Chapter 59.
After drinking the potency-enhancing potion, Soren felt his magical power surge. Since the end of the Christmas holidays, he had spent a lot of time hiding in Newt's suitcase, practicing deep, complex, and powerful spells every day.
In the past two months, he had successfully mastered the "Venti Impetus" spell and the "Protego Diabolica" spell, and he could skillfully control the wind force and direction of the former, as well as the shape and consciousness of the latter.
The Venti Impetus spell is a very practical spell. In the Fantastic Beasts movies, Newt used it as a repelling spell to blow away enemies, which is just one of its uses. Once mastered, it could be fine-tuned to create a tornado that lifts opponents into the air, allowing them to experience a dizzying sensation.
The Protego Diabolica is another very practical spell. In the Fantastic Beasts movies, Grindelwald, surrounded by a group of people, used the spell to discern the characteristics of targets, creating a circular firewall around him that could distinguish between friends and foes. Only those completely loyal to him could cross the firewall, for Soren, who was keen to recruit followers, the ability to identify true loyalty was incredibly important.
After learning these two spells, Soren finally began to tackle the highly difficult and dangerous "Fiendfyre" spell and its corresponding counter-spell.
It must be said that the difficulty of the Fiendfyre spell is much higher than that of the spells he had learned before. It not only requires a high level of magical power but also demands great control over mental focus; otherwise, one could easily suffer a backlash from dark magic. History is not short of dark wizards who burned themselves to death while practicing the Fiendfyre spell.
That night, after finishing his practice of the Fiendfyre spell, Soren rubbed his sore shoulders and planned to take a break from spell practice and sneak into the restricted section of the library to browse some dark magic books.
Unexpectedly, because Soren was in an invisible state and somewhat fatigued, he did not pay much attention to his surroundings. As a result, he collided head-on with Hermione, who was running around the corner of the corridor.
For Soren, with his physical conditioning, such a collision was nothing, but it was different for the delicate Hermione.
The book in Hermione's hands and her body were both knocked backward.
In a reflexive response, Soren quickly grabbed Hermione's wrist with one hand to prevent her from falling to the ground; with the other hand, he formed a claw-like gesture and reached out toward the large book, which then flew effortlessly into his hand.
Just a moment later, both of them suddenly heard the annoying voice of the caretaker, Filch, coming from not far away, "Who is there! Damn students, wandering around at night, just wait until I catch you!"
Soren grabbed Hermione's hand, and the two of them ran away in perfect sync, while the sound of Filch's footsteps behind them indicated his relentless pursuit. They ran all the way to the abandoned girls' restroom on the third floor and hid inside. Soren made a shushing gesture to Hermione, then pointed his wand at her, and both of them becoming transparent next moment.
Immediately after, Filch and his cat burst into the girls' restroom. Although they stood right in front of the two, they could not see them and had to leave in frustration. After leaving, they coincidentally encountered Harry, who had come looking for Hermione. Poor Harry turned and fled, while Filch cursed and chased after him.
After their narrow escape, Soren and Hermione locked eyes, and Soren suddenly realized he was still holding the girl's hand tightly. He awkwardly smiled and released her hand, intending to change the subject by asking, "Alright, Miss Granger, can you tell me what happened?"
After the running and commotion, Hermione found that she seemed to have left the unpleasantness from the common room behind. She shook her head and said, "Thank you, Malfoy, I'm fine now."
Soren looked at her still swollen eyes and inferred the whole situation from what he knew of the plot. He smiled slightly and said, "If you don't tell me, let me guess. What could possibly make such an excellent and rule-abiding Miss Granger break school rules and sneak out for a night adventure? It's probably just a few things, right? Did you have a fight with a friend? Was it Potter or Weasley?"
Hermione looked at the boy in surprise. Although his face was handsome, it still seemed youthful, yet his tone was so calm and confident, and his judgment of the situation was very accurate.
She couldn't help but feel a sense of trust towards the boy in front of her and confessed, "It was Ron... He thinks Crookshanks—I mean my pet cat—ate his pet rat Scabbers and got really angry at me... I actually don't know if Scabbers was eaten or not, but Ron wouldn't listen to my explanation at all... I don't know why, but I've been feeling so down lately..."
