HP: The Stellar Witch [OFC]

Holding the scar-removal potion, Lys relied on her outwardly radiating magic to feel her way back to the dormitory. Due to the inconsistent recovery of her two eyes, Lys now felt dizzy whenever she tried to focus both eyes on the same angle. She groped around the bookshelf and found a wide headband to cover her eyes.

Everything before her turned into a silver glow. Lys wondered why such inconsistent recovery was happening, but she had no clue. She thought of her blood on the second-floor ground but remembered hearing Professor McGonagall casting Scourgify before leaving.

Her mind wandered chaotically until she noticed Gagong sprawled in the snake nest by the pillow. Only then did Lys lie down on the bed, drifting off to sleep with the words, "Little madcap, Noah said you'll have Apparition classes this year. Remember to attend."

She suddenly sat up in that stone platform full of corpses, fumbling to realize she was back in bed. Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she lay down again.

Waking up too early and unable to read as she used to, Lys used the Summoning Charm to retrieve a Quick-Quotes Quill and a notebook. Hearing the loud clattering noise as they flew over, Lys sincerely hoped nothing important had been knocked over. Otherwise, she'd have to wait until she could see to deal with it.

In her blindness, she jotted down her understanding of magic, her speculations about how emotions or willpower might influence the extent of magical releases, and other thoughts in the notebook.

She just hoped her memory was accurate, and that this was a blank notebook. Otherwise, she'd have to decipher her previous thoughts amidst overlapping text.

Her vision gradually recovered day by day. After more than half a month, both her eyes finally returned to the state they were when she first drank her mother's brewed soul stabilizer.

Though the world appeared dazzlingly bright, it also had a unique clarity.

As for Professor Slughorn's magical stabilizer, Lys never saw it.

The professor held a grudge. Knowing Lys was fine and would recover in a few days, he outright refused to make the potion. "My powdered dragon sinew!"

Feeling guilty, Lys took out a heart of a crescent moon turtle she'd processed and pickled herself as an offering. The heart of a crescent moon turtle wasn't particularly rare, but the processing method was extremely troublesome, even more so than powdered dragon sinew.

Hugging his belly and puffing his whiskers, Slughorn begrudgingly forgave Lys.

Regarding her eye issue, Lys had some guesses. So while her vision was clear over the next few days, she quickly finalized her schedule and checked the state and location of some items from her memory.

On the next full moon, she drank this month's soul stabilizer.

As Lys suspected, the silver glow appeared before her eyes again. However, it wasn't as severe as last time, and she could barely make out some outlines.

Lys chose all the courses except Divination.

Given her current situation, Slughorn signed an approval letter for her, allowing delayed submission of assignments, ensuring at least one attendance per week, and granting her the freedom to choose other class times.

While signing, Professor Slughorn sighed, "This is almost the first time in a hundred years."

But Lys had heard of a Ravenclaw who achieved full marks in all subjects except practical ones, totaling twelve subjects. If this was the first time, how did that student manage it?

It seemed some of the school's convenience measures were no longer available to Slytherin students?

Stretching her arms to feel her way out of the Potions professor's office, Lys hadn't released a single trace of magic here since the dragon sinew incident. She simply couldn't afford it. The remaining crescent moon turtle heart was reserved for her mother.

Feeling her way to class inevitably caused trouble. One day, Lys saw a blurry black-haired figure crouched at the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She sniffed the air—there was a scent of calming draught.

She patted the figure's head. "Snape, help me with..." Lys suddenly realized something was off. The hair wasn't greasy. "Oh, sorry, wrong person," she said, turning to leave.

"Lys Black, can we talk?" It was Sirius Black.

Lys initially thought he was here to cause trouble, considering she had injured Walburga Black, his mother, in Diagon Alley.

...

"That crazy woman was trading with Fenrir Greyback, and I was there. My toy wand recorded the scene. When I sorted through my belongings again, I saw it. Once again, I realized so clearly..." He looked at the expressionless, unfocused face of his blood-related cousin.

"Once again, I realized that Slytherin's steadfastness is something only madmen believe in. All that talk about the glory and purity of pure-blood families, about keeping the bloodline pure—how could they achieve that through murdering their own kin?"

"We're not kin. To your mother, my father wasn't her kin either," Lys calmly replied, leaving Sirius Black stunned.

"But we share the same blood!"

"So what? To my father, she was an invisible enemy trying to take his inheritance. When you realized your mother didn't align with your ideals, you even wanted Dementors to kiss her."

"Family, so what?" Lys was exasperated. She didn't want to discuss these questions, which had no answers, with this dumb dog.

Justice or family? Interests or crimes?

What a joke. As long as you can bear the consequences, it's just a matter of different choices.

"And you? I heard from Regulus that you never let go of your mother even in such a situation!"

"Because even under unimaginable suffering, they would still reach out to me. Dumb dog, I still say this: only when your family reaches out to the crying you in the cradle, giving you resources, can you survive. Otherwise, even house-elves wouldn't spare you a glance. You need to distinguish between the rules others want to impose on you and the real rules of the world."

"We come from the mire; we are ambitious; we crave power; we are strong and composed; we are elegant and self-assured; we never regret. We are Slytherin." Lys slowly recited as she stood up.

"I am Slytherin. I come from the mire. I refuse to regret. Though I will exact the revenge I find satisfactory for what you said, I also understand Walburga Black's actions, including disowning you. I must say, as the matriarch of the Black family, your mother had painstaking intentions."

Emphasizing the last two words, Lys patted the wall beside her and slowly stood up, completely unaware of Sirius Black's devastated expression.

Sirius Black thought his cousin was beyond saving. She was exactly the kind of Slytherin he despised most.

He didn't even regret his actions from a few years ago as much.

He had summoned the courage to apologize, thinking that if it weren't for his crazy mother, maybe she wouldn't be dressed in rags, illiterate, and deprived of a happy and proper childhood. Maybe she wouldn't have become a Slytherin.

There was something to like about every Black his mother despised.

But...

But now! Slytherins are Slytherins, all bad seeds without exception. His brother Regulus... Regulus even had clippings of the Dark Lord pasted above his bed! Did he know how many people that lunatic had killed? Did he know that lunatic enjoyed standing atop a mountain of corpses, watching Death Eaters kneel and kiss his robes?

They're all mad. A bunch of madmen!

Meanwhile, Lys, turning away, was pondering her speculation about Walburga's "painstaking intentions." If what Thomas bragged about was true... this dumb dog was just...

"Black! If your eyes still can't function properly, you should be more careful instead of wandering around like a humanoid troll!"

Lys startled someone around the corner.

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