Chapter 201 Red and Black

"Are you all right? Nal," Tom swallowed the last bite of his meal, pushed a plate full of mashed potatoes and some meat, and put it in front of Nelson. He took out the napkin, wiped his mouth, and asked, "Do you need me to accompany you?"

"No, no." Nelson took the plate, inserted a piece of chicken, and declined politely, "There's no reason to bring someone with you when you meet the teacher, don't worry."

Tom nodded and looked in the direction of the Ravenclaw long table and the faculty and staff. Professor Sykes did not come to the restaurant for dinner. He leaned closer to his face and whispered, "Be careful yourself, I always think she has bad intentions." .”

"It's okay," Nelson said while pulling the mashed potatoes into his mouth. "There may be some misunderstandings. Besides, as long as I don't get beaten by the principal at school, I can still run if I can't beat it."

"That's fine." Tom nodded reservedly, and said, "I believe in your escape route, as long as I don't let me collect the body in the end."

"That's impossible," Nelson said, raising his head, shaking his fingers, and showing the note to Tom. "She may have considered this, so she chose Dumbledore's office."

"Hmph," Tom lowered his head, picked up two glasses of fresh fruit juice from the table, and put them in front of him, "she is really a good and understanding teacher."

"Indeed," Nelson shrugged, "and give students pets."

The two looked at each other, picked up the juice on the table, and clinked glasses with a smile.

"..."

"Oh... avocado, it's really bad."

"Forget it, don't drink this," Tom pouted, seeing that Nelson had almost eaten, and asked, handing over a napkin, "Do you have anything to do this afternoon? Can we go to Hogsmeade to buy something to drink later?"

"Okay," Nelson nodded, "Which secret path shall we take?"

"Have you forgotten? Let's go there and just Apparate out."

...

"Seriously, Tom, if the secret rooms underground at Hogwarts are not considered Hogwarts, then there is indeed a problem with security."

After eating, the two simply went to the dormitory to tidy up, and then embarked on a journey to Hogsmeade.

On the country road, Tom walked beside Nelson with a bag of butter beer, and walked towards the newly opened clothing store. The two of them grew tall, and it was time to get a new outfit for themselves.

"Maybe Hogwarts set the anti-apparition spell after Slytherin left." Tom shrugged, looked at the high sun above his head, looked down at the short shadow under his feet, and said, "Of course , It is also possible that they did not expect that someone could leave from the ground."

"That's right," Nelson nodded, raised his hand to cover the sun, and said casually, "By the way, your sister came to see me today."

Tom ignored him, but poured the bag of butterbeer into his other hand, drew out his wand, and tapped it upwards, and a small cloud appeared over the two of them, following them to shade the sun.

"Christian came to see me today," Nelson repeated, "just after I came out of Professor Binns' office."

"Oh." Tom responded lightly.

"Aren't you curious about what she said?" Nelson was a little suspicious. Tom and Christian had been acting weird recently. He rubbed his chin, and his thoughts began to diverge wildly.

"I told her you were in Professor Binns' office." Tom put his wand back into his sleeve and carried the bag back. "Young man, you don't know much."

"I think you should communicate," Nelson suggested. "After all, we are brothers and sisters. It's not a problem to be so stiff."

"No need, she will understand when she grows up," Tom curled his lips and said, "and do you think she is the kind of person who can be persuaded?"

"Aren't you good at persuading people?"

"I can't lie to her either." Tom stopped suddenly, put the bag on the ground, looked at Nelson, sighed, and said softly, "This is also a good thing, at least it proves that she is not a fool who says nothing, besides, persuade What's the use of her?"

"There will always be some estrangement, after all, in her opinion, her brother is a dark wizard."

"The black wizard is the black wizard, she has no choice anyway," Tom shook his head indifferently, and said, "It's a good thing to be separated, she can't keep up with us."

"But you are not a dark wizard..."

"To her, yes," said Tom, turning grave, "she's such a dead person that to her nothing is real except what she sees with her own eyes."

"Yeah?"

"Well," Tom nodded, showing a look of reminiscence, and said, "You left in a hurry before and didn't talk to her much. In fact, after you left, I was basically taking care of her. Do you remember What's her last name?"

"Riddle? No... Her name is Jewell, Christian Jewell, and it seems that she hasn't changed her name back to Riddle now."

"Yes," Tom nodded again, "do you know what the name Jewell means to her?"

"Her adoptive father? Speaking of it, she doesn't seem to have mentioned this person to me."

"No, she did, but you forgot," said Tom, as if reciting a lesson. "I know it's bad to steal, but I'm a liar's daughter, and I was born to steal, wasn't I?"

Nelson narrowed his eyes, thinking back to the night when he met Christian for the second time, that stubborn girl with dirty curly hair and a long scar on her face - Nelson had forgotten when he started seeing Christian again. The scar was no longer visible, and the girl seemed to have hidden her past along with the scar.

"I remember, at the Christmas dinner," Nelson said, frowning, "I thought she was going to be a reticent, honestly, I thought 'liar's daughter' was just a... …well, literary rhetoric, used to express one’s own strong emotions.”

"It's not," Tom shook his head, and said, "Richard Jewell, I went to check it later, this person is Christian's former adoptive father, and in the files of the city hall, he was indeed imprisoned for fraud. .”

"Um……"

"After you left, it was probably the summer vacation of the third grade. I had nothing to do in London, so I went to investigate the gang of human traffickers who kidnapped Christian."

