Chapter 132
The curriculum in the fourth grade has become more difficult, and it's not just the Transfiguration class.
In the Care of Magical Creatures class, they are still taking care of the Blast-Ended Skrewts, but by now, the Skrewts have grown to three feet long and are incredibly strong. They are no longer the fleshy, colorless creatures without shells; instead, they have developed a thick, shiny, grayish-white armor. Their appearance is a mix between a giant scorpion and an elongated crab, but it is still hard to discern where their heads and eyes are. They have now become immensely powerful and difficult to control.
Hagrid has the students tie a Blast-Ended Skrewt with a rope and take it for a walk. As the class progresses, from time to time, a terrifying popping sound erupts, and a Skrewt's tail explodes, propelling it several meters forward, causing more than one student to be yanked down to the ground, struggling desperately to get back up.
Since the last time Soren helped Hagrid speak, the relationship between Soren and Hagrid has eased a bit. This time, Soren takes Daphne's little hand, and the two chat while walking and handling the lobster, creating a rare moment of warmth and comfort. Although Hagrid sees this, he doesn't say a word.
Poor other Slytherins, each has to deal with their own Blast-Ended Skrewt, and they immediately start complaining.
After the class ends, both Slytherin and Gryffindor are filled with grievances.
In the Charms class, they are learning the Summoning Charm. This charm is not difficult in terms of pronunciation or gestures. The real challenge lies in the ability to clearly visualize the desired object in one's mind.
For example, if you want to summon a fire crossbow bolt, you must visualize what the bolt looks like in your mind, with as much detail as possible. Secondly, there is the limitation of magical power; fourth-grade students can manage this charm, but mastering it is impossible.
Most magical items have their own magical resistance, and unless one is the rightful owner of the item, like Harry, it is very difficult to summon someone else's magical item. To break through this limitation, one must at least have the magical power level of an Auror.
Another limitation is magical creatures, including magical animals and magical plants, which also possess magical resistance. For fourth-grade students, at most, they can summon a Flobberworm.
Not to mention, the Summoning Charm also carries certain dangers. In 1743, the famous anti-Muggle activist Gideon Flamel attempted to use the Summoning Charm to summon a nearby Muggle farmer's produce with the intention of claiming it for himself. However, perhaps due to excessive force while casting the spell, he was crushed to death by the haystack and cattle he summoned.
Of course, the little wizards of Slytherin have been trained repeatedly by Soren over the past three semesters, and they are performing relatively well, even better than most of the other little Eagles in the same class. It is said that Harry and Neville from another class performed terribly and ended up being assigned extra homework by Professor Flitwick as punishment.
In the activities of the Charms Club, a new member has appeared—fifth-year Ravenclaw senior, Cho Chang.
The spells learned in the Charms Club are generally not included in the seven-year magical education curriculum, but rather focus on obscure and rare spells, akin to extracurricular learning in the Muggle world. In this activity, Professor Flitwick is guiding the advanced application of the Patronus Charm. It is well known that summoning a corporeal Patronus to drive away dark creatures is just its most basic use.
A Patronus is actually a manifestation of happiness and protective emotions, a reflection of the caster's soul. It can be used for other purposes, such as having the Patronus deliver messages or explore unknown places; some small and discreet Patronuses can even be used for reconnaissance.
One of the topics Soren is researching is how to implant intelligence into a Patronus. He has gained access to some of Merlin's memories; although this does not equate to Merlin's knowledge, he can benefit from Merlin's thought processes and spell inspirations.
He does not know how Merlin implanted intelligence into the Pygmy Puff, but he knows Merlin's habits and processes when improving or creating spells, which is already sufficient for Soren.
As the two students closest in grade within the club, Soren was responsible for practicing with Cho Chang—who is recognized as the most popular beauty at Hogwarts. As a result, Soren attracted many envious and jealous glances, including from Cedric Diggory, who ranked second on the girls' dream lover list, and Roger Davies, who ranked third.
Cho Chang actually has good talent, but she usually spends too much time on Quidditch practice. Under Soren's careful guidance, she finally managed to correct various bad habits in spell-casting, such as overly exaggerated and forceful wand movements, and an excessive pursuit of precise pronunciation.
Slowly, she found the most optimized and suitable way to cast spells for herself. Although she ultimately couldn't make her Patronus speak, her swan Patronus surprisingly learned to circle around her instead of just rushing forward. Among the club members, this could barely be considered a performance that squeezed into the top tier, at least Professor Flitwick praised this new member endlessly.
During the other times, Soren began to study "The Secrets of Human Transfiguration" and "Abattoir Volume Four" with great urgency, using nutritional potions to replace meals, stimulant potions to replace sleep, and employing various means like the Time-Turner and the Diadem of Wisdom. He had never been so eager for strength!
Human Transfiguration, as the name suggests, refers to the transformation of the human body.
A master of transformation can freely change into the appearance of any person, including their body shape, facial features, and even the clothes they are wearing.
This is essentially an advanced version of the Polyjuice Potion and the Disguise Charm. In the Fantastic Beasts films, Grindelwald could disguise himself as Percival Graves for an extended period, infiltrating the elite Aurors of the American Magical Congress without raising suspicion, which is incredibly impressive.
Of course, this is something that Soren, who has awakened the bloodline talent of "Disguise Charm," can also achieve.
However, after some research, Soren discovered that Human Transfiguration and the Disguise Charm, aside from their innate and acquired differences, seem to have similar effects, but they are actually quite different.
