A/N: Hello. Yes, I am aware this update is coming almost a month later, which is unusual given I tend to update this fic at least one week or two. Well, there were multiple reasons why this chapter got delayed, but I'll sum up the main ones in three because they were all linked together: suffered writer's burnout, AO3 imports for editing and rewriting, and also increased RL responsibilities that have since robbed me of the extra free time I usually use to write. The last one is unfortunately permanent at the moment, so do expect future updates to be slower than they were previously. In any case, I finally managed to get the opening chapter for Episode 16 done after a lot of indecision and rewrites, so hopefully you guys will enjoy this one. The main focus for this episode will be some more bonding between Luz and Lizzie over a common problem they share, though you'll find in later chapters that you'll be learning a little more about Lizzie's family as a bonus. Either way, if you want to know my thoughts on this chapter and why I made the creative decisions that I have, you can find those notes at the bottom of the chapter.

In the meantime, thank you to everyone who has been favouriting, following, reading and reviewing this story. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. I forgot to mention in last chapter that this fic has officially reached over 100 reviews, which is a first for me, so a special thank you for that as well. As always, keep an eye on my profile for updates on Chapter 50, among other things. I'd also like to mention that I have since updated the poll on my profile asking for your favourite retelling episodes to include up to Episode 15 so you can now choose three options instead of just one, so feel free to check it out. I will eventually be switching this poll out for a different one when this fic is finished, so I encourage you to vote on it while you still can.

I hope you enjoy Episode 16's introduction regardless. I'll get to answering reviews up here this time, seeing as there's only a small amount.

hoothoot: If only I'd been better at chemistry at school... XD But it is a fascinating scenario. If Lizzie ever did go to the Human Realm with Luz and co., I can see her taking an interest in chemistry. It is similar to potion making and I don't doubt she'd be fascinated by the fact that humans can create concoctions that cause similar reactions to magical potions.


Chapter 49: Parent Problems

The early morning in the Owl House, while usually chaotic for its residents without the addition of Hooty's loud and overly jovial attitude, was surprisingly tranquil. Though Lizzie was certain the reason for this tranquillity had something to do with the fact the ones who usually disrupted it were occupied with other things, and thankfully not with her own problems this time.

In the living room of the Owl House, Lizzie was sitting on the floor in front of the red sofa with her legs crossed, resting her elbow on the sofa's cushion and cupping a cheek in her palm. She was staring at a green bush-like potted plant close to her in attempt to avoid the blinding light coming out of the portal door, which was unfolded by the other sofa and open halfway with Luz's phone charger trailing through it up to the arm of the red sofa. King was sat next to it with Luz's phone between his paws, occupied with whatever he had on its screen while occasionally reaching over to a yellow bag labelled 'chips' (a human snack, Lizzie was informed) to grab a handful of round discs that loudly crunched each time he shoved them into his mouth. Luz, meanwhile, was sat on Lizzie's other side on the floor in her Hexside uniform, having shoved the coffee table out of the way so she had enough space to stick the accumulation of other potted plants she'd received from Willow (which included a long, green-leaved vine-like plant placed on the sofa that had curled itself round the furniture's back, a small green bud-like plant seated on the arm by King, and a potted plant beside Luz that was just a stalk without a head), along with the crumpled paper that had started to gather around them. The human was currently occupied staring at a flower with pink petals through a magnifying glass, holding a pencil in her other hand above a blank sheet of paper lying flat at her feet.

"Okay," Luz stated exasperatedly to no one in particular (neither Lizzie nor King bothered to look away from what they were doing, obviously not paying attention to their surroundings), turning to face the blank paper and putting the magnifying glass down. "I think I've got it memorised this time."

With the pencil tip pressed lightly against the paper, Luz drew a perfect circle and added the intricate pattern of the glyph she'd seen from the plant through the magnifying glass, which depicted an upside-down triangle with a straight line drawn halfway through, an upside-down arrow drawn from the triangle's tip and a small circle with a tiny dot inside. Once the drawing was done, the Latina human put the pencil down and furrowed her brow, rubbing her palms together out of anticipation.

"Here we go, Luz," she muttered. "Let's hope this works."

Moving herself into a crouching position and resting her chin on her knees, the teenage human gave the newly drawn glyph a gentle slap with her palm, quickly retracting it soon after. She waited to witness the glyph light up like her light and ice glyphs did, but when a minute of silence passed and nothing happened, the teenage human's shoulders slumped.

