For anyone interested, there is a new poll on my profile to determine a pairing for a different story!

Crowley was so pleased that Iris had resolved the situation before the tournament that he 'permitted' her to form an honorary spelldrive team to play.

It was more of a way for them to warm up the other teams, but the fact he was letting them join at all was enough.

The problem was that she needed more members, and just having the ghosts join in wasn't enough.

"Wait...you want us to join your honorary spelldrive team?" said Ace.

"Let's be honest, none of the freshmen will be able to join the official dorm team," said Iris. "And there's not enough ghosts to make up the numbers. I asked Vil and he said he was fine with loaning Epel to the cause."

Epel being the lavender haired omega that had caught the housewarden's eye. He could play the quiet omega all he liked, Iris knew the look in his eye. He was a spitfire who was being forced to temper his true nature because an older omega had taken him under their wing.

Far be it for her to ruin the hard work Vil was putting in. She just wanted to borrow Epel for a bit.

"I don't know...does he even had the stamina for this?" asked Ace dubious. Epel glared at him, but kept silent.

"You're kidding, right?" said Iris laughing. "You could barely lift the larger fertilizer bags I had in my greenhouse, but Epel was able to lift them no problem. If anything he probably has more stamina than you two."

When Epel first arrived, Iris had been in the greenhouse. He had dove right in once he had permission to enter and had shown more competence than Ace or Deuce in herbology.

Once the tournament was over, she was giving Epel a place where he could escape from Vil's training temporarily and be himself. You really couldn't expect someone to be prim and proper in a greenhouse covered in manure.

"With Epel we have just enough players to have a proper spelldrive team. The ghosts are eager to join in as well, since they don't get to play and the publicity from them being there alone is making Crowley happy."

"I'm surprised you got Riddle to agree to this," said Ace. Deuce nodded to that.

Iris snorted.

"It keeps you two out of trouble and I made sure to give Trey something to speed up his healing so he'll be good once the tournament is over. We're mostly acting as warm-up for the other teams anyway."

"Gee, when you put it like that," said Ace sarcastically.

"Let me put it this way. You get exposure among all those sponsors despite the fact you're not on an official team. The odds of us actually winning the thing are nonexistent, but we can make a good enough showing that people will remember you next year."

Ace perked up at that, as did Deuce. And maybe if they made a good enough showing they could get on the reserves for next year, or the main team.

"I'm in!" said Deuce.

"Ano...I'm in as well," said Epel quietly. Anything to avoid Vil's insane make-up regimen.

"Heck yeah I'm in!" said Ace. "Though I do have one question."

"What?" asked Iris.

"What the heck did you do to the Savanaclaw students that had them looking at you like we do whenever Riddle's about to blow his top and go off with our heads?" asked Ace.

Iris' eyes gleamed, and Grim was trying (and failing) to hide his laughter.

Seeing they were all very interested, she merely laughed.

"For the sake of Leona's ego, let's just say I showed him he's not at the top of the food chain while on his turf and leave it at that. He's just lucky I was nice enough to do it in Savanaclaw where his influence is strong enough to shut up any witnesses, rather than do it publicly where his rep would drop big time."

Leona had already silenced all the witnesses by using his influence over his dorm. Ruggie wouldn't say a damn thing, but his respect for Iris went up quite a bit.

Iris later learned that most students from the Sunset Savanna had a...healthy...respect for females. The idea that she would rank higher on the collective food chain that was the school didn't bother Leona as much as it would have some of the other alphas.

Still pissed him off that he was 'lesser' to another dragon though.

Shortly after the spelldrive tournament...

Iris came to and immediately knew she had a concussion. Likely from the disc Grim accidentally hit her with.

"Your aim still needs work, furball," she said dryly without opening her eyes.

"Thank the seven, you're awake!" said Ace in relief.

She took a tentative sniff of the air, and knew Ace, Deuce, Epel, Grim and for some reason three of the Savanaclaw students were in the room. She had to wonder what Leona did to end up in the hospital room.

"How badly did we lose?"

"After Grim knocked you out, Octavinelle kicked our ass," said Ace. "We had to forfeit after that, because we didn't have enough players."

"You're alright, aren't you?" said Grim nervously.

He liked Iris. She treated him like everyone else, and took her time to explain the homework and help with his casting.

"Why are Leona, Ruggie and Jack in here?"

"Leona took a hit to the head trying to stop one of the Diasomnia plays, Ruggie landed wrong on his broom and Jack carried Ruggie in because Leona was too dazed to do it," said Deuce.

"How the fuck did you know we were in here when you haven't even opened your eyes?" demanded Leona.

"I have a concussion, and I don't want the migraine to worsen," deadpanned Iris. "And to answer your first question, did you forget my sense of smell is almost as strong as Jack or Ruggie?"

Ruggie snickered, though it hurt his ribs.

"UNCLE LEONA!"

Iris cringed at the volume, tentatively opened her eyes...and immediately started cooing at the absolutely adorable beastkin child who had all but tackled Leona and was treating him like his own personal climbing equipment.

"Hello Cheka," said Leona annoyed.

"How cute! You remind me of Teddy," said Iris cheerfully.

"I'm not a Teddy, I'm a Cheka!" said the boy pouting. He was too cute.

"Teddy is the name of my godson," said Iris. She knew children secretly hated being talked down to. "He's about three or so now."

