Chapter 67: Tom: Could It Be That He Actually Treats Me As a Friend?

The auditorium, which had just been filled with whispered murmurs, instantly fell dead silent.

Whether it was the professors or the students who had been chattering away moments before, everyone stared at Tom with stunned expressions.

Subjected to so many gazes, Tom’s face turned pale.

In the short time he had been exposed to the wizarding world, he had learned precisely what Azkaban was.

It was, quite literally, the wizarding prison!

What on earth was the Sorting Hat thinking by sorting him into a prison?!

The Sorting Hat’s sorting seemed to be absolute; wherever it said a person belonged, that was where they would end up. Surely it wouldn't actually throw him into Azkaban, would it?

At that exact moment, Tom wished he could find a crack in the floor and crawl into it.

"Hm?" After blurting out Azkaban, the Sorting Hat was equally perplexed. It had no idea why its tongue had slipped.

Such a thing had never happened once since Hogwarts was founded!

Dumbledore also looked at the Sorting Hat with a puzzled expression, preparing to pick it up and examine it.

The Sorting Hat spoke once more.

"Ha! I was merely playing a joke on him. How could it possibly be Azkaban? It should be... Slytherin!"

Hearing the hat's words, the silent auditorium finally erupted once again into waves of murmurs and discussions.

Truth be told, they had never heard of the Sorting Hat playing such a prank on a newly arrived first-year.

Of course, no one actually took the hat's words seriously; they simply assumed the old hat might have suffered some sort of malfunction.

After all, its age was roughly equal to that of Hogwarts itself.

Still, Tom had certainly made a name for himself right upon his arrival...

Tom snatched the Sorting Hat off his head and fled from the hateful, ragged thing as if escaping for his life.

At that moment, Lyvid, who was already seated at the Slytherin long table, stood up and said to Tom with a smile, "Welcome, my dear friend, the Prince of Azkaban..."

His words provoked a burst of laughter all along the long table.

"Shut up!" Tom was on the verge of losing his mind.

Lyvid smilingly pressed Tom down into the seat beside him. "Don't be angry, Tom. It was merely a tiny little joke. Could they really sort you into Azkaban, after all?"

"This is utterly humiliating! Lyvid..." Tom clenched his fists, saying with simmering fury.

Lyvid said with deep meaning, "Humiliation... is still far better than getting a thorough beating, wouldn't you agree, Tom?"

Tom was jolted awake by those words.

Having been completely consumed by humiliation and anger until now, Tom finally realized the truth...

This was undoubtedly Lyvid's revenge!

Lyvid had put on the Sorting Hat just before him.

That meant he must have done something to that wretched hat at that very moment! He had made the old hat humiliate him on purpose!

And he did it to retaliate for Tom's little stunts on the train!

Tom had known that Lyvid would inevitably seek revenge, and he had even mentally prepared himself for it.

He had even daydreamed that perhaps he might be able to defend against whatever retribution Lyvid had in mind.

He simply hadn't expected Lyvid to resort to such a tactic...

No matter how resilient Tom was, this was almost too much to bear!

This scoundrel really knew how to strike where it hurt!

Yet, following his surge of anger, Tom was overcome by a wave of terror and frustration.

Because even though he knew Lyvid was the one who had meddled, he had no way of figuring out how Lyvid had managed to pull it off!

It had been the same on the train. Those people he had incited to go and cause trouble for Lyvid had barely stepped inside and met Lyvid before they started brawling with one another...

Moreover, judging by their subsequent behavior, they had clearly been suffering from hallucinations.

They had all believed they were beating up Lyvid, when in reality, they were just punching their own allies...

Based on these clues, Tom guessed that Lyvid seemed to have mastered a kind of magic capable of clouding the minds of others—magic so powerful it could even deceive magical objects!

At this thought, Tom’s heart was once again filled with a profound sense of powerlessness.

He had worked so hard to study, striving so desperately to grow stronger.

Yet in the end, he discovered that the gap between himself and Lyvid only seemed to be growing wider!

Could it be... that his belief of eventually catching up to Lyvid was truly nothing more than an illusion?

"Tom, there's no point in overthinking things. You'd be better off wondering what we're going to have for dinner," Lyvid said with keen interest, eyeing the English "delicacies" laid out across the table.

"You... how on earth did you do it?" Tom still couldn't help asking in a low voice.

Lyvid chuckled. "Tom, you know me. Ever since you've known me, I've always enjoyed experimenting with all sorts of magic. Therefore, occasionally popping out a magical trick or two that you've never seen before isn't really anything worth marveling at, is it?"

Tom was left speechless.

While he was still struggling to study various branches of magic in the hope of rapidly increasing his strength, Lyvid had already invented entirely new spells.

And he had witnessed the terrifying power of Lyvid's new magic firsthand...

Faced with a monster like this, did he actually still harbor the delusion that he could catch up to him?

Tom couldn't help but offer a self-deprecating, bitter smile.

At that moment, all of Tom's prior ambition and spirit had been completely crushed out of him by Lyvid.

"Tom, you seem somewhat disheartened?" Lyvid remarked suddenly. "You aren't planning on giving up, are you?"