"Are you kidding me?!" she yelled as she dropped to her knees, finally grabbing King's attention and causing the little demon to look towards her when she tilted her head back and smacked her palms against her forehead.

"What's wrong, Luz?"

"The plant glyph still isn't activating," she moaned. "And I drew it correctly this time too! Why isn't anything happening?!"

"Maybe because magic with plants is hard," King suggested with the shrug of his shoulders, jabbing a claw towards Lizzie before going to grab more chips. "Ask Lizzie. Eda couldn't get her to grow a flower from a seed."

Luz dropped her hands from her head and tilted it back to look at King from an upside-down angle. "That can't be it! Lizzie accidentally touched my ice glyph the other day and activated it, and she doesn't even know ice magic!"

"But doesn't that prove you're not the problem then?"

There were a few seconds of silence for Luz to process King's words, only for the human to break it after a wide blink.

"You're right, King." The Latina human straightened up and ruffled her hands against the sides of her hair. "It proved what Lizzie said about it being a technique allowing anyone access to different types of magic, meaning my technique isn't the problem." She narrowed her eyes and stroked her fingers against her chin. "But then what is the problem?"

She gave King a sideways glance then, who slowly shook his head and returned his pink eyes to the phone in his paws. "Don't look at me!"

Luz directed her gaze towards Lizzie at this response, realising that she was asking the wrong creature.

"Hey, Liz. What usually stops witches from—?" Her brow raised at seeing Lizzie hadn't moved from her previous position at all, her green eyes staring longingly and glassily at the plant before her as if she was off in another world of her own. "Liz?" Luz called out again, prompting King to cock his head at the mentioned witch while shovelling another paw full of chips into his maw. When a few seconds passed and Lizzie still didn't react or respond, the Latina human shuffled closer to her along the carpet and held up an index finger ready to poke her closest cheek, which she proceeded to do harshly with the raising of her voice. "Liz!"

"Wha—?!" Lizzie cried out the moment she felt the poke. Luz retracted at seeing the blonde witch flinch, straighten out and then whip her body round with wide eyes, her pupils briefly darting about her surroundings until they landed on the teenage human furrowing her brow at her. "W-What's happening?"

"It didn't work again," Luz answered despondently.

Lizzie squinted and frowned, the imaginary cogs turning in her head. "… What didn't?" she questioned after a short delay, making Luz's shoulders slump as she gestured her hands towards her dormant glyph still on the paper.

"The plant glyph!" When Lizzie's reaction didn't change, Luz gestured at the paper again and scrunched her nose up. "You promised you were going to help me figure this out, remember?"

It took several seconds before Lizzie's brows raised with a forced blink, the realisation hitting her like a fire spell to the face.

"… O-Oh!" Lizzie stuttered as her cheeks flushed a bright pink, causing her to twist her head away and rub a hand against the back of her head. "Y-Yeah, s-sorry! I got a little distracted…"

"For the third time today," King stated matter-of-factly without breaking eye contact with the phone screen, making Lizzie narrow her eyes at the little demon.

"You're one to talk, King of Distractions," she snapped and gestured a hand at Luz's phone. "You haven't taken your eyes off that thing since Luz gave it to you!"

King scowled and finally looked away to direct it towards the blonde witch. "Hey, excuse me for not being able to tear my eyes away from two warriors battling it to the death!" he retorted sarcastically.

Loud meowing followed shortly after, making Lizzie roll her eyes and scoff. "And I thought Eda was bad at admitting she had an addiction."

King pointed accusingly at the older witch with a deepened scowl. "Well, at least I could stop what I was doing to help Luz, which you didn't do!"

The blonde witch balled her hands into fists at the heat she felt rise to her face, the colour still lingering on her cheeks deepening to a bright scarlet; however, Lizzie quickly lowered her head and scrunched her face up with a loud 'Hmph!' to avoid saying anything she was going to regret, remaining unaware of Luz frowning at her visible trembling and suppressed fuming.

It had been a few days since the revelation surrounding Lizzie's memory problems and headaches had been uncovered, and while the young adult witch hadn't suffered any further nightmares or headaches for the time being, Luz hadn't failed to notice how distracted Lizzie had been surrounding this new information, and neither had King, Eda and Hooty. She couldn't quite put her finger on what was bothering her, but she'd seen Lizzie constantly wearing the thousand-yard stare and dwell in her silent pondering enough that she knew there was something bothering her, most likely connected to either her self-diagnosis or her family (maybe even both, as a potential third option). Luz had made great strides to try to occupy Lizzie's mind with her magic training, especially after she'd managed to uncover the plant glyph with help from Willow (who had been the one to loan her the potted plants currently decorating Eda's living room). Yet it seemed even that hadn't stopped Lizzie's thoughts from going full circle, leaving Luz concerned. She couldn't recall ever seeing the older witch so troubled.

