Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 402 Old Tom and Merope

401 Old Tom and Merope

After realizing that Old Tom had been pretending to be unconscious, the first person to react was Toby's new subordinate Antioch. He came closer bit by bit, and an unbelievable wave of disbelief came out of his empty eye holes.

Deep.

"Roar!"

"Step aside!"

Toby impatiently pushed the crazy Antioch aside, and then glanced sideways at the armor, which also turned its head - it obviously didn't believe that it had made a mistake, and it hadn't noticed it for so long.

Old Tom is pretending to be in a coma.

"You can take the wand away. Don't worry, I can't move it yet."

Old Tom said.

Toby did not do what Old Tom said, but instead poked his forehead a few more times with the wand.

"But how do I know if you are lying to me again?"

Old Tom responded calmly: "This is why I don't want to wake up. You are too vigilant, so I can only avoid attracting your attention - especially after getting this magical body, I

Have you really become a wizard now?"

"Shouldn't you have known this a long time ago?" Toby said, narrowing his eyes.

There was silence in the secret room for a short while, but it didn't last long.

Toby suddenly asked: "When did this start? After you had the body of the plant Animagus? Or when the Death Butler contacted you?"

Old Tom thought silently for a few seconds.

"If you mean that I can think in a normal way, I think I finally woke up after seeing the kerosene lamp."

"Do you know who that person is?" Toby asked again: "The transparent person hiding under the kerosene lamp."

Old Tom shook his head.

"Why should the other party help you?"

Old Tom still shook his head.

Toby was very dissatisfied with this guy's attitude, and Old Tom was obviously aware of this - it was all written on Toby's face, especially when the tip of his wand almost broke the skin on his forehead, like

Like a nail.

"Calm down, young man."

There was no trace of panic on Old Tom's face.

"Perhaps you will be interested in the story between me and Merope, so that you will know why I have to kill this person."

He glanced at the armor on the other side of the secret room - to be more precise, Voldemort was currently trapped in the armor.

"No."

Toby's answer was still a bit surprising. He said with disgust: "I'm not interested in the love story between you and Merope at all. It means nothing to me, and I don't want to know why you have to do it."

To kill the mysterious man is nothing more than a conspiracy set up by Haierbo."

"What I want to know now is, how did you meet Lily Evans?"

Old Tom looked at Toby confused.

"Lily Evans?" he asked, "who is that?"

"You still want to be tough now?" Toby said, causing the tip of the wand to burst into intense fire: "Didn't you tell her the story of the Horcrux?"

"No, I didn't." Old Tom replied solemnly: "Apart from Merope and her family of weirdos, I have almost never come into contact with any wizards - I think you have found the wrong person. But.

Horcruxes, I do know about Horcruxes, but Merope also knows - do you know where Merope is? Have you seen her? "

A rare expression of excitement appeared on Old Tom's face.

Toby stared at him for a short moment.

He suddenly pulled his wand back and waved it back and forth in his hand.

"Now I'm interested in the story between you and Merope."

Toby said uncharacteristically: "Talk about it carefully, we have plenty of time."

"It seems that this person named Lily Evans is very important to you——"

Old Tom smiled, not knowing what he was thinking of, but the next second he saw a strange expression on Toby's face.

"Is there nothing else in the minds of you people except love?"

There was a sad undertone in Toby's tone.

Old Tom's tone was stagnant, and Toby shook his head and urged: "Hurry up and tell the story. No matter how much time you have, you won't waste it like this."

"Okay."

Until then, there was no trace of humanity in Old Tom. At least he knew the embarrassment.

——

The story seems very cliché at the beginning. Old Tom was born into a wealthy family. They were so wealthy that the entire valley on one side belonged to their family - except for the old Gaunt house on the other side.

He would occasionally ride by there on horseback, but he never wanted to have too much contact with that family, because he knew that the people living in that house were crazy, and the people in the village also had many bad comments about them.

Until one night, when old Tom passed by here again, he felt someone peeking at him in the fenced garden.

At first, he thought it was a stupid boy in this old house, so he didn't pay much attention to it. He just planned to rush home and rest as soon as possible.

But it was also that night that an accident happened.

"Melop's brother suddenly jumped out and attacked me. I didn't know how he did it at the time, but I suddenly had severe hives on my face, and then I saw another girl also

Suddenly rushed towards me - now thinking about it, Merop was probably planning to protect me, but at that time I was completely frightened and just ran away on horseback - this was the first encounter between Merope and me.

"

After finishing this series of words, Old Tom paused.

"Similarly, this is also the first time I see Merope."

Toby yawned boredly, and he asked casually: "Then what? You guys fall in love like this?"

"How is it possible?" Old Tom seemed to believe that there was something wrong with Toby's brain. He explained patiently: "Love at first sight almost only happens in novels. I have read some such novels, but Merope and I

It's not like this - well, don't rush me, I'll get on with it."

After Old Tom returned home, his parents were shocked by his appearance and quickly invited the best doctors to treat him.

What the doctor said was heartbreaking. He didn't understand why this disease suddenly occurred. At that time, Old Tom couldn't understand the existence of magic at all. Even if he had doubts in his heart, he didn't dare to tell the truth.

That night, Old Tom tossed and turned for half the night, unable to fall asleep, so he waited for an unexpected visitor.

"It's Merope."

Old Tom's eyes were filled with memories.

"I recognized her at a glance. She was huddled in the corner of the house. She was very thin and looked very pitiful. She looked like a wild cat that I usually see in the village."

