Chapter 139: The Grind Begins
During the Easter holidays at Hogwarts, there was not much spring in the air.
This was especially true in the Slytherin Common Room, located at the bottom of the Black Lake, where a dark, cold, salty dampness lingered all year round.
Green tapestries hung from the rough stone walls, and silver lamps emitted a cold, clear light.
The second year Slytherin students were sitting around the fireplace, the atmosphere somewhat heavy with tension.
The reason was none other than the parchment placed in front of each of them.
The third year course selection form.
Starting from third year, Hogwarts students had to choose elective subjects to study alongside their core mandatory curriculum.
Hogwarts' core courses included Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, and History of Magic.
The electives included Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies, and Study of Ancient Runes.
These courses not only broadened a student's knowledge, but also served as prerequisites for entering certain magical professions, such as Auror or Magizoologist, especially when preparing for N.E.W.T. level exams.
For this group of self proclaimed elite pure blood descendants, this was not merely a list of courses.
It was a rehearsal for their future status and power in the wizarding world.
"This is absolute torture."
Draco Malfoy gripped his quill, his brow furrowed as he moved it back and forth over the parchment, yet hesitated to make even a single mark.
He glanced at Goyle and Crabbe, who were frantically stuffing cupcakes into their mouths, then kicked Goyle irritably.
"Stop eating! You two idiots, have you decided what to pick?"
"Uh..."
Goyle swallowed the cake with difficulty, looking dazed.
"I want something easy... maybe Divination? I heard you can pass just by making up a few nightmares."
"And Care of Magical Creatures," Crabbe added indistinctly. "That one doesn't require using your brain."
Draco rolled his eyes and let out a disappointed scoff.
"I knew it. Expecting you two to amount to anything is less likely than expecting a Troll to learn ballet."
He turned his head, casting his gaze toward Tamara Riddle, who was sitting in a high backed armchair and scrutinising her course form.
Tamara held a quill, her posture elegant and composed.
Her quill moved across the parchment without the slightest hesitation, as if the choices that were so agonising for others were not even worth mentioning in her eyes.
Swish, swish, swish.
A few check marks were made in one smooth motion.
"Tamara?"
Draco leaned in, trying to find the correct answers from her choices.
"What did you pick? I'd like to use it as a reference. After all, the Slytherin elite should keep their pace consistent, right?"
Tamara did not hide it. She casually pushed the completed form to the centre of the table.
The people around her, Pansy, Daphne, Blaise Zabini, and the consistently quiet Theodore Nott, all instinctively craned their necks.
On that parchment, among the dense list of electives, only two courses had been checked.
Study of Ancient Runes.
Arithmancy.
The entire area fell silent for a second.
"Merlin's beard..."
Pansy Parkinson let out a pained groan, her expression as if she had just swallowed a slug.
"Those are... the two hardest courses!"
"Ancient Runes? That stuff is basically gibberish! I heard from an older prefect that it's absolute torture!"
Blaise Zabini also raised an eyebrow, his tone carrying a mix of mockery and dread.
"Are you serious, Tamara? Arithmancy? That's a pure game of numbers and logic with no shortcuts. They say Ravenclaws break down in tears every year because of that class."
"That is only true for mediocrities."
Tamara spoke softly, her voice calm yet radiating an arrogance that brooked no argument.
She picked up her teacup and took a light sip, her eyes flashing with an absolute desire for control over knowledge.
Or rather, over the essence of power.
"Ancient Runes are the origin of magic. They are the key to deconstructing spells."
"As for Arithmancy..."
She gave a contemptuous laugh.
"It is the only method that does not rely on inspiration or luck, but uses rigorous calculation to deduce the future."
"Only by mastering these can you truly understand magic."
As she spoke, her gaze swept over another popular option on the form.
Divination.
Her eyes instantly filled with extreme loathing, as if she were looking at a pile of dragon dung.
Prophecy.
Tamara coldly chewed over the word in her mind, her fingertip unconsciously pressing hard against the parchment, almost poking through the line.
Reason told her that it was a complete and utter scam.
Interpreting tea leaves as omens of death and seeing mist in a crystal ball as guidance for the future was a complete insult to magic.
The truly strong never believed in fate. They only believed in the wand in their hand and in absolute power.
Only weak, incompetent fools would seek a sense of security from such ambiguous rambling.
But...
A cold chill silently crept up her spine at the mention of that word.
Decades ago, on that night in the Hog's Head Inn filled with the smell of cheap sherry, the raspy voice of that mad woman had remained like a poisoned thorn buried deep within her soul.
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him... he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other... born as the seventh month dies...
It was only a few lines of absurd, laughable, and illogical gibberish.
It should have been a joke.
Yet it was precisely those few lines of a joke that had led her, the greatest Dark Lord in history, to walk into that damned trap like a fool being led by the nose.
In the end, she had been blown apart in front of a baby's crib and reduced to a wandering spirit.
What irony.
She did not believe in fate, but she had to be wary of the destructive power that believing in fate could bring.
The stupidity of hearing a prophecy and then personally creating her own gravedigger was the greatest shame of her life.
And her deepest, unacknowledged fear.
"A scam."
Tamara took a deep breath, forcibly cutting off the memory and suppressing that uncomfortable wariness back into the depths of her heart.
