Chapter 106: Chapter 106: Hermione's Birthday Present (Edited)
Just after putting the box away, Tom saw Hermione come out of her bedroom, rubbing her eyes.
Hermione looked like she hadn't been awake long and had probably just brushed her teeth and washed her face. She was wearing her hair down and a wine-red robe, the hem of which revealed two smooth, dainty legs and her feet were covered by a pair of plush, dog-shaped slippers.
Hermione had just come out of the washroom, still a little groggy, and was about to make herself some tea in the Common Room, but when she saw Tom sitting near the window, she woke up completely.
The young man was sitting in an armchair by the fire in the fireplace, looking out the window, a perfect subject for a painting.
Hermione was a little stunned.
"You're up early." It was Tom who greeted Hermione first, snapping her out of her brief daze.
"How can you say that, when you're in the Common Room before me?" Hermione rolled her eyes, "Are you studying?!".
"No," Tom hurriedly clarified at Hermione's suspicious look, "There are no books on my desk!".
Indeed, there was nothing on the table, just a steaming pot of tea and a cup of tea.
Hermione's eyes narrowed, and with a sharp turn she pulled a bag of books out of the blind spot between the table and the armchair, shook it and there was a clatter of books inside, "There are no books on the table, someone's rhetoric is very accurate."
Tom was surprised: you shouldn't be able to see it! Why is he so slick?
"I suppose you've done this sort of thing quite often?" Tom had a hunch: Hermione must have hidden books like this too!
There was even such a scene in his mind: the brown-haired girl was reading a book, hearing footsteps, she quickly hid the book, because if she was secretly seen reading a book, her classmates would tease her again.
"Don't change the subject!" Hermione gently placed the bag on the table, and kicked Tom with her dog slippers.
"I haven't actually read them! I just borrowed them from the library!".
"You went to the library?" Hermione's eyes widened in surprise, "You said you weren't going yesterday!".
"Would you like a hot cup of tea?" Tom picked up the kettle, "Let's go for a walk in the fresh air after tea, shall we?"
"Mr. Yodel, you are a master of changing the subject!" Hermione went back to her bedroom, "Wait for me!".
Hermione was going to go on about Tom's "non-compliance", but when she heard that Tom had invited her for a walk, she decided to change her clothes before giving him a good lecture along the way, to remind him how to keep his word.
Tom didn't see Hermione again until the tea in the kettle was finished.
When Hermione returned to the dormitory, she fetched an eyebrow pencil and traced her eyebrows to make them look thinner and longer, then drew on very light eyeliner and put on lip polish.
Most of the girls in the dormitory were already up, lying on their various beds unconcerned, groggy or under the covers.
When Padma Patil saw Hermione return and sit down at her desk to apply her makeup, her heart immediately burned with gossip. She tiptoed up to Hermione and said coolly, "You don't usually put on makeup, but you do it today, on a weekend."
Hermione's hand trembled and lip gloss ran down her chin.
She wiped the polish off her lips with a handkerchief as she said in a bit of a panic, "Yeah, a bit of makeup for the weekend, to learn..."
"Aww~" Padma smiled a meaningful smile, and by now the girls in the dormitory, except for the girls who were actually asleep, were coming back to their senses in a hurry, the ones who were groggy had serious things on their minds. Everyone had their little gossip radar on full blast.
"The girls have to learn how to put on makeup." Padma stated, "How can you make boys' hearts beat faster without makeup?".
Padma: "I have a copy of the Love Sutra I brought from home, too bad you're not old enough, otherwise it would be good to read it..."
Hermione: "I don't understand what Love Sutra, Padma, you're talking about."
"Makeup for the weekend, there must be something weird." Sue Li, on the sidelines, saw Padma's conversation drift and joined in.
"You're not going out with any older students, are you?" Sue Li asked the question that worried her the most. Sue Li was, simply put, a "CP head", and she really didn't want "accidents" to happen: after all, Tom was very popular in Ravenclaw: a Quidditch prodigy, a House smart, and the incident at the end of last term had given him an aura of heroism.
Sue Li said, "Do these two match? they're perfect for each other!
"It's not Percy Weasley from Gryffindor, is it? I remember he was very close to Penelope from our house."
