Harry Potter: The Rise Of Malfoy

Chapter 25.

After class, the Slytherins were still excitedly discussing the events that had taken place in the previous lesson. This time, Slytherin had made quite an impression and earned a total of sixty points for the house.

In the hearts of Slytherin students, Soren was gradually establishing a reputation without even realising it.

Among the Slytherin boys, the Malfoy brothers and Theodore Nott from the Nott family had the most distinguished identities. After last semester—when Soren was invited to join the Transfiguration Club, participated in the Charms Club, and won the Most Promising Newcomer Award from "Today's Transfiguration"—all these accomplishments demonstrated Soren's exceptional abilities. Even the notoriously unruly Theodore Nott had to acknowledge that Soren was the leading figure among the Slytherin students of the same year.

Several Slytherin girls from the same year started looking for opportunities to get closer to Soren. For instance, Tracy Davis and Audrey Lencohen, who often hung out with Pansy, would sometimes use the excuse of asking for homework help to engage Soren in conversation. At other times, they would wait in the common room for Soren to go to the Great Hall for dinner. Unfortunately, Daphne and Meredith would act like territorial little cats, closely guarding Soren and preventing them from getting any closer.

Soren was not someone who sought the spotlight; the actions taken in Defense Against the Dark Arts class had other intentions.

The first week of school quickly passed.

During the first week, Soren attended three Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Although the subsequent classes didn't include hands-on practice like the small pixies, Soren, who had memorized Lockhart's works, was still able to frequently score points for Slytherin in the class's daily Q&A, gaining Lockhart's favor.

Over the weekend of the first week, Draco unsurprisingly passed the tryouts for the Quidditch team and became a Seeker.

Harry Potter also followed the original storyline, becoming the Gryffindor Seeker in his second year. The only difference in this world was that Professor McGonagall did not gift him a Nimbus 2000, so he bought a Cleansweep Seven out of his own pocket.

Soren didn't pay much attention to that. Unlike the carefree Draco from the original, in this version, Draco wasn't able to measure up to Soren in academic performance, so he felt his only strong point was in flying. Soren personally witnessed Draco's rigorous training throughout the entire summer.

Based on Soren's estimates, Draco's skills would not be much worse than the exceptionally gifted Harry, and accounting for the difference in brooms, it was entirely possible for Draco to outclass Harry.

Notably, on the day of the tryouts, Soren's troublesome brother clashed with Harry and his friends again.

Hermione sharply mocked Draco for having to buy his way onto the Quidditch team, which infuriated Draco, who publicly humiliated Hermione by calling her a "Mudblood," leading to a massive brawl between Slytherin and Gryffindor.

Ron foolishly tried to cast the "Slug-vomiting Charm" on Draco, but his broken wand misfired and hit himself, causing him to vomit slugs all day.

Hearing about this, Soren could only shake his head in disbelief at his brother's reckless behavior.

In his view, his brother's constant use of "Mudblood," imitating their father, was utterly foolish. Hogwarts was now under Dumbledore's leadership, who leaned towards Muggle sympathies, and doing such loathsome things under his nose was simply asking for trouble.

In the second week of school, Soren had Dobby buy him a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey, which he personally took to Lockhart's office. As soon as Soren knocked on the door, it swung open immediately, and Lockhart greeted him at the door with his signature smile. "Ah, it's Mr. Malfoy, my most outstanding student! Welcome, please come in."

Inside Lockhart's office, countless frames of Lockhart adorned the walls, illuminated brightly by many candles. There was also a large stack of photographs on the desk, all featuring grinning faces with gleaming white teeth and deliberate smiles.

Soren first presented Ogden's Old Firewhiskey to Lockhart, expressing his admiration as a fan of Lockhart's books and his adventures, which instantly inflated Lockhart's vanity.

After some casual exchanges between teacher and student, Soren saw that the atmosphere was just right and stated the purpose of his visit: "Professor, I have read some of your works and encountered some questions. For example, I didn't quite understand the chronic ghoul venom mentioned in 'Hiking with Ghouls'; also, the methods to resist the mental control of the Banshee in 'Vacationing with the Banshee'; and the spell that ultimately restores the werewolf's human form in 'Wandering with Werewolves'..."

