Harry Potter: The Rise Of Malfoy

Chapter 44.

At King's Cross Station, Soren and Draco said goodbye to their parents, passed through the wall at Platform 9¾, and boarded the Hogwarts Express.

During the summer, Draco had learned many new and interesting spells, and after bidding farewell to Soren, he eagerly went off to show off to his friends.

With Lucius losing his position as a governor, the Malfoy family also lost the privilege of having their own compartment. However, with Soren's abilities, he quickly found an empty compartment and sat down leisurely, flipping through this semester's textbooks.

Meanwhile, on the train, a girl with silver eyes, light golden hair, large eyes, pale skin, light eyebrows, wearing a pair of carrot-shaped earrings and a necklace made from a Butter-beer bottle cork, was struggling to walk down the aisle with a suitcase that was disproportionately large for her petite frame. The girl's expression was sometimes alert, sometimes dazed, giving her a peculiar, floaty quality.

She huffed and politely pushed open the doors of several compartments, only to be met with students who looked her up and down before saying, "There's already someone here."

She apologised and stepped back out, looking for another compartment.

In reality, she knew that no one they recognised would be coming into those compartments anymore. She walked to a compartment located towards the middle of the train, where the door was slightly ajar. Peering inside, she saw no one was there. She felt a bit pleased, pushed the door open, and first pushed her suitcase inside. But when she stood up, she realized that on the other side of the seat she hadn't seen, a boy was sitting by the window, quietly flipping through a third-year Potions textbook.

She recognised this boy; in fact, very few people at Hogwarts wouldn't recognise him. The top student, the legendary person who killed the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, the one who defeated older students to win the Order of Merlin, he was surrounded by countless accolades, complemented by a noble lineage and handsome appearance, making him someone that students in the same year could only look up to.

He seemed very focused on the book in his hands, not even noticing the girl who had just entered. However, the girl realised she should leave because, for some reason, a sudden feeling of inadequacy washed over her, so she flusteredly said, "Sorry, I thought this compartment was empty. I'll just go out..."

"Ah..." What she didn't notice was that two female students passed behind her. Just as she was about to step out, she was jostled, and she fell to the ground. This was a small incident, and the two girls were more at fault, especially since the dazed girl fell while they were unharmed.

But the two girls stood at the door, scolding and mocking her, "What's wrong with you? Can't you watch where you're walking?"

"Exactly, didn't you see there were other people passing by?"

"Do you know you almost knocked me over? If I got hurt, would you take responsibility?"

The fallen girl stood up, repeatedly saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

The two girls exchanged glances, their eyes full of mockery, and coldly said, "Consider yourself lucky this time; we won't hold it against you..." They left with satisfied smiles.

Soren watched the scene at the door with a slight frown. He clearly saw that the two girls had done it on purpose; when they passed the door, they intentionally bumped into the girl who was moving her luggage, even putting on a victim's face.

From the girl's peculiar outfit, Soren deduced her identity. Her name was Luna Lovegood, a character in the original story. Due to her odd behavior and unconventional thinking, she was often bullied and was the target of teasing and ridicule from the Ravenclaw collective, even earning the nickname "Loony."

Seeing her clumsily tugging at her luggage and preparing to leave, Soren felt an inexplicable emotion swell within him for her plight, and he gently said, "There's still space here; you can stay in this compartment."

Luna Lovegood was taken aback, exclaiming, "Ah."

"Um... okay, thank you..." Luna Lovegood looked directly into Soren's eyes and quieted down, accepting his kindness. The little girl sat quietly on the bench, spreading a magazine on her lap, with her wand surprisingly tucked behind her ear.

Soren did not consider himself a meddlesome person. Everything he had done up to this point was to help himself increase his strength as much as possible before Voldemort's return. However, this time he had indeed violated his usual style; he never expected that he actually felt a sense of empathy for this girl.

Soren was a traveler from another world, and he had always felt somewhat out of place in this one. He harboured too many secrets in his heart, making it difficult for him to open up and make friends. He couldn't even be honest with his closest family members. Over time, no matter how strong he appeared on the surface, he could not hide the deep loneliness within him.

He tried hard to think about his emotions and unconsciously activated his magical eye towards the girl across from him. The girl did not possess strong magical power, but there seemed to be a special force hidden in her bloodline. Soren could sense that her magical fluctuations were very close to the breath of nature, a magical characteristic that felt pure and tranquil.

Soren remembered that this girl was a pure-blood witch. In the original story, her ending was to marry Scamander's grandson and become a magical biologist. She was usually a bit offbeat in conversation but had an astonishingly sharp intuition.

Perhaps at this moment, the girl did not know that her bloodline contained some ancient mysterious power. Since he had the chance to meet her and was currently researching bloodline magic, he thought he might help her discover her bloodline's power.

In his plans, he wanted to establish a force at Hogwarts that was not limited to just the Slytherin house. The number of Slytherin students was already the smallest among the four houses, and subtracting those who were irreconcilable with his ideology, the followers he could recruit were quite limited.

In his mind, aside from Gryffindor, which was naturally at odds with Slytherin, he also wanted to win over students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Luna was particularly suitable as his breakthrough in Ravenclaw. As long as he helped her master her bloodline power, her strength would surely be significantly enhanced, making it easy for her to establish influence in Ravenclaw.