She looked up, her eyes cold and sharp once more. Then she extended a slender finger and tapped heavily on that line of text.
"That is a scam prepared for people with shrivelled brains."
"Sitting in a musty attic, rambling over a pile of tea leaves or a crystal ball, and calling that the Inner Eye?"
She gave a cold laugh, looking around at the surrounding Slytherins. Her tone carried not only contempt, but a chilling warning.
"If any of you want to waste your life in that class, then please stay far away from me. I am afraid that kind of stupidity might be contagious."
"Furthermore..."
Tamara narrowed her eyes, her voice low, as if she were delivering a sentence.
"True fate is never something to be seen. It is something to be crushed under the feet of the strong."
"Learning things that only let you see your own miserable death serves no purpose other than shaking your will."
As soon as these words were spoken, the few students who had originally wanted to follow Goyle into Divination immediately pulled their hands back as if they had been shocked, desperately crossing out that option in their minds.
They had to be joking.
If Tamara labelled them as people with shrivelled brains, how could they possibly survive in Slytherin after that?
"Y You're right!"
Draco swallowed hard and loudly agreed.
"I was thinking the same thing! How could the true elite possibly play around with tea leaves?"
He gritted his teeth, his quill trembling as he drew two heavy check marks in the columns for Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.
Even though his heart was screaming that he hated rote memorisation and mathematics the most, he had no choice.
To follow in Tamara's footsteps and prove that he was not one of those people with shrivelled brains, he had to do it.
"That's more like it."
Tamara gave him a satisfied look, one that made Draco feel all his sacrifice had been worth it.
"Spoken like a Malfoy."
"Of course!"
Draco puffed out his chest and turned to shout at the stunned Goyle and Crabbe.
"What are you looking at? This is the choice of the elite! People with your brains wouldn't understand!"
"I will also choose these two."
Theodore Nott, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke.
The thin, gloomy boy pushed his parchment forward, clearly showing the same courses selected.
He looked at Tamara, a glimmer of recognition flashing in his eyes, as if he had found a kindred spirit.
"I also trust the precision of numbers more than vague and ethereal prophecies."
Tamara gave Nott a somewhat surprised look.
This Nott, although usually quiet, had a brain far more useful than Malfoy's.
He was a talent worth cultivating.
"But..."
Pansy had a bitter look on her face, still making a final struggle.
"Won't taking only these two be too boring? Isn't there anything... slightly more interesting?"
She did not want to waste her youth on dictionaries and calculations.
"Interesting?"
Draco's eyes lit up, as if he had suddenly remembered something.
He made a heavy check mark at the bottom of the parchment, on the course Tamara had ignored.
"Care of Magical Creatures!"
Draco said excitedly, his tone carrying an arrogance as if he were about to conquer something.
"My father said this course is very useful."
"Think about it. If we can learn how to control those dangerous magical creatures... like how Tamara dealt with that snake before!"
He looked at Tamara, seeking her approval.
"This is a mandatory course for the strong! Mastering beasts and making them serve us!"
Tamara raised an eyebrow.
Mastering beasts?
Although she knew that the Care of Magical Creatures professor next year would be that brainless Hagrid, that did not diminish the value of the course itself.
Moreover, she did need to further develop that [Magical Creature Affinity] passive skill.
Tamara picked up her quill again and placed a check mark beside Care of Magical Creatures.
"That is actually a decent idea, Draco."
Tamara did not discourage his enthusiasm. Instead, she nodded.
"Understanding a creature's weaknesses is indeed the first step to ruling them."
Having received her approval, Draco became even more prideful.
He slapped the parchment onto the table and raised his chin toward the people around them.
"Did you hear that? This is the standard configuration for our Slytherin core circle!"
"Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures!"
"Anyone who dares choose Muggle Studies or Divination is choosing to degenerate!"
Under Draco's instigation and Tamara's pressure, the second year Slytherins who had originally intended to coast through their electives tearfully abandoned the easy courses one by one and were forced onto this arduous academic journey known as the elite route.
Even Goyle and Crabbe, under Draco's coercion, tremblingly checked Care of Magical Creatures.
As for Runes and Arithmancy, Draco had enough self awareness to let them off.
Those would truly be the death of them.
Looking at this group of subordinates whom she had hijacked onto the path of self improvement, Tamara happily put away her parchment.
"Very well."
She stood, her black robes swirling behind her in an elegant arc.
"I hope that next semester, you won't be crying over those piles of numbers and symbols."
"After all..."
She walked to the door of the common room and looked back with a meaningful smile.
"I don't have time to give remedial lessons to a bunch of failures who can't keep up."
With that, she turned and left.
She left the crowd of Slytherins in the common room looking at the heavy course forms in their hands, sinking into a complex mix of longing and despair for the future.
"Can we... really do this?" Pansy looked at the form, feeling as if the future had gone completely dark.
"Of course we can!"
Draco gritted his teeth. Although his hands were shaking, his gaze was exceptionally firm.
"As long as we follow Tamara... we'll become the strongest year Hogwarts has ever seen!"
Blaise Zabini watched this scene, shook his head helplessly, and checked the same options on his own form.
"It's truly insane..."
He sighed, yet a hint of a smile hung at the corner of his mouth.
"But following a madman is much more interesting than following a fool."
.....
[Check Out My Patreon For Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/Eldryx]