Chapter 3
9.
The actual Hogwarts classes were underwhelming. He’s in the top rank for most of his classes, save Herbology (His wand seems to think the other plants are competition), DADA (The teacher is so favoritive it isn’t even funny), and charms (Which Lily seem to find her passion in, stealing the top spot with ease). Transfigure was easy and almost startlingly effortless. When Obito was still learning how to turn intangible with Kamui, he pieced together that it works smoother if he willed himself to subconsciously think that he really was nothing. It took years to master, but he eventually learned how to do it in the blink of an eye, Transfigure is practically childsplay compared to that.
Astronomy, Herbology, and Charms are all mainly memorizing the textbooks, and History of Magic is practically a joke. Hell, Obito would probably learn more from Hidan of all people than that willy ghost.
Defense against the Dark arts is so biased it makes him want to throttle the teacher-whose-name-he-can't-remember. The entire class time he stood in front of his desk spewing light magic bullshit while heatedly glaring at the indifferent Slytherins and praising the arrogant Gryffindors.
Potions and Slughorn’s teaching style were interesting, not to mention he’s one of the least biased teachers he’s met in Hogwarts, but it’s not enough to catch his genuine interest and he finds himself spending most of the class sleeping. He naively hopes that for the next 8 years the classes he’ll be subjected to won’t be this boring.
Obito presently thinks that Evans made him an ally with the single purpose outside of annoying the shit out of him. Really, if Obito hadn’t spent so many years as Tobi training himself out of getting mad, he probably would have killed the brat by now.
Much to his own discomfort, he quickly became aware that Rosier is a very physical person. An arm around his neck, clinging to his shoulder, tugging his arms, the slytherin seems to preen with touches. They have the same class schedules, leaving him often subjected to Rosiers' very dry, slightly disquieting sense of humor (He ignores how he finds it comical).
It's probably disturbing how well he adjusts to his newest addition despite the mental age gap. It should be disturbing, but he can’t find it in himself to drive away his companion. At the very least he can justify it by saying that he has his own purpose. All the Slytherin who took it upon themselves to discipline the ‘mangy half-blood’ no longer bother him, and while he’s still at the bottom of the food chain, he’s not exactly trying to raise his standing despite Evan’s support.
To his relief, Lily seems to be adjusting well to Gryffindor. Well, as well as a mini-Kushina can adjust to her house. Somehow, (he hasn’t had the time to ask the specifics) the fiery red-head managed to make enemies out of the Black and Potter heir on the first hour alone, both of whom have been revealed to be huge pranksters (Lily sure knows how to pick them), with Lupin and Pettigrew as silent observers.
Obito’s quick visits with her often consist of Lily fuming, having started ranting about the “Arrogant toerag Potter and his stupid minions!” before starting schemes to prank them back. With how complex some of her pranks are he suspects that there has to be at least a drop of Uzumaki blood in her. How else can he justify an 11-year-old transforming the group of boys into dogs before setting up a trail of peanut butter into the great hall, straight into Dumbledore’s plate? He can’t, and he’s self-aware enough to acknowledge that if she wasn’t his minion he would have fallen in love with her for that alone.
“Hey Sev?” the girl in question asked, still languishly hanging off of her house’s couch, “Is Potter still messing with you during transfigure class, ‘cause if he is I can kick his ass for you.”
She made a punching motion to show her seriousness and he couldn’t stop the grin from crossing his face even if he tried. The brown-haired boy seemed to be particularly irate with the former Uchiha’s transfigure grades, and took it upon himself a one-sided rivalry with a side of insults that can only come out of an 11 years mouth without sounding ridiculous. If Obito wasn’t Obito, some of the things that fall out of the boy’s mouth could probably be seen as cruel, but people can’t live with 9 S-rank missing-nin without growing skin as thick as steel, so he dutifully ignores the boy's ever-growing jealousy without a pause.
