Hogwarts: I, Tom, am not the Dark Lord

Maybe he has been tortured for more than ten years and has come to terms with it.

"But there are resistances to potions." Daphne said aggrievedly, then she hugged Tom's arm and explained: "Tom, I'm not blaming you, I'm just worried about Astoria."

"I understand how you feel."

Tom patted her head and said, "So this time I've brought a better solution. Although it can't completely solve the problem, it can at least ensure that there won't be any problems for the next twenty years."

Half an hour later, in the banquet hall.

The Greengrasses stared wide-eyed at the vibrant red stones laid out on the table, with only Tom enjoying the delicious meal carefully prepared by the house-elf, Pala.

"This, this is the Philosopher's Stone?" Mrs. Greengrass's voice was trembling.

"So Dumbledore gave you the Philosopher's Stone." Daphne didn't know this news either. Tom had kept it until now to give her a surprise.

"It's the Philosopher's Stone, but it's not a complete one." Tom finished a bite of his baked snails with black truffles and explained to the three of them, "The energy inside has been greatly depleted. It can only produce an elixir of life that lasts for eighteen years at most."

"That's enough, that's enough." Mrs. Greengrass excitedly held the Philosopher's Stone.

This was equivalent to adding eighteen years to Astoria's lifespan out of thin air. Add to that the tonic potion at any cost, and her original lifespan of about twenty years, and she would be in her fifties or sixties.

Although this lifespan is still not long for a wizard, it is enough for Astoria to have a complete life experience from childhood to old age.

And the increase in life expectancy means that the time left for them to solve problems has also increased.

Thinking of this, Mrs. Greengrass could no longer hold back. She stood up solemnly and bowed deeply to Tom.

Astoria quickly followed suit, and even Daphne did the same.

"Mr. Riddle, I don't know how to thank you enough. From now on, the Greengrass family will be your most loyal friends. If you need anything, I will definitely do it for you as long as I can."

It's okay to call him Tom normally, but it would be a bit impolite to do so in such a formal conversation.

"Thank you, Mr. Riddle," Astoria said respectfully.

"Hey, Daphne, don't come here." Tom was quick-witted and grabbed the little witch, almost pulling her into his arms.

Daphne's pretty face flushed, and she gave the boy a "mua" to express her gratitude.

"We're a family from now on, so just once is enough to express your gratitude." Tom accepted their gratitude this time in order to make Mrs. Greengrass and Astoria feel better.

"Now that you've said that, I really need your help with something."

Tom didn't hide it. After all, they were family, so he should make good use of Greengrass's huge resources.

"Usaqi is a very picky eater. Now he doesn't want to eat anything except meteorites. Could you please help me collect some?"

Mrs. Greengrass readily agreed. "No problem. We have some meteorites in the warehouse at the fort. You can use them first. I'll go find a friend tomorrow and get another batch soon."

Meteorites can be used as alchemical materials and potion materials in the wizarding world, and their utilization efficiency is higher than in Muggle society.

Mrs. Greengrass also took out the gift she had prepared for Tom. "I heard you're going to the United States soon. This is a registered international door key. It's completely legal, but you'll have to transit in Canada. This is the approval from the Department of Transportation. Once you get it, they'll give you the door key for your next stop."

Chapter 113: The Ultimate Secret of Enduring Prosperity - All the Pureblood Creditors in Britain

Portkeys are a common method of long-distance travel for wizards, allowing them to quickly move from one location to another fixed location.

Although there is a super convenient means of transportation such as Apparition, not all wizards can master it, and many wizards cannot move too far even if they can.

It should be noted that the portkey is not a teleportation type of magic, but a high-speed flight. The portkey itself carries the person who touches it to the destination quickly, at a speed of more than one thousand miles per hour.

The Ministry of Magic has strict restrictions on its use. Every maker needs to apply before use, and used portkeys must be handed in for unified disposal. International travel is the most strictly controlled part, and applications must be made at least two weeks in advance, and permission must be obtained from the Ministry of Magic of both countries before use.

