Harry Potter: The Rise Of Malfoy

Chapter 26.

After gathering all the materials, Soren's life returned to the two-point routine of last semester. Aside from daily studies and homework, he spent most of his time immersed in dull magical research.

Though the quantity of information on bloodline magic found in the library's restricted section was limited, it was still sufficient for Soren to process over an extended period.

Time flew by, and the first two months of the new semester passed just like that.

During this time, nothing particularly special happened. Lockhart no longer brought living creatures into the classroom. Instead, he read large excerpts from his books to the students, sometimes acting out dramatic scenes.

Most Gryffindors complained endlessly, but this became one of the most enjoyable classes for the Slytherins.

Since Lockhart seemed to think that a monologue couldn't showcase his bravery and strength, he often sought out a small wizard to act alongside him, and the student he selected most often was Harry. So far, Harry had been forced to play the roles of: a villager under the Bubble-Head Charm, a Yeti suffering from a cold nose, and a vampire that only ate carrots since Lockhart had dealt with it.

Whenever Harry helplessly played the struggling villager or the smirking vampire, Draco and the Slytherins would make faces at him in mockery. Soren actually felt sympathy for Harry, but since it didn't concern him, he simply used the class time to complete assignments for other subjects, allowing him to save more personal time for himself.

With Halloween approaching, according to the plot, the basilisk's first attack in the Chamber of Secrets would occur on that day.

On Halloween night, even Soren, who had stayed at home, had to take time to attend.

In the Great Hall, a thousand pumpkins floated in the air, their ghostly faces radiating orange candlelight, illuminating the entire hall instead of the usual candles placed on plates.

Soren took his seat at the Slytherin table, right beside Draco.

Draco put his arm around Soren's shoulders—having undergone two months of Quidditch training, he had become much sturdier than before, with a more resolute expression on his face. "Hey, Soren, it seems like I haven't seen you much these past two months. You didn't come to watch my Quidditch training, and I barely saw you at dinner. What have you been busy with?"

Soren pretended not to hear the last question and smiled slightly. "Do I still need to be reminded of your skills? Whether I watch your training or not doesn't matter. With your talent and the exceptional performance of the Nimbus 2001, Slytherin's Quidditch championship this year will more likely be in your hands."

Draco nodded proudly in agreement.

Daphne and Meredith looked at Soren with forlorn expressions, seemingly because they felt neglected by him over the past two months. With some sweet talk and coaxing, Soren managed to bring smiles back to the faces of the two girls.

Soren quietly observed the Gryffindor table. The trio of Harry was not there, and after carefully recalling the original plot, he remembered that they had gone to the rotten food feast.

Soon, the banquet began.

A pile of roasted turkeys suddenly appeared on the table, squeezing the golden plates to emit a creaking sound, as groups of bats flew in gliding formation overhead. With a bang, the smoke on stage slowly dispersed, revealing a skeleton dance troupe performing their unique dance.

It wouldn't be accurate to say the skeleton dance was exceptionally beautiful, but the complex movements of the skeletons' body structures breaking apart and reassembling with the beat of the music were quite special and interesting. Even the pure-blooded young wizards were watching with great interest.

While enjoying the performance on stage, Soren discreetly cast glances toward tonight's target—Ginny Weasley. Sure enough, just a few minutes before the dinner ended, Ginny, pale-faced, quietly left the Great Hall.

Soren followed her without a sound, casting an disillusionment charm at the corner to ensure he wouldn't be seen, and then stealthily tracked Ginny, who inevitably arrived at the girls' bathroom at the end of the third floor.

This girls' bathroom had a reputation; everyone called it "the bathroom of the Weeping Myrtle." Ever since a student named Myrtle Warren was murdered there fifty years ago, her ghost had been wandering around in a ghostly form, causing most students to be reluctant to enter, and over time it became semi-abandoned.

Soren knew that there was a hidden entrance to the Slytherin Chamber within this bathroom; a copper serpent tap above a sink never released any water, and a small snake was engraved on it. If one spoke "Open" in Parseltongue, the serpent tap and sink would slowly disappear from view, revealing a large pipe leading to the Chamber, large enough for a person to crawl through.

Soren entered the bathroom and witnessed Ginny using Parseltongue to activate the tap mechanism, seemingly calling out for the basilisk. Although he was confident in his invisibility magic and had conducted many experiments around snakes, he didn't have one hundred percent certainty that the basilisk, as the king of serpentine creatures, wouldn't be able to see him. For safety's sake, he quietly exited the bathroom and hid behind a suit of armor near the entrance, awaiting the events to unfold.

Then he saw a large amount of water flowing out from the bathroom entrance.

The school caretaker Filch's cat, miss norris, approached the bathroom and began meowing persistently at the entrance, as if pleased about catching a mischievous student, unaware of the impending misfortune destined for her.

Just as Soren closed his eyes, he heard the sound of a large, heavy object slithering, followed by a sudden stop in miss Norris cries, and then another slithering sound, after which everything fell silent.

When Soren opened his eyes again, he saw a red slogan painted on the wall reading "Chamber of secrets has been opened, beware enemies of the heir," and miss Norris, petrified, hanging high on the wall in front of the stone wall. Immediately after, he saw Harry and his friends rushing to the crime scene, following a strange sound only Harry could hear.