Really in a way it’s sort of disappointing. He expected a heir to a family to be above petty bullying, (He knows for a fact that Itachi would rather be caught dead doing anything like that, if he didn't kill himself then Fugaku would have for certain) but he soon realized that the conditioning and training start differently here than Konoha. Instead of from birth, these children’s training starts at around 9 years old (Which he finds frankly utterly absurd), giving them “just enough time to present to different courts before Hogwarts” according to Evans. The conditioning is all political with no strategy or magic training (They seem content to leave that to Hogwarts instead) so he can’t lay all the blame at Potter’s feet.
“It’s fine, he’s not bothering me.” He admits to a skeptical Lily. She gives him a look but doesn’t comment, instead taking a peak at his book from over his shoulder.
“Ambiguous transformation? Sev, we’re not learning that for another 4 years!” Lily sputters in disbelief, “I know you're practically a personified library but is this really necessary?”
“Yes Lily, it's absolutely necessary.” He drawls out in amusement.
Animagus and its entire concept, Obito finds it all absolutely fascinating. To be able to become an animal that corresponds with his soul? That's bloody insane, yet exactly what he would expect from the wizarding world. Not to mention it’ll be very useful. Depending on his form he could use it from spying to offense, and most magical don’t have their wards keyed in to look for animagus.
The actual process of gaining the form itself is going slower than he’d like it though. The instructions say to “Meditate to find one’s most basic soul form”, which Obito has followed dutifully with no results. He finds the actual meditation is no problem, all shinobi have it beat into their heads at the academy, but finding his soul is the tricky part. It’s way more elusive than his magic in the first years had been. He suspects that it's taunting him, he’ll find it and have it in his grasp before it slithers out of his palms before he can catch it again. He had fumed for an hour straight the first few times it happened, before he ended up snapping at a few of the cocky Slytherin, earning himself a reputation and a “not to mess with” status in some of the students' minds. He had decided to tone it down after that.
The door bustled open and Evan marched through the library (not before sending Lily a totally-not-subtle sneer) turning to the armchair that Obito rested on. With a condensing smirk, the boy pulled a wooden chair from a vacant table and sat on it with his arms crossed over the backrest.
“Hey Snape, what're you doing here with the Gryffindor?” He grimaced at the word as though it left a nasty taste in his mouth. Obito saw Lily send the Rosier heir a burning glare from where he was ignoring her existence. He let out a small sigh at their petty squabble before shaking his head in amusement.
“What do you want Rosier?”
“Hey! Didn’t I tell you to call me Evan?” Evan probed with a small pout at his lack of response, “And I came here to inform you that you my dear, are coming with me next weekend to the Annual Black Gala as my plus one.”
“He’s what?!” Lily hollars, loud enough that eyes from other tables turned to her, not that it mattered to her as she huffs angrily.
“I am?” He drawled, letting a bit of annoyance seep through his tone.
“Hey don't look at me like that, I’m doing you a favor!” Evans faltered, taking in his genuine anger at being put in this situation.
Well, it’s not like he’s wrong exactly. This party will probably be a good chance to start making connections and networking. Plus he’ll finally get a chance to see what exactly the “dark” side is up to. Obito's just pissed he didn’t have a choice in the matter, or any time to get prepared. Now, much to his annoyance, he’ll have to transfigure a few of his robes into a suit because of his lack of money.
He lets out a huff himself, barely noticeably slumping in his chair. “What time does it start?” The former Akatsuki member pried watching with trepeide as Evans beams as brightly as a respectable Slytherin will allow.
“We’ll floo there at 7 p.m.!” Rosier grinned cheerfully, leaving the library with a extra step in his stride.
“Sev you can’t seriously be considering this!” His minion questioned incredulously, “People say that the Black family are all crazy, who knows what they might do at that party!” Getting over her shock she’s not visibly fuming, making him take a subtle step back from her wrath (He still has some self-preservation left, thank you very much).
“I’m sure I’ll be fine, Lils.” He tries to reassure, giving a slight twitch as her demeanor stays infuriated. If there's anything that Obito has learned during his time with Lily Evans, it's that her anger rivals Kushina’s, and not in a good way. Quietly, he pulls out a small chocolate bar from the pocket in his robe and hands it to her and watches in anticipation as she steadily relaxes with the sweets. Silently wiping the sweat that was building up from his neck at such a close call he decides not to try his luck again anytime soon.