Chapter 342: Chapter 342: Here Comes Tommy (Edited)
Tom was very busy this semester, so he didn't have time to read the supplementary books mentioned by Professor Trelawney. Instead, he planned to use the permanent tracker he had obtained from the Guild.
It only required a drop of blood to track someone to the ends of the earth.
"If you see, the trick with branch divination is..." Tom improvised some key points of branch divination, leaving Neville and Ron bewildered. At the same time, he stealthily took the tracking parchment from his robes.
Hermione, who had a keen eye, immediately noticed Tom's slight movement and rolled her eyes. Was this the genius of divination? It was truly an intense form of divination. When she saw the parchment, she understood that Tom wanted to use it to find Scabbers. This left her somewhat puzzled and with questions: was it worth using such a valuable parchment for a simple rat? Although Scabbers was not an ordinary rat; Peter Pettigrew had significant utility value.
Despite her confusion, Hermione didn't expose Tom publicly. She only gave him a disdainful look, as if she were looking at a foolish son-in-law, and began offering support.
"Oh, I understand. Is this how it works?" she would occasionally interrupt to divert Ron and Neville's attention. Meanwhile, Tom rubbed the parchment with the bloodstain on Ron's sheets.
The moment the parchment came into contact with the bloodstain, the stain abruptly disappeared, leaving a faint layer of red on the parchment.
Accompanying the change in color, the parchment also emitted a subtle energy that urged it to move in a specific direction.
Seeing that the parchment was working, Tom hesitated no longer and entered the Gryffindor common room, where he picked up a piece of wood from the firewood pile next to the fireplace.
"Does this also count as a branch?" Ron frowned, surprised by the appearance of the "branch," which was quite different from what he had imagined.
Tom chuckled inwardly. Who said he couldn't take shortcuts and use a piece of wood? Going up and down ten floors just to find a branch... he was only playing a role; there was no need to take it so seriously.
"Yes, this is a branch, just slightly thicker and without bark on the outside. The essence of branch divination isn't in the branch itself..." Tom looked at Hermione for approval.
Hermione was on the verge of bursting into laughter but managed to hold it in. With tensed facial muscles, she could only emit an "mmm" to show her support. She was truly struggling not to burst out laughing.
Tom looked like a charlatan, holding the piece of wood and muttering unintelligible words. Now he regretted not choosing a more conventional divination method, like a crystal ball or tea leaves. Even palm reading would seem more reasonable than this extravagant branch divination.
Fortunately, it was morning, and there weren't many people in the common room. But he still felt embarrassed because any first-year student who appeared in the common room in the morning would be drawn to Tom.
In the distance, Fred Weasley stood in a corner of the common room with his brother George, watching Tom as he held the piece of wood and muttered unintelligible words.
"What's he doing?" Fred was in a corner of the common room, watching Tom squeeze the wood and mutter something.
"What's he doing?" Fred asked, laughing uproariously. "It looks like he's helping our daft brother find Scabbers." Then, mimicking Ron's tone, he added, "Mum, Mum, I've lost my Scabbers!"
Fred burst into laughter, laughing until his stomach hurt.
"But do you see that Yodel is serious? Trying to find a lost rat with a broken piece of wood is, in my opinion, more practical than searching for it as a team."
Fred's laughter stopped for a moment, and he thought it over. "I vaguely remember that the branch divination method was mentioned in Divination class?"
George looked at his twin brother Fred as if he were a stranger. "Since when did you start studying Divination? Isn't that for the free credits?"
"But look at Yodel; do you think he's serious? He wants to find a missing rat using a piece of wood. Based on my experience, normal wizards can't learn anything useful from Professor Trelawney, but my experience also tells me that Tom Yodel is not an ordinary person. If he says he can find Scabbers with a branch, he must have confidence." Fred was also perplexed. His experience told him that normal wizards couldn't learn anything useful from Professor Trelawney, but he also knew that Tom Yodel wasn't just an ordinary character. If he said he could find Scabbers with a branch, he surely had confidence in it.
"Perhaps the key isn't in the branch," he murmured to himself. "Carefully observe his next moves."
Tom had also finished his "spell."
"This branch will lead me to Scabbers." Holding the branch in one hand and his other hand hidden beneath his robe sleeve, he clutched the tracking parchment.
Following the guidance of the parchment, he headed towards the boys' dormitory.
"Is Scabbers still in the boys' dormitory?" Several curious young wizards followed them. Hermione thought for a moment and also followed.
