Chapter 136: The Return Gift
The edge of the Forbidden Forest.
The cold wind howled, and withered branches creaked eerily in the gale.
Compared to the castle, which Lockhart had turned into a chaotic mess filled with pink bubbles and the stench of cheap perfume, the cold and decay here gave Tamara a long lost sense of comfort.
"Only in a deathly quiet place like this can one's mind become a little clearer."
Tamara tightened her robes around herself, her black leather boots making dull thuds as she stepped across the thick layer of fallen leaves.
She toyed with a withered branch of Wiggentree she had just snapped off.
This was the material for the return gift she had prepared for Ginny.
Tamara pulled out a small silver knife she carried with her and began carving into the wood absentmindedly.
She did not intend to make an exquisite amulet.
She merely carved an ancient rune onto it.
Suppression.
It could barely count as a blessing, while also conveniently suppressing the crazed remnant soul within Ginny that had become unstable after losing dominance.
Just as she was focusing on her carving, a rustling sound came from the nearby bushes.
Tamara's eyes sharpened, and she instinctively reached for the wand in her sleeve.
However, what crawled out was not some dangerous magical creature, but a row of palm sized spiders covered in black hair.
They were lined up, appearing panicked, seemingly fleeing from the direction of the castle and desperately scurrying deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
Following them, several Acromantula hatchlings as large as washbasins also scrambled past in a frantic rush.
"This is..."
Tamara narrowed her eyes, watching those nauseating many legged creatures.
Acromantula.
Why would these dangerous creatures, which were supposed to live in Borneo, appear in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts?
There was only one explanation.
"Rubeus Hagrid..."
As Tamara uttered the name, her tone carried a hint of incredulous mockery.
"It's been fifty years, and you still haven't improved at all?"
Back then, it was precisely because Hagrid had secretly raised an Acromantula in the school that Tom Riddle had been given the perfect opportunity to frame him.
It had allowed her to successfully pin the crime of opening the Chamber of Secrets on that half giant, leading to Hagrid's expulsion.
And now, that great oaf was actually still raising them?
Logically speaking, any normal person who had experienced such injustice and punishment would stay far away from such creatures.
But that half giant was different.
Not only had he failed to learn his lesson, he had even gone further, raising an entire nest in the Forbidden Forest.
Judging by the scale, they had likely already bred into a whole colony.
"Truly typical of a Gryffindor brain."
Tamara shook her head, but a playful, cold sneer curled at the corner of her mouth.
In the past, she might have viewed this as a threat, or as some filthy creature that needed to be purged.
But now, her mindset had changed.
Looking at those fast moving spiders, she did not see monsters.
She saw a pile of running Galleons and potion ingredients.
Their venom was a precious potion material, their silk could be used to make armour of considerable strength, and even their carapaces had immense alchemical value.
"Keep raising them."
Tamara withdrew her gaze, her eyes becoming like those of a farmer surveying her own vegetable garden.
"After all, the Forbidden Forest is my back garden too."
"Once you've fattened them up, I'll come to collect."
In the afternoon, within the castle corridors.
Having finished her handmade gift, Tamara began her second task.
Sending out this damned return gift.
But Ginny Weasley had disappeared.
Or more accurately, she was avoiding Tamara.
Ever since that gift delivering dwarf had left, Ginny had been like a startled rabbit, completely vanishing from Tamara's sight.
It was not until the end of the lunch break, as students were trickling toward their classrooms, that Tamara finally caught sight of that red haired figure at a corner of the third floor staircase.
Ginny looked terrible.
Her face was as pale as a sheet of paper, with heavy dark circles beneath her eyes. She had grown much thinner, and she swayed as she walked, as if she might collapse at any moment.
She did not know what was wrong with her.
She had clearly thrown away that horrible diary.
But why were there more and more gaps in her memory?
Just now, she had only wanted to go to the library, but when she came back to herself, she found herself standing before a rooster with a snapped neck, her hands covered in feathers.
Even more terrifyingly, she had heard that Senior Tamara had received a horrific blood letter, and the dwarf who had delivered it was someone she had hired.
At present, she was in a state of extreme mental exhaustion.
Although the diary had been recovered by Tamara, six months of possession and life force drainage had already left indelible scars on her soul.
And the remnant soul lingering within her continued to intermittently seize control of her body, causing her to shift between lucidity and amnesia.
She was afraid.
She did not know why she would suddenly wake up in strange places, nor why there was a smell of feathers on her that would not wash away.
Even less did she understand why, upon seeing Senior Tamara, an impulse would well up within her.
A mixture of longing to draw close and a desire to destroy her.
"Ha. Found you."
Tamara was currently standing at the top of the stairs, looking down as she locked onto that figure.
"Since you dared to send such a disgusting thing, you should be prepared to receive a return gift in person."
Tamara did not want to make a scene in front of everyone, so she did not call out to Ginny directly. Instead, she followed her silently.
Ginny looked back in panic, and the moment she saw Tamara's pitch black eyes, she shuddered all over and turned to run.
Tamara raised an eyebrow.
In this castle, no one could outrun its Heir.
It was a silent chase.
Ginny scrambled through the corridors and up the stairs, trying to shake off the black figure that followed her like a shadow.
But no matter how she circled, every time she thought she was safe and turned around, she would see Tamara standing in the shadows nearby, toying with that crude wooden charm and looking at her expressionlessly.
Fear spread.
Finally, Ginny was cornered with nowhere left to run.
She instinctively rushed through the door she was most familiar with, which was also the only one open at the time.
The second floor.
The abandoned girls' bathroom.
Ginny panted heavily, leaning against the cold sink, her heart pounding violently.
It was dark and damp here, the air thick with the smell of mould. Only the occasional sobs of Moaning Myrtle echoed through the room.
"Did you have to hide here?"
An elegant voice suddenly came from the doorway.
Ginny snapped her head up.
Tamara stood at the entrance to the bathroom, silhouetted against the light, her black robes swaying slightly in the draft.
Click.
Tamara closed the door behind her.
She did not even need to utter a spell.
With a casual flick of her wand, the brass bolt on the door slammed shut as if struck by an invisible hand, letting out a sharp bang and completely sealing the only exit.
"Run."
This time, that nightmarish voice echoed through the entire bathroom rather than coming from behind.
Tamara walked step by step toward the trembling Ginny, the sound of her heels striking the floor tiles exceptionally clear in the empty space.
She looked around this familiar place.
The tap carved with a small snake.
The entrance leading to the Chamber of Secrets deep underground.
And the Ravenclaw girl who had once died here.
"Did you do this on purpose?"
Tamara stopped in front of Ginny, looking at the girl who had been tortured until she barely seemed human, her expression complex as she whispered.
"Choosing to meet in a place like this..."
"Was it to remind me of the masterpiece from back then?"
"Or is it..."
Tamara reached out, her cold fingers firmly turning Ginny's face and forcing her to look up.
"...that the thing inside you is homesick?"
.....
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