The whispers began before Helios Black even entered the castle.
Students noticed him the moment the Thestral carriage rolled into the front courtyard of Hogwarts. Heads turned from the steps. Conversations faltered near the great doors. Even students who had been laughing a moment earlier suddenly lowered their voices and watched him climb down as though they had been waiting for his return without realizing it.
During the last two weeks, his name had grown larger than the boy himself.
Some said he practiced dark magic. Some claimed he had attacked Umbridge. Others whispered that his connection to Sirius Black meant Death Eater ties, old family secrets, and dangerous blood magic. No one truly knew anything, of course, but that only made the rumors stronger.
Mystery fed fear better than truth ever could.
Helios walked through the courtyard as he heard none of it. His silver-green Slytherin tie hung slightly loose around his neck, his hands rested inside his pockets, and his expression remained calm enough to irritate everyone who wanted him nervous.
Inside the castle, the atmosphere shifted around him.
Ravenclaws watched him with open curiosity, as if trying to solve a difficult riddle. Hufflepuffs moved aside instinctively, not out of hostility, but caution. Many Gryffindors glared openly.
Not because they all hated him personally.
Fear had begun spreading again through Britain. Attacks in the Muggle world, disappearances, strange incidents that felt too familiar to the older generation. The Ministry refused to openly admit anything, but people could feel the pattern returning.
Voldemort was coming back.
And to many students, especially Gryffindors, Rose Potter represented hope. She was their survivor, their champion, their symbol of resistance against whatever darkness was rising again.
Which made Helios Black a problem.
A mysterious Slytherin with ties to Sirius Black, too many secrets, and too much influence over Rose.
During his suspension, several older students had tried to grow closer to her. Mostly Gryffindors, a few Ravenclaws, and even one Hufflepuff seventh-year Quidditch captain who had apparently believed broad shoulders and a clean smile would be enough.
Rose rejected all of them.
The moment she heard Helios had returned, she rushed toward the Great Hall.
The doors opened just as Helios entered.
For one brief second, half the hall seemed to freeze.
Then Rose crossed the distance before anyone could stop her.
"Helios!"
She threw her arms around him tightly.
The entire hall erupted into whispers.
Helios blinked slightly in surprise before a faint smile touched his face. "Good morning to you too."
Rose pulled back just enough to look at him properly. Her face was bright with relief, more openly happy than she had been in days.
"You took forever."
"It was two weeks."
"That's forever."
Several Gryffindor boys nearby looked deeply annoyed.
One sixth-year muttered under his breath, "Merlin, she really likes him…"
At the Slytherin table, Daphne Greengrass watched the scene quietly with an unreadable expression. Beside her, Tracy Davis smirked openly.
"Oh, that looks painful."
Daphne ignored her.
Eventually, Helios moved toward the Slytherin table and sat beside Daphne as naturally as if nothing unusual had happened. Breakfast appeared moments later in the usual abundance of bacon, eggs, toast, porridge, sausages, and pumpkin juice.
Helios began eating calmly while half the Great Hall continued staring at him.
Daphne leaned slightly closer. "You caused quite a bit of chaos while away."
Helios smirked faintly. "I was suspended. I had free time."
Tracy snorted into her drink.
Across the hall, Hermione watched him carefully. She was still trying to understand him and still trying not to care that she wanted to. Helios was becoming increasingly difficult to place into any simple category, and Hermione hated people who refused to fit neatly into logic.
Rose, meanwhile, looked happier than she had in nearly two weeks.
That only worsened the opinions of some Gryffindors.
"He's a Black."
"And a Slytherin."
Neville Longbottom heard the whispers but said nothing. Unlike most of them, he had seen Helios fight. Seen him protect Rose when it mattered.
And Neville trusted actions more than rumors.
Eventually breakfast ended, and students gathered their bags before flowing out of the Great Hall toward morning classes.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was unusually quiet that day.
Everyone knew Umbridge had returned.
When the students entered the classroom, they found Dolores Umbridge already seated behind her desk. The room still looked painfully pink. The curtains, teacups, quills, bows, and kitten plates remained exactly where they had always been, absurdly cheerful against the ancient stone walls.
Umbridge herself looked the same at first glance.
But something had changed.
Not physically.
She looked diminished.
The arrogance remained, but the certainty beneath it had cracked. She no longer carried herself like the woman who could ruin any student or professor with a word.
Now she looked like someone desperately pretending she still mattered.
Her eyes locked onto Helios the moment he entered.
Helios smiled politely and took his seat beside Daphne without a word.
