Snape's nearly 100 Legeremancy tests failed.
He immediately became serious: the "Lockhart" in front of him might know Occlumency! Wizards who know Occlumency are no longer ordinary wizards, and he had to be taken seriously.
"Is there anything else? Professor Snape, if there's nothing else, I'm off to class, the students are waiting for my exams" Tom smiled, his eyes narrowed to slits.
"I'll find the thief" Snape said, expressionless.
"Good luck, and if there's anything you need, ask" Tom walked away, and Snape stood still, watching Tom's back until he disappeared around the corner.
By the next lesson, the young wizards taking part in the exam were more or less distracted, some of them present in person, others having heard from their friends what had happened at the Astronomy Tower. The news spread faster than anyone could have expected.
After class, for the first time, Tom was stopped by students.
"Professor, you've been on countless adventures, what do you think of this attack?" A tall boy stopped Tom before he could leave the classroom, and at his question, most of the young wizards stopped what they were doing and listened.
"What do I think? " Tom laughed, pulled out a stool and sat down on it.
"What's this? Hogwarts has gone through countless ups and downs in the thousand years since its establishment, and this little thing can't stop it. Have you ever heard of Hogsmeade? In 1612, a goblin rebellion broke out near the town. At the time, the wizards were using a pub in Hogsmeade village as their headquarters. It's hard to imagine that over 300 years ago, goblins even fought the wizards next door to Hogwarts. And look at the staircase outside-"
Although the young wizards couldn't see the stairs, their eyes were drawn to the door.
"Why did Lady Ravenclaw design the castle this way?"
The young wizards were still so engrossed in historical tales of goblins fighting wizards next to Hogwarts that no one answered for a while.
Tom just asked for one of the prettiest girls.
"Uh, to work on our memory? "
"Yes, and no. There's also a very important function of designing the stairs this way, that is, to resist foreign invasion. You didn't expect that, did you? Hogwarts really is a fortified castle!"
Everyone was in an uproar, and it was hard for them to imagine how Hogwarts would be reduced to a battlefield.
Tom stood up again, walked over to the window and showed the students the terrain, "Look, the castle is built on a cliff, and below it is the Black Lake, so it would be foolish to cross it and attack Hogwarts. If we wanted to attack, we would have to go up the hill, Hogwarts castle is on top of the hill and we have the advantage!"
Then he changed perspective, "Look at the grass in the center of the castle, you can grow food and with magic you can feed the whole school with no problem, plus being so close to the Black Lake, there is no shortage of water. Hogwarts castle is so easy to defend and so hard to attack that it would take three to five years to lay siege to it, even with an army of tens of thousands."
Of course, this is all on paper, Muggles will not enter Hogwarts castle, it is full of Muggle banishment spells.
But it was a sermon that immediately calmed the young wizards down, they didn't understand much of what Tom was saying, but it seemed to make sense.
"Now, do you still think the so-called attack on the Chamber of Secrets is a big deal? We have to trust Professor Dumbledore - he's the man who defeated two generations of Dark Lords!"
"Come on, have you heard of Grindelwald?" Tom didn't seem to want to leave the classroom, and the young wizards weren't looking forward to being dragged out of the classroom, even though it was almost dinner time, they were willing to stay in the classroom and listen to the professor tell them something they hadn't heard of.
"No, but we have heard of Grindylow" Interjected someone from the stage.
Suddenly, many burst into laughter, and the subdued air that had been building up in the classroom since before the lesson ended dissipated.
"Well, live and learn," Tom pounded on the table to silence everyone, "And I'll tell you the story of Grindelwald. "
...
"... A fire that consumed the lives of a dozen Aurors, that's a dozen Aurors! There may not be enough Aurors in the UK today. Of course, the fire was eventually extinguished thanks to the cooperation of Master Newt and Nicolas Flamel, otherwise Paris would have burned to the ground!"
The little wizards in the room fell silent.
"So, how was such a powerful Dark Lord defeated?" said the little witch who had just been summoned by Tom, raising her hand with a slight trill.
