Chapter 289: Chapter 289: Breakfast at the Black Lake (Edited)
As Hermione looked on in astonishment, Tom pulled out a small box filled with ingredients and a small frying pan.
Tom took out two slices of fresh bread from the ingredient box, each slice nearly an inch thick. Next, he pulled out a pre-made egg mixture with a few tablespoons of evaporated milk - evaporated milk is actually "thick" milk, the product of distilling milk to remove some of the water, about half the amount of water in fresh milk.
"I read the recipe in the newspaper. This dessert is called Lost Milk, and it's for stress relief." Tom was aware of Hermione's condition, and unlike him, Hermione had always maintained the highest level, which meant she wasn't lazy in class.
How could it be? They were enrolled in eleven classes this semester, and the pressure was so great that they needed to use a Time-Turner to attend their classes on time. If you take all the classes seriously, you can't afford it. Hermione is in a state of "overwhelm," while Tom is able to cope because he is lazy. There was no persuasion, but Tom could help Hermione by doing something to alleviate her stress.
For example, a calorie-filled dessert.
Tom placed the bread slices on an iron tray and poured a well-beaten egg batter over them, letting the slices soak in the egg mixture. At the same time, he propped up a small frying pan on the ground and looked at Hermione. Hermione understood and used her magic to create a flickering blue fire. The flame licked the bottom of the pan, gradually heating it. Tom added a pat of butter, watching as it melted, transforming from a soft yellow lump into a liquid with a million tiny bubbles. When the creamy aroma wafted up, he added the bread slices, which had already absorbed a good amount of the egg mixture.
"For dishes with evaporated milk, you should use the lowest heat, otherwise it's easy to burn." Hearing his words, Hermione lowered the heat and guiltily watched the bread slices in the pan; luckily, they weren't burnt.
There was a distinct aroma in the air as the butter and egg mixture came into contact and made a sizzling sound. After about thirty seconds, Tom pointed his wand and the bread slices flipped, revealing their golden sides.
"Wow!" Hermione's eyes turned into stars. "It looks incredible!"
Tom did the same, frying the other side of the bread slice until it turned golden, frying all sides so that it maintained its shape. Once the slices were done, he served them on a small plate, drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. As soon as the first slice was ready, Tom grabbed the second one from the pan and saw that Hermione had already levitated the slice onto the plate and was nibbling on it.
"This dish isn't finished yet..." Tom said helplessly.
"Eh?" Hermione panicked like a kitten caught stealing food, thinking it was done, but the bread slices were only halfway through.
What a mess, Hermione was a bit annoyed.
"It's alright, I'll make another slice," Tom said, seeing Hermione's expression. How could he say something serious? He would simply make another slice with the leftover ingredients. As he did so, Hermione stood by his side, watching him make the dessert and carefully eating the fried bread slices.
Tom stacked the two condensed milk-coated slices on top of each other and, with a small spoon, pressed a hole into the fluffy toast, filling it with the "milk" that Tom had boiled earlier. The drizzling milk, the essence of the dish, wasn't just any milk but a sweet paste made from a mixture of butter, evaporated milk, and condensed milk, slow-cooked. Tom warmed the "milk" slightly, poured it into a small well, creating a pool of milk, and topped it with a thick layer of cocoa powder, and the calorie bomb was complete.
He handed the dessert, which looked like a chocolate cake but was actually a burst sandwich, to Hermione on a plate and said, "Happy birthday, love Hermione" (This phrase is in French).
Hermione burst into laughter. "Where did you learn French? And that pronunciation is really weird!"
Although Tom's pronunciation of the word "Hermione" was indeed the French pronunciation. Since the "H" is not pronounced in French, many names can sound strange. The name Harry Potter, for example, is pronounced by the French as Alain Bauhet.
