The Evil Thoughts of Hogwarts and the Genie

Edmund pondered Lucius's words, unable to discern whether he was trying to curry favor or subtly give him a warning.

To be honest, regardless of the truth, Edmund found these words somewhat laughable. First, he and Lucius were completely different kinds of people; he wasn't even human. Second, if simply interacting with Gryffindor students could provoke such controversy… well, wasn't that exactly what he wanted?

This delighted him greatly, and he even ate an extra piece of dessert. Edmund had always been childlike—because he truly was a child now.

To be more precise, he is now a "whole" dominated by Edmund Soman, who has died once, and this "whole" contains many concepts and many souls, but all of that is now history. Only Edmund himself exists in the present, in the present tense.

On one hand, he must now live his life as Edmund; on the other hand, the three artifacts that house his main authority have all been lost elsewhere, and Edmund must find them one by one in order to become his complete self again.

More importantly, although Edmund can still access the powers he inherited from his past identity, those powers are subject to many limitations and are not entirely his own. Therefore, his current studies are indeed crucial—besides, while the Edmund of the past possessed immense "magic power," he was never a "wizard." He is also curious to see how far he can progress after systematic learning.

So, why did he suddenly get excited when he heard that he could cause trouble?

This is directly related to the most fundamental and useful ability he retained even after losing the three sacred artifacts.

The soul of the one who makes three wishes will belong to me.

...At present, the soul that Edmund is most interested in and most wants to obtain is, of course, that of Albus Dumbledore, the greatest white wizard of our time.

But compared to having the other person make a wish for you... just being seen by the other person, being able to walk to their side, and gaining their trust are already quite difficult.

After all, Edmund was only 11 years old.

How exactly do I manage to cause such a huge mess that Dumbledore would be attracted to it... and I wouldn't have to go to that wizarding prison, Azkaban?

This was the homework Edmund had assigned himself for the school year.

But before that, he'd better hurry up and leave the restaurant and the Great Hall to prepare for the Potions class in the afternoon.

The good news is that the Potions classroom isn't as remote as the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom; the bad news is that it's just as far from the Slytherin common room.

First, Edmund had to exit through the main entrance of the Great Hall. Learning from his experience that morning, he used a sock embroidered with a golden thief to distract the two flights of stairs, which allowed him to successfully pass through.

The rest of the way was much easier. This was his first time leaving Hogwarts and arriving at a spacious outdoor courtyard. This historic and prestigious magical school, located in the Scottish Highlands, was indeed picturesque. Edmund glanced at it briefly before crossing the arched courtyard and stepping onto a magical stone bridge.

Good news! Stone Bridge didn't pull any tricks on him and Travers.

The two entered the library annex without incident. The connection between the castle buildings also had a mountain architecture style. They went directly from the outside to the second floor, but their destination was the basement. Apart from being a little far, there were no other drawbacks to this journey.

Because the journey went more smoothly than expected, Edmund had time to carefully observe the main hall of the library annex after he had climbed the last few steps.

The hall's design appeared simple, yet it possessed a rich cultural heritage. The most captivating element was the moving, three-dimensional rock painting on the ceiling, depicting an angry dragon, likely a Hungarian hornet. To its left stood a young wizard, who appeared thin and small by the dragon, seemingly brandishing a wand; looking down, however, he appeared timid. Edmund was slightly taken aback, unable to understand why such a thing could be placed in the center of the main hall.

That thing was a magical statue, highly crafted, but the content depicted seemed to be some kind of fabrication full of Muggle fantasy and bad taste. Edmund couldn't see even a trace of design logic in it.

If it truly was the creation of a wizard, then perhaps its maker was driven to distraction by their employer. Otherwise, Edmund finds it hard to imagine what kind of mental state the creator was in to produce such a thing with such exquisite skill.

Edmund thought this way, his gaze sweeping across the main hall, and he noticed something, so he simply said it aloud. He looked disgusted, like an art critic whose eyes had just been poisoned.

"This is clearly a controversial...work of art. I really don't understand what the headmaster was thinking, blatantly displaying it in such a prominent position! Look, look, if those noisy goblins knew their ancestors were sculpted as slaves lifting stone platforms, who knows how mad they'd go!"

"Besides, their clothing is sloppy and illogical! These beautiful, moving mermaids are clearly subspecies that live in temperate zones, while the fairies over there wouldn't wear this style of clothing!"

Travers looked at Edmund with bewilderment, unable to understand why his English had improved so dramatically, even uttering many obscure technical terms. Fortunately, this wasn't meant for this fool anyway.

Just as Edmund complained, "Besides, werewolves in their transformed state rarely attack magical creatures—unless you tell me this unicorn provoked them first, otherwise having this thing here just lowers the prestige of Hogwarts!" someone spontaneously applauded him.

"Brilliant, brilliant! Very professional insights, let me see..." A large belly was the first to step forward, followed by an old wizard with a thick, walrus-like beard. "Oh dear, a little Slytherin!"

The old wizard's expression grew even more smug, a shrewd glint in his bulging eyes. He reached out and patted Edmund on the shoulder, saying in a cheerful tone:

"It's a pity I'm not the professor of Magical Creatures, otherwise I would definitely give you an extra 5 points. But that's not what attracts me most, little Slytherin! You're very confident in what you say, which shows you have your own insights into art..."

What kind of wealth must a family possess to raise someone who dares to comment on the artworks in Hogwarts with such eloquence? What kind of background must nurture such confidence?

Hogwarts Potions Professor Horace Slughorn smiled warmly.

"For your courage to speak your mind, I'll add one point!" Slughorn was delighted. "By the way, child, what's your name?"

Unfortunately, Edmund's sweet smile froze on the old professor's face as soon as he said his name.

Clearly... this old fellow has lived long enough to know about the feud between the Soman family and Dumbledore and Grindelwald.