Rose and Hermione exchanged glances from nearby desks.
The tension in the room became almost tangible.
Umbridge cleared her throat, fingers tightening around her quill. "Turn to chapter twelve."
Helios slowly opened the textbook and leaned back comfortably in his chair. Umbridge's eye twitched at the sight of him sitting there so relaxed, as if the last two weeks had damaged everyone except him.
As if he had already won.
That, perhaps, enraged her most.
Throughout the lesson, Umbridge kept glancing toward him. Every few minutes, her eyes flicked up from her desk, sharp and venomous. Helios ignored every look completely. He simply read, occasionally made notes, and behaved like a model student.
The calmness irritated her more than any open defiance could have.
At one point, Ron leaned slightly toward Hermione and whispered, "She looks like she wants to murder him."
Hermione whispered back, "He probably enjoys that."
Unfortunately, Helios heard both.
A faint smirk appeared on his face.
Her fingers tightened around her quill until the feather bent.
She knew he had done it.
The scandal. The humiliation. Perhaps she could never prove it, perhaps there would never be evidence, but she knew with absolute certainty that Helios Black had been involved.
At the end of class, Umbridge dismissed everyone stiffly. Students packed their bags with unusual speed, eager to escape the pressure in the room.
But before Helios could leave, Umbridge spoke softly.
"Mr. Black."
The classroom quieted instantly.
Helios looked up lazily. "Yes, Professor?"
Their eyes met across the pink room.
Her hatred was wrapped in sugar.
His amusement was wrapped in perfect manners.
"Welcome back."
Helios smiled pleasantly in return.
"Thank you, Professor."
The words were polite.
And somehow, the exchange felt more hostile than a duel.
Ever since Helios returned to Hogwarts, Rose had started paying closer attention to people.
Not professors.
Not rumors.
Girls.
And most importantly—
Daphne Greengrass.
A girl understood another girl in ways boys never noticed. Rose saw the small details now. The way Daphne's eyes unconsciously followed Helios whenever he entered a room. The tiny smile she tried to hide whenever he sat beside her. The strange coincidence that somehow always placed her near him in the Great Hall, the library, or the corridors.
Rose was not blind anymore.
The cemetery had changed her.
Ever since the curse was removed from her scar, her thoughts felt clearer somehow, sharper, like she had spent years trapped inside a fog without realizing it existed until it vanished.
Now she noticed things she once ignored.
Rose had seen it long ago without understanding what she was seeing. The curiosity in Hermione's eyes whenever Helios spoke. The fascination she tried to hide beneath logic and annoyance. The way her attention drifted toward him even when she pretended otherwise.
And worse—
Rose had noticed Helios looking at Hermione too.
There had been something soft in his eyes the first time they met, something Rose only fully understood now.
At first she ignored it. Then she denied it. Then she convinced herself she was imagining it.
But she wasn't.
And somehow that frightened her more than she wanted to admit.
Because Rose truly loved Hermione. If Hermione needed her, Rose would sacrifice almost anything without hesitation.
But not this.
Not Helios.
And at the same time, Rose understood something ugly about people now. Something painfully human.
Everyone had limits.
Ron was loyal. Hermione was loyal. Neville was loyal.
But when real fear arrived—when war truly began—people thought about survival first. About themselves. That was normal.
That was human.
But Helios…
Helios would stay.
Rose knew it with terrifying certainty. Even if the world turned against her, even if Britain called her dangerous, unstable, or cursed—
Helios would remain beside her.
And perhaps that was why losing him frightened her so much.
Especially not to Daphne Greengrass.
After History of Magic ended, Rose waited patiently outside the corridor while students flooded past her. She ignored the noise and watched the crowd carefully until she spotted silver-grey eyes among the moving students.
Helios noticed her immediately.
"You look serious," he said casually.
"I am."
That answer alone made him pay attention.
Without another word, Rose grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the corridor traffic toward an old broom closet hidden beside a narrow staircase.
Helios raised an eyebrow. "A broom closet?"
"We need privacy."
"That somehow makes this more romantic."
Rose ignored him completely and shoved open the door.
The room inside was cramped, dusty, and filled with broken cleaning supplies and old brooms leaning against the walls.
Helios sighed softly.
Then flicked his wand once.
The transformation happened instantly.
The walls stretched outward smoothly as if the stone itself obeyed him willingly. The ceiling rose higher, dust vanished into nothing, and the old brooms disappeared entirely. Warm lighting appeared overhead, followed by two comfortable chairs and a small table between them.
Within seconds, the broom closet had become a private sitting room.
