Chapter 17: Secrets Out

"Have you had a pleasant morning, Iris?" Viktor asks me as soon as I sit down.

"Taught Miss Romanoff how to fly a bit and got told that I'm their guide." I say as I pile food onto my plate. "Other than that it's been a rather neutral day. They saw things, they asked questions I'm not prepared to answer, and I got the day off. I'm probably going to train for the next task this afternoon."

"A wise way to spend your free time." Viktor says with a nod as we begin eating.

"How about your day so far?" I ask him.

"Same as usual." he says with a small shrug.

"You got a date for the torture event?" I ask and Natasha sends me a slightly concerned look as Viktor chuckles a bit.

"Yes, I have asked your smart friend to the ball." Viktor says while gesturing at Hermione, "What about you? Did your soulmate agree to pause what she is doing to take you?"

"What's her soulmate doing?" Thor asks, "She knows her soulmate? That's rather rare."

Me and Viktor freeze and I fall into a seers trance, the last thing I see as the world shifts is the Avengers looking worried for me as my muscles all tense. I see every possible outcome of the conversation before coming out of the trance and choosing the one that ends with the Avengers understanding. I look around and find the entirety of the Great Hall staring up at me. I stand and move towards the exit but get stopped by James grabbing my robes and saying, "Iris?"

I quickly shrug the article of clothing off and move to leave. But I get stopped again by Ronald Weasley, who apparently chooses to use Patrificus Totallis and decided to say it just slightly wrong, which results in him accidentally changing my clothes to a tank top and shorts. The tank top is sitting in such a way that it perfectly reveals the word carved into my back, judging by the shocked gasps of everyone behind me.

I tense more and run out of the room and down to the Slytherin dormitories, I change into a new set of clothes and summon my brooms from the pocket of my robes, which James still has. I grab my main one and decide that it will be easier to talk to the Black Widow. I rush out of the school and unshrink both brooms, setting one to hover a foot off the ground with a note attached to it telling whoever finds it to send Natasha to just above the rain clouds that rolled in during lunch.

I then fly up and through the clouds, soaking me to the bone. I fly around for a bit, the high speeds drying me out, until I see Natasha fly into view. I slow to a stop, hovering in front of her as she calls over to me, "The note said to send me up, why?"

"I don't trust males." I call back before adding, "Come on, I know someplace we can talk without being heard." she nods and I fly her out of the wards and to a cave in the mountains, landing in it and shaking my wet hair out. "Sorry for running out on our conversation like that. It was incredibly rude of me to do but not many in Hogwarts have ever seen me go into one of those before and they were all looking at me. I freaked out."

"I can understand that." she says. I sit on the ground and light a fire for us to dry ourselves by. She sits across from me and asks, "What was that? A seizure?"

"No, not a seizure." I say with a small sigh. "That was me seeing the future."

"Seeing the future?" Natasha asks, sounding surprised.

"Yes. What you saw in the great hall was me entering what is known as a Seers Trance." I tell her with a frown, "I see the future while I'm like that."

"It looked like a seizure." she points out and I nod.

"For powerful seers, like me, the trance presents itself, physically, like a seizure. My body tenses, I freeze up, sometimes seizing, and I am left completely unaware of the people around me." I tell her. "It is the only time I am ever completely defenseless."

"Can you stop them?" she asks.

"No, that's not healthy. I've tried to shut them out in the past, but that just led to a constant migraine and increase in visions. It really wasn't a good thing considering the fact that, at the time, I lived in a house full of yelling." I tell her before leaning back a bit and adding, "But that isn't what you wanted to talk about in the great hall."

She frowns before asking, "Did you see Loki coming?"

I frown again, tilting my head and considering how to phrase this in such a way that it doesn't end in my death. I close my eyes and enter a small trance, seeing that there's a way to phrase this in a way that will lead to her trusting me enough to become vulnerable enough to reveal her weakness to me. I open my eyes and see her giving me a concerned look. I take a breath before leaning forward a bit.

"I was just thinking about how to phrase my explanation." I tell her before tilting my head a bit again, "To answer your question though...I saw the possibility of it happening."

"Possibility?" she asks.

"The future is...strange. In a single decision there can be as many as forty nine possibilities depending on what choice you make or as few as three. On incredibly rare occasions there's only one path, but that hardly ever happens. It isn't possible for every possibility to come true. It would destroy universes if they did." I tell her and she gives an understanding nod, "So, in response to your question, I saw the possibility...but out of the seven paths that were before him, he only wins in one of them. I still can't tell if that's this timeline."

That last part is a lie but she seems to buy it. She nods before asking, "What's it like? Seeing the future like that." I consider for a moment before summoning the pensieve from the chamber, "What is that? Why'd you bring it here?"

