HP: The Stellar Witch [OFC]

When Lys woke up, the hospital wing was empty. She left a note to inform Madam Pomfrey of her discharge and left with Gobble.

It was already late, and Lys had slept the entire day. As she walked through the dungeons, she was contemplating how to improve her stamina once her left leg was healed. She couldn't afford to have another situation like last night, where her magical strength was abundant, but her physical strength was lacking. It would be embarrassing if something went wrong because of that.

After speaking the password to open the common room's stone door, Lys headed straight for her dormitory, but was stopped by a voice—it was Regulus Black.

Lys turned her head and body towards him, a habit she had developed in the past two months since losing her sight.

"Is there something you need?"

"Can you still not see?" he asked, standing up from the sofa.

Lys hesitated. If the potion she was going to take didn't restore her sight, it would be no different from before. She nodded.

Seeing the disappointment and relief in his eyes, Lys asked, "Is there something you need?"

"My brother... ahem, Sirius has been disowned by my mother, so I've become the sole heir. Next month, the Black family will hold a banquet to change the family heir, and the Dark Lord will attend. My family wants me to invite you."

Family? That must mean Bellatrix Lestrange... Lys's slightly upturned lips straightened a bit. How could that madwoman still remember her?

Looking at the handsome, talented boy before her, Lys didn't hesitate to respond directly:

"I'm sorry, but my eyesight is not convenient, and there's no chance of recovery in the short term. But congratulations on becoming the family heir and getting rid of a troublemaker. If there's nothing else, I'll go rest now."

Lys nodded slightly, not caring about Regulus's hesitation, and moved to leave.

"Wait, I have another question about your father..."

"My father has had nothing to do with the Black family since he came of age and left his controlling mother," Lys said, not even stopping as she shut the dormitory door with a "Goodnight."

"...Is he well?" Regulus asked, staring at the closed door, then sat back down by the fireplace.

Since that gathering during the holiday, his mother had not only been injured but also messed things up in front of the Dark Lord. What was most infuriating was that during the holiday, when the Dark Lord visited, his brother Sirius had spoken recklessly at home.

This had thoroughly angered his mother and displeased the Dark Lord. His mother even went to the family tree room while still injured to disown Sirius Black.

To appease the Dark Lord's anger and demonstrate the Black family's loyalty, the family heir ceremony would also be his marking ceremony.

On that day, the Dark Lord would brand the Dark Mark on his arm.

Regulus relaxed his posture, leaning against the sofa back.

An opportunity to show the wizarding world his family's loyalty to the Dark Lord, an opportunity to offer his power to that great man.

He smirked.

Some in Slytherin had doubts after the gathering, but those who aspire to power must have their own strong methods, right?

None of that mattered. What mattered was that Lys Black had to attend this banquet. His cousin merely mentioned it, but it was his mother's invitation that couldn't be delayed.

Lys sat on the dormitory floor, organizing the storage of the remaining potions. She wanted to try not to blind herself completely this time. After all, there were so many things she hadn't done yet—her father's wand, healing spells, Runes Alchemy...

At the last moment before pouring the potion into her mouth, Lys suddenly thought she should tell her mother about her sensitive position between the white and black wizards.

After the full moon, she would send an owl to the reading room with a letter. Last time, her mother didn't say anything when she sent materials home, so sending a letter should be fine...

As she drank the potion, feeling the peak of discomfort, Lys released her magic. It felt like she had triggered a spell in the dormitory—books flew off the shelves, notebooks scattered everywhere, and drawers trembled open, spilling their contents.

The bed was knocked against the wall, and the dried heads and shriveled limbs bought from Thomas's materials shop in Diagon Alley were flung out, shattering against the cold stone walls.

Gobble's nest was flipped over, covering him completely.

It was like breaking open a hidden reservoir, the immense pressure rapidly widening the breach, and magic poured out of her body.

Sitting on the floor, Lys felt like she was back on the day at the Black Lake, controlling the water columns.

Liberating, so liberating, as if her heavy body was no longer a burden. That floating sensation, that feeling...

That feeling of magic surrounding her, where nothing could bind her if she so willed it. As long as she wanted, as long as she desired...

Her will would be everything.

Exhaling, remembering how she couldn't control a werewolf even after drinking the potion, Lys restrained her delusional thoughts once again.

She stood up and with a flick of her wand, the bookshelf was restored, books leapt back to their places, and the disassembled notebooks reassembled themselves onto the desk.

But those heads and limbs, being magical materials, were too damaged by the magic to be used again and had to be discarded.

And this room... the magic was indeed a bit too dense.

Gobble crawled out from under his overturned nest, patting Lys's leg with his paw, [Annoyed].

Lys tidied up his nest, arranged the snake skeleton for him, and invited Gobble to go back to sleep.

Lys observed the silvery glow in front of her, noticeably slowing in its spread.

"It worked after all," Lys muttered, patiently waiting for the final result.

It was worth blowing up her dormitory once; Lys was satisfied with the outcome. She no longer had to be completely immersed in a silvery world after taking the soul stabilizer.

However, Lys didn't show it, continuing to disguise her blindness with magic.

At least until the banquet was over, Lys didn't want to bear the title of having refused an invitation from the Dark Lord's side.

Distance... she needed to maintain distance, at least for now. If possible, she didn't want to choose sides.

Lys attended classes as usual. Since that fool who tried to blind her got his nose broken, nobody dared to provoke her anymore.

