WARNING: first section is NSFW. You're welcome ;)

"Iris, Theo," Daphne asked, "do either of you remember what the incantation and wand movements are for the color-changing charm?"

The three were sitting in the first-year boys dorm, working on various homework assignments.

On the bed next to them, Blaise, Dante, and Draco were furiously snogging, and Iris was definitely not looking at it. They used to be working on their homework too, but a few minutes in, Blaise had gotten bored and well… yeah.

"Oh don't mind us darling, we'll just be over here!", she had said. Did she not realize what a distraction she was being!

Iris couldn't focus at all, it was so rude that they were interrupting her from her studies! So what if she didn't realize that Draco had such dainty collarbones, or that Dante's arms looked to be solid muscle? Iris didn't care. She didn't even care that Blaise's undershirt was riding up, showing Iris that her stomach was smooth and toned. She didn't care that Dante's pants were unbuckled, exposing the gentle dip of his pelvic bone, leading–"

"Iris?"

"…Uh, what? Sorry, I was… um… I wasn't… paying attention."

Daphne snorted, and snapped her fingers in Iris's eyes, which had begun slowly drifting back to the bed.

"I asked if you remembered the incantation and wand movements for the color changing charm."

"Oh, yeah!", Iris said, perking up, and very conspicuously turning away from the three writhing bodies. "The incantation is baquzh gep cehlofang dod afib dajpom, and the wand movement is two diagonal slashes."

Iris tried to look back at her essay, but her traitorous eyes kept roving back to her kissing friends.

It wasn't that she was attracted to any of them, Iris told herself, it was just that she wasn't used to these types of displays of blatant sexuality. She didn't regularly notice how Blaise's or Draco's breasts heaved when they were panting, and how they sure were panting a lot right now, or how Dante's calf-muscles flexed when he moaned because–"

Daphne's snapping fingers brought Iris out of her thoughts.

"And how about the rock-to-button transfiguration?"

"Uh… the incantation is maretwu, and the wand movements are an inverted question mark, three looped circles, a bottom-to-top acute angle, then… uh…"

Oh god, Blaise's skin was just so pale and smooth she thought that–

Daphne's fingers snapped in front of her nose again.

"Sorry, sorry! Then, uh… a reverse S shape, and a wide horizontal swish, and then– Wait, you're top five in the year in both those classes, how do you not know this?"

Daphne just smirked.

Oh, god damnit, Iris was going to kill her.

"Iris," Theo said, amusement palpable in his voice, "do you want to go study in the common room? I'm sure it wouldn't be as… distracting for you."

Iris glared, and then blushed as she realized her eyes were already straying back towards the bed.

Say yes damnit, she didn't want to see this! She didn't want to be disturbed from her homework by Draco's adorable high-pitched mewls, or Blaise's throaty purr as–"

"Iris?"

"Y-yeah… I think that might be better."

Laughing, Daphne and Theo helped Iris pick up her supplies, and move down to the general Slytherin common room.


Daphne and Theo were right, she was much less distracted here. She wasn't thinking about how Blaise's body coiled around both Dante and Draco, dominating them, and she definitely wasn't imagining herself being–"

"Hey, Potter!"

With a sigh of relief, Iris turned towards the fifth-year prefect who was trying to get her attention from the couch.

"Um… Y-yes, Prefect Trask?"

"C'mon over Potter, some of us want to ask you some questions."

Daphne and Theo looked at the prefect cautiously.

"Oh, don't worry, it's not an interrogation or anything. The upper years just have a few questions, probably the same ones you did."

Still on edge, Daphne slowly nodded, and began to pack up their things, nodding at Iris to do the same. The three sat down on the couch, Daphne and Theo sitting in between the rest of the house and Iris.

"Your question, Trask?"

Trask just looked amused. "Magical fucking Morgana Greengrass, I'm not gonna eat her. Calm down, you know me."

Daphne's glare didn't' let up at all.

"Damn kid", Trask said, turning to face Iris, "you really must have something going for you. Well, whatever, question time!"

"Potter, most of the house has held back from questioning you for the past few weeks, because we wanted to see how you fit in. But now that we have, we're just even more curious. How in Magic's name are you a Potter? You seem to hate your whole family."

