Chapter 27.

  In Soren's dormitory, he spread the three items out in front of him on the bed.

  The first item he examined was the suitcase. Soren carefully used his wand to open it, only to find that it was just an ordinary Muggle suitcase, empty and showing no signs of any magical entments.

  After a moment of ption, Soren tapped the suitcase with his wand and i with a bit of magic. Sure enough, the suitcase began to emit a slight vibration, and a brass dial appeared on it, with a small sign that read "Muggle Mode."

  Soren twisted the dial, and the small sign was sucked into the dial with a whoosh. When Soren opehe suitcase again, he leaned forward a bit to see inside, only to be pulled in by an irresistible force.

  Ihe suitcase was a vast, boundless little world. In the distahere were endless mountains, and in front of the mountains y a calm and clear, mirror-like light green ke, surrounded by t, deep woods. The area where Soren stood was filled with a riot of colorful flowers, and in the middle of the flower sea was a small path that split it in two. Following the path, Soren walked to its end, where there stood a simple little wooden house.

  Upoering the wooden house, Soren found it to be a well-equipped boratory, with a long desk covered in various intricately designed instruments, along with several scattered pages of part detailing the inal owner's identity.

  Ihis was the suitcase of the protagonist from the Fantastic Beasts movies— Sder. Sder was a magical creature researcher in his youth, who traveled the world with this suitcase, helping and saving all the magical creatures he entered along the way. This suitcase employed an unpreted no-trace extension charm, with a space rge enough to house a wild animal park from the Muggle world.

  However, this vast space was merely one of the suitcase's least signifit features.

  The true magic of the suitcase y in its successful use of alchemical principles to create natural elements such as air, moisture, and temperature within its space, maintaining an ecological cycle and aodating various pletely different geographical enviros. Different areas of the suitcase were imprinted with differeher charms to simute the habitats of various creatures, allowing all known magical creatures from the wizarding world to find a suitable living enviro here.

  Sder was a Hufflepuff student at Hogwarts, expelled in his fourth year for taking the bme for his crush, Leta Lestra that time, he took this suitcase, belonging to the school, to embark on his personal adventures. It wasn't until many years ter, when he reached retirement age and resolved his feelings about Hogwarts, that he asked his son to return the suitcase to the school. Little did he expect that his son would return it by hiding it in the Room of Requirement. Fortunately, this allowed Soren to acquire this magical suitcase.

  This suitcase held endless possibilities for Soren; he could establish and train his own army of magical creatures. Just think, an army made up of fire dragons and thunderbirds (Soren disregarded the difficulty of taming five-star creatures)—how exhirating that would be. Look at Voldemort; didn't he also establish a dark army posed of Aantus aors?

  In addition, the space within the suitcase could serve as a secret base for building his own power, where he could duct various secret experiments and resear the little wooden house, and even practice forbidden spells.

  As for the Room of Requirement? Fet it. Not to mentioential frontation with Harry's Dumbledore's Army iure, that pce is knowo the useless professor Trewney and house-elves— it still be called a "secret base"? The Room of Requirement is best left for Harry and his boy scouts.

  After p all these thoughts, Soren moved from the suitcase to begin his resear the seagical item.

  This was a silver dagger. Both sides of the dagger were engraved with unknown a ruhese a runes were liogether with strange lio form a miniature magic circle. Soren happeo be skilled in deciphering a magical runes and spent several hours successfully deciphering the magic circle.

  One side of the dagger was engraved with the a runes "Iructible Curse." Unlike modern anti-armor spells, the Iructible rune add a physical property to ons that ignores all physical defehis means that once Soren activates this magie with magic power, eveoughest dragon hide or diamond be easily pierced. The other side of the dagger bears the more malevolent "Corrupted Spirit Erosion rune," which is a type of ruhat directly harm the soul.

  Soren was both surprised and delighted by this discovery. The dagger came at just the right time; one side would allow him to pierce the skin of a basilisk, while the other could be used to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes. He was left speechless by his extraordinary luck. Could it be that he was the chosen one in this world, uhe halo of the protagonist?

  The third item, the diadem of Ravencw, tained a fragment of Voldemort's soul. Soren believed that his current strength was not suffit to hahe potential traps Voldemort might have left behind. Being cautious, he did not sider it the right time to begin researg it and could only set it aside for ter study when his powers were greater.

  [Sder's suitcase acquired!]

  [Pure silver dagger acquired!]

  [Ravencw's diadem acquired!]

