Chapter 36 Merlin's test.

Chapter 36.

With one month left until summer vacation and exams canceled, the students appeared very relaxed, and happy laughter could be heard in every corner of the school. A few days later, students discovered some explosive news on the student bulletin board:

First, Lucius Malfoy was expelled from the school board, symbolising that the Malfoy family would completely lose influence within Hogwarts. Because of this, Draco seemed very downcast and no longer walked around the school with his usual arrogance.

"How did things turn out this way?" Draco complained to Soren several times.

"Draco, I can understand how you feel," Soren tried to soothe his brother's emotions. "To be honest, the board has indeed weakened over the years, and you know me; I have never supported the Malfoy family going against Dumbledore…"

"That's because that old man with the white beard is unfair," Draco said indignantly. "Just look at last year's House Cup; he almost said 'the trophy is predetermined'… Even so, do you still think that way?"

"I think you misunderstood my point, Draco," Soren looked at Draco with a sincere and firm gaze. "I don't agree with many of Dumbledore's actions, but you cannot deny—"

"After the Dark Lord's defeat, Dumbledore's position in all of Great Britain and even in the global wizarding community is unshakable… People call him the greatest wizard of the century; even the Ministry of Magic cannot ignore a word he says or an action he takes… Just look at the board…"

"Do you know the famous magical creature expert Newt Scamander? Back in the day, he was considered the culprit behind the accidental injury of a classmate by a rogue murtlap without any evidence. Under pressure from the Board of Governors, even with Dumbledore's strong support, he was still expelled by then-Headmaster Dippet... Now look at Hogwarts, the professors are almost all Dumbledore's trusted aides, and the Board of Governors hardly has any presence—students only know about Dumbledore. I've heard that many new students don't even know the Board of Governors exists..."

"Rather than worrying all day about the lost Board seat, it's better to use that time for self-improvement. Only by becoming truly strong can we one day regain the glory lost by the Malfoy family, believe me!"

Every word Soren said made sense, and even the stubborn Draco couldn't find any angle to refute it.

Under Soren's guidance, he finally began to heed Soren's advice, no longer fantasizing about flaunting his family's power, but instead quietly studying magic and practicing flying, determined to uphold his family's honor through his own strength.

Seeing Draco finally becoming more ambitious, Soren felt that while this incident had tarnished the Malfoy family's reputation, it was not entirely a bad thing. Moreover, the one filling Lucius's Board seat was none other than the head of the Greengrass family—Mr. Gareth Greengrass.

Secondly, Dumbledore personally announced the revival of an inter-house friendly competition that had been discontinued for centuries, called "Merlin's Challenge." This competition is open to students from the first to sixth years of the four houses, with the reward for the winners being a special medal from the Order of Sir Merlin.

The Order of Sir Merlin was founded by the legendary wizard Merlin in the eleventh century and is one of the earliest magical organizations in the wizarding world, highly prestigious. The purpose of the Order was to assist Muggles, prohibiting wizards from using magic on Muggles, and establishing that each wizard within the Order would take on the responsibility of protecting Muggles.

Later, with the establishment of the Ministry of Magic and the enactment of the 1689 International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, wizards completely retreated into secrecy. The Wizengamot established an honor system in the name of the Order of Sir Merlin, rewarding those wizards who made significant contributions to the development of wizarding society. The medals of the Order of Sir Merlin are divided into three different levels: first-class, second-class, and third-class. The prize for this competition is a special honorary medal, independent of the level system, specifically awarded to students for outstanding performance.

As everyone enthusiastically discussed this friendly competition, a new piece of news came that extinguished most people's hopes of participating.

Except for Slytherin, each house could only send one representative to compete, and the selection would be determined by the house head, either through a selection process or direct appointment. Although there was no explicit rule stating that only upper-year students could compete, generally speaking, upper-year students always had an advantage over lower-year students. Everyone understood that the qualification to compete would likely fall to a few elite upper-year students.