A tense silence descended upon the living room, with Lizzie eventually closing her eyes and taking long and deep breaths through her nose to calm herself, her shaking gradually ceasing and her hands relaxing. Luz waited until the extra colour had drained from Lizzie's face before she shuffled the rest of the way up to the blonde witch's side and gave it a gentle poke, forcing Lizzie's eyes open.

"Hey," Luz started in a gentle tone, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting the side of her head on them. "What's going on with you, Liz?"

"It's nothing," Lizzie answered lowly as she leaned her back against the sofa and refused to make eye contact with the Latina girl, her response making Luz pout and purse her lips.

"It's not nothing," she replied sternly and sat up, hugging her legs with both arms. "It's not like you to space out this much."

The last thing Luz said caused Lizzie to snort at the déjà vu she found herself hit with, her shoulders shaking a little as she did so. Hadn't Xander said something similar to her the last time they'd been together?

"I'm honestly fine, Luz," Lizzie said with forced emphasis, still refusing to make eye contact with the Latina human. "I'm still taking some time to process things, that's all."

Luz shook her head to that and squinted. "Nu-uh! Not buying it!" She lightly nudged Lizzie's shoulder with her own, knocking the older witch to the side a bit. "You promised you'd try to be more open with me, Liz!"

"I know. I'm not trying to deceive you."

"Then what's up? I know most of your problems at this point. You don't have to be embarrassed about it."

"It's not that," Lizzie responded through a small huff, reaching a hand up to her fringe to run her fingers through it. Before she could say anything more, however, loud vibrating from behind Lizzie and Luz interrupted the former, with the pair turning their heads just in time to see King nearly jump out of his fur and instinctively chuck Luz's phone into the air with a startled cry and wide eyes.

"Weh!"

"Ah!" Luz yelped and immediately reached her hands out to catch the phone against her palms as it descended, sighing heavily out of relief the moment it was safely in her grasp again.

Unfortunately for the teenage human, however, the phone had landed with the phone screen facing up, allowing both Luz and Lizzie to get a glimpse of what the latter recalled the former telling her was a 'text conversation' on it (something that looked similar to the chat function Lizzie had seen on scrolls). The dark blue banner over-heading the chat had a profile picture of the Latina woman Lizzie recognised from Luz's photograph upstairs with the name 'Mama' and a heart next to it. Lizzie had yet to know how this woman was related to Luz, but now that she was seeing the form of address on the phone screen, the blonde witch's brows raised and her mouth fell open slightly out of realisation, feeling everything click together inside of her head like she'd just solved the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

'Oh, hey! So, she is her mom!'

The message in the bubble underneath the name banner read 'How's camp today, cariño?' with the 'less than' sign and the number '3' added (which Lizzie didn't understand). The question seemed innocent enough to Lizzie (despite the strange word she assumed was probably 'Spanish', as she recalled Luz once telling her), but when she saw Luz's eyes widen and her grip tighten on her phone with a loud gulp, she was soon thinking otherwise.

Lizzie watched visible sweat gather across Luz's brow as she pressed her lips together and brought the phone close to her face, her thumbs tapping away at the electrical keyboard. Amidst Luz's hums and groans and the constant clicking, the blonde witch and little demon (who had since adjusted his position to peek at the screen from over Luz's left shoulder) observed the young human attempting to compose a coherent response by typing out one word and then suddenly erasing it, the process repeating a few times. Lizzie was tempted to ask if Luz was okay, because it was very obvious to her that this was bothering Luz for some reason; however, she did the wise thing and held back for the moment. Luz was trying to concentrate, after all.

Eventually, through an uncertain hiss, Luz settled on choosing what Lizzie assumed was a depiction of a severed yellow hand with its thumb up before immediately hitting the send button, only to loudly groan and droop her upper body forward so she was dangling towards the floor like a puppet whose master had released its strings.

"I'm a terrible daughter…" she muttered under her breath, prompting King to cock a brow.

"What are you talking about?! Sending her a severed hand is the perfect response!"

