what was under the trapdoor, so it was necessary to control Fish and get him to help find that information.

"Meow!" Fish, who was sharpening his claws with the frame and making the knight in the painting scream, suddenly felt a shiver run through his body and his fur bristled of its own accord.

Back arched and ears pricked, Fish looked around suspiciously for a moment, but found nothing wrong with his surroundings.

"Meow?"

Fish's body gradually relaxed, and then his head tilted in confusion.

Could this be the consequence of reading too much? Did it cause a problem with his own senses?

... It's all Minerva's fault!

Fish couldn't help but think about that.

"Do you want to run away? you damned wildcat! Our duel isn't over yet!"

Sir Cadogan's roar interrupted Fish's thoughts, as he waved his completely harmless spear at the portrait, provoking it repeatedly.

"Come on, you coward, I'll nail your wretched carcass to the wall like I did that wyvern back then!"

"Meow!" Fish stopped wondering what the beast's intuitive response was about and pounced on Sir Cadogan's portrait, scratching at the wood of its frame.

Minerva had told him not to break the portraits, but she didn't tell him not to break the frames.

Fish was a good cat... when he wanted to be.

"Enough! You thieving cat! No more of these petty tricks! Come and fight me in a proper duel!"

Sir Cadogan raged and thrust his spear in Fish's direction, but unfortunately his spear couldn't pierce the canvas and stop Fish from smashing his frame.

"Meow!"

And then Fish scratched even harder.

After nearly tearing the bottom edge of Sir Cadogan's frame, Fish finally lost interest in the screaming portrait and, with a flick of his tail, turned his head toward a passing ghost.

"Don't try to escape! You coward! Our duel will continue! You hairy little bastard!"

Sir Cadogan's curses continued behind him, but Fish paid it no mind, mainly because... he didn't understand the meaning of some of the swear words coming out of the tin canister's mouth.

Besides, in Fish's mind, he had already defeated the tin canister, and now it was just screaming incompetently.

Fish approached the passing ghost in two steps and gave it a little punch.

"It's you again, little man!"

This ghost was an old acquaintance of Fish's, and he was the one Fish was constantly slapping when he first entered the school.

It was about a plump Victorian ghost named Edmund Grubb, who had died at the entrance to the Hogwarts Great Dining Hall after accidentally eating a poisoned plum, so when Edmund was in a bad mood, he would stand where he had died and prevent the rest of the living from entering to eat.

"Meow~" (=ΦωΦ=)?

Fish ignored Edmund's warning look and once again poked his paws out and gave it a couple of swats.

Even though he couldn't touch the silvery-white humans, the cold feeling was really fun.

"Stop it, you naughty little thing!"

Edmund had to fly into the air to avoid Fish's small blows, and growled in disgust, "Hogwarts is getting really bad at handling its students! No student would have dared to act so boldly back then."

With that, Edmund continued to soar, flying through the ceiling to the next floor, knowing that, if he didn't run, that pesky animagus student would climb the walls and continue to beat him....

By then, Fish was already high up on the wall using the 'Spider Step'.

Seeing Edmund go through the ceiling, Fish had no intention of climbing the stairs to find him, so he continued to use his 'Spider Step' spell, calmly walking up the wall, stepping on a dozen portraits on the wall with his four little paws, which caused the figures in the portraits to scold him.

But he was not afraid of the noisy tin portrait, let alone these 'unarmed' portraits.

After walking along the wall for a while, waking up numerous figures in the portraits, Fish jumped off the wall and went to other floors.

Professor Quirrell patiently followed Fish through floor after floor, watching him misbehave all over Hogwarts castle... not for the first time anyway.

It was late afternoon by the time Fish had had enough fun and ran to the kitchen for a late night snack and then, as usual, ran up to the fourth floor and onto the roof of the west tower with his packed lunch to feed Fluffy and the owls.

That done, Fish didn't call Comey to take him to his room as he had done before, because a thought had just occurred to him, if there was a Snitch in the Room of Requirement, could there be other toys as well?

Voldemort, who had control of Quirrell's body, silently withdrew his wand, having used the potion to regain some of his strength during Quirrell's recovery, and having failed to do so, and having waited impatiently, he had just taken over Quirrell's body by force.

Unlike Quirrell's stupid method of making a lot of noises to lure Fish in, Voldemort only needed to silently release the 'Confundus' spell for Fish to enter the Room of Requirement without alerting Dumbledore or attracting attention.

So, under the influence of the Confundus spell, Fish made his way once more to the seventh floor tapestry, and paced three times in front of it.

[I want a room full of toys... and preferably a place to sleep... and a place to sharpen my claws...]

Kitties always think outside the box, and it's good to see Fish's requests, however complex, being met by the Room of Requirement.

Pushing open the elegant door, Fish was greeted by a dreamy room filled with cat toys, climbing structures and a cat nest.

"Meow...!" ?(=?ω?=)?

Excited, Fish jumped onto the pile of toys in front of him, not realizing that the door behind him had closed on its own and a figure covered in a black robe had emerged.

"Imperius!"