Chapter 4.

  After Soren turned 9, perhaps Lucius and Narcissa felt that their two children were at the age to make friends, or perhaps they noticed Soren showing signs of being a recluse, and began inviting some children of simir age and status to their home to py, hoping that Soren and Draco could find like-minded panions before starting school.

  However, among these so-called "simirly situated" invited children, almost all came from pure-blood families with status simir to the Malfoy family, such as Theodore Nott from the Nott family, Pansy Parkinson from the Parkinson family, Millit Bulstrode from the Bulstrode family, Gregoyle from the Goyle family, and Vi Crabbe from the Crabbe family, among others.

  In Soren's eyes, this was a group ant, ignorant, and spoiled little brats. It was strahat he could get along with them! Moreover, as far as Soren knew, more than half of the children here had fathers who were Death Eaters!

  Draco, oher hand, was quite impressive. Relying on the Malfoy family's status, he easily won over his two folloyle and Crabbe. Though these two big boys were a bit dim-witted, their sturdy builds made them perfect didates for bodyguards.

  Even the haughty Pansy Parkinson seemed to have a bit of a crush on Draco, admiring his somewhat childish arrogance.

  To be ho, at that time, Pansy had short bck hair, big bck eyes, a promi nose, and two cute dimples, making her quite adorable. However, her personality was terrible; except when she was around Drad Soren, her words were sharp and sarcastic, always taking pleasure in mog oyle and Crabbe privately referred to her as "Little Witch."

  Theodore Nott was one of the few who did not lower himself to ftter Draco. The Nott family still held a promi reputation in the British wizarding world, owning several alchemical produ businesses, and was one of the two major powers in the British alchemy se alongside the B family. Theodore himself had det talent, but his personality was a bit arrogant—simply put, he was unbearably narcissistic.

  However, Draco quite liked him. He had told Soren more than ohat he thought Theodore was the only peer worth having an equal retionship with.

  Whehis group of little brats gathered, Soren would find various excuses to avoid them. If the gathering was at Malfoy Manor, Soren would secretly find an opportunity to sneak away. Draeanwhile, reveled iual fttery among the group and was eager to participate in various activities within this small circle. Soren often saw him out having fun and socializing with friends.

  Soren had been invited a few times, but after several rejes, Draco sehat his thoughtful little brother didn't seem particurly fond of mingling with his friends, so he didn't think much of it. From then on, everyone would automatically leave Soren out of future gatherings.

  Narcissa was not happy when she learned of this. She nagged Soren a few times, but seeing that he was unresponsive, she realized her words were falling on deaf ears, and over time, she could only let Soren's reclusiveness be.

  However, after notig Crabbe and Goyle's strong and sturdy physiques, Soren also began to prioritize physical training.

  Not being able to learn spells did not mean one couldn't enhaheir bat strength.

  In the magical world of Harry Potter, battles between wizards generally depend on three factors: the power of the spells cast, the accuracy of both sides, and their evasion rates. After all, only spells that hit the target are effective.

  Only in rare instances do battles between wizards drag oo a stalemate, where the total amount of magical power bees the decisive factor. Thus, it is evident that for bat-oriented wizards, physical fitness is quite important; agile wizards have a much higher survival rate in chaotic battles.

  Without his family knowing, Soren began to secretly train his physical abilities with Dobby every night when it was quiet.

  While reading the inal novel, Soren had long wao pin that the young wizards at Hogwarts never participated in any physical training, fog solely on knowledge and spell learning. Iire seven-year Hogwarts education system, the only subject reted to physical activity was the first-year flying css, which sted for only one year.

  No wohe young wizards could master so many spells but performed poorly in practical bat. Perhaps this was because, in times of peace, unless one aspired to bee an Auror, it was more practical for young wizards to spend their time learning household spells rather than exerg.

  In his previous life, Soren was an expert in outdoor survival, with siderable skills in long-distance running, climbing, diving, and bat. He based his training on the descriptions of battles between wizards in the inal novel and drew inspiration from the trainihods used in military games in the Muggle world, specifically designing a systematic physical training process targeting evasion and hit rates.

  He had Dobby aim harmless marking spells at him (being hit by the spell would only leave an ink-like mark), while he practiced various dodging teiques by moving around in a small space, gradually increasing the speed of Dobby's spellcasting to enhahe difficulty of his evasion.

  After practig dodging teiques and taking a short break, Soren had Dobby use flying spells to create a flurry of paper birds, while he practiced aiming with darts, determio hit each paper bird.

  During the day, Soren also developed a habit of reading the Daily Prophet diligently, actively keeping himself informed about events, big and small, in the magical world during this peaceful era.

  In his spare time, Soren recalled that in the inal novel, Bill Weasley, the eldest of the Weasley family, had a pen pal in some School of Magi other try. On a whim, he decided to write a letter to the editor of the neer, expressing his desire to publish an iional friendship advertisement uhe pseudonym "Little Merlin."

