Chapter 21: Yule Ball

I'm almost at the front door when I get blocked by Ronald, wearing the ugliest set of dress robes I've ever seen. He looks at me before demanding, "Where is your dress? You can't go to the ball with me looking like that, go and get changed."

"I'm not taking you to the ball." I sneer as I pass him. "I am taking my soulmate. Now if you would excuse me...it's impolite to keep a lady waiting."

"I thought you were taking your soulmate!" he protests.

"I am." I say as I walk to the carriages. "My soulmate is a female."

"No! You're going with me! Now go and get changed!" he snaps as I climb into an empty carriage.

"Bugger off, Weasel." I say before the carriage carries me down to the gates. As soon as the carriage stops I climb out and freeze when I see Hella waiting for me in a beautiful forest green dress, her black hair braided down her back and the snow around us making her look otherworldly. I walk forward and bow to her as I say, "You look amazing tonight, love."

"As do you, dear." she says while I stand straight and offer her my arm.

"Shall we head in?" I ask and she takes my arm.

"Of course." she says and with that we take the carriage back to the school and I lead her though the doors where we're approached by McGonagall.

"There you are, dear, are you and your date ready?" McGonagall asks.

"Ready?" I ask.

"To dance. Its traditional that the three champions, or in this case four, are the first to dance. Surely I told you that." she says.

"No, you didn't, but I should have suspected it." I say with a small sigh before she lines us all up; I grab Hella's hand and look at her, "May I have this dance, my lady?"

"It would be an honor." she tells me before we get let into the Great Hall and onto the dance floor.

Once we're on the dance floor I grab Hella's waist and we begin to dance. After dancing for hours me and Hella decide to say goodnight and I escort her to the wards before going to the Slytherin Dorms. The next day I turn the inside of Hogwarts into an ice skating rink.

As I'm skating around I come across James, who scowls at me and says, "I fell and hit my head because of this prank, Iris."

"Not my fault you don't know how to skate." I say with a shrug before skating away from him. I come across Fleur next. She's gliding gracefully across the ice and I smile as I to a small twirl before stopping in front of her and saying, "Good morning, Fleur. How are you today?"

"I'm am well. Thank you." she says, "How are you?"

"Doing well." I say cheerfully before gliding away. I skate to the great hall next and find Dumbledore waiting when I get there.

"Ah, Miss Potter. I would ask you to please remove the ice from the school." he asks as I skate backwards in a circle around him.

"I would say no, I'm having fun." I say before doing a spin and skating up to my table. I take my seat and smile at the others here.

Viktor smiles back before saying, "You skate well, Iris."

"I noticed that too." Natasha says while looking at me, "Is there a reason behind that? Or are you just a natural on the ice?"

"Vernon heard Aunt Petunia say that she found it beautiful and graceful when a female could ice skate. She requested I learn and it became one of the few forced skills I actually enjoyed learning." I say with a small shrug.

"Well, you certainly look graceful when you skate." I hear from behind Natasha and look, finding Ronald, who looks angry, "Too bad your too freakish to look graceful doing anything else."

I scowl before slowly rising from my seat, standing straight and saying, "You will leave now before I gracefully stab you."

"Like you would, you can't stab me, I'm your future husband." he sneers and I jump towards him, grabbing a steak knife from the table as I jump over it. Natasha catches and holds me back.

"Calm down, kid. No need to kill him." she says as she sets me in her seat. She then takes the knife from me and turns to Ronald, "Next time you call her that or make fun of her in any way, I will be the one to kill you."

He goes pail before quickly, and rather clumsily, leaving, falling three times on the way to the exit; I glare at his retreating form and say, "I could have easily killed him. Not like they could send me to Azkaban for it anymore. Loki's forces took over Azkaban two nights ago and it would just be counted as an execution." I sigh and say, "I could have been done with him...but, oh well, I guess, there's still time to arrange...incidents."

"You seem very aware of Loki's movements." Tony points out.

"Dumbledore isn't the only person who keeps up on news outside of Hogwarts, Tony." I tell him before sighing, returning to my throne, and dishing myself some food. "Hella told me about how many places they took over last night."

"Oh right, you went to the dance with her." he says, snapping his fingers a bit before asking, "She didn't happen to mention her plans, did she?"

"Only that they were intentionally taking Hogwarts last." I say. "She didn't want to put me in any danger before their victory was assured."

"That's...actually kinda sweet of her." Tony mutters. "How'd you get the message to her asking for a date? You got a secret your not telling us or something?"

