They wandered around, without much luck. But when they returned to the compartment, Neville was there waiting for them. The three of them chatted for a while, and Tom learned from Neville that he was a member of the Longbottom family, but had grown up with his grandmother.
As they talked, Tom got the impression that Neville was a bit of an introvert, but not a bad one, and that he seemed interesting, but also unsure of himself.
At that moment, the compartment door burst open again, and Tom wished with all his heart that he could put a lock on the door or learn a spell to keep the door shut or something. The compartment was like a public restroom, anyone could walk in, there was no privacy.
This time three boys entered, led by a pale, thin, blond boy. Next to him were two chubby little men, both ugly, small but stout looking, like the guardians of a tomb.
"I hear if you send this here, you can find out a hidden location..." The blond boy leaned slightly to his side, pointing to the hand of the chubby little man on his right, who had a toad crouched in his hand.
The boy was handsome and well-dressed, but his words were annoying: he spoke slowly, in a long, drawn-out voice that was unbearably annoying.
"Oh, this is Crabbe, this is Goyle" The blond boy noticed Tom looking at them and introduced himself, "I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
"Trevor!" Neville stood up and shouted the toad's name.
His voice caught Malfoy's attention, who realized that there were two other people in the compartment.
"Longbottom?" he looked at Neville and made a strange sound through his nose, "I mean, who brings a toad to school these days? After all, if you want a toad, you can find a hundred in Potions class. But if it's you, I'm not surprised."
"Well," Tom interrupted his sarcasm, "The hiding place is on the eighth floor of Hogwarts castle, there's a dripping stone beast at the entrance, you get in by answering the password, which is usually the name of various sweets."
As soon as he met Malfoy, Tom didn't want to tell him the location of the Hogwarts kitchen.
"Interesting." Malfoy approved of the deal, and with a glance at his follower, the plump little man tossed the toad into Neville's hand. Neville already had his head down and didn't look up at him.
The three of them prepared to leave, but before they did, Malfoy remembered something and slowly turned to Tom and Hermione and asked, "I don't know your names yet."
"Tom Yodel," Tom introduced himself.
"Hermione Granger," Hermione said.
Malfoy pondered for a while, realizing that neither of those surnames came to mind, at least not in the British magical world, and that Yodel seemed a bit more German.
"Your parents are Muggles, aren't they?", Malfoy's expression faded at the affirmative answer, and he sneered at Neville, "So the Longbottoms are going to follow in the Weasleys' footsteps? Running around with a bunch of dirty bloods, tsk, tsk."
"But it's a good thing, if your parents had Weasley blood, they could have had a few more children, even if one of them was stupid," Malfoy said.
At those words, Neville suddenly stiffened and didn't move, and Hermione's eyes widened in anger. But Malfoy hadn't finished his sentence. He turned to Hermione, "I know and understand how you feel, wanting to get in contact with purebloods in a hurry, there's nothing wrong with that, but you're too hungry, this guy has the stupidity of his stupid parents, he doesn't think straight..."
Neville shouted suddenly, jumping up and trying to jump on Malfoy, only to be kicked back into his seat by Goyle next to Malfoy. Hermione rushed over to hold him, so he didn't hit his head on the window.
"Idiot." Malfoy scolded Neville rather scornfully, when it suddenly dawned on him: how could Tom, a Muggle, know a Hogwarts secret? He didn't even know it as a pureblood descendant!
"Are you lying to me?" Malfoy's pale cheeks flushed faintly.
Tom didn't answer this question, only muttered thoughtfully, "Malfoy, Malfoy..."
Tom slapped his hand as if suddenly remembering something, "I remember! I've heard that last name before."
Malfoy: "???"
The words came to him like a bolt of lightning. Crabbe and Goyle were beside him, and Neville, who was half lying on the seat in the compartment, looked shocked: the Malfoys were the most pureblood family of the 28 purebloods, and now they were being told that their ancestor loved a Muggle? And the love letter was in the Muggle Museum?
Malfoy's face was as red as the Weasley's hair, and his eyes widened as he shouted, "How dare you disgrace the Malfoy family..."
"Dishonor? I saw that letter with my own eyes the other day in the Britannia Room at the British Museum." Hermione echoed Tom's words.
Malfoy's face was red and the veins on his forehead were scarred.
"Bastards!" was all Malfoy managed to say, and then he lunged forward, looking like he wanted to punch.
Tom immediately reached into his trouser pocket, but Malfoy was quicker than him, not in the way he drew his wand, but in the way he extended his left hand, and a ring on his index finger immediately lit up, "Expelliarmus!"
In one swift motion, Tom's wand was brought down.
Malfoy gleefully touched his ring and said, "This is an alchemical tool given to me by my father, so not even an adult wizard, not even an auror, can stop it."
Next, Crabbe and Goyle approached him with a mischievous grin.
"Drop your pants, who wants to see the color of his underwear?" asked Malfoy with a smirk.
Tom shook his head, why was it that wizards were always under the illusion that once a person didn't have their wand in their hands, they were helpless?
Looking at the two approaching chubby boys, he took a step and brandished both fists, first throwing a punch with his left fist and then an elbow with his right arm, hitting Crabbe in the bridge of the nose and Goyle in the abdomen, both went down with a grunt, leaving Malfoy, who looked like a winner, exposed right after he had asked the question.
He wanted to yell at his two followers that they had betrayed them, but it was too late, as he saw the boy, Tom, kick him in the face.
Tom knocked Malfoy down with a clean, crisp blow.
It took only three moves to finish off the enemy.