"Doesn't change the fact I'm lying to her!" Luz retorted bitterly as she pushed herself to her feet with a scowl, shoving her phone into King's furry chest (which he clumsily caught between his paws). "After all, my mom still thinks I'm at that camp for the summer."

Lizzie decided not to interrupt Luz and to let her release some steam when she walked off to the fireplace with her hands above her head. Though that didn't stop her from answering King when he leaned over to where she was with a paw close to his mouth, keeping his eyes focused on Luz's back all the while.

"I still don't know what that is," he whispered.

"Don't worry. Neither do I," Lizzie replied in kind.

"But what else am I supposed to say?!" Luz continued her rant as she paused in front of the mirror and deepened her scowl at her reflection, waving her hands about with the raise of her voice. "It's not like she'd believe me if I told her I'm actually in the Demon Realm learning magic, with real witches and demons! And even if she did, she'd end me for lying to her!" Luz whirled herself round to face the sofa and crouched close to the floor, covering her arms over her head to hide her face and lowering her voice to a cracked whisper. "It doesn't ease the guilt for lying, though…"

As Luz had done with her, Lizzie found herself frowning at the human on the other side of the room almost resembling a crab about ready to curl inside its shell, mentally contemplating if she should do something. After several minutes passed of her lightly digging her fingernails into the skin of her palms, and seeing King eventually give up and lean back against the sofa to grab some more of his snacks, the blonde witch took a deep breath and forced her body to stand with a light shove against the sofa.

'I need to say something. I can't leave Luz like this. I know from experience that it never ends well…'

"Don't feel bad, Luz," Lizzie said gently as she crouched in front of her and folded her arms across her knees. "No one blames you for not telling your mom the truth. You're just doing what you can to protect her."

"Pfft! Yeah, right!" Luz replied sarcastically and rolled her eyes, raising her head and allowing her bottom to drop to the carpet. "That's just code for being a coward and not owning up!"

Lizzie scowled and gave Luz's closest shoulder a light shove. "Hey! You're not a coward!" she stated sternly.

"Says the witch whose parents are okay with her being a criminal," Luz grumbled. "I bet they took it well when you told them you were hiding out in the house of 'the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles', didn't they?"

Lizzie didn't respond to Luz's rhetorical question, yet the aversion of her eyes and the light grip she took on a strand of her hair to fiddle with soon spoke for her loud and clear. The Latina straightened up and moved closer to the older witch with slightly widened eyes and a breathless gasp when the prolonged hesitation caused the snail coin to drop, acting as though someone had just stolen the oxygen straight from her lungs.

"… Do your parents not know where you are?" Luz questioned quietly after a short delay, prompting Lizzie to slowly shake her head a couple of times.

"It was unintentional at first," Lizzie explained in a tone barely above a whisper, forcing a gulp the moment she started to feel the inside of her mouth and throat dry up at the vague recollection she still had of the last time she saw them. How could one forget the horrified and distressed expressions they wore as they were held back by the guards, forced to watch their squirming daughter's fruitless attempts to reach out as she was pulled out of the door in chains? Apparently not her, despite her terrible memory issues. "But once I was under Eda's roof, it was by choice."

Luz tilted her head to the side and frowned. "Why?"

"To protect them." Lizzie rose from the floor and made her way back to the sofa, with Luz soon copying her with a hand gripping at her elbow, her gaze never leaving the witch's back. "I was a minor when I was arrested, so naturally the guards accused my parents of 'brainwashing'"—she held up two fingers to mimic quotation marks—"and had me separated from them to be sent to the Conformatorium." She plopped down next to King and allowed her body to sink into the sofa, the force of her descent causing the little demon to bounce a little into the air. "I doubt after my escape they would have let my parents stay in our old home. So, as far as I know, I've had no idea where they are and they have no idea where I've been for the past three years."

"And you've been okay with that?" Luz stopped in front of the older witch, her frown deepening. "They're probably worried sick about you, Liz."

"I know." She closed her eyes and hung her head a bit. "But it's too risky trying to contact them, especially because my reckless potion stunt got them into a lot of trouble that night. If they're in the dark about my whereabouts, then the guards can't trace anything I do back to them."

"And neither can your uncle, since you think he's the reason you ended up in that mess," Luz concluded.