Ron had a bad feeling: had Scabbers been devoured, and only his bones remained in the dormitory? He quickened his pace and stood beside Tom, fixating his gaze on the wooden stick.
Following the indications of the parchment, Tom reached the door of the boys' bathroom. After some thought, he pushed the door open and entered, finally stopping in front of an occupied stall.
Tom: ...
The crowd: ...
Hermione outside the bathroom: ...
After a minute or so, the sound of running water could be heard from inside. Then, Percy emerged with a satisfied expression on his face.
As he pushed the door, Percy was met with numerous pairs of staring eyes.
Percy: ?!
Is there something wrong with the way I opened the door? Why are there so many people outside? Although Percy was used to speaking in front of crowds, he felt uncomfortable under the gaze of all these people.
"I was there for a short while, there was no delay!" He unconsciously said.
"We don't care about the state of your digestive system," Fred said gravely from among the crowd. "So, Tom, where is Scabbers? Did he become Percy's waste and get flushed down the drain?"
Tom: ...
Peter Pettigrew, what strange hobbies do you have? Why are you hiding in the bathroom? Is there a banquet here? Are you treating the boys' bathroom like an exclusive restaurant?
But along with the intense odor in the confined space, Tom suddenly had a revelation: Scabbers had chosen to hide here so that his own scent would be concealed by the bathroom smell.
"It's here," he whispered quietly to the people behind him. The tracking parchment in his pocket also trembled intensely, indicating that he and the target were very close.
Tom's eyes fell on the toilet paper holder in the stall. It seemed large enough to hide a mouse.
Indeed, Peter Pettigrew had been terrified by Sirius Black.
At the end of this summer vacation, he learned terrible news: Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban! Although others thought that Sirius was after Harry Potter, Peter knew that Sirius was after him.
During those idle days as a rat, he carefully reviewed the reasons for his exposure and finally realized that it was most likely because he had accidentally appeared in the Daily Prophet. Mr. Weasley had won a significant amount of Galleons on his vacation and was interviewed by the Daily Prophet due to his victory.
Thinking about that, Scabbers was filled with regret.
A small oversight, just one mistake! After twelve years of infiltration, he had let his guard down and accidentally exposed himself to the public. And to make matters worse, the one time he was exposed, Sirius Black saw him!
In the world, there were only two known people who knew his Animagus form, and in twelve years, he had only been exposed once, and yet he was still discovered! It was truly absurd. Peter Pettigrew even felt like fate was mocking him.
When he realized his exposure, Peter's first reaction was to escape. Continuing to stay with the Weasley family would be like painting a target on his back for Black, so he had to get away from them as fast as possible. However, Ron Weasley was watching him too closely. He practically accompanied him 24 hours a day, even sleeping together. He had no chance to escape.
Then, in Diagon Alley, he had a good opportunity, but in the end, they found him. And then Ron brought him to Hogwarts... and so he had been postponing everything until now.
But now he couldn't delay it any longer! Sirius Black had already arrived at his doorstep. If he didn't flee soon, it would be too late. So, he decided to seize a good opportunity and escape. He cunningly hid in the bathroom, using the scents there to conceal his presence.
As for the next escape plan, he was still devising it. He had plenty of time, so he decided to take a nap.
But while he was asleep, Peter suddenly heard noise outside, tumultuous voices that sounded like Percy Weasley and the mischievous Weasley twins.
Suddenly, the toilet paper box he was in started to shake, someone was repeatedly tapping on the lid while saying, "Hello, is anyone in there?"
Peter was astonished. What exactly was going on?
Tom, amid the astonished stares, tapped the box several times. Getting no response, he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the toilet paper box, saying, "Reducto!"
The box shattered into several pieces, and toilet paper came rolling out, along with a gray mouse.
Tom saw Peter Pettigrew and flashed a wide eight-toothed grin as he greeted him, "Here's Tommy!"
Peter Pettigrew hadn't seen "The Shining," but he couldn't help but shudder. He allowed Tom to pick him up by the tail and toss him into Ron's arms.
"Look, I found him." Tom watched as Ron hurriedly stashed Peter into his robes, and his stomach churned a bit. Hugging a mature, fat, balding man every day, feeding him, sleeping with him, maybe even kissing him and having intimate conversations – it was truly disturbing.
Tom extended his hand and waved it in front of his nose, trying to dispel the bathroom's foul smell.
"Alright, let's go." He exited the bathroom, leaving a group of bewildered young wizards behind.
