Normally, babies under a year old had little ability to care for themselves. Even rolling over and crawling did not seem easy for them.
Yet with Tom, that common sense seemed to have lost its basic rules.
He was clearly only a few months old, but judging by his behavior, he was already like a child over a year old beginning to learn to speak.
Moreover, as part of Mo Fei's plan to correct some of his darker thoughts, he had Jimmy take him out into the sunshine and among people early on.
This approach seemed to have accelerated his growth a little more.
Tom now seemed able to understand some things people said and recognize some familiar people.
Of them, his favorite was not Jimmy, who had been caring for him all along, but Kyle. Every time Kyle approached, he would always show some different reaction.
Sometimes he stared; sometimes he turned his head away, then uncertainly turned back again...
Mo Fei noticed this unusual behavior as well.
After all, Tom was no ordinary baby, but the future Voldemort. Anything that drew his attention might well be connected to magic.
And did his interest in Kyle mean that Kyle might also be a wizard?
The guess made Mo Fei a little happy.
If Kyle was a wizard, he would have a chance to learn about Hogwarts as it was now ahead of time.
Based on the original Harry Potter books he had read, at this point in Britain, Dumbledore should still have been the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, McGonagall probably had not graduated from Hogwarts yet, and Grindelwald was waging a terrifying wizarding movement in Europe...
Wait, had he almost forgotten? This was Grindelwald's era. The Acolytes organization he had founded in Germany was only just beginning to make its mark.
Although, compared with Voldemort, Grindelwald was much more rational. What he advocated had never been blood supremacy, but absolute supremacy of ability.
In his view, whether in the Wizarding World or the Muggle World, the capable should rise and the mediocre should fall.
Among wizards, this principle was even more apparent. Powerful wizards should enjoy more people's admiration, regardless of bloodline. Whether one was a pure-blood, a half-blood, or Muggle-born, as long as one had talent and ability, one would be given important responsibilities.
It was not just wizards; the same held true for ordinary people in the Muggle World. Scientists among them had also received this first Dark Lord's attention and financial support.
However, magic and science were ultimately two different paths, so he had not planned to launch a movement in the Muggle World as well.
Of course, it was also possible that he simply had not found the time yet.
Some might ask how one determined whether a person had talent or ability. Wasn't that sort of standard rather subjective...?
Of course, talent itself was subjective... but one must not forget another point: Grindelwald was also a Seer.
He could always see the future of certain things.
However, since his current abilities had yet to reach their peak, this ability still seemed to limit his expansion.
A Seer...
At this thought, Mo Fei grew somewhat wary. He did not know whether this existence, practically impossible to counter in the realm of mysticism, had already observed his existence. Still, he might not have discovered him; after all, he was in Germany, not Britain.
Being wary was fine, but excessive worry was unnecessary.
Rather than worry about him, he would be better off worrying about Dumbledore suddenly appearing at the orphanage's door one day and taking Tom away.
At this thought, he felt he needed to speed up Tom's upbringing. If he could not bring about some change in Tom before Dumbledore arrived, he might be the unlucky one.
However, he already had a few ideas about raising Tom.
First, there was little need to worry about his magical education.
Although he did not know why J. K. Rowling had set things up this way when writing the books, it seemed that even children of noble families rarely encountered magic before the age of eleven. So even if he gave Tom no introduction to it at all, it would not matter.
Besides, if Kyle really was a wizard too, then once he started school, the orphanage would have some wizarding textbooks. There would still be time to teach Tom then.
As for any memory interference the Ministry of Magic might carry out...
Please, there was still at least some time before Kyle started school. During that time, he would surely be able to obtain some more abilities for resisting magic.
Next came the cultivation of his bloodline.
The noble blood of Slytherin flowed through Tom's body. As the bloodline of a legendary wizard, Mo Fei believed Parseltongue could not be that simple.
To develop his Parseltongue, he would have to let Tom come into contact with venomous snakes.
Ordinary people felt psychological fear at even coming into contact with venomous snakes. That was normal.
But Mo Fei was somewhat different. After he improved his medical skills, his basic medical knowledge included many ways to make use of venomous snakes. Their venom, fangs, scales, flesh, and blood all had medical applications.
After improving his abilities in this area, venomous snakes had become thoroughly valuable things in his eyes.
Thus, when he obtained venomous snakes, Tom could use them to practice Parseltongue. If they died, even better: they could also be used to improve Mo Fei's medical skills. It was truly killing several birds with one stone.
Just thinking about it made him look forward to it a little.
Finally, there was another crucial point: when Tom entered Hogwarts in the future, his placement in Slytherin House seemed set in stone.
That meant facing the issue of exclusion. The people there all seemed to call themselves nobles.
And ignorant children would always use such ridiculous titles as a pretext for bullying.
Yet judging by the original books, their behavior was nowhere near as refined as that of the nobles in London now. Every one of them was like an overgrown baby who had never received any training in etiquette.
Still, nobles who put on such airs would basically have no favorable feelings toward Tom, who came from an orphanage, unless he revealed his Gaunt family bloodline as soon as he enrolled.
But something like that was difficult to prove oneself, and falling into the trap of having to prove oneself meant endless trouble.
Besides, even if they really believed him, so what? Such nouveau riche behavior would only invite more private ridicule.
But if Tom could be shown what true nobility was, wouldn't those fake nobles in the Wizarding World all become paper tigers?
Even if they collectively ostracized him again, Tom would only think it was because he had exposed their hypocrisy.
At that point, Tom's bloodline would instead become a source of confidence for him.
Of course, among Mo Fei's considerations, there was actually one more thing he intended to teach Tom: certain ideas about Muggles.
It was not that Muggle things were necessarily better. It was just that thinking of the way Tom would one day discard anything Muggle as worthless left him somewhat speechless.
Every school of thought had its strengths and shortcomings. If Tom only encountered things from the Wizarding World, wouldn't his horizons remain just as narrow? Even if he could still become a master of magic, that would be all.
Mo Fei wanted to see whether reforming Tom could also bring some changes to the Muggle World.