Iris's breath started to come out in ragged pants as the whole house started to focus on her. Squeezing Blaise's hand—wait, when did she get here?—Iris attempted to calm herself, and eventually managed to somewhat corral her rising panic.

"Wh-what… what do you mean?" Merlin damn her stutter! She couldn't afford to look weak in front of the entire house.

"Well", Ravenna said, "not only are you a Slytherin in the first place, which I don't think anyone expected from a Potter, you're also friends with a bunch of non-sorcerers, and the kids of your father's political enemies to boot!"

Iris's didn't even know how to begin to answer the implied question. Were they expecting her to divulge the details of her abuse at the Dursleys in front of the entire house? Oh god, what if everyone judged her for it, started to think she was weak and stupid for being abused by muds? Why were they all crowded in front of her, were they going to do something? What if–

From behind her, Iris felt Dante's hand rest comfortingly on her shoulder.

"Ravenna" he said, with a serious look, "would you and the rest of the house mind being a little less… intense? Iris is very shy, she doesn't like people crowding around her, staring."

Trask was about to respond, but seeing Iris about to hyperventilate, she motioned for the majority of the people behind her to disperse.

"It's fine guys, go back to your tables. I'll cast a broadcasting spell so you can hear, just give the poor girl some space."

After the crowd had dispersed, the prefect turned back to Iris.

"Better?" she asked, in a gentler tone.

"Y-yeah… S-sorry it's just… I'm n-not really used to crowds."

Trask nodded. "Alright, I understand. But we'd still like an answer, you know. What happened?"

"Um… Alright. W-well, the f-first thing you have to understand is, I wasn't actually raised with the Potters. Apparently, after Danny defeated the D–…"

She looked over at Blaise and Daphne, who both shot Ravenna a questioning look.

"You're fine," Ravenna said, suddenly looking at Iris with a gleam, "I was near you when you got that letter from your father, and I kicked all the students he named out of the common room."

After Blaise squeezed her hand, and Daphne nodded at her, Iris continued. "Well, a-after Danny defeated the Dark Lord, Dumbledore cast some sort of charm on me that said I was a squib. So James, apparently thinking that I would be 'safer', sent me away to go live with my mother's mud relatives, and n-never checked up on me."

"Th-they were horrible", Iris said, voice cracking, "Th-they were… th-they were a-a-abusive towards me j-just because I was a m-mage, and h-h-he wh-whipped m-me and b-b-beat m-me wh-whenever I m-m-m–"

Iris paused for a moment to collect her breath, and surreptitiously wipe her gathering tears away.

"B-Basically, I didn't have a g-great childhood."

"Oh Merlin" Trask said, looking at her with wide eyes, "that sounds… I don't even have words. I knew the Potters where psycho Nics, but to willingly put their own kid with a bunch of muds? That's… that's… holy shit kid, I'm so sorry."

"I-It's fine, i-it's b-better now."

Suddenly, Iris's brow furrowed. "A-and that's the thing, they're better now! All it took was one visit from James, and suddenly they stop all th-th… wh-what they were doing! It's like, he could have checked up on me, just once! I can't believe–!"

"Breathe, darling. Relax."

"…"

"Thanks, Blaise."

Iris groaned. "Sorry P-Prefect Trask, but that's p-probably gonna happen a lot. I just… I get so a-angry whenever I have to think about what the Potters d-did to me."

"I-It's fine kid, call me Ravenna. Lord knows you fucking deserve some friends after that."

Iris smiled. "Th-thanks, I'd like to be your friend to. Call me Iris."

"A-Anyways," Iris said, after a steadying breath, "on my twelfth birthday, I got a Hogwarts letter, and I thought it was a joke. But then the next day James shows up and says that not only was it not a joke, and I really was a mage, but he was also the father who had abandoned me, and he was alive, surprise!"

Iris smiled wistfully. "I was… really upset, but I managed to get through it, because I knew I'd finally found the thing that made me… me. Honestly, I was so relieved when I heard that I was a mage, it was like… you aren't treated right by the muds? Well here, it's a whole, brand new culture for you, one that accepts you and likes you for who you are! It was like, like…"

"Sorry", Iris said, wiping at her eyes, "uh… so yeah, after James picked me up, he took me over to Potter Manor, and I met the family that had been living the perfect, rich celebrity life while I had been… y-y'know."

