Chapter 174: Parent-Child Time
At the mere mention of that particular 'little gift', a flicker of genuine wariness broke through the usual crazed devotion in Peritus's eyes. His mud-stained white gloves twitched as he hastily straightened the collar of his threadbare suit, bowing at a sharp angle. "Master... that monster is growing far too fast. Its temper is entirely volatile."
"Aside from tossing a few slaughtered wild boars into the pit each day, your humble servant dares not step within a hundred feet of the beast. It is... it is simply a pure killing machine."
"Useless. You cannot even bring a mindless beast to heel."
Tamara let out a cold, dismissive snort. Her tone dripped with absolute contempt as she swept past him, her black robes billowing as she marched straight toward the massive, hollowed-out valley at the rear of the Albanian camp.
Waiting within that crater was a Norwegian Ridgeback. Norbert.
During her first year at Hogwarts, she had packed the newly hatched dragonet up overnight and covertly shipped it off to this remote Albanian stronghold. To her, this was no mere pet. It was a top-tier magical war machine. And if there was one thing the Dark Lord excelled at, it was forcing the most dangerous, brutal monsters in existence to submit obediently at her feet.
Tamara harbored supreme confidence in her dominion. She still carried the system's passive buff, [Magical Creature Affinity +20%], alongside the base ten points of loyalty Norbert inherently held toward her. Even after a two-year absence, the very idea that she might fail to tame a single, overgrown lizard was laughable.
As she stepped up to the jagged edge of the hollow, a deafening, earth-shaking roar erupted from the depths.
A behemoth easily over twenty feet long thrashed at the bottom of the pit. Pitch-black scales armored its massive bulk, accented by the vicious, razor-sharp ridges protruding high along its spine. It paced irritably, exhaling thick plumes of acrid smoke laced with showering sparks.
"Stand back."
Tamara barked the order over her shoulder, forcing Quirrell and Peritus to retreat into the tree line. Alone, maintaining a composed and utterly haughty stride, she descended the crumbling stone steps directly into the dragon's lair.
The grinding of gravel beneath her boots caught the beast's attention. Norbert's massive, spiked head snapped toward the sound. Slit-like vertical pupils, glowing like concentrated hellfire, locked dead onto the tiny, black-robed human intruding upon its territory.
The dragon unhinged its bloody maw, exposing rows of venom-dripping, razor-sharp fangs. A lethal, vibrating growl built deep within its throat. Liquid fire, thick and bright as molten lava, rolled over its tongue, priming to incinerate this foolish intruder into fine ash.
Yet, in the very next fraction of a second, two things happened.
The passive [Magical Creature Affinity +20%] flared to life, and the faint, unmistakable scent of 'Mama'—a scent branded into the deepest recesses of the dragon's soul—registered in its reptilian brain.
The boiling magma in Norbert's throat extinguished with a pathetic hiss.
Those ferocious, murderous vertical pupils instantly dilated into wide, glassy saucers. The lethal, rumbling growl twisted bizarrely, pitching up into a high, joyful whimper that completely contradicted its terrifying, multi-ton frame.
The colossal beast flapped its leathery wings in a frenzy of excitement. Kicking off the rocky earth with all four heavily muscled limbs, the several-ton dragon charged at Tamara like a completely derailed freight train.
It just wanted to snuggle with Mama!
The haughty composure plastered across Tamara's face shattered into frozen horror.
Because that utterly brain-dead system had yet to unlock proper defensive magic like the Shield Charm for her, she had absolutely no magical barrier to deploy against a charging, armor-plated missile.
Norbert launched into a loving, full-body pounce. The beast slammed solidly into Tamara's slender, fragile frame. The great and terrible Dark Lord was instantly flattened into the dirt by the sheer kinetic force, completely pinned beneath the dragon's suffocating bulk.
While the impact miraculously spared her from fatal internal hemorrhaging, the violent collision still forced a series of sickening, strained pops from Tamara's joints. The jagged barbs lining the dragon's underbelly shredded her pristine black robes. Her hood was knocked askew, nearly exposing her face, while Norbert's excited, panting breaths blasted directly against her nose, drowning her in the suffocating stench of raw sulfur and rotting meat.
