[Stupid rodent, finally caught you, huh~]
Although James Potter kept interfering, there was only so much one person could do. Against a serious Tom, the mirror-created Jerry just couldn't hold out forever.
Tom dangled the struggling little brown furball by its tail, a cocky, triumphant grin plastered across his face. Sure, he'd have to let it go eventually, but for now, he could mess with it as much as he wanted.
He had to admit, the wisdom of the ancients really worked. After realizing that the cartoon logic always allowed Jerry to escape no matter what, Tom had decided to borrow a page from Zhuge Liang's playbook—the famous "Seven Captures of Meng Huo."
Through careful testing, Tom discovered the trick: as long as he didn't actually intend to harm or kill the mouse, or try to permanently kick it out of the house, Jerry's plot-armor counterattacks wouldn't trigger. And simply catching the mouse? That was child's play for Tom.
So, after repeatedly catching and releasing Jerry, Tom had successfully gaslit—sorry, conditioned—the mouse. They had formed a mutual understanding and become... well, reasonably good friends.
Of course, Jerry had leveled up significantly during this process too. If the illusion in Tom's hand right now were the real Jerry, the mouse would have lasted much longer, even without James's help.
Friendship aside, their dynamic was... unique. Without a common enemy, either one of them might stab the other in the back at any given moment. And if the real Jerry were in this exact scenario? The rodent probably would have played much dirtier!
Tom shook the fake Jerry by the tail. With a few soft thuds, several wedges of cheese tumbled out of the mouse's invisible pockets. Tom picked one up, waved it tauntingly in front of Jerry's face, then brought it to his nose. He took a long sniff, gave it a little lick, and put on an exaggerated look of pure ecstasy.
Part of it was definitely just to tick the mouse off, but the reaction wasn't entirely acting. Tom genuinely missed the food from his old world—the cheese, the hams, the massive cartoon steaks.
(Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!) The fake Jerry kicked its legs furiously in the air, but since it was dangling upside down, it was just boxing with shadows. Watching its precious cheese get closer and closer to the cat's mouth made Jerry struggle even harder, completely helpless to stop the impending tragedy.
Normally, Tom was strictly against "villain gloating" or slow-motion wind-ups. But right now? Jerry was completely at his mercy, its tail safely out of biting range. Tom's playful side took over, and he deliberately slowed down his movements just to drive the "mouse" crazy.
However, right at the exact moment Tom's teeth were about to graze the cheese—
Fwip!
A tiny spatial rift snapped open right in front of his mouth and neatly swallowed every single piece of cheese.
Chomp.
Tom bit down on nothing but air. He stared at his empty paws, his brain totally short-circuiting.
(Wait, where's my cheese?!)
Before he could even process what had happened, another rift tore open right in front of him. A small brown blur leaped out, clutching the exact pile of cheese that had just vanished.
It was another Jerry.
(Another one?) Tom eyed the newcomer in confusion. He didn't understand why the Mirror of Erised would spawn a second Jerry, but he didn't care much either. He simply reached out a paw, ready to bring this new mouse to justice along with the first one.
What happened next caught him completely off guard.
The new Jerry reacted as if it had anticipated the move perfectly. Moving with blinding speed, it whipped out a miniature mallet and brought it down hard on Tom's outstretched paw. WHACK!
Since he was currently a ghost and immune to physical damage, Tom hadn't even bothered to dodge. He just watched the mallet fall, and then—
"YEOOOWWWWW!!!"
His paw instantly swelled up like a balloon. Tom clutched his throbbing, comically oversized foot, hopping wildly around the room on one leg and screaming his lungs out.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the first Jerry slipped from Tom's grasp and was immediately caught by the newcomer.
"Professor, what is happening?!" Harry's eyes were practically bugging out of his head. "Isn't Tom a ghost right now? How did a hammer hurt him? And why did the scene change again?"
The first time the mirror changed was when Tom jumped in. Did it change again because Dumbledore showed up? But the timing didn't make any sense!
"I am not entirely sure," Dumbledore murmured, looking deeply thoughtful. "Perhaps this mouse, much like Tom, is an... exceptional entity?"
If Tom could create alchemical gadgets that allowed ghosts to interact with physical objects, then it stood to reason that a mouse from the same bizarre reality might possess similar abilities.
"Though, for the exact details, I suspect we will have to ask Mr. Lovegood himself."
Inside the mirror, Tom spent a good minute blowing frantically on his swollen paw until it finally deflated back to normal size. He glared viciously at the new mouse holding the fake Jerry, absolutely seething!
Ever since he figured out the "Jerry formula," he hadn't taken a real beating unless one of the mouse's ridiculously overpowered relatives showed up! Yet here he was, injured by a mirror illusion?!
If word of this ever got out, the real Jerry would laugh him to death! Unforgivable! This dark stain on his history had to be erased immediately!
Just as he was winding up to obliterate the evidence, the new Jerry looked up and met his eyes.
Seeing that sly, intensely intelligent gaze, Tom froze.
(That look... wait, are you the real deal?)
(Long time no see, stupid cat. You've gotten sloppy!) Jerry didn't answer directly, but the tone, the attitude, the sheer vibe—Tom knew instantly. This was his Jerry!
Tom's fur immediately stood on end. (How the heck did you get here?!) Having an embarrassing moment was bad enough. Having it witnessed by his arch-frenemy? It was like dying without clearing your browser history. Absolute public execution!
"How did I get here?" Jerry set the fake mouse down, glanced at Tom, and casually tossed a piece of cheese into its mouth. "You just up and disappeared on me! The lady of the house thought I lost you, and she's been chasing me around non-stop. If I didn't come find you, what was I supposed to do?"
Actually, Jerry had been in this world for a while, just too busy with various things to track Tom down immediately. Even now, the only reason Jerry showed up was because it had sensed Tom's presence when the fake Jerry was caught, and seeing Tom bullying "itself" prompted it to intervene.
(So how did you actually cross over?) Since Jerry wasn't volunteering the details, Tom dropped the subject and looked suspiciously at the spatial rift behind the mouse. How the hell had it opened that thing?
"No idea. Just wanted to come over, so I did." Jerry shrugged, genuinely clueless. All it remembered was seeing Tom holding another version of itself and bullying it. The instinct to help kicked in, it grabbed a few random objects nearby on pure instinct, and bam—the rift opened.