Next morning's breakfast found a distracted Harry Potter, his mind still unable to leave the thoughts of a certain girl and her book. His mind kept pumping out reasons as to why she would have it in her possession, aside from the fact that it might actually belong to her. For instance, maybe she found it, or borrowed it from a library the Malfoys donated to.
Though he doubted they would donate to anything charitable without the prospect for personal gain, the messy haired teen wasn't ruling anything out at the moment. Perhaps, by a slim chance, their names were simply a coincidence. Surely the name Malfoy didn't belong solely to the slick haired kings of Slytherin. Converging in all things despicably evil and wrong.
"The food's there for eating, Harry," Ron said, breaking his train of thought. The redhead stared pointedly at his full plate, which he'd barely touched. Meanwhile, his own mouth was full of food, and Hermione took the opportunity to point out his lack of manners. Harry rolled his eyes as the two began another lover's spat.
"Say Harry, are you taking the new course this year?" Hermione asked, bringing him back to reality. The raven haired boy had fallen into the habit of automatically spacing out when the two got in a row, for sanity purposes of course.
"Yeah. As of this year it's on the list of classes you need to go into Auror training," he responded, earning a skeptical look from Ron.
"Lunarian Magic? Nobody has studied that in any school for years. Why would they suddenly require it?" The Weasley wondered aloud, getting a shrug from Harry in response. The female member of their group, however, had a theory.
"Maybe someone discovered it's quite useful, especially with the Death Eaters roaming everywhere throwing their Dark magic around," Hermione offered, lowering her voice as she spoke. She drew up to full height again and added enthusiastically, "I really wanted to take that class but my schedule was way too full. Could you tell me about it later, Harry?"
"Sure, 'Mione," Harry said, but his attention left the conversation a few moments before when he caught sight of his enigma entering the Great Hall. His green eyes followed her as she sat near the end of the table, several spaces away from the nearest student, and scooped a few scrambled eggs onto her plate. Disinterestedly, she pushed them around her plate as she studied people one table over, at the Slytherin table.
Harry followed her steady gaze to the rival house's table, and quickly located Draco Malfoy, his personal arch enemy. The more he glanced between the two, the more he realized, to his despair, they looked a lot alike. As inevitably so when staring at someone, Harry found himself caught in the act, making eye contact with Usagi Serenity Malfoy. His cheeks warmed as he turned away, but before any further reactions could take place, Ron dragged him from the Great Hall with Hermione and himself, heading for first classes.
For Harry, Lunarian Magic was his first class of his seventh year in Hogwarts, and coincidently the first stop on the trio's way. The raven haired boy readjusted his bag, half heartedly listening to Hermione at his side, "Pay attention so you can tell me about it later, okay? Take good notes, too, I want to read over them. See you Harry!"
Waving goodbye, he entered the classroom and took a look around. Only five or six students had arrived thus far, and he only recognized one. The blonde girl he'd been pondering all morning occupied a seat in the back corner, too his utter surprise. She must have passed him in the hall at some point, how had he not noticed? Shaking his head, he chalked it up to his dazed demeanor. After all, he'd agreed to feed Hermione's unhealthy obsession with learning as well, which he found himself instantly regretting.
Harry moved towards the back, falling into the seat beside Usagi, whose eyes were glued to the blackboard at the front of the room. Absently, he noted the other students in the room had taken seats on the opposite side of the room, and he was the only person sitting near the spaced out girl. For a moment he though he detected their eyes on him, but when he turned his head they were still conversing animatedly amongst themselves and ignoring the both of them.
Taking a deep breathe, he turned towards the girl and said, "Um, excuse me?"
She jumped, literally, off her seat, and banged her knee against the desk she'd been sitting at. Their was a brief lapse in conversation on the other side of the room, but it picked up just as quickly when the girl turned her wide blue eyes toward Harry. When she realized who he was, her eyes jumped quickly down to the top of her desk, and she didn't move them from that spot.
"Um, is your name Usagi?" She lifted her eyes, but only to watch the group of students that entered the classroom. Without even looking in her direction, they took seats as far away from her as possible, still chatting away about some wizarding band. Harry suddenly wondered if things had been like this for her all seven years she'd been at Hogwarts.