"This is a pensieve. It allows you to view my memories. This way I can show you the answer to your question. It's easier than trying to explain." I tell her as I extract a few memories of various visions. We enter the pensieve and I say, "We'll start with a simple, three path vision, alright?"

"Sure." she says and we watch as the three paths play out. She sways a bit.

"Yeah, the first few visions like that made me dizzy too." I say as I sit on the ground. "As you can see, the simple ones are like when you sit up too fast. You get light headed."

She nods and I wait until she stabilizes herself and says, "Next one."

"Seven paths." I tell her and they flash around us. Her eyes go wide and she looks around wildly, clearly trying to figure out what to focus on. When it finishes she gives me a wide eyed look. "Just tell me when you're ready for the last one. It's one with forty nine paths."

She sits next to me and, after a few minutes, she takes a breath and says, "Alright, next one."

I let it play and, once it's over, we get out of the pensieve. Natasha gives me a wide eyed look as she sits back down on the cave floor and I send the pensieve back to its place. After a few minutes she asks, "How do you process what you see?"

"A seer's mind is automatically adjusted so they can handle their visions." I say as I take my seat across from her.

"How so?" she asks.

"All seers are born with Eidetic Memories so they can handle everything they see, this manifests after the first vision, at around the age of two for me." I tell her simply.

"Oh." she says before sighing a bit, "So, you have no control over what actually happens once the visions end? Or can you influence the path?"

"Well...that depends on the vision." I say with a small shrug. "If they involve me directly I can choose which path I want, but if it's someone elses path...their fate is their own to decide. I just view the options they have."

"Can you control them?" she asks.

"Most times." I say as I look into the fire, "If I am about to have a large vision I can usually hold it off long enough to get to a private area. If I get caught off guard, though, for example when someone unexpectedly asks me to tell them the identity of the soulmate I have met all of twice and haven't had a proper date with yet, I can't hold back the visions."

She nods a bit in understanding before saying, "So, Thor accidentally triggered you entering a Seers Trance by asking you about your soulmate."

"Yes." I say simply, "Which is bad for me because I've been intentionally hiding my ability from the school since first year and the old fool of a headmaster is smart enough to recognize that I was, in fact, in one of those trances."

"Why hide it?" she asks. "Also, aren't you queen? Can't you just stop him from doing anything?"

I sigh and say, "I could, but I can't do anything extreme without conferring with the other two. As for why I hide it...when people see a seer as powerful as me...they tend to start viewing the seer in question as nothing more than a weapon to be used against their enemies. I've never really fancied the idea of being used like that so I hid." I then stand and sigh again as I add, "But the secrets out now."

"Sorry about that...but you never answered his question." she says tentatively, "Who is your soulmate? You know them?"

I frown and hear Hella say, 'Have faith in your visions, my dear. Tell her who I am, and twist it how you want too.'

"Well...you know of her, you might've fought her before." I say hesitantly. "I've met her twice, the first time was when she was summoned to me by our bond. The second was on the first of September, she showed up to punch my father for scaring me...I've asked her to the Yule Ball, but can you blame me for wanting my soulmate there?"

"No, but that doesn't tell me who she is." she says and I sigh.

"Thor will be here in three seconds." I say and three seconds later Thor lands at the entrance. I back away from him, further into the cave.

"Lady Natasha, the headmaster seeks young Lady Potter." he says carefully. "He said to inform her that she will be wedding young Ronald Weasley within the hour."

"Like hell I will." I snarl. "He holds no control over who I marry. In fact, even if he did he wouldn't be allowed too. I'm the soulmate of an immortal being, and I am sure you know of the treaty made between our people, Lord Thor."

"Which Asgardian?" he asks, tensing slightly, anger becoming visible on his face.

"Hella." I say while moving my shirt so he can see the mark. "Before either of you get upset though you should know, as I told Natasha, I have only met her twice." I lie, "She does plan to be my date to the Yule Ball and I am actually looking forward to that. So, I will not be marrying anyone unless it is Hella. The treaty and ancient laws forbid it." I cross my arms and add, "Not that I would marry Ronald even if I didn't have a soulmate. He's a snot nosed brat who wants to leech off Harry's fame."

"Hella is your soulmate?" Thor asks in a surprised tone, "She aides Loki in this war."

"I hold the same amount of control over Hella that Natasha does over the tides or you do over when the sun will rise in the sky." I tell him. "I have yet to choose a side in this war, Lord Thor." I lie easily, keeping my tone and expression blank, as if upset over him seeming to blame me, "I do not side with Loki nor do I side with Dumbledore. I am nothing if not neutral at the moment."

"We understand that." Natasha says as she stands and looks at Thor, "If she were lying I would know, Thor. She's telling the truth, she's neutral. Now, let's head back and stop the forced wedding."

Thor agrees and we all fly back to Hogwarts.