Hermione grabbed a teaspoon and gently pressed it against the dripping milk sandwich. The milk flowed out of the pool, and Hermione took a bite. It was so sweet that her eyes turned into crescent moons. After savoring the dessert, she said to Tom, "Merci, mon chéri" (Thank you, darling) and then said with a serious face, "This reminds me, you have never pronounced my name correctly."
Tom: ?!?
What? Isn't it Hermione?
"Her-mee-nee?" he said tentatively.
"No!" Hermione glared at him, looking a bit inflated. "Listen, it's Her-my-oh-nee."
Tom: ...
He was starting to understand everything.
The name Hermione, derived from the ancient Greek god Hermes, was also mentioned in Shakespeare's play "The Winter's Tale." But none of that mattered; Hermione just sounded drunk, talking a good game but actually trying to get Tom to say the words...
"Her-my-oh-nee," he pronounced her name as Hermione had.
"That's right," Hermione nodded in satisfaction. "You've known me for so long, and you can't even pronounce my name properly. You must be punished!" She gave Tom a stern look. "Boy, you need to be punished..."
Her eyes drifted off. "Then I'll punish you by cleaning my mouth!" With that, she leaned in close to Tom. Tom could smell the shampoo scent in her hair, see the long lashes of her eyes and her lips so soft and the rosy color of a peach, and smell the cocoa powder at the corner of her lips.
After a while, Tom kissed Hermione and wiped the milk from the corners of her mouth, and together they ate the remaining dripping milk.
After breakfast, Hermione rubbed her slightly swollen belly, blushed a little, and fell back into Tom's arms. She felt as if Tom had slipped a small box into her hands.
"Open it."
Hermione obediently opened the box and saw a silver bell and a gold chain lying peacefully inside.
"Is this...?" At first glance, Hermione thought it was a necklace, but she soon realized that something was amiss, and when she saw where the chain was supposed to be attached, a blush spread across her face.
Chapter 290: Chapter 290: Gold Chain and Smooth Skin (Edited)
Hermione was a bit shy.
"I'll put it on for you, okay?" A soft voice sounded next to her ear, and Tom's warm breath brushed against her earlobe, sending a wave of heat through Hermione as she lay in Tom's arms.
"Yes," she nodded, lifting her legs.
Tom was delighted.
"You... you really like it..." Hermione lightly rubbed her head against Tom's chest.
"Yes."
Hermione herself removed the small leather shoes and gray socks from her feet, exposing her feet to Tom's gaze: long and graceful ankles, delicate and tiny feet, cute and mischievous toes that wiggled slightly in the cool morning air of autumn.
Tom's heart skipped a beat as he gently caressed that work of art. He then wrapped Hermione's right foot with his own finished ankle bracelet, a golden chain encircling Hermione's foot like a piece of jade inlaid with gold.
The gold chain formed a circle around the ankle, and three pairs of thin chains hung on both sides, adding a decorative touch to the sides of the ankle. In the center of the upper circle of chains was Tom's bell, and along with it, a fine chain extended and hung from Hermione's toes.
Tom placed the chain on Hermione's toes. Just as they were coming together, Hermione's ankle bracelet bell suddenly rang.
Tom jumped up and looked around, immediately noticing a rustling in the bushes beside him, and wand in hand, he pounced and caught a large gray rat.
He held the rat upside down by its tail, barely able to contain his anger. The others didn't know, but he did. It wasn't a rat at all; it was Sirius Black's target, Peter Pettigrew.
He looked at the struggling rat in his hands with an expressionless face. "You were just spying, weren't you?"
It might have been a mistake on Tom's part, they were just a pair of black eyes, but he always felt the rat's eyes, dirty, unpleasant.
"Tom, it's just a mouse," Hermione said, surprised by Tom's reaction but relieved to see the uninvited guest for what it was.
"Yes, it's just a mouse." Tom quickly figured out how to deal with the mouse. He had been very kind about Scabbers, counting on Peter to act as a model Death Eater and find Voldemort's wandering spirit.