He'd had brief spouts of being disliked by the whole school, such as his second year when everyone thought he was the heir of Slytherin, or his fourth year when they thought he cheated his way into the Triwizard Tournament. He couldn't even imagine being treated like that constantly for seven years. Finally, he turned his thoughts back to the present, only to realize that the blonde hadn't even turned to look at him.
"It was written in that book you handed me last night," Harry offered, trying to catch her attention. Her eyes turned towards him once more, blinking a few times, as if she'd just now seen him there. Brow furrowing, she studied him for a moment like you might observe an animal in a zoo, and then turned back towards the front of the class.
"Silence," Harry realized why she'd turned away that time, as there was now a woman standing in the front of the room. She was leaning her full weight against the podium perched there, and if he didn't know better, he'd say her eyes were positively silver. Though her voice wasn't as strict as McGonagall's, it still commanded a certain level of respect, and the room hushed almost immediately.
"Much better, indeed," her eyes crinkled with amusement, as if she found something funny among the lot of students before her. She swiped her long black hair from her eyes before she continued, and Harry was now positive that they were silver, "Welcome to the very first class of Lunarian Magic. Aren't you all the lucky ones? My name is Idola Desdemona, and I'm your professor for this course. You may call my Professor Desdemona or Professor Des, if you think it's easier.
"Professor Dumbledore agreed to let me teach the lot of you Lunarian Magic, which includes its origins, its benefits, its downfalls, and even how to use it. That being said, can anyone tell me where Lunarian magic first began and what race discovered it?" Her eerie silver eyes passed over the room, and no one raised their hand to offer the answer. Pausing on Harry, she studied him for a moment before she turned to the girl beside him.
"Yes, I believe one of you knows. Miss Malfoy, won't you tell us the answer?" If Harry thought Usagi looked startled earlier, he was certainly wrong. The blonde girl's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as the whole class's attentions shifted to her.
"Well, um," Harry felt terribly sorry for her; her voice was so quiet he was sure only he had heard it, "Lunarian Magic began on the moon, and it was started by the Lunarians, which is why it's called Lunarian Magic."
"Very good, Miss Malfoy, ten points to Gryffindor." Professor Desdemona nodded.
"Anyone could've guessed that, it's just common sense." A girl called from the other side of the room, sending the group around her into a fit of laughter. Professor Desdemona turned sharply towards the girl, her eyes narrowing.
"Fifty points from Slytherin, Miss Parkinson, and if you ever insult another student in my presence again I'll double it and give you a nice detention with the caretaker. I hear there's a nasty clogged toilet in one of the boy's bathroom's he's been saving." Harry looked over at Usagi, whose face was quite red as she twiddled with her thumbs in her lap.
"Lunarian Magic is different from the magic you've learned here at Hogwarts. If used correctly, it can be stronger than your Charms, and it's particularly effective against the Dark Arts. To use the stronger spells, however, you have to have Lunarian heritage and a pure heart as well. I'm directly descended from a Lunarian bloodline, so I'm able to use Lunarian Magic to its fullest.
"So, as Miss Malfoy says, Lunarian Magic began on the moon back when there was a stable Kingdom established there. A lot of people today think that the Moon Kingdom is just a bedtime story, and legitimately so because there are so few Lunarian descendants left.
"But it is real, and you'll be learning it here this year. I know, I said only people with Lunarian blood could use it, but the basic spells are learnable with the proper amount of skill and effort. That's why this is an advanced course; and its benefits against the Dark Arts are the reason it's now required for Auror training. But before we start learning spells, let's begin with the history, which is dull, but necessary. Get out your parchment, it's time for notes."
xXx
"How was the class, Harry?" Hermione asked over lunch that afternoon. Harry looked up from his lunch, mouth bulging with mashed potatoes. After his no-eating escapade at breakfast, he suddenly found himself very hungry. Of course, the extensive writing also had an effect on his hunger, and he'd taken plenty of notes in Professor Des's class.
