Harry Potter: The Rise Of Malfoy

Chapter 8.

The next day, before dawn, Soren got up. After washing up, he peeked into Draco's room, seeing no signs of him waking, and decided to call him after breakfast. Fortunately, there were no classes that day, so Soren planned to explore the castle and familiarise himself with the surroundings.

Upon reaching the common room, Soren saw Daphne, who had also just come out of her dormitory.

The two agreed to go to the Great Hall for breakfast but found it completely empty; they had woken up too early, as it wasn't breakfast time yet. Not minding this, they continued to explore the legendary castle.

Hogwarts had a total of one hundred and forty-two staircases. Some were wide and grand; others were narrow and shaky; some led to different places every Friday; and some would suddenly have a step disappear halfway up, requiring you to remember where to jump.

Additionally, there were many doors that would not open unless you politely asked them to or poked the right spot; some doors weren't real doors at all, but sturdy walls that merely looked like doors and probably wanted to enjoy seeing others trying to make fun of themselves.

Soren and Daphne explored all nine floors haphazardly, including the dungeons, somewhat pinpointing the locations of classrooms needed for their studies, while also discovering three secret passages, usually hidden behind tapestries, stone carvings, stone walls, or even behind portraits. Some secret passages required specific passwords or touching certain special spots to open.

When they returned to the Great Hall, several students were already seated at the Slytherin table enjoying breakfast. Soren saw a still-sleepy Draco sitting with Crabbe and Goyle, walked over to greet them, and introduced Daphne. The four sat together to enjoy breakfast.

Soren casually ate a bowl of milk oatmeal and took out a piece of parchment from his pocket, writing and drawing on it.

"What are you drawing?" Draco couldn't help but ask while looking over his shoulder.

"I am preparing to draw a map of Hogwarts, recording the location of every classroom and every secret passage I discover." Soren kept her head down, focused on doodling on the paper.

Just as Soren finished, he gently flipped the parchment, "Huh? Is this the map of the castle? Can I take a look?" A girl's voice sounded from the side. Soren turned his head to see Pansy.

Upon seeing Pansy, a flicker of barely perceptible disdain crossed Daphne's eyes, but the observant Soren noticed it immediately.

Soren took out his wand and gently tapped it, using the doubling spell to create a duplicate of the map, which he then casually handed to Pansy. "I still think you should explore the castle yourself; that's one of the joys of being a new student."

The young wizards present were either pure-blood or half-blood, and their understanding of magic was not as superficial as that of Harry and his friends, so they quickly recognised the spell Soren had performed.

Pansy stared at Soren's wand, surprised, "You've already learned the Doubling spell?"

Soren noncommittally replied with a "Hmm," and said, "This spell isn't that difficult."

Pansy's gaze towards Soren suddenly became very strange, and Soren could tell that Pansy had quickly glanced at Draco with a hint of annoyance and hesitation flashing in her eyes for a brief moment.

She looked at the map Soren had drawn, frowning even more. The map was very detailed, with clear lines and labels; the markings for the secret passages and classrooms were easily visible, even indicating which stairs needed to be skipped.

This map was not something a child could casually doodle; it contained enough skills such as surveying, and architectural drawing techniques.

In his past life, Soren, as a great adventurer, had encountered mazes, old castles, and dark forests, and he was skilled at hand-drawing maps and routes. Although it had been 11 years since his rebirth and he had lost some of his touch, the quality of his drawings was still far beyond that of these young kids.

Before long, a few of Pansy's close friends arrived one after another in the Great Hall. 

Knowing that his current partner in exploration didn't particularly like this group of girls, Soren stood up and, together with Daphne, bid farewell to them. Before leaving, Soren duplicated a few more maps to distribute to Draco and the other students present, helping them avoid the risk of getting lost as new students.

Soren and Daphne had no intention of returning to the dormitory for now; they went to the library together to explore Hogwarts' collection of books.

Hogwarts' collection boasted over a hundred thousand books, more than the combined collections of the Malfoy family, the Black family, and his grandmother's home. Of course, quantity does not equate to quality; those easily purchasable items in bookstores were not worthy of being placed in a family library.

Daphne found a book about spells and sat down to read quietly. Soren spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the titles on each bookshelf, figuring out the corresponding shelf locations for books in different fields.

Soren's primary goal was to learn the occlumency spell. Within this castle, at least Dumbledore and Snape were known to be proficient in mind-related magic, and Soren had many plans that he could not easily disclose. He borrowed several books he could find after a little trouble on the subject from the library, intending to study them slowly after returning to his dormitory.

The occlumency spell was a very special type of magic that did not require incantations or wands to cast. It only required the practitioner to have a strong will and a powerful ability to suppress emotions and feelings.

This was also why Soren had never considered studying the occlumency spell before enrolling; he remembered asking Lucius about it, and Lucius had dismissed him, saying he was too young. Later, after several rounds of research, he discovered the real reason why children could not learn the following spell.