"So, can someone tell me what's going on?" Percy asked in confusion.
Meanwhile, Harry woke up in the infirmary. His teammates had returned to their dormitories, leaving him alone in the empty room.
"... Almost died."
"Thank goodness the ground was muddy..."
"Albert caught the Golden Snitch... Ravenclaw won fairly and openly. Why didn't we think of wearing waterproof cloaks?"
"We lost by over two hundred points..."
"Your broom... the Forbidden Forest... the professors went to retrieve it..."
The voices of his teammates flooded his mind as he woke up, making him feel inexplicably suffocated. Now he felt that everything that happened yesterday was like a nightmare.
Harry shook his head to clear those voices from his mind. Yesterday's match was a nightmare for him, but at least he had one advantage: because he was in the hospital, Madam Pomfrey gave him a potion that allowed him to sleep soundly.
When Harry woke up that morning, he felt full of energy. It seemed like the bad feeling after yesterday's match had disappeared with that restful sleep. He looked out the window, and although his vision wasn't very good, he could tell that the sun was shining brightly today.
"All problems can be solved," he cheered himself up, but he also regretted a bit. Why didn't it occur to him to take out his wand and try a Patronus Charm when he encountered the Dementors during yesterday's match? He could only say that he was still too inexperienced or that his mind blocked due to the rain.
Harry reached out to find his glasses. He remembered leaving them on the nightstand after his teammates had left. But when his hand touched the nightstand, he felt a splinter of wood with thorns.
"What's this?" A sense of foreboding washed over Harry as he frantically searched the nightstand, finding more fragments of wood and broken twigs. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he didn't cry because he still couldn't be entirely sure.
Of course, he already had the answer in his head; he just didn't dare to confirm it.
Finally, Harry found his glasses on the nightstand. Trembling, he put them on, and during the process, the glasses' legs hit him several times in the face. Once he had his glasses on, the whole world came back into focus with clarity. Courageously, he looked at the nightstand, feeling a deep despair enveloping him: there he saw over a dozen pieces of wood and a pile of scattered twigs, the shattered remnants of the flying broom that had accompanied him for more than two years.
Chapter 343: Chapter 343: Visiting the Sick (Edited)
Harry sat there in silence on his bed, looking at the remains of his broom. He no longer remembered how the following day had passed. He only knew that Madam Pomfrey had come several times, offering him some potions and asking him to stay in the infirmary over the weekend for observation. She also tried to dispose of the broom fragments, but Harry firmly refused her request.
He knew his behavior was a bit foolish, aware that his Nimbus 2000 couldn't be fixed: Professor Flitwick had already tried, and even he couldn't repair it, so probably no one else could. But he simply couldn't part with it; just thinking about the remains of the broom slowly rotting in a trash can made his heart ache as if someone were squeezing it.
That broom wasn't just a broom; it was also his friend.
...
Fred and George exchanged glances, with complicated expressions on their faces.
"Fred, do you think that twig of wood helped Tom find Scabbers?"
"I'd prefer to believe that wood can play Quidditch," Fred said, but just as he was speaking, someone gave him a tap on the back of his head. He turned and saw their captain, Wood, glaring at them.
"Could you stop making jokes with my name? Seriously, I'm fed up with it," grumbled Wood impatiently, then pushed them aside and ran off to the bathroom, where he was going to dismantle a fuel tank. As soon as he entered the bathroom, Fred could hear Wood complaining about his name.
"I bet my Merlin's pants that Tom doesn't rely on that stick," Fred frowned confidently. "He has another hand hidden under his robe, and that's the key."
Both of them stared at the hand Tom concealed in his sleeve, lost in thought.
"Tom, wow, how did you do that? Was it divination? It's amazing, you'll surely become a seer," Ron exclaimed as he tucked Scabbers into his robe and hurried to catch up with Tom, praising his divination skills.
"I just gave it a try; it was my first time using twig divination, and it will be the last," Tom made a few wry faces, then tossed the wooden wand into the fireplace.
He was about to leave the Gryffindor common room with Hermione when Ron called to him.
"Tom, I...". He hesitated and stammered for a moment before he could finally say, "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have been so impulsive... and misunderstood you."
Hermione, holding Crookshanks, accepted his apology and then followed Tom as they left the Gryffindor common room.
"Wait!" Ron seemed to remember something. "Tom... Hermione... would you like to come with me to the infirmary to see Harry? It seems like Fred and the others are also going, it will be interesting for sure... I mean, I'm sure they'll bring lots of joke items..."