Hermione had some memories of Penelope: a proud girl with beautiful curly hair. She had good grades and was said to be a likely Prefect.
"No? She's actually with Percy..."
"We'll talk about that later." Before she knew it, Hermione was surrounded by four girls.
Hermione got along quite well with the girls in her dorm, thanks to the strong Ravenclaw study environment. It was a place where smart received more respect. Also, the girls and boys play together all the time, so they get to know each other quite well.
On the other hand, these days it's rare for Tom to survive past the third round of a werewolf game as a citizen or god. Thanks to his uncanny instincts, Tom guesses werewolves very well, and if he gets a witch or a hunter, the wolf team will lose by one, and if he gets a guard, he has a record of three turns in a row.
The consequence of this is that the wolf side usually knifes this problem on the first night.
So Tom is now more of a moderator, watching a bunch of newbies peck at each other.
They all laughed as they questioned Hermione, and finally determined from her: Hermione is going for a ride with Tom Yodel!
There was much commotion.
Everyone gathered to pick out Hermione's clothes and help her with her makeup.
"Great, little sunshine is finally getting serious!"
Since Tom's name was a nickname for Thomas, the Sun God, the girls in the dormitory used the term Little Sunshine to refer to Tom.
"I heard at the beginning of the term that the new pretty girl at school knew Tom, which really freaked me out." said Sue Li to Hermione as she rummaged through the pile of skin care products.
"What?" the atmosphere perked up with the new gossip: it was worth not sleeping during the day and eating popcorn while listening to juicy gossip!
So Sue Li shared the rumors she had heard with her friends.
"Doesn't sound like much..." Mandy Brocklehurst muttered.
"What?! she's a girl is a schoolgirl! She's a dangerous creature," Morag MacDougal immediately retorted, "Be sure to watch out for this schoolgirl."
He began to admonish Hermione.
But their mouths didn't stop, neither did their hands, Tom was still waiting in the common room, and they were doing Hermione's makeup, they were all young and didn't need heavy makeup, it was all skin care and maintenance stuff.
"Here, this oil will soften your hair."
"A magical scent that will make the opposite sex feel good about you, don't worry, it's not a love potion."
...
Within minutes, Hermione was being dressed by the girls in her dormitory. At first glance she looked like she wasn't wearing any makeup, but she looked better than usual, and even her hair wasn't as disheveled.
"Bring some gold jewelry," Padma said, pulling out a box and placing it on the table with a thud, "A girl can be frowned upon if she doesn't wear enough gold."
Hermione declined her offer and Padma left a little disappointed with the box of gold bracelets.
"There's not much room to play with wizard robes over there," Sue Li, the Commander-in-Chief, put aside a clean wizard robe, "The gray blouse and white shirt will do. Put it on, though you'll look like you're going to class."
"With the scarf on?"
"Not a good idea!" Sue Li flatly rejected the proposal. She looked at Hermione for a moment and said, "I think you have a pair of those... Yes, that's what you're going to wear."
Hermione blushed and pulled out of her suitcase a pair of gray socks with a cute cartoon on them: a little dog on the left foot and a kitten on the right. After putting on the socks, he put on a pair of knee-high black boots, plain and unadorned, with only a small strap around the ankle and a small gold buckle.
The boots were just the right length, slightly below the knee.
Sue Li smiled and nodded.
"Ready to finish!"
As Hermione was about to leave the bedroom, she suddenly admonished her, "Hermione, remember, don't confess your love suddenly, wait for Yodel to do it, remember: Love is war!".
Hermione's face instantly turned red, "What confession...why can't I understand? It's just a walk." Then she hurried down the stairs, the soles of her boots hitting the floor with a crunch.
Behind her, there was a group of her dorm mates with smiles.
Tom almost thought Hermione had stood him up, but when she appeared from the entrance to the stairs, he was stunned.
The girl in front of him looked familiar and unfamiliar: She looks good, but I can't tell where she looks good.
"Come on." said Hermione to Tom with her head bowed in embarrassment.
"Okay."
The two walked out of the castle together.
It was a nice sunny day, the sun was beating down on them, but it wasn't hot,
The two walked slowly across the castle lawn, Tom watching the grass cut the hem of her robe and brush Hermione's feet.
Tom and Hermione crossed the lawn and arrived at the Black Lake. The two of them strolled along the Black Lake.
