Through Her Eyes

The first few days passed leisurely with recollections of what they learned and what they will study this year. McGonagall passed through her lesson quickly, getting everybody accustomed to Switching Spells, an idea that sounded nice to Potter. But Ophelia was confused about one thing and she guessed McGonagall had an answer.

"Professor, what about Occlumency?"

"What about it, Molley?" 

"With Cerberus gone, who will teach us Legilimency this year?" 

McGonagall looked up at her student with a frown. She was aware of how gifted Molley was in the art of messing with one's mind especially after taking a peek at Spinnard's. 

"I'm afraid professor Dumbledore hasn't found someone so naturally, the professor of Dark Arts will take over."

"Idris Eynon?" She asked with obvious dislike. 

"Don't scoff, Molley. Don't underestimate a man older than your father." 

"But he was expelled from Hogwarts and he murdered a child." She hissed.

Taken aback, McGonagall found herself nudging her student towards the door. 

"Go to your next class, Molley and do not tell that to any of your classmates." McGonagall's voice was harsh but there was also a bit of understanding.

In the corridor, around the first turn towards the stairs was Potter. He grabbed her as soon as he saw her and crouched in the shadows of the walls. 

"I think we should dig deeper into the past of this Eynon." He whispered as if anybody could hear them. "I asked my father but he didn't say a word more or less from the last time. We need to find someome who knew him."

"Or try our luck in the library. We should start by searching what an Obscurus is." She said, gaining positive reactions from the boy.

"Yes, right. You go with the library and I'll expand my researches." James muttered before he patted her shoulder and ran away.

"Whatever that means." She mumbled rolling her eyes. 



Lunch was next after Transfiguration and James Potter was nowhere to be seen. And that was not the only lunch that passed by like that, but quite a number afterwards. But the fateful day of Friday came and DADA was in the morning. Everybody was excited, both Gryffindors and Slytherins and they were expecting neatly in the classroom. Nobody was saying a word to Sirius' surprise when he entered. 

"Did someone die? Is there some kind of curse on the brats?" He asked Remus genuinely concerned. 

"There's a rumour that our professor was a former Slytherin." Cissney answered, turning around in her seat in front of Black. "It's been circulating ever since the first day when he didn't show his face." 

Ophelia was standing next to Longbottom, next row to their mates with Lily and Alice behind. Potter and Pettigrew were standing together in the front rows, too close to the latter's comfort. 

"Why can't we stay in the back like usually?" 

"Because I want to see him." Potter answered making Peter rise an eyebrow in confusion.

There was no time for further questions because heavy steps were heard coming towards the classroom. Ophelia looked at every student, noticing how much all of them were anticipating this new professor. When the door opened, they turned their heads to Idris and girls gasped. The whole path to the front of the class room felt like he was trotting, glamour oozing off him. 

"Good evening. My name is Idris Eynon and I will act like your professor of Defense against the Dark Arts." He introduced himself before he drew his white wand. It was beautiful and Potter was ogling at it, same with Avery. "I'll teach you how to protect yourselves but also how to attack and when to do it so that your enemy will not be able to combat your spells."

So far, Idris had the attention of everyone in the room, especially the eager Slytherins.

"Open your books on hexes. I'm sure you have familiarized yourselves with them already. Copy down only the information that tickles your interest and afterwards we'll try them-" he paused and eyes wandered over every face until they stopped on Potter. "Mulciber! Your family's infamous loyalty to the dark arts must lead you in your extra curricular activities. I'd like to see just how much." 

That was not the answer anyone expected. Potter felt quite disappointed that Idris didn't choose him but then again, the situation might turn into his favor. 

Yet it didn't. Copying down took a while and Mulciber was most likely to use his favorite curses and jinxes and those might not even be in the book for all he knew. 

"Are you done?" Idris asked growing bored of watching them crouch over their papers. "Mulciber, come here and choose your closest friend to tag along." The white haired man ordered, not even bothering to get up from his chair.

The Slytherin boy raised an eyebrow curiously but did drag Avery along, more or less willingly. The two boys glanced each other and prepared their wands, thinking that maybe there will be two others to fight against. But Idris jolted from his seat and walked behind the two.

"You will not fight Gryffindors but you will fight each other." He said as he turned them to face one another, "Your closest enemy is your friend. Don't forget that." He said before he took a few steps back and leaned on his desk. "Well, show me what you have learned up to this point."

"Are you serious, professor? Why would I fight my friend? Why not just take Longbottom for a short duel?" Avery asked smirking evilly at the Gryffindor. 

"No. As long as you are in this classroom, you do what I tell you to. If you do not, you'll either get detention or points taken from your exam. That applies to everybody, not only you two." Idris said taking a long look at his students. Most of them were staring at him with millions of questions in their pretty little heads but he could feel Potter's eyes dig holes in his head. He was not scared or worried but he was making a plan, just like his dear father used to. 

In the end, Mulciber and Avery had to duel and they did so in a very lazy manner. None tried to hurt the other, more like using playful jinxes that they used on students, only less aggressive. Idris rolled his eyes at the two but let them be. At least he knew what to expect from Slytherins.

