School Admission Invitation

A year passed. Skylar was now ten years old. Thanks to a nutritious diet and ample physical training over the past year, he had grown tall and straight, standing a full half-head taller than his brother Draco. Combined with his handsome looks and gentle, jade-like temperament, he was every inch the tall, rich, handsome young master.

As the older brother, Draco was often both envious and jealous. Looking at Skylar's height alone, Draco sometimes had the illusion that Skylar was actually the elder one. It was not merely their appearance, either. Though the two were biological twins, their personalities were worlds apart.

Draco's blind worship of his father had fostered in him an arrogance and domineering manner much like Lucius's, though his conduct still retained childish immaturity. Skylar, on the other hand, had inherited none of his parents' personalities. He was always low-key and quiet, modest and courteous, confident without being ostentatious—more like a Hufflepuff.

Although Lucius and Narcissa were pleased with Skylar's maturity and steadiness beyond his years, they doted even more on the flamboyant and overbearing Draco. After all, Draco's personality better suited the House of Malfoy's customary style, and his childishness more easily stirred his parents' protective affection.

Over the past year, Skylar's tireless efforts had finally seen him finish devouring the books he had brought back from his grandmother's home. He then began setting his sights on Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Through letters, he had repeatedly probed his grandmother, who loved him dearly, over the past year and had long since figured out the exact location of the Black Family Residence.

That day, led by Dobby, he Apparated to Number 12 Grimmauld Place and met Kreacher, the House Elf who lived there alone.

Kreacher was already over six hundred years old. Even by elf standards, he was at the end of his life. Just as described in the original story, he had lived alone in the empty Black Family Residence. Bound by contract magic, a House Elf could not leave the residence without its master's permission. He could only spend his days conversing with the portrait of his old mistress, Mrs. Black, and had thus become somewhat deranged.

However, when he learned that Skylar was Narcissa's son and carried Black blood in his veins, he automatically regarded Skylar as half his master. His tone and manner were filled with respect and obedience.

Skylar knew that House Elves, as intelligent beings, understood how to repay kindness. Only by treating them well could one gain their true loyalty. Sirius Black had made precisely this mistake in the original story, indirectly bringing about his own death.

Skylar did not lord it over Kreacher or bark orders at him merely because of the elf's outwardly servile demeanor. Instead, he treated Kreacher with warmth and kindness, asking after his well-being. He allowed Kreacher to change him into a set of clean clothes and gave him some candy and snacks brought from home. Kreacher was immediately moved to tears of gratitude, and Skylar earned himself a massive boost in loyalty.

Kreacher took the initiative to show Skylar around the Black Family Residence. As the mansion of House of Black, 12 Grimmauld Place was a typical pure-blood wizarding home. The decorations scattered throughout all possessed centuries of history, and quite a few were silverware forged by Ancient Goblins. If placed outside, these items would undoubtedly be priceless antiques.

After Voldemort's return, this house would become the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. For now, however, it remained unoccupied and had naturally not been protected by any magic. The thick layer of dust everywhere showed that no one had visited in a very long time.

When they reached the second-floor studio, Skylar found an enormous tapestry hanging on one wall, nearly covering it completely. It recorded the Black family tree. To his surprise, Skylar discovered his own name on the House of Black's family tree. Only after asking Kreacher did he learn that Mrs. Black had passed away in 1985, when he was five years old.

Skylar remembered that one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, Slytherin's Locket, was also stored in this room. However, Skylar, who had not even started school yet, did not dare entertain any thoughts about it. He understood perfectly well the danger that came with touching a Horcrux.

The purpose of Skylar's visit was the Black family library. As one of the oldest Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families, House of Black's collection surpassed House of Malfoy's in both quality and quantity. It contained many magical books that had long gone out of print, even rare and precious copies passed down from the Middle Ages. Skylar, hungry for knowledge, was thrilled beyond measure.

In any case, House of Black had no heirs left. Rather than letting these precious books eventually fall into the hands of Harry Potter, that book-hating brute, where they would gather dust and go to waste, why not benefit himself instead? He could barely count as a collateral branch of the Blacks. No matter how one looked at it, he was more qualified than Harry Potter, an outsider with a different surname!

After obtaining Kreacher's consent in the name of a House of Black member, Skylar unapologetically packed up every book in the Black family library and took them away in his Portable Book Bag. There were more than a hundred books in all, just as comprehensive as the Malfoy collection, covering nearly every field of magic. Quite a few records concerning ancient magical symbols could even corroborate what Skylar had read in the Malfoy library, leaving him both shocked and delighted.

Yet the most valuable items were the secret spell notes passed down only through the direct line of House of Black. Skylar had already read part of these notes at his grandmother's home, but the Black Family Residence was the inheritance of the paternal surname. Druella, on the other hand, had only daughters, so her branch counted as maternal inheritance. Thus, the notes found at the Black Family Residence were comparatively more complete and comprehensive.

