Professor Hicks's Memory Charm had worked exceptionally well.
Mrs. Cole and the other children no longer recognized Wade and Tom.
In their eyes now, Wade and Tom were just two kind-hearted boys from wealthy families who'd suddenly been struck by a charitable impulse.
Using money from the Riddle family, Tom donated a generous amount of supplies to the orphanage.
Mrs. Cole was deeply grateful. At the very least, this meant that no one at the orphanage would go hungry this Christmas.
As for Mr. Riddle, he didn't object to Tom's actions—on the contrary, seeing what Tom had done actually put him more at ease.
At the very least, it proved one thing: Young Tom clearly wasn't the kind of evil wizard he'd once imagined. Otherwise, how could he possibly be doing good deeds?
After they finished distributing the supplies, the two of them said goodbye to the old butler and returned to the safehouse.
Toby, as usual, had already prepared dinner and was waiting for them.
Even Tom the kneazle and Nagini had their favorite foods set out, thanks to the house-elf's thoughtful attention.
Wade and Tom each sat down and quietly ate their meals.
After finishing, Tom got up and prepared to head back to his room to read.
"Tom."
Wade suddenly called out to him.
"Are you calling me, or your cat?" Tom turned and looked at Wade.
"This time, I'm calling you," Wade said calmly.
"What is it?" Tom sat back down at the table.
"Did you know? After hearing about your good deed today, both Professor Dumbledore and Mr. Riddle were really pleased—especially Professor Dumbledore. In his letter to me, I could feel his relief in every word," Wade said with a smile.
"…Hmm."
Tom wasn't sure why Wade had suddenly brought this up, so he just gave a vague response and waited for him to continue.
"Tom, you've really grown… You've truly learned something from me," Wade went on.
"Learned what exactly?"
"You've become better at pretending than before."
"What do you mean?" Tom suddenly looked a bit nervous.
"Professor Dumbledore thinks you've finally started to change. Did you think I believed that too?"
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"I'm just saying… this time, you imitated me very well. You almost fooled everyone. But you… you can't fool me."
"You… you mean to say everything I did for the orphanage was fake?" Tom looked furious.
"I never said what you did was fake…" Wade replied with a faint smile on his face.
"Hmph, I know what you mean, Wade! You're saying everything I did was just an act! Aren't you?"
Wade didn't answer. He kept smiling, silently watching Tom.
Tom suddenly felt like he'd punched a pillow—soft, frustrating, and completely ineffective.
Even Nagini and Toby off to the side thought Wade was being a bit too harsh.
What Tom had done today was truly impeccable.
Giving back to the orphanage where he grew up wasn't just an act of gratitude—it showed genuine kindness.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a good deed.
They couldn't quite understand why Wade would say something like that.
"I don't care what you think. I didn't do any of this to get your approval,"
Tom said, then stormed away from the table and marched up the stairs.
"You see? There you go getting all worked up again. Tom… it's one thing to fool your mates, but don't end up fooling yourself…"
At those words, Tom's steps abruptly halted mid-climb. Then he quickly disappeared around the stairwell.
Nagini lifted her head. "Hisss… (You were a bit too harsh—)"
"Nagini, I won't deny that a person's nature can change drastically. But usually, that takes some major life-altering event. And Tom? I'd say he's just in too much of a hurry…"
Nagini tilted her head, flicking her tongue thoughtfully.
Wade propped his cheek on one hand while slowly stirring the coffee in front of him, a faintly amused smile playing on his lips.
"Tom… you're becoming more and more interesting…"
He didn't deny that Tom had changed compared to before.
But the change this time was too abrupt—so sudden that even those who knew Tom well found him almost unrecognizable.
When something's off, there's always a reason—and in this world, no one knew Tom better than Wade.
Tom had always been someone skilled at pretending.
In the original timeline, his act won over the entire school's faculty and students—everyone except Dumbledore, who alone wasn't fooled by it.
So why did Dumbledore believe it so easily this time?
Keep in mind, Dumbledore hadn't even witnessed Tom's actions firsthand—he simply heard Wade's account and immediately accepted it!
In that case, it wasn't so much that Dumbledore trusted in Tom's change… but rather that he trusted Wade's judgment.
"Tom, you've really grown, huh? You've even made me a piece in your disguise…"
Of course, there was another, even more decisive reason that confirmed Wade's suspicion.
After all, just for sympathizing and reassuring the crying Dumbledore that day, his stingy system generously awarded him 10,000 merit points.
But now—after supposedly redeeming the future Dark Lord himself—the damn system gave him only 55.5 points?
