Noyade | Rabastan Lestrange [2] ✔︎

26 | NORMAL

"But be careful who you put your trust in. You might find dishonesty in people closer to your heart than you might expect."

Over the next week Sirius' words followed Phoenix basically everywhere. Whether it was sparing with Jack, dinner with her parents or a visit to Diagon Alley, it was always there in the back of her mind, repeating over and over again. His words were so vague but she knew he had information he was withholding. When they were younger Sirius had liked to make his younger siblings figure out riddles in order for him to tell them where Kreacher had recently hid the candy jar or who was coming to visit. It had always greatly annoyed Regulus, while Phoenix had enjoyed looking for the answer. When there was something more important at stake, however, she found herself sharing her twin brother's opinion.

Why couldn't he just tell her who was lying to her?

New Year's Day came around, but even the sound of the Muggle fireworks, which she watched from her small balcony with Jack next to her, couldn't make the thought go away. Somehow she felt closer to her fiancé after he had opened up to her about his past, but now that she glanced at his profile she couldn't help but wonder if he was the one hiding something from her. Sirius' words ignited suspicion in her heart that was so unusual for her, but she couldn't shake the bad feeling building up in her stomach whenever she remembered what he had said.

"It's incredible what Muggles manage to do without even a tiny piece of magic," Jack suddenly pointed out. The statement took her aback. Since Christmas she had been surrounded by people who despised Muggles. She had known Jack didn't necessarily share those views, but the sheer admiration in his voice was certainly not what her parents had imagined when they chose him as her soon-to-be husband.

She chuckled. "Don't let my mother hear that."

"I'd never want to get on her bad side," Jack agreed with a small smile. The colourful lights of the fireworks reflected on his face and for the first time Phoenix truly understood why some of her classmates admired his looks. Sure, even before she would have realised that he was handsome, but she never really gave it much thought. It hit her in that moment, how lucky she must be to have been given such a great match. Not only did he have good looks, but an amazing character as well. And still...

"She can be frightening, can't she."

Jack glanced at her. "Definitely."

Suddenly he got to his feet and held his hand out towards her. She looked up at him in puzzlement. "Come on. I need to show you something."

Phoenix tilted her head, but let him pull her to her feet. "And what would that be?"

"One of the most beautiful places in London."

She couldn't keep a small snicker from escaping her lips as she said, "How would you know? You grew up in the Welsh countryside."

"Which doesn't mean I've never been to London before I met you. Just trust me. You'll like it," he assured her, letting her walk through the door into the stairwell first.

Despite them both being able to apparate, Jack insisted on them walking. It was freezing and after a few minutes, snow had started to fall, but Phoenix had to admit that London had a different kind of charm at night. The snow on the ground reflected the light from various small pubs and restaurants they walked by and every now and then Jack pointed out a place where he had made a certain memory. Apparently he had spent much more time in Muggle-London than she ever had and she was fascinated by his stories.

Still, it took them nearly half an hour to reach a small café at the border of the Thames and by then she was freezing from the cold. They sat down close to the water on two large, soft pillows with a small table in between them. Jack ordered a hot chocolate for both of them, claiming it would be the best she had ever tasted although she insisted there was no hot chocolate better than Kreacher's.

They sat in silence, listening to the water rushing by and the faint music of a live band playing in a pub around the corner. It gave Phoenix time to have a look at her surroundings. Jack had been right. The café was most likely one of the most beautiful places she had ever been to. There were fairy lights hung up above them and placed on the railing and tables. Along with the plants decorating the place, it felt like they were in a completely different place. It was so different to what she had seen of London before.

With a smile she leaned over the table towards Jack. "Tell me something about yourself."

He had been looking out at the water, which sparkled due to the fairy lights, but he turned towards her with a smile. "What do you want to know?"

"Anything. I feel like we've spent so much time together over the past half year and yet I still don't know the small things about you." Jack only raised an eyebrow rather than telling her something. "What's your favourite colour?"

Jack chuckled, contemplating his answer before telling her, "Let's go with blue."

"That's boring. Blue.That could be anything from a rather purple-ish blue to a green-blue." Phoenix knew she was being childish, but she wanted to be normal again. She wanted to ask stupid questions and get weird answers before she had to go back into her complicated life and worry about things like who might be betraying her. For once she longed to be carefree.

"Okay, let me think about this for a minute." Jack rubbed his chin with his hand, looking up towards the sky. "Blue like the sky just before it gets completely dark. That's my favourite colour. What's yours?"

"Yellow like a sunflower. I don't know why, but it always seemed like a happy colour to me. Does that even make sense?" Phoenix took the first sip of her hot chocolate, which in truth was nearly as good as Kreacher's. But not quite.

Jack nodded, rubbing his hands together to warm them up. "Actually it does – in a weird way."

"Did you just call me weird?" Phoenix gasped in mocking shock and softly flicked him against the back of his head with her powers.

"Only if you keep using your abilities to be mean," he clarified, throwing some snow at her.

She let out a little scream as it hit her chin. "Now who is being-"

Once again it was like the air was being knocked out of her lungs and her vision went blank before she heard herself scream. She saw a flash of silver-blonde hair next to a green jumper. Then the image changed and she saw blood, lots of blood and a hand with a leather bracelet. She heard herself scream something she couldn't understand and then it was over and she was back at the Thames, sitting in front of Jack, who squinted at her worriedly.

"Phoenix, are you alright," he asked.

She took a deep breath and smiled, despite the pictures her powers had just shown her. A shiver ran down her smile, but she forced herself to seem normal. Like she had not just seen enough blood to be sure of somebody's death.

"Sure, I'm totally fine."