Chapter 36.With one month left until summer vacation and exams celed, the students appeared very rexed, and happy ughter could be heard in every er of the school. A few days ter, students discovered some explosive news oudent bulletin board:First, Lucius Malfoy was expelled from the school board, symbolising that the Malfoy family would pletely lose influehin Hogwarts. Because of this, Draco seemed very downcast and no longer walked around the school with his usual arrogance."How did things turn out this way?" Drapio Soren several times."Draco, I uand how you feel," Soren tried to soothe his brother's emotions. "To be ho, the board has indeed weakened over the years, and you know me; I have never supported the Malfoy family going against Dumbledore…""That's because that old man with the white beard is unfair," Draco said indignantly. "Just look at st year's House Cup; he almost said 'the trophy is predetermined'… Even so, do you still think that way?""I think you misuood my point, Draco," Soren looked at Draco with a sincere and firm gaze. "I don't agree with many of Dumbledore's as, but you ot deny—""After the Dark Lord's defeat, Dumbledore's position in all of Great Britain and even in the global wizarding unity is unshakable… People call him the greatest wizard of the tury; even the Ministry of Maginot ignore a word he says or an a he takes… Just look at the board…""Do you know the famous magical creature expert Sder? Ba the day, he was sidered the culprit behind the actal injury of a cssmate by a rogue murtp without any evidence. Under pressure from the Board of Governors, even with Dumbledore's strong support, he was still expelled by then-Headmaster Dippet... Now look at Hogwarts, the professors are almost all Dumbledore's trusted aides, and the Board of Governors hardly has any preseudents only know about Dumbledore. I've heard that maudents don't even know the Board of Governors exists...""Rather than w all day about the lost Board seat, it's better to use that time for self-improvement. Only by being truly strong we one day regain the glory lost by the Malfoy family, believe me!"Every word Soren said made sense, and eveubborn Draco couldn't find any ao refute it.Under Soren's guidance, he finally began to heed Soren's advio longer fantasizing about funting his family's power, but instead quietly studying magid practig flying, determio uphold his family's honor through his own strength.Seeing Draco finally being more ambitious, Sorehat while this i had tarhe Malfoy family's reputation, it was irely a bad thing. Moreover, the one filling Lucius's Board seat was her than the head of the Greengrass family—Mr. Gareth Greengrass.Sedly, Dumbledore personally annouhe revival of an inter-house friendly petition that had been distinued for turies, called "Merlin's Challehis petition is open to students from the first to sixth years of the four houses, with the reward for the winners being a special medal from the Order of Sir Merlin.The Order of Sir Merlin was founded by the legendary wizard Merlin in the eleventh tury and is one of the earliest magical anizations in the wizarding world, highly prestigious. The purpose of the Order was to assist Muggles, prohibiting wizards from using magiuggles, aablishing that each wizard within the Order would take on the responsibility of proteg Muggles.Later, with the establishment of the Ministry of Magid the enat of the 1689 Iional Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, wizards pletely retreated into secrecy. The Wizengamot established an honor system in the name of the Order of Sir Merlin, rewarding those wizards who made signifit tributions to the development of wizarding society. The medals of the Order of Sir Merlin are divided into three different levels: first-css, sed-css, and third-css. The prize for this petition is a special honorary medal, indepe of the level system, specifically awarded to students for outstanding performance.As everyohusiastically discussed this friendly petition, a new piece of news came that extinguished most people's hopes of participating.Except for Slytherin, each house could only send one representative to pete, and the sele would be determined by the house head, either through a sele process or direct appoi. Although there was no explicit rule stating that only upper-year students could pete, generally speaking, upper-year students always had an advantage over lower-year students. Everyone uood that the qualification to pete would likely fall to a few elite upper-year students.What seemed quite unfair was that Slytherin could send a total of three students to pete. Dumbledore's reasoning was that Merlin himself was a graduate of Slytherin, so it was only natural for the reward system he left behind to favour his own house's successors. Soren immediately realised that Merlin was actually taking the bme for Dumbledore; this was clearly Dumbledore's proposed pensation for Slytherin. Who would have thought that the seemingly righteous Dumbledore would be so ing, Soren thought maliciously.The didates for Slytherin were quickly chosen. Snape impatiently directly appointed sixth-year prefect Gemma Farley, fourth-year Cassius Warrington, and sed-year Soren Malfoy as the representatives.Uedly, one of the favourites, Gellert Lestrange, was eliminated, which caused a signifit loss of followers around him a a blow to the Lestrange family's reputation. Gellert's gloomy figure could often be seen in the Slytherin on room, and of course, no one dared to cross him.Soren was not surprised at all by his sele. With his current strength aation, representing Slytherin was more than suffit. He approached this petition with an attitude of wanting to gain experiend the rare opportunity to pete with upper-year students. He wasn't too ed about winning or the so-called prize; a medal that only represented honor was no different from empty fame to him and held no practical significe.Moreover, as a member of the Malfoy family, obtaining the Order of Merlin medal isn't difficult; one just o make substantial donations to the Ministry of Magic. There are prets for this; as far as he knows, Arcturus Bck from the Bck family received his medal in this manner.In the following days, other houses also finalised their didates. Gryffindor's didate is the sixth-year prefect Percy Weasley, who reportedly earned 12 OWLS, making him a top student. Ravencw's didate is the sixth-year prefect Penelope Clearwater, a beautiful girl with long brown curly hair, who was orified by the basilisk and only retly recovered from that state.The didates from these two houses were not surprising; they were both high-level prefects.In trast, Hufflepuff's didate seemed quite odd. Hufflepuff's choice is fourth-year