"Why do you want to walk with me all of a sudden?" asked Hermione with her hands behind her back.
"Since I came to Hogwarts, I haven't had a chance to explore it." Tom pulled out a sandwich wrapped in paper towels that he had just taken out of the Great Dining Hall.
Hermione took the sandwich, and the two walked around the Black Lake in silence for a while. As they walked, Hermione frowned a little suddenly, when a large tree with branches stretching out over the lake appeared in front of them.
"This would be a good place to fish." said Tom, pointing to the shady lake, and then they both burst out laughing at the thought of the pond where they first met.
The two sat together under the tree, watching the sun reflect off the lake, enjoying the cool breeze that brought a pleasant smell: it could be flowers, or....
"Look!" Hermione poked Tom in the ribs, making him jerk.
Following the direction Hermione pointed in, Tom saw Malfoy leaving the castle with a Slytherin girl named Pansy Parkinson, the two holding hands as they walked together across the lawn and walked in another direction.
"Speaking of fishing, everyone says there's a big squid in the Black Lake, I wonder if it's true." said Hermione as she looked at the lake.
"Of course it's true, I've also heard the legend that this big squid is the animagus form of one of the four Founders, Godric Gryffindor, and he's been living in the lake ever since, until now."
"That's false, isn't it?" Hermione was obviously unconvinced, "There's no such thing as a squid that lives for a thousand years!"
"Yes, immortality is a curse..." Tom sighed, throwing the last piece of bread into the lake.
Soon, a tentacle appeared and dragged the bread down.
"Look!" he pointed at the tentacle, "That's the big squid in the lake, the students love to feed it."
Hermione was also excited and threw her breakfast into the lake to feed the squid.
"Why do you think immortality is a curse?" Hermione was curious, in the Muggle world immortality was as coveted as the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
"Behind immortality is infinite loneliness, you watch as your familiar friends fade away, grow old, die, and even those who survive wear out with the long years, are forgotten.... Now do you still think immortality is a good thing? It is said that Nicolas Flamel has decided to stop taking immortality potion from the Philosopher's Stone."
The things mentioned were a bit sad, and the two kept silent.
Tom took out the gift box and handed it to Hermione.
"Happy Birthday, Hermione."
Hermione was a little surprised.
"We've known each other for almost two years, and I only recently found out about your birthday: I'm not going to make up for the last present." said Tom with a smile, "I know, your birthday is September 19th, but it might be too late then..."
"Too late?" asked Hermione, taking the box.
"Nothing. It's just that if something happens to me in the future, don't worry, I'll be fine, you have to trust me."
"What accident?" Hermione set the box down.
Tom shook his head, "It's my mission. Don't worry, you know my 'little secret'."
With that Tom said, Hermione was relieved.
Then she opened the box carefully.
Chapter 107: Chapter 107: The Wand Apprentice (Edited)
Hermione opened the gift box Tom had given her and pulled out the gold-leaf bookmark inside.
"It's beautiful!" She held the bookmark to her eyes with delight.
"It's more than a bookmark." Tom proudly described the function of the bookmark and Hermione's mouth dropped open in amazement.
"It's amazing!" Hermione was amazed at what the bookmark could do.
"Hehe." Tom was very proud: he had killed an unknown number of hairs to do this, so of course it was impressive!
Hermione carefully put the bookmark back in the box and put it away.
"Whatever you're planning to do, I can help you with anything."
...
Relax, feel at ease and make yourself comfortable.
It had been a long time since Tom had been this relaxed, not having to think about anything, not having to worry about anything, not having to study magic, carve runes, practice spells day after day, all he had to do was lean against a tree trunk, watch the clouds go by, watch the lake sparkle.
Hermione was sitting next to him.
Tom's hand reached a little closer to Hermione's and took it gently. Hermione didn't avoid it, she shivered a little and then intertwined her fingers with Tom's.
Hermione's fingertips were cool, soft to the touch, and her hand felt a little thin.
Tom was a little sleepy: he had gotten up early this morning to meet with Professor Lockhart, and by now, he was a little tired.
Seeing that Tom seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep, Hermione wiggled her toes quietly, her feet a little restless.
"What's wrong?" asked Tom.
