Volume 1

I didn't have to look for the diary. I mean, he was already found the next day, right in the hands of his mistress – Jeanie Weasley. That's just something in this diary has changed. I couldn't figure out what exactly, I was too far away, and the diary itself is well hidden from scanning. But I was sure that there were almost many times more charms on that.

Too actively, the diary drew magic from the environment and from Gini herself. But before that, there were enough mere crumbs… It's not good, he pulled magic too hard. I can't even imagine what it was necessary to do with the diary so that it almost completely drained its owner. It even became interesting for me to personally dig into the updated diary.

But no, I'm not going to mess with Jeanie anymore. Now she is under the close supervision of the director, which means that it is contraindicated for me to shine next to her… It's a shame, of course, I wanted to send the girl to the secret room, purely for intelligence. Still, I haven't been there for almost half a century, you never know what could have changed in such a long time. Maybe the founder's terrarium has long been discovered by the director, having arranged it for his needs, and not informing the rest about it. Extra caution wouldn't hurt.

It won't hurt even now, but I can't find a scout now. This is Jeanie, through the diary, I could make her speak Parseltongue. I just can't pull off a similar trick with someone else. To create an artifact whose connection with me would not be inferior to what I had with the diary. Without a ready-made template, I just can't handle something like that. Numerous calculations of potions and charms are needed... the game is not worth the candle.

By the way, I myself inherited Tom's ability to talk to snakes. It's exactly the same as with mental magic. Despite major changes in magic, Tom Riddel's ancestral gifts have passed to me in full. Although there was not without a fly in the ointment in a barrel of honey. Still, ancestral gifts are a big burden for the body and mind of a wizard. Having been born with them, the magician almost does not feel the influence of those on himself, but my case is somewhat different.

Despite the fact that Draco and Tom received their gifts at birth, I, as a new and independent person, adopted those from my donors. Yes, because of the "force of habit", I did not feel the influence of as many as six gifts on myself, and even metamorphism did not change the situation too much, but all this mass of soul superstructures still influenced me.

Basically, this influence was limited to a wild desire to practice this or that magic. But even minor deviations from the norm were still noticeable. So, the incipient paranoia clearly hinted that Tom's talent in dark magic had not weakened at all, continuing to shake my mind. Rather, it was intensified by contact with the blood of the Blacks. All those were considered a truly dark race for a reason, and the legends about their madness did not come from scratch. Dark magic has always somewhat distorted the minds of its users.

And no, by dark magic, I don't mean the magic that is now banned by the ministry, they now generally prohibit everything that is at least a little more complicated than stepping, the stunning spell has become a kind of threshold, after which almost everything is already prohibited. No, the laws of the ministry didn't bother me much at all, they still can't track the execution of their own laws, I mean exactly Dark Magic, which the founders still considered such.

By the way, a relatively small number of spells can be attributed to Dark Magic. Half a hundred basic ones, and even as many duplicates and alternatives ... well, a dozen rituals from the same category. And this is impressive, especially if you remember What kind of trace they left in the history of the magical and ordinary worlds. Another thing is that the modern generation has degraded so much that, in addition to the three unforgivable ones, they have never heard of real spells from dark magic. But unforgivable spells are just the tip of the iceberg, the basis that allows you to determine the ability of a magician to this section of magic.

Still, all subsequent spells are too difficult to master, and even require special conditions for use. Without the gift and a huge amount of magical energy, the peaks cannot be reached here. Only a few can become truly Dark Magicians. And those who are also ready to go down this path ... they are not. Even Tom wasn't going to get too involved in dark magic. The risk of going completely insane is too high.

But not the point. Dark magic is too controversial a topic to talk about it early in the morning. It's better to focus on the day ahead. The upcoming pairs promise to be exhausting, I was not going to stop practicing wandless magic. Such training significantly accelerated my development as a magician. It's not that ordinary magic with a wand does not bring such a result. No, it's just free magic - it's like pull-ups with weights. It is very difficult, but having thrown off the weights, the usual exercise turns out to be much easier.

After wandless witchcraft, it's not just easier to conjure with a wand. No, the spell itself goes to a whole new level of execution. With the same expenditure of energy, the spell itself turns out to be stronger and "concentrating". There is nothing to say about the speed of execution. I start using some spells just at will, without any concentration.

And I'm not going to do magic alone. Connections and influence are important parts of a magician's full power. Still, without proper acquaintances, you can't even turn to a normal master now. There is nothing to say about the search for new knowledge. No one will share their own libraries with an outsider. Some trust is already needed here... as well as a good reason. And the stick at the throat can not always be the very reason. The upbringing of purebloods is such that for them the genus is almost always more important than their own well-being.

- Draco? - Goyle turned to me a little scared, distracting me from unnecessary thoughts and reminding me that it was time to go to the potions, the time allocated for breakfast was coming to an end. "W-why are your eyes glowing?" - The boy still asked me timidly, trying not to attract too much attention to us.

- Too thoughtful. - I chuckled to myself, realizing that the saturation of my body continues to rise. A slight glow of the eyes is the first sign that there is too much magic in the body. All strong wizards always have glowing eyes, but only those who skillfully hide it with spells. Not everyone wants to declare their strength to the whole world. It's Dumbledore who likes to show off. –My gift has responded to my thoughts, don't worry too much about it. I answered Goyle louder, getting up from the table.

The concealment spell still doesn't come out too well. Well, I don't like hiding my own strength. I'm tired of pretending to be a nice boy Draco, that I haven't fully understood my own strength yet... and I'm sure that's what the upperclassmen think of me, seeing my training in metamorphism.

Still, the ability to change your body, despite the gift, is very costly in terms of energy. An ordinary schoolboy, even with a gift, is unlikely to be able to hold large-scale transformations for too long. I almost go around for days with minor changes in appearance, and sometimes I completely transform, shocking the faculty.

The rest of the faculties, apart from the ravens, consider my abilities to be something funny and not very difficult, I change too easily, but the purebloods understand that I spend a lot of energy in a day… Well, those who do not understand such simple truths and are not pure-blooded at all, but so degenerate, like the same Weasleys.