Bloodline Research

After class, the Slytherins were still excitedly discussing what had happened during the lesson as they walked through the corridors. This time, Slytherin had truly brought glory to the House—and earned a full sixty points.

Skylar's prestige among his Slytherin classmates had also gradually risen without anyone quite noticing.

Among the Slytherin boys, Draco and his brother from the House of Malfoy, along with Theodore Nott of the Nott Family, had originally held the highest status. But over the previous term—Skylar being invited to join the Transfiguration Club, joining the Charms Club, and winning Transfiguration Today's Most Promising Newcomer Award—every one of those achievements demonstrated Skylar's outstanding ability. Even Theodore Nott, proud and difficult to tame as he was, had to acknowledge Skylar as the leading figure among the Slytherins of their year.

Several Slytherin girls in their year had also begun looking for chances to get close to Skylar. Tracey Davis and Audrey Runcorn, who often hung around with Pansy, would sometimes use questions about schoolwork as an excuse to speak with him, or wait for him in the common room so they could go to the Great Hall for dinner together. Unfortunately for them, Daphne and Meredith would turn into little cats defending their territory at such times, keeping a close watch over Skylar and refusing to give the others any chance to approach him.

Skylar was not someone who enjoyed showing off. What he had done earlier in Defense Against the Dark Arts had actually served another purpose.

The first week of term soon passed.

During that first week, Skylar attended three Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Although later lessons no longer included practical material like Cornish Pixies, Skylar, who knew Lockhart's books by heart, was still able to earn Slytherin points during the routine classroom questions and gain quite a bit of Lockhart's favor.

That weekend, Draco unsurprisingly passed the Quidditch team tryouts and became the Seeker. Harry Potter, too, followed the original course of events and became Gryffindor's Seeker in his second year. The only difference was that, in this world, Professor McGonagall had not given him a broomstick, so he had bought a Cleansweep Seven with his own money.

Skylar did not think much of it. Unlike his carefree counterpart in the original story, Draco knew he could not match Skylar academically, so he felt that flying was the only thing he still had that was worth showing off. Skylar had personally witnessed Draco training tirelessly day and night throughout the entire summer holiday. Draco's skill was probably not much worse than Harry's, despite Harry's natural talent. And factoring in the difference between their broomsticks, it was not impossible for Draco to utterly crush Harry.

(Note: Oliver Wood had once suggested buying Harry either a Nimbus 2000 or a Cleansweep Seven, which indicated that the two brooms were roughly comparable in craftsmanship. However, the Nimbus 2000 was known as the fastest broom of its time, so it should have been somewhat faster than the Cleansweep. Draco's Nimbus 2001 was even faster and more refined than the Nimbus 2000, so its craftsmanship was certainly at least a full tier above Harry's Cleansweep Seven.)

It was worth mentioning that, on the day of the tryouts, his troublesome brother got into another conflict with Harry's trio.

Hermione sharply mocked Draco for buying his way onto the Quidditch team. Furious, Draco publicly insulted Hermione by calling her a "Mudblood," triggering a massive brawl between Slytherin and Gryffindor.

Ron overestimated himself and cast the Slug-vomiting Charm at Draco. In the end, his battered old wand backfired and hit Ron himself, making him vomit slugs all day.

When Skylar heard about it, he could only shake his head speechlessly at his brother's suicidal behavior. In his view, Draco's habit of imitating their father and constantly throwing around the word "Mudblood" was incredibly foolish. Hogwarts was now under the control of Dumbledore, who favored Muggles. Doing things Dumbledore despised right under his nose—what else could it be but courting death?

In the second week of term, Skylar had Dobby buy him a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky, then personally brought it to Lockhart's office. The moment Skylar knocked on the door, it flew open. Lockhart stood in the doorway, greeting him with his trademark smile. "Ah, Mr. Malfoy, my finest student. Welcome, this way, please."

Lockhart's office was brightly lit by numerous candles, and countless framed portraits of Lockhart covered the walls. A large stack of photographs sat on the desk as well, every portrait displaying dazzling white teeth and a carefully practiced smile.

Skylar first presented Ogden's Old Firewhisky to Lockhart, saying that he was a fan of Lockhart's books and deeply admired his adventures. Lockhart's vanity immediately swelled.

After some polite conversation between teacher and student, Skylar saw that the atmosphere was about right and raised the purpose of his visit. "It's like this, Professor. I finished several of your books, but I ran into some questions. For example, I didn't quite understand the slow-acting vampire venom mentioned in Voyages with Vampires; nor the method of resisting a hag's mental control in Holidays with Hags; nor the spell that finally restored the werewolf's human form in Wanderings with Werewolves..."

