Hogwarts: I, Tom, am really not Voldemort!

Hagrid hesitated for a moment, then welcomed Tom and Harry inside.

He warmly offered them tea and rock cakes, but kept glancing at Tom with suspicion. When Tom smiled back, Hagrid quickly averted his gaze and asked Harry with a puzzled expression, "Harry, how did a Gryffindor like you end up hanging out with a Slytherin? You know, most of the Slytherins back in the day were Death Eaters."

Sensing the hint of displeasure in Hagrid's tone, Harry instinctively defended Tom: "Hagrid, even though Tom is a Slytherin, he grew up in a Muggle orphanage. And he's a good person. He's been helping me since the train station, and I'm the one who brought him here this time."

"Well, he certainly doesn't seem like a Slytherin," Hagrid muttered before turning his attention to Harry. "Harry, how's your week going? Have you adjusted to life at Hogwarts?"

"Don't even mention it, it's been awful," Harry said, his brow furrowing involuntarily.

"What's wrong?" Hagrid asked, noticing Harry's expression.

Harry, as if having found an outlet, poured out all the rumors circulating in the castle these past two days, his argument with Ron, and Snape's deliberate targeting of him in class, telling Hagrid everything in detail.

"Hagrid, you knew my parents. Tell me, is it all true? Was my dad really like that at school? And what about their relationship with Snape, was it really like the rumors say?" Harry looked at Hagrid with hopeful eyes, hoping to get answers from him.

Hagrid met Harry's gaze, then guiltily looked away, muttering vaguely, "Well, Harry, the rumors are a bit exaggerated. But everyone is reckless when they're young, they weren't very sensible back then, so..."

He understood. His heart died!

Seeing Hagrid's reaction, Harry basically concluded that the rumors circulating in the school were probably true.

Just as Harry was feeling devastated and questioning his life, Tom's teasing voice came from the side: "So, Harry, remember the oath you swore on the way here? The most important thing for a man is to keep his word. You wouldn't happen to be backing down, would you?"

Harry couldn't stand being provoked, especially when someone said he couldn't do something. Seeing Tom's expression of quiet amusement, he said one of the things he would regret most in his life: "I, Harry Potter, will change my last name to Snape. I'll be Harry Snape."

Tom secretly pressed the button on the Voldemort brand voice recorder in his pocket, gave Harry a thumbs up, and even took the initiative to explain to a shocked Hagrid: "It's just a little joke Harry and I made up on the way here, Hagrid, don't take it seriously."

"You're really not like the person I remember," Hagrid replied to Tom with a complicated expression.

Hearing Hagrid say this, Harry, who had just been questioning his life, suddenly perked up: "Are you saying Tom looks like someone you remember?"

Hagrid seemed to be lost in memories: "He was an upperclassman two years ahead of me. His name was also Tom Riddle, he looked exactly like Tom, and he was also a Slytherin."

"Are you saying that Slytherin once had a Tom Riddle who looked exactly like Tom?" Now it was Harry's turn to be shocked.

"Yeah, back then Tom Riddle was an excellent student, handsome, and also a prefect and Head Boy. But there were still differences between him and little Tom, he wasn't as... uh... lively as little Tom."

Harry read the report softly and then asked Hagrid.

"Hagrid, isn't this what happened on my birthday? Do you know any extra information?"

Hagrid didn't dare to look Harry in the eye, unsure of how to answer. Tom's timely voice came to Hagrid's rescue:

"Hagrid, do you still need these unicorn hairs?"

Looking at the unicorn hairs he had casually discarded in the corner, Hagrid replied to Tom without hesitation: "It's okay, and those other miscellaneous things, you can take them if you want."

Generous, worthy of being Hogwarts' hidden big spender. Tom's eyes immediately turned into sparkling Galleons.

Tom lingered in Hagrid's hut for a while, then, after stuffing a bag full of loot into his extendable bag, he and Harry got up to leave together.

"Harry, come to the library to do homework together after school if you have time." Tom invited Harry before they parted ways in the castle.

He thought for a moment and added, "Ravenclaw's Hermione will be there too, and Hufflepuff's Neville might come as well."

Seeing Harry nod in agreement, Tom waved goodbye to Harry and headed towards the Slytherin common room.

Back in the common room, Tom saw Cassandra outside the door, talking to the Slytherin resident ghost—the Bloody Baron.

Just as he was about to say hello, the Bloody Baron saw Tom and hurriedly left without hesitation, leaving Tom awkwardly stunned in place.

"He's avoiding you," Cassandra's voice sounded.

"Huh?"

Ignoring Tom's surprise, Cassandra said to herself, "Since the beginning of the semester, the Baron, or rather, many ghosts in the castle, have been avoiding you. I'm very curious, what secret do you have that makes them like this?"

"Then what have you found out these past few days?" Tom looked at Cassandra with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

"They said you look like someone, both in name and appearance." Cassandra took a half step back, unconsciously, looking at Tom's expression.

"What kind of person is that?" Tom stepped forward slowly, step by step.

"A person who deceived Ms. Ravenclaw Gray, whom she can't forgive to this day. A person who was once excellent, but later turned bad, so bad that he couldn't be worse. A person whose name people dare not mention." Cassandra recalled the tone of the ghosts when they mentioned Tom, her voice slightly trembling.

Tom came to Cassandra, and the pressure from his magic enveloped Cassandra's trembling body. He stroked her delicate cheek with his right hand and asked softly with a smile: "So, my dear Cassandra, who do you think it could be?"

Looking at Tom's smiling face, Cassandra seemed to see something terrifying. Memories of the moments since she met Tom flashed through her mind, and she spat out three words to Tom as if she had used all her strength:

"You-Know-Who!"