In a child's brain, the emotional suppression mechanism is not fully developed. Compared to adults who use the rational frontal lobe to make decisions, children tend to rely on the amygdala, which is responsible for emotions and intuition. This physiological condition directly limits the possibility of children learning the occlumency spell.

In the original story, the impulsive Harry was unable to master this spell even by his fifth year for this reason. Even though Soren's mental maturity was far beyond Harry's, he did not believe he could fully master this skill at the age of 11; at most, he could grasp only the basics, which would be better than nothing.

But that is already enough. After all, one of these two people who could peek inside his mind has a good relationship with his father, while the other is busy every day with his Harry Potter training plan, so it's unlikely they would give him magical inspiration for no reason, even if his father was once a real Death Eater.

As long as he can quickly detect when someone invades his thoughts, that is a victory in itself. A distinguished professor or a headmaster cannot disregard their identity and forcefully invade a child's mind when their small actions have already been noticed, right?

Moreover, hum, Soren is not an ordinary little wizard who can be bullied at will; behind him is the Malfoy family, which has influence in politics, business, and education. Doing something offensive against the Malfoy family, especially in a situation where the strong bullies the weak, Soren believes that even Dumbledore would have to weigh the consequences slightly.

First-year students at Hogwarts have a total of eight subjects: Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, History of Magic, Astronomy, Charms, and the most anticipated Flying class.

The next day, Slytherin had its first class—Transfiguration.

The Transfiguration class was held together with Hufflepuff students.

The professor for Transfiguration was Professor McGonagall, a strict and meticulous teacher. Therefore, she treated the students from the four houses equally, without favoritism or targeting. The first-years quickly felt Professor McGonagall's strictness.

"Transfiguration is the most dangerous course in your first year, so I do not want anyone to cause trouble in class. If someone does, I will ask them to leave. I have said this to every new class, and I hope you can remember it." At the moment the class bell rang, she stood at the front, speaking seriously.

After finishing her opening remarks, Professor McGonagall took out her wand.

She pointed the tip of her wand at an empty desk and quickly recited a spell. Under the astonished gaze of the first-years, the desk gradually wriggled and naturally transformed into a dog, making loud barking sounds.

"Wow!" Most of the first-years were captivated by this spell, exclaiming in surprise. Even the pure-blood Slytherin wizards were the same.

After all, Transfiguration is a difficult subject, and it becomes increasingly profound and challenging as one progresses. Most adult wizards tend to focus their skills on more convenient, simple, and understandable Charms.

"I believe many of you have already previewed the textbook and have a preliminary understanding of this course," Professor McGonagall said in a calm tone, waving her hand to turn the desk back, "As you can see, this course is incredibly deep, so of course risks come with it. It is best not to attempt it alone without absolute confidence."

Most little wizards were somewhat dismissive, but Soren did not dare to take this course lightly. He had roughly flipped through the first-year textbooks, and the most difficult one was "Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration." This course requires not only the correct spell but also a profound understanding of the essence of the transformed object.

Wizards studying Transfiguration must not only deeply understand the material laws of objects but also have a clear understanding of any magical laws that may exist within them, thus avoiding the dangers that come with transformation. This can be said to be quite difficult.

The effectiveness and ability of Transfiguration are closely related to the wizard's level, and the difficulty increases in proportion to the complexity of the transformation. For example, a novice in Transfiguration can easily turn a matchstick into a needle, but turning a matchstick into a stick is extremely difficult; even maintaining the shape of a needle is challenging. A powerful wizard can not only do that at will but can also apply spells to the transformed objects to achieve a permanent effect.

However, for Soren, who has learned mathematical and physical formulas in his past life, Transfiguration was slightly easier. His understanding of material laws far exceeds that of many little wizards.

What is a needle? A needle is metal, it is thin, it is strong, it is sharp!

What he needs to do is rely on his imagination to visualize the image of a needle in his mind; the clearer and more detailed this image, the better. Then, relying on concentration and using the spell to inject magical power into the object to change its external form. But that is not the end—

He must also continue to concentrate and outline the characteristics of the needle; it must be thin and sharp enough to increase its piercing ability; it must be straight and hard enough not to bend easily against resistance—

This process requires absolute focus, confidence, and unwavering determination. The reason why wavering little wizards like Neville and Ron find it difficult to master Transfiguration is precisely this.

While the surrounding students were still fiddling with the principles, Soren turned a matchstick into a silver needle, which made Professor McGonagall very pleased and awarded Slytherin ten points.

By the end of the class, only the Malfoy brothers had completed the task with their matchsticks.

Although Draco was playful, during the time after he received his wand, he was influenced by Soren and spent a considerable amount of time practicing concentration, so his performance was decent; at least his needle was sharp enough to pierce a thin sheet of paper.

Professor McGonagall had the whole class watch how the matchstick transformed into a needle and even showed a rare smile to the two of them.