Hermione hadn't expected that, but Tom sensed this action, blushed and said nothing.
After a while, he said with a gnat-like buzz, "My sock slipped."
He hadn't realized that, as he walked, the socks had slipped a little, from his ankle to the sole of his foot.
It felt a little uncomfortable.
Hermione's face had turned red.
"Put your socks back on, it's no big deal." Tom had thought it was something, but it was such a small thing.
Hermione bent her legs, grabbed the heel of the boot and tugged gently on it. She pulled them off, exposing her bare calves and the gray socks that had slipped down to her toes, and gently lifted the warm, soft gray socks and put them back on.
As she did so, she angled her toes slightly, the socks framing the curves of her feet nicely. She lifted the sock a little after putting them on so they wouldn't fall off.
Then Hermione slipped her toe into the boot, slid her foot in, squeezed the top of the boot, kicked her leg and put the boot on.
Hermione's cheeks were very red when this was over.
"Um..." Hermione, who had never done anything like this before, was a little nervous as she quickly adjusted her shoes and then looked at Tom, who was wide-eyed and unblinking.
Forget it all, forget it all!". Hermione reached out and patted Tom's head several times.
But after a while, the two of them laughed together.
Happy times always go by so fast.
"Looks like it's time for lunch." Hermione noticed that it was noon before she knew it, and they stood up together, shook the dirt off their bodies, and walked towards the castle.
When they entered the Great Dining Hall, it was just about lunchtime.
The students were enjoying a hearty lunch, and Tom and Hermione were hungry enough to join the feast: barbecue, bacon, sausages, lettuce, stew, mixed vegetables, everything.
When Tom and Hermione came out of the Great Dining Hall after eating, Harry and Ron were right in front of them.
It had been a miserable week for Ron.
Wednesday had been Lockhart's car accident, and Thursday morning he had received a vociferous letter from Mrs. Weasley: although Lockhart had driven the car, Mr. Weasley had also committed a felony and had been summoned to the Ministry of Magic for examination. After all, it was inconceivable that Arthur Weasley, a member of the Office for the Prohibition of the Misuse of Muggle Articles and one of the main people responsible for the raids, would have a magically modified Muggle car in his house.
Even if the purebloods wanted to catch him, that's not a bad thing: Arthur deliberately left a loophole when he wrote the law: as long as he didn't intend to fly away with the car, the modification was legal.
So Mr. Weasley was in luck. He was expected to be under scrutiny for a long time. But fortunately, the main responsibility for this was taken by Lockhart, who solved the problem with gold galleons.
When Mrs. Weasley recovered, she gave Ron a hard lesson: a howling letter. Of course, if you have thick enough skin, that's not a problem at all.
But the next problem is deadly: the wand.
You can cope with a howling card, but a wandless wizard will have to resort to wandless spells. Obviously, Ron doesn't know how to cast spells without a wand.
Ron's wand broke in the accident and, with Lockhart's "help," snapped in two. Lockhart himself had no intention of repairing the damage, he simply altered Ron's memory and made him believe that it was all his fault....
So Ron had to borrow magic tape to repair his wand, but a broken wand is not something that can be fixed with ordinary magic tape, and his wand kept creaking and sparking from time to time even when it was bound together. Later, when Ron tried to transform a beetle in transfiguration class, his wand emitted thick, gray, rotten-egg-smelling smoke.
Even with this problem, Ron couldn't bring himself to write home to tell about it.
"This damn wand!" complained Ron, just after dinner, when Ron's wand emitted a shower of sparks that blew a hole in his robe.
"Really, write home and ask for another one." Harry gave the best advice he could.
"Yes, and get another howling letter..." It was too humiliating for Ron to receive another howling letter.
That was the brief conversation Tom overheard, but it was enough for him to understand what was going on.
But the wand...it wasn't really a problem for him.
He couldn't fix it, but he could try to temporarily fix it.
"Ron, what happened to your wand? I worked for Mr. Ollivander over the vacations, maybe I can help you" Tom said.
Ron's eyes lit up, "Really? Look at my wand, is it still salvageable?"
Tom and Hermione took Harry Ron with them to an empty classroom.
Tom took a good look at Ron's wand, and it was indeed hopeless. The core of the wand was damaged and part of the wood was missing.