Lockhart froze, looking as though he could not find the words. Skylar's questions seemed to be beyond his depth.

"Of course, I'm not here to ask you for the answers!" Skylar hurriedly added while Lockhart's eyes darted about. "I'm sure you could answer such simple questions with ease, Professor, but since you didn't write those answers in your books, you must have intended for us to explore them ourselves..."

"Is that so?" Lockhart blinked. "No, I mean, you're absolutely right, Mr. Malfoy. I did indeed intend for you to explore the answers to those questions yourselves. You truly are my finest student!"

"So I wanted to find some books in the library, in hopes of resolving my doubts. The problem is that those books are all in the library's Restricted Section, so I need a Restricted Section Permit personally signed by a professor."

Lockhart nodded. "Of course. I could never stop a seeker of knowledge from pursuing the truth." He flourished a large, ornate signature across a slip of parchment. Its elegant letters read: Permission is hereby granted to Skylar Malfoy to enter the library's Restricted Section. Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Thank you, Professor!" Skylar quickly took the slip.

"You're welcome, Skylar..." Lockhart waved grandly. "Study hard. One day, you may well achieve something close to my accomplishments!"

[Restricted Section Permit acquired!]

That was right. Skylar's true purpose behind all of this had been to enter the library's Restricted Section!

Skylar possessed the collections of both the House of Malfoy and the House of Black, the inherited spells of the Four Great Families, Professor McGonagall's insights on Transfiguration, and Nicolas Flamel's notes on alchemy. He did not lack any powerful magic at all. He knew perfectly well what problem he currently faced: his magical power was insufficient for him to learn high-level spells that consumed enormous amounts of magic and possessed tremendous power. His lack of magical power was the greatest bottleneck in his magical studies.

There were very few ways to increase magical power. Aside from the natural growth that came with a wizard's age, only three other methods were known:

First, collecting legendary magical artifacts such as the Elder Wand. However, legendary magical artifacts were exceedingly rare and extremely difficult to obtain. Many wizards had never even seen one in their entire lives.

Second, modifying one's body with Dark Magic like Voldemort had done. It was said that Tom Riddle had been very handsome as a student, completely different from the hideous and terrifying Voldemort he later became. This method made it easy to gain great power, but Skylar had no desire to turn into a noseless monster like Voldemort.

Third, using various potions and alchemical items to stimulate a wizard's magical potential. This potential was generally hidden within the power of a wizard's bloodline.

Although Skylar had read extensively through the collections of several families, he had not found any records concerning bloodline power. Thus, he turned his attention to Hogwarts' library Restricted Section, hoping to find materials useful for his research into bloodline power there.

For the time that followed, Skylar often spent his days in the library's Restricted Section. It carried a cold, gloomy atmosphere, and when Skylar stepped inside quietly, he felt a chill seeping through every pore.

Skylar examined the books one by one along the shelves: Moste Potente Potions, Sonnets of a Sorcerer, The Book of Spells, Powerful Potions, Secrets of the Soul, Codex of Demons, and more. The titles alone sent chills down one's spine, while their covers were even more horrifying and sinister. Sonnets of a Sorcerer, for example, showed an emaciated wizard bleeding from all seven orifices, his head tilted back as though reciting something.

Curiously, Skylar opened a copy of Secrets of the Soul. Its cover felt soft and smooth, but the moment he opened it, a roar sounded. A skull made of thin mist lunged viciously at his face. He dodged it alertly, and it drifted into the air before dissolving into nothingness.

Skylar did not open the book again. He had no interest in overly profound soul magic at the moment; his top priority was to find books concerning Blood Magic. He hurriedly scanned the titles on the spines, row after row. After what had happened with Voldemort, Dumbledore presumably would not permit books similar to Secrets of the Darkest Art to remain in the Restricted Section. Skylar was therefore relatively unconcerned about accidentally touching a dangerous Dark Magic book.

Only after three weeks of effort did Skylar finally gather all the materials he needed.

Even with the library's vast collection, there was still very little information regarding Blood Magic. Among the many materials, the most useful was the research notes of the legendary wizard Merlin on bloodline modification. Merlin had sought to increase the magical power within the human body by implanting the bloodlines of magical creatures into humans. Unfortunately, the research eventually touched upon forbidden territory and had to be abandoned.

Although he was somewhat disappointed that he had not found a specific method to help awaken his bloodline power, Skylar was not discouraged. Magical research had always been something that required steady, methodical progress; it could not be accomplished overnight. He had been exceptionally fortunate for everything to go so smoothly until now. This setback was simply a chance to temper himself.