Cheka eyed her, before deciding that was alright by him and went back to cuddling with his favorite uncle. Ruggie's snickers only got worse.

Cater looked at the contract in his hands. Iris had been asking around about his homelife after a comment he made, and Trey had apparently said something to tip her off that everything wasn't entirely...copacetic.

She had done some digging into his past and had not been happy.

"So let me get this straight...you want to hire me as your PR manager. Is that right?" said Cater.

"Look, throw me into a fight and I can navigate it no problem and come out on top. Ask me to socialize with others and play nice with people I can barely stand and I stick out like a sort thumb," said Iris bluntly. "Hell, Vil commented the other day that my fashion sense was 'barely adequate'."

That was one friendship Cater (and many others) didn't get. Vil was big into fashion, make-up and the latest trends. Iris...wasn't. She wore what was comfortable, easy to move in, and if it looked nice then so be it.

And yet the two got along ridiculously well.

Iris sighed.

"Look, you have a natural ability to read a room and have a sharp eye when it comes to taking really good pictures. Even Vil has admitted as much and has even commented that next to Rook or myself, you have the sharpest set of eyes on campus when it comes to capturing people in a flattering light. I've seen what happens when public opinion turns on you for absolutely stupid reasons."

The entire mess with the Chamber of Secrets, the fiasco that was the Tournament, and don't even get her started on being public enemy number one.

Cater evidently didn't get it, so she spelled it out for him.

"I need you to run my social media accounts, show everyone the real me and not the image they've built up," said Iris.

"No, I get that, but why would you need someone like me to run interference in the first place? You're not Royalty, right?" said Cater. That was the part that confused him.

Iris blinked.

"You mean you really haven't figured it out?" she asked, surprised.

"Figured out what?"

"My full name," she clarified. "I thought it was because everyone was used to royalty and people like Vil that no one's commented on it, but you honestly don't know who I actually am, do you?"

Cater shook his head.

So you could imagine the jaw-dropping moment when she calmly pulled aside her bangs to reveal...a very familiar, if faded scar.

Cater immediately started to put two and two together to get four, as he stared at her in disbelief.

"No way...You're Iris Potter?"

Suddenly it all made sense. Her skill level at battle magic, the way she spoke about the civil war as if she had been personally involved, the sheer power level of her magical core, not to mention the amount of coin she had at her disposal.

Then Cater remembered about some of the articles he had managed to come across while researching the subject for Trien and winced.

Yeah, Iris asking for help from someone who actually knew what they were doing in regards to public opinion made a hell of a lot of sense now that he knew who she actually was.

Some of the articles he read about her were utterly ridiculous and did not mesh with what he knew about her personally after spending so much time around her.

"So will you help?" asked Iris. "I would ask Vil, but he's busy enough as is with his own accounts."

"Sure," said Cater. He really didn't have anything better to do for his final year at NRC and the pay rate he saw on the contract was ridiculously good. "I kinda owe you for sorting Riddle out for us."

He wasn't sure what she had done to his tyrannical housewarden, nor did he care. All he knew was that Riddle's temper had started to reach a more even keel and now instead of beheading the freshmen for perceived rule breaking, he put them through other punishments that gave them a chance to actually learn the rules properly.

"Riddle was easy," said Iris, rolling her eyes. "It's not your fault or Trey's that his mother is an overbearing bitch."

"Say what now?" said Cater.

"I'll not go into specifics, but your familial situation and Riddle's have a lot of similarities, save for the fact he didn't have any siblings to blunt her expectations of him."

Cater winced at the thought of having to deal with his mother's disappointment and behavior without his sisters to take the brunt of it. It was bad enough as it, being the unwanted son of the three.

He couldn't imagine the amount of pressure Riddle had been under.

"What did Vil-sempai say about this entire idea?"

"He was the one to suggest it when I asked," she replied.

Cater thought over his options, and honestly couldn't find a downside. He did have a question though.

"So what are your plans for my housewarden anyway? You don't seem romantically interested in him or anything," said Cater.

"I plan to adopt him into the family, of course," said Iris as if that was a perfectly natural thing to do. "He's wasted on that wretched Beta who calls herself his kin, and he's been thriving since I took him under my wings."

Cater signed his name on the contract with a flourish.

"Now that that's done, why don't we get started on setting up your accounts?" said Cater.

"Accounts? As in plural?" said Iris confused.

Cater walked her through it. To be fair, Vil had already helped her get a phone that would suit her. She had paid for it, but he had helped to pick the model.

As they put together her page, Cater asked the question that was bugging quite a few people.

"So what is the deal with you and Vil?"

"Vil found out my scent has the most amusing side effect of chasing off the overly dense and persistent Alphas that tend to harass him while he's at work...including his rival," said Iris amused. "Then he found out I had strong connections to the Sisterhood, which he has great respect for and through them several high profile contacts among the magical fashion elite that even he has trouble making any in-roads with."

The second Vil learned she was part of the Sisterhood, which he had been attempting to make connections with, he started inviting her to tea more often. Which lead to her scent covering most of his things, and the added bonus of the more annoying Alphas leaving him alone.

Unlike Cater, when Vil had investigated Iris Potter he had made the connection to the Ramshackle Prefect almost immediately. She had confirmed it, and the two had made an odd friendship after.

Fleur and Gabrielle were very pleased at the sudden improvement of her fashion sense. So much so that Vil was already getting possible contracts with the Sisterhood and if things panned out, an invitation to become one of them.