Tom shook his head, Ron looked disappointed, but Tom pulled out a new wand.
Chapter 108: Chapter 108: Lockhart's efforts (Edited)
"Ebony, fifteen inch, Occamy feather." Tom pulled out his earlier inaugural work and handed it to Ron.
"This is the first wand I've ever made, it's not as good as the professional wand makers, but at least it's stable."
Ron took the plain looking wand and was ecstatic, he picked it up, waved it twice, tried a few simple spells and found that the spell casting, although a bit slow, was better than a broken wand.
"Thanks, Tom, I really don't know how I would have made it through the rest of the semester without you...," Ron said as he stowed his new wand in his robes.
"A wandmaker's job is to find a master for his wand." Tom gave him a small smile in return, it was only a small effort, and to be honest, his wand was very poorly made.
An apprentice's first job, it was good enough if you could use it.
After helping Ron with his wand, Tom and Hermione returned to the Ravenclaw Common Room.
"Thanks for the bookmark, I really like it." said Hermione to Tom in the doorway of the Common Room, she looked like she wanted to say something else, but in the end nothing came out, except that her cheeks flushed again.
She thought for a moment, as if she had suddenly remembered something, and pulled a silk handkerchief from her pocket and gently wiped Tom's cheek.
"If you're in trouble, you can come to me, I should be able to help you."
He slipped the handkerchief into Tom's hand and ran off at a trot.
Tom felt the lingering fragrance on his face and smiled shyly.
He looked at the handkerchief, the handkerchief was white silk with a red tulip embroidered on it, there was a very delicate fragrance on the handkerchief, Tom couldn't help but lean over and smell it.
...
"Well?" Hermione was surrounded by her roommates as soon as she returned to the dormitory, and the questioning that awaited her was as intense as a trial.
"So Little Sun didn't confess to you?", Sue Li looked disappointed.
"What confession?! I don't understand anything you're saying!" exclaimed Hermione angrily.
"Looks like the little minx is still hiding something..." Mandy Brocklehurst sensed something unusual, so she pounced on Hermione and tickled the itchy flesh under her armpit, "Come on, you're telling me? "
"What... haha, wait... wait a minute..."
Soon, the roommates discovered what had happened.
"Wow!"
('?ω?') (='ω'=) (??ω??) ?(ω)? (????)
"That's a good start!"
"Come on, try the bookmark he gave you!" Lisa Turpin brought a book and told Hermione to try it.
Hermione placed the bookmark and scanned the book.
Then it was... they looked at it with wide eyes.
"So how do you see if it's finished?" Someone asked that soul question.
Silence fell over the room and Hermione was speechless: it was true that Tom hadn't said what the scanner looked like when it was finished.
But, fortunately, the book was so fine that within a minute the bookmark finished scanning it.
"I think it's finished scanning!" Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, and somehow she didn't want the bookmark to reveal her flaws to her friends, and she regretted it a little: why did she tell her friends? It was supposed to be a secret between her and Tom!
Suddenly, she didn't want her roommates to touch the bookmark, which had a special meaning for her.
Hermione wrote a word on a piece of parchment, then took the bookmark to scan the word, and the bookmark automatically started looking up the word for her, and the little witches around were stunned.
But while they were still trying to play, Hermione put the bookmark away: she was going to start scanning the textbook.
Hermione wanted to be selfish with her bookmark.
Of course, she also cleverly found a topic to talk about: professor Lockhart.
Speaking of Lockhart, they soon forgot Tom.
The girls chatted about Lockhart's experiences, Lockhart's new book, and Lockhart's amazing car ride, an act that most thought was great, such a fantastic ride was what they were looking for.
Even Hermione fantasizes about riding in the car with Tom, but she only thought about it, as it goes against the secret statute.
But it's very romantic! A car ride down a river of stars.
The girls chatted for a while and noticed that everyone seemed to be a fan of Professor Lockhart. Then, they smiled to each other: So you're a Rohat fan too!
They all pulled Lockhart posters out of their suitcases and put them on the dorm walls. Hermione didn't have a poster, but was holding a copy of Lockhart's complete works: the Flourish and Blotts Bookshop edition, which also aroused the envy of the young witches.
Where was Professor Lockhart at the time? In a dark room.