  To his surprise, the neer's reply came very quickly; within a few days, he received a response from the editor, who agreed to publish the friendship advertisement for free to promote iional unication in the magical world. Soren thought to himself that perhaps this was due to the aterial for neers during this peaceful era.

  A few weeks ter, Soren received several letters from potential friends, successfully making a few fn pen pals.

  Among them, he frequently unicated with a pen pal living in North Amerid another in Japan. Through their correspondence, he gained a preliminary uanding of the magical world outside of Britain.

  From then on, every weekend, Soren added the habit of reading and replying to letters.

  When his parents found out, Lucius scoffed but did not ent. In Lucius's eyes, the British magical world was the most powerful and noble wizarding unity in the world, while other pces were merely remote and backward. This mi was not unong those in the British magical world, as the lineage of North Ameri wizards inated from Britain, and the dista was generally reized as somewhat backward in both eid political terms.

  That said, being his beloved son, although the Malfoy Manor already had four owls for mailiers, one day Lucius issioned someoo buy a magnifit gray eagle-owl named "Ulysses," g that the family o supplement their number of owls. However, the current number of owls was more than suffit.

  Soren uood that this oecifically bought for him to send iional letters.

  Narcissa, oher hand, was ed about Soren's mental health. She often stared at him with a plex expression, perhaps mistakenly believing that he cked like-minded friends, which caused feelings of loneliness. She could also see that Soren did not enjoy the small circle of pure-blood desdants, filling her heart with guilt as a mother.

  Of course, Soren did not take his parents' opinions too seriously.

  When Soren informed his parents that he had read through the hundreds of books in the family's library, even the aloof Lucius couldn't help but show a surprised and delighted expression. "Truly, you are my son, iing my frace," Lucius said, rarely allowing himself to be so pleased.

  "e on!" Narcissa shot him a look, ruthlessly exposing his lie. "I don't remember you ever loving to read. I distinctly recall that during your school days, your time spent c girls was several times that of your reading time!"

  "This..." Lucius was momentarily at a loss for words.

  Soren timely interrupted their versation, alleviating Lucius's embarrassment. "Father, Mother, besides the family library, do we have any other els to obtain such rare magical books?"

  "Hmph," Lucius snorted lightly, "such books are usually the closely guarded secrets of major pure-blood families; how could they be easily lent to others? Even among pure-bloods, it's the same... Aside from the loablished pure-blood families, I've only heard that the colle of the Medieval European Wizards' Association is parable, but these arrogant old relics seem impossible to buy off; I've tried to join a few times but couldn't gairy..."

  Narcissa then suggested taking Soren to visit Soren's grandmother—Druel Bck. Druel had visited when Soren was very young and was very fond of the naturally intelligent Soren; in fact, Soren and Draco were the only two grandchildreruly reized.

  Soren had two aunts—her eldest aurix joihe Death Eaters after getting married and had no children, while her sed aunt Andromeda was disowned by the family for marrying a Muggle wizard.

  Druel lived alone in a small estate in Wiltshire, and when she saw her beloved grandson visiting, her face was filled with untainable joy. Hearing that Soren wao stay for a few days made her incredibly happy. So when Soren expressed a desire to view the colle, Druel eagerly brought out all the books at home for Soren to see.

  Druel's colle was ied from her ae husband, us Bck, from both of their families. Before her marriage, Druel was a young dy from the Rosier family, so part of the colle came from the Bck family, and another part from the Rosier family, a signifit portion of which had early on beeo Malfoy Manor as Narcissa married out.

  Then Aurix and her husband were caught ao the wizarding prison Azkaban after the First Wizarding War and were senteo life impriso. Acc to wizarding w, all their assets, except for those in Gringotts, had to be transferred to Druel's name.

  This allowed Soren to be, as he not only found books from the Bd Rosier families in Druel's colle but also some from the Lestrange family, totaling over a hundred volumes.

  Although Druel was old, she was not senile; none of the books she brought out for Soren tained dark magic, but there were certainly some secret spells from the Bck, Rosier, arange families. Sorehese were the most valuable knowledge of pure-blood families and greedily absorbed everything he could with the time-turner every day.

  After living in his grandmother's estate for a month, Soren and Narcissa finally bid farewell to Druel, who was filled with reluce. Druel generously decided to give all the books to Soren, a house-elf named Sasha to deliver the books directly to Soren's bedroom at Malfoy Manor.

  [Bck Family Spells Acquired! Rosier Family Spells Acquired! Lestrange Family Spells Acquired!]

  When Narcissa saw Soren's bedroom piled high with disanized books, she felt both helpless and amused. She bought a bag engraved with a No-Trace Expansion Charm, and the spaside was like ay library, allowing Soren to store thousands of books.

  Soren loved this gift; it made him feel as if he had his own private library. He couldn't wait to ly arrange all the books he had brought from Druel's house into the bag's space, only to find he could barely fill one pert of the shelves.

  [Private Library Acquired!]