Chapter 39.

  The past year had been a troubling one for Lucius.

  At the Ministry of Magic, his nemesis Arthur Weasley had e to his home several times for iions. Although nothing was found, it caused him a lot of trouble. He had finally devised a good pn to oust Dumbledore from Hogwarts, and even make the Weasley family's little girl take the bme for the murder of a Muggle wizard by the Slytherin heir.

  What he never expected was that the seemingly harmless Dumbledore's influence over the board of governors had grown to an overwhelmient without his notice, and his pn to frame the Weasleys was ultimately ruined by his sed son, leaving him with no oo pin to—he couldn't let anyone know that the diary had slipped from his hands, even if that person was his own son.

  In the end, the whole scheme backfired spectacurly, causing him to lose a house-elf—after all, each house-elf was reguted and allocated by the Ministry's House-Elf Rehoming Office, and each was quite valuable; of course, Lucius was unaware that Dobby had actually fallen into his son's hands.

  pared to losing the house-elf, what was even more distressing was that he had lost his position on the Hogwarts board of governors—this was a huge blow to the Malfoy family's reputation!

  For a long time, Lucius was able to hold his current social status in the British wizarding world because he prided himself on having three major identities—Chairman of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, Chairman of the Board of St. Mungo's Hospital, and a close friend of the Minister of Magic. These three identities were earhrough decades of hard work and a signifit amount of family wealth, so losing one of them was a siderable blow, not to mention the impact it had on him.

  Lucius noticed that wheended gatherings of the pure-blood aristocracy, people no larded the Malfoy family with the same awe as before. Most infuriating was that old fool Avery, who dared to openly mock the Malfoy family, and he even received responses from several other formidable families, such as the Nott family, the Carrow family, and the Lestrange family. Every time Lucius thought about this, he felt a deep rese.

  What worried him even more was whether he could stabilise the situation; he feared that the vassal families around him, like the Goyle family and the Crabbe family, might have some improper thoughts. Not to mention that his allies, such as the Parkinson family and the Bulstrode family, might also waver in their support. Whenever he thought about these issues, his mood would turn very sour.

  The only thing that gave Lucius some fort was that his sed son did not disappoint him.

  Although Soren had messed up his scheme, Lucius k was just an uional mistake, as Soren had been pletely unaware of his pns. Moreover, Soren had greatly enhanced Lucius's reputation at Hogwarts; he had heard from his good friend Shat Soren had severely puhat brat Gellert Lestrange, who dared to provoke the Malfoy family's authority, thus upholding the family's dignity.

  Not to mention that Soren had also received a special honor medal awarded by the Order of Merlin, a reition that had never been achieved in the history of the Malfoy family—previous geions had focused too mu political and busiraining, and it had been a long time since a child with outstanding magical talent had emerged, especially one who had obtained su honor from several older students. This particurly pleased Lucius.

  Ahing that made Lucius view Soren in a new light was that he was being increasingly difficult to uand. Not only was his magical talent frighteningly excellent, but his performan business iment also caught Lucius off guard.

  In March, the broom pany Eberly, in which Soren held half the shares, unched an unpreted product—the Firebolt. This broomstick quickly became the first choice for iional Quidditch teams within just a few months. Given this trend, it seemed likely that they would surpass the market share of the Nimbus broom pany within a year. pared to the profits Soren was about to gain, the losses of the Malfoy family this year seemed trivial.

  Moreover, perhaps influenced by his younger brother, Lucius's eldest son Draco also began to ge.

  Ever since Soren received the honor of the Order of Merlin, Lucius had heard a lot of praise from Narcissa at the diable and seen Draco's envious gaze. Draco was no lohe carefree boy he used to be; instead, he had matured and beore ambitious. During the summer vacation, it was on to see him studying in the library or practig spells with an alchemical puppet in ay room.

  Draco's transformation delighted Narcissa, and even the aloof Lucius felt a sense of fort—he was now ting on his two sons to strive for the Malfoy family's honor.

  Returning to Soren, he had arranged several pns for himself during this summer:

  First, to learronus Charm.

  The theoretical knowledge and castihod of the Patronus Charm could be found in "The Book of Spells" by Miranda Goshawk, which had long been out of print. Ordinary young wizards would have to find a way to get a professor's approval to borrow it from the restricted se.

  However, Soren had a copy in his private colle; he no longer remembered which family's library he had obtai from, but importantly, he had already memorised it thhly. The tents of the 22 spells in the book were deeply ingrained in his mind. All he o do end time practig.

  Sed, he po study the bloodline research materials of the Greengrass family, hoping to uhe hidden abilities in his own bloodline. If he could also help the Greengrass family break their bloodline curse, that would be eveer. He believed he could gain their full support iurn, although he k wouldn't be an easy task, but it was worth a try.

  Thirdly, Soren po write a book about his experie Hogwarts st year, titled "Me and the Basilisk at Hogwarts." In his past life, he had ample experience writing adventure books, and to cater to the reading tastes of the wizarding world, he directly reference Lockhart's series of works for writing teiques. Soren is fident that this book will be a huge success, bringing him siderable ine as well as fame and prestige.