"They all tried to act like I'd been there the whole time, and like they could be a real family for me despite the fact they'd abandoned me to a bunch of fucking awful muds for…"

"…Thanks, Blaise."

"Sorry about that, guys. So, they all tried to act like I was supposed to be this little mud-loving Gryffindor princess, and never even thought that their precious muds could have ever–…"

This time, Blaise didn't stop rubbing circles on the back of her hand.

"Uh… sorry again. So yeah, long story short, I really, really fucking hate the Potters, and you guys do to. I had to be cunning and hard to survive in… wh-where I grew up, and you guys accept that. You understand that the people who raised me aren't some 'enlightened race', they're fucking savages. So uh…. yeah, that's why I'm in Slytherin."

The entire common room was dead quiet. Oh wait, no, someone dropped their quill all the way at the other end.

"So… uh… a-alright? P-please s-stop staring a-at me?"

Almost as one, the common room looked down, abashed. There were a few still staring at her with fascinated expressions, but they were quickly turned around by their friends.

"Th-thanks. I… I understand why everyone's so c-curious but, I'm not… I mean, I g-grew up in a c-cupboard, and I'm not u-used to… yeah. Th-thank you."

Iris would have said more, but she was swallowed up in a five-way hug by her friends, blocking her from the sight of the rest of the house.

"Iris," Draco said, a wavering note in their voice, "I… I know you don't think much of yourself, but you are so, incredibly strong. We all admire you for that, alright? Don't you ever think that you're weak, or worthless, or awful, just because James Potter let some filthy muds abuse you. Understand?"

On the verge of tears, Iris nodded into one of their chests.

Ravenna turned to the common room, eyeing the hugging sixsome with an intense amount of awkwardness.

"So… uh… oh, right! On, um… a more positive note, I wrote my mom, and it turns out that she really did fuck Miriam Potter!"

Iris looked at her in surprise. She'd forgotten all about that!

"Yeah", Ravenna said, smirking at the shocked stares, "Iris's step-mom mentioned something about my mom 'seducing' her in her letter to Iris, trying to warn her away from the 'unnatural desires' which are so prevalent in our house.."

Blaise smirked at Iris's bright red hair, and placed her head on her shoulder.

"Speaking of such… 'unnatural desires'" she whispered, her hot breath making Iris quiver, "I saw your eyes glued to the three of us upstairs. Did you like what you saw?"

Iris's eyes went wide.

"Don't worry your beautiful little head about it, darling. I know you won't accept anything if I offer it now, but know that Dante and I will always be willing to give a more… hands-on demonstration."

As Blaise withdrew her head from Iris's shoulder, Iris thought that her entire body must have looked like a steamed lobster. She hated how Blaise would tease her, even though she knew Iris was straight.

It was just… just… Wait, was she actually considering it? Was she?… no, it was just idle curiosity, nothing more.

Thankfully for Iris, Ravenna chose that moment to turn to her.

"Hey Iris, you mind me summoning that letter? I wanted to show some people"

Iris shook her head with a smirk, face still tinted red. "It's fine, I think everyone should see what a massive shithead my step-mother is."

As the common room burst into renewed laughter, Ravenna summoned down the letter, and began to read off of it in a high-pitched, mocking voice.

"'The desires you feel may seem beautiful, natural, and full of God's vivacity, but'… hmm… 'there are indeed many temptresses who seek the flesh of young maidens of the light'… No, that's not it… Cunt-licking Circe woman, are you trying to sound like a sanctimonious ass? I swear…"

Oh lord, Iris could barley breathe. That voice sounded exactly like Miriam, and it seemed the rest of the Slytherins knew it too.

"Oh, here we go! 'Many of the dark creatures'… 'perverted the natural magics given to them by God, turning them from serving humanity to controlling humanity'… 'any one of them could use their foul magics to ensnare you'…"

"Oi Potter!" one fourth-year Wyvern spoke up, smiling widely and wiggling his eyebrows "if you get ensnared by my perverted magics, I promise I'll fill your young maiden-flesh up with God's vivacity!"

