AN:
So this is my first story. It's a cross between Nasuverse, Star Trek, Harry Potter and Stargate.
It's fem!harry and I try not to bash anyone.
I'm not good at romance so neither is Iris, so don't get your hopes up for pairings.
Thats it. Try to enjoy.
Prologue 1
As Iris Potter prepared herself for what was to come, she couldn't help but reflect on how she came to be here.
She was born into an old and respected, but minor Magus family. Her parents held descent positions in their departments of research and were happy get on with their lives.
Her father James' magecraft was centred around familiars, spiritual invocation and curses. Lily's was focused on Mystic Code construction, matter transmutation and the transfer of energy.
Iris however was not content to be just another Magus. She had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a drive to excel. This didn't mean that she was a genius however, she was very intelligent, just not a savant. From the moment she could read she was in her family's library, soaking up all of the knowledge that she could get her tiny hands on.
Lily was proud and took the time to educate her ever curious daughter. James on the other hand, while proud of his little flower, worried that she would burn herself out with the constant studying. He resolved to teach her how to have fun the best way he knew how... pranks.
He would show her little tricks that one could do with magecraft to annoy.
Like a bounded field that inverted someone's sense of direction, making them turn left instead of right... right into a wall. Or a curse that just gave people irritable bowels... that kind of high brow humour. His six year old daughter loved it, his wife rolled her eyes and as the years passed Iris studied and played with equal enthusiasm.
Her time at the Clocktower was educational as she was exposed to just how ruthless mages could be to get ahead. She decided then that while she wouldn't step on toes or suck up to authority, she wouldn't let others take advantage of her.
She focused on her studies and mostly kept to herself, working on her current project. It was a new method of creating familiars, one that started out as a black tar like substance. It was made up of aether and blood, could contain curses and was semi intelligent. She found that she could mould this material into any creature that she could imagine, as long as she had enough tar, though it couldn't morph again. At the most she had created birds, they looked like ravens with white masks with red designs and had glowing red eyes. All in all they looked pretty grim, which is what she decided to call her new familiars. James was proud of what his daughter had accomplished with his family's research and gave her free reign of his private Workshop, believing that maybe she would be the one to reach the root.
It was then that he and Lily would have the shock of their lives.
"What do you mean you don't want to reach Akasha!?" James shouted as he stared at his daughter in anger and confusion. Lily was off to the side looking faint as she sat on the couch in the family's shared workshop.
Thirteen year old Iris was sat on a simple stool looking up with her head tilted in confusion at her fathers reaction. "It's the goal of all mages! Everyone of us is trying to reach the root and you would spit on our family's efforts!?"
"No father. I don't spit on our family's efforts. I just think that reaching Akasha is cheating."
This drew James up short. "How do you mean?"
Iris paused a moment to collect her thoughts "It's like flipping to the back of your textbook to read the answers. Where is the discovery? The thrill of finding out if your theory's are right or not?
The root is a fine goal but don't forsake the journey!" She cried passionately. "Don't you enjoy your research? Don't you delight at every new discovery. That is what I search for, not just the answers to my question, but the method in which I found them."
This conversation continued for awhile until one day a year later, there was an explosion in her family home. Iris was out testing her Grim and only found out the next day.
The enforcers who inspected the scene eventually ruled that a ritual the Potters were enacting destabilised causing the destruction. Iris was inconsolable for months afterward and her godfather Sirius Black didn't know what to do.
She locked herself in her new Workshop and focused on her research. She learned that she could order her Grim to consume the biomass of animals and plants to convert it into mana and more black tar. This would increase production of her pets significantly. Eventually Sirius managed to coax her out of her lab and introduced her to a new venting method... sparing.
As an enforcer he had access to specialised equipment and locations, which he used the get his goddaughter into shape. He later came to regret this decision when he had to dodge small Nevermores, various curses and Iris' new skill; the projection of magic circles in the air or on the ground, within twenty meters of her position. This came with many new advantages, such as quickly setting up bounded fields or firing curses and basic elemental mysteries.
Sirius still kicked her ass though, he wasn't an enforcer for nothing, and it was as Iris was dragging herself back to her dorm that she met her first friend.
