"I'm just taking the rubbish to the back," Iris shouted as she walked towards the back of the store. One of the girls was out sick and she came in to help out. George was busy closing out the registers. It had been a few days since she had helped out Harry and things seemed to have settled back into normal routine. She walked with two bags in her hands and and a third following behind her. She walked out the back door into an alley and put the bags down then watched as the third followed suit.
"That's that," she said with a smile. She turned to walk back inside, wanting to get out of the cold quickly, but something moving out of the corner of her eye stopped her. Goosebumps broke out across her skin as she quickly turned around, scanning the entire alley. "Who's there?" she shouted. She heard a deep, guttural laugh. Out of the shadows emerged a man. Flint. She tensed.
"So… you're Wood's new woman?" he said. Iris clenched her jaw, ready to do what necessary if he made the wrong move.
"You would be Marcus Flint," she said.
"So he has mentioned me," he said.
"You made the wrong move by coming here," Iris said. Flint laughed.
"I got away from you once, I can do it again," he said. Iris laughed.
"I'd like to see you try," she said before she could catch herself. Flint's curse flew fast, almost before Iris could catch it. She blocked it and shot off her own. Flint ducked behind a dumpster. He shot off another that Iris also blocked. She moved the dumpster out of the way and flicked his wand away. Flint smiled evilly and charged her. Iris nearly froze, remembering the last time. She again tried to move out of the way, but he grabbed her by the wrists and didn't stop moving until she was pinned against the wall.
"You know I'm not alone," she said, trying to distract him.
"Good," he said, letting go of one of her wrists then pulling out a knife. Before Iris could react and push him off, he plunged it into her side. Iris screamed in pain and sent Flint flying across the alley. She collapsed against the wall, clutching her side and wondering how he got the one up on her. Flint grinned as he pushed up from the ground.
"Consider this a message to Potter and Wood," he said, grinning. Just then George flew out the door.
"What the- Flint!" he shouted. Flint grinned at him and disapperated. George looked down at Iris. "Merlin's beard!" He ran to her. "Do not die on me, Iris!"
"Trust me, I have no intention of doing so," she gasped. "Just get me to a bloody hospital."
Oliver burst into Iris' room at St. Mungo's.
"I'll bloody kill him," he uttered.
"Not if I beat you to it," Harry said, following right behind him. Iris seriously wanted to roll her eyes.
"I'm fine," she insisted.
"No, you're not. You were stabbed," Oliver said, now standing by her bedside.
"A wound that I had mostly healed by the time I got here, I might add," she said. Before anyone could say anything else, Kingsley Shacklebolt walked into the room.
"Minister," Harry said. "I wasn't aware-"
"I told him to come," Iris said. Both Oliver and Harry looked at her, mouths agaped. "I'm in."
"No!" Oliver shouted. "You're in a hospital bed, for Merlin's sake!"
"But not for long. Once I'm out of here, which I suspect will be soon, I'll be on the team looking for Flint," Iris said, her face a mask of stone.
"Are you sure?" Shacklebolt asked. Iris nodded stoically. "Very well. I'll see you in a few days." He turned and walked out. Both Harry and Oliver just stared at Iris.
"Iris, this isn't your fight," Harry started.
"He made it my fight when he plunged a fucking knife into my side," Iris nearly shouted. Both Harry and Oliver were silent. "I'm not a bloody damsel in distress. You both know this."
"I can't let you do this, Iris!" Oliver exploded, barely containing his rage.
"You don't have a choice!" Iris yelled back, silencing him again. "Flint came after me and stabbed me, saying this is for Oliver and Harry. He brought me into this. And this is bigger than some old school rivalry, Oliver. This is about something more and I suggest you tell me now." Iris fixed Oliver with a stare. He stared at her a moment before speaking.
"Back when I was in the Order… one of the missions I went on was to raid Flint's manor," Oliver said. Harry stared at him. He hadn't heard this story before. "It was while you were in a coma and we didn't know where you were… Lupin and I went alone just to gather information. We were supposed to be in and out - no one was to know we were there. But… someone must have tipped them off because we walked into an ambush." Iris silently watched Oliver's face as he paused, gathering his thoughts and mustering up the gumption to finish.
"We got out unscathed luckily, but… one of the Death Eaters there - besides Flint - was his girlfriend at the time. Daphne Greengrass," Oliver said. "It was chaos. Curses were flying and we couldn't tell who was shooting where or if anything we sent was hitting the mark. I -" He stopped, gripping the edge of Iris' bed. "I was covering Lupin and I saw her step out and aim at him. I didn't mean to… I meant to hex her but I missed and hit a pillar behind her. It crumbled and part of the ceiling fell on her." Iris took a deep breath as silence filled the room.
"You killed his girlfriend?" Harry asked. Oliver nodded, still not looking at either Iris or Harry. Iris felt a wave of self-loathing come over him.
