Lily Evans: Back to School (I)

O'Shea started his laborious hardwork in Hogwarts for the first time. Despite being always busy with magic previously, this was the first time he was working hard on academics in the school. Earlier he used to experiment with ideas and knowledge he had gained at home and used to ignore most of the basic knowledge being taught by professors. The reason was that his basics was far superior compared to the quality of knowledge being imparted in Hogwarts. Also, his practical knowledge always let him pass the exams with little effort and he has neither patience nor interest in being a topper by working hard on theoretical part. He was still one of the better performing students in the class as it won't be nice if a Wyllt heir can't even perform to the level of commoners.

His disdain for mediocre education has made him ignore most of the theoretical parts of knowledge taught in school. His defence against dark arts and ancient runes knowledge was vast as he has been learning it from the age of five and most of the stuff he practiced was based on these subjects. But he has ignored subjects like magical history, arthimancy, herbology and potions. His family has specialised potioneers, so he has never felt the need to invest time to learn the subject itself.

His knowledge in astronomy was passable and though he has extensive knowledge of charms, it was focused mostly on hexes and jinx.

After the death experience, O'Shea realised that he was too dependent on his family and previously he only wanted to follow the knowledge that his family has stored. But now, he have decided to learn the basics of magic taught here at Hogwarts as the main curriculum still followed the original idea implemented by the four archmages. I felt somewhat conflited in attending some of the classes but in my defense, Hogwarts has quite a few subpar teachers for subjects like knowledge of magical creatures, magical history, divination and there was no one teaching an important subject like alchemy.

On the other hand, from a student's point of view, I came to realise that every head of the house was an excellent teacher particularly Filius Flitwick whose mastery may exceed the common high wizards of my family.

Now that I have planned to extend my stay in wizarding world outside, I needed some credentials to establish an identity apart from my family. Even though it seemed difficult at the moment but in the long term, scoring good in O.W.L.S. and N.E.W.T.S. will allow me a lot of freedom in acquiring a ministry job. It will lead me to a variety of pathways filled with varied branches of knowledge.

With chaos spreading all around, it was the best time to enjoy the resources British ministry of Magic has kept hidden for so long. Yes, his target was to become an Unspeakable from the department of Mysteries.

It was a boring job quite away from the limelight of war but all this fighting and subsequent capture of death eaters will go as long as 1984, according to the memory of that dead politician. By that time, around seven years ahead, he will be easily enclosed as a senior employee in the department and enjoying access to all kinds of deep and mysterious knowledge without anyone watching him over the shoulder.

Scoring good in O.W.L.S. may be difficult for others but for him, it was comparatively easy as he had limited theoretical knowledge but his practical skills were top-notch. So, learning charms according to the prescribed syllabus was a walk in the park, but it was potions making actually which turned out to be his sore lacking skill.

I decided to turn my inability in an opportunity. Learning Potions was easy as Slytherin's house head was Horace Slughorn, and I also have in my sight three genius potioneers, Snape, Belby, another junior fourth year from Slytherin and last but not the least Lily Evans, my next target.

Horace Slughorn was a braggart and pompous in nature but his teaching skills were not to be questioned. With a bit of prodding and flattering, he agreed to give some extra classes and refered me some books and journals which were quite outdated but good enough to quickly strengthen my basics. I planned to get the basics from Slughorn before spending some time bonding...I mean, learning from Snape and Belby. Lily Evans, I planned to approach last before O.W.L.S. but in this case I think luck favoured me.