"It was okay. The professor seems cool, but we had to take notes the whole class period." He responded after swallowing the potatoes.
"Ooh, can I read your notes?" Hermione asked enthusiastically. Harry nodded numbly. "Great! I've been trying to look up stuff about Lunarians but there isn't much information available. I want to learn more about them, do you think the professor would tutor me or something?"
"Sure, Hermione, why don't you ask her?" Harry answered awkwardly. "I'm going to return this book, see you guys at dinner."
"See ya Harry." Ron waved and shook his head at Hermione simultaneously. Harry grinned and walked to the end of the table, sitting directly across from Usagi and setting the book on the table between them. She shifted her eyes up to the book, and then towards him as she waited for him to say something.
"Your book. So you're interested in the moon?" Harry asked. Usagi reached across the table and slid the book into her lap, nodding once for her answer. "Why don't you ever say anything? I know you can talk, you answered Professor Des's question earlier."
Usagi turned her eyes to his once more, and Harry realized that she had a different expression every time she looked at him. Perhaps his mute sign language idea wasn't as ludicrous as he'd thought? "Okay, so you don't talk. If I ask you yes or no questions will you nod or shake your head?" Usagi blinked at him, and then shrugged.
"Is your name Usagi Malfoy?" She winced, nodded, and shifted her eyes down the table as if someone was watching her.
"Have you been here since first year?" She looked at him again with a fleeting hint of anger before nodding.
"Are you related to Draco Malfoy?" There, he sprung the question on her. Usagi gave him a deer-in-the-headlights look before jumping up from the table with her book in her hands and fleeing from the Great Hall as fast as her legs would carry her.
'I guess it wasn't just a coincidence then...' Harry mused as he looked down at her plate, which she hadn't even touched. He waited several minutes before collecting his stuff up and leaving for his next class; double potions.
xXx
"Welcome to your 7th and last year of potions. Believe me; I'm just as happy about it as you are." Snape drawled as he shot pointed looks at Harry and Neville. "You know my rules, choose a partner and begin the potion on the blackboard." The class situated themselves with their partner and began to set out ingredients. Harry waved at Ron and Hermione, and then took a seat next to Usagi, who glanced at him from the corner of her eye before setting up the ingredients for the potion silently.
"Will you be my partner?" He questioned. Usagi shrugged nonchalantly and studied the directions on the board. Harry took the hint and began setting up the cauldron. Usagi lost herself in her thoughts as she stirred the ingredients into the potion as if it were a second nature; three times clockwise, fourteen times counter clockwise. Harry measured out the next ingredient and was about to dump it into the cauldron when Usagi grabbed his wrist to stop him. Harry looked at her in surprise.
"That's too much, you'll melt the cauldron. Use a teaspoon, not a tablespoon." She told him quietly. Harry blinked as he realized his mistake, briefly wondered how she caught it when she was daydreaming more than he was, and measured it over again. Draco shot a reproachful glance at Usagi from one table over, but she blissfully ignored him as she continued to stir her potion. At the end of the class, Snape made a point of coming to their table first to inspect their potion.
"Hmm...surprisingly good work Potter. Luckily you were paired with the brightest potion brewer in your class or you might have blown my classroom to pieces." Snape sneered before moving away to survey Ron and Hermione's potion. Harry glared as his back while Usagi bottled their potion and put the ingredients away.
"Stupid git; he's right, though. Thanks for helping me." Harry added as he looked over at his blonde partner. She shook her head and waved her wand at the cauldron, making the rest of the potion evaporate instantly. There was still a good ten minutes left in the class, and Draco moved in moments after Snape had left.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked briskly, looking at the blonde boy unpleasantly. He returned the look.
"None of your business, Potter." Draco shot back. He bent down and said something in Usagi's ear. She closed her eyes and nodded. He was gone as quickly as he'd come.
"What was that about?" He inquired. Usagi ignored him and left the classroom silently as the bell rang.
xXx
Ding. I didn't edit the last half, just the beginning through Lunarian Magic. I know, I've revised this story like four times. I can't help it.
♥SachiNyoko♥