What seemed quite unfair was that Slytherin could send a total of three students to compete. Dumbledore's reasoning was that Merlin himself was a graduate of Slytherin, so it was only natural for the reward system he left behind to favour his own house's successors. Soren immediately realised that Merlin was actually taking the blame for Dumbledore; this was clearly Dumbledore's proposed compensation for Slytherin. Who would have thought that the seemingly righteous Dumbledore would be so cunning, Soren thought maliciously.

The candidates for Slytherin were quickly chosen. Snape impatiently directly appointed sixth-year prefect Gemma Farley, fourth-year Cassius Warrington, and second-year Soren Malfoy as the representatives.

Unexpectedly, one of the favourites, Gellert Lestrange, was eliminated, which caused a significant loss of followers around him and dealt a blow to the Lestrange family's reputation. Gellert's gloomy figure could often be seen in the Slytherin common room, and of course, no one dared to cross him.

Soren was not surprised at all by his selection. With his current strength and reputation, representing Slytherin was more than sufficient. He approached this competition with an attitude of wanting to gain experience and the rare opportunity to compete with upper-year students. He wasn't too concerned about winning or the so-called prize; a medal that only represented honor was no different from empty fame to him and held no practical significance.

Moreover, as a member of the Malfoy family, obtaining the Order of Merlin medal isn't difficult; one just needs to make substantial donations to the Ministry of Magic. There are precedents for this; as far as he knows, Arcturus Black from the Black family received his medal in this manner.

In the following days, other houses also finalised their candidates. Gryffindor's candidate is the sixth-year prefect Percy Weasley, who reportedly earned 12 OWLS, making him a top student. Ravenclaw's candidate is the sixth-year prefect Penelope Clearwater, a beautiful girl with long brown curly hair, who was once petrified by the basilisk and only recently recovered from that state.

The candidates from these two houses were not surprising; they were both high-level prefects.

In contrast, Hufflepuff's candidate seemed quite odd. Hufflepuff's choice is fourth-year student Cedric Diggory, a handsome boy who remains relatively unknown at Hogwarts, aside from serving as the Seeker on the Quidditch team, with no other notable accomplishments. However, those familiar with the original story know that this handsome boy was quite strong, being one of the best in the school during his sixth year, which is why he was chosen as Hogwarts' representative for the Triwizard Tournament.

Hearing these familiar names from his past life and realizing he would be their opponent sparked an uncontrollable excitement within Soren.

Soon, it was the arrival of the second week of June, which marked the beginning of Merlin's trial.

The competition venue was the Quidditch pitch, which was packed early in the morning, with students from all houses present to cheer for their representatives.

The competition consisted of three events, with the topics provided by a thick, deep purple-covered ancient magic book carried by Dumbledore. This book, similar to the Goblet of Fire, has a consciousness of its own and is titled "The Book of Merlin." Dumbledore and the four house heads would serve as judges to score the participants, ensuring the fairness of the competition.

The first event was a potion-making contest. Dumbledore pointed his wand at the Book of Merlin and gave it a light wave, causing it to open automatically and flip through its pages rapidly until it stopped at a certain page, announcing in a deep voice, "Antidote for the Draught of living death..."

The Draught of living death is a very potent sedative that can put someone into a deep sleep, and it is part of the sixth-year NEWT-level curriculum, giving older students an advantage. Among the participants, only Percy and Penelope knew how to brew it; although Gemma was also in sixth year, she was not in the advanced Potions class, so she was just as confused and lost as the younger participants. However, the challenge was not to brew the Draught of living death but to create its antidote, which is knowledge outside of the curriculum that Percy and Penelope might not know.

Fortunately, Soren happened to know the answer to this question. The answer appeared in the "Compendium of Medieval Potions" that Meredith had gifted to Soren for Christmas, a potion invented by an ancestor of the Shafiq family.

