Chapter One: Familiar Faces
The cold wind cut sharp across her face, whipping long ruby hair behind her wildly. She leapt over the small shrubs and bulging thick roots of the forest. As she ran narrowly missing the colored flashes of light, her heartbeat thumped in her throat. This was a bad idea. She had no clue what her plan was in coming here, but running through Epping Forest from dark wizards was not it.
She had been strolling through London, having arrived earlier in the week. Every day was a battle to find the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron. She has spent the last couple days there gaining intelligence. She knew of course that the dark wizard known as Lord Voldemort was active once more, her whole reason for being here, but she never expected to run into his sympathizers quite so fast. It seemed her knack for finding trouble followed her from across the seas.
A large low branch cut her across the upper chest, lungs expelling precious oxygen and she fell backwards with a hard crash. Struggling to catch her breath she got to her feet, waving a thin sliver piece of lime wood, casting her non-verbal spell. "Protego Maxima"
A purple light hit her and threw her back. The shield charm took most of the damage and she caught her breath.
She swished her wand quickly sending a Jelly-Brain and Stinging Jinx behind her. The double jinx gave her time to get to her feet once more. It was eerily quiet as she ran, the end of the forest came into view. Bam! A jinx caught her foot and she fell hard onto the floor once more. She turned lto her back, "obscuro."
"Ah.." a blindfold caught a large man in black robes, as he jumped into the clearing.
"Expelliarmus." His wand flew out his hand.
A second black robed man swished his wand, hitting her ankle. A scream escaped her lips, but she moved her wand hand, casting her silent spell, "orbis". As he jumped into the clearing a whirlwind encircled him and the ground sucked him in deep.
Another swish and mutter and her ankle was fixed, just in time to face the third black robed and masked man. She clutched her wand tightly in her hand, this one was different. He was refined and well trained. It was quick. His hand flew as well as hers. Back and forth they're circled, bobbed and weaved. Her hand was a blur as well as his.
Her defensive magic was above all else her best quality. Something she prided herself on, something she excelled on, yet dark magic was something she knew so little of. The best defense was knowledge and hers was seriously lacking. She was barely holding on, the magic here was different then her own.
The white light hit her from the side, the other wizard finally was able to recover his wand and surprise her. She flicked her wand rolling into her landing, "Petrificus Totalus". She heard his body fall in the dark.
"Dilectio Deflectio" she swished her wand into a sideways "S" and sliced down into an arrow and continued to flourish it quickly. A jet of green light and cry of "Avada Kedavra" rang into the darkness, colliding with a her golden wall of light, shattering it. Her body flew out the trees and crashed into the wooden park bench in a clearing, shattering under the force. She let out a gasp before everything went black.
She was floating in darkness, and nothing but the excruciating pain she felt confirmed that she still clung to life. Every bone in her body felt broken, and as she tried to yell in pain, nothing came out. Did they capture her? Was she on her way to the most evil wizard of all time? She tried to quiet her mind, and tried to concentrate on her surroundings.
"Waddya do?" Asked a hoarse voice.
"I have fixed the problem." purred a silky low voice. There was a pause of silence. "Lets not linger, it is unwise."
Darkness claimed her once more.
She awoke in a gasp of pain. Her eyes adjusted quickly, the soft glow of candle lit chandeliers illuminated the room. Scanning her surroundings she saw high arched ceilings with large windows on either stoned wall, there were privacy screens on either side of her and she lay in the firm iron framed bed with a cool sheet and soft quilted comforter; was she in a hospital? Voices carried through the crack in the door. She recognized the first voice and her heart dropped, the Death Eater from the Forest! Holy fuck she was in his clutches, in a evil hospital.
"The girl is lucky to be alive. She has extensive damage…"
Did dark wizards sound like that? Did they take prisoners to hospitals? She felt around for her wand and found it immediately beside her on the nightstand. Big mistake! She thought triumphantly maybe they didn't think she was a threat. Maybe they were good guys? A sudden thought occurred.
"She's lucky to be alive at all," the soft voice turned cold. "Foolish child, shouldn't be barging into matters she knows nothing of."
"She was very fortunate you were there to save her." replied a kind of voice. The other voice made a noise in his throat. "This spell you speak of, did she cast it first?"