A chilling, unadulterated violence erupted within Tamara's pitch-black eyes.
Her fingers clamped like a vice around the holly wand hidden in her pocket. She wanted nothing more than to blast this disrespectful, overgrown lizard with a flesh-rotting curse. Better yet, a localized Oppugno to drive every single piece of jagged gravel on the ground directly into its oversized eyeballs. She would teach this beast the true meaning of reverence for its master!
But just as her dark magic began to boil in her veins, ready to lash out, a sickeningly familiar electronic chime shattered her concentration.
[Ding! Emergency alert! The system has detected an extremely cute magical creature acting spoiled toward you without reservation!]
The perky, life-threatening voice echoed through her skull, accompanied by a shower of cheerful, chiming sound effects.
[What a pure and touching display of cross-species love! As a future beacon of greatness, please do not resist this warm, healing emotion!]
[Triggered Forced Bond Mission: Please fully display your ocean-like, warm maternal love! Use gentle hugs and affectionate strokes to soothe this spoiled dragonet. Duration: Ten minutes!]
[Mission Reward: Norbert Loyalty +20! Life +1!]
[Mission Failure Penalty: The system will forcibly strip the host of all facial disguises and Confundo charms! The system will then assume direct control of the host's body to deliver a one-hour 'Wizarding World Peace and Friendship Tour Speech' right here in the Death Eater camp, directly in front of all your loyal subordinates!]
Beneath the crushed velvet of her robes, Tamara's wand-hand went rigid.
Strip away her hood? Reveal the soft, flushed face of a twelve-year-old girl? And then stand on a rock to preach about 'love and peace' to a camp full of hardened, bloodthirsty Death Eaters like Peritus?
That was a fate infinitely more disgusting and humiliating than a swift death.
Her brilliant, calculating mind rapidly weighed the two options. The raging, murderous inferno in her eyes slowly extinguished, replaced by a bottomless, frozen calm.
"Huff... huff..."
Norbert whined, excitedly rubbing its massive, scale-covered snout back and forth against Tamara's crushed chest. The beast even had the audacity to loll out a massive, saliva-drenched tongue—textured like coarse sandpaper—and drag it wetly across Tamara's pale cheek.
It was an utterly pathetic, degrading state of affairs.
Yet, Tamara swallowed her pride. She forcibly chained down the violent beast raging inside her own soul. Her white-knuckled grip on the holly wand slowly relaxed. A deep, burning humiliation clawed at her throat as she forced her pale, exquisite features into a mask of tender, maternal affection.
Trembling slightly from the sheer indignity of it all, she reached out with her slender hands and began to slowly stroke the dragon's spiked scales.
"Such a... good child."
Tamara's voice emerged perfectly steady, lacking even the slightest tremor. But buried deep within that soft, low murmur was a glacial coldness capable of freezing a soul solid.
Meanwhile, dozens of feet away.
Peritus, who had been secretly observing the encounter from a high, rocky vantage point, witnessed the entire exchange. A fanatical, feverish light erupted within his neurotic eyes.
That terrifying, demonic dragon—the very same beast that would incinerate him to ash if he dared step within a hundred feet—was currently behaving like a docile, simpering hound! It was actually pinning itself to the dirt, obediently begging for the Master's touch! And the great Lord hadn't even bothered to draw her wand. She simply allowed the beast's massive claws, talons sharp enough to shred solid steel, to rest casually against her body, entirely unbothered as she unhurriedly bestowed her dark grace upon the creature!
"Truly... a dark miracle..."
Peritus trembled violently, overcome by the sheer majesty of the sight. He piously crossed his hands over his chest, bowing deeply toward the crater. Hot tears of reverence pricked at the corners of his eyes. He muttered in a morbid, breathless tone, chanting his devotion like a sacred hymn.
"Great Master... Your absolute composure. Your effortless dominance over all living things. It is truly the most fascinating, terrifying art in this world."
Down in the dirt of the dragon's nest, Tamara was blissfully unaware of her subordinate's delusional praise.