When he awoke, he found himself in his trunk, his mouth gagged and his hands and feet bound.
He struggled to remember what had happened before he passed out, the last thing he remembered was Tom sending him flowers, and he couldn't remember much else.
Suddenly, the suitcase opened, light shone inside, dazzling Lockhart, and a figure jumped in, took the contents out of his mouth, untied his hands and feet, and threw a bucket of water and a packet of sandwiches beside him.
"Behave yourself, if you make a noise, you won't be able to move freely."
Lockhart recognized the voice, and it was Tom.
"Tom, is there some kind of misunderstanding between us? I know my new book is too long overdue, but locking me in a dark room isn't going to help, I'm not inspired..."
Tom looked at him emotionlessly as he spoke, then pulled a pair of handcuffs and anklets out of his pocket, and brought a large iron ball to keep Lockhart securely locked up before he made any serious moves in the box; all kindly sponsored by Filch, who, upon learning that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was interested in the "tools" in his office.
He carefully explained to Tom how to use the various instruments of torture, and was proud to say that they were as good as new under his care. With a small show of interest, he presented Tom with a set.
"Really, Professor, please believe me, if you are willing to let me hang a punished pupil, no one will distract your class!" Filch gave Tom his word of honor.
Tom put the shackles on Lockhart with a playful grin.
"Professor Lockhart, please explain this secret room in your suitcase."
Lockhart's chattering ceased.
He said in a panic, "I don't know why there's so much room in my suitcase..."
Tom just looked at him like that, with an expression on his face that seemed to say, Do you think I'm stupid?
Lockhart gradually felt guilty.
"Professor Lockhart, all those experiences you've had, they're from other people, aren't they? You took the experiences from the mouths of those lonely old wizards and packaged them as your own..." Tom said.
"I did not!" shouted Lockhart.
"And as for the wizards you got the stories from, you killed them all, didn't you? Just like I did to you, imprisoned them here, then tortured them and finally killed them..."
"I've never done this before!" Lockhart panicked as he heard Tom's reasoning become more and more outrageous, and he couldn't help but panic: Tom said he would do the same to him, but he didn't actually kill those wizards, at most he had only tortured them before erasing their memories.
Lockhart didn't start writing as soon as he graduated, he started his own business. He invented a shampoo made from Occamy egg yolk, which actually "blocked the shine," but because of this, the raw materials for this product were too dangerous. and expensive, and it was never produced for the mass market.
He later became a writer by chance.
When Lockhart started writing, he did so with the intention of publishing the adventures of other wizards, but one day, he discovered that his interviewees did not distrust him!
So he got the evil idea to take the story for himself.
He stole the magician, took his story and succeeded. After tasting the sweetness of fame, he began his own path of plagiarism. He tracked down and found magicians, asked about their experiences, a process that sometimes required force, and erased their memories. He became an expert in this process.
But as his skills matured, he no longer needed to use spells other than Obliviate Charm, and Lockhart's abilities to cast Charms became increasingly scarce, until finally he had nothing left but Obliviate Charm.
"My dear Tom, calm down: listen to me well, I admit that those adventures were not all mine," Lockhart said, really frightened, fearing that the boy in front of him would torture and silence him: he knew it was impossible for him to endure torture, so he explained his experience quickly.
"Think about it, boy, think about the experiences of those old wizards, how could they sell it? For example, the old wizard who saved a whole village from the danger of werewolves, he is very ugly and has very bad taste in clothes, so if it was used as a cover, no one would want to read such a book..."
Seeing Tom's angry look, Lockhart quickly explained, "I have also worked hard, it is not easy to find wizards with stories, you have to ask very carefully, you can not leave out any details, and then you have to cast a dememorizing spell. It takes great skill to engage in such extensive memory modification, and one can become a fool if one is not careful..."
"So you've had problems with the dememorizing charm? Did it turn some people into idiots?" Tom interrupted Lockhart's argument, but Lockhart ignored him.
"Boy, do you understand? I had to do a lot of preparation too, it looks easy, but it's a lot of work, it's physical work, but you have to work hard to be famous, I envy Harry Potter, only a few dead parents and he's world famous..."
Tom was stunned at these words, and his last sympathy for Lockhart vanished.
He looked at Lockhart as if looking at an animal and then opened the suitcase.
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