Soren chuckled lightly and said, "Actually, I know where your problem lies."
Hermione couldn't help but exclaim, her eyes suddenly shining with hope.
Soren smiled and said, "You're too rational. Harry and Ron are just 13-year-old boys. Boys in puberty are always prone to outbursts. Ron thinks his pet was eaten, but he would rather fall out with a good friend than try to find out the truth. This shows that—he doesn't really care whether Scabbers is alive or dead; what he cares about is your attitude. He thinks you don't value his pet or his feelings, which is why he exploded with anger. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Hermione was taken aback. Although her knowledge of gender psychology was shallow, as a top student, she could discern that Soren's words made a lot of sense.
Seeing that Hermione was absorbing his words, Soren continued, "As for your own emotional issues, that's because you're shouldering too many things without considering your own mental and physical capacity."
"Don't rush to refute," Soren interrupted her as he noticed she wanted to speak. "I heard you chose 12 elective courses this year. While that's an excellent performance, such a heavy workload is enough to overwhelm anyone. And you, knowing your studies are already overloaded, still worry about Harry, Ron, and Hagrid's matters..."
At this point, Hermione felt a sense of grievance rising in her heart. Yes, she meddled in their affairs; she told Professor McGonagall about Harry getting a brand new firebolt, all for his own good...
"By the way, I've also heard about Hagrid. I heard you are working hard to help him find materials and write a defense statement, and the three good friends who originally agreed to help ended up with only you still fighting for this matter... Moreover, I think what you're doing is meaningless; you probably know it in your heart—Buckbeak has no chance of winning, and the outcome of this hearing is certain death for him!"
Hearing this, Hermione's face turned red, and her hands clenched into fists. She wanted to loudly refute, to tell the boy in front of her that he was wrong, but she couldn't find the words.
Seeing Hermione like that, Soren waved his hand and said, "Alright, don't look at me with that kind of expression. You should know that the so-called hearing is just a formality; behind it is actually a political game between the Ministry of Magic and Professor Dumbledore. You know that there are quite a few people in the Ministry who dislike Dumbledore because he advocates for kindness towards wizards of Muggle descent, so many wealthy pure-blood families want to use this incident to undermine Professor Dumbledore's reputation. The Ministry of Magic, to avoid offending either side, will most likely use Buckbeak as a scapegoat, so no matter what testimony you write, he is doomed."
Hermione suddenly remembered that the boy in front of her was from the Malfoy family, the very pure-blood family he just mentioned. He was also the son of the despicable Mr. Malfoy, the brother of the annoying Draco, and a bitter enemy of herself and Harry. She felt a faint sense of loss and sadness, followed by a surge of anger.
She closed her eyes and shouted, "So what? Are you saying these things to undermine my fighting spirit and make me give up? Are you showing off the power of your pure-blood family? You're just as annoying as Draco!"
Soren didn't take it to heart and said with a indifferent expression, "You've got one thing wrong—though I was born into the Malfoy family, I've never thought that Muggle born should be looked down upon. What I just said was merely the cruel reality; whether you choose to listen is up to you. Alright, let's end today's conversation here. I want to go back to the dormitory to rest, and you should too. While the invisibility effect is still on, Filch can't see you, so hurry back!"
Soren's words were sincere—pure blood is indeed worthy of glory, but not because of that foolish lineage, rather because of the various inheritances left by the family ancestors. Soren's rapid growth in strength was indeed aided by being pure-blooded; however, that does not mean Muggle born are destined to achieve nothing.
One's background does determine their starting point, but Soren knew very well that in a long life, many factors can determine one's future fate, such as character, talent, will, and choices...
Compared to bloodline, Soren valued a person's character and ability more.
Unfortunately, growing up in the notorious Malfoy family (in the eyes of Muggle wizards) meant that his words carried little persuasive power, which is why he was too lazy to elaborate further to Hermione—if that's how you want to think, then so be it!
After saying this, Soren turned and left decisively.
Hermione opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but no sound came out no matter how hard she tried, and a hint of regret arose in her heart.
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