"Yeah," Lizzie confirmed with a huff, keeping her eyes shut and her head down. "I'm ashamed to say that's why I've been so distracted recently. My secret keeping didn't seem so bad before, but now that I suspect my uncle was involved in my arrest, I can't help wondering what happened to them…"

A gentle grip on her right shoulder forced Lizzie's eyes open and her head to raise, being met with the sight of Luz's weak smile as the young human stood before her as the owner of the hand on her shoulder.

"Looks like we've both got 'parent problems', huh?" she jested with a forced chuckle following. "But thank you for telling me. It really does mean a lot to know I have someone here who understands what I'm going through." Her smile widened a little out of awkwardness. "Even though I can safely say yours is worse."

Lizzie chuckled in return and lightly flicked Luz's hand away, causing the girl to retract. "Doesn't matter whose is worse." She gave Luz a gentle flick in the middle of the forehead, making her stumble backwards a little and rub her hand at the affected area. "Just don't forget what I've said, okay?"

Luz, with her smile still intact, nodded and opened her mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by the creak of the Owl House's front door swinging open to reveal Hooty's usual cheerful face in his spot.

"Hoot hoot! Luz, guess what time it is!" he started in a sing-song tone as he stretched away from the door a bit. But instead of giving Luz time to answer when she turned to face him, the owl demon just continued like she had already. "It's time for you to fill that darling little head up with knowledge!"

Hooty tilted his head back and began to make loud gagging noises, his body convulsing with each gag he made. Luz, Lizzie and King cringed and shuddered at being forced to watch a large lump bulge to life from the far end of Hooty's body (or at least, the one attached to the door) and slither its way through to his mouth like a large build-up of water that had been clogging up a hose, with the latter even covering his own jaw with a paw and turning away with his eyes squeezed shut and Lizzie recoiling. By the time the bulge had puffed up his cheeks the same way a squirrel's cheeks would when they stored acorns in their mouth, Hooty arched his head towards the floor outside of the door and opened his beak, heaving out three thick leather-bound books of varying colours and letting them tumble free to pile up before the threshold.

'At least Hooty had the decency to listen and actually dump the contents of his mouth outside of the room…' Lizzie mentally remarked with drooped eyes, all the while watching the house demon straighten out and make lip-smacking noises with his beak once his task was accomplished.

"Mmmmm," he hummed and moved his head from side to side twice. "That was some delicious knowledge!"

"Why are you like this?!" King shrieked while keeping his paw to his mouth and his eyes shut.

Luz slowly turned to face Lizzie then and rubbed a hand against the back of her neck, forcing as wide of a smile as she could.

"Looks like it's time for school," she remarked jokingly.

"Yes, so please hurry!" the familiar and hushed voice of Gus suddenly said, prompting Luz to glance back just as the young witch (who was in his Hexside uniform) poked his head round the doorframe with quivering lips, his face pale and his eyes teary. "That was gross!"

Willow (also in her Hexside uniform) copied Gus and had her head appear just above his a few seconds later, her brow furrowed as she threw in her own comment in a quiet voice. "And we can't keep staring at him! He's making us uncomfortable!" Though she and Gus did briefly smile and wave Lizzie's way as they quietly greeted her, all before they both dipped back behind the doorframe. "Also, hello, Lizzie!"

"Good to see you, Lizzie!"

Lizzie returned the smile and wave before the pair disappeared from view, shaking her head slightly at their reaction to Hooty. Not that she could blame them, of course. The house demon could be disgusting, as the residents of the Owl House knew very well by now.

Luz returned her attention to Lizzie then, already raising her finger towards the crumpled paper on the floor and the vegetation messing up the living room. Luckily for the Latina human, Lizzie had a guess in mind to what she was going to ask, which was why she stopped Luz from saying anything more with the upward flick of her hand, a small smile slipping onto her lips.

"I'll clean it up. You just focus on not being late for school." Lizzie moved closer to the teenage human and covered the side of her mouth with her hand at her next whispered answer. "And maybe ask Willow about her plant magic. It could help you with your glyph problem."

Luz's eyes lit up with a quiet gasp and raised brows when Lizzie pulled back, eventually allowing a wide grin to spring to life on her face. "That's a good idea, Liz! Thanks!" Before Lizzie had the chance to respond, she ended up flinching when Luz suddenly moved forward to wrap her arms round her shoulders and give her a quick squeeze. Luz let Lizzie go and then turned to King (who had since returned to watching whatever he had been on Luz's phone previously) and bent down to give the little demon a quick kiss on the top of his skull. "I'll see you both later."

"See you later, Luz," Lizzie bid farewell while watching the human dart her way to the front door of the Owl House while shouting back to King.

