Chapter 114: Living in the Way You Hate the Most

*We are on Chapter 330 on p@treon*

"It turns out to be an interview," Tom understood. Dumbledore was probably a bit uneasy and wanted to inquire in advance about the teaching content.

However, this interview should be very relaxed because Dumbledore himself seemed to have no interference in the professors' teaching content. Professor Trelawney had been fooling around in the Astronomy Tower for more than a decade, and Dumbledore hadn't said anything strange. Last semester, Professor Quirrell taught in such a messed-up way—reading textbooks verbatim and stuttering, and Dumbledore didn't interfere either.

So, the requirements for this position were very low for Tom. He only needed to read textbooks, and Dumbledore could let him teach.

Tom pondered for a moment. "For this school year's teaching, I plan to start with my own books—there are many practical methods in dealing with dark creatures in these books. I want the children to read these books first."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Also, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, since it's about defending against dark magic, they need to know what dark magic is first. I want the children to understand common dark magic in the magical world and their countermeasures, and finally, teach them a few simple spells."

Dumbledore looked a bit surprised, "Which spells do you want to teach them?"

"Expelliarmus and Protego," Tom answered without hesitation. "One offensive spell and one defensive spell, it's enough for them."

Dumbledore was a bit suspicious whether Professor Lohart really understood these two spells—knowing how to use and knowing how to teach were two different things. But it didn't matter much; these two spells wouldn't cause any problems.

"Also, if possible, I hope you can help me find some dark creatures. I can also demonstrate how to deal with them to the children."

Tom finished outlining his teaching ideas, "Of course, I will add many in-class quizzes, and accordingly, there will be fewer homework assignments. I personally don't like the kind of assessment where the final exam determines the grade, so I will add mid-term exams and group projects..."

Among various courses, the most disliked subject was the one with numerous and complicated tasks. Some courses had stage one tests before midterms, stage two tests after midterms, group cooperative projects, laboratory classes, and regular grades. By the end of the semester, it felt like you had taken only that one course.

Although it was disliked, this kind of course basically ensured that participating in everything meant passing. The danger level was worlds apart from courses where the final exam accounted for 50% and projects accounted for 50%.

But Tom still liked the latter. This way, only the final period of the semester would be busy, and the rest of the time would be relatively "peaceful."

However, after becoming a professor, Tom ended up living in the way he hated the most.

However, this set of methods obviously exceeded Dumbledore's expectations: never before had a Hogwarts professor been so energetic before him.

"Cough, I need to remind you that you have seven grades to teach," Dumbledore calculated the workload Tom had set for himself. He suddenly became worried that this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor would leave the stage due to overwork.

"It's okay, leave it to me!" Tom seemed confident—teaching pressure was high? Nonexistent! With so many students at his disposal, he wouldn't tire.

"Alright." Dumbledore, seeing that his dissuasion was ineffective, yielded. If necessary, he could just have Madame Pomfrey give him a few more potions to replenish his energy.

Tom left Dumbledore's office. However, when he returned to his own office, he saw the open door and empty drawers.

Tom's eyebrows jumped suddenly. This was unexpected, a bit surprising.

But it wasn't a big problem.

He had long prepared for this.

Currently, Tom had countless things to handle: the stolen diary, the Chamber of Secrets, and lesson preparation...

When you have a pile of things to do, how do you allocate the order? Is it based on the difficulty of the tasks? Certainly not. It's definitely based on the urgency and importance of the tasks. Among these things, the most urgent is to deal with the snake creature in the Chamber of Secrets. Without the snake creature, Riddle would be like a tiger without teeth.

It's like playing a game. In a new map with unique environmental factors—lightning and continuous damage, you triggered three or four tasks, one of which could remove the negative effects of the map. Naturally, it's a priority to complete the task that can solve the negative effects.

The snake creature played such a role.

The snake creature was in the Chamber of Secrets, and to resolve it, the Chamber had to be opened—Tom knew the location, the only thing lacking was Parseltongue.

Parseltongue referred to the language used by snakes and serpent-like creatures. The extended meaning of this term was someone with the rare talent to communicate with snakes. This was a hereditary gift, and almost all Parselmouths could trace their lineage back to a famous dark wizard—Harry could speak it because he had a fragment of Voldemort's soul in him. However, as a language, as long as you mastered the pronunciation, even if you didn't understand it, you could communicate.