Waver Velvet was an odd one as far a Iris was concerned. He often got worked up over little things but he was brilliant in his fields. They would often sit together during lectures and eventually Waver shared his ideas about how even a magus from a young bloodline could equal or surpass one from an older lineage. Iris agreed and provided moral support to his endeavour.
It was after Lord Archibald publicly humiliated him that Iris found Waver in one of Clocktowers many libraries.
Waver was hunched over a dusty old tome as Iris entered the library. 'That dressing down he got doesn't seem to be bothering him... what's he up to?' She thought as she forms a handful of black tar. She drops it and it morphs into a small Nevermore before it hits the ground. The bird flew over to Waver and lands on the desk lamp. Waver doesn't notice, too engrossed in his book and muttering.
"CAW!"
"Ahh!" Waver cries as he jumps and falls out of his seat. "God damnit Iris!" He shouts at the sixteen year old girl laughing her ass off and holding onto a bookcase to keep herself from falling. She had really grown into a beautiful young woman. Pale skin and lithe frame from constant training. Her long inky black hair was tied in a messy ponytail and her bright green almond shaped eyes, behind slim glasses shone with mirth.
"Oh come on that was hilarious! You were so lost in your own world, I thought you would manifest a Reality Marble!" Iris chuckled to herself. "So what are you doing that holds your attention so completely?"
Waver looked his best friend, contemplating weather he should tell her. She had called her creepy black bird back and was playing with it as she walked over to take a seat next to him. Eventually he decided he trusted her enough.
"I found out that Lord Archibald is traveling to Fuyuki to fight in a Holy Grail war. I was thinking that this would be the perfect opportunity to show him and all my doubters that I'm right!"
"Holy Grail war?" Iris mused.
Waver then went on to explain the ritual and what part he intended to take. It went without saying that Iris was unimpressed. She tried to talk him down but he was having none of it, so she gave him the small Nevermore that she just made, explaining that it would be drawn to negative emotions. She gave him a hug and wished him luck as he got on his plain and then retreated into her Workshop.
She flitted from project to project before Sirius once again took pity on her and introduced her the wonderful world of TV and the internet.
Iris was enamoured. She couldn't get the concepts shown in these Sci-fi shows out of her head and began research.
Her first move was to hypnotise her way into Oxford University studying the Sciences, using Thought Acceleration to speed up her education. She eventually graduated, at the age of nineteen, with honours in multiple fields, making the almost constant migraines and nosebleeds worth it, and began implementing her new knowledge into her magecraft.
Iris sat in her Workshop pouring over calculations for her new mysteries; the manipulation of spacetime.
"Lets try this one." She muttered as the magic circle glowed black with a deep violet radiance. She stopped there and checked her work. The circle was stable and starting to generate antiprotons. She noted her observations and checked the scanner mystic codes that she had made to translate physical and mystical data onto her newly modified laptop.
Her eyes widened and she smiled with joy.
"I did it!" She crowed. "Cheep antimatter! There is no end to the possibilities!"
She new that she would get a Sealing Designation if the Association got wind of this but she was so happy that she had to celebrate. So she grabbed her laptop, instructed her two large werewolf like Grimm to guard her Workshop and out she ran to tell Sirius. She wouldn't tell him exactly what she had done, she was still a magus, but she would celebrate her personal victory.
So excited was she that she didn't slow down as she dashed around a corner and slammed into a passerby, knocking her on her ass.
"I'm so sorry, I know I should have been looking where I was going and I know I shouldn't be running in the halls!" She quickly apologised as she fixed her glasses and gazed up at her sudden road block, only to gulp as her eyes landed on her Alchemy professor, Severus Prince. Her attitude flipped instantly. "Fuck!"
"I have always questioned your intelligence Potter, but I at least hoped that you had basic spacial awareness." He mocked as he dusted himself off. Severus was the bane of her life. A brilliant magus in the field of Alchemy, having found a way to distill spells into liquid form. He was an extremely caustic individual however and had few friends, though he seemed to take an almost perverse pleasure in tormenting Iris.