[Black Family Spell Supplement acquired!]

Unfortunately, the Black family library still contained no books on the Dark Arts. Skylar guessed that, like House of Malfoy, House of Black probably possessed a hidden chamber specifically used to store forbidden items.

Skylar specifically asked Kreacher about this, but Kreacher claimed to know nothing. Due to the slave-like nature of House Elves, Kreacher could not lie to Skylar, nor did he have any reason to do so. Skylar could only conclude that the secret of this hidden chamber was likely known only to the family's core members, while House Elves had no right to come into contact with it at all.

Afterward, life returned to its simple routine—frantically reading during the day and undergoing physical training with Dobby at night. Only on weekends could he relax a little, reading letters from his pen pals and carefully writing back to them.

Before his eleventh birthday arrived, Skylar, the top student, successfully finished reading the Black family's books and documents with the help of his time cheat.

By cross-referencing and integrating the collections of the two great families, Skylar not only gained a clear understanding of wizarding history, the formation of magical power, and the development of spells, but also pieced together many historical secrets about the Middle Ages from scattered clues across countless books. He had even successfully mastered the interpretation and decipherment of Ancient Runes through self-study.

Ancient Runes in the wizarding world shared the same parent writing system as ancient human languages among Muggles, both consisting of twenty-two Phoenician script characters. However, after wizards discovered the magical power hidden within writing, Ancient Runes gradually developed their own writing system over the course of history. Ancient wizards devised various rune symbols of their own, using them to gather and channel magical power. They were especially common in alchemy, but with the arrival of peaceful times and magic becoming increasingly oriented toward daily life, the use of Ancient Runes had gradually declined.

In his previous life, Skylar had been an expert in ancient human languages. Drawing on his past-life experience and the extensive collections of the two families, he quickly grasped the patterns and tricks behind deciphering Ancient Runes. If anyone learned of it, it would be an astonishing achievement.

The obscurity and difficulty of Ancient Runes were well known. According to Hogwarts' normal curriculum, Ancient Runes was an elective subject available only from the third year onward, and the course merely taught students how to identify common basic rune symbols and words.

By comparison, Skylar could already hold historical documents written in Ancient Runes and read them with relish. His proficiency in Ancient Runes far surpassed the highest level Hogwarts could teach.

With only a few days remaining until his eleventh birthday, Skylar began reviewing the progress of his new life. He had to admit that he was extremely satisfied with what he had achieved so far.

Although he had been born into a family that had backed the wrong side and would likely be swept into the family's tragedy in a few years, his starting point was vastly superior to that of Harry, the protagonist of the original story.

Compared with Harry, who knew nothing about magic, Skylar's understanding of the wizarding world was exceptionally thorough. His family's bloodline power and secret spell inheritance further guaranteed his future potential. More importantly, he possessed the absurdly powerful Time-Turner cheat, ensuring that his life at Hogwarts was destined to follow the path of an ultimate academic prodigy.

Just as Skylar was filled with fantasies and anticipation for life at Hogwarts, his eleventh birthday soon arrived. Both Skylar and Draco received their Hogwarts admission letters.

The second page of the letter, written on parchment, also listed the textbooks, wizarding robes, cloaks, wands, cauldrons, and other items required for the first year at Hogwarts.

"I think Durmstrang would suit him better." After seeing the letters, Lucius made one final attempt. After all, research into the Dark Arts faced few restrictions there, and students did not have to live alongside non-pure-bloods. Lucius believed the Malfoy boys would receive a better education there.

"You can bear to send our precious sons somewhere so far away? To an island, no less. How inconvenient would that be?" Narcissa still insisted on her view and wanted to send both sons to Hogwarts, which was closer to home. "Besides, you're a school governor there. Perhaps you could look after them as well."

"You know I don't get along with that old man with the white beard." Lucius's expression darkened somewhat.

"I've decided to go to Hogwarts," Skylar calmly stated his decision. Draco himself did not feel strongly either way about the matter. Since his younger brother and several friends he had already become acquainted with would all be attending Hogwarts, he naturally voted for Hogwarts as well. Faced with the unanimous opinion of his wife and sons, Lucius could only shrug helplessly and agree.

Since both Skylar and Draco needed to buy necessities for the new school term, the family of four boarded the family's luxurious Thestral carriage together. Once Lucius recited the incantation and destination, a faint magical glow flowed across the patterns on the carriage. It slowly rose into the air and flew all the way to Diagon Alley.

Having thoroughly read the original story, Skylar knew that the seemingly empty space in front of the carriage was actually occupied by invisible Thestrals pulling it. Only those who had witnessed death could see Thestrals with their naked eyes.

House of Malfoy truly deserved its reputation as the most powerful family of the age. Skylar and the others did not need to pass through the dirty Leaky Cauldron at all; they could descend directly from the sky into the carriage parking area reserved for them in Diagon Alley.