Harry Potter: The Rise Of Malfoy

Chapter 30.

Since the first Dueling Club, Lockhart seemed to realise that his status in the eyes of the students was rapidly declining, causing the Dueling Club activities to come to an abrupt end. However, after that, Soren continued to maintain a good teacher-student relationship with Professor Lockhart.

Soren would occasionally visit Lockhart's office to ask questions about Defense Against the Dark Arts, especially about some vague descriptions in Lockhart's writings. Of course, Soren never forgot to bring a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky each time, making it difficult for Lockhart to refuse him at the door.

Soren's cleverness and eagerness to learn made Lockhart feel uncomfortable. For instance, during their discussion about the human restoration spell in "Wandering with Werewolves," Lockhart sensed that there was no admiration in Soren's eyes—only curiosity about the spell.

The genius was very interested in the transformation spell!

In the past, teaching someone the transformation spell would undoubtedly have been an opportunity to strengthen their relationship. Unfortunately, Lockhart had no idea how to use that spell.

When he heard Soren's inquiry, he almost couldn't respond and ultimately had to tell him that he needed some time to sort out hus thoughts, sending Soren away. However, it seemed that Soren had already seen through his intentions and indicated that he would visit again another day.

Lockhart had to specially return to his previous residence during the Christmas break to search for some useful items.

"Straying with Werewolves" left a deep impression on Lockhart—after all, that Armenian old wizard was old and ugly, and his clothes were tasteless, which led to much mocking from Lockhart. Back then, he spent quite a bit of time investigating the matter and even visited the village that suffered from the werewolf disaster, obliviating the villagers living there to make all the informed parties completely forget about the incident.

Regarding the transformation Spell, Lockhart naturally knew a thing or two, as it was the core spell in "Straying with Werewolves." He had spent a considerable amount of effort extracting the spell from the old wizard. This was a spell developed by the old wizard himself from magic passed down from the old times, although he seemed unaware of the spell's significance.

Lockhart had once contemplated using this spell to gain fame; after all, being able to temporarily revert werewolves back to their human forms was a significant magical achievement. Therefore, when he left, he not only erased the other's memory but also stole the records and research of the transformation Spell. If he could learn it and publish the findings, Lockhart knew he would surely gain fame in the international wizarding community.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. He tried for a whole year without even grasping the slightest aspect of the spell.

Lockhart found drafts he had written before he started authoring books, along with many various secret achievements extracted from others—chronic venom extracted from ghouls in "Strolling with Ghouls," potions resisting the mental control of the Banshee in "Vacations with the Banshee," a vampire amulet used in "Traveling with Vampires," and the transformation Spell from "Straying with Werewolves"...

Lockhart carefully flipped through the materials, confirmed there was nothing he couldn't show Soren, and took an entire box of research documents back to Hogwarts to hand over to Soren.

[Lockhart's Research Notes Acquired!]

For a full two weeks of the Christmas holiday, Soren spent his time studying Lockhart's research notes.

Though Lockhart's abilities were not remarkable, he was quite adept at writing, as evidenced by his organization of materials and highlights. Every detail mentioned by the subjects of his investigation was thoroughly recorded in the research notes, and it was all arranged in a very neat and orderly manner, making it easy to read.

Soon the first week of January arrived, marking the beginning of the second semester, and the young wizards returned to school from their Christmas break.

The trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed to have learned their lesson and fell silent for a while. Hermione ended up in the hospital wing for several weeks after mistakenly adding cat hair instead of human hair into the Polyjuice Potion, resulting in her transformation into a cat girl.

Though Harry and Ron managed to evade expulsion, they were confined to detention with Filch, where they had to perform various cleaning tasks. Filch still believed Harry was responsible for the death of his cat and thus made Harry's life miserable by assigning him the dirtiest and most disgusting cleaning tasks daily.

Under the influence of magic, Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe quickly recovered and were discharged from the hospital the day after they were admitted.

Although only a few people witnessed Draco's embarrassing situation, the story of his being beaten up spread rapidly within Slytherin house, causing the usually flamboyant Draco to feel greatly humiliated, which resulted in his unusually sullen demeanor during this period and a much lower profile in his actions.

Ginny attempted to rid herself of the diary by tossing it into the girls' restroom on the third floor, only for Harry to pick it up; all of this was seen by Soren, who was invisibly watching from the side.

Having experienced the duel club battle and the Slytherin common room battle, Soren was already a small celebrity within Slytherin. His two glorious victories over Harry Potter made the younger wizards acutely aware of the gap between themselves and Soren. It became universally acknowledged that Soren not only ranked first in academics but also seemed to be the strongest among his peers.

In the school corridors, many Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw wizards began greeting Soren when they saw him, while the Gryffindor wizards gritted their teeth at him, clearly viewing Soren as their number one enemy.

For this group of immature kids, Soren scoffed and ignored them.

To be fair, Soren was different from Draco. From a young age, Draco idolized and fantasized about Harry, the one who defeated the Dark Lord. As a result, when he proposed to be friends with Harry on the Hogwarts Express and was rejected, he developed a complex emotion of love turning to hate towards Harry. He wanted to attack Harry from all angles and make him understand how foolish it was to refuse to be his friend!

Soren didn't dislike Harry and Ron; to be honest, he viewed the grudges between Harry, Ron, and Draco as mere childish scuffles.