Tom considered the idea for a moment and thought it sounded good. Today was Sunday, and he had plenty of free time. He looked at Hermione beside him, and seeing that she had no objections, they walked together to the infirmary.
When they entered the infirmary and opened the door to the ward, Tom saw Harry sitting on the bed, staring at the broom fragments. Ron approached his side and picked up the pieces that were piled in his lap.
Ron approached him and picked up the pieces from his lap.
"No..."
"It's okay," Ron understood what Harry meant. He neatly placed the broom fragments on the nightstand and then took a chair to sit by the bed.
Ron's arrival clearly improved Harry's mood. His eyes regained some life, and when he saw Tom and Hermione accompanying him, his lips trembled a couple of times, as if he wanted to say something.
"Feeling better, mate? That was close for you, I saw it, 15 meters! The Levitation Charm and all that didn't work..."
"I'm much better..."
"The Levitation Charm isn't very useful in that situation; you should have used the Cushioning Charm..."
The two were chatting, with Hermione occasionally chiming in.
"Harry, something important happened today," Ron said as he took Scabbers out of his pocket. "When I woke up this morning, I found out that Scabbers had disappeared. There was only a bloodstain left on the sheets. Guess what happened?"
"Tom found him using twig divination!"
Harry: ...
Peter Pettigrew: !!!
He opened his small, round eyes wide and stared at Tom. "So, you're the one who brought Ron here? You little brat, you're looking for trouble again!"
Huh? Why did I say "again"?
Peter Pettigrew was someone resilient to adversity and showed no difference from an ordinary mouse in front of Tom, who had ruined his plans.
"Twig divination?" Harry was confused.
Seeing that Harry had never heard of this magical form of divination, Ron excitedly began to explain it to him. Tom listened attentively for a moment and thought that after Ron graduated, he could definitely become rich as a novel writer and lift the Weasley family out of poverty.
Soon, people coming to visit Harry began to arrive gradually.
After sitting here for a while, Tom realized that there really was an endless stream of people coming to see Harry. Shortly after he and Ron arrived, Wood showed up with a group of players from the Gryffindor team.
Wood stood in front of Harry's bed and consoled him in a dry tone. He seemed to want to tell Harry that losing the match wasn't his fault, but his sincerity didn't even compare to the customer service messages of chat applications.
While Wood was having an awkward conversation, Fred and George approached Tom from both sides, surrounding him.
"Tom, tell us how you found Scabbers. Don't come up with nonsense about twig divination; we're not as stupid as Ron."
"An alchemical artifact," Tom shrugged and told the Weasley brothers about the tracking parchment.
"Great! I think we could try making a similar product, a parchment that can locate all sorts of things. What do you think, George?"
"Why not just use the Accio spell?" George rolled his eyes unable to contain himself.
"We'll talk about that later; in summary, the problem is solved." Fred's doubt was dispelled this way. He smiled happily and left a bag full of joke toys by Harry's bed, joining the conversation.
The Gryffindor team chatted for a while and also left the room.
Shortly after Wood left, Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister, appeared at the door. She looked around, seeming a bit suspicious.
After hovering outside the door for a while, she finally gathered enough courage and rushed in, her face completely red. She handed Harry a homemade get-well card and without saying another word, rushed out with her head down.
"I bet she likes Harry," Hermione whispered to Tom's ear when Ginny left, low and almost inaudible. "Harry is lucky; that girl will be beautiful when she grows up."
The warm breath that came out of Hermione's lips made Tom's ear tickle. He flinched.
"You're quite sensitive," Hermione said with a smile, blowing a little air into his ear.
At that moment, the door opened again, and Hermione quickly sat in a proper position as if nothing had happened.
This time it was Hagrid who entered, carrying a bouquet of flowers resembling a earthworm, with intertwined stems and leaves, looking like yellow kale. After several days without seeing each other, Hagrid seemed much worse. His face bore an unerasable tiredness, as if he had been staying up all the time. His already messy beard and hair tangled, merging into one.
"Hagrid, how's Buckbeak's case going?" Harry asked Hagrid about the progress of his trial.
"Oh, it's going fine, don't you worry about that, just get well," Hagrid said with a slight shadow of sadness in his expression, then tried to cheer him up with some loose words and prepared to leave in a hurry.
"Hagrid," Tom called to Hagrid, "maybe Professor Dumbledore and Professor Scamander can help you...".