Iris rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, I'm so incompetent, blah blah. Even literally running into your 'illustrious' self couldn't ruin my day. Now I must be off, hate to loathe you an leave you but ta ta!" She sang as she dashed off, not knowing that this would be the last truly happy day that she would have in a long time.
Sirius had just come back from a long apostle hunt and was content to just grab a cold one and vegetate in his boxers and watch TV. Best laid plans and all that when his living room door slammed open.
"Sirius! We are going to the pub!" Iris yelled, causing Sirius to have flashbacks of James.
She had really grown up and he had no doubt in his mind that Lily and James would be so proud.
He was brought out of his reverie as he remembered his state of dress.
"Gah! Knock damnit! What if I had a lady friend!?" He yelped.
"Come now Sirius, we both know that you're more likely to be playing with yourself." Iris responded slyly then shook her head. "Granted. Not something I want to see, but the point stands."
"I'll have you know I have lots of lady friends."
"Hookers don't count."
"What happened to you? You used to be so sweet. When did you get so mean?" Sirius mock cried. He really did see a lot of his best friend in her. Not all, she had a temper that was all Lily, damn that woman could hold a grudge.
"Probably after you dragged me to enforcer training, and kicked me around the training area. Or when you dragged me to bars in an attempt to pick up women by trying to play the single father card." Iris snorted back.
"Point." He sighed. "What did you want again?"
"Oh yeah! I had a breakthrough in my research so we are going to celebrate... you're buying." She was excited again, causing Sirius to wonder, not for the first time if she was bi polar.
Grumbling, Sirius got dressed and they went to a back alley dive that they were known to frequent.
"So... what's this big discovery of yours?" Sirius asked as he handed her a pint.
"You didn't really expect me to tell you, did you?" Iris laughed.
"Not really, just the basics."
"I can tell you what I was going to release to the rest of the Clocktower.
So you know that if you brute force a mystery it will take a lot of Prana and as such magecraft from the age of the gods is beyond us. Add on the theory of diminishing returns as far as knowledge of mystery is concerned magecraft gets harder. But what if we were looking it it the wrong way? Instead of trying to change large things which Gaia notices, change something small which chain reacts into a larger affect. This method is pretty simple in theory, but in practice? Soo many explosions, and not even ones I was aiming for." Iris explains. To Sirius' shock.
"And you just had a breakthrough?" He asked.
"Yep. I'm so excited! It's going to take me months to go through the data without Thought Acceleration. Not going to give myself a nosebleed over it."
"Well I'm happy for you." He smiles sincerely then notices that Iris was staring into space.
"What?" She mumbled faintly as her mind is bombarded with thoughts an images not her own. The last image was being torn apart by one of the Beowolves guarding her Workshop... Vincent Crabbe, one of Prince's lackeys. It seems he was sent to frame her for more forbidden research.
But how did she know? The Grim where linked to her but where autonomous, able to think for themselves... for the given value of thinking. She didn't have to constantly micromanage them and she wouldn't know if they died unless she tried to connect with them after the fact. The Nevermore she gave to Waver was proof of that, having died halfway through the war. 'So how do I know!' The thought furiously as she tried to understand. She suddenly knew far more about Crabbe than she ever wanted to. His dreams, his fantasies, some of which she was disgusted to find involved her and all his knowledge.
That's when she came to the conclusion that her familiar has consumed his soul and converted his body to mana and tar. Luckily there was no emotional impressions on the memory's, it was like watching a movie in first person with voice over commentary and physical sensation. This lead Iris to believe that she didn't keep the soul and that she would have to work with the knowledge if she wanted to retain it.
"I have to go." She suddenly announced and made to leave, only for Sirius to grab her arm.
"What's going on?" He ask concerned. The change from happy in her achievement to scared and a little sick was too sudden, even for her.
He had never seen her so frightened. She gazed at him for a moment before saying.
"Vincent Crabbe just broke into my Workshop and planted incriminating evidence regarding the disappearances that Amelia was investigating. I need to get out of here." With that she headed for the door leaving Sirius shocked. "Shit!" He cursed before going after her.
She hadn't gotten far and there weren't many people out at this time of night. At least not in this part of town. He caught up to her quickly, he had to know.
