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

"He can't beat me."

Li Weide stopped walking and turned to meet Dumbledore's blue eyes.

Dumbledore froze slightly. Li Weide's answer was, one could say, perfectly reasonable.

"We're here," Li Weide added.

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

Li Weide pushed open Tom's room as if he were returning to his own home.

"Tom, this... Mr. Dumblebore has something to tell us." Li Weide walked in.

Li Weide had deliberately gotten Dumbledore's name wrong, because Mrs. Cole had mispronounced it 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 with some wariness.

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

Tom hesitated for a moment and glanced at Li Weide before finally reaching out to shake Dumbledore's hand.

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

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

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

After hearing Dumbledore's words, Tom reacted violently. He sprang up from the rug and backed 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 gave the last three words great weight, as though issuing 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 just told you. I'm Professor Dumbledore..."

"No! You can't fool me! You came from the Mental Hospital, didn'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 instantly.

Thinking of Li Weide's unusual behavior earlier that day, telling him to come back early and rest, Tom instantly understood the "truth"!

"...He's the one you called here, isn't he? You're finally making your move against me, aren't you? That's it—you're sending me to the 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 expression became even stranger.

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

Judging by Tom's stress reaction, Weide had definitely oppressed him mercilessly...

"I'm not from the Mental Hospital," Dumbledore said, turning back to Tom patiently. "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... he'll be going too?" Tom looked suspiciously at Dumbledore, then at Li Weide.

"Tom, can't you calm down, pull yourself together, and stop embarrassing yourself?"

Li Weide's words made Tom's face redden. His panicked behavior just now had indeed been rather humiliating...

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 meeting 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 softly.

"That's right."

"So the things I can do are magic..." Tom looked at his hands with some excitement.

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

"I can do anything," Riddle said, breathing hard. A flush of excitement appeared on his hollow cheeks, making him look feverish.

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

Before Tom could finish gesturing excitedly, he met Li Weide's gaze yet again... and his excitement instantly cooled.

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

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

"No, I only just found out too... Like Tom, I did know that there were things about me that set me apart. But since these abilities were mine to begin with, and I've merely learned what they are now, what is there to get excited about?"

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

What a peculiar child... He's so composed that he hardly seems eleven years old. What exactly has he been through?

"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 special abilities just like yours."

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

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

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"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, "Sorry, sir. What I mean is... Professor, could you please show me...?"

Dumbledore did not waste words. He directly pulled a slender 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 broken wardrobe in the corner and gave it a casual flick.

"Boom!"

Violent flames instantly engulfed the broken wardrobe!

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

Just as Tom was hopping mad and about to question Dumbledore, the flames vanished in an instant. The wardrobe still stood there completely unharmed, as though nothing had happened.