"If I don't give up, what else can I do? I... I simply have no way—"

"That doesn't sound like something you would say, Tom," Lyvid said with a look of feigned boredom. "The Tom I know isn't the type to give up when faced with difficulties. He is someone who would endure in silence, and then, at the right moment, strike like a viper at his enemy's throat for a fatal blow!"

Tom stared at Lyvid in utter astonishment.

He couldn't understand why Lyvid was saying these things to him, especially since he had already decided to give up and never dare challenge his authority again...

Weren't words like these meant to bolster his fighting spirit?

Lyvid continued, "Tom, I know your capabilities... I'm very much looking forward to seeing what kind of surprises you can bring me in the future."

Hearing this, a surge of irritation welled up inside Tom.

Did Lyvid feel that he posed absolutely no threat to him at all, and was therefore just treating him like a joke?

Was he viewing him as nothing more than a clown overestimating his own strength?

Lyvid, possessed of formidable power, stood high upon a mountain, looking down from the peak at Tom screaming at him like a clown at the very bottom...

This thought pushed Tom's resentment to its absolute limit.

"The surprise I'm preparing for you—you will definitely see it one day!" Tom said, spacing every word with intense emphasis.

Lyvid smiled and replied, "I'll say it again: I am very much looking forward to it, Tom."

In Lyvid's eyes, Tom was simply his ultimate merit-point tool character.

He couldn't let him take too heavy of a blow and turn apathetic, which was why he needed to give him a little psychological poke.

Judging by the results, the effect was exceptionally good.

Suddenly, Alphard, who was sitting next to Tom, piped up, "You two have such a great relationship. My sister never encourages me like that."

Tom blinked slightly in a daze. "Encouragement?"

"Yeah, hasn't Lyvid been encouraging you just now? If it were my sister, she would have already torn me down to nothing," Alphard said with a helpless sigh.

Tom frowned and glanced sideways at Lyvid again. At that moment, Lyvid was already chatting animatedly with an unfamiliar senior student and paying no attention to this side of the table.

Tom couldn't help but recall Lyvid's words, suddenly feeling rather lost.

Could it be that everything Lyvid had said just then was truly meant purely to encourage him?

The clown remark... had he just been far too sensitive and overthought it?

At that moment, Tom involuntarily recalled every single event that had transpired since he had first met Lyvid.

And then, he fell into silence once more.

For he realized that ever since knowing Lyvid, although he had plotted against Lyvid many times in secret, Lyvid's retaliations had always amounted to nothing more than minor lessons.

Take today, for instance: he had intended to have people beat him up, yet Lyvid's revenge had merely been to subject him to a moment of public embarrassment. Apart from that, he could be said to have emerged completely unscathed.

Moreover, whenever there were any benefits to be had, Lyvid had never once forgotten him.

Back when Lyvid had asked Dumbledore for books to read, for example, he hadn't forgotten to request a copy for him as well...

To be honest, if it had been him, and he encountered someone much weaker than himself who continually provoked him, he would have found a way to kill them long ago!

There was zero chance he would ever interact with someone the way Lyvid interacted with him!

Could it be... that even though Lyvid often seemed at odds with him on the surface, he actually truly considered him a friend?

Had he really been misunderstanding him all this time?

At this thought, Tom was genuinely bewildered.

On the other side of the table, Lyvid, who was chatting enthusiastically with the senior student, remained completely unaware that within the span of these few short minutes, Tom's inner world had undergone a very subtle transformation.

Just then, Annie trotted over and excitedly sat down next to Lyvid.

"Lyvid, Tom, I knew you two would be in Slytherin too!"

Annie had been sorted after Tom.

Following Tom's little spectacle, Dumbledore had carefully checked the Sorting Hat to ensure there were no issues before allowing the sorting ceremony to proceed.

Consequently, it was only now that Annie had finished her sorting and successfully landed in Slytherin.

Lyvid subtly slid a fraction of an inch away, though the smile on his face remained as warm as ever.

"It's truly wonderful that we're in the same house. You have no idea, I was actually a little worried I might be sorted elsewhere earlier."

Annie beamed. "You had no reason to worry at all; you were bound to be a Slytherin. I'm a great judge of character. Though... Tom, how on earth did you manage to get that Sorting Hat to sort you into Azkaban?"

Tom had not yet recovered from his tangled web of thoughts. Hearing Annie's question, he shook his head instinctively. "I don't know..."

Annie said pleasantly surprised, "You actually answered me! We've known each other for hours, and you've never spoken a single word to me before!"

"Tom is simply a bit unaccustomed to talking to girls; he doesn't have any ill feelings toward you, Annie," Lyvid said with a smile.

Tom cast a strange, lingering look at Lyvid.

Lyvid had spoken up on his behalf on numerous occasions in the past as well, but previously he had never thought much of it, simply assuming it was just part of Lyvid's mischievous sense of humor.

Yet now, following Alphard's reminder, Tom's perspective was entirely different from before.

It turns out... Lyvid truly does view me as a friend...

Why else would he always defend me like this, consciously or unconsciously?

A friend... could it be that I am actually capable of having friends?