Dumbledore had already left.
In the now-empty room, only Wade and Nagini were left staring at each other.
After a while, Wade finally broke the slightly awkward silence. "Have you had breakfast? Do you want some porridge?"
Nagini: "Hiss?"
"…Alright, I suppose snakes don't really drink porridge. Then what do you want to eat?" Wade asked again.
Nagini: "Hiss hiss hiss!"
Wade: "???"
"Okay, looks like we need a translator. Heh~ Luckily, I know just the person!" Wade extended his left hand toward Nagini.
Nagini understood and slithered up, coiling tightly around Wade's left arm.
Bang!
"What the..?!!" Tom, who was eating bread while reading a book, was startled by the loud sound of the door slamming open.
"You.. I really thought we were under attack again! What are you up to now? No, don't tell me.. You were the one who said I could read!" Tom barked, putting on a fierce front but clearly nervous underneath.
He was terrified Wade would suddenly change his mind and forbid him from studying again.
For a hardworking, knowledge-hungry student like Tom, that would be nothing short of torture!
"Relax, relax. I'm just here to ask for a little favor. And I'm sure you'll be more than happy to help, right? I know you're a kind-hearted, good person, Tom. Always have been."
Me? Kind-hearted? A good person?
Looking at Wade's friendly smile, Tom's mouth twitched slightly, but he managed to force a smile.
"Yes, I'm kind-hearted. A good person! So… I mean… of course—of course I'd be happy to help…"
Endure it!
"So, Wade… what do you need me to do?"
Seeing Tom's forced smile, Wade was very pleased.
"Here, help me translate." Wade extended his left wrist.
Tom immediately spotted the little snake wrapped around Wade's wrist.
"Hiss… this snake… why does it look so familiar?"
To Wade, perhaps all snakes looked more or less the same—but not to Tom.
"Because she is Nagini," Wade said with a smile.
"What?!" Tom was so shocked he nearly fell off the bed.
Back then, Nagini had left an extremely deep impression on him.
After all, he had almost died during that encounter!
For someone like Tom, who valued his life above all else, that had been an utterly terrifying experience.
"This… this is really Nagini…? Wait—why is she so small now? And she just greeted me?"
Wade chuckled. "Because she's able to stay lucid now. You've heard her story before, haven't you?"
Tom slowly sat back down. "What's going on here? Sure, she might be clear-headed now, but what if she loses control again… Don't forget, we nearly died last time. No way, I have to report this to Dumbledore!"
Wade could tell from Tom's expression that he thought he'd caught him red-handed—and was already scheming how to use it as leverage.
But how could Wade possibly let Tom succeed?
"Sorry, but Nagini was placed here by Professor Dumbledore himself. So yes, he already knows," Wade said calmly.
"What?!" Tom jumped up again.
"How could that old man do this? Putting a vicious beast right next to two frail, helpless students? Doesn't he understand how dangerous this is?!"
When it came to matters of life and death, Tom's reaction was intense.
"Frail and helpless?"
"Yes! I am frail and helpless!" Tom nearly wept as he said it.
Ever since Wade showed up, he'd felt nothing but weak and powerless in comparison…
"Relax, Tom. The reason Professor Dumbledore entrusted Nagini to me is because I've mastered a way to keep her lucid. Besides… she's completely conscious right now, so she can understand everything you're saying—she just can't speak like a human yet."
"Ah?!" Tom glanced at the little snake, who now looked slightly dejected. An awkward look flickered across his face.
Nagini was human to begin with—so of course, in her lucid state, she could understand human speech.
Clearly, even though Tom's earlier words were somewhat understandable, they still made Nagini feel a bit down.
"Hiss hiss…"
"I… I didn't mean it like that, I just…" Young Tom's face flushed red, clearly flustered. Wade had no idea what Nagini had just said to him.
"Alright, Tom, we're all good people here, aren't we?" Wade chimed in. "So naturally, we should actively respond to Professor Dumbledore's call—be good people, good wizards. Helping Nagini is our noble duty."
Tom gave Wade a strange look. He didn't believe a single punctuation mark of what he just said.
If there wasn't some benefit in it for him, there was no way this guy would be so eager!
What's the most frustrating thing in the world?
Obviously, it's doing all the work while someone else gets all the credit.
And right now, that's exactly how Tom felt.
Wade clearly had no intention of sharing any of the benefits with him—yet here he was, forced to help translate for him…
I have to become powerful.. Am I feeling Stifled!? Endure it!
After giving himself a little mental pep talk, Tom barely managed to control his expression.
"So… what would you like to ask Miss Nagini?" he asked stiffly.
Wade replied, "You just need to translate for Nagini, that's all. She can understand everything we're saying anyway."
"Hiss hiss hiss…"
"Oh…" Tom nodded. "She says that now that she's regained her clarity, she doesn't want to eat anything raw. It reminds her of those days when she had no control over herself and had to live like a beast."
Wade scratched his head. "If that's the case… how about some eggs? I remember snakes quite like eggs. And since she doesn't want anything raw, how about some boiled eggs?"
Nagini nodded happily, clearly in agreement.
Fortunately, now that she'd been shrunk, her physical attributes were also reduced. Her appetite was much smaller as a result. Plus, with the help of nutritional potions, she only needed two boiled eggs per meal to feel full.
She was actually much easier to take care of than Wade had expected.
By the time Nagini had swallowed her two eggs, Wade had also finished his bowl of porridge.
"Tom, why don't you teach me Parseltongue?" Wade asked with a smile. "That way, I won't have to trouble you to translate for me anymore."
"No way! It's an innate ability. You can't teach it," Tom refused decisively.
Wade wanting to learn something that only he could do? Not a chance.
Speaking Parseltongue and being able to control snakes was the only talent he had that Wade didn't.
"You really can't teach it?"
"Really can't!" Tom had made up his mind—no matter how much Wade tried to threaten or pressure him, he wouldn't give in!
"Alright… forget it, then."
"Eh..?" Hearing that, Tom nearly thought he'd misheard. This guy was actually letting it go that easily?
"Nagini can write with her tail, so I'll just have her teach me snake language instead," Wade said with a smile.
"Hiss! Hiss!" Nagini nodded in agreement.
Tom stared at Wade in disbelief. Was he really about to lose the only edge he had over this guy?
A wave of indescribable powerlessness washed over Tom all at once…
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Read ahead: P^treon: Captain69
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