  Having pleted the adventure in the Room of Requirement, Soren began to pte his step; with his abilities, he seemed ready to veo the Forbidden Forest. The issue was that his uanding of the Forbidden Forest was limited to what he had read in the inal story. He needed more information, even a map of the Forbidden Forest, to pn his adventure route.

  The person who khe Forbidden Forest best was undoubtedly the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, Hagrid. Unfortunately, in this regard, he did not have the advantage of a close retionship with Hagrid like Harry and the others. As a Slytherin and of course being Malfoy blood, he figured it would be difficult to earn Hagrid's favor, let alone receive any help.

  As for stealing a map... Soren was very pessimistic about that. Acc to the inal story, Hagrid didn't seem to be the kind of person who would pn routes or dras; he would more likely explore the Forbidden Forest based on experiend instinct.

  For now, the pn to explore the Forbidden Forest could be put on hold, especially sihe Christmas holiday roag. This year, things were quite turbulent in his family—sihe start of the school year, Arthur Weasley had searched the Malfoy family home twice. His parents had already written to inform him and Draco that they would be spending the Christmas holiday at Hogwarts.

  A few days ter, a notice appeared oudent bulletin board in the on room announg that Hogwarts would host a Dueling Club on December 17.

  This explosive news sparked great i among the students, who rushed to tell each other and eagerly specuted about the identity of the anizer. Most guesses poio Professor Flitwick or Headmaster Dumbledore. Only Soren, who was familiar with the plot, curled his lips; naive youths would be in for a disappoi, as the real anizer was the empty-headed waste, Lockhart.

  Although Soren disdaihat the anizer was Lockhart, he was still quite ied in the Dueling Club. He decided to participate that day, hoping to find a bat partner of a parable level to practice with.

  On Wednesday evening at eight o'clock, after students returo the on room to quickly rest following dihey hurried back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had disappeared, and a gilded stage appeared along one wall, illuminated by hundreds of floating dles above. Everyone squeezed together, holding their wands with excited expressions, chattering eagerly and anticipating Dumbledore's entrance.

  Lockhart walked onto the stage, wearing a fmboyant purple robe and shining brightly.

  The lively atmosphere in the Great Hall abruptly froze; the previously chattering voices fell silent as everyone saw who stood o Lockhart—her than the sullen-faced Snape, dressed in his usual bck attire.

  The students, who initially hoped to learn some real skills, were disappoio discover that the Dueling Club had turned into a joke.

  Lockhart was inally pnning to demonstrate how to duel, but he had chosen the wrong oppo. Snape was definitely not wizard who could be easily maniputed in css.

  After Lockhart ted down to three, Snape simply waved his wand lightly, and a dazzling red fsh shot past the crowd. Lockhart was strud stumbled, flying back off the stage, crashing into the wall and sliding down to curl up on the floor.

  Amidst the shrieks of the girls, Lockhart stumbled to his feet, his hat falling off, and his wavy curls standing on end.

  He teetered bato the stage and said, "I think everyone has seen it, this is a disarming spell; as you see, I have lost my wand. Yes, Professor Snape, show them this trick; it's a brilliant idea. However, I must say, your iion to pull this move earlier was way too obvious. If I wao stop you, it wouldn't take much effort. I actually think, for the sake of broadening their horizons, we might as well show them…"

  Notig the murderous look on Snape's face, Lockhart quickly added, "The demonstration ends here. Now I will e among you and pair you all into groups of two. Professor Snape, if you're willing to help me…"

  They wove through the crowd, pairing everyone up. Whether out of spite or not, Snape grouped Draco with Harry, Soren with Ron, and Hermioh a burly Slytherin girl named Millit Bulstrode…

  As soon as Lockhart shouted "Three, two, one," a cloud of green smoke spread throughout the entire venue. Harry and Draco were hit by each other's curses, with Draco rolling on the ground ughing and Harry untrolbly hopping in a strange dail Snape went over to help them break free; Neville and Justin y on the floor, panting; Hermione and Millit were still at it, with Millit gripping Hermione's head while Hermione whimpered in pain, both of their wands fotten on the floor.

  As for Soren? Ron had just raised his wand, not uttering a single word of the spell, when Soren easily fiscated Ron's wand. At that moment, Ron was still stunned, standing there at a loss. Soren couldn't help but click his tongue, finding his oppooo weak and g any challenge.

  Meanwhile in the distance, Snape gnced over and showed a thoughtful expression.

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