Chapter 18: Trial

As soon as we land in front of the castle I am approached by Dumbledore, who smiles widely and says, "Ah, hello Iris. Are you ready for your wedding, my dear girl?"

I narrow my eyes at him and stand straight, following Hella's instructions on how to act as I sneer at the old man in front of me and say, "What do you think gives you a right to try to force me into said wedding, Albus? In case you have somehow forgotten, I have met my soulmate and as such ancient laws forbid me from being married off to any who isn't my soulmate."

"Iris, be reasonable–" Dumbledore starts to say.

"Is that any way to address a Queen, Headmaster Dumbledore?" I hear from behind me and whirl around, finding Hella and giving her a wide eyed look. She smirks at me as Thor and Natasha reach for their weapons, "Calm down. I'm here under a white flag of truce. I simply wanted to see my soulmate."

They relax and Thor begrudgingly says, "That's reasonable. Cause no problems, we will be ready if you do."

Hella gives him a slightly amused look as I break out of my shock and jump into her waiting arms, she catches me with a small laugh and I cheerfully say, "Hella, darling, you have the greatest timing in the universe."

"I can see that, love." she says while smiling down at me.

"Iris Potter, you get away from that woman this second!" I hear Lily say and sigh before looking over at her. I release Hella and turn to my stern looking parents, who are standing with a smug looking Ronald. "Get over here, young lady!"

Harry and Neville choose that moment to enter the area, seemingly attracted by the noise. I cross my arms and say, "What exactly makes you think you can order me around?"

"I am your mother!" Lily says in an offended tone.

"Yes, I am aware of the unfortunate familial connection that we share." I say blankly. James apparently decides that he's done with the talking and walks up to me. I tense, but stand my ground as he grabs my upper arm.

"You have a wedding to attend too, young lady." James tells me and I shove him off of me before straightening my clothes and crown.

"Hadrian, Neville." I say, shaking slightly with barely contained anger. "For the actions performed by Dumbledore, James, and Lily, I purpose we confer a moment to decide on a suitable punishment for each. After all, James, at least, has committed an act of treason against our crowns."

"I concur." Neville says and Harry nods.

They walk over and stand about ten feet behind Hella, who I turn to, kiss on the cheek, and say, "I will be right back. After that, we can take a walk together if you'd like?"

"I would love too." she says with a smile. I walk over to Harry and Neville and take a breath.

"James, Lily, and Dumbledore are trying to force me to marry Ronald, punishment for that?" I ask.

"Remove Dumbledore as Headmaster and make all four of them, Ronald included because he went along with this plan, spend the next seven months as Filtch's subordinates." Neville suggests. "Without the use of magic."

"Filtch hasn't decided whether or not he follows us." Harry points out.

"We can talk to him later. He's been trying to find a place to teach him the lines of magic he can use, I say we allow him to learn those things." I tell them and they nod in agreement. "Now, James grabbed my arm, which is an act of treason. Punishment for that?"

"I say we sack him." Harry says, "I mean, he can stay here, but he's just the DADA professor, I'm sure McGonagall will be able to find a new one. Maybe Sirius can do it. He's grown rather bored of his family home, I'm sure he'll jump at the chance. Plus, he's fully on the side of his godchildren, us. He even stopped being friends with James when he found out they sent you away. He only ever comes to visit me, he barely spares James a passing glance."

"Alright, that sounds fair to me. Does Sirius have a teaching license?" I ask.

"Yeah, remember, I told you, he did that stint teaching at the Auror Academy for a while, he's been keeping his teaching license up to date since. Said it was a good investment to make but I think he just hopes he'll be offered a job here someday so he can get to know you." Harry says.

"Okay then, let's deliver the punishments, we should do that in the great hall." I say and they nod. I turn and walk over to Hella, grabbing her wrist and saying, "We're going to the great hall to deliver their punishments, after that I'm yours for the day."

"You're mine regardless of the day, love." she says with a smile and I roll my eyes slightly.

"You know what I mean." I say as I lead her into the great hall.

As soon as we enter the room shifts until the three thrones, and a smaller throne next to mine, presumably for Hella, are the only things on the dais, the tables then morph into a sea of chairs, separated into seven groups, one for each house, one for both guest schools, and one for the staff. I walk up to the thrones and Hella takes her seat. I release her wrist and sit in my throne before Harry pulls his wand out and produces a Patronus and tells it to get everyone who currently resides on the grounds of Hogwarts to the great hall for an official trial and announcements.

I give him a confused look and he shrugs before saying, "Might as well make the announcements we need to while we're here." I nod as people begin filing in; as soon as the last seat is filled, by Filtch and Mrs. Norris, Harry smiles at the crowd and announces, "You were undoubtedly informed of Dumbledore's attempt to marry my twin to Ronald Weasley. This wedding will not be happening. What will be happening, however, is punishments for those responsible."

"Before that, however," Neville says, "we came to a decision regarding the caretaker, Argus Filtch, that we feel he will be happy with." the caretaker gives us confused looks. "Queen Iris came up with the idea, however, so I will allow her to make the offer."

I look at Filtch and say, "Mr. Filtch, for the last several years you have been trying to find a school to teach you the brands of magic that you can do, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divinations..." I then smirk and say, "All are subjects taught at Hogwarts." his eyes go a bit wide at that, "The kings and I wish to offer you lessons in these three subjects. We understand that you aren't particularly fond of crowds, so as a compromise you might be comfortable with, I am sure that the teachers wouldn't mind teaching you after school ends for the day."

