After lunch, Harry and Ronald came to Hagrid's cabin as agreed.
The half-giant welcomed the two warmly with boiling hot tea and indestructible rock crust pies.
"Another Weasley?"
Looking at Ronald's iconic red hair, Hagrid felt a headache. "I haven't had a good night's sleep in these years because of driving your brother out of the Forbidden Forest."
Ronald laughed dryly, and lowered his head awkwardly to eat the rock cake. He almost knocked his teeth out, and his round face was distorted.
Seeing Ronald's performance, Harry silently put the rock cake back, blew on the hot tea, took a small sip, and began to talk about his feelings about the class this week.
Everything in Hogwarts seemed like heaven to Harry: a comfortable living environment, all-you-can-eat food, and a considerable amount of pocket money... no, it should be called inheritance.
More importantly, he can learn all kinds of magical skills and make good friends, which makes Harry very satisfied.
Only today, Snape's appearance ruined his good mood that had lasted for a week.
"Riddle also said that Snape was apologizing to my mother. I think that's pure nonsense."
Harry was still complaining, and he didn't notice that Hagrid's huge body trembled twice involuntarily after hearing the name Riddle.
"Hagrid, I feel like Snape hates me."
"Nonsense." Hagrid fiddled with the pie absentmindedly, "Why should he hate you? It's not his place to apologize."
If there really is an apology to be made, Hagrid feels that Harry's father, James Potter, needs to apologize more.
After all, he knew very well how arrogant the Marauders were in the school. Even Slytherin's group of Death Eaters couldn't afford to mess with them. Only Snape, who was so stubborn, got punished every day.
If James had not gradually grown into a sensible and mature person after graduation, he would not have become friends with James.
"Hmm?" Harry heard something wrong, "Who should apologize then?"
Hagrid waved his hands impatiently, not wanting to continue this topic. "No one needs to apologize, and Snape is not targeting you. Don't think too much, Harry. Have another piece of nougat."
"All right."
Harry knew Hagrid was trying to change the subject, but he didn't want to keep asking.
As Ronald told him about his brother's interesting story of raising dragons in Romania, he accidentally caught a glimpse of a newspaper on the corner of the table - "The Latest Report on the Illegal Break-in at Gringotts"
He took it and looked at it, and found a very coincidental thing - the invasion of Gringotts happened to be his birthday, and it was also the day he and Hagrid went to Diagon Alley.
However, Dumbledore had already taken the things away and did not assign any tasks to Hagrid, so Harry did not make any associations.
I just glanced at the report and stopped paying attention.
However, after reading today's Daily Prophet, Tom fell into deep thought.
In his previous life, many people believed that everything about Harry at school was under the control of Dumbledore.
It was he who arranged a series of adventures to help Harry grow, and finally confront Voldemort, fulfilling the prophecy step by step and eliminating the second generation Dark Lord for the wizarding world.
But Tom never agreed with this statement.
He admitted that Dumbledore had a strong control over the school, and many seemingly secret things were actually seen by him.
But it doesn't mean that he is omniscient and omnipotent and has arranged everything.
The Chamber of Secrets in the second year, Sirius's defection in the third year, Moody's imprisonment and replacement by Crouch Jr., if Dumbledore knew, he would never have let these things happen.
But there is no doubt that Harry, a first-year student, was basically pushed around, and those childish levels were obviously not prepared for Quirrell, but were level-breaking games for young wizards.
Tom was not interested in the Philosopher's Stone. This kind of immortality that could not stop aging had no appeal to him.
He was more interested in Quirrell.
Or rather, the identity of Professor Quirrell.
If the Philosopher's Stone was used as bait, even if Quirrell had to be a dog, he would definitely be willing to do it. Even if he didn't want to, he still had Tom Riddle in his head, so he would help his namesake.
Of course, he wasn't some Dark Lord and didn't need Quirrell to be his dog.
He just needed some credits from Professor Quirrell, that wasn't too much to ask, was it?
"Tom, what are you thinking about?" Daphne looked at Tom staring at the Black Lake in the distance in a daze. After a long while, she couldn't help but asked curiously.
The boy came back to his senses and shook his head. "I was just wondering why Professor Quirrell could be a professor."
Hearing this, Daphne immediately showed a look of disgust, "Who said it wasn't true? Someone who can't even speak clearly can be a professor. It's better to read a book than to listen to his lectures."
"I don't know what Dumbledore is thinking. I heard he is over a hundred years old. Is he getting senile?"
It seemed that all Slytherins had some opinions about Dumbledore, even Daphne, one of the twenty-eight heretics who didn't care much about bloodline.
What on earth did Dumbledore do back then to make these purebloods hate him so much?
Tom was curious, but he knew that Daphne couldn't possibly know such a secret, so he could only follow her words, "I heard...the Defense Against the Dark Arts class seems to be cursed. No teacher can work in this position for a full year."
"I guess this is why Dumbledore chose Quirrell, because there were really no other competitors."
Daphne's eyes lit up. "Have you heard of this legend? I know that several Defense Against the Dark Arts professors resigned for various reasons."
When it came to these gossips, Daphne immediately became excited and shared with Tom the information she had worked so hard to get.
The previous professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts was a witch. Because she was cheated of money and feelings by a wizard, she cut off his genitals on a dark and windy night, robbed him of all his money and fled the UK. She is still wanted.
There is nothing much to say about the previous one. He was an older wizard and an old friend of Dumbledore. He fell seriously ill during Easter and was admitted to St. Mungo's.
The teachers before me were magical creature smugglers, some injured themselves while doing magic experiments, and some were found to have criminal records.
As she spoke, Daphne's voice became softer and softer, and finally she used Tom's arm as a pillow and fell asleep, which made Tom laugh and cry.
He did not wake up the little witch, but found a comfortable position for both of them, and entered the study space with his consciousness...