Chapter Three: Tears of a Soul

One hour turned into multiple hours until I could tell that I was way past midnight. But we Ravenclaws had their own private room, luckily. Because of that, I didn't bother to return to my room for the night and decided to continue my activity until morning.

My biggest find so far was the dark magic-infested diadem and a collection of rare books stuffed in several large shelves. Most of these books looked super forbidden with titles like Magick Moste Vile, The Black Serpent, Ritualis Sacrificium, Curses and Maledictions, The Secrets of the Dark Arts, and so on. Some were nameless, but the content made it clear what kind of books they were – forbidden stuff!

The good stuff!

But the most interesting kind of books had the title such as Magia Sexualis.

My first thought was that I found some ancient collection of porn, but the stuff in these books ended up surprising me. It was full of arcane rituals, techniques, potions, oils, and wondrous elixirs that would allow one to do all kinds of crazy stuff with the help of sex as the main driving force and ingredient. Just reading the content made me slightly horny.

For example, the book showed me how to perform a ritual that would allow me to receive a magical ability from my sexual partner. This particular book was even marked as a property of House Black, with the sigil showing three ravens.

Along with that book came a journal that explained in crappy English that House Black got their Metamorphmagus ability by forcing lesser members to breed with magical creatures that were known as Shapeshifters. The following offspring of the union was given to other lesser members, usually squibs, and after decades of continuous selective breeding, the first Metamorphmagus Pureblood was born – everyone else was killed to keep the practice a secret.

It baffled me that a journal with such dirty secrets of one of the most powerful magical families was casually lying around here, waiting to be found and abused by someone. The book on sex-magic was also full of questionable content, but not all of it was bad. Some rituals would ensure that the offspring would be strong and healthy, and that the child inherits the family magic. Other rituals would make the sexual act more pleasurable to both partners. That was the really fascinating stuff because none of these rituals required any ingredients or runic circles at all; it was enough to fuel them with lots of sex.

Aside from that, there were around two dozen potions and oils with pleasure-enhancing effects for both men and women. Some potions would come with additional benefits such as beautification, but these would steal a small portion of the life-force of your partner, so the book simply advised you to find a muggle that you can fuck to death so you can look young and beautiful.

I realized that this must be the reason why most females of House Black were so beautiful. Narcissa Malfoy could almost rival a Veela in beauty.

Well, all nice and fine, but aside from the sex-magic books, I also found tomes with knowledge on basically all matters. And when I looked through some of these books, the first page showed me that they were actually the property of Hogwarts and that they belonged to the restricted section.

I eventually concluded that someone must have stored all these books in the Room of Hidden Things in order to prevent students from reading them. My first guess was that this was Dumbledore's doing, but that didn't explain the sex-magic books that were marked as property of House Black.

"Hmm, maybe the Headmaster isn't that innocent after all," I joked with a stupid grin, imagining Jude Law and a young Minerva McGonagall practicing wild sexy magic.

Dumbledore didn't stand out much ever since I started school. He seemed quite nice, actually. But I would wait and see since the old man was holding his positions of power for several decades already. Nobody that stood at the apex of political power for so long could be a mere innocent old grandpa.

Also, Grindelwald was only captured by Dumbledore in this world. That Dark Lord almost managed to take over the magical world but was eventually betrayed by his secret allies – Hydra.

Not much was known about that secretive Nazi organization, but Hydra attacked the magical world from time to time. Just two years ago, they actually abducted ten magicals from the Knockturn Alley. Amongst the victims were two well-known purebloods, but still weaklings of no importance and members of some of the darker families - nobody really missed them.

The existence of Hydra made me feel uneasy, but I already accepted that the Marvel Universe would be a dangerous adventure. Mutants were a thing, too. But nothing much happened yet, and the news were also mostly silent on that matter.

The world was still peaceful, one could say.

Voldemort would eventually return, and that was my first aim: Taking care of Voldy…

…by devouring his soul-shards.

With that said, I found myself several large chests and then stored all the precious books I found in them. When I finished that, I shrunk the chests and placed them in my mokeskin pouch.

"Guess I should pay the diadem a visit now," I mumbled after casting a Tempus Charm to check the time.

Its morning again in two hours, and I wanted to be sure that I could 'devour' the diadem before breakfast. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I preferred to have some extra time available in case I passed out from having a full stomach.

"Why do I feel so excited about eating Voldemort's Horcrux?" I asked myself with a wry grin.

*bampf*

My body burst into flames, and I disappeared before reappearing right in front of the small shelf that was holding my target.

Ravenclaw's Diadem looked quite awful in appearance, to be honest. Sure, it had a blue gemstone of the size of a mandarin as the main attraction, but the thingy was shaped like an awkward eagle that was stretching its wings in the wrong direction. The gemstone was the main body of the eagle with wings at each side and a head that was looking to the side. The words 'wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure' were engraved on the base below the eagle.