student Cedric Diggory, a handsome boy who remaiively unknown at Hogwarts, aside from serving as the Seeker on the Quidditch team, with no other notable aplishments. However, those familiar with the inal story know that this handsome boy was quite strong, being one of the best in the school during his sixth year, which is why he was chosen as Hogwarts' representative for the Triwizard Tour.Hearing these familiar names from his past life and realizing he would be their oppo sparked an untrolble excitement within Soren.Soon, it was the arrival of the sed week of June, which marked the beginning of Merlin's trial.The petition venue was the Quidditch pitch, which acked early in the m, with students from all houses present to cheer for their representatives.The petition sisted of three events, with the topics provided by a thick, deep purple-covered a magic book carried by Dumbledore. This book, simir to the Goblet of Fire, has a sciousness of its own and is titled "The Book of Merlin." Dumbledore and the four house heads would serve as judges to score the partits, ensuring the fairness of the petition.The first event otion-making test. Dumbledore pointed his wand at the Book of Merlin and gave it a light wave, causing it to open automatically and flip through its pages rapidly until it stopped at a certain page, announg in a deep voice, "Antidote for the Draught of livih..."The Draught of livih is a very poteive that put someoo a deep sleep, and it is part of the sixth-year -level curriculum, giving older students an advantage. Among the partits, only Perd Penelope knew how to brew it; although Gemma was also in sixth year, she was not in the advanced Potions css, so she was just as fused and lost as the younger partits. However, the challenge was not to brew the Draught of livih but to create its antidote, which is knowledge outside of the curriculum that Perd Penelope might not know.Fortunately, Soren happeo know the ao this question. The anseared in the "pendium of Medieval Potions" that Meredith had gifted to Soren for Christmas, a potion ied by an aor of the Shafiq family.At that time, she had fallen in love with a handsome Muggle but devised a pn to fake her death using the Draught of livih due to family opposition—she spent siderable effort iing an antidote, which her Muggle lover was supposed to use to rescue her at midnight after she was buried. However, pns often ge; during her potion development, that Muggle fell in love with anirl, and after she was buried, he failed to keep his promise to rescue her, callously leavio be buried alive. Fortunately, the Draught of livih that old family member took inexplicably lost its effectiveness, so she ultimately avoided the fate of being buried alive. Resurrected, she turned her love into hatred, using dark magic to torment both her Muggle lover and the other woman to death.Though the antidote was never used in the end, the method of making it was recorded and named "Revitalising Potion."While the other partits were still struggling to think, Soren had already begun his performance. His movements flowed like water, as if he were creating a work of art rather than a dull potion, pleasing the judges who nodded in satisfa.Professonagall couldn't help but turn to Dumbledore and say, "If this child had enrolled a few years earlier, perhaps st year's Potions Championship would have beloo Hogwarts and not Mahoutokoro Magic School."Dumbledore nodded gently and looked at the other testants. Among them, Percy, Penelope, and Gemma had also begun their potion-making shortly after Soren started, while Cedric had just beguing materials at that moment, and Cassius was still deep in thought. The process of brewing potions is one-direal and tedious, so we will skip over that.The invigorating potion that Soren brewed was very standard, and unsurprisingly, he received a perfect score of 50 points. A wave of cheers erupted from the Slytherin area, and even some young witches from Ravend Hufflepuff were generous with their appuse, though most were lower-year girls.Percy brewed a high-tration stimunt potion, which could also awaken someone from a poisoned slumber, but it had side effects of nausea, stomach pain, and vomiting, earning him 40 points.Penelope brewed a Mandrake revival potion, likely inspired by her own experience of beirified. Surprisingly, it could also revive someone from sleep, although the person still woke up groggy and dazed; she, like Percy, also received 40 points.Gemma and Cedric brewed a universal antidote, which had no effect, earning them a mere 10 points, equivalent to sotion points. Cassius failed to breotion under immense pressure, produg no final produd being the only testant to receive a score of zero. was the sed event: the Transfiguration petition. The task given by the Book of Merlin was to turn a stoo a living mouse.This task was easy, and every testant could aplish it—Percy, Penelope, and Gemma all successfully turned a stoo a lifelike mouse on their first attempt; Cedric transformed a mouse without whiskers on his first try, only succeeding on his sed attempt; Cassius took three tries before he succeeded, though the mouse's tail seemed a bit short.After reading Professonagall's Transfiguration notes, Soren believed his Transfiguration skills had already reached OWL level, but turning a stoo a living mouse was simply not challenging enough. Therefore, Soren decided to attempt a more difficult transformation—after all, he was the you testant and did not carry the pressure and burden of needing to win like the other petitors. Soren carefully recalled every importaail of Transfiguration from Professonagall's notes and then trated all his energy oone—much to everyone's astonishment, the storansformed into a lifelike Mottled Mouse!Although the magical creature produced by Transfiguration does not possess magical properties, there is no i differen abilities between a Mottled Mouse and an ordinary mouse. However, creating dense and dynamiemone-like tentacles on the back of the mouse through Transfiguration is no easy task. If the details of the transformatio well-trolled, it could easily result iacles resembling those of an octopus or squid, which would be a failure.Soren, Percy, Penelope, and Gemma all received full marks of 50 points, while Cedric received 40 points, and Cassius received 35 points.The temporary scoreboard was as follows: Soren 100 points, Perd Penelope 90 points, Gemma 60 points, Cedric 50 points, and Cassius 35 points. Cassius's ces of winning were virtually ent, and Cedric's were slim as well. The favourites for the championship were down to four testants, with Soren standing out as the only lower-year student among them.

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