"And King, don't spend the whole day watching cats on MewTube!"

"Do not tell me what to do, heathen!" King retaliated and shook one of his paws about in a fist without breaking eye contact from the phone screen, leaving him oblivious to Luz collecting her books from the floor and then disappearing out of the door, thus failing to hear anything he said. "The King of Demons forges his own path!"

Lizzie didn't break her gaze away from the front door until Hooty swung it closed again, only to stretch her arms above her head with a groan and roll her head from side-to-side in preparation to stand.

"Right," she mumbled to herself as she rose from the sofa, placing her hands to her hips and giving the mess scattered about the area a brief glance. "Where should I—?"

"Redwood!" Eda's voice rang out from the direction of the kitchen, making the addressed witch flinch and whip her head towards the hallway. "C'mere! I need to talk to you!"

"Coming!" Lizzie called back and started jogging her way out of the room around the same time she heard King snickering at something on Luz's phone.

"Ha! Dumb cat doesn't even know that's its own tail!" As she rounded into the hallway though, Lizzie happened to glance back to catch King sideways glancing his tail when it flicked itself into view, only to smirk at the little demon's narrowed eyes and twist of his body to reach round and try to swat at it with one of his paws. "Nyeh!"

'You wanna repeat that, King?'

She didn't stick around to find out the outcome of King's quest to capture his tail, however. One jog through the downstairs maze of hallways of the Owl House later and Lizzie was slowing her pace down to a walk while entering the kitchen, addressing the Owl Lady as she rounded the doorway and crossed the threshold.

"I'm here, Eda. What did you—?"

Lizzie cut herself off the moment her eyes landed upon Eda standing beside the kitchen table, wearing her usual daytime outfit and a wide grin on her face despite how tired she normally was this time of the morning. Yet it wasn't Eda's unusually chipper mood and readiness for the day that caused the blonde witch to dig her heels into the wooden floor to halt her walk, but rather the item Eda happened to be holding up between her claw-like nails.

Three repeated blinks allowed Lizzie to realise that Eda was holding an item of clothing, specifically a long-sleeved dress with a high collar. It was primarily black and decorated with lace across its middle, but it was also decorated with red on the chest and the skirt up to the latter's hem, containing black silhouettes of snowflakes on the chest and bare trees and deer (the latter of which Eda and Lizzie naturally wouldn't have recognised) on the skirt with the addition of some snowflakes here and there.

'What in the Titan's name am I looking at?'

Lizzie couldn't help but wonder after everything she'd already experienced this morning if she was having some sort of fever dream. But when Eda became the first of the two witches to break the silence as she held the dress up a little higher with the puff of her chest, looking fairly proud with the article of clothing she was showing off to her technical employee, she only helped to fuel the confusion brewing in Lizzie's mind.

"What'd you think?" she asked and twisted the dress from side to side to admire it from different angles, her grin staying intact. Lizzie never answered, with Eda continuing to speak while remaining unaware of the blonde witch rubbing at her eyes with her hands and blinking again for good measure. "Looks good as new, right? You'd never have guessed Owlbert found it in some random human's garbage!"

When it was clear that she wasn't dreaming and that Eda was, indeed, holding a dress she claimed she'd stolen from the Human Realm in her hands, Lizzie finally found the courage to comment and take a step closer, her green eyes squinted at the article of clothing with slumped shoulders.

"Why do you have this?"

Eda snorted and lowered the dress to her front, her own shoulders shaking a little from her mirth. "C'mon, kid! Even you should know that's a stupid question!" She jerked her head towards the varying knickknacks she'd hoarded from the Human Realm on the shelf close to the kitchen's roof. "Why do I have tons of human treasures covering every nook and cranny of my house?" She leaned forward and smirked, exposing her single golden fang. "'Cause I do!"

Lizzie copied Eda's posture and placed one hand to her hip, pointing the index finger of her other one close to the older witch's nose. "The correct answer is because you have a problem," she replied sternly, wiping the smirk from Eda's face with the roll her eyes as she straightened back up.

"Killjoy," she uttered under her breath, only to return her voice to regular volume as she responded in kind to the younger witch. "Though for your information, I didn't hide this away a while back for myself!"

Lizzie righted herself with a faint smirk of her own and a cocked brow, her next quip spoken sarcastically. "Then who's it for? Luz?"

"No, wisecrack." The Owl Lady jabbed two fingers into Lizzie's chest hard enough to elicit a slight wince and eye twitch from the younger witch. "You."

