Chapter 30.

  Sihe first Dueling Club, Lockhart seemed to realise that his status in the eyes of the students was rapidly deing, causing the Dueling Club activities to e to an abrupt end. However, after that, Soren tio maintain a good teacher-studeionship with Professor Lockhart.

  Soren would occasionally visit Lockhart's office to ask questions about Defense Against the Dark Arts, especially about some vague descriptions in Lockhart's writings. Of course, Soren never fot t a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky each time, making it difficult for Lockhart to refuse him at the door.

  Soren's cleverness and eagero learn made Lockhart feel unfortable. For instance, during their discussion about the humaoration spell in "Wandering with Werewolves," Lockhart sehat there was no admiration in Soren's eyes—only curiosity about the spell.

  The genius was very ied iransformation spell!

  In the past, teag someohe transformation spell would undoubtedly have been an opportunity tthen their retionship. Unfortunately, Lockhart had no idea how to use that spell.

  When he heard Soren's inquiry, he almost couldn't respond and ultimately had to tell him that he needed some time to sort out hus thoughts, sending Soren away. However, it seemed that Soren had already seen through his iions and indicated that he would visit again another day.

  Lockhart had to specially return to his previous residence during the Christmas break to search for some useful items.

  "Straying with Werewolves" left a deep impression on Lockhart—after all, that Armenian old wizard was old and ugly, and his clothes were tasteless, which led to much mog from Lockhart. Back then, he spent quite a bit of time iigating the matter and even visited the vilge that suffered from the werewolf disaster, obliviating the vilgers living there to make all the informed parties pletely fet about the i.

  Regarding the transformation Spell, Lockhart naturally knew a thing or two, as it was the core spell in "Straying with Werewolves." He had spent a siderable amount of effort extrag the spell from the old wizard. This ell developed by the old wizard himself from magic passed down from the old times, although he seemed unaware of the spell's significe.

  Lockhart had onpted using this spell to gain fame; after all, being able to temporarily revert werewolves back to their human forms was a signifit magical achievement. Therefore, when he left, he not only erased the other's memory but also stole the records and research of the transformation Spell. If he could learn it and publish the findings, Lockhart knew he would surely gain fame iernational wizarding unity.

  Unfortunately, things did not go as pnned. He tried for a whole year without even grasping the slightest aspect of the spell.

  Lockhart found drafts he had written before he started auth books, along with many various secret achievemeracted from others—iom extracted from ghouls in "Strolling with Ghouls," potioing the mental trol of the Banshee in "Vacations with the Banshee," a vampire amulet used in "Traveling with Vampires," and the transformation Spell from "Straying with Werewolves"...

  Lockhart carefully flipped through the materials, firmed there was nothing he couldn't show Soren, and took aire box of researents back to Hogwarts to hand over to Soren.

  [Lockhart's Researotes Acquired!]

  For a full two weeks of the Christmas holiday, Sore his time studying Lockhart's researotes.

  Though Lockhart's abilities were not remarkable, he was quite adept at writing, as evidenced by his anization of materials and highlights. Every detail mentioned by the subjects of his iigation was thhly recorded in the researotes, and it was all arranged in a very and orderly manner, making it easy to read.

  Soon the first week of January arrived, marking the beginning of the sed semester, and the young wizards returo school from their Christmas break.

  The trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed to have learheir lesson and fell silent for a while. Hermione ended up in the hospital wing for several weeks after mistakenly adding cat hair instead of human hair into the Polyjuice Potioing iransformation into a cat girl.

  Though Harry and Ron mao evade expulsion, they were fio detention with Filch, where they had to perform various ing tasks. Filch still believed Harry was responsible for the death of his cat and thus made Harry's life miserable by assigning him the dirtiest and most disgusting ing tasks daily.

  Uhe influenagic, Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe quickly recovered and were discharged from the hospital the day after they were admitted.

  Although only a few people witnessed Draco's embarrassing situation, the story of his beien up spread rapidly within Slytherin house, causing the usually fmboyant Draco to feel greatly humiliated, which resulted in his unusually sullen demeanor during this period and a much lower profile in his as.

  Ginny attempted to rid herself of the diary by tossing it into the girls' restroom ohird floor, only for Harry to pick it up; all of this was seen by Soren, who was invisibly watg from the side.

  Having experiehe duel club battle and the Slytherin on room battle, Soren was already a small celebrity within Slytherin. His two glorious victories over Harry Potter made the younger wizards acutely aware of the gap between themselves and Soren. It became universally aowledged that Soren not only ranked first in academics but also seemed to be the stro among his peers.

  In the school corridors, many Hufflepuff and Ravencw wizards begaing Sorehey saw him, while the Gryffindor wizards gritted their teeth at him, clearly viewing Soren as their number one enemy.

  For this group of immature kids, Soren scoffed and ighem.

  To be fair, Soren was different from Draco. From a young age, Draco idolized and fantasized about Harry, the one who defeated the Dark Lord. As a result, when he proposed to be friends with Harry on the Hogwarts Express and was rejected, he developed a plex emotion of love turning to hate towards Harry. He wao attack Harry from all angles and make him uand how foolish it was to refuse to be his friend!

  Soren didn't dislike Harry and Ron; to be ho, he viewed the grudges between Harry, Ron, and Draco as mere childish scuffles.

  He never regarded Harry and Ron as equal oppos. His ambitions and goals were solely focused oing Voldemort, which also involved intrigues with Dumbledore and other pure-blood families; his two previous humiliations of Harry were merely ial. The first time was influenced by Snape's selfishness, and the sed time urely because Harry came looking for a beating.