Rose blinked slowly. "…That's useful."
Helios sat down casually, crossing one leg over the other as though transforming hidden spaces into luxurious rooms was completely ordinary.
"Alright," he said quietly. "What's wrong?"
Rose remained standing for several moments. Watching him. Thinking carefully about how to ask something that suddenly felt far more dangerous aloud than it had inside her head.
Finally she spoke directly.
"Do you like Daphne?"
Helios did not look surprised.
Instead, he sighed softly, almost like he had expected this conversation eventually.
"I know what you're asking."
Rose felt her chest tighten slightly.
Helios looked directly at her. "I don't like Daphne the way you think I do."
The answer came immediately.
No hesitation.
And Rose felt relief flood through her so quickly it almost embarrassed her. Because if he had hesitated, even for a second, she would have noticed.
She slowly sat down opposite him.
Then she asked the question she truly came here for.
"Do you like me?"
This time, Helios hesitated.
Only slightly.
Then he answered carefully. "I do like you."
Rose's heartbeat quickened.
But before she could speak, Helios continued.
"But…"
She immediately hated that word.
"There's something I haven't told anyone."
His tone changed completely. The teasing vanished from his voice, replaced by something heavier and far more serious.
"And if I tell you…" He looked directly into her eyes. "…it changes everything."
Rose frowned slightly. "What kind of secret?"
Helios leaned back slightly in his chair. "I'll tell you eventually."
"Eventually?"
"When your Occlumency is strong enough."
Rose blinked. "What?"
"I'm serious," he said calmly. "By the end of the year, I'll test your mental shields myself."
His grey eyes narrowed slightly.
"If I think your Occlumency is strong enough to protect the information, then I'll tell you."
Rose stared at him quietly now.
Helios was not someone who exaggerated things for drama. If he was being this careful, then whatever secret he carried had to be enormous.
Dangerous.
And somehow that only made her more curious.
Then suddenly she remembered something entirely different.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you."
"Hm?"
Her expression brightened immediately, the heaviness from moments earlier fading beneath sudden excitement.
"Can you believe Minister Fudge and Professor Umbridge were having an affair?"
"It was everywhere in the newspapers. There were pictures and everything."
She leaned forward in her chair, eyes bright with disbelief and amusement.
"And honestly, it explains a lot. The way Umbridge suddenly became so powerful, all the Ministry positions, the High Inquisitor title…"
Rose shook her head dramatically. "I never thought about it before, but now it all makes sense."
Helios stared at her for several long seconds.
Then, very slowly, a grin spread across his face.
"They weren't having an affair."
Rose blinked immediately. "What?"
"They weren't."
Now she frowned openly. "Helios, it was literally in the newspapers."
"There were photographs."
Helios leaned back comfortably, looking far too entertained for someone denying one of Britain's biggest scandals.
"Rose," he said patiently, "don't believe everything you read."
She narrowed her eyes instantly. "That's rich coming from you."
"It's still good advice."
Rose stared suspiciously at the growing amusement on his face. "…Why are you smiling like that?"
Helios completely ignored the question.
Instead, he asked casually, "Do you remember the couple I was speaking to during the Hogsmeade weekend?"
Rose frowned thoughtfully for a moment before nodding slowly. "The shabby-looking people?"
"Yes."
"What about them?"
Helios's smile widened slightly now, becoming unmistakably dangerous.
"They were the Minister and Umbridge."
Rose blinked once.
Then again.
"The fake Minister and fake Umbridge," Helios clarified pleasantly.
For several seconds, Rose genuinely could not process the words.
Rose stared at him in complete disbelief.
"You—"
She pointed at him accusingly, almost speechless from shock.
"You made the entire wizarding world believe they were having an affair?"
Helios shrugged calmly. "The newspapers did most of the work themselves."
That was it.
Rose burst into laughter.
Real, uncontrollable laughter that echoed through the magically expanded room.
"You're insane," she gasped between breaths.
"Probably."
"And Skeeter actually believed it?"
"She's very talented," Helios admitted thoughtfully. "Just not in the correct direction."
Rose nearly fell sideways laughing.
"You mean…" She struggled to breathe properly through her laughter. "…you caused all of that?"
"The scandal?"
"Umbridge losing power?"
Helios looked almost proud of himself now.
"She suspended me."
It overwhelmed Rose completely.
And before Helios could react, she suddenly moved.
Straight onto his lap.
"Rose—"
But she was already laughing again, hands gripping his shoulders while her eyes shone brightly with excitement.
"You are unbelievable."
Then she kissed him.
Author's Note:
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