The smirk disappeared from Lizzie's face just as fast as King had been the night he'd fled from Eda as the Owl Beast, being replaced with a furrowed brow and a tilted head. She gave Eda several minutes to follow up with another jesting or sarcastic remark, even though the way she'd spoken just now sounded genuine enough. But Eda never did, finally prompting the temporarily speechless blonde to stick a finger in her ear and twist it to clear it out.

"… Say what now?"

"It's for you," Eda clarified without missing a beat, stepping away towards the other end of the table to drape the dress over the back of King's highchair. "I kept it in case you needed spare clothes, but then I forgot about it after shoving it in one of the cupboards upstairs—" At seeing the younger witch staring at her with a slight gape, Eda scowled and tilted her chin up. "Hey, no need to go looking so surprised! You know I don't toss stuff away if I can find another use for it!"

'Sure, Eda. Whatever floats your boat.'

Lizzie had to bite the inside of her lip to stop herself from smirking at Eda's defensiveness of her own actions, doing the wise thing in keeping her thoughts quiet instead of vocalising them. She never quite understood why Eda insisted on pretending she never did anything nice for others without getting something in return, but she didn't think it was a good idea to question it out loud. There were a lot of things the Owl Lady did that Lizzie was never going to understand, and she'd long since come to accept it. Though that didn't stop the warmth from spreading throughout her chest, a feeling of déjà vu dawning upon her.

'But it looks like it wasn't just that fur coat Eda found for me. How nice of her.'

"I appreciate the thought, Eda," Lizzie eventually commented, scratching at the side of her head as she looked the dress up and down. "But that looks a little fancy. What made you bring it out?" Her brows rose when a sudden thought hit her like a flash of lightning, her next words flowing out of her mouth like water crashing through a hole in a dam. "Please don't tell me this is like that time Luz forced us to get our picture taken with those matching sweaters—"

"It's nothing like that," Eda interrupted sternly, pausing to sigh heavily and stroke a hand through her bushy, grey locks of hair. "Ol' Bumpikins finally gave me an excuse to search for it when he called earlier."

"Principal Bump?" Lizzie repeated as she stepped closer to the table, lingering near the stool at the opposite end. "Why did he call you?"

"I'm glad you've asked: it brings me neatly to why I called you in here." Eda faced Lizzie with a hand to her hip, watching the blonde witch sit on the stool at the other end of the table and clasp her hands on its wooden surface. "Apparently, Hexside's annual Grom is tonight."

The word 'Grom' had barely been spoken and already the younger witch was rolling her shoulders at the electrifying tingle trickling down her spine.

'Grom, huh,' Lizzie mused with a creased brow, her eyes flitting towards the window at the brief recollection she got. 'Feels like it's been forever since I last heard that term.'

Grom—short for 'Grometheus, the Fear-Bringer', a shapeshifting and mind-reading monster depicted in illustrations as black and shadowy sludge-like cloud, from what Lizzie could recall. It was known for manipulating its abilities to scare its victims by turning into their worst fears and had been contained underneath Hexside's school building for centuries. Every so often it would try to escape from its containment, which was why Principal Bump had supposedly turned it into an annual dance party hosted at the school, where a student was made Grom King or Queen to be chosen to defeat it. Lizzie had never attended the event herself, but from what she'd heard from Edric and Emira, it was apparently a brutal and humiliating sight considering what Grom was capable of.

'And it looks like that time of year is upon us again.'

"But what's Grom got to do with why he called you?" Lizzie enquired.

"Because he wanted to ask if we would chaperone Grom," Eda explained, leaving Lizzie's reaction delayed for a few seconds. However, when the witch's words did process in her head, the blonde witch was left staring with raised brows and a wide blink.

"Wait, 'we'?" she repeated, pointing a finger towards her chest with another forced blink. "As in… me too?"

"Please don't make me say it again, kid," Eda complained, causing Lizzie to frown with the tilt of her head.

"But why would he want my help? I only ever had one Grom while I was at Hexside and I never went to it."

"Ha!" Eda laughed and threw her head back, slapping a hand against her thigh. "Then you were missing out! It was a riot, especially back in my day—!" She stopped at seeing Lizzie's frown deepen, her clear uncertainty instantly evaporating the Owl Lady's mirth. "But anyway," she continued and approached the stool closest to Lizzie to sit down. "He asked how you were doing after your collapse the other day and I told him all about your memory problem. He originally only wanted me, but he also suggested you to give you the chance to speak with him about your uncle."

