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The next day, Lyra bid farewell to most of her friends after breakfast, watching as Daphne, Astoria, Draco, and Blaise disappeared down separate corridors toward their first classes.
The only one left by her side was Theo, his hands shoved into his pockets as they leisurely made their way toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
"Just you and me, Arakan," Theo grumbled beside her, stretching his arms dramatically.
"Unlucky for you, I don't do conversations before noon."
She snorted, raising an eyebrow at him as she smirked. "You don't do anything before noon."
He hummed lightly in response, before continuing. "I still can't believe we got Moody," Theo muttered, stifling a yawn. "I didn't even know he taught."
Lyra hummed, barely listening. She was too busy bracing herself for what was to come. She knew Moody would recognise her.
She could already picture his magical eye zooming in on her the second she walked in, suspicion written all over his scarred face. Gross.
"Think he knows?" Theo asked casually, giving her a side glance as if he was reading her mind.
"That my mother is a wanted criminal?" Lyra said dryly. "Oh, I don't know, Theo, maybe the fact that he's been after her for years might mean something. If anyone knows, it's him."
Theo smirked and shook his head. "Yeah, but you aren't your mum."
"Tell that to literally everyone who looks at me like I'm about to join the Dark Lord any second now."
"Yeah," Theo smirked. "Don't look too guilty."
"I don't look guilty."
"Your face looks guilty."
"I will hex you."
Theo raised his hands in surrender, smirking. "I'm just trying to help. You need to learn to relax, Lyra. If he calls on you, just answer normally and don't look like you're plotting murder."
"I don't look like I'm plotting murder."
Theo opened his mouth to say something else, but Lyra cut him off with an exhausted sigh. "Let's just get this over with."
As soon as she stepped inside the classroom, she immediately regretted it, because the first thing she heard was an insufferably familiar voice.
"Blimey, we just can't get rid of you, can we, Arakan?"
Lyra groaned as she glanced towards the front of the classroom, where Fred was sitting with George. Actually, she was surprised that they sat in the front. Probably a heads up from the other teachers.
Both of them looking far too pleased to see her.
Theo leaned into Lyra's ear as they walked over to an empty desk behind the twins. "Ten minutes in and you already want to kill him, huh?"
"Give or take a few," she muttered, before the loud sound of a door sound could be heard. Professor Moody had arrived.
He stomped to the front of the class, his real eye scanning the room while his magical one whizzed around wildly. When it landed on Lyra, it stopped moving entirely.
Lyra stiffened. Yep. He recognises me.
Moody's lips curled into something that almost resembled a smirk. "Well, well. Didn't expect to see an Arakan in my class."
The room was completely silent.
Lyra lifted her chin, keeping her face neutral. "Didn't expect to see you in a classroom, Professor." She shot back, keeping her expression stern.
A few students started whispering to their friends, but Moody merely chuckled. "You've got guts, I'll give you that."
Lyra clenched her jaw as she realised that this was going to be a long class.
"Well," Moody finally muttered, breaking the thick silence. "Nevertheless."
And with that, he turned back toward the blackboard and began his lecture, writing today's lesson with big scrambled letters.
"Unforgivable Curses." His voice was sharp, commanding. "Can anyone name them?"
Several hands shot up, but moody's eyes landed of course on Lyra. Of course, it had to be her he picked.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
"You," he said. "Arakan."
She knew why. Shit, probably everyone knew why, or suspected why.
He probably thought that because her mother was a Death Eater, she'd have the most knowledge on the subject. He probably expected some kind of hesitation, some slip-up, or some kind of retreat.
But she didn't give him one.
Lyra sighed. She could already hear the whispers, but she refused to let her irritation show. Instead, she answered smoothly, her voice clear and steady.
"The Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Killing Curse."
Moody nodded. "And their effects?"
She clenched her hands under the desk. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of answering, but she knew the answers better than anyone.
"The Imperius Curse allows the caster to control another person's actions against their will," she recited, her voice devoid of emotion. "The Cruciatus Curse is used for torture, inflicting unbearable pain. And the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra, kills instantly. There's no counter curse."
The room was deathly silent as she answered, and she felt herself slightly slide back in her seat after answering.
Moody's gaze didn't waver. "Correct." He said simply, before contining the lesson, demonstrating each curse on a spider, his voice thick with warning as he explained the horrors behind them.