Tom originally wanted to fly to the United States. After all, it was impossible for him, a minor, to apply for a portkey from the Ministry of Magic. Unexpectedly, Mrs. Greengrass had already done it for him.

As the Director of the Transportation Department, applying for international gate keys would be a hassle for others, but for Mrs. Greengrass, it was just a matter of writing the report and approving the notes herself.

"By the way, please help me get two portkeys from the United States to France. I'm going to visit Nicolas Flamel in August." Tom said to Mrs. Greengrass, thinking about his holiday itinerary.

"Well, I'll contact them. Every time you register, they'll give you a return portkey. Then you can go directly from England to France."

"Then I'm sorry to trouble you."

"You're welcome, Tom." Mrs. Greengrass smiled and asked him to eat more.

After lunch, Daphne wanted to take her sister to see the unicorn, but Mrs. Greengrass invited Tom to her study. The two sisters had to go back to take a nap and wait until the afternoon to see the unicorn.

Tom followed her upstairs. There were many study rooms in the castle, and even the first three floors on the east side of the castle were a large library. Mrs. Greengrass took him to the more private study on the fourth floor, the master floor.

The two sat opposite each other in front of a huge desk. Mrs. Greengrass waved her hand slightly, and tea appeared on the table.

"Tom, how much do you know about Astoria's blood curse now?"

Tom told all the information he had received from Grindelwald and Dumbledore.

When she heard Dumbledore's name, Mrs. Greengrass frowned slightly, then quickly returned to normal and said:

"You basically already know everything. This is a curse that devours life force. It's bound to appear in every generation. My sister and my aunt were both victims of the blood curse."

The beautiful woman's expression turned sad. "What good does it do to know? When I gave birth to Daphne, I had to give birth to another child to continue the family line, and one of my flesh and blood would have to suffer."

"Tom, thanks to your presence, Astoria can now live a more comfortable life."

"In fact, my ancestors had long thought of borrowing the Philosopher's Stone from Mr. Nicolas Flamel, but this great alchemist never passed on the elixir of immortality. I'm surprised you were able to obtain the Philosopher's Stone."

Tom smiled and shook his head. "Actually, I was lucky enough to catch up. Dumbledore said that Nicolas Flamel and his wife had had enough of life, so they lent the Philosopher's Stone to Dumbledore as bait. I just got it by chance."

"It's also a kind of ability." Mrs. Greengrass felt that Tom was too modest, especially... when he was still called that name. It was really difficult to snatch food from Dumbledore's mouth.

The woman became serious again. "Tom, I will open up the Greengrass family's treasures and resources to you and help you reach the pinnacle of magic in the shortest possible time."

"I have only one request. I hope you can find a way to completely remove the blood curse to the best of your ability."

Tom shook his head. "You don't have to be like this. I'll do my best for Daphne's sake. She helped me a lot when I first entered the wizarding world. If I didn't want to help, I wouldn't have taken out the Philosopher's Stone."

In fact, what Tom wanted most was the method of using the blood curse. If he displeased someone, he could make him have no descendants. Except for a few crazy people, many pure-bloods valued the inheritance of their bloodline the most.

He asked Grindelwald, but unfortunately the few blood curses Grindelwald knew were not strong and were useless.

Come to think of it, the people who developed this kind of vicious curse are usually the most evil dark wizards. With the character of such people, how could they allow their spells to be spread easily?

"You value friendship, and so do we in the Greengrass family."

Mrs. Greengrass smiled slightly. This was the main reason why she chose to invest in Tom. Daphne had only given her 1,500 Galleons before, and the cost of maintaining the castle for a month was far more than that, but the return Tom gave was far more than this figure.

Wizards are all idealistic. Their personalities will not change unless they undergo major twists and turns, and this will also cause their strength to decline.

It can be described as a three-year-old can tell a person's future.

It is precisely because of this criterion for judging people that Greengrass has not made any mistakes over the years. Even if he has fallen, it is only because he did not stand on the side of the winner and he will not be liquidated. The worst that can happen is that he will get less benefits.

