If even Dumbledore had been affected, then who in the world could still be considered normal?
So... the problem wasn't everyone else. It was him?
Did that mean the bastard who had always been ahead of him had never actually existed, and everything had merely been an illusion of his own?
Tom's lips moved, but no words came out.
He simply could not accept that conclusion.
Seeing Tom like this, Dumbledore suddenly realised that the situation might not be as simple as he had initially thought. This was no longer just a matter of helping a student through some psychological distress.
"Start by telling me what happened, Tom..." Dumbledore's blue eyes fixed steadily on him. "Was I... supposed to know this person named Wade Reynolds?"
Tom seemed to snap out of his daze.
"Yes... You were supposed to know him. Every student at Hogwarts was supposed to know him..."
"Is he a student at our school, or a professor?" Dumbledore asked.
"A student... the most gifted student Hogwarts has ever had..."
With Dumbledore's reassurance, Tom began recounting everything Wade had done at Hogwarts, one event after another.
The more Dumbledore listened, the more serious his expression became.
In his own memories, many of the things Tom described had actually been done by Tom himself. Even more of them, however, had never happened at all and had nothing to do with anyone named Wade Reynolds.
So, unless Tom had suddenly developed some severe mental disorder, Hogwarts had somehow lost a brilliant student, and everyone had forgotten both him and everything he had done. Or perhaps everyone's memories had been distorted.
Everyone except Tom.
The whole thing sounded absurd.
Memories and perceptions could perhaps be altered by certain curses, but how could objectively existing objects all change along with them?
According to Tom's account, this was not merely the disappearance of people's memories of one person.
It was as though someone had been forcibly erased from the entire world.
Such a claim was difficult enough to believe on its own, let alone when it came from a third-year student.
Another professor might have assumed Tom was talking nonsense or suffering from some kind of psychological problem.
Dumbledore, however, was more patient than most and continued listening carefully.
In his view, even if Tom was making it all up, the reason he was doing so was still worth investigating.
And if Tom genuinely had a psychological problem, then that was even more important for Dumbledore, as his professor, to take seriously.
As Tom continued speaking, Dumbledore gradually began to feel that the matter was not so simple.
Tom's account was far too detailed. It did not sound fabricated at all. It truly seemed as though such a student had once existed.
Besides...
There was indeed something faintly familiar about the name Wade Reynolds.
It was not exactly that the name itself sounded familiar. Rather, hearing it gave Dumbledore an inexplicable sense of closeness.
He did not ignore that small anomaly.
In this world, every coincidence had a reason behind it.
While Dumbledore fell silent in thought, Tom became increasingly convinced that he himself was the one with the problem.
From what he could tell, Dumbledore's reaction did not seem fake. He genuinely did not know Wade Reynolds.
And who in the world could silently place a curse on a wizard like Dumbledore without him noticing?
So perhaps Wade Reynolds really had been nothing more than a hallucination all along.
No...
It could not have been a hallucination that had existed from the beginning.
After all, in Tom's memories, he had frequently spoken with Wade. If Wade had never existed, then from everyone else's perspective, wouldn't Tom have been standing around talking to empty air?
Yet none of his classmates had ever treated him like a lunatic.
That meant those scenes did not exist in anyone else's memories.
Then it must have started during History of Magic at noon.
He still remembered finally figuring something out, then feeling a sudden buzz in his head before losing consciousness.
"Professor, maybe I was wrong... Maybe there was never anyone named Wade Reynolds."
Tom's eyes were bloodshot.
"Perhaps I was cursed today."
He then told Dumbledore what had happened during History of Magic earlier that day.
"So in other words, this curse, whoever cast it, planted a huge collection of strange memories in my mind that never actually happened, making me believe they were real events!"
Tom truly found this conclusion difficult to accept, but for now, it was the most reasonable explanation.
He had indeed passed out during History of Magic earlier that day, and after waking up, his mind had suddenly been filled with all those memories.
"That does seem to be the most reasonable explanation..." Dumbledore said hesitantly.
He still felt that something was wrong, but he could not quite put his finger on it.
Just as Tom was about to reluctantly accept this explanation, he suddenly remembered the lantern monster outside the office, and a spark of hope rose in his heart again.
"Professor... who gave you the armour and the lantern monster outside?"
"You did, of course, Tom."
"Me? But I don't even know how to make..."
Tom stopped mid-sentence.
Because the moment he thought about the lantern monster, the methods for creating the puppet armour and the lantern monster appeared clearly in his mind.
Shit... I knew it!
So the most gifted student in Hogwarts history wasn't Wade Reynolds, but me, Tom Riddle?
Everything he had once envied and resented Wade for had now, somehow, become his.