Lockhart froze there, appearing somewhat at a loss for words. Soren's questions seemed to be a bit beyond his scope.

"Of course, I didn't come to ask you for help!" As Lockhart's eyes wandered, Soren hurriedly added, "I believe these simple questions are something you could easily answer, but since you didn't write them in the books, you must want us to explore these issues ourselves..."

"Really?!" Lockhart blinked. "No, I mean you are quite right, Mr. Malfoy. I did want you to explore the answers to these questions yourselves; you are indeed my best student!"

"Therefore, I would like to find some books in the library to help clarify my doubts. However, the issue is that these books are in the restricted section of the library, so I need a professor's signed permission slip to access that area."

Lockhart nodded affirmatively: "Of course, I cannot stop a seeker of knowledge from exploring the truth." He flamboyantly signed a large, ornate name on a piece of paper, which read: Permission for Soren Malfoy to enter the library's restricted section. Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Thank you, Professor!" Soren quickly took the slip.

"You're welcome, Soren..." Lockhart waved his hand grandly. "Study hard, and you might achieve accomplishments close to mine in the future!"

[Permission Slip for Restricted Section Acquired!]

Indeed, the purpose behind Soren's actions was to gain access to the library's restricted section!

Soren had access to the Malfoy and Black family's collections, the heirloom spells of the Four Great Families, Professor McGonagall's notes on Transfiguration, and Nicolas Flamel's alchemical insights. He lacked no powerful magic; he was fully aware that the problem he faced was that his magical power was insufficient to learn high-level spells that consumed large amounts of power and had great effects. The lack of magical power was his biggest bottleneck in learning magic.

The methods to increase magical power were quite limited. Besides relying on the natural increase with age, the three known methods were:

First, to collect magical artifacts like the Elder Wand, but these artifacts are extremely rare and hard to come by; many wizards may never see one in their lifetimes;

Second, to push oneself in dark magic like Voldemort did. It is said that Tom Riddle was very handsome in his school days, looking nothing like the hideous and terrifying Voldemort he later became. This method easily granted powerful strength, but Soren did not want to turn into a noseless monster like Voldemort;

Third, to use various potions and alchemical items to stimulate a wizard's magical potential, which usually lies dormant within their bloodline.

Although Soren had browsed through several family collections, he found no records regarding bloodline power, so he set his sights on the restricted section of the Hogwarts library, hoping to find useful materials for his research on bloodline power.

In the following days, Soren spent a lot of time in the restricted section of the library. It had a chilling atmosphere; as Soren stepped inside, he felt a shiver run through his pores.

He examined the books on the shelves one by one: "Deadly Curses," "The Wizard's Sonnet," "The Book of Spells," "Powerful Potions," "The Secrets of the Soul," "The Demon Codex," etc. The titles sent chills down his spine, and the covers were even more terrifying. For example, the cover of "The Wizard's Sonnet" depicted a gaunt male wizard with blood flowing from his seven orifices, tilting his head as if reciting something.

Curiously, Soren opened a book called "The Secrets of the Soul," which felt soft and smooth to the touch, but as he opened it, a howling sound erupted. A skull formed from thin mist lunged at him menacingly, which he narrowly avoided as it floated into the air and vanished.

Soren did not open this book further; he was currently uninterested in overly profound soul magic. The priority now was to find books related to bloodline magic.

Soren quickly scanned through the titles on the spines of the books in rapid succession. After the events with Voldemort, it was reasonable to assume that Dumbledore wouldn't allow any books similar to "Dark Arts Revealed" in the restricted section. Soren felt rather at ease about the dangers of accidentally touching a dark magic book.

After three weeks of effort, Soren finally succeeded in gathering all the information he needed.

Even with the library's rich collection, there was still limited material on bloodline magic. Among the many resources, the most helpful was the legendary wizard Merlin's research notes on bloodline transformation. Merlin aimed to increase human magical capacity by implanting the bloodlines of magical creatures into the human body. Unfortunately, this research ultimately ventured into forbidden realms, forcing him to abandon it.

Although Soren felt a bit disappointed about not finding a specific way to awaken his bloodline powers, he wasn't discouraged. Researching magic was inherently a step-by-step process, not something to be rushed. He considered himself very fortunate for his smooth progress so far, and now facing a setback was just an opportunity for personal growth.