"Oh, yeah," Lizzie mumbled and cupped her cheek with a hand, allowing her eyes to fall to the table. "It was the reason why I went to Hexside the other day. And at least this way, I can talk to him when he isn't busy." The blonde returned her gaze to the Owl Lady with hunched shoulders, a finger reaching up to her hair and twirling at a loose strand of it. "Although, I don't know if I'm ready for that just yet, Eda. I know I need to learn more about my uncle to understand the extent of the danger I'm in, but I'm still trying to process things from my last recollection."

"Well, you don't have to make any decisions right now," Eda reassured. "I'm just throwing it out there so you know you've got the option. But if I were you, I'd give it a think over." She leaned over the table and lightly rapped her knuckles against the top of Lizzie's head, forcing the blonde to recoil a little and close an eye. "It's about time you stop letting your worries distract you, don't you think?"

Lizzie straightened up and frowned as Eda pulled away, already guessing why Eda had just said what she had. "You overheard my conversation with Luz earlier, didn't you?"

Eda smirked and rose from her seat, giving her own temple a gentle tap. "Suppose it was good timing on Bump's part then, huh?" Lizzie rolled her eyes as the Owl Lady winked and arched her spine with a small cracking sound, one that made the blonde wince. "Either way, there's no rush." Eda turned to leave and pointed at the dress while doing so. "Though in the meantime, do me a favour and try on that dress to see if it fits. I need to talk to King about something else Bumpy passed on to me on behalf of Dweebus."

"Gus," Lizzie corrected. "But will do."

Eda did the 'finger-gun' motion with both hands. "Thanks!" she shouted back as she disappeared into the corridor.

Lizzie stayed where she was and listened to Eda's heels clicking against the wooden floor, gradually fading out the further she got from the kitchen. Though when she was sure the Owl Lady was no longer in earshot, Lizzie huffed and got up to move round the table, stopping by the highchair and carefully picking the dress up by the shoulders.

'This isn't the first time I've doubted my decision, yet I can't deny it's intensified because of recent events. After all, learning more about my uncle was bound to lead to me finding out what happened to my parents at some point, wasn't it?'

Luz's earlier words echoed within the crevices of her mind as the blonde witch held the article of clothing against her front and turned to face the window, using her reflection to imagine what she would look like in that dress.

'Have I really been selfish by not even trying to tell my parents if I'm okay, despite knowing they're probably worrying about me as we speak? Would speaking to Principal Bump end with me regretting digging deeper for the truth, especially if this leads to the discovery of what happened to them that night?' Lizzie allowed her shoulders to slump with a small sigh, keeping her gaze fixed on her droopy eyed reflection staring back at her. 'I suppose this is something I'm gonna have to ponder on, isn't it?'

"Hoot hoot! That dress looks good on you!" Hooty suddenly shouted from the doorway to the kitchen, making Lizzie shriek and whip round out of alarm.

"Hooty!" Lizzie yelled upon registering the house demon's voice and instinctively hugging the dress to her chest, feeling the heat rising to her face the moment she caught the owl demon retracting behind the wall in a brown blur.

"It's true, though!" Hooty retaliated, his voice growing fainter as he returned to the living room. "You deserve the self-esteem boost!"

The blonde witch groaned and hid her face in the back of the dress to try to hide the red flush she could see had overtaken her cheeks from her reflection, squeezing her eyes shut as she did so. But hey, at least the house demon had managed to give her a temporary distraction from her conflicted thoughts.


A/N: So... Luz is struggling to cast the plant glyph in this version. If you're wondering why I chose to do this, it's basically a similar situation with the ice glyph. I wanted to make Luz casting this glyph be a little more rewarding than how it was presented in the show, especially in a way that feeds into the current emotional turmoil she's struggling with. What do I mean by that, you ask? Well, you'll see once we get to the Grom fight... XD

And in regards to Lizzie's dress, because I have a feeling someone is going to ask: yes, it is an actual real life dress. Back when The Owlcast was in its earliest chapters, I happened upon a random Facebook ad with a picture of different designs for this particular dress and instantly knew that this was going to be Lizzie's Grom dress the moment I saw it. I saved the photo and I've kept it to hand ever since, waiting for the moment I could finally include it in the story. It suited Lizzie too perfectly in terms of foreshadowing and design as a whole, so I just couldn't help myself.