Iris
By Crying in the Rain
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Chapter 4
Koto-kun and Cole
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Lorina hated Monday mornings. Red always woke her up at seven-thirty to be in the Great Hall at eight-thirty for breakfast. And whenever Lorina complained about Mondays, Red would always say, 'Monday, Monday, so good to me,' and Lily would just smile. Monday Morning, Lorina had to start another five days of classes. They were a pain in the go ole...
The door to the Great Hall open, and the Head Boy and Head Girl walked in, consumed in another argument. "Don't you ever do that again, Potter," Lily yelled at James. "AND I MEAN IT!"
"Well, I won't do it again seeing as you don't like my talents, Evans," James roared.
"FINE!"
"FINE!"
"Wow, Lily," Red said as Lily sat down across from Red and Lorina.
"That's one way to start the day," cuttingly replied Lorina.
"Yeah, it gets all the stress out. But ya know, Lils," Red started to smirk. "Maybe you should have screamed a little louder. I mean, there's probably some one on the other side of the globe that didn't hear you."
Lily just glared at the other redhead. That shut those two up. Never try to joke with Lily when she was it one of her moods.
"Oh, look, the post's here," Red said, changing topic.
"And there's Ceres-Artemis," Lorina said pointing into the air at the owls like a first year.
"You sure?" asked Red as Lily started eating.
"Of course, I'd never forget Remus' owl."
Red smirked "Well, of course... as long as it's Remus' owl." Lorina turned and playfully punched Red in the arm. "Must be delivering Koto-kun."
Sure enough, Ceres-Artemis swooped down and sat a small cage on the table in front of Red, before going to sit on Remus' shoulder. In the cage was the Cutest Chawaru imaginable.
Chawaru is a type of wizard dog. Some can become invisible, talk, fly, or know when their chosen Master needs them. They look like very a small Chihuahua, only twice as small. They could be any color.
Koto-kun was mostly covered in chocolate-brown fur. His snout, legs and two spots on his little chest were a sandy blonde-brown that matched Remus' hair. The tips of his pawls and the rest of his chest were white. He had a pink nose and big blue eyes with brown Irises. His little tail curled up to touch his back. And when he wanted to, he could have the biggest little puppy dog eyes that no one could resist. Instead of barking, he yapped like a little puppy. Koto-kun was one of those Chawaru that could sense when his Master needed him. And he was just so cute!
Lorina quickly grabbed Koto-kun out of the cage, and started feeding him. Red reached into the cage and pulled out his leash and water bowl. Lily poured some pumpkin juice into the bowl for him.
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A week had past and it was now the tenth of September. Classes had gone well for a week but nothing exciting happened. The lack of witch was driving Red up the wall. She had even once charmed her hair into being green and purple, but even that didn't fulfill her hunger for excitement. And here it was lunch time on the second Monday of term.
When Red entered the Great Hall, however, she almost laughed her cloak off. Somehow the Marauders had seated themselves next to the girls' usual spot at the Gryffindor table. And James was sitting next to, and talking cheerfully to, a very annoyed and tired looking Lily. "Top of the lunch hour to ya, guys," Red said with an Irish accent, as she sat down next to Lily. "You looked drained, Lils. Somet'ing wrong?"
"It's him!" Lily whispered. "I'll tell you later in the library."
"Why the Library?"
"It's the only place he doesn't go."
"Well, what about the ladies' washroom?"
"Trust me: He goes there, too."
"That's kinda disturbing," commented Red as she took a bite of a roll. "I mean, does he just go there, or does he... go-o-o there?" Lily just turned her head to stare at Red with one eye freakishly blinking several times. "Lily, you should get that twitch checked out, ya know."
"You're disturbing, Red," said Lorina, who had obviously been eavesdropping.
Suddenly, Sirius stood. With a few steps and a moment later, he was sitting next to Red. "Aww, Siri, I never knew you cared," Red said smirking, and then turned back to Lily. "See, he'll protect me from stupid eye-twitching freaks."
"You're the freak, Red." Lily rolled her eye. "I mean honestly, green and purple hair."
"I thought it was quite interesting," the Auburn haired girl said, trying to look dignified.
"And that translates to," Lorina's voice was drawing, sounding oddly like Malfoy. "Let's just be glad I got my wonderfully dark hair back."