"Who the hell would want to wear this thing in public?" I scoffed in disbelief.

My hand shot forward, and I grabbed the diadem without much protest or reaction from its part. The Horcrux was definitely there. I could smell its rotten, twisted magic – literally. But I assumed that one had to put it on in order to trigger the mechanism that would allow the Horcrux to possess someone.

There was of course a strong Compulsion Charm on the diadem, suggesting to me that I should put the piece of jewelry on my head. But that was it, and my special nature disabled its ability to influence me in any way. My fire was nullifying or devouring the magic that wanted to enter and influence my mind.

"Okay, it's time to witness the full power of my magic fire," I muttered and then started to heat up my hands until they were glowing like red-hot metal.

Suddenly, black smoke started to escape from the diadem.

*SKREEEEE!!!*

But tongues of fire shot up from my hand and quickly coiled around the whisp of smoke like ravenous pythons, dragging it back. I could feel the diadem vibrating in my hands as the Horcrux struggled to break free from its fiery prison, but it jerked back and screamed in agony every time it touched my golden fire.

Eventually, I filled my lungs with super-hot plasma and opened my mouth before exhaling a torrent of fiery breath at the diadem, melting it down into nothingness. At the same time, I sensed raw, pure magical energy being absorbed into my body, where it fused with my brain.

And now, only a small black whisp of black smoke was left.

The Horcrux formed the face of Tom Riddle between my palms. He screamed and roared, begging for his life. "Please…"

"Shut up and die already," I scowled when the pathetic begging started to get on my nerves.

"No!" Horcrux Voldy wailed, his face twisted with pain and terror.

"Oh, yes!" I shot back.

The wails and moans of suffering ended abruptly when a glowing crack split Tom Riddle's face in two. His eyes widened with vivid shock as intense fear and dread flooded them, and a silent scream erupted out of his mouth as he slowly faded out of existence.

Following the destruction of Voldemort's piece of soul, I felt how my fire empowered my body by a little bit, boosting my physical qualities on all levels. In addition to that, I also sensed how an influx of memories entered my mind. However, they were all fractured and couldn't be actively used or accessed. But I sensed that they would still benefit me sooner or later.

And when I closed my eyes to look inside me, I noticed a bunch of golden drops floating inside me, emitting a powerful kind of magic with an aura similar to Voldemort's soul, but without the absurd amount of corruption.

"Soul… essence?" I muttered, not fully understanding what these drops were.

Understanding eventually appeared in my mind as an instinctive sort of knowledge originating from my special fire. I started to see the soul drops as a mysterious resource available to be used. These drops could be infused into my magic or even objects.

These drops were basically drops of purified Soul Essence with powerful and wondrous effects. As I explained already, I could somehow fuse these drops into an actual spell to improve that spell to a certain level - or fuse them into an object to upgrade and enhance the quality of the object.

My eyes went wide when a crazy idea popped up in my head.

"Could I… strengthen my wand with this stuff?" I began to mumble in an unsure but hopeful tone.

My wand was truly precious to me. I summoned it in my hand and started inspecting it with a fond look. 14 inches, elder wood, and with a dragon heartstring core taken from a seriously rare melanistic Chinese Fireball.

It appears as if made out of ink-black ivory with a smooth and matt surface. The shaft brags with fine golden veins that give it an imposing and deadly beautiful appearance. And as for the handle, it is covered in fine etchings portraying overlapping scales like those of a viper, outlined in a deep crimson-red. The end-cap forms a small, draconic head that bites on a pearl-shaped gemstone of the color of freshly spilled blood.

Ollivander actually looked quite hesitant when he gave me the wand, and he was almost unwilling to part with it when it reacted to my touch with bright, golden light. The eccentric old man explained that the wand was gifted to his family centuries ago by a friend of the Asian magical community. He didn't say more about the history of the wand, but he acted as if he lost the love of his life to me after he accepted my seven Galleons.

That said, I took a deep breath and started pushing a drop of Soul Essence towards my right hand that was holding my hand.

"No risk, no rewards," I told myself with a determined expression.

As the drop of soul essence wandered closer, my wand began to emit a faint warmth in response. The gemstone at the endcap that was chewed by the draconic head started to glow and attract the drop of soul essence towards it.

I let it happen and watched the golden drop of Soul Essence race up into my arm, into my hand, then into my wand, and from there into the gemstone.

*ROOOAAARR!!!*

My expression morphed to shock and awe when the draconic head erupted with the thunderous roar of a real dragon.

"Holy shit!"

As for the ruby gemstone, it radiated waves of intense heat that made the air blur around it.

"Ah, so you want more?" I asked my wand, getting a pulse in response that must have meant yes.

