-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Irs, Hermione" Professor Lockhart said in a jovial tone, "could I borrow a moment of your time after class?"
"Of course, Professor!" Hermione spoke up just before Iris could come up with an adequate excuse to bugger out. They had been planning to meet up with the others to discuss further findings about the Heir of Slytherin incident, as they were calling it, but Hermione clearly had her priorities in order.
This just so happened to be Lockhart's new scheme for pinning Iris down to talk about fame and glory. He seemed to know that she wouldn't just leave Hermione alone and took advantage of the studious girl to trap Iris in the room as well.
It could have been a happenstance, but this was the fourth time that both of them had been asked to stay after class. The previous three times had been protracted lectures on how best to respond to fan letters; when and where to give out autographs; who was who at Witches Weekly; and other inane topics. Each session had been capped off by Lockhart telling Hermione that she was doing spectacularly in his class and that she should keep up the good work, which was apparently enough for her to justify the time sink.
The slight blush on her friend's cheeks indicated that she would probably be fine just being in the same room as the Defense teacher for longer periods of time.
What was the saying? Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is Lockhart being a ponce.
Four times is too many.
"Good job today, you two." Lockhart spoke up as they approached his desk and the last of the other students left the room. "And as usual, Hermione, I'm sorry I couldn't answer all of your questions." His lips turned down into a sympathetic frown before twitching back up into a smile. "Though I fear a class period where you got to ask every question you could think of would most likely never end. I'm sure we would all grow beards before you would run out of well considered questions." He rubbed his chin and mimed a long beard growing from it.
A quick, squeaky laugh escaped from Hermione before she was consumed by her own blush and snapped her mouth shut.
Iris had to keep herself from groaning at how painful Hermione's affection was.
"To business though," Lockhart continued. "I'm sure the two of you have heard that I will be resurrecting this school's dueling club."
"Yes, Professor." The girls recited with very different degrees of excitement.
Iris felt like she should be excited about it, except there was Lockhart to consider.
Hermione probably had the opposite perspective, since she wasn't one for duels in the first place.
"I had to do a bit of work to get the age cutoff lowered so that Second Years could participate, but I think that your class is doing well enough to justify the effort." Lockhart beamed at them. "I would love it if the two of you could come to the first meeting in a bit over a month and represent the younger students."
"Absolutely, Professor," Hermione responded instantly. "We would be honored to represent our year."
"Splendid!" Lockhart seemed to practically glow with excitement. "Now, I'm sorry that I can't entertain you two more this evening, and a month may seem like a long time, but there's much preparing to be done if this dueling club is to get off the ground."
The two girls nodded and left the classroom.
On the way to the planned meeting room, Hermione walked with a bounce in her step and Iris glumly followed behind.
-o-o-o-o-
"As much as it physically pains me to admit it..." Rin grimaced and clutched at her chest. "I'm inclined to agree with the Weasley Twins."
Sakura covered her mouth with her hand and laughed demurely.
Rin turned to her sister with a look of mock incredulity. Sakura laughed even harder, though somehow managed to still be demure about it. Rin's facade quickly broke down and the two smiled softly at one another.
Iris leaned back in her seat as an uncomfortable, hollow feeling settled in her stomach from watching the sisters interact.
"And the fact that Shirou's investigation turned up very little information is another indicator of the seriousness of the situation." Rin turned away from her sister to address the gathered group "If it's just that the 'heir' cast a spell to block object reading, as obscure as that sounds, then it's an indicator of more paranoia than would be warranted for a simple prank. Even one as tasteless as this.
"If we take the object reading; sorry, Structural Grasping; as true though, we are looking at a person who is both male and female, younger and older..." Rin paused to scowl. "In light of the events of last year, it's possible that we may be looking at a case of possession or the Imperious Curse."
Iris was on her feet in an instant.
"Voldemort again?" She asked.
Neville, Luna, and Illya gasped.
Rin bit her lower lip as she considered her response.
"We can't completely rule out other possibilities. It's said that the Imperious Curse makes the user feel like they are sharing headspace with their victim." She let out a long sigh. "However, after what happened last year, I'm rating possession as the most likely situation at the moment. We should continue looking into it, but if what the Twins revealed about Quirrell is true, and this is the same thing again, then we should be able to find whoever is possessed before the end of the year."
"Pardon me." Illya raised her hand. "But what do you mean 'Voldemort again?'" across the room, Neville flinched "and what is all this you are talking about with Quirrell?"
"We didn't tell you?" Iris paused to consider what she had actually shared with Illya about the previous year.
Surprisingly little. It was possible that the girl didn't even know about the Cloak. She knew that Fluffy and Otr were a dog and a dragon she took care of, but not what they guarded.
"You know that the Philosopher's Stone is hidden in the school, right?"
Illya nodded while Neville took a sharp breath. Luna opened and closed her mouth a few times before smiling to herself.
"I knew it," she whispered to herself. "Daddy owes me four sickles."
"Quirrell tried to steal it last year." Iris elaborated, getting nods from everyone. Quirrell attempting to steal something was pretty common knowledge, since it had ended with such a spectacle. "And, he was possessed by the shade of Voldemort."
"Voldemort tried to steal the Stone!?" Illya was on her feet in an instant, while Neville started choking on his own breath and fell out of his seat.
Shirou stepped over to give Neville a hand.
