Iris thought that the past four months had been the happiest of her entire life.

She'd spent untold numbers of hours living with the Slytherins, and deepening her friendships with Blaise, Daphne, Dante, Draco, and Theo.

She'd learned that Daphne was incredibly intelligent, scoring at the top of all her classes, even being at the top of the year in DADA. She had repeatedly encouraged Iris to not hold herself back like she had with the Dursleys, helping Iris apply herself to the point where she was in the top ten rankings for every class! She didn't have many acquaintances outside of the sixsome, her overly-precise and formal manner of speech leading most to call her "the walking textbook" behind her back. It didn't seem to bother Daphne though, she was an introvert, and very happy with a few very close friendships, instead of many looser ones.

Dante was like a rock, always stable, always sturdy. He tended to be swept up the hurricane of personality that was "Blaise", but when he wasn't, he proved to be one of the calmest and most dependable people Iris had ever seen. He told fantastic jokes, ones that tended to be much less explicit than his bond-mate's, and could always be counted on to move a conversation forward. He was always one of the first to be there when one of the sixsome needed something, no matter what it was. It was a common joke in Slytherin that he was the housewife of the group, which was a fact he never explicitly denied, despite swatting any of them over the head when they mentioned it.

Draco, on the other hand, was by far the most social and extroverted of the group, being the only one to have numerous friendships outside of the sixsome. While they were much more interested in Quidditch than Charms Theory, they were by no means stupid. When Draco really "switched on" (not that they would understand that metaphor), they surpassed every other member of the group in manipulating social situations. If there was anyone in the group who could truly be said to embody the ambition and social grace of Slytherin house, it was Draco.

Theo, on the other hand, might have been Draco's exact opposite, despite being closest to the blond. Theo was quiet and introverted, and preferred to spend most of his time alone. When Theo did talk though, it was always an event worth listening to. He had a tongue as sharp as Professor Snape's, and any of his rare comments were guaranteed to make the group howl with laughter. A month into their friendship, Iris had discovered that Theo had an incredible talent for drawing and artwork, frequently sketching other members of the sixsome in various candid situations. Iris had one of his drawings framed on her wall, showing the entirety of the sixsome in the middle of a study session, caught mid-laugh as they listened to one of Draco's jokes.

And then there was Blaise. She was, well… Blaise. Flirty, loyal, passionate, beautiful Blaise. Out of all her friends, Iris felt the closest to her, and she liked to think that Blaise felt a special bond with her as well. It never ceased to amaze her how easily Blaise could read her moods and thoughts, like she had some sort of personal Iris-dictionary shrunk in her pocket.

Blaise was always the one who's arms she ran to, the one who calmed her down when she was frightened. Her smile could light up a room like the sunrise, and her voice could drown the world in honey and–…

Iris didn't even know what she was saying, those thoughts sounded like… like… well, nevermind. Regardless of those random, strange thoughts though, Iris truly did value Blaise exceptionally, because Blaise truly was the one she ran to in times of trouble, and the one that could calm her down better than anyone.

On the other hand, Blaise's anger, as rare as it was, was sight to behold. Blaise was so, incredibly, wonderfully loyal, and whenever she felt one of her friends was threatened… well, Iris got a nice little tingle inside thinking of how Blaise would snap with and acerbic tongue at anyone who threatened Ir–… the sixsome.

And Iris almost forgot, Hermione! Hermione was Iris's only friend outside of the sixsome, but that didn't make her any less valuable. She was absolutely brilliant—perhaps even more so than Daphne—and consistently scored at the top of every single one of her classes, even the ones she admitted to Iris she didn't really care for. Iris felt awful that the rest of the Gryffindors would bully her friend, couldn't they see how incredible she was? Her curiosity seemed to be infinite, and whenever something struck it, she would bite her lip in this ador– totally normal way, and then get lost in the library for days on end.

Iris felt truly lucky to have such amazing friends, and marveled every day what they would want to do with someone like her. If only classes could be this incredible, Iris thought she'd be the happiest girl in the whole world.


Iris was sitting in transfiguration class, bored out of her mind.

They were supposed to be transfiguration stone pestles into wooden boats, but she already knew how to do stone-to-wood transfiguration. Not only was the spell's formula highly similar to the earlier rock-to-button transfiguration meant to demonstrate the same concept, but more than that, the concept has a whole was just… easy.

Iris had actually found the majority of her classes to be incredibly easy, something that had greatly surprised her when she realized it. She always knew she was holding back at the Dursleys, but she didn't realize just how smart she was. Out of her friends, only Daphne could keep up with her, and Daphne was only behind Hermione in terms of both genius and class rankings.

Looking over at her brother, she giggled at his scowl. He kept poking and prodding his pestle with his wand, looking like he was trying to will it to change with pure intent.

That was one thing she noticed about Danny: he was very, very average.

Oh sure, that demonstration on the first day of class had left many both impressed and terrified of his use of a fourth-year explosion spell, but it seemed as if that was the exception, rather than the rule. In almost every other class but defense, Iris was beating Danny by a fairly wide margin. She didn't have his official grades, but overhearing his griping to Ron about his misunderstood genius informed her well enough.

That little fact never failed to make Iris internally cackle with glee: her, the unwanted, abused child, was doing better than their precious Golden Boy, even after all his training! Sorry James, looks like you picked the wrong Twin to abandon!

Smiling from the thought, Iris waited until Danny was looking at her side of the room, and waved to get his attention. With a wide, innocent smile, and a muttered "vesaperq", she completed the transfiguration.

Fuming, Danny turned back to his own pestle, and seemed to be jabbing and muttering twice as hard.


Danny couldn't believe Iris..

They seemed to be getting along so well over the summer, what on earth had happened! One minute, she was laughing along with his and dad's pranks, and the next, she was practically necking with that Zabini faggot!

Danny was beginning to suspect that it ran deeper than revenge, deeper than a really bad prank. He really really didn't want to think this of his sister but… he thought Iris was beginning to go dark.

He didn't know how it happened—she was raised with Muggles for heaven's sake!—but somehow, ever since she was sorted into Slytherin, his sister had run straight towards the darkness, and gave it a big fat hug.

And what's more, it seemed like the whole of Hogwarts was turning dark too, even some of the Gryffindors!

Ever since that fucking defense class with that prick Quirrell, everyone was looking at him all strange. Danny couldn't believe them. Yeah sure, maybe shooting that explosion spell at Professor Quirrell wasn't the smartest idea, his dad's rant had made sure he knew that, but c'mon! It was the prick's own fault for provoking him like that! Who just stood there and ignored someone pounding on their shield, anyways?!

And besides, even if he had made a mistake, Danny thought he deserved to get away with a mistake or two after everything he'd done for the wizarding world. Being the Boy-Who-Lived was most definitely not easy!

Did they… did the rest of Gryffindor actually sympathize with Quirrell, the dark tosser? Were they– no, there was no way. He shouldn't even be thinking those kinds of awful thoughts about his fellow Gryffindors. His sister was bad enough, he didn't want to have to think ill of the entire house of the (so-called!) brave.

Well, Danny thought, if Gryffindor really was in danger of going dark, it was his job as Boy-Who-Lived and second-generation Marauder to do something about it. The Slytherins would never know what hit them.


AN: Short chapter today guys, while I prep my buffer for my triumphant return. Good news! I'm back babyyyyy! Updates are coming every three days, because arithmancy.