NOIR - [Fred Weasley]

18. Everyone gets poisoned on their birthday, right?

From that evening on, Lizl slowly crept back to her old habits. She helped Cait regulate patrols, she instructed Liam on the training of new recruits, and joined Jonathan on his daily trips around town. For all intents and purposes, she appeared to be back to normal.

She wasn't though. She was angry, and confused, and sad. So she snapped from time to time. She was crankier than usual, and her fuse had gotten shorter. Thankfully, her friends didn't mention it much; but she still felt guilty for taking her anger on others. In the end, she just became quiet . She had decided it was better to keep her feelings inside than to lash out on people that didn't deserve it.

But when Harry bloody Potter, out of all people, called out her name just when she was going back to her dorm for a much needed nap, she couldn't help herself.

"What do you want, Potter?" She snapped.

Harry scratched the back of his neck nervously. He hadn't really thought his plan through. Hell, he hadn't thought of a plan in general.

"I was wondering... Well, what I meant to ask was... Have you ever heard of this thing called...?" He trailed off, his words barely making sense to Lizl.

"Oh, spit it out!" She huffed.

"Have you ever heard of a Horcrux?"

Lizl's face turned white at the wound of his question. It was a pretty terrifying sight for the boy. Between the porcelain complexion, the cold steel eyes and pitch black hair, she looked more like a banshee than an actual human.

"What?" Whispered Lizl, looking around for any prying eyes. "Where did you hear that word?"

"Nowhere important. I just heard the term, and was curious as to what it was referring to." Harry shrugged, and Lizl rolled her eyes, clearly not buying it.

The girl scanned the hallway, the amount of students still wandering the halls worried her.

"Follow me." She ordered, grabbing the boy by his arm, dragging him down a less populated area.

Harry followed her silently, debating whether she was going to help him or kill him in the middle of the school. Hopefully, she'd do the former.

When the pair reached an empty hallway, Lizl carefully snuck her head inside one of the classrooms. Thankfully, the very first one she looked in, was empty. She quickly dragged the boy inside, sparing one last look behind her shoulder, just to make sure no one had followed them. When she was satisfied that privacy was ensured, Lizl sat on one of the tables, motioning for Harry to do the same, who took a seat across from her.

"Where did you hear that term?" Lizl asked, dropping her back on the floor by her feet.

"That's none of your business." Harry muttered, shaking his head.

Lizl rolled her eyes. Perhaps she should've punched him a long time ago...

"Okay, let me put it in words that your little brain can understand. This is extremely dangerous, dark magic that you're talking about. The kind of magic that almost no wizard would ever even dream of using." She explained, leaning across the table, and resting her hands on top. "My mother uses blood magic on the regular, and even she would never dare to even entertain the concept of performing dark magic. So, I'm asking you one more time, where did you hear that term?"

Harry looked at her warily as he weighed his options. Perhaps he could get away with telling her a partially truthful version of events.

"A student. He asked Slughorn about it."

"Slughorn's the potions teacher. Why would a student ask him?" The girl argued.

"How am I supposed to know?"