It was like not understanding French, but if your friend told you that "hello" in French is "bonjour," and "goodbye" is "au revoir," you could say "bonjour" and "au revoir" to French people, and they would understand.

Tom did not have the bloodline of a dark wizard, and naturally, he did not have the innate Parseltongue talent. He had previously tried to open the Chamber by memorizing the pronunciation through a "dictionary" but failed.

So, he decided to take a different approach: if I, as a human, don't understand snake language, what if I turn into a snake?

Parseltongue wasn't just the language of snakes; serpent-like creatures counted as well—such as the Basilisk, which could communicate through Parseltongue. The Bird-Serpent naturally fell into this category.

But now there was a problem: there wasn't enough space on Tom's Horcrux.

His Horcrux could replicate five magical creatures, and now it was full: wizard, three-headed dog, phoenix, unicorn, and dragon. If he wanted to add the Bird-Serpent, he needed to replace one.

Tom almost didn't hesitate and chose to replace Professor Lohart—the others were difficult to replace: the dragon was said to have been sent back to the dragon sanctuary by Newt; the three-headed dog was adopted by Newt; the phoenix was in Dumbledore's office, not easy to retrieve; the unicorn was deep in the Forbidden Forest, hard to find with Hagrid and Voldemort searching.

Compared to these, Lohart in the office was relatively easy to obtain.

But Tom didn't rush to "remove" Lohart's form. He went to Hagrid's hut in advance, bought a few robust roosters from him, each weighing six or seven pounds. When Hagrid asked for the reason, Tom evasively justified it as an instructional tool.

Magical creatures like the Basilisk were strange; they would panic and flee when they heard the crowing of a rooster because a rooster's crowing was also fatal to them. Since roosters were so intimidating, Tom had no reason not to bring these assets to deal with the serpent.

After buying the roosters, he took out his own teapot and replicated the form of the Bird-Serpent.

Everything was ready! It was time to go to the Chamber.

The entrance to the Chamber was in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was also considered a famous "attraction" at Hogwarts. This bathroom, located on the second floor of the castle, was haunted by a ghost: Moaning Myrtle.

Moaning Myrtle's real name was Myrtle Elizabeth Warren, a Muggle-born witch who had attended Hogwarts in the 1940s. Unfortunately, she suffered bullying at school due to her appearance. In 1943, she accidentally witnessed Tom Riddle summoning the snake creature and lost her life.

In her afterlife, she became a ghost and always lingered near this bathroom. She constantly threw tantrums, splashing water everywhere. Students kept their distance from this bathroom, preferring to endure than visit.

However, some young wizards took advantage of the lack of people to engage in rule-breaking activities here—such as brewing prohibited potions.

Nevertheless, Myrtle's behavior unintentionally kept other students away from the entrance to the Chamber. Of course, even if someone used this bathroom every day, there was no safety risk...

But the thought of having a giant monster a few kilometers below was still quite unsettling.

In the afternoon, young wizards stayed in their respective house common rooms for a break, and no one went to the second-floor library. This gave Tom the opportunity.

Taking advantage of the absence of others, he pushed a small cart to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Seven large roosters, each weighing six or seven pounds, totaling forty or fifty pounds, were energetic and lively. If he used ordinary sacks, Tom, with his small frame, wouldn't be able to control them. It must be said that Hagrid was generous; seven such beautiful roosters, heard they were for teaching, he gave them for free, not even accepting a Knut, and patiently packed them for Tom.

To avoid the roosters crowing and alerting the snake, Tom had Hagrid tie up their mouths, wings, and claws in advance and put them in cages.

Tom entered Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. As soon as the door opened, Myrtle rushed out from the water tank of a toilet, and Tom saw this ghost for the first time.

Myrtle's appearance was that of a short and plump girl. Even though half of her face was covered by long hair and pearly glasses, it was still evident that her expression was gloomy and melancholic.

Seeing Tom, her attitude immediately changed, and she giggled, "Oh? A new face? Why are you here?"

Although Myrtle was just a ghost, Tom didn't want her to keep staring at him.

So, he gave Myrtle a cold look, "I'm here, it has nothing to do with you."

This attitude angered Myrtle, and she screamed, rushing into a flushing toilet, splashing water everywhere, reaching the ceiling.

"If you die here, then it does have something to do with me! Get ready to share this toilet with me!"

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