Hogwarts: Chill, I'm Not That Riddle

“Not permanently.”

Andrew Vole

explained, “I just need some time to sort out our family’s business affairs. Besides, your uncle and the others are still in America. I spoke with him yesterday, but he has no intention of leaving. There’s nothing we can do about that.”

“At the very least, I need to go back and make proper arrangements for the family business. Otherwise, we’ll eventually have nothing left but to live off what we already have.”

“New York is certainly a mess right now, but the Muggle governments in other areas haven’t reacted nearly as strongly. Some of the wizarding settlements in the central and eastern regions are still relatively safe. I won’t be gone for long. I’ll be fine.”

Tom couldn’t help nodding.

Not because he agreed, but because Andrew fit his stereotypical image of muggles perfectly. Typical squid mentality: money first, life second.

“Actually, I don’t recommend doing that.” Tom shook his head. “Uncle, there’s something you still haven’t figured out. You’re different from everyone else.”

“Me?”

Andrew froze, suddenly feeling rather flattered.

He had brought the Vole family to unprecedented heights in America and earned the respect of quite a few people along the way.

But that depended on who was praising him.

Tom had just said he was different from everyone else. Could it be that he possessed some special talent he had never even noticed?

The next words from Tom mercilessly shattered that fantasy. “Uncle, you’re Cassandra’s father. And it’s hardly a secret that Cassandra and I are together.”

“Other people might be able to return to America and come out of it safely if they’re lucky. But you absolutely won’t have that option. If you go back, you’ll become Cassandra’s weakness. The moment they capture you, they can use you to put pressure on me.”

“And I can tell you very clearly right now that there’s no possibility of reconciling my conflict with the Sun Chasers. Either I completely deal with them, or they find a way to defeat me. So I don’t recommend that you go back. If you insist on doing it anyway, then I have to make one thing clear in advance: I won’t be making special trips to rescue you.”

Andrew: “…”

That hurt.

Really, really hurt.

So this was what he was now? A vulnerability?

And the worst part was still to come.

Tom had been brutally straightforward, yet his precious little cotton ball, Cassandra, not only failed to argue with him, she nodded enthusiastically in agreement. “Dad, just stop making things harder for Tom. Who knows what that bunch of Sun Chasers is really planning?”

“Money can always be earned again. But once your life is gone… um…” Cassandra suddenly faltered.

After a long, awkward silence, she hesitantly added, “Well… then I guess that’s that?”

“Enough. I’m not going back.”

Exhausted to the core, Andrew shook his head and gave up on the idea completely.

His wife didn’t support him. His daughter didn’t support him. And now even his future son-in-law didn’t support him.

What was the point of living?

“Tom, you’ve got to give me something to do, at least.” Andrew pleaded. “If I sit around doing nothing every day, I’ll start overthinking everything. I may have no way of competing with you when it comes to magic, but there are plenty of other areas where I can still be useful.”

Successful people often found it surprisingly difficult to adjust once they had nothing left to occupy them.

It was like people in his previous life who had already achieved financial freedom but still threw themselves into one new business venture after another. It was simply a matter of needing something to do.

Andrew had only spent two or three days at the estate, and he was already climbing the walls.

Especially when he thought about how badly his business in America might be hit. The very thought made his heart ache.

“Since you mention it, I actually do have something I’d like to trouble you with.” Tom smiled. “I’m planning to open the city I built to the public. There’ll be a lot of people moving in over the next few months, along with businesses and companies setting up their headquarters in Dalaran.”

“Originally, I was going to leave all those tedious details to Ikaros. But she isn’t actually human, and there are some things she doesn’t quite understand well enough to handle. If you’re willing to help, Uncle, that would be perfect.”

“No problem.” Andrew agreed immediately.

“Then later, I’ll have someone take you around Dalaran. You should get familiar with the place first.”

After breakfast, Tom took a nap with the little fox in his arms.

Around noon, he headed over to Newt’s house.

“Tom, perfect timing! Come try what I made.” Jacob Kowalski brought out a loaf of freshly baked bread.

Tom cut off a piece, dipped it into some beef sauce, and took a bite. He nodded repeatedly. “The bread is great, and the sauce is delicious too.”

“Haha!” Jacob beamed. “I learned this from an old master chef from France. They really know how to make beef sauce over there. They even put the beef sauce and cheese on top of fries. Want to give it a try?”

Tom nodded, then shook his head. “Not now. I just had breakfast this morning, then slept until now. I’ll definitely try it tonight, though.”

“Sounds good. Then we’ll invite Sir Nicolas over tonight too, along with your little girlfriends. We’ll all have dinner together…”

The turmoil outside hadn’t affected Jacob’s good mood in the slightest.

If anything, having everyone gathered together again after so many years made him happier than ever.

…

..

Inside the pocket world.

Tom stood before the golden apple tree.

Several branches bent gently toward him, brushing against his palm and shoulder as though the tree were affectionately acting spoiled.

“Mystryl, have you figured anything out?” he asked silently.

Inside the study space, Mystryl, connected to Tom through their mental link, was carefully examining the golden apple tree. “It’s a beautiful tree. There’s a very strong divine aura within it, too. From the looks of it, it should be connected to a true god.”

“But can a true god really appear in a world like yours?” Mystryl sounded genuinely surprised.

After yesterday’s tea party, she had continued talking with Morgan for quite some time, particularly about information concerning the earlier epochs.

After learning everything Morgan knew, assuming her account was reasonably accurate, she could be certain that at most, some lesser false gods had appeared on Earth.

A true god should have been impossible.

The difference between a false god and a true god might seem like only one rank, but in reality, they were worlds apart.

In the D&D universe, a deity like Mystryl would never have regarded a false god as a peer.

But once someone reached the level of a true god, even if there were still a massive gap in strength between them, they would at least receive the respect such a being deserved.

“Hmm… that part I’m not really sure about.” Tom swatted away one of the tree’s affectionate branches. “This tree can’t really be considered a native product of this world.”

“Ah, forget about that for now. Just help me figure out whether there’s a way to speed up the golden apple tree’s flowering and fruiting.”

“Hm… Tom, move a little closer and put your hand on the trunk. Then channel your magic into it.”

Tom did as instructed.

Following Mystryl’s directions, he began supplying the tree with magic.

The golden apple tree accepted it without hesitation, treating its master’s magic like nourishment.

At the same time, a faint golden glow appeared across the trunk.

If Tom hadn’t carefully controlled the rate at which he supplied his magic, he suspected this greedy tree could have drained him dry.

“Yes, that’s it…”

After roughly ten minutes, Mystryl finally told him to stop.

“I’ve found a way. But you can’t do it yet. First, you’ll need to study with me for a while.”