Strengthening His Power

After Skylar turned nine, perhaps Lucius and Narcissa felt he had reached the age to make friends, or perhaps they saw signs that he was becoming a homebody. They began inviting children of similar age and status to visit, hoping that Skylar and Draco could find like-minded companions before starting school.

However, nearly all of these supposedly "similar-status" children came from pure-blood families comparable to House of Malfoy, such as Theodore Nott of the Nott Family, Pansy Parkinson of the Parkinson Family, Millicent Bulstrode of the Bulstrode Family, Gregory Goyle of House of Goyle, Vincent Crabbe of House of Crabbe, and so on.

In Skylar's eyes, they were a bunch of arrogant, ignorant, spoiled little brats. There was no way he could get along with them! Besides, as far as Skylar knew, more than half of their fathers were Death Eaters!

Draco, on the other hand, had been quite impressive. Relying on House of Malfoy's standing, he had easily won over Goyle and Crabbe as his followers. Although the two big boys were a little slow-witted, their sturdy builds made them perfect bodyguard material. Even the haughty Pansy Parkinson seemed to have taken a liking to Draco, deeply admiring his somewhat childish arrogance and domineering attitude.

To be honest, Pansy at this age had short black hair, large dark eyes, a pert nose, and two little dimples. She was quite cute-looking, but her personality was terrible. Except when she spoke to Draco and Skylar, her words were exceptionally sharp and cutting, and she always took pleasure in mocking others. Behind her back, Goyle and Crabbe both called her the "Little Witch."

Theodore Nott was one of the few who did not lower himself to flatter Draco. The Nott Family's prestige in Britain's wizarding world had not diminished, and it owned numerous businesses manufacturing alchemical items. Along with the Burke Family, it was one of Britain's two great giants in the alchemy industry. Theodore himself was quite talented, but his personality was rather obnoxious. To put it bluntly, he was unbearably narcissistic.

But Draco liked him quite a bit. More than once, Draco told Skylar that Theodore was the only peer he considered worthy of associating with as an equal.

Whenever this group of little brats gathered, Skylar would come up with all sorts of excuses to decline. If the gathering was held at Malfoy Manor, he would find an opportunity to slip away beforehand. Draco, meanwhile, immersed himself in their mutual flattery. He was keen on participating in all the activities of this little circle, and Skylar often saw him going out to play and attend gatherings with his friends.

Skylar had also been invited several times, but after he turned them down again and again, Draco realized that his very independent-minded younger brother did not particularly enjoy hanging around with his friends. He did not think much of it, and from then on, everyone automatically left Skylar out of their gatherings.

Narcissa was not very happy when she learned of this. She nagged Skylar a few times, but seeing how impervious he was to persuasion, she knew talking to him was like playing music to a cow. In time, she could only let his solitary nature be.

However, after noticing Crabbe and Goyle's large, powerful builds, Skylar began putting physical training on his schedule as well.

Just because he could not learn spells did not mean he could not strengthen his combat ability.

In Harry Potter's magical world, battles between wizards were generally decided by three factors: the power of the spells cast, the combatants' accuracy, and their ability to dodge. After all, only a spell that hit its target was an effective spell.

Only in the rarest circumstances would a battle between evenly matched wizards drag into a war of attrition, where total magical power became the final deciding factor. This showed just how important physical fitness was for combat-oriented wizards. Only agile wizards could have a high survival rate in a melee.

Without his family's knowledge, Skylar began secretly training with Dobby every night when all was quiet. When he had read the original books, Skylar had long wanted to complain that Hogwarts students never took part in any training to improve their physical fitness. They focused all their time on studying knowledge and spells. In the entire seven-year Hogwarts education system, the only subject that could remotely be considered physical education was first-year Flying Class—and even that only lasted a single year.

No wonder the young wizards could master so many spells yet perform so terribly in actual combat. Perhaps it was because, in peaceful times, unless they aspired to become Aurors, young wizards found it more practical to learn a few more household spells than to spend time training their bodies.

In his previous life, Skylar had been an expert at wilderness survival. He was highly skilled in long-distance running, climbing, diving, and hand-to-hand combat. Based on the descriptions of wizard battles in the original books, he drew on the training methods used in Muggle war games and personally designed a systematic physical training regimen focused especially on evasion and accuracy.

He had Dobby aim harmless marking spells at him—spells that left nothing but ink-wash-like marks when they struck—while he maneuvered through a confined space, practicing all manner of evasive techniques. Step by step, he had Dobby increase the speed of his casting, raising the difficulty of his dodging practice.

