Three Legendary Cards

Edmund studied the three Legendary cards and could not decide whether to celebrate or despair.

One was the guaranteed Severus Snape card. The other two depicted the same person.

[System]

Character Card: Tom Riddle

Known As: Lord Voldemort, the Second Dark Lord

Dark Arts Talent: 8

Defence Against the Dark Arts Talent: 6

Spells: The three Unforgivable Curses and numerous branches of Dark magic

Special Knowledge: Horcrux creation

Two Voldemorts from a Snape rate-up pool.

His Dark Arts affinity was already at its maximum useful level. At first glance, the cards looked almost wasted.

Then he noticed the Defence Against the Dark Arts talent.

Card fusion could raise a talent no higher than one level above the value printed on the card. A talent-six Voldemort card could therefore take Edmund to seven, but no number of additional talent-six cards would push him to eight.

Two copies were exactly what he needed.

With the three Legendary cards accounted for, Edmund turned to the purple cards. There were eighteen Epics, a respectable result for one hundred draws.

Their distribution was less respectable.

[System]

Epic Cards

Potions Knowledge x1

Charms Knowledge x1

Transfiguration Knowledge x1

Cruciatus Curse x5

Killing Curse x5

Fiendfyre x5

"System, was this deliberate?"

Fifteen of his eighteen Epic cards were Dark magic. Two of the three Legendary cards belonged to Voldemort, and Snape was hardly known for a sunny relationship with the Dark Arts.

He appeared to have emptied the stockroom of a particularly ambitious Dark wizard.

There was nothing to be gained from complaining. Edmund fused the entire draw.

The change in his talents was too subtle to feel at once. The spell knowledge was not. Incantations, movements, principles, and instincts poured into his mind until he had to close his eyes and wait for the pressure to subside.

Five minutes later, he opened them again.

Edmund raised one hand. Silver fire bloomed above his palm.

At his direction, the flames became an eagle, then a lion, then a snake. Finally, they took the form of Aurea, a phoenix with wings spread in flight.

He closed his fist. The Fiendfyre vanished without leaving so much as a mark on his skin.

"The Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement burned red, while Grindelwald's cursed fire was blue. Silver suits me."

His control was not yet equal to Grindelwald's, but the distance between them was no longer incomprehensible. Another card or two might narrow it dramatically.

Crabbe, who had summoned the curse only to die in his own flames, would scarcely have registered on the System's scale.

Edmund tested several other spells. His magic had strengthened across the board, and his reserves had grown sharply.

"Open my status."

[System]

Name: Edmund Gaunt

Birthday: October 31

Identity: Hogwarts first-year student

Legacy: Gaunt Ancestral Magic, awakening

Arcane Capacity: 19.4

Magical Items: Guardian Necklace, Felix Felicis x1, Draught of Inspiration x3, Instant Arcane Recovery Potion x3

Charms Talent: 6 - Prodigious

Defence Against the Dark Arts: 7 - Genius

Transfiguration Talent: 4 - Exceptional

Potions Talent: 6 - Prodigious

Dark Arts: 9 - Dark Lord-tier potential

Highest-Proficiency Spells: Fiendfyre, Killing Curse, Cruciatus Curse

Coins: 0

Edmund fell silent.

The panel looked less like the record of a Hogwarts student than an application for the position of third Dark Lord.

His daily check-ins had given him plenty of ordinary magic, but Epic cards granted far greater gains in proficiency. Five copies of each curse, combined with his Dark Arts affinity, had pushed the darkest spells to the front of his arsenal.

By his own private scale, magical Britain ranged from ordinary adult witches and wizards to accomplished practitioners, Aurors, veteran Aurors, and professors.

Then came the near-legendary figures represented by Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort. Beyond them, Edmund reserved one final category: true legend.

The scale had no official standing. It existed to give him a target.

His reserves were already several times greater than those of an average adult wizard. Combined with his growing collection of spells, that should allow him to face an Auror, perhaps even a veteran one, under ordinary circumstances.

If he used the Dark Arts without restraint, even a professor like Snape would have to treat him seriously.

For less than two months at Hogwarts, the progress was extraordinary. By the time Voldemort returned, Edmund should possess more than enough power to survive.

With sufficient luck and a few more Legendary cards, he might even confront Voldemort directly, scatter the Death Eaters, establish an organization of his own, and become the third...

Edmund stopped.

'No. That is exactly how the title starts.'

He blamed the System for flooding his mind with Dark magic and pushed the thought aside.

Then another chime sounded.

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