Chapter 290: Gold Chain and Smooth Skin (Edited)

Hermione was a bit shy.

"I'll put it on for you, okay?" A soft voice sounded next to her ear, and Tom's warm breath brushed against her earlobe, sending a wave of heat through Hermione as she lay in Tom's arms.

"Yes," she nodded, lifting her legs.

Tom was delighted.

"You... you really like it..." Hermione lightly rubbed her head against Tom's chest.

"Yes."

Hermione herself removed the small leather shoes and gray socks from her feet, exposing her feet to Tom's gaze: long and graceful ankles, delicate and tiny feet, cute and mischievous toes that wiggled slightly in the cool morning air of autumn.

Tom's heart skipped a beat as he gently caressed that work of art. He then wrapped Hermione's right foot with his own finished ankle bracelet, a golden chain encircling Hermione's foot like a piece of jade inlaid with gold.

The gold chain formed a circle around the ankle, and three pairs of thin chains hung on both sides, adding a decorative touch to the sides of the ankle. In the center of the upper circle of chains was Tom's bell, and along with it, a fine chain extended and hung from Hermione's toes.

Tom placed the chain on Hermione's toes. Just as they were coming together, Hermione's ankle bracelet bell suddenly rang.

Tom jumped up and looked around, immediately noticing a rustling in the bushes beside him, and wand in hand, he pounced and caught a large gray rat.

He held the rat upside down by its tail, barely able to contain his anger. The others didn't know, but he did. It wasn't a rat at all; it was Sirius Black's target, Peter Pettigrew.

He looked at the struggling rat in his hands with an expressionless face. "You were just spying, weren't you?"

It might have been a mistake on Tom's part, they were just a pair of black eyes, but he always felt the rat's eyes, dirty, unpleasant.

"Tom, it's just a mouse," Hermione said, surprised by Tom's reaction but relieved to see the uninvited guest for what it was.

"Yes, it's just a mouse." Tom quickly figured out how to deal with the mouse. He had been very kind about Scabbers, counting on Peter to act as a model Death Eater and find Voldemort's wandering spirit.

Most of Voldemort's Horcruxes are not difficult to handle once their whereabouts are known, but there is one Horcrux that is quite tricky to deal with, and that Horcrux is called Harry Potter.

That night, thirteen years ago, Voldemort's Killing Curse rebounded off Lily's magic, killing him and rebounding a small fragment of his soul into Harry Potter, the only living being in the room at the time, turning the young Harry into one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. The "Boy Who Lived" was connected to the Dark Lord.

To kill Voldemort once and for all, all his Horcruxes must be destroyed. As long as the last Horcrux doesn't disappear, Voldemort will remain in an "immortal" state, a soul that is not a fragment of a soul but a state of wonder between life and death that will regenerate no matter how many times it is destroyed. It will regenerate no matter how many times it is destroyed. When Voldemort possessed Quirrell in the first year, Dumbledore was already there when Quirrell died, but he couldn't do anything against Voldemort's wandering soul.

This is the power of Horcruxes. Until the last Horcrux is destroyed, he is invincible, and even Dumbledore is powerless against him.

And in doing so, Voldemort unknowingly made Harry his hostage. To kill Voldemort, he had to destroy all the Horcruxes, which meant that Harry would have to die as well, something Dumbledore would never have wanted, so he wasn't very motivated to destroy Voldemort until he came up with a solution.

This dead-end, which had tormented Dumbledore for so long, was finally unleashed by Voldemort himself. Voldemort's resurrection required the bones of his father, the flesh of his servant, and the blood of his enemy. Although he had many enemies, Tom believed that Voldemort could spit on three of them from the top of Gringotts - he insisted, from a twisted mind, on using Harry's blood to resurrect him. This deepened their sinful relationship: as the blood of love magic entered their bodies, their lives became bound together in a state of communion and death.

If Voldemort doesn't die, Harry won't die, and even if another Killing Curse is cast at him, Harry will come back to life. Therefore, it was possible to destroy Voldemort's spirit within Harry's body without harming Harry's life. So it all comes down to this: Voldemort will use Harry's blood to revive himself.

The heavy lifting was up to Peter.

Tom had to admit that the rat was truly efficient. He had escaped in his third year and was able to return to Riddle's home in the summer with Voldemort in embryonic form, which was very efficient. That's why he needed Harry's "help."

For these reasons, Tom's attitude towards Scabbers was, of course, to let him go, keeping both sides at a distance and controlling each other. It was a very "permissive" attitude. What if Peter had done something today? His sneaky snooping annoyed Tom.

Tom was selfish, there were things that only he could see! No one else could even look at it.

There was no intention of handing Peter over to Dumbledore or throwing him to Sirius, but a little punishment wouldn't hurt.

"I didn't expect you to be jealous of mice," Hermione said with a soft smile on her lips, but deep down she was very pleased.

Tom grabbed Peter's tail and gave him a few swats. "What a fat mouse, why don't you take it to feed Crookshanks?"

Peter: !!!

He resisted even more. He didn't want to be devoured by that crazy cat. He could easily crush the beast in his human form, but that would undoubtedly expose him. If he attracted Dumbledore to him again, it would be too bad...

The fear of exposure was the reason Peter had feared revealing his true form.

"Wait," Hermione recognized the rat, "It looks like Ron's 'Scabbers'! What is it doing here?"

Peter was excited and couldn't help but nod. "Good for you, girl! That's right, I'm Ron's pet rat!" He shouted in his mind.

"Is that so?" Tom pretended to be clueless. "Rats all look the same, I couldn't tell you."

Scabbers, whom Peter had transformed into, immediately squealed.

Seeing that Hermione was about to approach Tom and identify Scabbers' features, Tom delivered a strong blow to her lower back and threw him into the Black Lake.

"Never mind, leave it, the rat is quite dirty," Tom's eyes shifted to Hermione's feet. "Isn't it cold to be barefoot on the ground?"