But there was one downside—she couldn't attend Astronomy or Potions classes. One she couldn't see, and the other Professor Slughorn didn't welcome her.

"I finally got rid of those who kept blowing up cauldrons, and now your magic is all over the place. The ones left still blow up cauldrons. You... just wait a bit, okay? As long as you can hand in decent potions by the end of the term, I'll give you an O (Outstanding). You do love getting Outstanding, don't you?"

Rejected, Lys immersed herself in Charms and Transfiguration, but Professors Flitwick and McGonagall advised her to attend fewer classes for the same reason.

Only the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher didn't care about Lys. This teacher didn't seem to care about any of the students, just waving his wand on the podium and explaining some peculiar knowledge.

Until one day, while Lys was daydreaming, she heard some theories about the Unforgivable Curses.

The teacher asked an empty space: Why are they called the Unforgivable Curses?

There are so many bloody and cruel spells, many causing pain and death, so why are the Imperius Curse, the Killing Curse, and the Cruciatus Curse specifically called the three Unforgivable Curses?

Lys thought: Because there are no counter-curses, no way to alleviate their effects.

But the teacher's explanation was unexpected: They act upon the soul.

"What is the soul? Memory? Emotion? Will? In any case, it's the most important and intangible part of a wizard,

So only something equally intangible can harm something so intangible."

"Taking away life, manipulating will."

Thus, the professor believed:

The driving force of dark magic can rely on exquisite techniques, unique understanding, or powerful magic. It can also be driven by intense emotions. In short, it's something that anyone, regardless of their evilness, can have the opportunity to drive and attempt to understand.

But the Unforgivable Curses are not. Beyond the requirement for magic, they necessitate strong emotions and desires. You must have an extreme desire for destruction, torture, and killing.

So he said that a Dark Arts master and a madman who freely uses the Unforgivable Curses are different in the eyes of a wizard who has reached a certain height.

He even mentioned Dumbledore, believing that Dumbledore must have a deep understanding of dark magic, especially since he had a close relationship with and defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald, who almost overturned the Statute of Secrecy.

At this point, he brushed the hair from his face, revealing bloodshot eyes.

"To truly defeat something, you must have a thorough understanding of it. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, you need to know what you're defending against—is it the magic or the malice in people's hearts?"

Lys found this statement quite reasonable, much like how she dismantled curses—learn it, and you can dismantle it.

But the malice in people's hearts?

After that, Lys no longer avoided Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, because she heard that the reading room's grumpy old man's grandson, that Gryffindor, called the professor—Dad.

Almost every class, Lys was present. The man who married a German Dark Arts researcher had a unique understanding of dark magic.

And extreme, very extreme, he seemed to have a profound understanding of the Unforgivable Curses, and from this understanding, a strong aversion.

His classes had no continuity; one day he would discuss war spells, the next the horror of Fiendfyre and its absolute destructiveness against dark artifacts, and then the role of willpower in resisting the Imperius Curse.

Even Lys found it hard to follow at times, and she had read extensively in the Restricted Section and the Lam family library. Although she lacked practical experience, her theoretical knowledge was considerable.

If she found it hard to follow, the other students struggled even more, with almost every class ending with students leaving with headaches.

Lys knew that the powerful spells the professor mentioned in class would interest some, but she didn't expect the first to cause trouble would be a Gryffindor.

They were experimenting with the Fiendfyre Curse on the lawn...

The professor had said that the difficulty of the Fiendfyre Curse lay not in casting it, but in controlling and dispersing it.

Those Gryffindors were goaded by two Slytherins into underestimating Fiendfyre.

To avoid the professor and others' sight, they chose a grassy slope by the Forbidden Forest for their experiment.

At the time, Lys was helping Hagrid check on the mother unicorn named Dodonna. Now, with her vision barely improved, she saw the wounds she treated were crooked and lumpy, but there was no way to fix them.

Luckily, unicorns had strong regenerative abilities, and many issues would gradually heal over time.

Lys nodded to herself, thinking that using the ingredient selection spell in a medical context had already transcended the realm of household spells. Truly fascinating.

Lys was marveling when Hagrid suddenly lifted her by the scruff of her neck. Despite Lys being a full six feet tall, Hagrid's lift left her feet dangling off the ground.

"Your eyes still can't see; you'd better stay by my side," Hagrid explained as he ran. "The forest edge is on fire; we need to check it out."

Lys raised her wand, ready to cast Aguamenti at any moment. She was even considering how to summon the most water in the shortest time.

When Hagrid set her down, Lys sensed something was amiss, but feeling nauseous from the jostling, she assumed the dark shadowy flames were some kind of magical fire. If Aguamenti couldn't solve it, she'd think of something else.

But the unexpected happened in an instant. Something within the flames exploded, and the fierce fire spread to the surrounding grass and even the water's surface, rapidly expanding. Lys felt something was very wrong.

The all-consuming, relentless nature of the fire, and the faint sense of danger it brought...

Worse still, when Lys cast Aguamenti, the summoned water turned into fuel for the flames.

A black tongue of fire traced back to the water source, nearly licking Lys's wand, but she dodged it in a panic.

"Hagrid, something's wrong. Is there anyone else nearby? If not, you'd better get the professors."

Hagrid was reluctant to leave Lys alone, especially since he thought she still couldn't see anything.

He realized he had often ignored Lys's feelings, and at least he couldn't ignore her safety now!

What she could see didn't make much difference to being blind! Just now, during the check-up, the child nearly pressed her eyes against Dodonna...

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