Tom's so-called "transformation" had earned him barely a trickle of merit points… and with decimals, no less.
And you want me to believe he's truly turned over a new leaf?
If he had really changed for good, then how about the system coughs up the rest of those merit points!
…
Upstairs, Tom stormed into his room and slammed the door shut behind him.
But once the door shut, the furious expression on Tom's face vanished, replaced by utter calm—as if he had just taken off a mask.
He slowly sat down on his bed, gently running his fingers over his wand with his right hand, his eyes dark and brooding.
"…I even fooled Dumbledore. But… as expected, using your methods… still isn't enough to fool you, is it, Wade?"
"Hmph… no matter what, one day I'll step over you. There will be a chance!"
…
In the days that followed, Tom was initially a bit worried that Wade might expose him to Dumbledore.
But when he saw Wade the next day, Wade acted as if nothing had happened…
Eventually, Tom understood. Though he didn't know why, it seemed… Wade wasn't planning to say anything.
And so, in the days that followed, neither Tom nor Wade ever brought up that conversation again.
It was as if it had never happened.
However, what unsettled Tom was that Wade now appeared to trust him even more than before!
He didn't even keep him away while researching spell modifications—and even invited him to participate!
If not for that conversation they'd had, Tom might have started to believe he had completely fooled Wade.
Tom was certain that Wade must be scheming something again—some nasty trick aimed at him!
He just didn't have any proof yet…
And so, the two scheming individuals stayed in the safehouse all the way until Christmas.
...
On Christmas morning, Wade woke up early.
Because Fawkes the phoenix had made several trips delivering a mountain of gifts.
These were all the Christmas presents for Wade and Tom.
Since they were holed up in the safehouse, the owls couldn't find them, so all the gifts had been delivered to their dorm rooms at school.
So Dumbledore had specially asked Fawkes to help move the presents to the safehouse.
But because there were just so many of them, even Fawkes had to make several trips before he finally finished the job…
Wade, in high spirits, treated Fawkes to a feast of fresh eel in the living room before running upstairs to knock on Tom's door.
"Tom! Time to get up! If you don't come out soon, I'm going to start unwrapping your gifts!"
A thoroughly grumpy Tom opened the door with a scowl, his hair a complete mess from just waking up.
He'd spent the whole night researching spells and had gone to bed very late—only to be woken up at the crack of dawn by Wade…
He had actually planned to ignore Wade and go back to sleep.
But Tom was worried that if he did, Wade might just take the door off its hinges… and frankly, Wade was absolutely the type to do that.
After washing up and downing a bottle of Invigoration Draught, Tom finally made his way to the living room.
The moment he stepped in, he was startled by the mountain of presents piled before him.
"All of these are mine?" Tom asked in shock.
"Hah! You wish. Sadly, these are all mine. That pile over there is yours," Wade replied cheerfully as he tore into his gifts, casually pointing to the small stack of boxes next to the fireplace.
Tom looked at his own presents, then looked over at Wade's… and in that moment, he was once again reminded of what true disparity between people looked like.
"Why do you have so many…"
"It's simple, Tom. If you keep this up when we return to school, next year you'll get just as many," Wade said with a smile.
At those words, Tom's heart clenched—Wade was hinting at something, no doubt about it!
Keep this up, and next year you'll get just as many?
Wasn't that basically saying: as long as he kept up the act, he'd make more friends at school… and only then would he get more gifts next Christmas?
I knew it—there's no way this guy forgot about that conversation!
Still, Tom decided he would die before admitting he was pretending. It's not like Dumbledore could just go and use Legilimency on him, right?
Looks like it was time to start practicing Occlumency.
At that moment, having just thrown a jab at Tom, Wade found something quite interesting among his pile of gifts…
Judging by the wrapping, it was a present from Mr. G.
When he opened it, Wade immediately recognized something very familiar—
"You got one too?" Tom asked in surprise.
In his hand, he was holding an identical opened gift box.
"Yeah… now this is interesting."
Wade smiled as he weighed the small goblin-metal sphere in his hand.
Of course, he recognized the thing—he'd originally made it just to fool Grindelwald.
But now it seemed… Grindelwald had treated it as an actual gift and sent it to both him and Tom?
"What's Grindelwald playing at?" Tom asked, frowning.
"It's a gift, Tom. And by all accounts, quite a generous one," Wade said with a smile.
"Hmm…" Tom had to admit, if this really was a magical item capable of enhancing power, then it was a significant gift…
"When someone gives you a gift like this, it's either because they want something from you… or because they're trying to win you over."
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