"Sirius, why are you sitting next to me?" Red asked ignoring Lorina.
"My family's watching," he answered cheerfully. "So I decided to give 'em something to watch."
Red and the others turned around or looked a head of them, depending on where they sat. And sure enough, Bellatrix Black and Narcissa black were watching the group of Gryffindors. Without any word of warning, Red stood up in her chair and began waving at them. "Oy, Belly, haven't heard from you in a while," She yelled across the Great Hall, people from every House staring at her. "Where ya been hidin' lately! WE SHOULD HAVE A CHAT LATER!" Red yelled the last part as her friends pulled her back down to her seat.
"Why would you wanna chat with her?" Sirius asked.
"Are you insane?" Lily asked. ("Actually I am, thank you," Red laughed out.)
"Do you want to get yourself in trouble?" Red's cousin asked.
They all kept asking stupid questions until Lorina caught on to what Red meant. She smirked at the weird girl as Red took a bite out of a chicken wing. "When you said 'chat,'" Lorina started, "You meant 'get together later and fight it out.' Didn't you?"
Red put her fingers to her chin in a thinking position, and grinned.
"You bloody devil, you," James said shaking his head.
"You are trying to get yourself into trouble," Remus said shaking his head with a different meaning. "You're all hopeless."
The way that Sirius and James despised Snape and Malfoy was the same way Red despised Bellatrix. But that wasn't just because she existed. It was because she was Red's mortal enemy. The two girls was always butting heads, and trying to get better grades than the other. And besides, Bellatrix started all the fights.
"So, what classes do we have today?" Lorina asked.
"Defense, Transfiguration, Care of magical Creatures, and History," Remus answered.
"Histroy?" Lorina asked, and Remus nodded. "Oh... false joy..."
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By the time History of Magic had started, the seventh years already had too much homework for one day. McGonagall had assigned a 9 inch long essay on the transforming of humans into inanamite objects. Their Defense teacher gave them an essay about Chimaeras, a dangerous creature with the body parts of a lion, a goat, and a snake. And from their Care teacher, they received an essay on the Sphinx; witch had to have eighteen lines.
Sirius leaned back in his chair. This class was always a bore. Sirius glanced around. The classroom had been split into three sections: the Ravenclaw desks, the Gryffindor decks, and Professor Binns' area. The Professor was going on and on about witch trials. Salem, the trial of '37, the Bamburg trials, the English trials. Boring!
Sirius looked to see what everyone was doing. His eyes were drawn to the Ravenclaw desk. On the top row, a pretty brown haired girl was watching him, and nothing but him. Padfoot took control, and Sirius could not stop himself from smirking and winking at the cute little thing. She giggled, and whispered something to a friend. The two girls, blushing and smiling, glanced at Sirius, and laughed once more.
James, who was sitting next to ole Padfoot, had one hand starched across the desk and the other one was holding up his chin as he stared at the back of Lily's head. Remus, who was sitting next to James and behind Peter, was copying ever word Binns said onto a long piece of parchment. Peter was sound asleep. Lily, seated two seats in front of Sirius, was doing the same thing Remus was doing. Lorina, sitting next to Lily, was drawing, writing, reading, playing with her quill, and trying to talk to Lily. The girl behind Lily and in front of Sirius was working on something, but not History work.
Sirius leaned forward in his chair trying to see what Red was writing. She had books spread out around her, a scroll in front of her, the tip of her quill in her ink bottle, and her bright green eyes glued to a passage in one book. Whatever she was writing it was already a foot and ten inches long.
It was weird. When some anonymous girl would be caught staring or flirting with Sirius, he'd flirt right back. But when it came to Red, it was just... different. He would flirt or make suggestive comments and gestures. He would just watch her, secretly listen to her conversations, follow her around the grounds (always staying ten feet away from her), anything. Did that make him a stocker? Was he insane? Is it wrong to be a little too much obsessed?
When Red moved to read from another book, the raven haired boy could make out the title of the essay.
A Transformation: from Intelligent Life to Useful Object
Their Transfiguration essay! But it was way over nine inches!
For the rest of class Sirius watched the dark red haired girl as she worked. Ten minutes till the bell, Red rolled up the scroll and shoved all of her belongings into her bag, with the exception of a library book. She put the book on her desk and started to read. When she went to turn the page, she paused. Sirius could tell that she was suddenly nervous and peeved. Her whole body was rigid, and the little hairs on her neck the escaped her loose hair bun were standing on end.