"Professor Dumbledore already has enough on his plate, and as for Newt Scamander, I'll go look for him myself," Hagrid sighed before turning around and leaving hastily.
The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew cold.
The letter Ginny had sent suddenly began to sing at the top of its lungs, and no matter how much they tried to silence it, so Harry quickly found a fruit bowl and snapped it shut to make the sound less harsh.
"Hagrid is going through a very tough time. I saw him not long ago searching for books related to magical creature laws in the library. Frankly, I don't think he has much chance in a legal showdown against Lucius. The Malfoys are experts at playing within the rules..." Interrupted by the card, the air in the room returned to normal, and Ron began to voice his opinion.
"It's all Malfoy's fault!" Hermione was well aware of the details of the Buckbeak incident, so she sympathized with Hagrid emotionally.
"We know it's Malfoy's fault, but that doesn't change the final outcome." Ron, frustrated, waved his hand in the air. He felt bad about it too. After seeing Hagrid's fake smile, he even felt like entering the Slytherin common room and hitting Malfoy's nasty face. He was sure Malfoy was rejoicing over Buckbeak's death.
At that moment, Harry, on the bed, spoke.
"Ron, I want to be alone for a moment." As soon as Harry spoke, Ron fell silent.
"I want to talk to Tom alone." After a brief silence, Harry looked at the two people who seemed somewhat unnecessary in the room.
Hermione and Ron: So, are we leaving?
"Let me talk to Harry alone." Tom thought for a moment and opened the room's door for the two to leave.
Hermione: !!!
Though she was surprised, she complied and left, raising her fist as a warning to Tom.
"So you want to talk about the 'Grim' with me, don't you?" When they left the room, Tom said to Harry with his back turned.
"Did you want to talk about the 'Grim'?" Tom said as they left the room, his back to Harry.
Harry was stunned, surprised that Tom had guessed directly what he was thinking.
Can he read minds? Harry thought to himself.
Indeed, he did want to talk to Tom about the 'Grim,' because there was no one else he could discuss it with. Although many people had visited him that day, they failed to make him feel better since they only knew half of his concerns. He knew that mentioning the 'Grim' to others would only lead to panic or mockery.
But Harry's instinct told him that Tom might have a different perspective. In the end, curiosity led him to stay with Tom and talk to him.
"Tom..."
"Did you see the 'Grim' yesterday during the match?" Tom asked, causing Harry's words to get stuck in his throat, and he could only nod silently.
"I saw it too."
"So, you saw it too...?" Harry raised his head instantly; Tom's news was too shocking. He had thought he was the only one who could see the 'Grim.'
"Look, I'm still safe and sound. The 'Grim' hasn't done anything to me," Tom shrugged. The prophecy Professor Trelawney made while he was conscious was not reliable at all. It's true that Harry was pursued by a large black dog, but that dog is the last person in this world who could hurt him.
Harry wanted to ask something more, but Tom beat him to a question.
"Harry, what do you think about Divination?"
Harry remained silent for a moment and replied cautiously, "Divination is a field of study that reveals the future in various ways, right?"
Although many Gryffindor students considered Divination a subject associated with charlatans, deep down, Harry still believed in it a little.
"I think Divination is the art of glimpsing a fragment of the future. What we see is only an extremely limited part of the future. Have you ever tried a starfruit?"
"Eh? No, I haven't tried one."
"Here's one," Tom said, taking a starfruit from a fruit basket that someone had sent. The basket was quite full, with all sorts of fruits, even a small watermelon and a pineapple.
"Look, on the front of the starfruit, there are stars, but on the side, it looks like this," Tom said, showing the starfruit. "It's like what we observe from the future. Professor Trelawney is an exceptional seer; she didn't make a mistake, but what she sees is not the complete future." Tom tossed the starfruit to Harry.
"Limited..." Harry muttered as he observed the starfruit in his hand. Before he could ponder further, he heard a commotion outside the door, mixed with phrases like "Catch that beast!" and "Stay away from me!"
It was Ron's voice.
It seems Hermione couldn't stop Crookshanks after all.
Tom swung the door open and saw Hermione holding Crookshanks, who was struggling relentlessly, outside the room. Ron was sitting in a corner, holding Scabbers, who was squealing.
"Indeed, that cat is just as crazy!" Ron exclaimed as he rushed into the room with Scabbers, trying to keep as far away as possible from Hermione and her Crookshanks.
"Do you have any more questions? If not, we'll be going," Tom asked Harry, who was semi-lying on the bed with a starfruit in his hand.
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