Chapter 15.
The two-week Christmas holiday passed quickly, and Soren returned to Hogwarts with Draco.
During the past two weeks, Soren had a leisurely time; apart from occasionally helping Draco with his homework, he would go out to explore the Muggle world, as he didn't plan to live his whole life only in the wizarding world, which was too dull and boring.
In his free time, Soren also did not forget to study the first-year spell course. In his view, whether it was the Lumos, Sonorus, or Incendio spells, the school only taught the most basic things. As long as he could dissect these spells and trace their origins, there was a lot of potential to be explored.
Soren had always believed that the power of a spell depended on the caster, rather than the spell itself. Instead of blindly pursuing high-powered spells that consumed a lot of magic, it was better to choose the most suitable basic spells for various environments. This not only saved magical energy but also produced surprising effects.
Fire, in essence, is a state of gas combustion, and the principle of the Fire-Making Spell is to convert magical energy into an energy that ignites the air. The power of the Fire-Making Spell depends on the size and temperature of the flames released; the more magical energy consumed, the larger the flames released. In the original novel, Dumbledore once conjured a vast sea of fire to drive back thousands of dark creatures, a rare and valuable spell in the wizarding world that could cause large area damage.
The magical energy of a young wizard was insufficient to replicate Dumbledore's sea of fire effect, but that did not prevent Soren from finding alternative approaches to achieve the same effect.
Soren's first idea was related to Potions. He referenced some Muggle chemistry textbooks to understand the essence of fire and combustion. He wanted to use Potions to create a magical potion similar to an accelerant, which, when thrown into a flame, could instantly make the fire spread into an endless sea of flames.
This was not too difficult, as buying a bottle of gasoline from Muggles could easily achieve this. Soren merely wanted to use his knowledge of Potions to create an accelerant potion that could both expand the burning area and increase the temperature of the flames.
After conducting several experiments in his family's Potion lab, and having gotten himself into trouble several times under Narcissa's angry gaze, Soren finally created his very first potion – the Blue Flame Potion!
As the name suggests, this potion could raise the flame temperatures to that of blue flames and could spread flames across an area the size of a classroom.
Before Soren began studying the Fire-Making Spell, it had basically become his most practical magical combination for dealing with group battles.
The wonderful holiday quickly passed, and Soren and Draco returned to Hogwarts once again.
Walking down the corridor, the joyful atmosphere of Christmas seemed not to have completely faded, as the walls of the Great Hall were still covered in silver frost.
Since the end of the holiday, Soren noticed that the homework assigned by the professors had become increasingly burdensome. Many professors had already started outlining key points for their exams, hinting that the exam dates were approaching.
Even with Soren's abilities, he began to feel the pressure. He gathered Daphne and Meredith to form a study group, sharing study notes and quizzing each other on potential exam topics.
Although Daphne and Meredith also had decent grades, they were far from Soren's level, so the study group was generally led by Soren. He was responsible for tutoring and guiding the two girls with their homework and exam preparation.
Soren didn't plan to keep this a secret, and somehow it spread. Daphne and Meredith became the envy of many.
Throughout the semester, not just the Slytherin wizards, but even some from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had heard of Soren's reputation as a "studious wizard." Those who had borrowed Soren's notes or sought his help with homework knew well that his study notes were almost exam preparation artifacts—many young wizards found opportunities to inquire with Daphne and Meredith, trying to get hold of Soren's study notes.
Coincidentally, Hermione was also tutoring Harry and Ron with their homework and preparing them for exams. After hearing about Soren's actions, a competitive spirit ignited within her. It was as if she was waging an invisible war, pressing Harry and Ron step by step, applying pressure and making their lives miserable.
That morning, when Soren was having breakfast, he casually flipped through the latest issue of the daily Prophet and a small news article published in an inconspicuous corner caught his eye.
It was a wanted notice for a smuggler, as this guy had recently been smuggling dragon eggs into the UK, and he had currently gone missing, with witnesses confirming that he was last seen staying at the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade.
Soren had a premonition that Professor Quirrell had gotten his hands on that dragon egg and would soon be in contact with Hagrid.
After a week of preparation, on a day when Professor Quirrell was teaching other class, Soren secretly used the Disillusionment Charm to sneak into Professor Quirrell's office. Soren didn't think Professor Quirrell would dare to cast various dangerous defensive and monitoring spells over his office right under Dumbledore's nose; doing so would only raise suspicion.
Sure enough, apart from one locked door that Soren opened with his thieving skills, he encountered no other obstacles and slipped into the office.
Soren carefully donned Muggle anti-fingerprint gloves and began to search Professor Quirrell's office meticulously—Professor Quirrell's class lasted a full two hours, giving Soren ample time, but to prevent any unforeseen circumstance where Professor Quirrell might return early for some reason, Soren hurried to locate his target and leave.
After some searching, Soren finally found a large, blackened egg in a hidden compartment of a drawer—aha, this must be the dragon egg Quirrell intended to use to extract information about the three-headed dog from Hagrid.
