The closet door swung open, and the young wizards in the room held their breaths. Tom wondered, what was Hermione's greatest fear? Was it Professor McGonagall giving her a failing grade and telling her she had failed the subject?
When the closet door opened, the question was answered.
A figure stumbled out of the closet, raising a cloud of dust.
In the dust, Hermione recognized the figure as Tom Yodel.
Tom's body was covered in sand, as if he had just been unearthed from the sand, yellow sand that covered his body's surface like a yellow eggshell. As the sand fell, it was as if Tom had broken his shell. Only this time, the shell was shattered, and with it came death.
Tom was like a mannequin that had remained motionless in the ruins for a thousand years, covered in gravel. His skin no longer glowed, and his hair had turned yellow. But he seemed to have a final trace of life left, and with a slight tremor in his palm, he pulled a withered white rose out of his sleeve and slipped it into Hermione's hand.
"Hermione... Hermione..."
Hermione was stunned, feeling as if her spine had been ripped out in one tug. She stood upright and brought her hand close to Tom's lifeless face. At that moment, a small diary-like book fell from Tom's body, catching Hermione's attention.
She couldn't resist grabbing it and opening it to read the contents: it was indeed Tom's diary.
"30.07.91, Met a lovely girl today, she handed me a bag of delicious pastries."
"31.07.91, The girl startled me while I was fishing, but the fish didn't escape, and she got stung. She deserved it, but she has a beautiful smile."
"01.08.91, I went to Diagon Alley with her, bought textbooks with her, school uniform, wand, and won the raffle..."
Hermione looked at the diary in her hands, good memories flooding over her, and then she saw Tom's dry face, and all the goodness turned into sadness... until Tom coughed softly in the distance, and she realized, as if in a dream, that it was a false illusion.
Hermione felt a bit annoyed for falling for such a cheap trick, for being deceived by an imposter, because the real Tom had been by her side just a minute ago, and she had been fooled by his "corpse."
"Riddikulus!"
With a crack of a whip, the desiccated body on the ground, like a dried mushroom soaked in water, instantly filled up, his skin regained its shine, and his empty robes quickly transformed into a traditional Scottish outfit: a knee-length red over black tartan skirt, a matching waistcoat, and a tweed jacket on top, along with a pair of long, thick knitted socks on his feet. On top, he wore a matching waistcoat and a tweed jacket. The skirt was held up by a wide leather belt, beneath which hung a large sporran.
"Tom" jumped up, and everyone saw that he carried a longbow on his back, a bagpipe in his hand, and a broadsword at his waist.
In full view of everyone, "Tom" played a cheerful tune on his bagpipe and performed a dance.
Everyone was dumbfounded, and then they burst into laughter. Seeing his amusing appearance, Tom could only force a smile on his face. Only when the Boggart felt confused by the laughter did it retreat into the closet, putting an end to Tom's embarrassment.
Hermione ran all the way back, her face slightly flushed, embarrassed to have seemingly revealed something in front of the class. But the surrounding students didn't seem to care, and even Professor Lupin was only mildly concerned. It was perfectly normal to be afraid of a corpse.
The Tom that had just transformed into a Boggart, withered and disfigured from dehydration and covered in sand, could only be identified by Hermione at close range. But the rest of the class, standing at a distance, could only get a general idea, and no one paid much attention, except that Hermione's costume and final dance were interesting.
Perhaps the only two and a half people who could see what was happening were Tom and Sue Li, and the other half was Professor Lupin, who was slightly closer than the other young wizards.
Sue Li squinted her eyes. That figure from a moment ago resembled Tom a little, and it was Tom Yodel who had stood up and danced in the end, so it wasn't really the corpse that Hermione feared, but Tom Yodel's body... she was ninety percent certain in her mind.
Thinking that, Sue Li felt as if she had been slapped in the face with a big bag of dog food, cold dog food that had hit her face and filled it eight times over. (Here, dog food can be identified with being shown affection between couples to a single person)
Everyone laughed and enjoyed themselves, but Tom felt a little guilty and took Hermione's hand under his robes when she stood still by his side, away from everyone's sight.
"Don't be afraid, I'm always here," he said softly. The wizard's wide cuffs hid his subtle movements so well that no one noticed that they were holding hands. "And don't forget that I, who can transform into a phoenix, am immortal."
Tom reassured Hermione, who nodded, murmured, and tightened her grip on Tom's hand. But as she listened to Tom's words, her mind filled with doubts. Could he really be immortal? Wasn't there a price for the phoenix's resurrection?
"You seemed to be reading a book, what was written in that book?" Tom asked casually.
"Huh?" Hermione looked up alarmed but quickly calmed down. "A diary, your diary."
Tom: !!!
"Who keeps a diary... I never keep a diary..." Tom exclaimed helplessly, but he also felt more curious about the contents of the diary. "And what's in the diary?"
Hermione looked at him with incomprehension. "Anyway, they're imaginary things, let's not talk about it."
Tom refused to let go and kept scratching Hermione's palm with his index finger.
"Just tell me~," he said, in a teasing manner.
Hermione became annoyed and stared at her boyfriend. Finally, she lowered her voice and said, "Well, I'll tell you if you really want to know. It's full of things about you harassing me. I was so angry and sober that I wanted to beat up the Boggart!"
Tom: ...
By then, Professor Lupin was also ready to call the next person to the stage. His eyes scanned the crowd and finally landed on a boy. Lupin had seen what had just happened and had a bold idea.
Lupin had been a member of the Marauders quartet and was a man who saw what was going on. As an adult, he had kept his feelings well hidden, but deep down, he was still a fun-loving teenager.
So he cleared his throat and said loudly, "Yodel, let's go!"