Even Iris couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Ah, here we are! 'In my second year in Ravenclaw tower, I feel deeply under the spell of my own corporal sinfulness, leaning be into unnatural desires, and so fell victim to the seductions of my yearmates, Solveig O'Connor.' That's my mom, everyone… ' We had a brief, unnatural relationship that lasted around a month, and by the end of it, I was so ensnared by my bodily lusts that I had prepared myself to hand her my virginity', damn Iris, this shit pure gold!"

Putting the letter away, Ravenna turned to the common room, smirking.

"Yeah, mum didn't go into it much, but she did say that 'dearest Miriam' was real flexible where it counted, if you know what I mean"

Blaise turned to Ravenna, wrapping an arm around Iris's shoulder.

"Well, let's hope that despite their lack of blood relation, a trait like that is hereditary"

The prefect chuckled at Iris's blush.

"Circe Blaise, my sister was right, you really can't help yourself, can you? Didn't you say the exact same thing to that Müller girl?"

Strangely enough, Blaise actually glared at her. And wait, was that a blush?!

"Ravenna, it's not like that… Don't… I mean…"

The fifth year raised her eyebrow at Blaise's uncharacteristic lack of composure.

"Huh… well, that's new. Nevermind then, I guess."

What… huh?

"Anyways", she said, turning back to Iris, "I just wanted to tell you that apparently, your illustrious step-mum left a few things out, when she described her 'seduction by her baser lusts', or whatever the fuck's written in their piece of garbage."

She turned back to the common room with a wicked smirk. "Apparently, she was a lot less of a passive 'victim' than she claimed. According to my mom, who'd really have no reason to lie about this, Potter's step-mom actually tried to seduce her, and had made passes at quite a few other girls in their year. Before she got taken back home for a semester by her parents, she'd actually gotten a reputation as a budding womanizer!"

With that, Iris burst into renewed laughter with the rest of the common room.

Moralizing, pure, pious Miriam Potter, a flaming lesbian seductress? Iris didn't know about anyone else, but she knew she'd be bringing this up with Miriam at a later date, just to see the look on her face.


Around two hours later, after the common room had largely calmed down, Iris was finally, finally making some headway with her homework.

"Iris," Blaise asked, nibbling on her quill adorab– uh… normally, like a regular person, "what did you put down for your tenth ethical use of the cheering charm?"

"Oh, that one was tough. I said that it could be used in a dangerous situation, to help get someone over the shock of seeing a death right in fr–"

It was then a pure white owl landed directly in front of Iris.

God damnit, she was JUST getting into her homework groove!

Begrudgingly, Iris untied the letter from around its ankle, and began to read.

Iris, dearest,

Iris honey, we've received some troubling news from your brother. It seems as if you've ignored our advice on who to make friends with after your mis-sorting, and our numerous warning letters about your new dark 'friends', so it seems as if we'll have to take drastic action to save you from the darkness.

Young lady, when you return home for the Winter Break, you are grounded.

That's right: no friends, no letters, no playing outside, and no books (aside from those for school). You'll be spending your whole break reconnecting with your family, and you most certainly will not be spending any of it talking to the Malfoys of all people.

We know that a grounding may seem like a drastic measure, but we promise, this is for your own good! We know that you don't believe any of those awful things that your new 'friends' are spouting, but we also know that you have neither the maturity or wisdom to avoid–

Closing the letter, Iris turned to the rest of the sixsome and rolled her eyes, chuckling

"It seems as if James and Miriam have decided on the ultimate punishment for my refusal to be a Gryffindor princess: grounding! Surely, there could be nothing worse!"

"Well", Iris said, holding up her wand, "here's the significance I give their grounding, and their 'parental concern' in general'."

She lit the parchment on fire, and tossed it down to the table, laughing.

"That's actually quite telling," Daphne said, blowing the ashes away with an absentminded wave of her hand, "your brother's attitude makes a lot of sense when you consider that grounding was his harshest…"

Daphne rapidly paled, eyes flicking between her still-outstretched hand and Iris's face.