"How do you know?" He asked, trying to understand the situation that his goddaughter found herself in.
"My Grimm. I had two Beowolves and a Nevermore guarding my Workshop. He killed one. The other tore him apart. The Nevermore watched it all then informed me." She couldn't tell him that her Grimm ate souls and passed the information to her. She barely wrapped her head around that herself.
"Surely you have time to clear this up!?" He called after her as he kept pace just behind her.
She cast part of her perception into the Nevermore that was sat on the bookshelf to the right of the door. Two enforcers has just entered and killed her other Beowolf. They inspected Crabbe's shredded remains and evidence. One left after collecting the Package and photographing the body, such as it was, and left for backup.
Getting a look at the face of the man who left behind, she noticed that it was the one Crabbe called. She despaired at all of her notes that were left to those vultures.
Bringing her mind back, she turned to Sirius.
"Enforcers are already there." She cried. 'This was a happy day!'she lamented, feeling overwhelmed. Slowly her despair turned to anger as she took control of the Nevermore again. She charged it with prana and sent it flying to the circle on her desk.
"CAW!" It shrieked getting the offending mages attention, then it dumped all of the energy into the circle in an uncontrolled manner. The circle lit up ominously and converted the Nevermore into a small antimatter bomb. Luckily there is very little actual matter in a Grimm, their bodies being similar in makeup to Servents with just enough biomass to be self sustaining, so the explosion was relatively small. It was like a box of frag grenades went off on the table, though anything in the blast radius ceased to be stable matter.
Sirius felt a tremor in the ground, almost losing his footing. Turning he saw Iris' malicious smile and almost dreaded asking.
"What did you do?"
"Detonated a small makeshift antimatter bomb in my Workshop. No one will get my notes now." She smirked. "Now I just have to get out of the country."
"And why would I let you do that? After all the effort I put in for you to take my fall." A new voice interceded, as Severus Prince stepped out of the alleyway in front of them. "Those pets of yours almost ruined a perfectly good framing. I had hoped that the evidence would circulate for longer before you found out." He continued mockingly.
"Your fall!?" Shouted Sirius as he got into a ready position, cursing that he didn't bring any gear.
"Yes Sirius. My fall. Do keep up, though you never where that intelligent." Prince mocked, seemingly perfectly at ease.
Iris took a step back and prepared to project her circles only to stop in surprise when she felt a Bounded field go up around them.
"None of those annoying circles now, I paid special attention to this bounded field. You are completely toothless here." More mockery from Prince.
Iris honestly didn't think that she could hate him more than an hour ago, but he managed it. This wasn't productive, so instead contemplating her hatred of their assailant she focused on analysing the Bounded field around them.
'If Douchenozzle wants to monologue, I'll let him.' She thought as she probed the area. 'It seems to destabilise the ambient mana... this took a lot of effort and knowledge to set up. Damnit! He keyed it to himself. He can cast perfectly fine here.' More probing as Prince works himself into a rant about how she was just like her father and how Lily should have been with him... ew.
'It seems that my circuits are fine, I just can't project prana outside of two centimetres from my body, so Reinforcement is on the table... and I can still generate Grimm tar.'
The tar begins to form over the skin of her ankles and flow into the drain that she was stood on. Another batch formed in right hand which she carefully moved out of his view.
The tar in the sewers directly under quickly began to consume everything it came into contact with. All biomass was useful, though the closer to sapient the better. Iris already had a form picked out for it. A giant hornet like Grimm she liked to call a Lancer.
The puddle of tar started to shift into its form as white bone like armour formed over its body, especially the massive stinger.
"It was a shame that she had to die in that explosion. It was only supposed to take out you and your father. Even then you interfere with my plans!" Prince snarled as he wrapped up his ranty monologue.
Iris froze. "What was that about my parents?" She said in a too calm voice as a rat like Grimm she made from the left over tar from the Lancer found one of the anchors for the Bounded Field.
Sirius was seething from this situation and had already Reinforced himself. He was great at unarmed combat but he would have to get close. Amelia was the thinker in his team and he was the dumb muscle. Most of his mysteries required prep time that he just didn't have in this situation.
