"Ugh~"
The moment the sewage poured into his throat, Tom decisively returned his body. Lockhart, who had just woken up from a dream, was caught off guard and choked several times.
If it weren't for the fact that the wizard's physical fitness was not above the standard under the nourishment of magic power, this would almost be his final destination.
After finally swimming back to the shallow water, Lockhart started vomiting so hard that he wanted to turn his stomach inside out.
After God knows how long, Lockhart, who had calmed down a little, rarely took his own image into consideration first. He roughly took out the diary from his arms and extended a friendly greeting to Tom.
[Calm down, my friend, it was just an accident. 】
Tom responded quickly, but the handwriting that emerged was very sloppy, and it seemed that it was not so calm.
[I swear everything was fine the last time I came here. Maybe there was a blockage somewhere in the sewer system of Hogwarts, so the water overflowed. 】
At this time, this descendant of the Gunter family has already scolded a certain ancestor bloody. Can't the design and construction be more reliable? Even if the waterproofing is not good, at least make a few drainage holes!
[****, I am such a fool that I would believe you. You're not an accidentally trapped soul at all, are you? Everything was planned by Scamander just to make fun of me. 】
Lockhart felt bitter in his heart. No wonder Ani didn't care about the loss of the diary. It turned out that it wasn't that he didn't realize the strangeness of this thing, but that the diary was made by someone just to play with fools like himself.
[Calm down, Lockhart. Look at this and think about how far we've fallen. Who would go to all that length for a prank? 】
Those who dared to insult the Dark Lord all paid a heavy price. Neither Tom Riddle nor Voldemort were merciful people.
However, revenge comes first, and Dumbledore taught it never to show its teeth to the strong when it is weak. In the same way, it is more important to judge the situation in a crisis. Tom is also afraid that if Lockhart can't stand the stimulation and throws himself into the water and leaves in anger, it will be bad.
So in the face of the furious prepared rations, Tom, who was also angry, had to be patient and calm him down first.
He took two big breaths, and the filthy air that was roughly poured in made him vomit again. After he stopped retching, Lockhart even became cautious about breathing.
He had lost his mind just now after a sudden change. Of course he knew what was written in the diary, and he also understood that he was not worth causing that person to take so much effort.
In short - he doesn't deserve it.
Facts were more difficult for Lockhart to accept than fantasies.
He wants to be the sun of everyone, be worshiped by everyone, let everyone boast about himself, even enemies dare not despise him.
But who cares about him?
In fact, Lockhart has always known that he has no background and is not a genius. Many of his auras are all special effects and are purely to fool people, but he just doesn't want to admit it in his heart.
In order to become the dazzling sun, he had no choice but to climb up by any means necessary. In order to obtain a higher status, Lockhart took huge risks to sneak attack on those elite wizards and turn their stories into his own.
Having a good story is not enough. If you want to stand taller, you must work hard and go around trying to please those powerful people against your will. This has made him prosperous in the wizarding world.
But everything changed after entering Hogwarts. Lockhart's method simply didn't work here. Children's world was purer, and you had to have real skills to convince them.
When he walked confidently through the door of Hogwarts at the beginning of school, he never imagined that he was about to face a pair of looks of contempt and disgust.
Lockhart always complained that his parents failed to give him a good background, failed to give him superhuman talents, and failed to inherit a great reputation like Harry, otherwise he could easily become the sun in people's hearts.
He had never thought that the reason why the sun was dazzling was not because it was high above, but because its warm radiance illuminated everyone.
The status of the sun is not easy to come by. One day, one month, one year, one hundred years, ten thousand years, hundreds of millions of years.
, if Lockhart really understood the word "constant", maybe everything would be very different.
But there is no "if" in reality. Even if Tom makes himself embarrassed and wants to throw the diary into the water far away and let it rot and stink in this no-man's land until it is destroyed, Lockhart still has to He forced himself to smile.
[Sorry, Tom, I was too excited. This place has been blocked by sewage, what should we do next? 】
Looking at the handwriting that appeared, Tom wished he could kill him and get a meal ticket right away.
what to do? You are a wizard, so what does it matter if you only have water? Wouldn't it be solved by just throwing a magic spell?
Dumbledore must be too confused to allow such a person to be a professor, or Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. It's a good thing that he wanted to apply for this position after graduation, but luckily he didn't succeed, otherwise he would have to be compared with this thing!
Over the past few days, Tom had extracted a lot of information from Lockhart, including some of "his" experiences when he grew up.
Now he feels that when he grows up, he must have lost his mind to want to hold such an unfashionable position.
[Of course, use the disappearing spell to clear away the accumulated water. The drying spell is also very effective. 】
Tom's suggestion was very pertinent. He knew that Lockhart's level of magic was average, and the two choices listed were not difficult.
[Haha, I suddenly thought that I have something to be busy with during this period, so I’ll clean it up later. 】
After seeing the writing in the diary, Lockhart made an excuse without hesitation.
[Okay, try to be as quick as possible. After all, the sooner you get the inheritance, the greater it will be to you. 】
Tom didn't pay much attention to the other party's answer. The Horcrux hadn't corroded Lockhart deeply enough. He came here today just to see what was going on in the secret room, but he wasn't in a hurry to go in.
He thought that Lockhart didn't want to clean up the water in the near future because of some psychological shadow from today's experience, but he didn't know that it wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't.
During this period of communication between the two parties, Lockhart pretended to be a master of magic, hoping to gain the admiration of his "favorite" person.
However, facing a portable "gold finger", who can resist using it? After Tom helped him solve the teaching problems, he thought he had found out the details of the other party - an ordinary mage who might have some special skills, but his overall level was simply not worthy of his current position.
Even though he had gotten to know Lockhart a little bit in the written conversation and did not dare to overestimate his strength, the evaluation given by Little Tom still far exceeded the opponent's true level.
Who can believe that a professor can't use the disappearing spell?
He couldn't even use the Vanishing Charm, let alone cast spells without a wand, so after touching the smooth wall of the pipe and thinking about how long it would take to slide down, Lockhart gave up the idea of climbing up.
[Tom, how are we going to get up now? My wand seemed to have fallen into the water just now...]