The old caretaker actually tears up a bit before bowing to us, Mrs. Norris doing the same. Once he manages to calm himself down Harry announces, "Now, for the more serious issue at hand. Winky, please bring in the responsible party."

Dumbledore, Ronald, James, and Lily appear at the foot of the dais and I look down at them. Lily keeps glancing at James unsurely, but stops when he sends her a look. I narrow my eyes a bit at that before mentally telling the others about it.

'Is it possible that she's bewitched?' Hermione asks, 'From what I've heard from the teachers, she absolutely detested James until suddenly changing her mind about him in her seventh year here.'

I frown before thinking, 'Harry, Neville, I think we should also have a goblin come and deliver background tests on them, we'd make them all take them in private and part of their punishment could be allowing us to look over the results.'

'Sounds good to me.' Harry thinks and Neville agrees.

'Professor Flitwick can deliver the tests.' Hermione says, 'He learned how to do that growing up and is licensed by Gringotts to do so. He keeps the supplies in his desk.'

I take a small breath and say, "Albus Dumbledore, as this whole thing was your idea my brothers and I have decided to strip you of your rank of headmaster." Dumbledore's eyes go wide and he moves to protest, but I silence him with a quick flick of my wand, "On top of this, you, Ronald, James, and Lily will all serve the next seven months working for Mr. Filtch as his subordinates. You will do so without the use of magic, every time you are caught doing magic will add a week to your punishment."

"That's not fair!" Ron and James protest so I silence them as well.

"I am not done speaking." I tell them, glaring a bit. "As I was saying, James Potter, going along with Dumbledore's foolish plan is not your only crime. Grabbing my arm in an attempt to drag me away from my soulmate can be considered both treason and assault. For this crime, my brothers and I have decided that losing your position as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be suitable enough. You will teach for the rest of the week until Headmistress McGonagall has hired a replacement. King Hadrian has suggested one Sirius Black."

McGonagall nods and I receive hurt looks from James and Lily, Neville then adds, "We have also decided that each of you also receive individual background tests, these results will be kept from you unless we decide that you need to know something; we will read each one in private. Professor Flitwick, would you mind delivering these tests and bringing us the results. By the end of the week."

"Of course, Your Majesty." Flitwick says.

I sigh a bit and say, "That is all, you can all return to your usual activities." The crowd disappears and I lead Hella out of the castle. We take a nice, long, walk around the wards of the castle and after a while I ask, "How did I not know you would be here today?"

"I sent the letter to your twin and requested he not inform you about it." she says. "I wanted to surprise you."

"You succeeded." I say as I grab her hand. We spend the next several hours just hanging out together before she kisses my cheek and leaves. I sigh before walking back to the castle.

When I arrive outside the main door I hear James angrily saying, "How dare she! I'm her father! I am not a servant! She should be grateful! After all, if we hadn't have left her she would have grown to hate Harry! Those supposed years of torture she claims to have lived through is clearly just a cry for attention! Or maybe they did happen, she probably deserved it!" I tense up, "She's clearly trouble! She probably exaggerated everything! She's such an attention hog, always wanting to be perfect even though she's about as important as a slug!"

"Hey! Don't talk about her like that!" I hear Natasha say angrily.

"Or what?" James snaps and I push the doors open, causing everyone in the room, James, Natasha, Steve, and Ronald, to whirl to face me. When James sees me his eyes go wide and he backs a bit away as he exclaims, "Iris!"

"Or she might hear you." I hiss at him. "How dare I? You may be my father, James Potter, but you deserve no respect from me. I should be grateful for you sending me to my own personal hell? Is that what you want? A thank you? Fine, thank you! Thank you so much for the scars! For the broken bones and burns! Thank you for the whippings I got growing up! Thank you for all the near death experiences! Thank you for the years of me wondering whether you and Lily ever truly loved me! For my fear of failure! Thank you for the word carved into my back and the scar on my face! Is that what you want to hear? Are you satisfied now Father?" I growl, shaking, "Did you know that until I was three I didn't know my own name? Do you know what I thought my name was James?"

"What?" he asks, sounding shaken.

"I thought my name was Freak!" I tell him. "So go ahead and tell me that I deserved being starved, beaten, burned, drowned, whipped, and nearly killed almost every year! Did you know that before the age of eleven I had already been nearly killed twenty two times? So please keep saying how much I was exaggerating everything. Call me what you want. As far as I'm concerned...you are less than nothing to me, James Potter." I then turn and storm away from him, hearing Natasha and Steve following after me cautiously as I send out a pulse of magic that causes everyone's hair go neon with various colors. Once I'm far enough away from Ronald and James I growl, "Who does he think he is! Thinking that I should thank him for sending me to hell? I mean, ignoring the fact that he's supposed to by my father! He still sees me as nothing more than a stupid bug!"

"Calm down." Natasha says soothingly, "We understand why your upset, but try to keep a level head about things. He was just angry, maybe he was just overreacting."

I take a breath before saying, "I need to practice for the next task of the Triwizard."

I turn away from them and feel something slide down my face, which makes me freeze. I reach up and wipe the liquid away, finding a bit of water...a tear.