Iris' POV

Prequil -

I have loved Scorpius Malfoy for as long as I can remember.

It began when I was very young. Our fathers knew were long time friends, of course, and so we have been natural playmates from the very beginning of our lives. In the great tradition of long time Slytherin families I have a very clear disregard for rules, am naturally ambitious and manipulative, and like my father before me and my older brother, Ivan , I am not all that great at magic. There, I said it. I'm just being honest.

But the point is, I followed in the footsteps of my family. Scorpius did not.

From childhood he has always been a shining light. He is quick to make friends, has an easy temperament, and isn't afraid of anything. I watched him in wonder as we grew up, as he won the heart of every person he ever met and from an early age began the process of clearing the Malfoy name. I knew, even when I was really small, that he was better than me. But, I also knew that I couldn't help but love him.

My mother is exactly 1/8 Veela. To me, that is not enough to note, but she preens over this, and expects me to live up to very strict standards. I learned French as a child and I practice often, as my Mother would have my head if my pronunciation slipped. There is a very strict code of "acting like a lady" when my Mother and Grandmother are around.

Of course, what this translates to mean is that they expect me to make a great match in marriage. More specifically, they expect me to marry Scorpius Malfoy. It was sort of an unwritten pact between the two sets of parents to set us up. My Mother would say things like "You should invite Scorpius over so we can all spend time with him!" and his Mother would say things like "Isn't Iris so beautiful tonight?"It was all very wink wink, nudge nudge. This is the story of how that plan never worked out for them.

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On sorting day, it was no big shock when I was sorted into Slytherin. I told the sorting hat (more like, I was telling myself) that that I was going to try really hard to be good at magic, even though I basically had not shown any promise as a child. I wasn't even sure I belonged at Hogwarts at all because I had never shown one hint of magic before I got my wand. But, I promised the hat that I would do everything in my power to be a great witch. The hat said to me "In that case, SLYTHERIN!" and I realized that by telling the hat I wanted to be a great witch, I showed ambition, and that I had earned my way into the house not on my terrible family name, but on merit. That meant a lot to me.

A big shock did occur that day though when Scorpius was sorted into Gryffindor. I was watching him intently, waiting for him to take the seat I was saving for him at the Slytherin table when it happened. My brother frowned across the Slytherin table and his friends all nudged one another as if to say "Did you see that?!" He just shot me back a glare, as if to blame me for Scorpius' sorting.

But once I got back to my dorm and thought about it, it all added up. He is brave. He is chivalrous. He is a Gryffindor. It was another nail in the coffin of our relationship early on.

Scorpius quickly became a beloved figure around school. He was fast friends with Albus Potter and a muggle- born named Hannah. The three of them were so tight, it was rare to spot one without the other two. This shocked people at school for about 5 minutes before the Hogwarts rumor mill moved on to somethig more juicy than an old grudge between families. I imagined Mr. Malfoy's face when he learned about his sons new friendships. A Potter and a muggle born? Sometimes it made me laugh, sometimes I was a little worried for Scorpius. But I knew he could hold his own. But, because of his new found friendships, during my first year at Hogwarts Scorpius and I grew apart. There just wasn't much room in his life for me anymore. I understood. It was time to move on from the childish notion that he and I would be together by default. I just couldn't move on from my heart- wrenching crush on him.

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Over the next few years I mostly focused on working really hard in my classes. Like I've mentioned, magic just doesn't come easy to me like some witches, and that's okay.

Something I was (and am) good at though, is Qudditch. I can fly a broom as good as any witch or wizard, and I made the Slytherin team as seeker my third year. Since then, we have won two Quidditch Cups. Like any self-respecting Slytherin, I loathe losing to Gryffindor. But, I also dislike being at odds with the Potter/Weasley clan. Most of them play on the Gryffindor team and they're all quite good. Albus is their seeker and he has it out for me because I am his biggest competition. Scorpius plays on the team as well, as a keeper and his alliance with Albus to beat me at Quidditch was not something that exactly strengthened our relationship.

The only time I would really spend time with Scorpius is on summer holidays for short periods of time. He was always off to go visit his friends though, leaving me behind with our parents and my unsympathetic brother. They would give me the eyeball like "Why can't you convince him to stay?" and I would give them the eyeball like "I would if I could, of course!" Okay, I'm being a little dramatic, not all of that was said through eyes, but it was said through whispers and head shakes and so on. I always felt very defeated.

He became a very handsome young man. His fathers features on his face were softened by his mothers and he was getting lots of attention from the girls at school. I tried not to think about it a whole lot, it was a fruitless labor.

For my fifteenth birthday, the Malfoys gave me the most beautiful emerald bracelet. It had a wide band and was decorated with over 50 jewels. But, when I turned it over, I frowned. I realized that on the back of the bracelet there was the Malfoy family crest. They had given it to me as a present for their future daughter-in-law and in no way was I worthy of that title. Did Scorpius know about this? I would be mortified if he saw me wearing this thinking I was somebody I wasn't. He would probably even laugh at me! For that reason, after that night I put the beautiful bracelet in my jewelry box and didn't wear it again until the night of my parents twentieth anniversary.