Chapter 24.

  The first day of the new school year.

  Soren's first css was Herbology. After enjoying a hearty breakfast in the Great Hall and reading Mrs. Weasley's howler sent to Ron, Sore off with Daphne and Meredith to the Hreenhouses.

  "Two mischievous students have injured a very precious Whomping Willow, and I've spent the entire m treating it!" Professor Sprout's voice was gentle. "I hope you all won't do things like that iure!"

  "Alright, now follow me to the Third Greenhouse!" She led the way, with the sed-year students from Slytherin and Ravencw followihe pnts ihird Greenhouse were more iing than those in the First Greenhouse, but also more dangerous. Professor Sprout stood behind a ben the tre of the greenhouse, cpped her hands to get everyone's attention, and said, "Today we are going to repot the Mandrakes. Who tell me what the properties of Mandrakes are?"

  Moray McDougall from Ravencw pushed up her gsses and raised her hand. At Professor Sprout's nod, she answered, "It is a powerful restorative, able to help those who have been transformed by potions, curses, or transfiguratiourn to their inal state."

  "Very good, Miss McDougall! Ravencw gets ten points." Professor Sprout nodded in satisfa. "Now, who tell me why we o prepare this stuff?" She poie pile of furry earplugs in the er.

  This time she called on Soren from Slytherin to ahe question. Generally speaking, students from Slytherin were not very skilled in Herbology, as these noble young masters and mistresses believed that these dirty tasks of digging in the soil and watering pnts were the responsibilities of servants.

  But Soren was an exception. Soren's magical philosophy is to utilise any avaible tools—whether spells, transformations, potions, herbs, magical creatures, or even Muggle tools, nothing is turned away.

  He replied, "The cry of an adult Mandrake be fatal. One of the former Minister of Magic, Venusia Crickerly, died on the spot due to an act while handling the Mandrakes in her own garden. Later, the Ministry of Magic established a series utiarding this pnt, requiring wizarding families to obtain special permits to grow Mandrakes. Of course, young Mandrakes will only cause a person to faint for a few hours."

  "Absolutely correct, and the fatal record of the Mandrake is an appropriate addition, eveer than I anticipated—Slytheris fifteen points. As Mr. Malfoy said, Mandrakes are indeed dangerous, but the ones here are still young, and their cries will only cause fainting for a few hours," Professor Sprout said calmly.

  Professor Sprout demonstrated first, then had the young witches and wizards start potting in groups of four. Dracinally wao team up with Soren (who was clearly the most reliable partner in Slytherin), but he was forcibly grabbed by Pansy and taken to the Slytherin girls' group to do the hard work, while Goyle, Crabbe, Nott, and Bise Zabini formed a group.

  Soren had Daphne and Meredith, but they were still one person short. Soren politely approached Moray McDougal from Ravencw to invite her. Moray was a bit surprised by Soren's sudden invitation but nodded in agreement to join his group.

  Pulling Mandrakes out of the soil was quite a physical task, not as easy as rofessor Sprout demonstrated. It was even harder than pulling carrots in a field, as the Mandrakes were unwilling to be uprooted.

  Daphruggled for quite a while without success, and in the end, it was Meredith who helped pull it out. The worst part was that o was out, the little creature refused to go back, wriggling, kig its legs, shaking its fists, and blog the pot's opening, refusing to be stuffed ba. Daphne wrestled with the Mandrake for few minutes before the task was pleted with Soren's help.

  Soren usually paid great attention to physical exercise, and over the summer, Lucius had given him and Draco a Strengthening Solution, a potion that could improve one's physical dition and increase strength—given Soren's current physical strength, he could easily knock down an adult Muggle in close bat.

  With a firm grip on the Mandrake's root, Soren pulled it out with just oug, and due to the force, he even made the Mandrake dizzy, resulting in and successfully pleting the potting.

  After Meredith succeeded with Soren's assistance, only Moray was left.

  It was Moray's first time in a group with Soren, and they had never unicated before. Although she had heard that he roachable, her feminine modesty made it difficult for her to ask him for help. She ical Ravencw girl, quiet by nature and of a rather delicate physique. Having seen what happeo others, she felt unsure about pleting today's task alone.

  Soren noticed Moray's predit and galntly offered his help. With Soren's assistance, Moray slowly pulled the Mandrake out, but she couldn't hold onto the wildly thrashing Mandrake, whiexpectedly escaped from her hands and sprayed both herself and Soren with dirt.

  As the Mandrake bounced rapidly across the ground, about to run away, Moray stood frozen in pd let out an "ah." Suddenly, Soren darted past her like almost cheetah, lunging toward the dire of the Mandrake. He precisely seized the little creature and, without giving it a ce tle, roughly shoved it into the pot.

  At that moment, both Soren and Moray were covered in dirt, and they looked at each other's messy state and couldn't help but ugh. The initial sense of distaween them was instantly broken. Soren took out his wand and cast a Scify spell on both of them, instantly ing away the mud and even making the smell of sweat nearly uable.

  Moray couldn't help but excim, "Your spell work is amazing! Even among Ravencw, where we excel in spell-casting, no one master the Scify spell so thhly. Not to mention dirt, I 't even see any dust on me now…"

  Soren humbly smiled and replied, "Miss McDougall, you ftter me. I've just practiced harder than others. When it es to theoretical knowledge of charms, Ravencw is definitely superior."

  Mave Soren a sidelong gnce, "Hey, being overly modest makes you seem quite insincere! Also, stop calling me Miss McDougall; just call me Moray!"