Soren smiled and was about to steal the dragon egg when he noticed that there was also a well-maintained diary next to it. Soren's magical eye revealed no magical fluctuations from the diary, indicating it was an ordinary diary—hmm, could it be that Professor Quirrell has a habit of keeping a diary? Soren casually took both the diary and the dragon egg.
[Quirrell's Diary Obtained!]
[One Dragon Egg Obtained!]
Although the magical eye confirmed that there were no indications of tracking magic attached to the diary or the dragon egg, for safety's sake, Soren had Dobby help him hide both items in a cave deep in the Forbidden Forest, casting a spell at the entrance to alert him. If anyone were to breach the cave, Dobby would sense it and report to Soren as quickly as possible.
Two weeks passed, and soon it was March.
Soren observed that Quirrell's complexion was getting paler, and his tone of speech began to sound weak. Soren knew that Quirrell was likely being heavily punished by Voldemort for losing the dragon egg. Moreover, the spell set in the cave hadn't been triggered, which meant Quirrell was now stuck in a predicament where he couldn't get past the three-headed dog.
Soren couldn't help but smirk; anything that could cause Voldemort trouble was something Soren wouldn't mind doing again.
The Malfoy family was not actually a staunch pureblood supremacist. A careful study would reveal that the ancestors of the Malfoy family were often intermarried with Muggle nobility.
The so-called pureblood extremist factions mainly referred to the Black family and the Lestrange family. The Malfoy family merely used the ideology of pureblood supremacy as a facade to influence the Ministry of Magic into passing laws favorable to pureblood families, allowing them to exploit Muggles for wealth and resources.
Initially, Lucius and other pureblood families supported Voldemort believing he could bring them more benefits. If a society ruled by wizards over Muggles was truly established, they could plunder vast amounts of resources and wealth.
But what they never expected was that after creating Horcruxes, Voldemort's actions became increasingly extreme and insane; they merely sought a puppet to help them plunder, only to discover that Voldemort wanted to become their master, leaving these decaying families powerless against him.
Regarding this, Soren felt deeply; the magical world is a realm where strength speaks. The combat power bestowed upon every wizard by magic renders laws and rules mere empty words, unlike the Muggle world. No matter how skilled a Muggle might be, they cannot withstand the well-equipped enforcement forces.
However, wizards are different. A wizard on level of Grindelwald or Voldemort can easily take down over ten Aurors, and how many Aurors are there in all of England? Although new blood is drawn from Hogwarts each year, when accounting for retirements and those who died in the line of duty, the overall number of Aurors has never exceeded double digits.
As for the Ministry of Magic's second major force—the Law Enforcement and Investigation Team—no matter how many there are, they are still not enough to fill the gaps against Voldemort. In the original novel, the Minister of Magic, Fudge, once believed that dealing with just Sirius Black required the elite "Hit Wizards" from the investigation team, which shows that the general strength of the investigation team is not that formidable.
This made Soren realize that wealth, resources, reputation, and influence are all superficial; what truly matters in the magical world is one's own strength. Only by possessing the strength for self-protection can one truly hold onto those aforementioned things.
With this in mind, Soren felt a stronger sense of crisis. If he wanted the Malfoy family to survive the upcoming turmoil in the next few years, his current strength was far from sufficient. He could only employ various means to delay Voldemort's return, allowing himself more time to strengthen his abilities.
While it's true that according to the original storyline, Voldemort would eventually be defeated by the savior Harry, that was not the outcome Soren wanted—Lucius imprisoned, Draco forced to kill Dumbledore, Lucius's reputation in ruins, and the family falling into decline... If possible, Soren preferred to rely on his own strength to deal with Voldemort, the villain from the original story.
This semester, since there was no incident of Hagrid hatching a dragon egg, there was also no incident of Harry, Hermione, and Neville losing points during a nighttime adventure, nor the later event of entering the Forbidden Forest.
At the same time, because Harry did not join Quidditch, this year's Quidditch Cup was still dominated by Slytherin.
Additionally, due to Soren's presence, his outstanding performance in every class—whether it was Charms, Transfiguration, or Potions—earned a lot of points for Slytherin. Under Soren's influence, Draco, Daphne, and Meredith also worked exceptionally hard on their studies. Their grades might not be as good as Hermione, the true academic star, but they undoubtedly outperformed the rest of the Gryffindor students.
By the way, at a Transfiguration Club meeting, at Professor McGonagall's request, Soren submitted a paper to "Today's Transfiguration." This paper discussed the concept of using Transfiguration to create a magical lamp that could grow wings and fly in the air, and he outlined several practical applications for this idea, such as eliminating the need to use wands to cast the Lumos spell while navigating unknown tunnels, allowing wizards to retain their wands ready for combat in case of emergencies; or using the magical lamp to explore bottomless pits and measure their depth.
This paper earned Soren the "Most Promising Newcomer Award" from "Today's Transfiguration," and even the usually stern Professor McGonagall showed a rare smile, directly awarding Slytherin 50 points.
With Soren's impressive contributions, Slytherin led the house points by a full 50 points over the second place Ravenclaw, while the bottom-ranked Gryffindor lagged behind by as much as 150 points.