After practicing evasion and taking a short break, Skylar had Dobby use a Levitation Charm to create paper birds that fluttered all over the room. He then practiced his aim with darts, determined to continue until he could hit every single paper bird.

During the day, Skylar also developed the habit of diligently reading the Daily Prophet every day, taking the initiative to learn about the major and minor events taking place in the magical world during this peaceful era.

With nothing else to do, Skylar recalled that Bill Weasley, the eldest of the Weasley family, seemed to have a pen pal in Brazil who attended Castelobruxo. On a whim, he wrote to the newspaper's editor-in-chief, hoping to borrow a small column to publish an international pen-pal notice under the pseudonym "Little Shrimp."

What Skylar had not expected was that the newspaper's reply came extraordinarily quickly. Within a few days, he received a letter from the editor-in-chief agreeing to publish the notice for free in order to promote exchanges within the international magical community. Skylar could not help thinking that perhaps newspapers in peaceful times were simply desperate for material.

A few weeks later, Skylar received several letters from prospective friends and successfully made a number of foreign pen pals. The ones he corresponded with most frequently, and got along with best, included one living in North America and another far away in Japan. Through their letters, he also gained a preliminary understanding of the magical world beyond Britain. From then on, Skylar had another weekend habit: reading letters and writing replies.

After his parents learned of this, Lucius curled his lip disdainfully but offered no comment. In Lucius's eyes, Britain's magical world was the strongest and noblest wizarding society in the world, while everywhere else was nothing more than remote, backward barbarian territory. There were quite a few people in Britain's magical world who thought this way. After all, North American wizards traced their heritage back to Britain, while the distant East was widely regarded as somewhat backward in both economic and political terms.

What Narcissa worried about instead was Skylar's mental well-being. She often stared at him with a complicated look in her eyes, apparently under the mistaken impression that his lack of like-minded friends had left him lonely inside. She could also see that Skylar did not like that little circle of pure-blood descendants, and her heart was filled with a mother's guilt.

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

When Skylar told his parents that he had finished reading all hundred-odd books in the Malfoy Family Library, even the aloof Lucius could not help showing an expression of surprise and delight.

Narcissa then suggested taking Skylar to visit his maternal grandmother, Druella Black. Druella had visited their home once when Skylar was very young, and she had been extremely fond of the naturally intelligent boy. In fact, Skylar and Draco were the only two grandsons she acknowledged.

Skylar had two aunts. His eldest aunt, Bellatrix, had joined the Death Eaters after getting married and had never borne any children. His second aunt, Andromeda, had been struck from the family tree for marrying a Muggle wizard.

Druella lived alone in a small estate in Wiltshire. When she saw her beloved grandson coming to visit, she could not hide her excitement. Upon hearing that Skylar wished to stay for a few days, she was overjoyed. So, when Skylar asked to see her collection of books, Druella brought out every book in the house in one go and let him read to his heart's content.

The books in Druella's home had been inherited by her and her late husband, Cygnus Black, from their respective families. Before marrying, Druella had been a young lady of the Rosier Family. Thus, some of the collection came from House of Black, while some came from the Rosier Family. A large portion had already been sent to Malfoy Manor long ago when Narcissa married out.

Then, after Bellatrix and her husband were captured following the First Wizarding War and sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban, all their property aside from their vault at Gringotts had to be transferred to Druella's name under wizarding property law. This allowed Skylar to benefit greatly. Among Druella's books, he found not only texts from House of Black and the Rosier Family, but even some treasured volumes from House of Lestrange. Altogether, there were more than a hundred books.

Although Druella was old, she was not senile. None of the books she brought out for Skylar contained Dark Arts, but there was no shortage of secret spells passed down by House of Black, the Rosier Family, and House of Lestrange. Skylar knew these were the most precious forms of knowledge possessed by pure-blood families, and every day he greedily used the Time-Turner to absorb every bit of knowledge he could.

After staying at his grandmother's estate for a month, Skylar and Narcissa finally bid farewell to Druella, whose face was filled with reluctance. Druella generously decided to give all those books to Skylar and ordered a House Elf named Sasha to deliver them directly to Skylar's bedroom at Malfoy Manor.

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

When Narcissa saw Skylar's bedroom piled high with disorganized books, she was both helpless and amused. She bought him a Portable Book Bag engraved with an Undetectable Extension Charm. The space inside resembled a vast library and could hold tens of thousands of books.

Skylar loved the gift. It made him feel as though he owned a Private Library of his own. He eagerly arranged every book he had brought from Druella's home neatly inside the bag, only to discover that he had barely managed to fill one percent of the shelves.

[Private Library Acquired!]