Hogwarts: I, Tom, am really not Voldemort!

In the girls' lavatory, Padma and Hannah gently knocked on the stall door together.

"Hermione, are you in there?"

The faint sobbing inside the stall gradually ceased, and Hermione choked out, "Is that Padma? How did you get here?"

Padma responded gently to Hermione, "It's not just me, the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff members of the Astronomy Club are here too. Tom and the others went to settle accounts with Weasley first, and Parvati is bringing them over now. Hermione, come out, everyone is very worried about you."

After a moment, the stall door opened with a "creak—," and Hermione walked out with red eyes.

Padma stepped forward and gave Hermione a gentle hug, softly comforting her: "Hermione, we all know what happened. Honestly, why are you upset over that idiot Weasley's rubbish words? We all know how amazing you are."

Hannah helped Hermione gently wipe her tear-reddened eyes, comforting her along with Padma: "Honestly, I don't have a good impression of Weasley either. Arrogance and conceit can't hide the inferiority and jealousy that seeps from his bones. It's not worth being sad and upset for someone like that. Hermione, look around you, you have so many good friends who care about you. Even those Slytherins with their noses in the air are charmed by you. Why hide here and grieve alone for a Weasley?"

"Yes, Hermione, you're the smartest witch in the whole year, and the proud eagle of our Ravenclaw. It's really not worth it for a Gryffindor simpleton lion."

The two of them spoke words of comfort and soothed Hermione's wounded heart.

When Hermione was led out of the lavatory by Padma and Hannah, she saw a dozen pairs of concerned eyes. At that moment, she felt truly foolish for having just tormented herself like that.

Just then, Tom subtly nudged Draco forward.

Hermione shook her head, giving Harry a slight smile: "Harry, it's not your fault, you don't need to say sorry. And thank you."

Hearing Hermione's words, Harry responded with a smile as well: "Thank you, and welcome back, Hermione."

Tom felt like the three of them were giving him goosebumps, so he turned his head away and stopped looking at them, clapping his hands and saying to everyone: "Alright, Hermione's matter is settled. Now let's go back and enjoy the Halloween feast."

"Yay, feast! Feast!"

The Hufflepuff students took the lead in cheering, and the cheers dispelled the gloom that had been hanging over everyone.

Just as everyone was heading towards the Great Hall, chatting and laughing, Tom, who was at the very front, suddenly reached out and stopped everyone, quickly drawing his wand.

"Take out your wands and prepare for battle. Something's coming," Tom warned everyone in a low voice.

Receiving Tom's warning, the people behind him took out their wands one after another, staring intently ahead with tense expressions.

The sound of heavy breathing grew clearer as it approached. Then everyone saw a huge, gray-green hand grab the wall at the corner.

Instantly, everyone's faces turned pale, and they subconsciously took a step back, biting their lips tightly, afraid to make a sound.

In everyone's horrified gaze, a behemoth twelve feet tall and weighing over a ton walked out from the corner.

Its massive body nearly touched the ceiling, with a bald little head, granite-like gray, dull skin, and a nauseating stench emanating from its body. Its arms, which were almost hanging down to its knees, held a tree-trunk-thick club, and an enormous sense of oppression rushed towards them.

Hannah couldn't withstand the pressure and screamed, "A troll! How could there be a troll in the castle?"

Hearing the scream, the troll lowered its head to look at the young wizards. As if it had found some interesting prey, its face revealed cruelty as it waved the club in its hand and pounced on the crowd excitedly.

The young wizards, encountering this situation for the first time, trembled and fell into chaos.

"Ah~"

"What do we do?"

"Think of something!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Stupefy!"

......

Screams rose and fell, but the haphazardly released spells couldn't break through the troll's super-high magic resistance.

Thanks to the rigorous training in Tom's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, the young wizards may not have learned anything else, but their dodging skills were definitely maxed out. Under the troll's unorganized attacks, they dodged quickly one after another, and no one was injured yet, but the young wizards wouldn't be able to hold out for long.

"Calm down!" Just as everyone was panicking, Tom's reassuring voice entered their ears, "Recall the knowledge you learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Let the green light redeem its soul."

Someone hesitated: "But we'll go to Azkaban."

Tom looked calm: "It seems that a 3-foot essay is not enough for you. Trolls are classified as Class XXXX beasts, and only using it on humans will send you to Azkaban."

Cassandra, who was the first to calm down in Tom's words, raised her wand and shouted loudly: "Avada Kedavra!"

Seeing Cassandra take the lead, the others raised their wands one after another and shouted loudly at the troll: "Avada Kedavra!"

The brilliant green light illuminated the dim corridor, so intense that it was hard to open one's eyes.

Just as Tom said, there was nothing in this world that one Killing Curse couldn't solve. If one wasn't enough, then there were a dozen.

And Tom also opportunely added the final blow: "Fool! Welcome your death! Avada Kedavra!"

Magic and killing intent converged, madness danced in the corners of Tom's eyes, the thick green light subdued the crowd, and the Grim Reaper's scythe ruthlessly swept towards the troll.

"Bang!"

The patches of green light bombarded the troll's body, and the 12-foot-tall body fell to the ground in response, making a deafening sound.

"This is the Killing Curse..."

Watching the troll die instantly without any pain, many people stared at their wands and muttered to themselves. Obviously, the feeling of using the Killing Curse on a living thing for the first time was not so easy to calm down.

What's more, when Harry used the Killing Curse to reap the troll's life, a woman's piercing scream that made people uneasy faintly echoed in his ears, making him unable to calm down even now.

The troll's fall was met with everyone's silence. There was no joy of victory, and an oppressive atmosphere spread through the corridor.

Until a sharp shout broke the silence.

"Harry—there's a troll!" Ron shouted frantically as he ran, "Harry—where are you? A troll has run into the castle, run!"

Then the sound stopped abruptly. What Ron saw was the fallen troll, a dozen pairs of cold eyes staring at him, and the dense array of wands pointing at him.

The intense impact of the scene caused his brain to crash for a moment. He couldn't help but swallow and asked tremblingly, "Would you believe me if I said I accidentally got lost here?"