Iris could relate, she wanted to wipe that smirk off this smarmy cunts face too. She was surprised by his restraint though.
"I was saying that I regret the fact that you survived the explosion that took your parents. Especially with all the effort I took to make it look like an accident. Weren't you listening?" Prince asked in irritation.
"Oh I got the part where you got friend zoned by mum, and your undying hate for dad an Sirius for winning her heart and bullying you in school respectively. I even got the part where you were going to make me take the fall for the disappearances of all those young nobles for your subpar experiments." She chirped in a false happy tone. "The only part I needed clarification on was the part where you killed my parents." She finished in a cold tone. Her eyes glowed with malice behind her glasses and Prince felt a chill. Not that she could do anything... or so he thought as the rat Grimm exploded broke the anchor and the Lancer burst from the ground. Sirius charged Prince as he was distracted by the giant hornet, getting in some good punches.
Iris wasn't idle either as she launched the Nevermores in her hand and projected three magic circles of light in the air. Less than a second later they bombarded Prince's position with various agony and misfortune curses.
Prince wasn't caught completely off guard however and managed to counter with vials of glowing liquid that shattered into many different spell effects. It wasn't long before the Lancer was speared on an ice spike where it crumbled into black dust.
"You need to get out of here!" Sirius shouted as he ducked and weaved around the spells and poison. "I'll hold him off. The Association will be after you by now! Go!"
Iris didn't know what to do. She wanted so bad to rip Prince to peaces, but she could see that this was an un-winnable situation. Prince had prep time, while she and Sirius did not. But she couldn't stop. If she let up on her curses then Sirius would fall, and she couldn't let that happen.
"Why are you still here!? The enforcers will be on you soon!" He fires a kinetic bolt in her direction to get her moving.
"Survive Sirius." Iris called as she began her escape.
"I don't think I can keep that promise." He mumbles to himself as Prince gets him with a particularly bad flesh rotting mystery.
"How touching. But how long do you think she can run?" Prince laughs as he prepares to end Sirius. A dark miasma forming in his hand.
"Who said she's running?" Sirius laughed in pain. "You knew Lily, and Iris is very much like her. Your days are numbered."
"Silence!" Prince snapped as he plunged his curse into Sirius' chest. It spread quickly, blackening veins and causing his eyes and ears to bleed. He chocked on his blood and passed from this world.
Severus pondered his victims last words before shaking his head.
"CAW!"
He looks up to see a raven in a white mask staring balefully down on him with its glowing red eyes before taking off.
Iris had managed to get out of the country using a combination of hypnotism and paranoia. She set up many false Workshops over many countries under multiple false names,and mostly set them to produce Grimm. Whenever the Association found one, the Grimm would kill them and transfer their knowledge to her. This was an effective way to get news and increase her knowledge base and combat skills.
She often found it funny that nobody had come even close to her in four years. At least until a Dead Apostle showed up at her town and drew the attention of the church. She almost managed to lay low when the Executer found one of her spawning pits after dispatching the Vampire. Granted, he did put up a great fight but numbers and a Nuckelavee prevailed in the end and he was consumed.
She didn't get much of interest from him except an anti Magus fighting style and instructions on how to make Black Keys.
She wasn't a believer so most of the sacraments were useless to her, though she did manage to translate most of the effects into her magecraft involving the blades.
Another four years were mostly spent on research and absorbing all of this new information into her combat style. She modified the Black Key design with some extra effects, like quickly setting up Bounded fields or tethering spells to them, while keeping the purification abilities and shadow paralysis. She continued her research into spatial distortions eventually creating a portal spell by using a Bounded field to force two separate points to occupy the same space and time. This was extremely difficult however and required a complex mystic code, but now she could jump to anywhere she had been before.
The last two years were spent honing her skills and collecting information on her target.
All of this brings us to now. Iris checked her gear for the tenth time. Twenty Custom Black Keys, assorted spell grenades, enchanted Duster for protection, a belt shaped mystic code that could mask her from sight and muffle her magic signature and her portal controller.
She knew Prince was coming this way as she set up multiple Bounded fields in the area but didn't activate them. She knew that she could just send her Grimm after him and call it a day but, call her stupid, she wanted to see the light leave his eyes as she cut him up.