"Tony, I have plenty of secrets you don't know about." I say with a smirk before finishing my food and checking the time. I get up and skate around the table before spotting James and Ronald angrily, and rather ungracefully, skating up to me.

When they reach us James immediately snaps at me, "Did you threaten Ron, Iris?" I flinch a bit and when I don't respond he yells, "Answer me, Iris!"

I begin shaking, looking at him with wide eyes as I quietly say, "Please...don't..."

"Don't what?" he snaps.

"Don't..." I repeat, forcing the word out.

"I'll do whatever I want to Iris! Now apologize to Ronald!" he yells and I whimper a bit.

A few tense seconds of silence passes before I feel a bit of defiance rear up in me and I take a breath before looking at Ronald and sarcastically snarling, "I'm so sorry, Ronald, that you're too stupid to think before you call others freaks."

I feel a sharp pain on my cheek before it begins to sting. I realize a second later that James just slapped me. I look at him as tears come to my eyes and he seems to realize what he just did. I move away from him as he tries to move towards me and says, "I'm so sorry Iris! I don't know what came over me! I'm sorry!"

I back up more before glaring at him and turning to the Weasley twins, the entire great hall watching us with wide eyes as I shakily say, "Release the Piranhas."

"That's a type of fish!" a nearby Ravenclaw protests, "What will they do in ice?"

The twins release a pulse of magic and I turn back to James as we all begin hearing the fluttering of wings and gnashing of teeth. I then shakily say, "I have been holding off on using this prank out of some misguided hope that maybe, just maybe, you actually cared about me somewhere in your black, shriveled heart. But seeing as you have just proven me wrong...I'm done being nice to you just because we share the same blood. You seem to think that those you don't like deserve bloodshed. I don't like you, James, so I really hope you enjoy this bloodshed. Any injuries caused today are your fault."

"Call off whatever is coming Iris." James demands as the twelve piranhas with wings come flying in, people begin screaming as they all separate and begin attacking people, James and Ronald receiving two each and the rest targeting others in the crowd.

"Have fun, these little guys will be with you for the rest of the day." I say before skating away from the screams of pain. I go to an abandoned classroom and begin angrily throwing things around. After a while I calm down before sitting at one of the few desks that I didn't destroy with my magic. I take a breath before hearing Hella mentally ask, 'What's wrong, love?'

'When I reveal myself, I am going to enjoy James' screams of pain for years before finally ending his miserable life. I'm going to tear Ronald to shreds and force Dumbledore to relive every punishment I have ever been through.' I tell her shakily before the door opens.

I look over and see Tony walk in; he takes one look at me and sighs a bit before saying, "You good, Kid? You need more time?"

I sigh and lean back a bit before saying, "No, I'm done. You can come in if you want too."

He nods before walking over slowly, dragging a chair to the front of the desk I'm at and sitting across from me. He smiles at me and says, "You alright?"

I sigh and say, "No, not really."

"Wanna talk about it?" he asks, "I mean, I'm not too good at touchy feeley things, but my old man wasn't the greatest to me either."

I frown before saying, "I'd honestly rather just go to my forge, make some stuff. That always makes me feel better."

"Alright, I can respect that." he says with a nod, "You want me to skate with you?"

"Yeah." I say with a sigh before we get up and skate from the room. I lead him to the dungeons, which has a small ramp that you can skate up if you build up enough momentum easily going down to them. I skate to the Slytherin Dormitories with Tony, who skates away as soon as the door is open.

I go to my forge and begin working to fill the various orders I've received this year. After completing quite a few simple orders I come across one ordered by Hella and mentally ask, You ordered from Aurea Mortem?'

'How do you know that?' she asks and I laugh a bit.

'Aurea Mortem Forges is my forge.' I tell her

'Oh...don't read the full order.' she says

'I never leave an order incomplete. You can cancel the order and make a new one though.' I say

'Alright, I'll do that.' she says in a rush so I toss the letter into a nearby fire without reading it.

'I look forward to receiving your letter.' I tell her before returning to work. After a long while of working on various orders I get hungry and stop for the day after sending the orders out. I get out of my trunk and skate to the great hall for dinner.

When I get there I'm greeted by the sight of a desperate James who rushes up, trying to out skate the piranha as he quickly says, "Iris, I'm so sorry for hitting you, please call off the fish!"

I just skate past, ignoring him as I take my seat. I begin eating as the others all take seats around the table. Viktor looks at me and asks, "Are you ok, Iris?"

"Not really, but I'm not quite as angry as I was when he did that." I say before resuming my meal.