Soren didn't want to cause any misunderstandings, so while remaining invisible, he blended back into the group of students who had just finished dinner and were returning to the dormitories. Shortly after, he witnessed Harry and his friends being wrongfully accused by an angry Filch, and only after Dumbledore intervened were Harry and his friends taken away, bringing the matter to a temporary close.

Ever since Halloween, the atmosphere at the school had become quite eerie.

The legend of the Slytherin Chamber had somehow resurfaced, and various rumors began to spread around the school, with most people suspecting that the culprit was Harry Potter.

Among those who first discovered Miss Norris on Halloween, Hermione's parents were Muggles, so she couldn't be the heir of Slytherin; Ron's family consisted entirely of wizards, but they were all Gryffindors, and Ron himself wasn't powerful enough; leaving Harry as the most suspicious, as he had defeated Voldemort, leading most young wizards to believe that only the most powerful dark wizard could defeat the Dark Lord.

Soren scoffed; it didn't concern him anyway, and he soon returned to his previous secluded life.

November saw Hogwarts officially welcome the start of Quidditch matches, with the first match being Slytherin versus Gryffindor.

This Quidditch match was different from the description in the original story—Slytherin's brooms were far superior to Gryffindor's, and Draco was nearly on par with Harry's skill, while Dobby, under Soren's instructions, did not interfere with the match.

On the day of the match, Soren did not attend in person; he merely sent Dobby to hide in a corner and watch the match, reporting the outcome to him afterward.

In that day's match, Slytherin took the lead all the way thanks to their superior flying brooms, and Draco effectively restrained Harry. One can only say that Harry truly is someone under the protagonist's halo; even amidst the numerous obstacles, he managed to catch the Golden Snitch with a sweeping motion, allowing Gryffindor to narrowly win by just 10 points.

Since Dobby didn't do much, Harry was not injured by a Bludger, nor did the erroneous spell by Lockhart cause him to lose a bone in his arm as it did in the original story.

After listening to Dobby's report, Soren sighed in awe of Harry's remarkable flying talent, while also feeling helpless about his protagonist's aura.

"Dobby, weren't you worried about Harry Potter's safety at Hogwarts this year? Now, I have a task for you. Go to Harry Potter when he's alone; you can give him some warnings. Tell him that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened and that he should leave Hogwarts and go home quickly."

"Understood, little master, Dobby will definitely do it."

Slytherin did not fall into despair after their first match loss.

On the contrary, the team's superiority in equipment had already been revealed in this match. Though Draco's performance wasn't stunning, it was much better than expected, and few first-time players could perform as he did. Harry was merely a rare exception. Moreover, Slytherin lost by such a small margin that it was almost negligible, so they still had great potential for championship contention.

Under Draco's call, the entire team trained even harder. Slytherin's team's condition was evident, which put pressure on the Quidditch teams of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

Soren's magical research continued uninterrupted until the first week of December.

Soren rubbed his temples to ease his somewhat fatigued mind. Long hours of closed-door research had left him looking a bit haggard, but it also laid a solid foundation for his theoretical knowledge of bloodline powers.

What he needed now were samples for experimentation and practice. He already had some ideas about this, but what was more important at the moment was to unfold his plans for the plot that was about to happen this semester and see if he could gain maximum benefits from the Chamber of Secrets incident.

While Soren was immersed in his magical research, another attack occurred at Hogwarts.

This time, the victim was Colin Creevey, a first-year student from Gryffindor. Colin, just like Miss Norris, was fortunately only petrified rather than killed by the Basilisk's stare. News of his attack quickly spread throughout Hogwarts.

Rumors ran rampant in the school, and everyone was suspicious, fear began to spread among the students. During this time, charms, wards, and other protective items started to become popular among the students.

As Soren walked down the corridor during his free time, it felt particularly quiet, clearly because students were afraid that wandering the castle would make them the next victim. This situation actually facilitated Soren's exploration of the castle.

Soren's first target was the Room of Requirement, which had been mentioned in the original work. The original stated that the entrance to this magical room was opposite the tapestry depicting the giant troll hitting the dumb Barabbas on the eighth floor of the castle. Soren silently recited, "I need a place to hide things," and after passing by that wall three times, a door indeed appeared.

With anticipation, he opened the door and found himself in a room as large as a cathedral. Sunbeams through the high windows illuminated what looked like a city surrounded by tall walls.

Soren discerned that those tall walls were built from items hidden away by generations of Hogwarts students. There were piles of precariously stacked broken furniture, likely stuffed in here to conceal evidence of mishandled magic; thousands of books, undoubtedly forbidden, defaced, or stolen; winged slingshots and wolf-toothed flying disks, with some still weakly hovering over the mountain of forbidden items; hats, jewelry, cloaks, and things that resembled dragon eggshells; a few bottles with stoppers still glinting with evil light; and several rusty swords along with a bloodstained axe.

Soren couldn't help but exclaim, "This place is like a treasure trove! How could so many people who have ever entered Hogwarts be so blind? How could they overlook so many pieces of what seem to be treasures?"

Soren called for Dobby, and the two began slowly sifting through and organising the junk-like items.

After a long period of effort, Soren discovered that most of the items were damaged or in disarray, and he only found three interesting objects: a suitcase, an ancient-looking pure silver dagger, and the Ravenclaw diadem, which was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

After organizing everything, Soren eagerly returned to his dormitory to study his findings.