Chuckling like an old eccentric bastard, I pushed the six remaining drops of Soul Essence towards the wand and allowed it to absorb them all. Every drop made the draconic head roar as if it appreciated its meal.

When the feast was over, my wand returned to look normal, but I could feel a deeper and more personal connection to it now, like a third arm. It would probably benefit my spellcasting greatly and enhance the quality, stability, and power of my spells.

"Hehehe… thank you, Lord Voldemort," I snickered with a wide grin that went from ear to ear. "You sss-stupid sss-shit."

I stopped grinning and blinked in bafflement. "Huh?"

"Stupid shit…" I repeated the words that I just hissed in a strange, hissing way that made my tongue vibrate, but nothing happened.

"Stupid…" I hissed, but not in the right way.

"What the hell?" I muttered in confusion and pondered for a moment before realization hit me.

Grinning from ear to ear, I started speaking again. "Sss-stupid sss-shit..."

"Sss-salami…"

"Sss-sexy sss-senorita…"

Nodding in understanding, I realized that I had to grin like a fool in order to be able to speak Parseltongue. The fact that I absorbed the ability was a welcomed surprise, but I wasn't that surprised about it since I somewhat expected it to happen. Harry got it as well in the books, after all. There was a high chance I would enjoy the same benefit.

"Such an awesome day," I hummed before mumbling cheerfully. "Oh, and I guess that I will hunt down and devour ever Horcrux possible… another adventure!"

The benefits of doing so were evident, but I couldn't do that any time soon since most were out of my reach. My magical skills and talent are above average, but I still had to learn a lot of magic to be able to hunt for the Horcruxes. safely

Well, the diary would be delivered to me for free if Malfoy Senior acted like in the original storyline.

The next easiest to acquire would be the ring that also has the Resurrection Stone.

Indeed, all I needed to do was to use Parseltongue and neutralize the dangerous Inferi snakes that protected the place with the phrase:

"Lord Voldemort has-sss come to take back what is his-sss!"

"Huh?"

My brows rose in surprise when I simply remembered that phrase without ever knowing it beforehand. Quite a lot of fragmented memories I gained from devouring Voldemort's Horcrux vanished all of a sudden.

"How very interesting," I mused in wonder, my lips curved in a smile. "Unexpected.. but welcomed."

Since I was an avid Harry Potter fan in my past life, I didn't need Voldy's memories to recall that the Gaunt Shak was somewhere outside Little Hangleton. Though, I had no idea where the small town or village was located exactly. But that shouldn't be a big challenge to find out.

I added visiting the Gaunt Shak to my to-do list of things I would do during the summer. Another easily obtainable magic snack was waiting for me, and the earlier I got it, the better it would influence my future achievements.

More power now meant that I operate easier and more efficiently in the future, and who knows what benefits I could get from devouring another Horcrux. I personally hoped for knowledge so I can finally start to explore places like New York where all the Marvel heroes and villains usually gathered – for some unknown reason.

"But I should try to find myself a nice wand holster now," I advised myself after staring down at my sexy wand again.

I would have a duel in the evening, and I wanted to make an impression.

My only friend so far was another muggleborn, Paulina. She ended up following me around after I protected her from Dysnomia's lecture about proper muggleborn conduct around a pureblood once. Paulina was also a quite pretty girl, but the main reason I ended up 'keeping' her was because of her unusual last name - Barbossa. I really enjoyed teasing her with pirate jokes.

As for the rest of my year… well, Roger Davies was an arrogant, snotty elitist that introduced himself by telling me how important his family is. After that, he offered me that I can be one of his friends if I accept him as the leader of our year.

I just gave him an incredulous look and turned around before walking away.

Roger was more successful in recruiting the other two boys of our year: Samuel Humberston and Phillip Montgomery. Both were half-bloods, not really interesting characters, and followed Roger around like Warrington and Bletchley would follow Dysnomia around all day long, acting like lost puppies. But Roger and his boys pretty much ignored me since we rarely interacted with each other.

Well, back to the main topic.

The duel in the evening would be my chance to make myself look good in front of the students and the teachers – especially Flitwick. He was my ticket to the Restricted Section since above-average students were allowed to study there if they showed promise.

Of course, he wouldn't let a firstie enter that place, but I could start to build up a healthy mentor-student relationship and ask for permission in my third year or so.

"Yeah, but first I need to find a decent wand holster in this giant pile of trash," I huffed as I teleported to another spot.

My search continued, and I eventually found a nice wand holster made from almost black leather that came with a nice-looking black belt that could be attached around my hip. The holster itself would protect my wand from harm, and was charmed in a way that it would react to my intent should I desire to reach for my wand, automatically opening itself when my hand came close.

Having succeeded in that little endeavor, I continued to lazily explore the Room of Hidden Things for a bit more until it was time for me to leave and inform Flitwick of my duel.

…