Lyra kept her expression neutral, but deep down, she was irritated to say the least. She knew what he was doing.
He was testing her, and when the lesson finally ended, Moody assigned them reading and written work, splitting them into groups of four.
Which was how Lyra ended up stuck with Theo, Fred, and George. The moment Moody sat down behind his desk, reading his own book, Theo immediately pulled out his own book, opened it, and rested his head on it as if to sleep.
Lyra's eyes widened in disbelief, but not surprise, as she stared at her classmate beside her.
"Are you serious?" Lyra hissed, shoving him lightly with her elbow.
Theo didn't even bother opening his eyes to look at her while he answered, "Absolutely." He hummed softly. Lyra groaned in irritation, silently cursing to herself.
"Yeah, you're useless," Lyra muttered to herself, opening her book her turning to the rightful page.
"Great, more time for us to bond," Fred said cheerfully, giving her a faint smirk, opening his own book, but it wasn't long before he opened his mouth yet again to annoy the poor girl.
"Reckon Moody fancies you, Arakan," Fred mused, flipping lazily through his book, which was upside down by the way.
Lyra scoffed. "Oh, shove off."
"Maybe you remind him of your mum," George added looking at Fred, before looking back at Lyra, smirking.
Lyra's jaw twitched, but she forced herself to remain calm. "Yes, that must be it," she said sarcastically, looking up at them for a split second before back at the book.
"Mad-Eye Moody has a soft spot for me, because I remind him of my mum." She spat back sarcastically with a grating voice.
Fred grinned, before leaning over the desk, narrowing his eyes at her. "He did call on you an awful lot though."
"Maybe he's making sure you haven't followed in dear mum's footsteps." George added.
Her hand tightened around the quill she was holding. For all they know, her mother is locked away in Azkaban, unless they believe the rumours about her which had been going around recently, which weren't really rumours, but just true facts.
Maybe if they really knew her situation, they wouldn't poke at her like this.
Theo, still half asleep, muttered tiredly, "Don't poke the snake, Weasleys." But his right eye was half way open, indicating that really meant what he said.
Fred huffed in a joking manner. "Come on, Arakan, we're only joking."
Lyra rolled her eyes, turning back to her book. "You lot wouldn't last a day in Slytherin."
"Oh, we'd rule Slytherin," Fred said confidently.
George nodded. "We'd be Kings."
Lyra scoffed, turning a page in her book before replying, "You'd be killed."
Fred gasped dramatically, placing a dramatic hand across his chest. "Lyra, you wound me." George snickered beside him.
Lyra groaned and rolled her eyes and turned to her textbook, attempting to ignore them. For the first few minutes, she actually managed to get some reading done.
The Weasley twins, for once, weren't causing chaos. George was busy chatting up a Ravenclaw girl sitting at the desk beside him, his voice carrying over the quiet murmurs of the classroom.
Fred, however, was silent. Too silent.
And he kept looking at her.
At first, she ignored it, assuming he was plotting some new way to irritate her. But as the minutes passed, and she felt his gaze lingering, she knew it had to stop.
When he looked one more final time, she finally snapped her book shut with an irritated sigh and looked up to face him, giving him an unimpressed glare.
"What?" she demanded, her face written in annoyance and impatience.
Fred blinked with a couple of seconds, as if caught off guard, before answering. "What what?"
"You're staring. It's getting creepy."
He didn't even try to deny it at first, just tilted his head slightly, furrowing his brows. "Am I?"
"Yes."
Fred shrugged, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed lazily over his chest. "Maybe I was just admiring you."
Lyra furrowed her eyebrows, before she snorted, clearly unamused. "Maybe you should admire that book of yours instead."
"But it's so plain."
"And I'm not?" Lyra replied unenthusiastically, rolling her eyes. A beat of silence passed, and then Fred's mouth twitched slightly. "
"You know you're not." He replied, a bit more quieter than the previous time.
There was something different in his voice this time. It was less teasing, and more unreadable, and it caught Lyra off guard for a second, which made her grip on her quill tighten.
His face was stern and serious, like he meant every word he said.
She pushed her thoughts away and merely rolled her eyes in response, opening up the book once and again and tried to focus on the words in front of her. "You're acting weird, Weasley."
Fred scanned her every moment and hummed, tapping his fingers against the desk restlessly. "So are you."
"I don't recall being the one caught staring."
"I don't recall you denying it, either."
