Room of Requirement, give me a hollow, threaded steel pipe

The second morning class was Potions again.

After the experience of the previous lesson, Snape finally stopped testing Tom in any way.

Even the questioning segment was gone; he simply focused on teaching the Potions material.

"Watch closely. Before brewing the Boil Cure Potion, you need to steam the juice out of leeches and extract peppermint oil. The optimal method and heat..."

Perhaps feeling that a live demonstration wasn't effective enough, Snape simply closed the doors and windows, pulled out a projector, and played a slideshow to better showcase the specific extraction details of the ingredients.

Tom stared at the slideshow, his eyes full of confusion.

Not because he couldn't understand the slideshow, but because of legal issues.

Hogwarts Castle had a magical field that interfered with Muggle technology; an ordinary projector couldn't function unless it was enchanted.

The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy clearly stated that magic was forbidden on Muggle objects, to prevent enchanted items from flowing back into Muggle society and causing Muggle panic.

The history of witch hunts was far too tragic. While wizards had ways to escape, some unlucky ones really died. From the 15th to the 17th century, roughly three hundred years, who knew how many unlucky wizards perished.

For this reason, the Ministry of Magic had listed everyday items like carpets, toasters, and cars on the Register of Proscribed Enchantable Items.

"What a bunch of amateurs," Tom grumbled.

Arthur Weasley, as a Ministry employee and even the head of the Office for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, had openly modified a private Flying Car. By rights, he knew the law and broke it, deserving a harsher penalty.

But even after the Flying Car was exposed to the Muggle world, he was only fined 50 Galleons, the car wasn't even confiscated, and he didn't lose his position as head.

Not to mention Hagrid's Flying Motorcycle—that thing was absolutely a banned item too.

A projector was nothing on its own, and with Hogwarts' influence, even if it were scrutinized, it wouldn't matter.

"Hey, aren't you tired at all?"

Ron took advantage of the dim lighting during the slideshow to quietly lean in and whisper to Tom.

Every morning, high-intensity training plus mental effort in class left him basically exhausted the moment class ended.

But Tom seemed energetic all day, never showing any fatigue.

"Body refinement is like this. You train too little, so you naturally don't understand. You'll get it later."

"Ron, no whispering during class. Slytherin loses... 1 point," Snape suddenly spoke up to remind them.

Though he really didn't want to deduct points from his own house, with students from other houses present, he had to make a show of it and deduct a little.

The class ended quickly.

Compared to Quirrell's class, Snape's was far more comfortable. Tom learned a lot.

No wonder he was the youngest Head of Slytherin in history.

If not for Voldemort and Dumbledore's plans, had Snape been allowed to develop seriously for a few decades, even if he never reached Dumbledore's heights, he would at least have matched Professor McGonagall.

A pity.

After this class came the lunch break.

During lunch break, Tom naturally didn't idle. Instead, he wandered around the castle, his goal to find the Room of Requirement.

Tom wanted a room to practice spells.

He had decent talent in offensive spells, so he needed a spacious enough area, and the Room of Requirement, which could change its function, fit his needs perfectly.

Though Tom could choose to train in the open space outside the castle, that might give Dumbledore a headache.

So it was better to keep a low profile.

As for Harry, he went to read a book. It wasn't good to exercise after a meal, though he couldn't really focus on reading either.

And Ron needed to catch up on sleep; he was currently in the dormitory.

"This should be the place," Tom said, standing before a wall.

The Room of Requirement was on the seventh floor, at the same height as the Headmaster's office, except the Headmaster's office was in the South Tower, while the Room of Requirement was in the main building.

Though in the original story, Dumbledore was constantly monitoring the entire school, he wasn't that thorough about it, otherwise he wouldn't have hired Quirrell as a professor.

If Dumbledore had known that Voldemort's original soul was inside Quirrell at that moment, he could have come up with ten thousand ways to trap that soul.

Then the following years wouldn't have had so many troubles.

Soon, the seventh floor was reached.

The seventh floor was quite deserted, with almost no rooms. There was a tapestry on the corridor wall, embroidered with silk threads depicting the Tapestry of Barnabas Teaching Trolls Ballet.

A wizard named Barnabas, who tried to teach trolls ballet, ended up being chased and beaten by them. After learning of his deeds, people not only made a tapestry for him but also called him "Barnabas the Barmy."

Standing near the tapestry, Tom paced back and forth three times, silently chanting in his mind.

"Give me an armory, give me an armory, give me an armory."

No reaction.

"It failed."

Hogwarts had a field that interfered with Muggle technology, and as the Room of Requirement was part of Hogwarts, it naturally wouldn't provide items containing Muggle technology.

Sigh.

A sudden stroke of inspiration gave birth to a wicked idea.

"Give me an empty room, with a smooth steel pipe twenty-two inches long, hollow, and threaded inside."

After pacing back and forth three times, when Tom stopped, a door abruptly appeared on the smooth wall across from the tapestry, as if out of nowhere.

He pushed the door open without making a sound. Once Tom entered, the candles on the walls ignited, illuminating the entire stone chamber.

The chamber was vast, easily half the size of the Great Hall on the first floor, and quite empty.

And there, lying on the stone floor, was indeed a steel pipe, perfectly matching Tom's requirements.

"It actually worked!"

Tom had only been testing the waters; he hadn't expected the Room of Requirement to actually provide gun parts.

Because the part was just a piece of metal, with no mechanical structure or electronic components inside, it could naturally be generated.

Realizing the existence of the Room of Requirement, Tom immediately repeated the process.

Trigger, gunpowder, cartridge case...

Following his design, it wasn't long before he had assembled these items with magic, and a Gatling gun nearly as tall as he was now appeared in his hands.

Thanks to Tom's [Intelligence (Lv.9)], his memory was far better than before, allowing him to easily recall the Gatling gun's structure he'd seen online in his past life.

He tried pulling the trigger.

Click!

It failed.

Whether because the parts were provided by the Room of Requirement or due to Hogwarts' magical field, the Gatling gun simply wouldn't spin.

"I'll try taking it out of Hogwarts during the next holiday," Tom murmured to himself.

After casually stowing the Gatling gun into the magical pouch Dumbledore had given him last time, Tom walked out of the Room of Requirement and made another wish.

This time, the stone chamber was filled with a large number of dummies made from different materials—wood, steel, stone, everything imaginable—allowing him to experiment with various spells.