"Yes. A spell I've never seen before, a golden wall of light. She cast it before Lucius."
"Interesting," There was a pause of silence, "Well let us revive our young friend and ask for ourselves what she knows."
She heard the door creak open and two sets of footsteps coming towards her. Two tall figures moved around her privacy screen, one old the other young. The younger had two black pools of obsidian that sat under equally black straight eyebrows, his hair was long and dark like the rest of him,falling to his shoulders and framing his face, almost hiding his prominent slightly curved nose, which suited his sharp face. The other wizard was much older. He had long white hair and an equally long white beard, a crooked nose, piercing bright blue eyes that sat behind half moon glasses. His face showed mild surprise as his warm voice spoke, "Well I see you are already awake my dear."
"Who are you?" It came out sharper than she intended, as she felt herself being sat up and pillows zoomed behind her. She held her wand between them.
"Watch your tone, you should be thanking us…" sneered her savior.
"What for? You could have just taken me somewhere worse." Even as she said these words she didn't believe them. There was something gentle and friendly in the blue eyes of the strange wizard, he looked so familiar.
"We mean you no harm, dear child." He spoke gently.
She lowered her wand, his intentions felt pure and true, "My name Iris Morgan," she introduced herself.
The older wizard inclined his head, "I am Albus Dumbledore and this is Severus Snape."
Iris' whole body twitched, "what!" She was so excited she had tried to jump up but her body felt numb, and she fell half out the bed, the other one, Severus caught her. He sneered as he pushed her back into bed.
Dumbledore looked slightly amused. "I take it, you heard of me?"
"Duh! Who hasn't, even in America you are majorly famous. The problem is they are still pretty salty over there so the 411 on you is slim. A few footnotes and some…er, old pictures."
He chuckled, "yes, I did seem to cause some trouble last time I visited."
"When you went totally postal on Grindelwald," she said excitedly, "to be a fly on that wall."
"As amusing as your fame is," Cut Snapes sharp voice, "perhaps we should address the problem at hand. Like how this child almost got herself killed."
Iris scoffed,"as if. Just because you're aging like a gargoyle..."
His eyes narrowed, lips opening ready for a sharp retort…
"Severus," Dumbledore's voice cut in.
Iris crossed her arms, her eyebrows drawn in "Look, I am not a child despite my youthful appearance, I will be 24 this Halloween. Since I'm obviously not in the clutches of dark wizards…" her eyes flicked to Snape. "I'm glad to have fallen into your lap."
"How so?" Dumbledore questioned.
"I felt like going monster hunting."
"meaning ?" Snape drawled aloofly, as he placed his mask on.
"Well I heard a juicy rumor that a certain dark wizard, Lord Voldemort." She snorted, "dumb name, is back. I had to come straight to the source."
"And what does the Dark Lord have to do with you?" A sneer around his mouth.
She eyed him suspiciously, but turned to Dumbledore. "Shirt story, I was adopted at four and moved to America. Found out I was a witch and began looking for my birth family. Found out they died, why? Because an egomaniac dark wizard deemed them the enemy in his messed up agenda. Now he's risen from the dead to wreak havoc upon wizard-kind again. Well I'm all grown up now and I want to help fight him."
"Has touching as that is-"
"We will talk more tomorrow, Miss Morgan." Cut in Dumbledore's voice. "You sustained quite some damage that needs tending to." He patted her shoulder gently, "Severus is our Potions Master, I leave you in capable hands." He cut Snape a look as if to say behave.
Iris gritted her teeth as the effects of the potion started to wane, as soon as Dumbledore spoke of her injuries. She grimaced giving her head a short nod, as he walked out the door bidding them both Goodnight. Slowly the pain of her night was starting to enter her body, creeping into her shoulders and back and spiraling down to her toes, falling hard into her guts. She made no sound as her eyes followed the wizard she was left with. He waved his wand and several bottles appeared on the nightstand.
"Your frivolous attempt at heroics have cost you multiple fractures, a ruptured spleen, punctured kidney and liver, and internal bleeding and bruising," he spoke in that same distant tone.
"FYI, I don't trust you…"
"You should be thanking me." He hissed some emotion in his voice for a second. "Ungrateful yank, I saved your arse."