"Harry… could you give us a moment?" Iris asked, not taking her eyes off Oliver. Harry nodded and walked out. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked. There was no anger or malice in her voice - just concern. Oliver looked up at her.
"Didn't seem important," he said, meeting her eyes.
"Seems fairly important," she said. "You killed someone."
"I killed a fair amount of people, Iris. It was war… but… that one… it was the first. And I hadn't meant to," he said, looking back down at his hands, still gripping the bed. Iris nodded.
"She would have killed Lupin," she said simply.
"I was determined to not have to kill anyone else after that - unless I absolutely had to," Oliver said. "And then during the battle… when I saw Bellatrix going after Tonks and Lupin… I hesitated." Iris took a deep breath and slowly let it out. That was it. That's why he had been blaming himself so much for their deaths. Iris was silent, contemplating what to say.
"Oliver… Bellatrix was an evil, conniving witch. And a good dueler. Even I got bested by her. There's no telling if you would have been able to stop her even if you hadn't hesitated," she finally said. "And she might have killed you as well."
"Then I would have died doing what was right," he said.
"And where would that leave me?"
"Not in a bloody hospital bed with a damn stab wound in your side," he shouted. "I'll not let you go out there and get hurt or die because of me. Again."
"You can't talk me out of it," she said, lifting her chin. Oliver stared at her, breathing heavily.
"Merlin, Iris, why must you be so stubborn?" he moaned.
"For a second there I thought you were going to say reckless," she said, sighing.
"That too," he added.
"I'm doing this Oliver. I'm going to hunt him down and bring him in to make him pay for what he's done," Iris said. "I won't be reckless."
"And what about George and the shop? Does your promise to him mean nothing?" Oliver asked. Iris sucked in her breath. It was a low blow and he knew it. He was desperate not to let her join the aurors and go after Flint.
"I'm only doing this one mission," she said.
"Sure you are. First it was just popping in to help Harry. Now it's one mission. Next you'll be an auror full-time and I'll be at home wondering if you're going to make it home alive," he said. Iris just stared at him. Just the other day he had been encouraging her to join. Now he was doing everything in his power to convince her not to.
"What has gotten into you? Just the other day you seemed shocked that I didn't want to become an auror," she said.
"That was before Flint came after you," Oliver said. "If he could do it once, he can do it again. You're not safe Iris. You should be under guard. I can't lose you again."
"You cannot live in fear of losing me, Oliver!" she shouted. "And I refuse to be locked up again. " She and Oliver stared at each other, her green eyes blazing while his brown ones were full of determination. They were at an impasse. Oliver turned to walk out of the room. "Where are you going?"
"To try and talk Shacklebolt out of letting you on this mission!" he shouted as he stormed out, slamming the door behind him. Iris huffed and shook her head.
"That stubborn git," she muttered, throwing her head back into the pillow.
Iris didn't see Oliver for the rest of the night. She assumed he was either working Shacklebolt hard or had gone home to stew. She slept fitfully, finding that she really did need Oliver by her side in order to fall asleep. Come morning, she was tired and grouchy and snapped at the healers when they told her she couldn't leave for another day at least. And again when Harry popped in on his way to work and didn't bring any decent breakfast with him - Iris conveniently ignored the fact that she hadn't asked him to bring her any.
As the hours passed and Oliver still hadn't come by, her mood got more and more sour. She sent George away as soon as he walked into the room, declaring she didn't want to see anyone that morning and they could come later. Not even Molly and Oliver's mother dared go in.
She was still brooding when James arrived mid-morning, a bouquet of flowers in his hand. He had apparently been warned by the staff of Iris' foul mood as he cautiously popped his head in through the door before fully walking in.
"Any chance you're accepting visitors yet?" he asked. Iris looked over at him. Her scowl softened as she saw the flowers and the concern etched in every part of his face.
"I think I'm up for it," she said. He walked into the room and sat in a chair next to her bed. He sat the flowers on the bed next to Iris.
"You're certainly popular," he said, taking in the several baskets of flowers and balloons that had started pouring in overnight and throughout that morning. Word had spread quickly about the attack and people had already sent them in, including Oliver's mother who nearly came over in the middle of the night. Iris glanced over at the morning edition of the Prophet that Harry had left. On the front page a sneering and snarling mugshot of Flint was placed next to the photo of her and Oliver in Headquarters before going to the Quidditch Ball back during the war. The one of her as herself. She wondered who had offered the use of that photo, though suspected it was Molly Weasley. Surely the one of her at the opening of the shop would have sufficed.
"Death Eater Attacks Potter's Aunt!" the headline screamed. Iris couldn't help rolling her eyes. James followed her gaze and picked up the newspaper.
"Decent photo of you," he said.
