Tom, Pull Yourself Together—Don't Embarrass Yourself!

"He can't beat me."

Li Weide stopped walking, turned around, and met Dumbledore's blue eyes.

Dumbledore froze slightly. Li Weide's answer was, in a way, perfectly reasonable.

"We're here," Li Weide added.

Only then did Dumbledore realize they were standing before a wooden door.

As if he were returning to his own home, Li Weide pushed open the door to Tom's room.

"Tom, this is... Mr. Dumbledorey. He has something to tell us." Li Weide walked in.

Li Weide had deliberately gotten Dumbledore's name wrong, because Mrs. Cole had said it wrong when she introduced him earlier.

Dumbledore corrected him helplessly. "Actually, my name is Dumbledore. Albus Dumbledore. I'm a professor."

Tom sat on his blanket with a book in his hands, watching this self-proclaimed professor warily.

Dumbledore held out his hand. "Hello, Tom."

Tom hesitated for a moment, glanced at Li Weide, then finally reached out and shook Dumbledore's hand.

Dumbledore pulled over a chair and sat down, while Li Weide simply sat on Tom's bed.

"Professor? Is that something like a doctor? What are you doing here?" Tom asked, shooting Li Weide another wary glance.

"I am Professor Dumbledore, and I work at a school called Hogwarts. I've come to take you to my school... your new school, if you're willing."

Tom's reaction to Dumbledore's words was intense. He sprang up from the rug and retreated far away from Dumbledore, his face full of anger.

"Who exactly are you?! What exactly did you come here for? Tell me the truth!" He delivered the last three words with force, as if giving an order.

He glared furiously at Dumbledore with wide eyes, but Dumbledore merely smiled pleasantly without answering.

"Who exactly are you?" Tom asked again, enunciating every word.

Dumbledore said patiently, "I've just told you. I'm Professor Dumbledore..."

"No! You won't fool me! You're from a mental hospital, aren't you? 'Professor,' yes, of course! I'm not going, understand?"

Tom spoke agitatedly. Then his gaze fell on Li Weide, and his expression changed dramatically.

Remembering Li Weide's unusual insistence that he return early to rest today, Tom instantly understood the "truth"!

"...You called him here, didn't you? You're finally making your move against me, aren't you? That's it—you're sending me to a mental hospital! You... you're so vicious!"

Dumbledore looked at Li Weide strangely.

Li Weide shrugged. "You know, we fought."

Thinking of Li Weide's earlier claim that Tom could not beat him, Dumbledore's look became even stranger.

Clearly, there was far more between Li Weide and Tom than merely a fight.

Judging by Tom's extreme reaction, Weide must have oppressed him quite severely...

"I'm not from a mental hospital," Dumbledore said, turning back to Tom with patience once more. "I'm a teacher. If you can sit down quietly, I'll tell you what Hogwarts is. Of course, if you don't want to go there, no one will force you..."

"And..." Dumbledore glanced at Li Weide again, "besides you, Weide has also been invited."

"You mean... he'll go too?" Tom eyed Dumbledore suspiciously, then looked at Li Weide.

"Tom, can you calm down, pull yourself together, and stop embarrassing yourself?"

Li Weide's words made Tom's face flush. He had been jumping at every little thing just now. It really was rather embarrassing...

Only after Tom finally calmed down did Dumbledore continue. "Hogwarts is a school for students with special abilities..."

To Tom, that description sounded far too much like a mental hospital!

"I'm not crazy..." Tom had barely started before he met Li Weide's calm gaze again.

In the end, he shut his mouth and swallowed the rest of his words, allowing Dumbledore to continue.

"...It is a school of magic."

"Magic?" Tom repeated the word quietly.

"That's right."

"So the things I can do are magic..." Tom looked excitedly at his hands.

"What can you do?" Dumbledore asked with great interest.

"Anything," Riddle said, panting. An excited flush appeared on his hollow cheeks, making him look almost fanatical.

"I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals obey me without training them. I can make people who annoy me suffer. If I want to, I can hurt them..."

Before Tom could finish gesturing wildly, he once, twice, three times... met Li Weide's gaze again. His excitement instantly cooled...

...Except Li Weide! That bastard! Calmed down, Tom slowly sat back down.

Dumbledore looked at Li Weide as well. "Weide, you don't seem particularly excited. Did you already know what your abilities were?"

"No, I only just found out too... Like Tom, I've always known that there was something different about me. But since these abilities were mine to begin with, and I've merely learned what they are now, what is there to be excited about?"

Dumbledore nodded. "You're right, Weide..."

What a remarkable child... He's so composed that he doesn't seem like an eleven-year-old at all. What could he have gone through before this?

"You are both wizards," Dumbledore continued.

"Then you must be a wizard too?" Li Weide asked.

"Yes, I'm a wizard as well. I possess the same special abilities as you."

"Prove it to me," Riddle said at once.

His commanding tone was exactly the same as when he had said, "Tell me the truth."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.

"If I prove it, you'll come with me to Hogwarts..."

"Of course I will!"

"Then you will address me as 'Professor' or 'sir.'"

Riddle's expression froze for an instant before he spoke. In an almost imperceptibly polite tone, he said, "I'm sorry, sir. What I mean is... Professor, could you please show me..."

Without wasting words, Dumbledore drew a slim black wand from the inner pocket of his suit jacket.

Li Weide raised an eyebrow, a hint of anticipation in his eyes.

Dumbledore pointed his wand at the battered wardrobe in the corner and gave it a casual flick.

"Boom!"

Violent flames instantly engulfed the battered wardrobe!

"Ah!" Tom screamed and jumped up again. Everything he owned was in that wardrobe!

Just as Tom stomped about, ready to demand an explanation from Dumbledore, the flames vanished instantly. The wardrobe still stood there completely unharmed, as though none of it had ever happened.