She was far too preoccupied with being firmly crushed beneath several tons of hyperactive reptile. Every single bone in her body ached with a dull, throbbing protest. To make matters worse, the system in her head refused to shut up, constantly exclaiming with popping confetti sound effects that she was simply one of the greatest mothers of the twentieth century.
Every passing second dragged on like an agonizing decade.
[Ding! Parent-child interaction goal met!]
For the first time in her life, that patronizing, life-threatening electronic voice sounded like a choir of heavenly angels.
[Congratulations, host! You have received your reward: Norbert Loyalty +20! Life +1! (Current Life: 36/100)]
[System Comment: During a child's critical growth stage, it is absolutely key for parents to provide appropriate, positive responses to their child's spoiled behavior and emotional needs. This establishes a healthy attachment relationship!]
[Your warm, inclusive hug just now completely healed the dragonet's physical and mental health! Without a doubt, you are becoming an excellent mother!]
The moment that specific, wretched word popped out of the system's cheerful mechanical voice again, Tamara's hand froze mid-stroke.
The dull, physical ache in her crushed bones seemed to vanish entirely, instantly swallowed by a tidal wave of pure, visceral repulsion rising from the very darkest depths of her soul. The temperature within her deep, pitch-black eyes plummeted to absolute zero.
It was true that during her prolonged period of disguise at Hogwarts, the foolish warmth of her peers and those damnable, forced friendships had acted like a slow-acting poison. They had begun to corrode tiny, microscopic cracks into the impenetrable fortress of her heart.
But it was precisely because she had noticed this terrifying, out-of-control change that she now felt an unmatched surge of panic and rage.
'Healthy response? Attachment relationship?'
Tamara let out a dark, mocking laugh within the confines of her own mind. She didn't know what those pathetic concepts meant, and she certainly didn't care to learn. Lord Voldemort believed in only one absolute truth: the raw, unyielding power and authority held firmly within one's own two hands.
"Huff..."
Norbert let out a long, satisfied snort, sending a flurry of dying sparks into the air. Its golden, slit-like eyes gazed down at Tamara, practically overflowing with sickening, dog-like attachment.
Her face a blank, emotionless mask, Tamara reached up and heartlessly shoved the heavy, scaled snout away from her face. She slid out from beneath the beast, slowly rising from the gravel-strewn dirt. Without a single ounce of lingering sentiment, she began to brush the thick layer of dust from her ruined black robes.
Reversing her grip on the eleven-inch holly wand, she aimed the tip down at her wretched, torn hemline.
"Scourgify."
"Reparo."
The two short, clipped incantations fell from her lips in rapid succession.
Accompanied by a faint, shimmering flow of magic, the caked mud, the sticky trails of dragon saliva, and the pungent stench of sulfur clinging to the fabric evaporated instantly. The hideous, jagged gashes torn by the beast's scales quickly knit themselves back together, interlacing perfectly as if time itself were flowing backward. The crushed velvet became smooth and pristine once more.
In a mere two seconds, every physical trace of the wretched embarrassment of being pinned beneath a several-ton lizard was completely erased. Tamara reached up, elegantly straightening her freshly restored collar.
When she finally lifted her chin, not a single trace of the humiliation she had just endured remained on her pale, exquisite face. The forced maternal warmth was gone, replaced entirely by an aura of cold, inviolable pressure.
'Put away that nauseating Muggle preaching of yours,' Tamara commanded coldly in her mind, her internal voice stripped of all emotion.
She cast a sidelong glance at the dragon, which was currently wagging its spiked tail like an overgrown puppy. Her eyes were flat, evaluating the beast exactly as one would look at an expensive, highly lethal weapon.
'This isn't some ridiculous display of familial affection. Nor does it require any healthy state of mind or body.''As I have said before, this is merely an investment. A small, temporary sacrifice of dignity required to secure absolute control over the wizarding world's top war machine.'She turned her back on the creature.'The Dark Lord has no need for a weak, pathetic defect like love.'She strode toward the exit of the dragon's lair, her measured footsteps never once pausing or faltering. As she ascended the stone steps, she left the system with one final, chilling warning.'Also, I distinctly remember warning you last year...'Her mental tone dropped to a venomous whisper.'Never use that word on me again.'
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