Slowly, she started to turn around. As she did so, Sirius couldn't help but notice what Red looked like.
Her dark hair was pulled back into a Chinese style bun, her chin-length bangs hung around her ears and in her eyes. Red's sparkling, pickle-green eyes were of innocence, and searched Sirius' eyes for an explanation. Her tie was loose, and her button-down shirt wasn't buttoned all the way at the top. It wasn't tucked into her skirt either. The Gryffindor robes the dark haired girly wore barely hung on her not-so-broad shoulders, obviously a hand-me-down set from Moony. Instead of the school panty-hose and penny loathers, Red wore fishnet stockings and old biker boots. Sirius' eyes once more meet with her eyes.
The Gryffindor boy knew that his mouth was wide open. He knew his eyes were wide, too. But the worst part was that Sirius knew he'd been caught staring at Red... by Red.
Then she whispered, "S-Sir... Sirius..."
"Red."
"What? Is there something in my hair?" She distinctively raised her hand to touch her hair.
"No! No... It's just fine. I - just never seen your hair in that type of style."
"Oh."
"What are you doing after this class?" Sirius inwardly slapped himself. Dammit! What was he doing, asking her out? Damn, this wasn't good.
"Oh, Lily wants me to meet her in the Library," answered Red in a friendly manner.
"Oh, right," Sirius replied.
"What are you doing once class ends?"
"Oh, I'm going-"
Ring!
"Sorry, Sirius, gotta go!"
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After dropping her things at the dorm, picking up Koto-kun, and telling him how adorable he was, Red was in the Library. She sat quietly at her usual table at the back of the study area. Lily was late; why? Lily was usually on time for all her appointments.
Random yelling could be heard coming form the hall outside.
"No, James Potter, I will NOT go out with you!"
"But, Lily-"
"Don't call me Lily, Potter!"
Lily entered the Library, James at her heals. James was talking but hardly anyone was paying attention. This type of thing happened all the time. Lily turned around to face James. She turned so quickly that James bumped into her. "DISSMISSED!"
Lily started towards Red yet again, but James didn't follow. He stared with softened eyes after her, and didn't ever hear some girls talking about him.
"Mental, he's driving me mental!"
"But, Lily, there is too much air in the atmosphere," Red said, deciding to freak Lily out to calm her down.
"Too much air? How could there be?"
"There is for the fish anyway."
"You know, Red," Lily said, sitting down. "You really are smart, and put up a good argument, but because of the way you act, everyone thinks you're not very smart."
"But I got test scores to prove it!"
"Yes, and those scores are quite shocking to some."
"So what about sharing a room with James is driving you toward my side of sanity?"
"Well, one thing is, he wakes me up every morning singing songs - to me. Is that how he woke the Marauders up?"
"How would I know?" Red asked with little interest, already bored with talking about James. All Lils did was complain and talk about how idiotic he was.
"Remus tells you everything. You're actually closer than twins."
"We are not."
"Just answer the question."
"Go eat a banana."
"Red."
"No, James never woke them up like that. Didn't wake them up at all really. Remus did that."
"Oh."
"What does he sing?"
"That music You, Sirius and James listen to."
"I mean: what lyrics does-"
Koto-kun started barking from his position in Red's lap. Red and Lily both turned to see what he was barking at. Near Red stood a scared looking second year Hufflepuff. In his hands were a package and two cards.
"May we help you?" Lily asked kindly.
"I- I was paid a sickle to deliver this," he said hastily. Then added, "Miss Lupin," probably because he had been told to. He handed Lily one card, then gave the Package and last card to Red.
Upon opening her letter this is what Red found:
"It is with a heavy heart and hoping mind that I write this.
And some day I wish to care for you in the presence of all.
But before taking my love for you one step further,
I felt that you should know:
I admire your joy and happiness;
I care for you above all others;
I respect you and your individuality;
I trust every word your lips speak;
And more than life it's self,
I love you more than it's possible to love.
And I will always love you,
Until the day I die.
Before loving you aloud to everyone,
I wanted you to be the first to know:
I really do love you.
With a love that will never go forgotten,
Cole Nervahnna"