"I was very scared at first, but I didn't think so after I saw her appearance clearly. I quietly asked her some things, including the hives on my face, and whether this was her brother.

It was caused by this. Merope didn't dare to talk to me, and only nodded and shook her head to answer. Then I asked how on earth it was done? She refused to answer, and only used gestures to tell me to close my eyes."

"I thought she was going to cure me, or do some other magical thing - but it turned out she just gave me a small bottle of potion, a very magical potion. Because after that, in my room

More people appeared, and their conversations were very strange. They said that they were from a place called the Ministry of Magic. They cured all my wounds, and then cast an amnesia spell on me - this was what I later said.

I just found out about it. I was quite alert at the time, and I quickly realized what Merop’s potion actually did—it was me who could eliminate the effects of the Forgetting Curse on me in advance.”

"I think she didn't want me to forget this. Maybe she wanted me to stay away from her terrible brother in the future, or she simply didn't want me to forget her. In short, I pretended to be stupid.

I passed the test of the Ministry of Magic and made them think that I had really had my memory wiped out and kept this matter in my heart."

Toby conjured a table out of nowhere, with a plate of braised beans and a freshly opened bottle of Black Devil on it.

He threw the bean into the air. Looking at the direction in which it fell, he couldn't catch it with his mouth, but the bean turned strangely in the air and landed smoothly in his mouth, making a crunching sound when he bit it.

"So you fell in love with her?"

"Still not." Old Tom shook his head and said, "It's more out of curiosity, what kind of abilities their family has. At that time, I didn't have to worry about money. I just wanted to have fun all day long. Merope

It’s just a newfound joy I’ve discovered.”

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Toby clapped his hands: "Scumbag."

"Maybe." Old Tom admitted: "When I was young, there were indeed many girls who would circle around me, hoping to use this method to attract my attention and let them become the future Riddle family.

They are mistresses, but I really have no interest in them, because those people's purpose is too obvious, and they don't know how to hide their little thoughts."

"But Merope is special."

After experiencing such an incident, Old Tom will pay more attention when passing by Gunter's old house.

I don't know if it was because he was lucky enough, but he quickly found a second chance to be alone with Merop.

And only one day has passed.

"That day, when I passed by Gaunt's old house, I found Merope standing in the courtyard looking at me openly, and then I stopped and looked at her. Merope waved to me, and I

I hesitated for a while, but still followed her into the house."

"To be honest, the layout of the house is really bad. It doesn't look like a place for people to live at all. It's the first time I've come back to such a house. As a result, both me and Merope were very panicked. I guess

She didn’t expect that I would actually walk in.”

"Like that night, she still didn't talk to me, so I was the one asking her questions. Soon, I roughly understood that her father and brother had been taken away, and later I found out that they were actually attacked

Those people from the Ministry of Magic. They are really brave. But I also understand that Merope is free, and she obviously knows this."

At that time, both Old Tom and Merope were silent for an unusually long time, until Merope suddenly signaled Old Tom to close his eyes.

"I did as I was told," said Old Tom.

"After the last experience, I closed my eyes and asked her if she was going to give me another magical potion, and then asked her what the potion would do this time. But I could only hear her tinkering.

The sound of the jar did not hear her answer."

"Finally, I asked her if she was willing to teach me magic. At that time, I was too naive and thought that this was something I could do as long as I studied hard. I told her how boring my daily life was, and it would be fine if I knew how to do magic.

There are a lot of new fun things, such as shutting up those ladies who keep screaming, or making my parents have no idea how late I will be home, which are very interesting to me."

"Then I heard Merope's voice for the first time."

【Are you willing to come with me?】

Old Tom repeated this sentence slowly.

"This is the beginning of everything. I agreed immediately, but I said I had to say goodbye to my parents, and I also had to bring some belongings. Let her wait for me here, and I will be back soon."

"The reason why I agreed at the time was simply because I thought it would be interesting, and maybe I could visit the place called the Ministry of Magic. I guess Merope didn't expect that I would answer this, because the sound of tinkering with pots in the room suddenly stopped.

Come down."

At this time, Toby had already finished a whole bottle of Black Devil wine. He poured the empty bottle into his mouth, and then slowly exhaled a puff of black smoke with the mark of "Death Devil". He looked extremely comfortable.

"She just let you go like that?" Toby asked coldly while putting down the bottle: "If it were me, I would definitely take you away directly to avoid giving you a chance to regret it."

"I said, Merope is different." Old Tom said slowly: "But I did hear the sound of something breaking, and the smell was very charming. When I opened my eyes, I saw Merope was

By sweeping the floor with your back to me, I guess that’s consent.”

"That's a love potion, you stupid Muggle." Toby sneered.

Old Tom fell into silence again.

"I know." He suddenly said: "Actually, I understood at that time that this potion must be different from the last time. Dangerous things often show the most charming colors. I guess that bottle of potion is also the same. But I don't know either.

It's because of something. Maybe it's because she looks so pitiful, and there are some wild cats, except for the few I will take back home, they have never been seen again."

"Maybe he left, or maybe he died, I don't know."

This time the silence in the secret room lasted longer.

"Maybe it's because they have learned magic." Toby murmured: "They don't want to be associated with you stupid Muggles anymore, so as not to be infected and return to the peaceful and boring days before."

"Are you talking about yourself?" Old Tom asked.

"No." Toby said lazily, but his tone was extremely firm: "I can't be a wild cat, and no one can infect me."

"Let's continue telling the story after you broke into the magic world. Now the story has finally become interesting."