Chương 72: Ch72. Tom's magic and rude Ron
"So, what exactly is it you are doing, Tom?" Arthur Weasley asked and Tom inwardly sighed.
For the last ten minutes, the man babbled on and on about his important work at the Ministry, so much so that Tom understood who Percy inherited his personality from.
Arthur was a humble man but he was definitely proud of his work.
Still, Tom expected this question to be asked as talking about each other's occupations was quite normal during family lunches with guests. And since he couldn't just say 'nothing' or 'unemployed', Tom was already prepared for what to say.
"I am a researcher." He picked the closest thing to what he was doing with his time. "I am trying to make breakthroughs in my chosen magical field."
"Oh? For example?" Fred instantly asked with eagerness shining in his eyes.
"Yes, yes. Show us something!" George urged at the same time, giving Tom a look full of anticipation.
The two pranksters tried over ten pranks on Tom during lunch and not one of them worked!
They were extremely annoyed but also impressed. Despite spending the entire yesterday evening plotting and planning Tom's fall from the 'unprankable' pedestal, they had failed!
The horror!
The glory!
The smugness!
Their title of the Prank Gods of Hogwarts!
It was taken from them and their pride was stomped to the ground in just a few minutes!
It was only natural they would be interested in the magic of this godly being who defeated them at their own game on their own home turf.
If only to try locating his weakness.
'Amen to that.' The twins both thought at the same time, not even knowing why. It just felt right for some reason.
Tom saw that everyone looked at him with silent expectation, even Natasha as she was curious about how he would deal with the situation. Such a betrayal... he would have never expected it from her.
Sighing in resignation, Tom took a small basket with apples in the middle of the table and put it in front of him before placing his hand above it.
Nothing happened for five seconds and the Weasley family was slowly starting to get bored, looking at Tom with complicated gazes when...
A green alchemical circle appeared under the basket, rotating under the curious gazes of the onlookers and slowly going upward until it reached Tom's hand and... disappeared.
"Er... that's it?" Ginny whispered in disappointment, cutely tilting her head as if she couldn't understand what was so incredible about... that.
The rest of the Weasley family was quiet, having enough common sense to not openly show their disappointment. Even Ron had enough tact to stay silent despite the frown on his face.
Harry and Hermione were giving Tom pitying looks while only Natasha was silent because she was actually stunned.
She knew about Tom's ability to alchemically modify various foods but the alchemical circles necessary to do that were very complicated things. They were not something Tom could use on the fly. Even the ones he usually used in their kitchen were created only after two days of effort on Tom's part.
Seeing him creating one of those in a matter of seconds was... mind-blowing for Natasha since she had an idea how many mental calculations went into it.
If he could do this complicated alchemy circle this fast... how much faster could he create his battle-oriented alchemy circles?
Only now did Natasha understand she might have been a bit ignorant of Tom's quick progress in his spell-casting abilities and decided to work harder with her own destruction magic.
Of course, since the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione had no idea about the inherent complexity of what Tom had just done, they felt a tad bit underwhelmed.
Yes, some magical lights appeared, big deal, but...
Tom, satisfied with his performance, suddenly noticed the deadpan looks he was receiving and furrowed his eyebrows, "What are you looking at me for? Take an apple and taste it, geez." He exasperatedly said, realizing they probably were not very impressed with his 'magic'.
Natasha instantly reached out and took an apple, taking a big bite out of it and savoring its incredible taste with a delight written on her face.
Her actions made the other Weasleys follow her example and when they hesitantly took a bite out of their apple, their eyes instantly widened.
"This is amazing!" Ginny exclaimed with shining eyes, gulping down her bite.
The rest of the Weasley family obviously agreed as they hurriedly ate their apples. Never in their lives did they taste something so good!
"Can I get more?" Ron asked with a full mouth, already having an apple in both of his hands and taking turns in taking a bite out of them both.
The flabbergasted Tom had not even noticed when did the boy took the last apple in the basket that was supposed to belong to him.
Tom's eye twitched, and he tried to sound at least somewhat polite, "Sorry, but no. That was pretty much my limit for now."
Of course, it came off a bit forced and Arthur gave Tom an apologetic look when he realized that Ron blatantly took Tom's apple.
'At least the father has a semblance of shame for fathering him.' Tom disgruntledly thought as he took a bite from Mrs. Weasley's food.
Her food was good. For medieval standards.
She did not use much of the modern spices or seasonings but that was probably the norm in the traditional wizarding families. Her feast was still very good but...
'Ah, whatever.' Tom wistfully sighed, deciding he would not be a petty bastard.
Alas, Ronald Weasley opened his mouth again, even if his mind didn't fully realize what he was doing before his question was already out.
"What else can you do?" He asked in hopes of more delicious food. Preferably some meat or something!
Tom could practically see the sparkling eyes full of expectation on the ginger boy's face and he inwardly smirked. It was obvious what the boy wanted and that's exactly why Tom took an empty mug instead of another type of food, instantly dashing Ron's hopes and causing him to look at Tom in bewildered betrayal.
The mug then under the influence of Tom's alchemic circle started transforming, the wood began twisting until there was a small palm-sized wooden humanoid puppet that saluted and gave a dramatic bow to everyone around.
Tom was barely finished with his small piece of magic when...
"That's stupid. I could do the same with transfiguration and animation charm." Ronald grumbled, upset that there would be no more good food.
Fred and George instantly snorted and innocently chorused with a mocking undertone, "As if you knew the animation charm, brother dearest."
Of course, Mrs. Weasley also indignantly shrieked at her youngest son, "Ronald! That was rude! Apologize!"
"Whatever." Ron petulantly crossed his hands on his chest and gave the twins a scowl but he did mumble out a quiet and reluctant, "I am sorry."
"We are really sorry, Tom." Mr. Weasley apologetically said. It was clear that Ron did not really mean his apology and that made the atmosphere awkward for the rest of the Weasley family.
'Keep calm. Don't kill the little rude shit.' Tom outwardly just shrugged, "Nah. It's fine. I can't really expect a child to recognize, much less understand the basics of golemancy."
He couldn't fault the children for not being impressed. What he had shown was underwhelming by design. Someone capable of making a palm-sized wooden golem and enhancing the taste of food seemed much less threatening than someone capable of destroying their house in one fell swoop with battle alchemy.
There was no way to tell the relationship between the Weasley Family and Dumbledore so Tom would naturally keep all of his dangerous abilities secret for a little bit longer. Only an idiot would reveal his cards right off the bat without having to.
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