"I remember I was hanging out with Grindelwald in Krakow at that time..." Nelson was a little ashamed to learn that Tom had done so many things.

"That incident once again refreshed the lower limit of my understanding of the disgusting level of human beings," Tom said to himself, "Have you noticed that I seldom say disgusting now, this word was still my catchphrase before, then It’s because the survey results of that summer raised my tolerance to nausea to a higher level. Seriously, if you have seen those people, you will feel that your imagination for doing evil is really too poor, no matter how vicious Compared with them, the level of education of dark wizards is equivalent to not knowing the alphabet."

"I still can't imagine that people would actually do such a thing. They would break the legs of young children and make them bleed and beg in the street. Broken legs are really the most low-level means, and they will transform stolen children into freaks and sell them to circuses." Tom's tone was flat, and his body did not fluctuate, but his scarlet eyes expressed the dissatisfaction in his heart at the moment. Calm, "Do you still remember the circus that Nagini was in? At least they recruited real freaks, but Muggle circuses are different. These so-called 'freaks', eight out of ten Nine are man-made products, such as putting a person in a jar, with only the head exposed, so that when he grows up, he will be a villain in a bottle."

"Hiss..." Nelson gasped.

"As for daily beatings, scolding and violence, they are all commonplace," Tom spat, and continued, "It's really disgusting...Maybe because they are so perverted, it's hard for ordinary little girls to catch their eyes , They will choose a little boy every day... Linxing, as far as I know, most of the children in that disgusting gang have been tortured like this, and the bones of children who committed suicide can almost build a high wall."

"so……"

"It's completely true. I couldn't believe it at first, but I couldn't help but believe in Legilimency. These guys really did things." Tom shook his head, as if he also felt that it was outrageous, "Christian once She also almost became a victim, but because she was born with magical powers, she escaped, but in fact, for her, this escape is not much better than being actually hurt."

"Do you still have to suffer after escaping from the devil's lair?"

"That's right, because she can steal a lot of things, most of the children who were caught were very dissatisfied with her. You know, when everyone is suffering, you don't suffer, and you are more likely to be jealous. They always call Christian The monster, the devil, even after she helped her companions over and over again." Tom sighed again, he was very sentimental today, "That's why she looks like a silent person, in fact, If it wasn't for her adoptive father, she might have become a true obscurant."

"Richard Jewell?"

"That's right, he lives on a gangster street on the other side of the city, where all the rats in the sewers live, and he is no exception. This scammer has entrapped countless victims, but only in his own house When I picked up Christian who was hungry and cold at the door, my conscience found it once." Tom looked at Nelson and said, "After you left, I read the comics I bought for you. He found Christian's abnormality, but he didn't. Instead of exchanging her for money, he taught her how to integrate into the environment like the alien elder in that comic book—although this kind of depression may increase the probability of becoming a silent person, it can still make her happier. "

"did not expect."

"I also didn't expect that by his side, Christian lived at least a normal, street kid's life for a while, until the victim he had defrauded started a relationship, so that Christian, who came back late, witnessed his adoptive father being ganged up by gangsters. He was beaten to death at the door of the house," Tom gritted his teeth, "he saw Christian before he died, and he was still shouting to protect himself."

"This...how did you see it?"

"One of the members of the gang was a member of the trafficker gang. I retrieved his memory," Tom closed his eyes, and said, "It's not been a day or two since they've been eyeing the escapee Christian. While Jewell was killed, they He took her back again, and this time, Christian, who had lost all hope and remembered Jewell's teachings, could no longer show the skills of those monsters. She returned to their control, stealing things day after day, and watched helplessly. The companions were tortured, and few people who went out because of the smog did not steal their wallets, and were almost asked to work as child prostitutes."

"Do you understand the feeling when the pillars are suddenly destroyed when you see the light again? I think she understands more than us, which is why she lived more carefully in the orphanage after the traffickers were arrested."

"Every family has scriptures that are difficult to recite..." Nelson didn't know what to say, but just gently pushed Tom's shoulder, and the two walked forward together.

"Yes, but some people's words are very difficult to pronounce, it's really strange," the two walked towards the clothing store, "I went to ask Christian about what happened back then, and she always believed that Jewell's death was the Because of his status as a fraudster, this good man in her opinion, if he quits this line of work, he will live a long life—and Jewell, who knows that crime is an abyss, always tells her that he must be a good man. A clean and nice person, this may be the reason why she is so resistant to the dark arts, now that I think about it, Gryffindor is really suitable for her."

The two walked to an alley, and they could walk to the newly opened clothing store. This alley was so similar to the alley where they saw Christian for the first time, so that the scene back then was They were staged again before their eyes.

Tom rubbed his eyes and walked in without saying a word.

...

"Tom."

Crossing the alley, Nelson suddenly called Tom as the sun fell to the ground again.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know if it's my illusion, but I feel like you are becoming more and more like Dumbledore." Nelson smiled, "Haha, I think you can consider growing a beard."

"No, I don't have a younger brother who hurt each other with me, and my Transfiguration is not very good. I can't have sex with a man, let alone let my sister die in front of me," Tom tilted his head, as if he was imagining what it would be like if he had a younger brother. He was quickly amused by his own thoughts. He shook his head with a smile, and said in the direction of the clothing store, "Speaking of Forth, shall we go and see him later?"