"In 1945, Grindelwald was at the height of his power, he was so powerful that all of Europe was in his shadow, but Professor Dumbledore approached Grindelwald when Grindelwald was shining like the noonday sun and fought him to the death, which duel we do not know, but the result was that Professor Dumbledore won, Grindelwald fell into darkness, and his vast power plummeted into the air"
"That's a good point."
Suddenly, there was a clap at the door and the young wizards turned to see Professor Dumbledore standing in the doorway, listening for who knows how long.
"I wondered why these young wizards were willing to starve rather than eat in the great dining hall, but they had a good story to tell" Dumbledore smiled benevolently, not looking like the mighty wizard who had defeated Grindelwald in a duel.
"Professor Dumbledore" Several young wizards stood up nervously.
"So, with a wizard of Professor Dumbledore's stature, do you think the attack that happened today is a problem? It's nothing compared to what wizards have had to deal with throughout history, so let's get out of class and go to dinner, it's a great sin to keep people from eating!"
All the young wizards laughed, the fog cleared from their minds. But when they reached the door, Tom called out to them.
"There's another thing, and it's no big deal, but there's a rat in the school, and he's lurking in the shadows, waiting for his chance. It has disguised itself as friendly and harmless, so be on your guard and don't trust anything, especially if you can't see what's going on in their minds."
With those words, Tom let the students go.
Dumbledore also left with a smile on his face.
For the rest of the day, the atmosphere in the school seemed to lighten up a bit. Tom's talk calmed the young wizards down. Once everyone had a more concrete understanding of the long history of Hogwarts and the legend of Dumbledore, the panic naturally dissipated.
...
After dinner, Tom saw Hermione outside his office. Hermione looked distressed, obviously, she had been waiting here for some time.
It had been an up and down day for Hermione, to say the least. First, Tom had missed class in the morning, then there had been a pop quiz, and in the afternoon she had received the news that Tom had been cursed and that Professor Lockhart had been able to pull out the handkerchief he had given Tom, so she had a rough idea of what was in store for her.
So she went to Professor Lockhart's office in the evening, to intercept him and find out what was going on. Whatever the outcome, someone had to be taught a lesson.
"Ah, Miss Granger, you must be here for an autograph, come in!" Tom grinned like Lockhart when he saw Hermione, opened the office door for her and walked in ahead of her. Hermione followed him with a frown.
Hermione closed the office door.
"Oh, it's not a good habit to close the door when you're alone with a schoolgirl" Tom winked mischievously. But in front of him, Hermione suddenly pulled out her wand and held it to Tom's throat.
"Should I call you Professor Lockhart, is there something you need to explain to me?"
"Calm down. " Tom looked at the wand at his throat: vine wood, with fire dragon heart nerve at its core, ten and a half inches, a wand very representative of Hermione's style. She felt the cold touch of the wand's tip, and suddenly felt that if they had made it sharper, she could have stabbed someone to death.
A vine-wood approved witch, a witch with high aspirations, vision beyond the ordinary, and a wand that always shocked those who thought they knew her friends. Now Tom was shocked, if Lockhart had not been replaced by him, Hermione would have attacked the professor.
He was slowly reverting back to his Tom form.
"Hmph," Hermione said with a look of recognition, but she didn't pull out her wand.
"Hermione, do you see...?" Tom looked at Hermione's wand and swallowed saliva.
Hermione pointed her wand forward, "Mr. Yodel, shouldn't you tell me the things you did? That's the real Professor Lockhart in the school hospital right now, isn't it?"
Tom sighed, "Hermione, what do you think Lockhart looks like?"
Hermione frowned, she knew Tom wouldn't say anything without a reason, so was there really something wrong with Professor Lockhart?
"Lockhart is a liar!" blurted Tom, and then, he told Hermione about Lockhart's experiences.
Tom, who probably had a talent as a storyteller, told the story in such a way that the climax was so intense that Hermione listened with fascination and slowly withdrew her wand from her throat.
"So you found out Lockhart's secret and locked him up? And you disguised yourself as him?" asked Hermione.
"Yes" Tom nodded.
Hermione nodded thoughtfully, "Then it all makes sense."