He never regarded Harry and Ron as equal opponents. His ambitions and goals were solely focused on defeating Voldemort, which also involved intrigues with Dumbledore and other pure-blood families; his two previous humiliations of Harry were merely incidental. The first time was influenced by Snape's selfishness, and the second time was purely because Harry came looking for a beating.

That's why Soren decisively dealt with Harry during both incidents, not thinking at all about how to humiliate or mock him.

The events at the dueling club served as a wake-up call for Soren—he decided to establish a small dueling club within Slytherin, inviting only first and second-year Slytherin students to participate. Soren's reputation quickly attracted many members to the dueling club, and almost everyone showed up, including the self-important Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini.

Soren didn't teach them any powerful spells or advanced combat techniques, but rather started with the basics of wand handling and wand waving.

Initially, the young wizards seemed outwardly compliant due to Soren's reputation but were internally somewhat disappointed. However, after participating in a few sessions, they each realized significant improvements in their regular charm and transfiguration classes, which made them aware of how much Soren's guidance helped them; in turn, Soren gained even more good reputation.

Since the battle in the Slytherin common room, no attacks had occurred in the castle, and before long, it was already the Easter holiday in April.

Second-year students were to choose two elective courses for third year.

Soren had no interest in Divination, Arithmancy, or Muggle Studies, and concerning Ancient Runes, it wasn't humility on his part; he was doubtful that Professor Bathsheba Babbling could teach him anything he didn't already know.

To avoid wasting time on subjects that held no practical use or interest for him, he and Draco, after several communications with Lucius, chose only one subject—Care of Magical Creatures. Lucius then used his influence as a board member to have Hogwarts reinstate the long-cancelled Alchemy course.

Alchemy is a highly specialized subject, and its cancellation had two reasons: insufficient demand from students and the difficulty of finding a qualified professor.

These two issues were not problems for Soren.

He was confident in convincing most Slytherin students to take Alchemy, and finding a professor was not too big of an issue for pure-blood families.

According to Soren, the two giants of the British alchemical world were the Nott family and the Bock family, both of which had deep ties with the Malfoy family. If Lucius was willing to step in, they wouldn't refuse to favor Lucius.

At the same time, Professor Sprout announced that the Mandrakes were hosting a lively and noisy ball in the third greenhouse, stating that they would soon be fully mature, at which point all petrified victims could be healed.

The continuous stream of good news made people gradually cheerful again. The young wizards turned their attention back to the upcoming Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

Just when Soren thought this peaceful period would last until May, reality harshly slapped him across the face, deviating from the established course.

Most of the little snakes from Slytherin came from well-established wizarding families, and the relationships between several ancient families were deeply entangled and complicated. These families were allies in supporting the "pure-blood supremacy" ideology, but at the same time, they were competitors pursuing power and profit.

For the young heirs, families would instill various competitive and survival-of-the-fittest ideologies from a young age.

Meanwhile, during the Sorting Hat ceremony, those with ambition and scheming natures were often sorted into Slytherin, leading to a unique phenomenon of factionalism and survival of the fittest within Slytherin.

In general, ambitious schemers are often categorized as Slytherins, which leads to a peculiar phenomenon where factions proliferate and the weak are preyed upon by the strong within Slytherin.

Whether it's Draco leveraging the financial power of the Malfoy family to successfully seize the position of Seeker on the Quidditch team, or Soren defeating the renowned Harry Potter twice, thereby building popularity and prestige among Slytherin's young witches and wizards, both are seen by the other pure-blood families in Slytherin as manifestations of the Malfoy family's intentions to gain influence in Slytherin.

Of course, given the current financial resources and influence of the Malfoy family in British politics and business, not many forces dare to openly provoke them, but testing the waters is inevitable.

Among the pure-blood families, the strongest were originally the Lestrange, Rocher, and Black families. However, during the First Wizarding War, these three families suffered the most as pioneers—Lestrange's direct lineage saw both brothers imprisoned; Ivan Rocher was killed by Mad-Eye Moody; and in the Black family, one brother was imprisoned while the other vanished under unclear circumstances.

Aside from the rumor that Ivan Rocher left an illegitimate child who fled overseas, the direct lines of the other two families were almost entirely cut off.

The Lestranges fared relatively well, finding family members among their cadet branches to grant him a status to inherit the family.

The Black family, however, was much less fortunate; their cadet branches produced only daughters, resulting in the ancestral home of the Blacks falling into an awkward situation of having no one to inherit it.

In contrast, those families that understood the importance of self-preservation managed to retain quite a bit of strength. After the Death Eaters were purged, they seized the opportunity to absorb the industries and markets vacated by these three families. Coupled with the laissez-faire attitude of the newly appointed Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, these pure-blood families gradually grew in power.

Among them, the most powerful was the Malfoy family, which, despite being small in numbers, even co-opted the Goyle and Crabbe families as their vassals and maintained close alliances with the Parkinson and Bock families.

Following closely were the Avery, Nott, and Carrow families, who had preserved significant strength from the beginning. With some effort, they believed themselves to be only slightly inferior to the Malfoy family.

Of course, Soren also learned from Daphne that some less ostentatious pure-blood families, such as the Greengrass and Macmillan families, may not frequently proclaim the supremacy of pure-blood but do not have absurd or extreme styles of conduct. These low-profile families have quietly nurtured considerable strength behind the scenes.

Take the Greengrass family, represented by Daphne; in recent years, they have quietly assimilated several relatively obscure small families. Even the historically significant Shafiq family ultimately became vassals of the Greengrass family due to Daphne and Meredith's connections.

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