"Tom, maybe you think that magic ultimately depends on one's own strength. Except for stronger wizards, others can't give you any help."

"Although my strength is not that great, my family's background can still help you."

As she spoke, she had already come to the bookshelf filled with books, opened a compartment with a special magic, took out a stack of parchment from it, and then returned to her seat, looking at the boy with a smile.

"Do you know why Greengrass has been able to prosper for so long and possess such immense wealth without being coveted?"

Tom shook his head.

To be honest, he really couldn't understand why.

Look at Greengrass's current configuration: a middle-aged beauty, two young beauties, and not even a full complement of old, weak, sick, or disabled people. Yet, he still lives a wealthy life and has no intention of hiding his shortcomings.

Why don’t those families who have gone crazy learning black magic become jealous and take advantage of it?

"This is our family's ultimate secret. Of course, those ancient families also know it."

Mrs. Greengrass pushed the parchment toward Tom. "Take a look."

Tom was slightly startled when he saw the contents.

Is this a contract?

The content on the first piece of parchment was a contract. The two parties to the contract were Greengrass and Lestrange. The content of the contract was that Lestrange needed to unconditionally help Greengrass do something without damaging the interests of the family.

Tom turned to the second one, which was a contract with the Ball family. He had heard of this family before. They were a pure-blood family in France, and the previous French Minister of Magic was from this family.

Then the Averys, Carrow, Crouch, Burke

Of the twenty-eight pure-blood families, except for Longbottom, Weasley, and Shacklebolt, the other twenty-five are all on the list, and some even have more than one.

Tom gasped and looked at Mrs. Greengrass in astonishment.

"These contracts..."

The woman smiled reservedly. "These contracts are all real. Some were signed in recent years, while others were acquired by my ancestors. The Greengrass family tradition is based on contract magic. The Greengrass enjoy making friends and doing business. Over the centuries, everyone has gradually become friends."

"What will happen if we break the contract?" asked Tom.

"Half of your magic power will be permanently lost, and your lifespan will be reduced by half. Don't worry, the constraints are very strong. Few wizards would be willing to take such a big risk and break the contract. After all, it's already been stated, and their interests won't be greatly damaged."

··· 0Request flowers· ·······

Got it, got it all.

This wasn't a contract at all; Greengrass was simply holding hundreds, or even thousands, of IOUs from those purebloods.

If you provoke them, just throw out a few dozen cards and wizards from all over the world will come to help. There may be a few people who would rather shorten their lives than abide by the contract, but with such a huge number of people, missing one or two will have no impact at all.

With this contract, Greengrass can naturally extend her hand into all walks of life. Without touching the big cake, no one wants to offend them.

Over time, it has become a behemoth spanning various fields and accumulated endless wealth.

Tom asked curiously, "Professor Snape said that Voldemort once came to the castle... and then issued an order not to provoke Greengrass. What happened in between?"

"Dark Lord..."

Greengrass recalled the scene at that time: "It was not long after I graduated, and my mother was still alive. It was she who persuaded the Dark Lord to leave."

"I remember using 100,000 Galleons and ten contracts outside of the UK as a token of good faith."

.. ..... ...

"In fact, my mother supports the Dark Lord in her heart because he can bring greater benefits to the pure-bloods. However, our family's ancestral teachings are not to take sides completely and to rely on connections to survive, so she can only do this."

"The Dark Lord hadn't gone completely insane yet. He wanted to use the contract we held to expand his influence overseas, so he maintained a certain level of respect. However, he was defeated by Harry Potter before he could conquer Britain. It was truly too dramatic."

Tom understood this mentality very well. After all, the pure-bloods of Slytherin were the ruling class, and they naturally did not like Dumbledore's practices that harmed their interests. Voldemort was not crazy from the beginning. He became like this after Harry bounced back the Killing Curse and he made more and more Horcruxes.

Everyone has a stance on everything. Although Dumbledore lost the support of Slytherin, the other three colleges are mostly composed of half-blood and pure Muggle-born students, so he can firmly control the situation.

"The last time you asked for the griffin's eyeball, I used a contract to quickly get it."