Chapter 105: The Professor's Prerogative (Edited)

When Tom entered the library, the librarian, Mrs. Pince, stepped out of the shadows, but seeing that her visitor was the new Hogwarts professor, she dismissed the idea of questioning him and thought about walking away.

But then, Tom called out to her.

"Mrs. Pince, a moment, please."

"Professor Lockhart, what can I do for you?" Mrs. Pince turned around and stared at Tom.

"As you know, I'm a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and I'd like to find a book on Black Magic for my class..... er, let's start with how to communicate with dark creatures." Tom deliberately made a very general offer.

Mrs. Pince frowned: wasn't that as good a request as any?

"Can you be more specific? Most of the books in the Forbidden Zone have to do with dark magic, and there are countless dark creatures."

Lockhart, played by Tom, showed a bit of embarrassment, "I don't have a concrete idea yet, let's see... female ghosts, yes! A couple of books about female ghosts, please, and the Parseltongue and...!"

Mrs. Pince had it clear: This guy has no concrete idea, and is thinking everything up as he goes along! He gave three options, one from his book, the other two obviously famous things.

"The books related to female ghosts are in row 7, shelf B, the other book is in the in row 16, shelf D. The Parseltongue.... Let's see, there's not much written, there are some notes left on that big shelf in the last row, you can look them up yourself." With these words, Mrs. Pince left as quickly as she could, refusing to stay even for a second. She feared that, if she stayed here, Lockhart might get some strange idea.

That was the effect Tom wanted. First he went to the two bookshelves, pulling out some books at random. As he came into contact with the books, he could clearly feel his mystical connection to Hogwarts flowing through his fingertips and into the books.

Tom opened one of the books in the forbidden area; nothing happened, the book didn't scream, it was just like any other book.

"That's the privilege of a teacher..." Tom was a little excited: the whole library, in its entirety, had opened its arms to him. Getting Lockhart's autograph? No, that's too much trouble, I'll be a professor myself!

Lockhart, for his part, would stay in the case and reflect on his mistakes, and when he realized his mistakes, he would let him out and atone for his sins.

But Tom remembered the main thing, and instead of lingering, he wandered down the rows of shelves until he reached the miscellaneous section at the end.

The miscellaneous section, where Hogwarts has collected notes and autobiographies from various sources, is where Mrs. Pince sent Tom, perfunctorily. This is a common trick in the British cabinet.

The Permanent Secretaries and Secretaries would give Ministers and Prime Ministers a whole series of speeches, meetings, briefings and other irrelevant matters to occupy their time, so that they would have no time to think or do anything else and would not be tempted to run to the Secretaries and make a mess of them. When ministers do nothing, the secretaries' little secrets can't be discovered: as long as people don't know what you're doing, they won't find out what you're doing wrong.

That's what Mrs. Pince thought: distract Lockhart with thousands of volumes of miscellaneous notes, so he wouldn't bother her.

Tom's head was spinning as he looked at the wall of notes.

He first tried to start with the journal titles, but discovered that the dusty journals were mostly untitled, more like diary entries or so-and-so autobiographies.

So Tom switched gears and started with the words "Gaunt" and "Slytherin."

It turns out that most of Gunther's diaries are full of arrogant and overbearing words, full of pureblood theories, descriptions of outlandish scenes and bragging about them... but it's between the lines where Tom found the secret room.

A student named Corvinus Gaunt, whose diary tells of an ancestral "relic" that was about to be exposed by the school's renovations, found it first and managed to hide it.

"Hidden in the lavatory, only a true Slytherin can get into ...", it was clear to Tom that the diary contained clues to the Chamber of Secrets, which might have been a treasure to others, but would have meant nothing to him.

He read on for more than half an hour, but came up empty-handed. Of course, it wasn't a complete waste of time, and Tom found several interesting entries, such as someone who swore that the great wizard Merlin had left five treasure chambers at Hogwarts, which seemed like interesting gossip.

But most of the time, it read like this.

"Oh, Lady Icaza is a real beauty, and Sir Icaza is a good brother!"

"I heard today that my wife is having an affair with that dog Icaza! Merlin's pants!"

...

"I wouldn't get engaged to that French woman on July 7, never! I've never even seen her!

July 14, I met Miss Evgarden today, she's so pretty!"

July 15, Mademoiselle Evergarden's croissants - the French seem to call them crostini, and they are delicious! It had the same creamy aroma as Mademoiselle Evgarden's, and we're going to have a very happy marriage!"

The following March, ha ha, I'm going to be a father!".

...

"I calmly gave the order for Lord Andre's battalion of spears to advance, and I finally won."

...

What's all this, it's true what they say: who keeps a diary when he means business! Tom couldn't read any further and realized it would be a waste of time to do so.

He gave up, maybe there was a secret to teaching how to speak with a snake accent, but it obviously wasn't easy to find. Looking for it now would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Tom decided to change his mind.

Before leaving, he grabbed a forbidden book off the shelf called 'Most Potent Potions'. The thick, musty tome contained the recipe for the Multijuice Potion. For Tom to carry out his next plan, he would need the help of the Multijuice Potion.

In the boys' bathroom, Tom reverted to his original form and returned to the Common Room.

Tom took out his bookmark, made some last minute changes and managed to optimize the mistakes he had found, after which he took out a small gift box he had prepared, placed the bookmark inside and tapped his wand on the surface of the box, and the silk ribbon on the box flew out and tied itself into a nice bow.

He put the gift box away.