"Surprised they even have one… The least they could do is use my actual name in the headline," she griped. "I'm now forever destined to be known as 'Harry Potter's aunt," she said, making quotation marks with her hands.
"Also calls you the beloved of famed Puddlemere United keeper Oliver Wood, who apparently was unavailable for a quote. So you've got that one too," James said, skimming the story.
"Oliver can go jump off a cliff for all I care," Iris grumbled. "No quote. What? He couldn't even pretend to muster up a bit of sympathy for me?"
"You are in a foul mood," James said, putting the paper down. Iris sighed.
"Oliver and I got into a big row last night," she said. "I told Shacklebolt I would join the aurors going after Flint and Oliver doesn't want me to go."
"And he's right. You shouldn't, Iris," James said. "That bastard nearly killed you." Iris rolled her eyes.
"God, not you too," she said. "I'm fine. He didn't nearly kill me. He barely nicked me." James stood and pulled her shirt up, seeing the large swath of gauze wrapped around her mid-section. The healers had just cleaned and rewrapped it an hour ago. Iris flinched slightly at the sudden movement.
"That's not a mere nick, Iris," he said, worry evident in his eyes. Iris shoved her shirt down and looked away from James.
"I'm fine. He missed anything that would have killed me. And I'm going after him," she said, crossing her arms across her chest.
"God, why must you be so stubborn?" James said. "Is this what Oliver has to put up with on a daily basis?" Iris shot him a glare.
"Leave Oliver out of it," she warned. James raised his hands in surrender.
"Fine," he said. "But obviously you're upset about your fight and are taking it out on every poor soul that walks through that door. Even the healers warned me to enter at my own risk… Do you want to talk about it?" Iris glared at her feet for a moment, at first refusing to say anything. James waited patiently, knowing that sooner or later she would give in. Iris finally sighed and threw herself back against her pillow.
"Everything was going perfectly!" she said, exasperated. "He was talking to me. Things were getting back to normal. He wasn't even having nightmares as often anymore. And now… this." James sat back in his chair and crossed his legs, settling in. "He knows what I'm capable of. Christ, he saw me take out 10 Death Eaters at once while shielding a few dozen of ours at Hogwarts. But he's all, 'I can't lose you, Iris' and 'You must be protected.' I'm fully capable of protecting myself."
"Iris, he loves you. Of course he's going to want to protect you," James said. "And it wasn't all that long ago he had shut himself off because of the very fact that he couldn't protect you in the past."
"So I'm suppose to play along and not join the aurors - something Shacklebolt thinks I was born to do, by the way - just so Oliver doesn't get his feelings hurt AND gets to feel like he's protecting me?" Iris asked, thinking it sounded like a ridiculous plan.
"I'm not saying that… I'm just saying… try to be a little more gentle about it," he said. "The last thing you want is Oliver closing himself off again." Iris scowled. He was right. She had been a bit of a twit with Oliver last night. Granted he was being slightly unreasonable as well, but in his case, she could understand why. She sighed.
"Fine," she said. "I guess I was a bit hard on him. I'll be calmer when he comes back."
"You're still joining the aurors, aren't you?" James asked.
"I don't really have a choice," Iris said. "He targeted me to get at Oliver and Harry. I'm involved whether they like it or not. At least this way I can do something about it. And if I'm working with them, I'll be protected."
"What do you mean to get at Oliver? I thought he was getting payback for you helping Harry nearly nab him?" James said. "That's what the Prophet listed as motive, anyway." Iris shook her head.
"Obviously, the aurors weren't going to spill everything… No, he specifically mentioned Oliver when he attacked. Oliver inadvertently killed his girlfriend when he was in the Order back during the war, and I suppose Flint is carrying out some eye-for-an-eye revenge plot," she said.
"Then you really shouldn't be going after him, Iris," James said, his eyes wide. Iris huffed.
"I can take care of myself," she said. "Besides… after running into him twice now, I'm certain I won't have any trouble taking him down the third time." James shook his head.
"You're impossible," he said.
"Determined is more like it," she said, smiling slightly.
"Well, good luck to you, then. At least you'll have a team of aurors with you this time," he said. Iris nodded. James looked down at his watch. "As lovely as this has been, I need to get back to the office," he said. He stood and kissed Iris on the cheek. "Talk to Wood. Be gentle. And for Merlin's sakes, stop snapping at the healers." Iris tried to glare at him, but felt herself starting to smile.
"Fine," she agreed.
"That's my girl, Poppy," James said. He patted her on the head and walked to the door. "I'll try to stop by after work!" he said as he walked out the door with a wave. Iris looked down at the flowers. She reached down and picked them up, smelling them. She looked up at the door expectantly when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway, but was crestfallen when they continued passed her door.
"Certainly hope he comes back," she murmured to herself as she sat the flowers down and reached for the paper. "Might as well get some reading done."