"Denying what?"
"That you're not plain looking."
Lyra gave him a sharp look, but he only grinned that signature smile of his in response. She huffed slightly and shook her head, exhaling through her nose as she turned a page.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, in a quieter voice, Fred asked an unexpected question, making her look around slightly.
"Why'd you run off that night?"
Lyra stiffened, fingers freezing over the parchment. She didn't look at him, only kept her eyes glued to the book in front of her.
She also looked down at Theo, to make sure he wasn't listening in. But he was completely knocked out.
"What?"
"The festival," he said with an even voice, leaning slightly forward as if to gain her attention. "What really went down?"
Her pulse quickened, but she forced herself to appear unaffected. She turned another page she hadn't even read, pretending to be focused.
"I already told you, I had something to take care of involving my dad."
Fred didn't buy it. "Bullshit."
Her jaw clenched. She finally looked up at him, only to find his expression had lost all its usual humour. His hazel eyes weren't filled with mischief like usual, there was something sharper there.
Fred Weasley was actually serious.
She exhaled loudly with an uneasy smile. "Does it matter?" she muttered.
He rolled his eyes by her response, like she was the dumbest creature in extinction. "It does when you disappear and have an awfully long conversation with someone who looks like they're about to kill you," he shot back.
Her stomach twisted. Shit. So he had seen her. She looked around incase anyone had heard, before leaning slightly over the desk herself.
"Be quiet. You don't know what you're talking about," she spat back, her tongue dripping with venom and a fraction colder.
Fred scoffed. "Right. And I suppose you just happened to be chatting with a couple of cloaked figures for a casual evening stroll?"
She didn't answer.
"Arakan."
His voice was low, almost warning.
She exhaled sharply, her patience thinning. "It's none of your business, Weasley."
"And yet, I'm making it mine. I made it mine the second you stood outside our tent." He said with a stern voice as he leaned back in his seat, looking at her with deep eyes.
Her eyes flickered up to him again and his noticed how tense his jaw was, a muscle ticking at the side. Fred didn't push things that didn't concern him.
He was usually all jokes, teasing, and smirks. But not now. And Lyra hated it.
Before she could say anything else, George who was clearly done with his conversation turned back to the group.
"Merlin, what's with the tension over here? Fred, did you finally confess your undying obsession for Arakan?"
Lyra and Fred simultaneously turned to glare at him, both as sour as the other.
George's eyes widened and he quickly held up his hands. "Alright, alright, I take it back." He said with a nervous smile, giving his brother a weird side glance as he turned to his book.
Lyra shook her head and also turned her attention back to her book, shutting the conversation down completely.
She spared a glance at Theo too, who was quietly snoring against his book, not a care in the world.
Fred, however, kept watching her for just a second longer before he exhaled through his nose and picked up his own book.
Neither of them said another word.
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The lesson went on and felt slower than usual, each tick of the clock stretching unbearably long. Lyra was impatient, ready to leave the second Moody dismissed them.
And the moment the lesson ended, she did exactly that. She was out of her seat before Theo even lifted his head off his book.
She grabbed her things and slipped past the other students before anyone could stop her. She didn't look back, didn't hesitate. She just wanted out.
But of course it wasn't that easy.
"Don't run off like that on me now," An all to familiar voice called after her.
Lyra sighed, shutting her eyes for a brief second before stopping mid stride. She didn't turn, just stood there, fingers tightening around the strap of her bag.
"Piss off, Weasley," she muttered.
Fred caught up in two strides, walking beside her like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Come on, Arakan. You owe me a conversation."
Lyra let out a humourless laugh. "Oh, do I now? Must've missed the contract I apparently signed. I don't owe you anything." She spat back.
Fred shot her a look before furrowing his brows in irritation. "No? Not even after I covered for you at the festival? After you left me standing there like a real right git? Do you know how much my brother tormented me after the festival."
Fred spat back, equally as sharp as her, before he continued. "He thinks something went down between us, and that's why we both entered the tent together."
Lyra hesitated before she exhaled sharply, not giving him the satisfaction of giving in. "That was your fault for being an idiot. And if you were mature enough, you wouldn't care what he thinks. "
Fred bit the inside of his cheek as he crossed his arms, completely ignoring the last part she said before answering, "Maybe I was an idiot, but I still think I deserve something for my trouble. I don't know, a heartfelt thank you?"
