"Eliza is reunited with Blaise and Theo as the Yule Break ends and is shocked to be enveloped in a hug from the two of them as they thank her for her gift. Eliza shakes them off rolling her eyes at their sentimentality but inside she is actually quite touched. She then spends the next week pulling the two boys into conversation every chance she gets over the books they had sent her.
"Yule doesn't even use blood magic why was it banned?""
Again, the purebloods agreed with her, not knowing what makes Yule so "dark".
""Dark lord this, Dark Lord that, what even makes someone a Dark Lord?""
"What does make someone a Dark Lord?" Lily questioned, genuinely confused and curious.
"I'm pretty sure you need to do certain things, to be considered a Dark Lord by magic, but I never really asked the Voldemort in my timeline. He was too busy doing other things." Eliza informed her mother.
"Yeah, too busy simping after you." Blaise muttered under his breath as Eliza flushed bright pink, and her friends all laughed as they had heard Blaise's comment.
"Why is magic even classified as light and dark, when did that happen?"
Her questions were never ending and although the books answered many of them others arose to take their place and Theo and Blaise were struggling to answer them all."
"Blaise and I just gave up trying to answer your questions, they were giving us headaches." Theo said fondly to his sister.
"It was the first Friday since term had started and she and Gemma were playing chess, a habit started over yule break when she decided to ask the older girl a question.
"Gemma why are some spells classified as light and some as dark and please don't tell me it's because of usage like Theo said because I could kill someone with a wingardium leviosa.""
Many witches and wizards looked thoughtful at that, before realizing she was telling the truth.
"Gemma stared at her for a few moments, and then stared at her a bit more before muttering something that really sounded like 'I am not equipped to deal with this' to herself and shouted Aaron Rowle over. Aaron looked up from where he was holding court and wandered over to them ruffling Eliza's already wild black curls. The three of them had grown rather close over the holidays, Eliza didn't mind. It could only benefit her in the long run."
"He's sort of like an older brother now, but whatever."
""Ask him what you just asked me" Gemma said, ignoring Eliza's utter confusion.
"Why are some spells classified as light and some as dark?" she repeated again, turning her eyes onto Rowle instead. Rowle blinked looking as though he was pondering the question before saying
"Usage"
Gemma laughed when Eliza scowled. Eliza grabbed her wand and in one fluid motion cast a tripping jinx at a passing Slytherin second year who stumbled with a loud curse."
"I hated whenever someone said usage, it doesn't explain why." Eliza said, annoyed, with a rather cute pout on her face a certain Dark Lord thought.
""A tripping jinx is classified as a light spell, it's even taught to first years but if I were to cast it say when someone was walking down the stairs I could easily kill them so don't try and tell me classification is down to usage"
Rowle sighed, slumping down into the chair besides Gemma running a hand down his face as if he wished Eliza would just be a normal first year and not make his life harder."
"Eliza was never normal." Daphne said, as she looked at Eliza.
""Okay. The idea of classifying spells is really a newer concept for the Wizarding World and really only began appearing in Grindelwald's rise to power. Classification makes it easier to ban certain types of spells and was essentially created out of fear"
Eliza nodded as Rowle spoke, most of what he had said aligned with her reading on the topic.
"However there is a difference in regards to some magic which is how the distinctions began in the first place even though the distinctions were typically associated with having a light magic core or a dark one""
"What's a core?" Many muggle borns and half bloods ask.
"Aaron will explain in the book." Eliza said to the students who asked.
"Eliza felt herself perk up as she listened to Rowle, finally she was getting somewhere.
"Dark magic is easier to cast for people with dark cores and vice versa. The difference between dark spells and light is that darker spells are usually cast with intent" Rowle carried on before Eliza could interrupt "of course by now you have probably figured all magic needs intent to work but this is slightly different. With darker spells you have to want it to happen. With most dark spells you are actively giving something of yourself up whether it be an emotion, a desire or blood which is the case with blood magic. With most light spells however you are directing your magic at something else, you are displacing it. Like you illustrated earlier with the tripping jinx, it's directed outwards instead of inwards but as it doesn't demand much of the caster they are never usually too powerful or permanent"
Rowle finished explaining with a sigh rolling his eyes.
"So you can see why most people just stick to 'usage' as an answer""
Many people 'Ahhed' at Aaron's answer before wondering what type of core they would have.
"Eliza nodded her head in agreement in a contemplative silence. Rowle had succeeded in explaining what had been troubling her and had given her a lot to think about. If darker magic was fuelled by sacrifice then it made sense that it had a stigma around it, especially after so many Dark Lords.
Returning back to her chess game she pushed her queen forward to put Gemma's king in a checkmate.
That would just be one more thing Eliza would have to change."
"Eliza changed a lot of things. She quite literally made history." Susan said, as Eliza gained a pink tint on her cheeks.