Breaking the silence, Soren took the initiative to speak, "You are Miss Lovegood from Ravenclaw, right? I am Soren Malfoy; you can just call me Soren."

Luna did not expect Soren to talk to her. She stared at him with her big eyes, confused, as if she doubted whether she had heard him correctly. This action might seem a bit rude to others, but Soren understood her personality and did not mind. He smiled lightly and pointed to the magazine she was reading, asking, "What book are you reading?"

Luna seemed to come back to her senses, her face turning red as she said, "You can call me Luna." After saying this, she felt her face burning, even her neck turned red. She quickly closed the book, revealing the cover, and happily introduced to Soren, "This is 'quibbler,' which talks about some little-known secrets and anecdotes in the magical world. My dad is the editor of this magazine, so if you want to read it, I can give you a copy of every issue."

"It sounds quite interesting. What kind of secrets does it contain?"

"You know that ancient magic was cast using Ancient Runic scripts, right? This article talks about Ancient Runes, and if you reverse these ancient runes, you can actually see that they form a spell to drive away pesky flies. By the way, you probably don't know what pesky flies are, right? They are..."

Just then, the compartment door opened again, and Daphne and Meredith appeared at the entrance. Seeing Luna, dressed in a peculiar outfit, and the handsome Soren sitting inside the compartment, both of them couldn't help but feel an extremely strange sensation.

If one were to say that Soren was one of the most popular figures at Hogwarts right now, no one would likely dispute that, even Gryffindor, who was at odds with Slytherin. It had been a long time since such a dazzling presence like Soren had appeared among the younger students, and people had even begun to speculate that he might be the next Dumbledore.

Undoubtedly, Soren was the most popular choice for a dream partner among the opposite sex at Hogwarts—besides his superb strength and dazzling fame, he also had a noble background, handsome appearance, and a polite, approachable personality.

Daphne had not forgotten that Tracy and Audrey, from the same year, were eyeing Soren with interest, often taking the opportunity to approach him. It seemed that the Slytherin prefect Gemma Farley had also asked Soren out to play during the summer vacation more than once, but Soren always kept a cold distance from them. Although he maintained a consistently polite demeanor on the surface, anyone could feel that he was intentionally keeping his distance.

Among so many girls, besides Daphne and Meredith, it seemed that there was also a beautiful Ravenclaw girl with long black straight hair, Moray McDougall, who had a decent relationship with Soren.

If someone were to spread rumors about Soren and Luna, Daphne and Meredith would never believe it—yet at this moment, the two girls saw Soren and Luna chatting and laughing, and they found it hard to believe.

Seeing the two girls standing there in a daze, Soren immediately said softly, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and come in and sit down! You're blocking the aisle."

The two girls came back to their senses and entered the compartment with a bit of embarrassment. Soren then said, "Let me introduce you, this is my new friend I met today—Miss Luna Lovegood. She's in Ravenclaw, a year below us, but she knows a lot of interesting things…"

Daphne and Meredith had now regained their composure, first introducing themselves to Luna, and then obediently cooperating with Soren to warm up the atmosphere, chatting with Luna about fictional magical creatures they had never heard of, like the Snorkack and the Crumple-Horned Snorkack.

Luna had never encountered classmates who showed interest in her topics, and she instantly let down her guard, chatting enthusiastically with the three of them, which made their relationship more familiar, and they spent the entire morning in pleasant conversation.

At lunchtime, Soren generously bought a table full of sweets from a witch pushing a cart. Sharing food was indeed a good way to build relationships, and soon, tempted by the delicious treats, Luna also set aside her reservations and joined in the feast.

After lunch, Luna began to flip through her "The Quibbler again.

Daphne then steered the conversation toward Slytherin's new prefect for the year, "Hey, have you heard? There was a prefects' meeting in the special carriage for prefects on the train, and this year Slytherin's new male prefect is Cassius Warrington…"

A flicker of perceptible sharpness passed through Soren's eyes as he coldly remarked, "So, does that mean the Lestrange family's Gellert was not selected?"

Meredith picked up the conversation, "Hearing you mention this now does feel a bit strange. Although there's no written rule, the position of prefect has always been passed down among pure-blood families. The Warrington family is not only half-blood but also far from powerful; having him as prefect will probably make many people unhappy."

Daphne said, "Yes, I think so too. Besides, even if Gellert wasn't selected, Slytherin has other candidates! Myles Blanch is quite good; he's pure-blood and reportedly quite strong…"

Soren said lightly, "Then who is the female prefect?"

"It's Irina Selwyn from the Selwyn family. The Selwyns are quite mysterious; although they are also a pure-blood family, not many people know what their main business is. Don't be fooled by her low profile; I've heard privately that she's quite ruthless," Daphne explained in detail.

Soren had had a certain premonition since the last semester during Merlin's trial—when the candidates were selected, Gellert was not chosen, and Cassius was picked; he felt that there was something strange behind it. Now, the selection of prefects felt the same, and Soren did not believe that there was no hidden agenda behind it.

The only doubt was whether the hidden agenda was orchestrated by Snape or Dumbledore. Was this person genuinely trying to help him deal with the opposing forces within Slytherin, or did they have malicious intent, wanting to exacerbate the conflict between him and other pure-blood families?

*****

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