"That was the most boring DADA lesson I had ever seen." Cissney mumbled during lunch. "But blimey that professor knows how to clean himself! He's so good looking that even when he was threatening us he was so..." she stopped in the moment Zabini entered the Great Hall. She watched him go to the Slytherin table and sit between the Rosiers. 

The girls glanced at what caught Cissney's attention and they all gave a dramatic sigh. It became a bit of a routine to have such a social butterfly like Cissney Littlewood have a crush on someone and not be able to approach that person.  

"He's human too. You could just grab him aside in the corridor and talk to him. Or even better, literally fall into him." Lily started seeing the hearts in her friend's eyes. 

"I can't do that. He's always with Rosier and his sister," as she mentioned the girl, Cissney dug her fork into her lunch harshly and quite strong since the whole table vibrated. Remus and Peter looked up in surprise before they decided to stick to their sandwiches, which they could hold off the table.

 "If you want my advice, Littlewood-" Sirius started but she cut him off short.

"I'm not at that level of desperation just yet."  

Sirius eyed her long and hard before he answered.

"Are you sure? You do give off a smell of heartbreak." 

Cissney glared at him with such intensity that if he tried to, Sirius could see the flames flaring from her nose. But from the corner of her eye she saw Zabini leave with Katie Rosier and her whole bad act became a hurt puppy. 

"Smell of heartbreak~" Sirius sung to himself getting a light hit under the table from Lily. 

"Why do you even offer help when you haven't had a girlfriend yet?"

"I agree I wasn't interested in relationships but I'm only 14 years old, ginger. I'm at the beginning of a very fruitful life." He said with a proud smile on his face. "You will see. You're going to swallow up those words very soon."

"Do you have a date already?" Peter asked growing curious. 

"As a matter of act, I do have a rendez-vous on our first Hogsmeade break." He was gloating, it was so obvious that it made the rest roll their eyes.  

"And who's the unfortunate soul?" Alice asked already dreading the poor girl's choice. 

"Gwendoline Richards. She's a Hufflepuff and she's probably glancing this way as we speak." 

Just as Sirius mentioned, Lily glanced at the Hufflepuff table and saw a thin brunette with glasses steal glances at Sirius and his friends. She sighed and shook her head feeling only pity for those who wanted to get close to Sirius Black. 

"Ah right, doesn't it seem to you like, I don't know, it's so silent?" Alice asked seeing how something was missing.

"Potter's not here." Cissney muttered still in a mellow mood. "I'm sure he's wreaking havoc somewhere in the castle."



That assumption was not wrong. Potter was indeed wreaking havoc but not the usual kind. When James Potter entered the library so early during the school year, students eyed him suspiciously. He scoffed when he heard some Ravenclaws mumbling about how he was going to burn them all to the ground and rolled his eyes when some Slytherin girls drew their wands close. He wasn't such a bad man, not compared to Mulciber and his lot.

In the very back, standing at her usual cursed desk with her usual study buddy was Ophelia. She raced there as soon as DADA ended because she had to meet Severus for something or another. From what he could see, Snivelly was giving Ophelia some extra notes on Potions. 

"So, why did we meet here and what should we search for? I could just send a letter to dad or go sneak on Idris during his free time." He said it as if that was the normal course of things. 

Severus glanced at the glasses boy with a new sense of superiority. He could see from his messy appearance that Potter was not thinking it through before acting. It was all impulse and emotion for him.

"Idris is not a fool. He'd see you as soon as you step anywhere near him. We need to look for a book about Obscurus. Sev, can you help?"

Severus was drawn away from his little 'I'm better than you' daydream on Potter and looked at Ophelia with wide owlish eyes.

"Obscurus? Do you even know what that is?" he hissed checking to see if someone else heard them. The answer was vague from both Gryffindors. "It's a wizard that cannot use his powers. It builds up to the point his magic becomes a force in itself and destroys its bearer. It's dangerous."

"We kind of figured that one out, Snivellius. We just want to know more than that. You can help or not, I genuinely wouldn't trust you with anything, especially this." Potter said nonchalantly. Severus scoffed, grabbed his stuff and left without another word. Potter watched him with an amused grin before he locked eyes with Ophelia. She wasn't happy at all.

"You could keep shut that mouth of yours and let me speak for once. That way we could work faster and actually learn something instead of pushing smart students away." She said in a very calm tone although her eyes were glinting with anger.

"We don't need Snape. You're smart enough and I am witty enough. We make the perfect team as it is." he said contently. It was really a wonder how Potter crawled under her skin but he did nonetheless and it was pissing her off. 

"We cannot enter the Restricted Section, I tried several times already. It's annoying how she doesn't let me in there anymore." She said changing the subject so she wouldn't get even more annoyed. 

"We can enter by night. Nobody's here at that time." He said looking straight into her eyes.

"There are night guards, in case you have forgotten. They'll see us, paintings will see us, Filtch will see us." 

But Potter smiled in a way that it made him look like the Cheshire cat.

"No, they won't. I received a very interesting gift last Christmas from my father. Nobody will know we entered the library. Trust me."