That meant he really was number one, without question. He was no longer second best, nor anyone's little brother.
And yet Tom felt no joy at all.
Instead, it was as though a piece had been hollowed out of his heart.
"Professor... I'm sorry for troubling you. Perhaps there really is something wrong with my mind."
Tom stood up, his face deathly pale.
His thoughts were in complete chaos. All he wanted now was to go back and get some proper sleep. Perhaps once he woke up, this strange curse would be gone.
"Wait, Tom." Dumbledore stood as well. "We still can't rule out the possibility that you've been cursed, so I need to examine you again."
Dumbledore remembered checking Tom once earlier that day, though at the time he had been trying to determine why Tom kept feeling as though he was forgetting something.
He also remembered sensing some strange magic inside Tom's mind during that examination.
Yet for some reason, he had not taken it seriously at the time.
That filled Dumbledore with guilt.
Looking back now, perhaps Tom had already been under a curse for quite some time, and Dumbledore had simply overlooked it during his examination.
The Elder Wand touched Tom's temple once again.
A moment later, Dumbledore lowered it.
His expression had grown serious.
The strange magic he had sensed earlier in the day had completely disappeared.
Tom was perfectly normal now. There was no sign whatsoever that he was under any curse.
"Tom, may I extract some of your memories and examine them? I'll only place them in the Pensieve," Dumbledore said solemnly.
As he spoke, he opened a nearby cabinet and pulled out an ancient-looking stone basin.
White mist gathered inside it like liquid. At a glance, countless fragmented images could be seen flashing through its depths.
"All right... Let's use my memories from September 1st. I saw Wade Reynolds fight a hundred people by himself... Professor, are you sure there really wasn't any attack that day?" Tom asked, still unwilling to give up.
"No. The Hogwarts Express was not attacked that day," Dumbledore said, shaking his head.
"And this newspaper is from September 1st. If something like that had really happened, the Daily Prophet could not possibly have ignored it."
As Dumbledore spoke, he took a newspaper from his desk and handed it to Tom.
Tom knew this issue very well because he had a copy of his own.
But the moment he looked at the newspaper, a strange light suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"Professor... it's almost October now. Why do you still have a newspaper from September 1st?"
Dumbledore paused at Tom's question. He looked at the newspaper and found it strange as well.
"That... is indeed a little odd. Perhaps I simply forgot to throw it away."
"You just happened to forget to throw away this particular issue? And you also happened to remember that there was a September 1st newspaper on your desk and could pull it out immediately? Nothing especially memorable happened on September 1st that would make you keep the paper and remember it so clearly, did it?" Tom's thoughts became clear again.
He had gone through his own copy of the September 1st newspaper countless times that day. There was nothing particularly noteworthy in it.
Normally, a newspaper from nearly a month ago would be something anyone would casually throw away. Even if they forgot to discard it, they would not remember it so clearly.
Yet the moment September 1st was mentioned, Dumbledore had been able to pull the paper straight from his desk.
There was only one explanation for that.
Something very unusual had happened that day, something important enough for Dumbledore to keep the newspaper as a memento and look through it from time to time.
Just like Tom himself had done before, keeping that day's newspaper in his schoolbag and remembering it clearly.
So... had he really just been cursed, causing problems with his memories?
Or had something in the outside world itself changed?
Dumbledore had clearly thought of the same possibility. He frowned deeply and stared at the newspaper in his hand as the feeling that something was wrong grew stronger.
Tom did not hesitate.
While Dumbledore was still unsettled by the question, Tom stepped in front of the Pensieve. As he carefully recalled his memories of September 1st, he pressed his wand to his temple and slowly drew out a copy of the memory.
Dumbledore looked at Tom in surprise. Extracting memories was part of Occlumency.
As expected, the extracted memory had changed.
Inside the Pensieve, there was no scene of Wade fighting Dark Wizards as Tom had described. There was only an ordinary day aboard the Hogwarts Express with Tom and the others.
When Tom emerged from the Pensieve, however, there was a faint smile on his face.
Because what had seemed flawless at first had finally revealed a fatal flaw.
"Tom..." Dumbledore looked at him with concern. Judging from the memory, there was no factual basis for anything Tom had described.
"Professor... perhaps there really is something wrong with me. I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time."
Tom apologised sincerely to Dumbledore, then strode out of the office.
"Great Lord Riddle! Take care!" the lantern monster called loudly after him.
Hearing its voice behind him, Tom suddenly gave a cold laugh.
"Great Lord Riddle? Heh... You've got it wrong. Just wait. I'm going to bring your damn Lord Wade back."
____
[]~(￣▽￣)~*
Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69