Most of Voldemort's Horcruxes are not difficult to handle once their whereabouts are known, but there is one Horcrux that is quite tricky to deal with, and that Horcrux is called Harry Potter.
That night, thirteen years ago, Voldemort's Killing Curse rebounded off Lily's magic, killing him and rebounding a small fragment of his soul into Harry Potter, the only living being in the room at the time, turning the young Harry into one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. The "Boy Who Lived" was connected to the Dark Lord.
To kill Voldemort once and for all, all his Horcruxes must be destroyed. As long as the last Horcrux doesn't disappear, Voldemort will remain in an "immortal" state, a soul that is not a fragment of a soul but a state of wonder between life and death that will regenerate no matter how many times it is destroyed. It will regenerate no matter how many times it is destroyed. When Voldemort possessed Quirrell in the first year, Dumbledore was already there when Quirrell died, but he couldn't do anything against Voldemort's wandering soul.
This is the power of Horcruxes. Until the last Horcrux is destroyed, he is invincible, and even Dumbledore is powerless against him.
And in doing so, Voldemort unknowingly made Harry his hostage. To kill Voldemort, he had to destroy all the Horcruxes, which meant that Harry would have to die as well, something Dumbledore would never have wanted, so he wasn't very motivated to destroy Voldemort until he came up with a solution.
This dead-end, which had tormented Dumbledore for so long, was finally unleashed by Voldemort himself. Voldemort's resurrection required the bones of his father, the flesh of his servant, and the blood of his enemy. Although he had many enemies, Tom believed that Voldemort could spit on three of them from the top of Gringotts - he insisted, from a twisted mind, on using Harry's blood to resurrect him. This deepened their sinful relationship: as the blood of love magic entered their bodies, their lives became bound together in a state of communion and death.
If Voldemort doesn't die, Harry won't die, and even if another Killing Curse is cast at him, Harry will come back to life. Therefore, it was possible to destroy Voldemort's spirit within Harry's body without harming Harry's life. So it all comes down to this: Voldemort will use Harry's blood to revive himself.
The heavy lifting was up to Peter.
Tom had to admit that the rat was truly efficient. He had escaped in his third year and was able to return to Riddle's home in the summer with Voldemort in embryonic form, which was very efficient. That's why he needed Harry's "help."
For these reasons, Tom's attitude towards Scabbers was, of course, to let him go, keeping both sides at a distance and controlling each other. It was a very "permissive" attitude. What if Peter had done something today? His sneaky snooping annoyed Tom.
Tom was selfish, there were things that only he could see! No one else could even look at it.
There was no intention of handing Peter over to Dumbledore or throwing him to Sirius, but a little punishment wouldn't hurt.
"I didn't expect you to be jealous of mice," Hermione said with a soft smile on her lips, but deep down she was very pleased.
Tom grabbed Peter's tail and gave him a few swats. "What a fat mouse, why don't you take it to feed Crookshanks?"
Peter: !!!
He resisted even more. He didn't want to be devoured by that crazy cat. He could easily crush the beast in his human form, but that would undoubtedly expose him. If he attracted Dumbledore to him again, it would be too bad...
The fear of exposure was the reason Peter had feared revealing his true form.
"Wait," Hermione recognized the rat, "It looks like Ron's 'Scabbers'! What is it doing here?"
Peter was excited and couldn't help but nod. "Good for you, girl! That's right, I'm Ron's pet rat!" He shouted in his mind.
"Is that so?" Tom pretended to be clueless. "Rats all look the same, I couldn't tell you."
Scabbers, whom Peter had transformed into, immediately squealed.
Seeing that Hermione was about to approach Tom and identify Scabbers' features, Tom delivered a strong blow to her lower back and threw him into the Black Lake.
"Never mind, leave it, the rat is quite dirty," Tom's eyes shifted to Hermione's feet. "Isn't it cold to be barefoot on the ground?"
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone You may also Like
Paragraph comment