Is Wanting Selfish?

I don't own 'Harry Potter'

Warning: genderbent character (Harry)

Was it wrong to be selfish for once?

She'd lived through a shitty life, had to deal with having no family and having an insane Dark Lord trying to kill her at every turn. She'd had awful, painful experiences with teenage romance. Her life had been a caricature of human experiences, trapped within the expectations of what her life should be.

Iris Potter was a character, not a person.

Being reborn in a different body in another time had certainly provided no end of opportunities to stop things from going to shit, even if her new life had its own share of problems that caused her no end of trouble. Last name aside, she was still Iris Potter and the Potter luck was inescapable no matter who she was.

"Evans! Long time, no see!"

In one world, seeing James Potter shout such words at a young woman would have been followed by a scowling redhead shouting at him and proclaiming her having no feelings for him whatsoever. Lily Evans had always been an independent witch that detested having someone loudly express their interest in her, and she'd never reacted well to James Potter treating her best friend so badly.

Though in this world, James Potter was not talking to Lily Evans, rather her sister Iris Evans.

Being reborn as her own mother's fraternal twin sister had been bloody weird, and even six years later she couldn't quite fathom how her life had taken such a turn. Though it was definitely a bonus having said mother along for the ride with her.

When Lily Evans had woken up as an eleven-year-old, her mother-turned-sister had been far from amused, though she had definitely decided to embrace the darker side to her personality and had decided to be selfish with her new chance at life.

Iris knew that Lily regretted so much of her past life, and even if Iris found that her mother's perspective kind of put a dampener on her own thoughts of her parents she couldn't begrudge the redhead a chance to live how she wanted.

But could she do the same?

She turned to see James Potter, her once-father, stood before her in his Quidditch uniform and covered in a thin layer of sweat while grinning at her. He was leaning against the tree where she was reading at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and as she nodded at him his expression brightened before he walked over and sat next to her.

It had been more than a little disconcerting when she realised that James – she really couldn't think of him as her father after growing up with a different man as her father – seemed to be destined to have an interest in an Evans girl, though instead of being besotted with Lily he'd focused on her.

She'd been freaked out for more than a year before Lily had ranted and raved at her about how she wasn't James Potter's daughter now, and if she wanted to have a relationship with him she could. There was no blood relation there at all, not to mention how she hadn't even been raised by James Potter.

Iris looked at James from out the corner of her eye and conceded that he was rather attractive, his well-muscled frame complimented nicely by the wide grin usually adorning his face, hazel eyes sparkling with glee at one thing or another.

Thanks to a few well-placed words years ago, James and Sirius had been persuaded against doing anything malicious for fear of being utter arseholes that nobody could trust. (Iris didn't care about it being emotional blackmail, she had no desire to deal with that crap.)

James had managed to weasel his way into her heart over the years and she could quite easily say she loved him. Could she go for it? She knew that James had feelings for her – had been very vocal about it, in fact – and that Lily wasn't going to pursue the man she'd originally married for her own reasons, so she was free to do as she pleased.

Was it wrong for her to want to be happy for once?

"Hey, James?"

He turned to her and cocked his head. "Riss? What's up?"

She took a deep breath and met his eyes head on. "Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend? Like … like a date."

His eyes widened and he looked at her stupefied, though he didn't make a sound. He just kept looking at her in silence and she felt mortified. She dropped her eyes to the ground. Was she wrong? Did he not really –

"Yes."

She looked up to see him beaming at her and her breath caught. That was her doing that. He was so happy because of Iris. She wasn't The-Girl-Who-Lived here, she wasn't the last Potter, she wasn't really anyone important.

But James wanted her.

Iris smiled, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders at the sheer happiness her classmate was exuding. She could be selfish for once without things being horrible.

She leant forward and kissed him quickly on the cheek, pulling back to smile up at him. His face was bright red and he looked frozen in place, making her bite her lip to stop from laughing at him.

She stood up and grabbed her bag before turning to James. "I'll see you later, James."

And with that, she turned and started heading back to the castle.

Maybe being selfish wasn't so bad.

A/N: Hey guys!

I'm actually thinking of doing this as a longer story at some point in the future, so let me know what you think. I'm not sure how much will be the same to this little piece, but I really am trash for time travel stories lol

Happy reading!