In secret, a plot against Jane Yu was brewing.

Millicent, holding her equally fat cat, was in the dormitory embellishing stories to Pansy.

"That low-born rat crawling out of some Muggle heap! Tricking Professor Flitwick with her cheap tricks, burning down the classroom so we couldn't continue our lessons!"

"She threatens us as soon as she arrives, and lost our house over a hundred points..."

"We should hex her, show her that Slytherin doesn't welcome Mudbloods!"

Pansy was at her vanity applying eyeliner when Millicent's coarse voice made her hand slip, causing the black liquid to smear.

"Tch." She impatiently tossed aside her eyeliner. "I'd advise you to be careful. I doubt a girl our age could fool the professors."

Daphne chimed in from the side: "Gemma's a smart prefect, she just warned us not to lose points."

Coming from the Greengrass family, she was Pansy's supporter and always backed her views.

"You..." Millicent was incredulous that both her roommates had refused to help.

But knowing Pansy's infatuation with the Malfoy heir, she calculated her next move and continued stirring the pot:

"But that big fire today burned Draco's hair!"

This successfully raised Pansy's hatred. Remembering the hat Draco had worn all day, she suddenly understood and said through gritted teeth:

"What? How dare she... how dare she treat a Malfoy like that!"

She then kicked aside her chair and ordered Millicent to fetch her trunk from under the bed.

With a fawning expression, Millicent quickly crawled on the ground and pulled out the trunk, her fat body writhing on the floor.

Pansy rummaged through it for a moment before pulling out a glass vial containing white powder.

"This is itching powder. When sprinkled on someone, it causes unbearable itching."

She handed the small vial to Millicent, narrowing her eyes in warning:

"I can offer you some help."

"But you should know what will happen if this gets exposed and you rat us out."

Millicent's face paled as she clutched the vial, hurriedly agreeing and swearing she would never tell.

That night, Jane's dormitory door opened a crack.

A plump figure squeezed through.

Having learned that Jane had detention in the Charms classroom tonight, Millicent knew this was the perfect time to strike.

She surveyed the room and bed - faded sheets and blankets, an old trunk, second-hand robes in the wardrobe, and nothing but a bottle of body wash and shampoo in the bathroom.

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This further convinced her that Jane was just a poor Mudblood with no background.

Unscrewing the body wash cap, she poured in the white powder and shook it vigorously to mix.

"Get ready to be humiliated, you filth!"

With a malicious smile, Millicent replaced the cap, returned the bottle, and slipped out of the dormitory.

She could already imagine Jane writhing and scratching frantically in public, driven mad by the itching.

She thought her plan was foolproof - even Merlin himself couldn't prove she did it.

But she failed to notice her fat cat sneaking out of the dormitory.

......

At this time, Jane was unaware her room had been invaded.

She had just finished cleaning and was returning the mop and broom to the supply closet.

Though it was supposed to be detention, Professor Flitwick had actually used this opportunity to give her some extra tutoring.

Reparo and Scourgify.

Seeing how quickly she mastered them, Professor Flitwick beamed with joy, telling her that Scourgify was normally taught in fourth year.

"Excellent, Yu! You're learning faster than fourth-years!" he praised.

When Jane returned to the common room, she found a cat curled up in one of the silver and green sofas.

With an adoring smile, she picked up the cat and examined it carefully.

Hmm... very heavy and fat, seemingly high body fat percentage.

Its fur was matted in places, with bristly black and yellow long hair, and yellow-green irises that showed wariness.

"Another pet whose owner doesn't bathe or groom it."

She was puzzled - didn't these wizards take care of their pets?

First that three-headed dog, then the troll, and now this cat... they all smelled rather unpleasant.

"Come on, little one, let's give you a bath!"

Jane carried the fat cat back to her dormitory and placed it in the bathroom tub.

She put on her dragon-hide gloves, grabbed a brush and body wash, ready to begin Operation Grooming.

"Running low on body wash..." she muttered, emptying the entire bottle to work up a lather, which she spread over the cat while using the brush to detangle its matted fur, ensuring even coverage.

White bubbles and soap quickly engulfed the entire cat.

Feeling the sticky sensation all over, the cat suddenly twisted its body and let out a shriek, its feet scrabbling against the tub as it tried to escape. It even turned and bit Jane hard - but only caught the dragon-hide glove, causing no harm.

Still, the bite made her reflexively let go, and the black and yellow cat leaped up, covered in white foam, darting out of the bathroom and streaking toward the dormitory exit.

"So magical cats hate water too?" Jane panted, having expended considerable effort trying to control the fat cat. "Its weight really makes a difference - those kicks and bites were powerful."

"Scourgify!"

She waved her wand, and the foam and water in the tub, along with the cat's footprints on the floor, instantly vanished.

The empty body wash bottle disappeared as well.

......

A dark shape raced through the Slytherin common room corridor screaming, bursting into a girls' dormitory.

Seconds later, that dormitory erupted with successive shrieks.

......

"Have you heard? There's a ghost haunting the Slytherin girls' dormitory."

"Tell me more?"

"The first-years Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent all missed class today. When Head of House ordered Prefect Gemma to check on them, she found them unconscious with red, swollen welts all over their faces and heads, like severe allergic reactions. They were sent to the hospital wing."

"What's that got to do with a ghost?"

"That dormitory was filled with screaming all night last night!"

Rumors of the haunted girls' dormitory spread through Slytherin, with students discussing it endlessly. Soon all the protective mistletoe was stolen from the greenhouses, infuriating Professor Sprout.

In the hospital wing.

Madam Pomfrey fed the three students bottle after bottle of purple-black potion - a remedy for itching and allergic reactions.

But they still scratched incessantly at the itching, their sharp nails leaving new bloody marks. Their eyes were filled with tears, their words full of impotent rage and hatred:

"Jane Yu! That bitch, that wretch!"

"I'll kill her!"

Jane knew nothing of these incidents, nor that someone was plotting to hex her.

Three days into the term, she continued to keep to herself, working on her plan to get expelled.

That afternoon was Transfiguration, and she planned to cause some trouble to make Professor McGonagall - that strict lady - throw her out, advancing her expulsion progress bar.