  The group of four was the first to plete the task in css, and Professor Sprout happily awarded them each 5 points for their respective houses. The other students—especially the mostly studious individuals from Ravencw—were still struggling with the Mandrake, while Slytherin had performed better, but most were also disheveled, sweaty, and covered in dirt.

  After lunch was Defense Against the Dark Arts css. For some unknown reason, this year's css was bined with Gryffindor.

  Like the Potions css, the two rival houses sat distinctly on opposite sides of the . Everyone arrived early, holding their breath in anticipation of the css, demonstrating how eagerly they awaited Professor Lockhart's lesson—perhaps Harry and Sorehe two exceptions.

  "Hello, children!" Lockhart entered, wearing a dark green robe, his demeanor impeccable, causing nearly all the girls to unsciously straighten up and lift their heads. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Third Css of the Order of Merlin, five-time winner of the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award—but I don't use that to boast; I didn't vanquish Banshees with just a smile!"

  Lockhart pulled out a stack of part, "I see that all of you have bought my plete works—very good. Let's start with a little quiz to see how well you've read and uood." After distributing the papers, he returo the podium and announced, "You have thirty minutes, starting now!"

  The quiz spahree full pages filled with questions about his personal preferences. For Soren, who had an excellent memory, the questions posed no difficulty at all, and he swiftly filled out his paper. Hermione did the same, while the other students—Harry and Ron looked fused at their papers, Drad Nott looked disgusted, and Goyle and Crabbe sat dazed and drooling.

  Half an hour ter, Lockhart collected the papers and began grading them in front of everyohe answers on most papers seemed unsatisfactory to him, prompting him to make "tut-tut" sounds frequently.

  "Beautifully done, Mr. Soren Malfoy! You actually remembered that my favorite color is lic," Lockhart excimed excitedly.

  "This paper deserves a 100… Slytherien points!" , he flipped to Hermione's paper, "Miss Hermione Granger knows that my secret ambition is to eradicate evil from the world and sell my own line of hair products. This paper also scores a 100… Gryffindets ten points!"

  He pulled out a rge cage covered with a cloth and pced it on the desk. "Now—be careful! My task is to teach you how to defend against the most evil things in the wizarding world! You will face the most terrifying things in this . But as long as I am here, you will not be harmed. I only ask that you remain calm."

  Harry peeked out from behind a pile of books, wanting to get a good look at the cage, while Neville shrank back a little, and Pansy inched closer to Draco. Daphne and Meredith, who had braved the Devil's Snare aed a troll under Soren's guida year, had developed a ce and weren't afraid of real bat, and they seemed eager to try it out.

  "I must ask you not to scream," Lockhart said in a lowered voice, "that will only ahem!" He then lifted the cover.

  "Indeed," he said theatrically, "a freshly captured ixie." Pixies are not only found in wall; they are mainly spread throughout the southwestern part of Engnd, particurly in wall and Devon, and are known for their mischievous behavior. ixies are bright electric blue, while Devon pixies are more modestly colored in steel blue.

  Soren observed the cage closely, noting that these pixies were about eight iall, had pointy faces, aremely high-pitched voices, boung around, shaking the cage, and making all sorts of bizarre faces.

  A male student couldn't help but snicker, and Lockhart snapped, "Be serious! They are devilishly ing little troublemakers!" After saying this, he opehe cage door.

  Chaos ehe pixies flew around wildly, two of them grabbed Neville's ears and lifted him up, while several others rushed out the window, scattering broken gss across the back row of the , and the remaining ones wreaked havoside.

  Harry showed the ce of a Gryffindor and tried to protect Ron and Hermione, but his efforts fell short—his gsses were snatched away by a pixie, leaving him uo see anything and only able to fil his arms around, trying to grab a pixie by ce; Ron dared not use his wand that uttering with uable sparks; Hermione performed the best, cleverly using a binding spell to freeze two pixies and shove them bato the cage.

  A few mier, half the css had taken cover uheir desks, with poor Neville swinging from the delier. Seeing that it was about time, Soren exged gnces with Daphne and Meredith and shouted, "This is Professor Lockhart's first lesson for us—never uimate any enemy. Now—follow me!"

  Soren took the lead and shot a burst of r fmes with the fire spell, driving the pixies into a er of the wall. Daphne and Meredith intuitively stood oher side of Soren and used the binding spell to immobilise pixies one by one, causing them to fall to the ground, and the number of flying pixies visibly decreased.

  At that moment, Draco, Pansy, Nott, and Zabini stepped forward to help, and spells began to fly. In just a few minutes, all the pixies were shoved bato the cage.

  At this point, the delier couldn't bear the strain and fell down. Soren caught the falling Neville with the levitation spell and thehe repair spell to fix the damaged windows, desks, chairs, and delier one by one.

  Finally, with a normal tone, he reported to Lockhart, "Professor, we uand your point—you want to vey that even unremarkable pixies must be approached with caution, and we should never uimate any enemy, right? Moreover, you've given us a valuable practical opportunity—of course, I have no doubt that if we had failed, you would have stepped in to show us your true skills. I must say, this has been an invaluable lesson."

  Lockhart stood up, radiatiement. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy pletely uood my meaning—what an excellent little wizard you are! The Slytherins also did very well! Now, let me think... Slytheris sixty points!

  Thank you John and Ragnarok2000 for pledging.

  Note: want to read more; join me on patreon or just support me for a dolr on ko-fi for [4+chapters] > Thanks..