  That's why Soren decisively dealt with Harry during both is, not thinking at all about how to humiliate or mock him.

  The events at the dueling club served as a wake-up call for Soren—he decided to establish a small dueling club within Slytherin, inviting only first and sed-year Slytherin students to participate. Soren's reputation quickly attracted many members to the dueling club, and almost everyone showed up, including the self-important Theodore Nott and Bise Zabini.

  Soren didn't teach them any powerful spells or advanced bat teiques, but rather started with the basics of wand handling and wand waving.

  Initially, the young wizards seemed outwardly pliant due to Soren's reputation but were internally somewhat disappointed. However, after participating in a few sessions, they each realized signifit improvements in their regur charm and transfiguration csses, which made them aware of how much Soren's guidance helped them; in turn, Sained even mood reputation.

  Sihe battle in the Slytherin on room, no attacks had occurred in the castle, and before long, it was already the Easter holiday in April.

  Sed-year students were to choose two elective courses for third year.

  Soren had no i in Divination, Arithmanuggle Studies, and ing A Runes, it wasn't humility on his part; he was doubtful that Professor Bathsheba Babbling could teach him anything he didn't already know.

  To avoid wasting time on subjects that held no practical use or i for him, he and Draco, after several unications with Lucius, chose only one subject—Care of Magical Creatures. Lucius then used his influence as a board member to have Hogwarts reinstate the long-celled Alchemy course.

  Alchemy is a highly specialized subject, and its celtion had two reasons: insuffit demand from students and the difficulty of finding a qualified professor.

  These two issues were not problems for Soren.

  He was fident in ving most Slytherin students to take Alchemy, and finding a professor was not too big of an issue for pure-blood families.

  Acc to Soren, the two giants of the British alchemical world were the Nott family and the Bock family, both of which had deep ties with the Malfoy family. If Lucius was willing to step in, they wouldn't refuse to favor Lucius.

  At the same time, Professor Sprout annouhat the Mandrakes were hosting a lively and noisy ball ihird greenhouse, stating that they would soon be fully mature, at which point all petrified victims could be healed.

  The tinuous stream of good neeople gradually cheerful again. The young wizards turheir attention back to the uping Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

  Just when Soren thought this peaceful period would st until May, reality harshly spped him across the face, deviating from the established course.

  Most of the little snakes from Slytherin came from well-established wizarding families, and the retionships between several a families were deeply entangled and plicated. These families were allies in supp the "pure-blood supremacy" ideology, but at the same time, they were petitors pursuing porofit.

  For the young heirs, families would instill various petitive and survival-of-the-fittest ideologies from a young age.

  Meanwhile, during the S Hat ceremony, those with ambition and scheming natures were often sorted into Slytherin, leading to a unique phenomenon of faalism and survival of the fittest within Slytherin.

  In general, ambitious schemers are often categorized as Slytherins, which leads to a peculiar phenomenon where fas proliferate and the weak are preyed upon by the strong within Slytherin.

  Whether it's Draco leveraging the financial power of the Malfoy family to successfully seize the position of Seeker on the Quidditch team, or Soreing the renowned Harry Potter twice, thereby building popurity and prestige among Slytherin's young witches and wizards, both are seen by the other pure-blood families in Slytherin as maions of the Malfoy family's iions to gain influen Slytherin.

  Of course, given the current financial resources and influence of the Malfoy family in British politid business, not many forces dare to openly provoke them, but testing the waters is iable.

  Among the pure-blood families, the stro were inally the Lestrange, Rocher, and Bck families. However, during the First Wizarding War, these three families suffered the most as pioneers—Lestrange's direct lineage saw both brothers imprisoned; Ivan Rocher was killed by Mad-Eye Moody; and in the Bck family, one brother was imprisoned while the other vanished under unclear circumstances.

  Aside from the rumor that Ivan Rocher left an illegitimate child who fled overseas, the direct lines of the other two families were almost entirely cut off.

  The Lestranges fared retively well, finding family members among their cadet brao grant him a status to i the family.

  The Bck family, however, was much less fortuheir cadet branches produced only daughters, resulting in the aral home of the Bcks falling into an awkward situation of having no oo i it.

  In trast, those families that uood the importance of self-preservation mao retain quite a bit of strength. After the Death Eaters were purged, they seized the opportunity to absorb the industries and markets vacated by these three families. Coupled with the issez-faire attitude of the neointed Minister fic, elius Fudge, these pure-blood families gradually grew in power.

  Among them, the most powerful was the Malfoy family, which, despite being small in numbers, even co-opted the Goyle and Crabbe families as their vassals and maintained close alliances with the Parkinson and Bock families.

  Following closely were the Avery, Nott, and Carrow families, who had preserved signifit strength from the beginning. With some effort, they believed themselves to be only slightly inferior to the Malfoy family.

  Of course, Soren also learned from Daphhat some less ostentatious pure-blood families, such as the Greengrass and Ma families, may not frequently procim the supremacy of pure-blood but do not have absurd or extreme styles of duct. These low-profile families have quietly nurtured siderable strength behind the ses.

  Take the Greengrass family, represented by Daphne; i years, they have quietly assimited several retively obscure small families. Even the historically signifit Shafiq family ultimately became vassals of the Greengrass family due to Daphne and Meredith's es.

  ****

  Want to read more of this fanfid support me :- here