  Meanwhile, the Malfoy Manor has acquired a new house-elf named Lele, who is a very optimistic little elf that enjoys humming little tunes. His father, Lucius, occasionally mistreats it, but it doesn't seem to mind at all.

  Soren's kind treatment of house-elves is still disapproved of by Lucius, but this time, he only coldly huffed without actually reprimanding him. Clearly, Soren's status in the family has ged signifitly; everict Lucius would no longer scold Soren for such trivial matters.

  Soren remembers that the inal story mentiohere are seve passages at Hogwarts leading outside, four of which are known to Filch, while one is beh the Whomping Willow, one is behind the statue of the One-Eyed Wit the fourth floor, and one is behind the rge mirror on the fifth floor.

  The first two passages will be frequently used by Sirius and the Weasley twins in the upier, while the st ohe secret passage behind the rge mirror on the fifth floor—colpsed under heavy snow this winter, so the Weasley twins, who knew about it, no longer use it, allowing Soren to monopolise it.

  If Soren remembers correctly, the secret passage behind the fifth-floor mirror has a very spacious area. In the inal story, Sirius even suggested to Harry that the headquarters of Dumbledore's Army be set up there.

  Taking advantage of the two-month summer vacation, since he couldn't be discovered by his parents at home, Sore Dobby to Hogwarts to secretly repair and the secret passage behind the rge mirror on the fifth floor, which would be useful in the semester.

  Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

  Soren's "Me and the Basilisk at Hogwarts" was finished. He personally went to the Publishing pany in Diagon Alley, the same pany that had previously published Lockhart's works and was already experienced in publishing such genres.

  The chief editor was a friendly middle-aged man. Although he saw that Soren was young, he had heard of Soren's deeds at Hogwarts.

  After a brief discussion, he offered Soren a very favourable tract, allowing him to take a 20% ission on each book sold, which was even more than what Lockhart received, provided that if Soren had new writing inspirations iure, he must prioritise w with the Publishing pany.

  After this was settled, Soren began to study the Patronus Charm and research the bloodliudy materials of the Greengrass family, thus starting his monotonous study life once again.

  Meanwhile, Ron and the Weasley family won the Daily Prophet's annual Galleon grand prize, and the whole family set off for a trip to Egypt in the sed week of summer vacation to visit their eldest son, Bill, returning only when summer vacation was nearly over.Hermione also went to Frah her parents.

  Harry, oher hand, was once again miserably locked up by the Dursleys, not even allowed to go outside.

  While Soren was engrossed in studying and researg, on a day in August, an unpreted major event occurred in the UK—Sirius Bck escaped from Azkaban!

  Almost every wizard khe infamous name of this wizarding prison in the UK.

  It is the only wizarding prison i Britain, located on an isoted isnd in the North Sea. It was inally a fortress built by a dark wizard named Ekrizdis, who used to kidnap and murder Muggles for various dark magic experiments on living subjects. After his death, the various cealment charms he had pced on the isnd failed, and the Ministry of Magic discovered the isnd, verting it into an official wizarding prison.

  In this famous prison, all the guards are a type of native dark creature known as Dementors.

  They are sidered some of the most loathsome beings in the world, capable of sug away the joyful emotions of other beings, which makes those roach them feel gloomy and despairing. Ireme cases, they also e a being's soul, turning them into a kind of walking corpse.

  It be said that no one would ever want to spend even a quarter of an hour in this prison.

  pared to Azkaban, eveorious Erkstag Prison in Germany, which had been deissioned in 1932, ot be pared to it.

  "Sirius Bck." Sitting by the window, Soren flipped through the Daily Prophet, nodding thoughtfully as the plot scheduled for this year in the inal work fshed through his mind, along with his various pns.

  As the days passed, Soren utilized the principles of the happiness spell ter joyful emotions and mastered the Patronus Charm in just a week, successfully produg a fully formed corporeal Patronus.

  In the following week, he carefully reviewed all the materials he had obtained from Daphne, which gave him a deeper uanding of the theory of bloodline power. He had some ideas on how to tap into the tent power hidden deep within the bloodline, but he still needed some samples for experimentation to verify whether his theory was feasible.

  With two weeks left until school started and nothing to do, he suddenly remembered that he still had three books on dark magic that he had not opened.

  Generally, reading dark magic books requires at least the strength of upper-year students—given his current abilities, he was not muferior to Percy or Penelope and should be safe enough to read these dark magic books.

  Soren quickly skimmed through the three dark magic books and found the tent to be quite difficult to uand, with many parts recorded in a runes. Even with the help of a time-turner, he could not finish reading them in a short period.

  Fortunately, Soren's profi a rune was exceptional; otherwise, the deciphering alone would take a siderable amount of time. He had to prioritise studying the ses that would be most helpful to him in the short term acc to the table of tents.

  *****

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