HP: The Stellar Witch [OFC]

~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones

~ Every 400 PS = Bonus Chapter!

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Lys had been anxiously waiting for news about her grades, but instead of hearing anything from the professors, she received the school's holiday notice along with a document requiring her to sign a "Pledge of Non-Magic Use for Underage Wizards Outside of School."

El told her not to worry about signing it. According to him, the Ministry of Magic had enchanted every underage wizard's wand with a Trace to monitor their magic. If there was already an adult wizard in the vicinity, the Ministry officials wouldn't be able to distinguish whether it was the child or the adult casting the spells. So as long as there was an adult wizard at home, the pledge didn't really matter.

Trusting El's words, Lys packed her belongings and boarded the train with him. El invited her to join him in his family's private compartment, along with some other Hufflepuff friends.

However, the compartment had a magical mirror that wouldn't stop chattering. In a calm but clearly critical tone, it kept commenting on Lys's worn-out shirt. "Oh, look at this young witch's dreadful sense of fashion! A shirt from over a decade ago paired with utterly shapeless trousers, and that hairstyle—like red algae from a swamp. Truly dreadful..."

El tried to silence the mirror, but it was no use. Even covering it didn't help, as the mirror continued its critique from memory. Even the usually easygoing Hufflepuffs felt a bit awkward.

Lys didn't mind much, but the mirror's voice disrupted the atmosphere of their conversation. Besides, she wasn't in the best mood, so after saying goodbye to the friendly Hufflepuffs, she dragged her suitcase in search of another compartment.

She walked from the front of the train to nearly the back, but couldn't find an empty compartment. In the end, she simply sat on her suitcase in the connecting area between carriages.

When she had left home, she had been somewhat hopeful. Lys had imagined herself as a character from a storybook, like Herpo the Foul, leaving an unchangeable origin to embark on an adventure filled with bouncing cauldrons, giants, wizards, and a host of friends. She had dreamed that mysterious forces from above the clouds would grant her power, and she could prove to her mother that she wasn't a disgrace, a piece of trash, or a failure.

But now? All she had was El Abbot. She even had to sneak around to avoid others, because no one liked Slytherins, not even the Slytherins themselves liked her.

She touched her wand. Power? Her spells were always mocked. They said she might be a Squib, a failure, a disgrace to Slytherin. Why wasn't the world outside as wonderful as the books described?

Those textbooks were so frustrating, the spells so difficult to understand. No matter how hard she tried, nothing seemed to change.

No one had ever consistently reached out to her. Even El had stayed in his compartment, enjoying the company of his Hufflepuff friends.

All she could do was hope that her mother's hands would reach out to her at the train station.

Staring out the window at the passing scenery—lakes, plains, forests, and the occasional bird—Lys felt so nervous she thought she might vomit. Her mother didn't allow owls near their house, so she hadn't been able to inform her family about the holiday schedule.

What if her mother didn't come? What if Coco wasn't sent to pick her up?

Clutching her wand, Lys leaned against the carriage wall, her head turned to the side, until an irritating voice startled her. "Ha! Sirius, look who it is! Isn't this the little rat skin, scurrying back to the gutter to collect her pennies?"

Lys let out a deep sigh. She stood up, grabbed her suitcase, and prepared to leave. She remembered that the Gryffindor prefect was two carriages ahead.

James Potter, who had been heading to find Lily with his three friends to invite her to spend the summer at his house, had stumbled upon this person his best friend couldn't stop talking about—"rat skin."

Potter stuck out his foot, tripping Lys, and then kicked her suitcase. The old, battered suitcase couldn't withstand the abuse and began to crack at the edges. Thankfully, Lys didn't have much inside—just some books, a few plain shirts and trousers, and her school robes. Otherwise, she couldn't bear to imagine the scene of her belongings spilling everywhere.

Exhaling sharply through her nose, Lys remained silent. She simply closed the suitcase lid and continued dragging it forward.

"Stop right there, rat skin!" Sirius shouted, casting a Leg-Locker Curse that sent Lys sprawling to the floor with a loud thud. She had been hit with the same curse on the first day of school, and now, on the last day, it happened again. It was hard not to feel furious.

Lys drew her wand. She couldn't win, and now she couldn't run either. What else could she do? Fight back, of course. What was she supposed to do, let Sirius Black punch her in the nose like Potter had done to Snape? She just hoped Professor Flitwick's warning about her spells becoming a disaster for everyone wouldn't come true.

But in her panic, Lys couldn't recall any offensive spells. She flipped over and pointed her wand at Sirius Black, casting a cooking charm—Peel and Clean.

Sirius's shirt began to peel away from his body in an unflattering manner. Realizing he was about to be shirtless, the ever-proud Sirius clutched his shirt tightly to prevent it from coming off. However, his hair was already drenched, and water streamed down, soaking his now limp shirt completely.

The white shirt clung to his body. Even though it was June, the cold shock made him shiver. Looking at his disheveled appearance in disbelief, Sirius abandoned the idea of using magic and charged at Lys with his fists.

After taking two punches from Sirius and a kick from Potter, Lys found herself cornered. If the space hadn't been so narrow, Peter might have tried to hit her too. Remus, meanwhile, was trying to hold Sirius back, urging him to stop.

Lys had been hurt before, but she never thought she'd be beaten like this. Even though she had seen these boys bully Snape and had prepared herself for such a possibility, it still felt unbelievable when it actually happened to her.

Gripping her wand tightly, she swung it wildly, the whooshing sound landing blows on Potter and Sirius's shoulders, arms, and faces.

Just as the chaos reached its peak, the door to a nearby compartment slid open. A senior girl, not wearing her school robes, stepped out and looked at the unusual fight in shock.

She cast a Levitation Charm, lifting Sirius into the air and placing him aside. Then she used a Drying Charm on him. "Handsome boys should maintain their elegance and cleanliness. Besides, your prefect is just a few carriages away. He might come and dock points at any moment."

Seizing the opportunity, Remus grabbed Sirius by the wrist and tried to calm him down. "James still needs to invite Lily. If this gets out of hand and we lose points, Lily definitely won't be happy."

Sirius, clutching the spots where Lys had hit him, shouted, "You're lucky this time!" before being dragged away by his friends.

"I remember you," the senior girl said, addressing Lys. "You're the Slytherin who openly declared you'd backfire your spells in the Great Hall. You're... quite something." With that, she closed the compartment door and returned to chatting with her friends.

Lys straightened her cursed legs and leaned against her suitcase. It wasn't until a Hufflepuff senior emerged from another compartment on his way to the restroom that she finally got some help. He used a Finite Incantatem to release the curse and tried to repair her suitcase with a Reparo, though it didn't work perfectly. The suitcase still looked like it was about to burst.

Eventually, Lys found a compartment with a single Ravenclaw student inside. The student was engrossed in a book and didn't acknowledge her, so Lys quietly took out her literacy book and began reading.

Before getting off the train, she tried to compose herself, tidying her clothes and hair. She was glad she had worn a black shirt, though she didn't realize that black made dust and dirt even more noticeable.

Standing in the spot where Coco had dropped her off months ago, she watched as others were picked up one by one. She saw Snape's mother, a stern-looking witch with thick eyebrows, and El's father, who took his luggage while his mother gave him a hug before they Apparated away.

Lys didn't sit down. She stood by her suitcase, waiting.

Lys waited.