Thanks to everyone's pacifying efforts, the knot in Ron's heart finally untangled. The two made up and went back to being the inseparable best friends they used to be. Well, mostly. Harry was now consciously maintaining a slightly safer physical distance whenever they hung out. He couldn't help it; Ron's shocking declaration the day before had genuinely given Harry a cold sweat.
Who knew what the future held, but for now, Harry had absolutely no intention of letting their pure friendship mutate into something else.
Following that, just as Hagrid had mentioned, Harry and Tom's detention was officially postponed. Of course, that didn't mean they could delay it indefinitely.
Hagrid had simply found an excuse to temporarily hand his forest patrol duties over to the centaurs. Once he returned, the two troublemakers would have to face their punishment.
Truth be told, postponing a detention was practically unprecedented at Hogwarts. Normally, if the assigning staff member was unavailable, the detention would just be handed off to another professor. But this time was different.
If any professor other than Hagrid oversaw Harry's detention, Harry wouldn't be happy about it. And if Harry wasn't happy, Tom would have the perfect excuse to force Dumbledore to revoke the punishment altogether.
However, Dumbledore had his own ulterior motives for this specific detention, so he had no choice but to break precedent and push the date back.
Along the way, he used the opportunity to inform Tom that his requested empty classroom was finally ready.
[Really? Which floor is it on? I'm going to check it out right now!]
Hearing that his very own classroom was finally prepped, Tom instantly perked up!
Thanks to his various side hustles—doing homework for hire, acting as a teaching assistant, brewing potions for Snape, skimming off the top of Snape's potion ingredients—his need for Galleons wasn't quite as desperate as before. Especially since he had recently struck a lucrative deal with the Weasley twins.
He provided them with the concentrated troll stench he had extracted back in the bathroom, and they used it to upgrade their Dungbombs, giving him a cut of the profits from the sales of the "Enhanced Dungbombs."
While these were all small-time gigs, they added up. He might not be filthy rich yet, but he had amassed a solid little nest egg—at the very least, he was doing way better than poor Ron, who only got a few Sickles a month for his allowance.
But hey, there's no shame in making money. Why would Tom ever turn down an extra revenue stream? Besides, Hannah had already agreed to work as his shop assistant for free. And so had Ronnie.
Yes, Ronnie, not Ron.
Unlike Harry, Ron's allowance was pitifully small. Yet, having already fallen deep into Tom's clutches, Ron had "no choice" but to hire Tom to do his homework for him. (In reality, Ron thoroughly enjoyed the luxury.)
But with his meager allowance, how could he afford Tom's premium homework service? Thus, under Tom's "coercion," Ron made the "humiliating" choice to drink the gender-bending potion and work off his debt as Ronnie.
As Tom had pitched it: You work for me, and I do your homework.
As for why he had to drink the potion? To attract customers, obviously! Compared to a somewhat plain, freckle-faced boy, a pretty, delicate girl would definitely draw in more foot traffic~
Now that everything was in place, Tom, who had only been waiting on the classroom, finally received the final puzzle piece of his business empire: the storefront.
"Regarding that, you'll see once you return to the Hufflepuff common room," Dumbledore smiled mysteriously, deliberately keeping him in suspense.
Truth be told, to ensure Tom was satisfied, the Headmaster had put quite a bit of thought into this empty room!
(The common room? Don't tell me you just fenced off a corner of the common room for me!)
Tom couldn't figure out what the old bee was playing at. What did he mean, "You'll see when you return"? Tom's target demographic was the entirety of Hogwarts! Opening a shop inside a House common room would cut out more than three-quarters of his potential customers!
"Rest assured, I still need your help with Ariana. I wouldn't brush you off so carelessly," Dumbledore explained with a chuckle. "Anyway, you'll understand when you get back."
Looking at Dumbledore playing the mysterious sage, Tom felt incredibly annoyed. Didn't the old man know that curiosity killed the cat?! How dare he keep him guessing?!
Hmph. If I'm not satisfied with this, just wait and see how I deal with you!
With that thought, Tom completely skipped Professor McGonagall's next class and headed straight back to the dorms. Regarding Tom's blatant truancy, McGonagall merely sighed and didn't deduct any points from Hufflepuff. However, her leniency only made Tom seem even more untouchable and mysterious in the eyes of the other students.
(Let's see here. The old man said I'd see it when I got back. Is it... wait, what the heck is this?)
Staring into the common room, Tom saw a crowd of little badgers gathered around a wooden door that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Above the door hung a signboard featuring a cartoon cat wearing a monocle, with the words [Cat Translation Shop] written underneath.
Tom slowly mentally typed out a giant question mark.
(I'm pretty sure there's just a solid wall behind this! Did the old man literally just give me a fake door?! Is he really that cheap?!)
Thinking this, Tom walked up to the door.
"Tom, does this have something to do with you?" Truman, the prefect, popped up from the side and pointed at the sign. "Don't tell me the Headmaster already gave you the room you asked for, and you set up this door and sign?"
The fact that Tom was planning to open a translation shop in the school had long been leaked by Hannah and Ron. Therefore, the moment the Hufflepuffs saw the door, they immediately knew it belonged to Tom.
But why was this door here?
[No idea. The old man just told me I'd see when I got back. I have no clue what he's scheming.]
With that, Tom stepped forward and pushed the wooden door open. The next second, what greeted his eyes wasn't the expected stone wall, but a massive, independent space—one that could almost rival the Great Hall in size.
Of course, while the space was huge, the decor was practically non-existent. It was completely empty, leaving the interior design entirely up to Tom.
Seeing the sheer size of the room, Tom was momentarily stunned, though he quickly brushed it off. After all, spatial magic wasn't exactly rare in this world. He vaguely remembered some guy carrying around a ridiculously massive suitcase filled with all sorts of magical creatures.
Compared to that suitcase, this space was pretty average. Furthermore...
(What was the old man thinking? If students from other Houses want me to translate for their pets, do they have to sneak into the Hufflepuff common room first? What if they tap the wrong barrel and get drenched in vinegar?)
(Wait a minute... Is the old man doing this on purpose just to harvest sweet vinegar?!)
Even though he knew Dumbledore probably wouldn't do something like that, it didn't stop Tom from mentally slandering him anyway.
Giving me a room like this is worse than giving me nothing at all! And he made it sound so mysterious too.
Grumbling internally, Tom took a step forward and entered the empty room. Even if I can't use it as a shop, having a space this big to mess around in isn't too bad~
However, as he fully stepped into the room and noticed four differently colored doors lining the adjacent wall, Tom's eyes widened.
(Wait, what are all these doors for?!)