"Yeah." Iris nodded gravely. "Dumbledore thinks he wanted to use it to revive himself."
"No more." Neville whimpered from the side.
"You're sure it was Voldemort?" Illya asked.
"No." Iris frowned. "I didn't exactly exchange many words with him. Dumbledore is convinced it was, and he was eventually defeated by his spell reflecting off of me rather explosively. Something that's only ever happened with one other person."
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," Neville whispered. "He's alive? He can't be. You killed him."
Iris shifted uncomfortably. "Two for two on that count so far," she said.
"Do you think he'll try for the Stone again?" Illya asked.
"I don't know what else he might be doing here."
Illya slowly sat back down in her seat.
"That brings us back to our other major point." Rin paced back and forth at the front of the classroom. "Slytherin's Monster. If we want to protect ourselves and our classmates, then we need to know more about it. Hermione." Rin nodded towards her fellow lecturer, who was almost hidden behind a stack of tomes.
"My investigation for today was about what Slytherin's Monster could be. As such I went through a number of texts about different monsters, focusing on snakes." Hermione stood from behind her tower of books and frowned slightly. "In addition, since the teachers were so adamant that what was done to Ms. Norris would have been nearly impossible for a student to cast, I tried to narrow it down to monsters that could petrify." She tapped the top of the tomes. "Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find much. There is a common 'ability' among magical snakes that causes creatures that meet their eyes to freeze up. However, it is debated as to whether that is actually a magical ability, or just something that happens when you stare into the eyes of a predator.
"There were a number of snakes that have paralytic venom, but that paralyses in a very different way than what we saw of Ms. Norris. The cockatrice can petrify creatures with its breath, but, despite its similarities to a basilisk, it's not really a snake." She shook her head and sighed. "If the petrification really was caused by Slytherin's Monster, we may have to consider that the ability to petrify was something added on by Slytherin himself and not a natural power." She sighed and rubbed at her eyes. "There just isn't enough information to go on," she complained.
"Maybe Iris can ask the monster what it is next time she encounters it." Luna suggested.
"That's a good idea." Iris smiled over at the girl. "I can do that."
"No." Rin cut in. "The next time you hear that voice you run like hell. And not towards it, either." Her gaze cut over to Shirou to let him know that he was being included in this warning as well. "Whatever this thing is, it's dangerous. If you encounter it, you should do your best to get away from it. Not cozy up to it and ask it questions."
Iris nearly sighed, but stopped herself. Rin was just worried, and she happened to express worry in the form of lectures sometimes.
"I understand," she said.
Rin narrowed her eyes. "That doesn't mean that you won't do it."
"I..." Iris paused to consider her words. "I could help stop it. I can't command it, but I can make it pause to respond to my questions. And a few words from me could unravel the whole mystery behind Slytherin's Monster. Maybe I could get it to tell me who is commanding it and who opened the Chamber of Secrets this time and fifty years ago. I could make sure that Hogwarts is safe."
Shirou smiled and nodded at her.
Rin though, just glowered.
"Iris," she said slowly, "you are a twelve year old girl. Why do you feel the need to put yourself at risk like that?"
The room was silent and Iris looked to Shirou for help, but that question seemed to have given him pause.
"Sometimes." Iris met Rin's eyes. "Sometimes we need to take on big problems, even though we're twelve."
"That's different." Rin caught her meaning immediately. "I would understand if you were doing this for family or friends, but the castle isn't going to fall apart just because you aren't constantly risking your life!"
Was it different? Rin threw herself at the political issues that plagued her family despite her age. She couldn't really understand that. The only family she had were the Dursleys, and she was more likely to go out of her way to avoid them rather than help them.
But Slytherin's Monster felt like something she just couldn't leave alone.
"Hogwarts is my home," Iris said. "I want to stay here."
Rin stared at her for a moment. "Why...? Oh... Iris..." Her voice turned mournful.
She stepped up to Iris and placed her fingers on her chin, directing Iris to meet her gaze.
"You don't have to earn the right to stay here," she whispered. "And we will be discussing this more... in private."
"I—" Iris cut herself off when Rin put a finger against her lips.
"Shirou." Rin glanced over at the boy. "I assume we can count on you to keep Iris safe."
"Of course." Shirou replied.
"And you'll keep her out of trouble?"
Shirou smirked. "Don't ask the impossible."
Iris let out a disgruntled huff and leaned back in her seat. "Is that because I will be rushing into trouble or because you will be rushing into trouble?"
"Both." Rin cut in before Shirou could respond. "I expect the two of you will be rushing into trouble faster than the rest of us can keep up with. I want you two to keep each other safe and let the rest of us know all the dumb things you get up to so we can hopefully do some research and find out what we're dealing with before you both end up destroying half of the castle."
Rin turned to address the rest of the assembled group.
"That goes for the rest of you as well," she said. "We don't know what is going on, so we can't take specific precautions, be we can take care when moving around the school. Never travel alone, especially after curfew."
"You shouldn't be out after curfew at all," Neville said indignantly.
Rin looked at Neville out of the corner of her eyes.
"And as Neville said, don't get caught out after curfew either."
"That's not what I said," Neville argued.
"That's certainly what I heard," Luna spoke up softly, a small teasing smile gracing her lips.
Neville was not the only one to look to the pale girl in shock.
A furious blush built up against her light complexion as she shrank down in her seat.
"What?" She squeaked quietly.