"Then what is your goal?" Tom was now thoroughly confused.
You set up this elaborate plan, tricked Grindelwald and his followers into coming, and yet you don't even intend to defeat him—then what's the point of all this?
"My target has always been the Alliance under him. We're just first-year students, Tom. We only need to do what's within our reach," Wade said with a smile.
"You're trying to capture Grindelwald's party members he brings with him? But… there'll be so many of them. Can you really take them down? And I don't think Grindelwald would just stand by and watch that happen."
Tom still thought it was unrealistic. No matter how powerful Wade was, he was still only eleven years old. Taking on that many dark wizards was practically impossible.
"Don't underestimate Headmaster Dippet. He's been the headmaster of Hogwarts for many years, and he's lived to such an old age… there's no way he doesn't have some real power. I believe he can hold off Grindelwald for a while. We just need to find a way to bring down his party members before Grindelwald arrives to reinforce them."
"And what difference does that make? If Grindelwald's coming, he'll probably bring a lot of followers. How are you supposed to defeat so many in such a short amount of time?" Tom paused, then added, "Also, how do you even know Grindelwald will personally take on Headmaster Dippet? If I were him, I'd send my followers to stall the headmaster and come after the power myself."
"Tom, you're really clever—thinking even that far," Wade said approvingly.
"You've got a plan for that too?" Tom immediately knew from Wade's calm expression that he must have already considered this possibility.
"Yes… I've prepared several contingency plans," Wade replied with a smile. "What I just told you is only one scenario, and I haven't finished explaining it. What you were most confused about just now was how we're supposed to take down so many of his party members easily, right?"
"Not we—don't include me in that. I'm not that confident. You," Tom corrected him flatly.
Two people against a bunch of Alliance wizards? Don't drag me into this! I'm not trying to die early.
"Tom, you know the saying—fortune favors the bold… If you keep being this cautious all the time, how do you expect to become strong?" Wade said, then pulled out several round objects from his pocket and set them on the table.
"Dungbombs? You plan to defeat the Alliance members with dungbombs?" Tom was stunned.
Dungbombs were a prank tool, absolutely loathed by castle caretakers—even now when the caretaker wasn't a Squib. Once they were smashed, the awful stench they released could linger in the area for a very long time.
"Tom, don't forget, I'm Professor Slughorn's favorite student. What do you think the chances are that I managed to get a few potent sleeping draught recipes out of him?"
Tom suddenly understood. "That's right… We're still technically under detention, going into the Forbidden Forest regularly, and we often bring him materials from inside. All we have to do is tell him we plan to use the sleeping potion to subdue some powerful magical beasts to harvest ingredients from them…"
He looked up at Wade, then continued, "If anyone else said that to Professor Slughorn, he'd definitely refuse. But if it's you… he'd surely hand over the recipe. Then we just need to turn the sleeping potion into something like a dungbomb. If we pull it off properly, we'll be able to knock out those Alliance wizards easily…"
Wade smiled. "That's actually a really good idea. Even I didn't think of that one."
"Uh… but what if Professor Slughorn refuses?" Tom asked.
"No matter. In fact, I already have the recipe for a powerful sleeping potion," Wade said confidently.
After all, the potion book he got as a system reward had every kind of sleeping draught recipe imaginable.
"Then why bother asking Professor Slughorn at all?" Tom asked, confused.
He didn't doubt that Wade had access to potion recipes—after all, the guy had a "prominent family" backing him. He just didn't understand why Wade would go to all the trouble.
"I'm only going to Professor Slughorn to make him a witness," Wade explained. "I just need him to know that I want to use a sleeping potion. That excuse you made up earlier is actually great. Even if Professor Slughorn refuses, he'll know I had the idea to use a sleeping potion on magical creatures. That way, our stash of 'sleeping dungbombs' has a legitimate reason to exist."
Tom suddenly understood again. "Right… otherwise, even if we caught those Alliance wizards, it'd be hard to explain why we conveniently had so many 'sleeping dungbombs' on hand! The motive would be suspicious. But as long as we went to see Professor Slughorn, the motive is covered."
Suddenly, Tom asked suspiciously, "Wait a minute… don't tell me, when you first applied to Professor Slughorn for detention in the Forbidden Forest, you already had this whole plan in mind?"
"Heh~" Wade just smiled.
"But… back then, we didn't even know about the existence of that kind of magical power!"
"That's right, so at that time, the 'bait' I had in mind was something else," Wade replied with a smile.
"Then… what did you plan to use as bait back then?" Tom asked with a frown.
"Didn't Grindelwald show a strong interest in the two of us before?" Wade asked back.
"He did… wait—are you saying you were planning to use yourself as bait?" Tom asked, shocked.
"Tom… do I seem like such a selfless person?" Wade countered meaningfully.
"If not you… wait—don't tell me you were planning to use me as bait!"
"Hehehe… of course it's you. Who else, me?"
"You bastard! I swear I'll—"
"What, you don't agree?"
"…You know me—I always agree with you. Uh, just… put your wand down first, no need to be rash…"
....
Early the next morning.
In the empty club activity room.
"Are you really going to do this?"
"Yes."
"Wade, don't do this, seriously. There's no need..."
"I'm doing this for your own good, Tom. It's been so long, and your Shield Charm still hasn't improved. This won't do."
"But I'm not in any rush at all!"
"Still, as your best friend, seeing your skills stagnate genuinely worries me… come on, Tom, be brave."
In the end, Tom was pushed in front of Anne with a miserable look on his face.
Tom knew Wade would get back at him for insulting him to his face the night before, but he didn't expect it to be in this way…
The moment he arrived at the club room, Wade caught him and shoved him straight toward Anne.
Merlin's polka-dotted underpants! Gulp..
Although Anne had absorbed "fake goods" with side effects, Tom had clearly seen her strength grow.
And now, Wade was actually asking him to stand on the platform and let Anne attack him to train his Shield Charm?
"The potential of the human body is limitless. You need to truly awaken that potential in order to cast a full Shield Charm!" Wade said sternly from the side.
"I think… once I grow a bit older, I'll naturally be able to cast one… if we go by your method, I might not get the chance to grow up at all!"
"I don't want what you think. I want what I think."
"You absolute—"
Wade ignored Tom's look of utter despair and turned to Anne. "Didn't you say you wanted to test how much you've improved? Well then, go ahead and test it on Tom."
"Is… is this really okay?" Anne was a little embarrassed.
"Tom is really strong, as you saw before. When he gets serious, he can even fight me evenly. So don't hold back—go all out!" Wade continued to coax her.
"Well… I'll try my best then," Anne nodded.
In her mind, Tom was indeed powerful—after all, he could hold his own against Wade in a duel, and even some older students had suffered under his hand. So she decided to give it her all.
However, what Anne didn't know was that Wade had been holding back before…
Tom looked at Wade with sorrowful eyes.
Then Wade heard Tom's desperate plea through the "Discord voice chat."
"How about you just beat me up yourself? I promise I won't fight back… just don't let her do it! She just had a huge power boost! What if she loses control and kills me?"
Wade replied with a smile, "Lose control? Why would she lose control? I never told her to control herself, right? I clearly said to go all out!"
"W-Wade, am I going to die today or what?"
"Well, if it makes you feel good, I'll pray for your soul to rest in peace." Wade just gave him a thumbs up.
_________
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