"Nice night for a walk isn't it Prince." Iris asked as she faded into view.
"Potter!" Severus Prince snarled as he readied himself.
Iris wasted no time as she threw two Black Keys and moves to close in.
Prince managed to block with a quick potion that burst into a wall of ice, but Iris just flipped over it and went for downward slash. Her blades flashed as she was forced to counter potion bombs and the occasional curses. She fought like a woman possessed as she dived past him and left a little surprise.
It was a combination of luck and paranoia that saved him as the runic grenade went off imploding on itself to form a micro singularly. It only lasted two seconds but it dragged everything in ten meters into its crushing depths, before exploding.
I thought he was in the clear when multiple black and purple glowing spell circles faded into existence pointing at him. The black and purple antiproton beams cut swaths into the street as they destabilised any matter they came in contact with. Severus couldn't believe his luck with how he managed to get out of that... until he saw the Black Keys in formation around him.
He turned to see Iris walking up to him.
"It's over." She declared as she activated the Bounded field between the Keys. Space inside became distorted to a similar effect to a blender. She watched with a slight smile as the man who ruined her life was reduced to a fine red mist.
It was a load off. Now if only she didn't have this Sealing Designation, she could get on with her life. She didn't get long to think about it as Association Enforcers quickly arrived at the scene.
"Shit! Time to go." Iris activated her portal code and went to leave.
"Stop!" An Enforcer shouted before casting spells. The others joined in destabilising the portal causing it to flash in a kaleidoscope of colour just as Iris passed through. The portal detonated, knocking everyone present on their ass.
That would be the last that the world would see Iris Potter.
Prologue 2
Iris four was a Vorta scientist working for the Dominion, an interstellar empire lead by an enigmatic race of shapeshifters.
The Vorta where a race of clones, bred to be the diplomats, doctors, field supervisors and Scientists of the Dominion.
Iris loved her job and she was good at it. There was no peace of Dominion technology that she didn't know intimately. No ship that she couldn't design and repair.
She knew the genetic makeup of the Jem' Hadar down to the last protein and the formula for Ketracel White, the drug that the Jem' Hadar needed to live.
The one thing that she wanted was to explore. Like she heard Starfleet did. She wanted to see what was out there, and while she had no problems with weapon and ship R and D, she felt it get stale.
She was also unique in that she didn't believe the Founders to be gods unlike the other Vorta and Jem' Hadar. She broke her programming. She could appreciate art and music, which is part of why she was a good scientist. Well that and her eidetic memory.
She was overjoyed at the moment as her ship was sent to scan an inter-dimensional anomaly that appeared at the edge of Dominion space.
"What's our status?" Iris spoke to the Jem' Hadar First.
"We are holding position two kilometres from the anomaly." The gruff alien responded.
"Good. Prepare to run pre-." She was cut off a the ship shook. "What was that!?" She called to the sensor Officer.
"We are under attack! Three vessels of unknown configuration."
Not for the first time Iris lamented that this mission only warranted one frigate. As she saw three cruisers fire on her ship.
"Shields down! Returning fire!"
Blue, purple Phase Poleron beams lanced out ignoring the shields of the enemy Cruiser and scoring a direct hit. The cruiser lists a bit but before the Dominion could finish it, one of the escorts fire a massive bolt of unknown energy, crippling Iris' vessel. The last thing she thought before her ship exploded in the anomaly was how she wished she could explore...
Part 3
When Iris gained awareness she found she was somewhere warm and dark. She could hear a constant pulsing sound that soothed her. She found thinking difficult but managed to preform structural analysis one herself.
What she found shocked her. She still had all seventy five magic circuits, plus her crest and innate resistance to toxins, though all off her cells seemed to be producing this 'other' magic. She also found that she was developing treats from both Vorta and Magi.
'That's not right, I'm human/vorta right?' She thought frantically. She seemed to have two sets of memories, though the Magus Iris theorised that their souls passed into this universe simultaneously. They must have merged with their unborn counterpart.
There was nothing Iris could do about it as she drifted off...
Prologue End.