The Disguise Charm is a bloodline magic that allows the caster to freely change their appearance, but the changes are still limited to human forms. For example, the caster can change their height, body shape, facial features, skin color, hair color, eye color, etc., and can even disguise as an old person or have a man disguise as a woman. However, these still fall within the category of human transformations.
Human Transfiguration, on the other hand, breaks through this limitation.
Human Transfiguration can not only change the appearance of a human form but can also further achieve "non-human" transformations, and this change does not necessarily have to be applied to the caster themselves. One of the best examples is Hagrid, who transformed Dudley's backside into a pig's tail to warn the Dursleys.
Another example from the original text of Human Transfiguration is Viktor Krum, who transformed his head into that of a shark so he could breathe underwater.
It can be seen that if mastered well, Human Transfiguration is essentially an advanced version of the Polyjuice Potion and the Disguise Charm, with no time limitations and the ability to break through the constraints of human form to respond to different situational needs.
With the Disguise Charm, Soren had experience in the application of magic at the cellular level, so he learned Human Transfiguration quickly and reached the threshold of it in just a few days.
Time flew by, and soon it was November 13th, Friday.
Friday afternoons are the favorite time for the fourth-year Slytherin students and the most hated time for Gryffindor students, especially for the famous Harry Potter, particularly since he became a champion at Hogwarts.
This was a double Potions class.
Last Friday, that Potions class had been a painful torture for Harry—locked in the underground classroom for a full hour and a half, Harry was mocked half to death by Snape and the Slytherins. As if the mockery wasn't enough, Snape was nitpicking about his potion-making to the point of making him redo it multiple times, making him suffer greatly.
Just the thought of the upcoming Potions class made Harry shiver.
After lunch, he and Hermione arrived at Snape's underground classroom and found Slytherin students waiting outside. Most of them had a large badge pinned to the front of their robes.
The badges all had the same words printed on them, each bright red letter shining in the dim light of the underground corridor, flickering as if on fire: Support Soren Malfoy—Hogwarts' true warrior!
"Do you like it, Potter?" Draco shouted as he saw Harry approaching, "There are other variations too—look!"
He pressed the badge hard against his chest, the words disappeared, and then another line of text appeared, glowing green: "Potter stinks."
Even Soren couldn't help but find it amusing. Well, he knew he shouldn't feel this way; he knew it wasn't Harry's fault for becoming a warrior—Harry was quite pitiful, but it was really funny!
Under Draco's lead, Blaise, Goyle, Crabbe, and Pansy all laughed in a strange manner. Each of them pressed their own badges, and soon the area around Harry was filled with that glaring line of text—Potter stinks.
"Oh, very funny," Hermione said sarcastically to Pansy Parkinson, "Malfoy's selection as a warrior is well-deserved, supporting him is your right, but you don't need to mock another warrior like this, do you? You pureblood families—"
She lowered her voice, but her tone became more steady, "Is this the extent of your so-called honor, your so-called enlightenment? If you can't compete fairly in the match, is this the only petty trick you can resort to?"
Well said! Soren secretly praised, it seems Hermione has matured a lot compared to the original story.
These days, Soren had been too busy, focused on studying, researching, and the Dragon Society, which led to a decrease in his surveillance of Harry and the trio. He hadn't expected that without realizing it, Hermione's mental growth had actually advanced.
At the same time, he suddenly remembered something—wasn't Hermione involved in some "House-Elf Rights Advocacy Group" in the original story? But now it seemed she and Harry weren't wearing that badge!
It appeared she was really different from the original version of herself!
What Hermione said was reasonable and her tone lacked the past sharpness, replaced by a calm confidence. Draco was left speechless by her words, only able to snort coldly, turn his head away, and ignore them.
Oh no, if the plot develops this way, Draco wouldn't cast on Harry and accidentally hit Hermione, which means Hermione wouldn't have the chance to shrink her front teeth during the healing process, what to do?
Eh, why am I worrying about this?
Thinking of this, Soren couldn't help but smile slightly.
He turned his head, only to see Daphne quietly standing beside him, watching everything in front of her with a calm expression, as if everything happening at this moment was in a different world from hers.
Soren suddenly felt a strange emotion arise, a phrase from the Muggle world drifted through his mind: "Looking back suddenly, that person is right there in the dim light."
This semester, since the start of school, Daphne had been silently by his side, quiet as an invisible person, almost causing him to overlook her presence.
He recalled their first meeting on the train, the scene felt as if it had happened yesterday.
After Meredith went missing, the girl said nothing on the surface, yet resolutely took on the supporting role that Meredith had played beside Soren, silently delving into astronomy, herbology, and the history of magic—subjects she usually disliked.
He had claimed to establish a power but had carelessly left the entire endeavor in her hands; the whole process was her own hard work, every detail was handled by her.
This semester, he had been immersed in exploring Hogwarts and studying magic, and apart from class time and Dragon Society activities, he had hardly spoken to Daphne, truly neglecting her.
Yet, she had never said anything to him.
Not a word of complaint, not a word of grievance, not even a word of a spoiled request.
Soren pressed his lips together.
It turned out that the one who had been accompanying me all along was you!
When Snape opened the door to the underground classroom, Soren no longer looked towards Harry and Draco; instead, in the surprised gaze of Daphne, he openly took her hand and walked into the classroom together.
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