Chương 157: Chapter 157: The trio is actually myself (Edited)

As soon as the words were spoken, Harry's psychological defenses shattered. He obediently removed his cloak and stood in front of Professor Lockhart, awaiting his fate.

Looking at the two with drooping heads, Tom didn't give them too much thought, but took the cloak from their hands and examined it carefully.

[Cloak of Invisibility (Star: ???): One of the Three Deathly Hallows, which allows the wearer to be perfectly invisible, and whoever collects all three Hallows will become the master of Death].

This is the first time Tom sees a "???" star item, which shows that he is likely to have surpassed the five stars. The invisibility cloak appeared after holding it in his hand. It is a silver-gray cloak, which shines like some kind of liquid It feels weird to the touch, as if it is woven with water.

"Professor..." Harry wanted to defend himself, but Tom cut him off with one hand.

"That's a great cloak," he said as he handed the cloak back to Harry, then headed for the fireplace to think. Harry's mind wandered, suddenly realizing that his situation wasn't as bad as he'd thought....

He exchanged a quick glance with Ron, sensing that there was a way out, if Dumbledore didn't appear out of nowhere.

"Professor Dumbledore isn't coming," Tom spoke suddenly, as if he could see what was going through their minds, startling Ron.

"He has something to do today and he's already rushed off to the Ministry of Magic."

This statement made Harry and Ron ponder: Something? What was it? Probably something to do with the gold coin.

"How much did they hear of our conversation? You were here when we entered the Pensive, weren't you?"

At Professor Lockhart's questions, Harry and Ron lowered their heads, not daring to answer.

Tom wondered how it was possible that he, a mediocre little wizard with a bit of prophetic talent and sophisticated little skills, could have detected Harry's presence, and how it was possible that this Dumbledore hadn't noticed Harry hiding in his office with his invisibility cloak.

This was Dumbledore's office, I'm afraid, and even a hair on the floor would have been known to Dumbledore, and it would have been unreasonable for Tom to believe that Dumbledore was unaware of the presence of two living people in his office.

Now Tom remembered the division of labor made by Dumbledore, and Tom felt that this was all intentional on Dumbledore's part, and made a clear arrangement for him and Harry.

As for the purpose of doing this, it was, of course, someone's fetish. Anyone with a modicum of common sense could see that the first year's guardianship of the Philosopher's Stone, with all its levels, could not have been designed to protect against Voldemort.... Every single guard has a way to escape that even a first year wizard could break, let alone a second generation dark lord. Then there's Snape's potions level, and who knows if those poison bottles are filled with elixir of bliss.

If you really want to protect the philosopher's stone, you can put a magical animal that can't be hypnotized on the first level. There's no need to play chess on Professor McGonagall's level, so you could have gotten "high" and blown your head off in one game.

Of all the levels, the most serious are the first and last, and all have a very strong sense of "design": the three-headed dog Fluffy falls asleep when he hears music, Oesed's mirror puts the Philosopher's Stone directly into Harry's pocket, and the mighty Dumbledore is thrown off by a fake email....

If Dumbledore were that easy to fool, would Grindelwald lose to him?

So much evidence finally points to the fact that everything in the first degree was arranged by Dumbledore. There may be some discrepancies in the details, but the main plot is definitely Dumbledore's. He took this opportunity to exercise him and test him Harry, if he meets the requirements, Harry will continue to take over the important task and let him be his successor. If Harry fails, Dumbledore would have enough to save him.

But there was a slight deviation in the implementation of the plan, and it was Tom who finally broke through, which caused Dumbledore's plan to train Harry to fail.

But no matter, there were plenty of opportunities to train, and this was a good one to take advantage of.

With that in mind, Tom understood what Dumbledore was thinking. At the same time, Tom thought to himself, am I joining the golden trio? Because of my influence, Hermione didn't join, so do I have to replace her? Tom had thought that the new golden trio would be Neville Longbottom, but he hadn't thought that Harry and Ron would go on this adventure without Neville.

What Tom didn't know was that Neville had been punished by Snape. He had to spend the whole day in the dungeon, even though Snape had left in the middle of the day.

Just as Harry and Ron were getting nervous about Lockhart's long silence, Professor Lockhart turned to them once more.

"Well, boys, are you clear on what happened then?"

"Professor, we didn't mean to..." Harry tried desperately to explain himself, but found that there was no explanation for their actions: they were stalking, eavesdropping in the dark and trespassing, nothing different from spying.

They were both true Gryffindors, that's all.

"Do you know how to use a Floo net?" Tom suddenly interrupted Harry's feeble argument.

Harry and Ron: Σ(⊙▽⊙"a.

"I can use it." Ron nodded weakly and Harry said, a little embarrassed, that he knew how to use the Flú net, although his first experience of using it wasn't so good.

"That's great, you can use the Flú net to go to Diagon Alley with me" Tom smiled brightly at the two of them.

Harry and Ron: ??!!!

This was a surprising ending. They had thought that an "acquittal" would be the best possible outcome, but they hadn't expected a world where the professor would offer to take them on an adventure.

"As well as a professor, I'm also an adventurer," Tom said with a grin that showed off his eight white teeth, he now had plenty of experience in squeezing Lockhart's smile, "And by your actions, I think they can be called new adventurers. If a newcomer wishes to adventure with a professor, the professor will not refuse."

"As for school rules, as long as you don't get caught, it's not a violation of school rules."

"Professor, are you really a Ravenclaw?" Ron gasped, finally only managing to stifle the words, "You're the most Gryffindor at Hogwarts!"

Tom burst out laughing, "There used to be people who thought I was a pure Slytherin!".