It took Tom a couple of seconds for Fawkes' words to sink in: was this Phoenix threatening him? Seeing Fawkes' smug look, Tom felt the image of Fawkes crumbling.
The original Fawkes: the companion of justice, summoned by the great Dumbledore, a symbol of the divine.
Fawkes now: the fiery red bird that swindles poor, orphaned students.
Fawkes, open your eyes, can you bear to see this? How could you do this to a weak, defenseless, and poor student like me? I only have a pretty face and a wealthy fair-skinned girlfriend!
Tom was scandalized, but upon reflection, Fawkes was Dumbledore's best friend, and considering Dumbledore's behavior, it wasn't surprising that Fawkes would do something like this.
Hermione was there to understand what Fawkes was saying. She covered her mouth and laughed, "Fawkes, Professor Snape doesn't understand you."
Tom shook his head helplessly, feeling that Hermione underestimated the mischievous Phoenix.
Indeed, Fawkes fluttered close to the ground, stretched out a leg, and scribbled on the ground. Soon, a distorted line of writing appeared in the sand.
Tom and Hermione: ...
Fawkes: smug.jpg
Tom sighed, "Alright, whatever you say." He was simply at a loss for words. Who taught this Phoenix how to write?! Dumbledore, do you have so much free time?
Tom had misunderstood Dumbledore. Fawkes, being a phoenix, was an extremely intelligent magical creature. Moreover, with nothing better to do than perch in Dumbledore's office all day, he had picked up some strange extra skills, like word recognition...
"¡Caw~! (Besides grass and mint with pepper, I want meat! Magical creature meat!)"
Tom said angrily, "Is Dumbledore starving you? What's with all this talk about food?"
At the mention of Dumbledore, a hint of anger actually appeared on Fawkes' face. "Yes, he provided me with plenty of food, but as he grew older, he believed all that rubbish in reference books and put me on a healthy diet!"
Upon hearing Fawkes' complaints, Tom realized that after Voldemort's defeat, Dumbledore's burden had lightened, so he had energy to read idle books like "The Handbook of Rearing Large Birds and the Like," and since he often read books on bird rearing, he had also gleaned a strange series of feeding tips... it was definitely healthy, it was nutritious, there was just one problem, and that was that it was hard to eat.
The food Dumbledore gave Fawkes, which he compared to human food, was probably boiled broccoli with steamed chicken breasts every day, and if he were a regular pet, it would probably be fine, and maybe even delicious, but Fawkes was a very human and intelligent phoenix, and the food was very difficult to take.
He had endured it for a long time... and Tom was his best chance to escape it all.
"I'm a phoenix, a phoenix, you know?" Fawkes puffed up and stomped the sand with his feet. "I don't even need a healthy diet!"
Tom: ...
Hermione whispered to Tom, "He looks so pathetic, why not just...?"
Tom nodded, realizing it seemed like a good opportunity... It would bring him and Fawkes closer.
So he rummaged through his backpack, which he had applied the Undetectable Extension Charm to, and searched for a while, finally finding the box in which he had stored the basilisk meat, under Fawkes' unfriendly gaze. The basilisk he had killed back then had been disassembled and packaged in a box, which wasn't an ordinary box, and had some heavy security magic on it, so the meat was still fresh in Tom's hand.
Fawkes was instantly drawn to the meat in Tom's hand.
"¡Caw~! (What is this?)"
"Snake King meat."
"Snake King," which is the polite term for a basilisk.
Fawkes: !!!
"Where did you get that?"
"It doesn't matter, will you eat it?" Tom grimaced, these days there were no basilisks anywhere else, probably only in Hogwarts.
Fawkes: "I would eat it if you had basilisk meat."
Tom grew a little impatient. "I won't lie to you," he said, stroking the basilisk meat, cutting a piece along the grain, and bringing it to Fawkes' mouth. Fawkes extended a claw and took the meat into his mouth, tilted his head, and swallowed it in one gulp.
As soon as Fawkes swallowed the basilisk sashimi, his eyes lit up: the slice of meat had an excellent texture, it melted in his mouth, it tasted good, the basilisk's venom gave it a strange sensation, and it was so nourishing that Fawkes could feel the rich magic emanating from the slice of meat as it digested in his stomach.
Looking at Fawkes' expression, Tom was delighted that the basilisk meat seemed to please him.
With just one bite, Fawkes fell in love with that piece of meat. He was unwilling to find out what kind of meat it was, as long as it wasn't phoenix meat. Fawkes lunged forward and tried to take another bite, but Tom stopped him.
"Take us back to Sheffield first, and I'll give you the rest of the meat."
Fawkes tilted his head, a little confused. "Aren't we going back to Hogwarts directly?"
"No," Tom looked away, unsure of what he was looking at. "There's something else waiting for me to retrieve in Sheffield."
The Emerald Tablet of Menes!
It was stored with other artifacts excavated in a research room at the University of Sheffield, protected by extremely strict security. It was an impossible task to sneak into the university and steal it. But for Tom, it wasn't difficult. All the security measures were designed to protect against humans, and Tom could outsmart them.
The Dementor is a dark creature. It has a powerful passive ability that is invisible to Muggles and Muggle electronics.
Tom located the tablet, then transformed into a Dementor and followed his senses to the room where the Emerald Tablet was kept. Along the way, he ignored the large and small clusters of emotions and headed towards the house where the tablet was hidden. His interests had subtly shifted since becoming a Dementor, and the pleasures of the living attracted him, but he managed to restrain himself.
And although Tom crossed paths with numerous Muggles along the way, none of them could see him, and they could only feel that their surroundings had suddenly become much colder and their mood had plummeted.
But what surprised him a little was that when he entered that room, he discovered that someone was there, and this person could see him!