At that time, she had fallen in love with a handsome Muggle but devised a plan to fake her death using the Draught of living death due to family opposition—she spent considerable effort inventing an antidote, which her Muggle lover was supposed to use to rescue her at midnight after she was buried. However, plans often change; during her potion development, that Muggle fell in love with another girl, and after she was buried, he failed to keep his promise to rescue her, callously leaving her to be buried alive. Fortunately, the Draught of living death that old family member took inexplicably lost its effectiveness, so she ultimately avoided the fate of being buried alive. Resurrected, she turned her love into hatred, using dark magic to torment both her Muggle lover and the other woman to death.

Though the antidote was never used in the end, the method of making it was recorded and named "Revitalising Potion."

While the other participants were still struggling to think, Soren had already begun his performance. His movements flowed like water, as if he were creating a work of art rather than a dull potion, pleasing the judges who nodded in satisfaction.

Professor McGonagall couldn't help but turn to Dumbledore and say, "If this child had enrolled a few years earlier, perhaps last year's Potions Championship would have belonged to Hogwarts and not Mahoutokoro Magic School."

Dumbledore nodded gently and looked at the other contestants. Among them, Percy, Penelope, and Gemma had also begun their potion-making shortly after Soren started, while Cedric had just begun selecting materials at that moment, and Cassius was still deep in thought. The process of brewing potions is one-directional and tedious, so we will skip over that.

The invigorating potion that Soren brewed was very standard, and unsurprisingly, he received a perfect score of 50 points. A wave of cheers erupted from the Slytherin area, and even some young witches from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were generous with their applause, though most were lower-year girls.

Percy brewed a high-concentration stimulant potion, which could also awaken someone from a poisoned slumber, but it had side effects of nausea, stomach pain, and vomiting, earning him 40 points.

Penelope brewed a Mandrake revival potion, likely inspired by her own experience of being petrified. Surprisingly, it could also revive someone from sleep, although the person still woke up groggy and dazed; she, like Percy, also received 40 points.

Gemma and Cedric brewed a universal antidote, which had no effect, earning them a mere 10 points, equivalent to consolation points. Cassius failed to brew a potion under immense pressure, producing no final product and becoming the only contestant to receive a score of zero.

Next was the second event: the Transfiguration competition. The task given by the Book of Merlin was to turn a stone into a living mouse.

This task was easy, and every contestant could accomplish it—Percy, Penelope, and Gemma all successfully turned a stone into a lifelike mouse on their first attempt; Cedric transformed a mouse without whiskers on his first try, only succeeding on his second attempt; Cassius took three tries before he succeeded, though the mouse's tail seemed a bit short.

After reading Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration notes, Soren believed his Transfiguration skills had already reached OWL level, but turning a stone into a living mouse was simply not challenging enough. Therefore, Soren decided to attempt a more difficult transformation—after all, he was the youngest contestant and did not carry the pressure and burden of needing to win like the other competitors. Soren carefully recalled every important detail of Transfiguration from Professor McGonagall's notes and then concentrated all his energy on the stone—much to everyone's astonishment, the stone transformed into a lifelike Mottled Mouse!

Although the magical creature produced by Transfiguration does not possess magical properties, there is no inherent difference in abilities between a Mottled Mouse and an ordinary mouse. However, creating dense and dynamic anemone-like tentacles on the back of the mouse through Transfiguration is no easy task. If the details of the transformation are not well-controlled, it could easily result in tentacles resembling those of an octopus or squid, which would be a failure.

Soren, Percy, Penelope, and Gemma all received full marks of 50 points, while Cedric received 40 points, and Cassius received 35 points.

The temporary scoreboard was as follows: Soren 100 points, Percy and Penelope 90 points, Gemma 60 points, Cedric 50 points, and Cassius 35 points. Cassius's chances of winning were virtually nonexistent, and Cedric's were slim as well. The favourites for the championship were down to four contestants, with Soren standing out as the only lower-year student among them.

*****

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