"…What? Are you alright, Daphne?"

"Um… Darling…" Blaise said, looking between Iris and Daphne warily, "that… that was Fae elemental magic. It's uh… generally considered 'highly dark magic', and isn't exactly legal to use in most scenarios…"

Iris rolled her eyes, heedless of the eyes of a good portion of the common room on her.

"Oh come on guys, I think you should know by now I don't care about shit like that. I mean what, Daphne can ruffle my hair from a distance? Oh, horrible, dark evil! I'm so threatened!"

Stopping her chuckling, Iris looked at the table: "honestly, guys, I'm kinda hurt that you'd think I'd believe something like that. Do you really think I'd betray you, just for whisking away some ash?"

Daphne relaxed. "It… it's not that, Iris. It's just that… it's just habit, I guess."

"I didn't really know where you stood on issues like that. I promise, I didn't think you were going to betray me or anything, I know you better than that. I just… I just really value our friendship, and I know you're not a Nic or anything, but generally even a lot of neutrals aren't okay with mages using their racial magics. I just… I don't want to lose you, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend."

"Well", Iris said, perking up, "you don't have to worry about that! I'll stick by all of you 'till the end, if you'll let me!"

Eyes slightly shiny, Daphne wrapped Iris in a tight hug, as the rest of the sixsome smiled.

"Thank you, Iris, it's just so nice to know that someone as wonderful as you can accept us like that, no matter what the fucking ministry says."

"And congratulations Iris," she said, smirking, "you're officially a Rell now. Welcome to the dark side."

Iris missed the whole table chuckling, absorbed in thoughts of her fantastic hug.

Were hugs between friends always this nice? She really did appreciate this hug, in a friendly manner of course, and not because Daphne's considerable bust was pressed up against Iris's chest, giving her the perfect angle to–

"Darling, you alright?"

Snapping out of her daze, Iris realized that Daphne had moved back to her seat.

"Uh… yeah, sorry."

The table's chuckles got even louder.

Merlin damnit, why was everyone smirking so much today! Iris thought they were talking about Fae elemental magics, not the feeling of… wait… Fae elemental magics?

"Wait, Daphne, you're not a sorcerer?"

The whole table laughed.

"No Iris," Daphne said, chuckling, "I'm a banshee. I'm an air-elemental Fae. You couldn't tell because of the racial marks on my mouth and neck?"

"What!" Iris said, "I thought those were just really cool tattoos!"

As they all collapsed into laughter, Iris realized something. "Hey! Draco used their fire elemental magic on the train, and they didn't act like it was a big deal then!"

The rest of the table, with the exception of Daphne, looked shocked.

"Hey, that's right!" Draco said, hitting their head, "I totally forgot about that!"

"Well Iris," Daphne said, her face twisting into a vicious, Blaise-like smirk, "that's because dear Draco is a complete and utter idiot, who doesn't know how to think before they act."

As the rest of the table chuckled at Draco's plight, Iris collapsed in her chair with a sigh. She looked between the faces of her friends, smiling and laughing, and felt her eyes begin to water.

Truly, Iris thought, getting sorted into Slytherin was the best decision she'd ever made.


AN: Fic Recommendation is the Harvestte Addams series by kyaru-chan. It's where I'm drawing quite a bit of inspiration for Blaise's character from.

If you remember from Chapter 10, Daphne has two long marks running from the corners of her mouth, down to the hollow of her throat. They're bright red, and a distinctive feature of all sirens

I realize that my slang, spelling, and profanity use both British and American vernacular. I'm American, and while I do pride myself on thorough research, I don't want to spend an hour researching British speech patterns and idioms every time I want to write dialogue. Also, I just feel a lot more comfortable having characters that I identify with speak in the way I speak.

Therefore, I've come up with a compromise. As you know, most the dialogue is going to be "translated" Magical Latin from speakers from all over Europe, unless indicated otherwise, so I realized that any vernacular I chose to "translate" it with is going to be equally as inaccurate as any other. So you'll see all sorts of British-isms when you hear Iris speaking to Danny, Marietta, or Ron, but otherwise not.

I'm still using 'bloody' though, because it's just such a great term. "Snog" too.