Lyra rolled her eyes, before answering. "Keep dreaming, Weasley." She said with a cold glare before turning on her heel, walking away from the conversation.
He grinned faintly, but the amusement didn't quite reach his eyes. "Alright, then. What about a free butterbeer?" He called out as she was halfway out the door.
Lyra paused mid step, giving him an unimpressed glance over her shoulder. "You're bribing me with butterbeer?"
"You say that like it's not the best offer you'll get today."
She rolled her eyes. "You're insufferable."
"And yet, here you are, still standing here."
A muscle in her jaw twitched. He had a point. With a sigh, she adjusted her bag on her shoulder. "Fine. But if you waste my time, I'm hexing you."
"Noted," Fred said easily, walking a little bit further into the classroom with her right behind him.
As they reached the front desks, he turned around and leaned against it, facing her with an amused glare.
For a moment, he didn't speak, just leaned against the wooden desk with his arms crossed, studying her like she was some puzzle he was determined to solve.
Then, finally, he spoke.
"That was your mum, right?"
The question hit like a slap, sharp and immediate. Lyra felt her stomach drop. She didn't react outwardly, didn't even flinch, but she could feel something tightening in her chest.
Fred, of course, continued. "I recognised her from the boggart lesson last year. That's why Moody knows who you are, because he knows her."
Lyra let out a slow breath, forcing herself to stay neutral. Stay composed. Stay cold. She bit the inside of her cheek before answering.
"Want a cookie for figuring that out?" she muttered, leaning against the other desk behind the one he was leaning against, so they were facing each other.
Fred raised a brow. "No, but I do want an explanation. And perhaps the cookie as well."
Lyra huffed a quiet laugh, but it lacked any real amusement. She glanced away, staring at a crack in the stone wall.
"There's nothing to explain."
Fred's head tilted slightly, his gaze unrelenting. "Is that so?"
"Yes."
"Bullshit."
Lyra's eyes snapped back to his, sharp and irritated. She groaned silently as she composed herself. "Why do you even care, Weasley?"
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "After you left the tent, I went after you. But to my surprise, someone had already found you first. Two Death Eaters. Who I assume are your parents."
Lyra's jaw clenched. "That's a bold assumption."
Fred just raised a brow. "Am I wrong?"
She let out a slow breath through her nose, refusing to let any emotion show.
"You saw something you shouldn't have, and now you think you're entitled to answers," she said flatly. "You're not."
Fred let out a dry laugh, shaking his head. "Right. So, let me get this straight. You'd rather let the whole school keep whispering behind your back, spreading rumours about you and your mysterious disappearance, instead of just setting the record straight?"
"Why do you care what the school thinks, Weasley? I don't."
Fred's eyes flickered with something unreadable. "I don't care what the school thinks, Arakan. I care what I think."
Lyra faltered for a second, her grip on her bag tightening.
Something about the way he said it, like he actually meant it, like it actually mattered to him, made her stomach twist in a way she did not appreciate.
She narrowed her eyes. "Why?"
Fred rolled his eyes, groaning like he couldn't believe they were even having this conversation. "Merlin, you're impossible."
"Thanks."
"It wasn't a compliment."
She smirked. "I took it as one."
Fred ran a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. "Look, I know you hate my guts-"
"Correct."
"but even you have to admit this is weird."
Lyra tilted her head. "What is?"
Fred shot her a look. "Oh, I don't know, Arakan. Maybe the fact that you disappeared into thin air, got cornered by two Death Eaters, and now Moody won't stop looking at you like you're a bloody suspect?"
Lyra exhaled, her patience thinning. "I can handle myself, Weasley."
"Yeah?" Fred crossed his arms. "Because from where I was standing, it didn't look like it."
Her expression darkened. "Watch it."
Fred didn't back down. "Make me."
Silence.
They stood there, tension thick in the air, neither of them willing to break eye contact. Lyra could feel her heartbeat in her ears, frustration curling in her chest.
Fred looked equally irritated, but there was something else there too, something smug, something knowing.
She hated it, and she hated him.
But she also knew, deep down, that he wasn't going to drop this. That no matter what she said, Fred Weasley was not the type to let things go.
And for some reason, some completely idiotic reason, she didn't completely hate that.
"Go to hell, Weasley," she muttered, storming past him.
Fred smirked, turning as she walked away. "See you there, Arakan."
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