"My hero…" she rolled her eyes at him. "I don't know what your game is but I heard your voice. The problem is while you may have brought me to Dumbledore and not your precious 'Dark Lord,' I can't help but wonder, whose side are you on? Either way you can't be trusted. .."
His eyes flashed angrily, but he chose to ignore her comment. He would not be baited by her. If she took her potions or not he didn't care. He wasn't about to stand here and take her cheek. He turned on his heels, his black robes billowing behind him, and slammed the door on his way out.
Touchy wizard that one was, she thought. She gagged down her multiple potions, not really believing he would poison her. Still her comments stood, she hadn't sensed him…the others were easy…He was like a ghost and that slightly unnerved her.
The night replayed over in her mind. She was wondering about London, having earlier drank her Felix Felicis, with Lady Luck on her side she couldn't fail. Tonight was the night she was gonna meet Dumbledore, she could feel it. The Ministry was a bust, they were very Anti-Dumbledore at the moment. She had been looking for the way into Diagon Alley, but even with the potion was having her usual trouble of navigating. She sucked her breath in as she heard it. "Filthy animals…Dark Lord…what a pretty kill she is."
She searched wildly around, taking a few minutes and saw shapes entering the forest. She had two choices, stand up or back down, clutching her wand she ran on. Darkness engulfed her the second she stepped in. She blinked a few times allowing her eyes to adjust and willed herself to focus. From the left she heard it loud and clear the sounds of human agnony.
"Lumos." Her wand lit, she ran as fast as she could. As the screams grew louder she exquished her light, "nox"
Through the trees she saw dark figures and above them so clearly hung a no-maj woman. Her back was unnaturally arched and her mouth was stretched so wide she was almost split in two. Her fingers were bent and broken, sticking out at different angles. Blonde hair hung limply, as red slowly dripped down.
Anger boiled in the young witch, she sent red sparks to the nearest figure, 'stupefy', they fell stunned. She stumbled her way into the clearing and saw a total of 3 black hooded figures. Two pairs of eyes stared back at her, but their faces were concealed with white porcelain skull-like masks, upon which were some sort of carved design.
They raised their wands sending jets of light at her, she dodged and rolled, sending stunning spells their way. It caught the bigger of the two and they fell. She got up, summoning a large tree branch, it burst in pieces as a jet of green hit it.
She sent a cloud of dirt up and ducked low, sending another stunning spell, hitting dead on. The body fell with a soft thump.
Quickly she made her way to the women in the air, "finite incantatem."
The women floated softly down to the ground. Tears welled up her eyes as she repaired the damage they did. She turned her wand to the women's temple, "Obliviate".
"I'm so sorry, you don't deserve this."
Iris jumped out of the way just in time as one of the dark wizards regained consciousness. She flicked her wand at the women, pushing her into the cover of bushes. That cost her; a spell hit her and she flew into a tree, losing her breath. In those few moments she tried to catch her breath, the other two were being revived. She turned and ran through the forest, she had to get them to follow her. She had to get them away from the no-maj. She certainly hadn't expected her spell to work, but it did and she nearly died but at least the no-maj was safe.
She hadn't heard Snape, not until he apparently came to her rescue. How he managed to go undetected she didn't know. Something in her gut told her he was off. So out of the two most powerful wizards alive, just who the hell was he fooling? Did she brew her potion right? She did end up in Dumbledore's care but the route was not easy.
"You can't be serious Dumbledore." Snape said in disbelief. "You're taking that daft child seriously?" He sat across from Dumbledore in the Headmasters office
"Very much so, Severus. She will join us, we could use a witch of her talents." Dumbledores eyes twinkled.
Severus scoffed, "Talents? Hmph. She was reckless, arrogant, foolish, need I go on…"
Dumbledore lifted his eyebrow, "She saved a muggle woman, fought off three Death Eaters, and protected herself against the killing curse. Her actions speak for themselves."
"She only survived because I was there."
"I understand your concern but I must do what is best for everyone. Iris Morgan will join the Order. She is a strong asset to the cause." Dumbledore's voice was firm and final.
Severus gritted his teeth, swallowing the hard truth, "Fine."
He turned on his hills and left, seething. He couldn't do it, The similarities between Lily and this Morgan girl were strong. Morgan's eyes were round giving her an innocent naive look about her, they were the exact shade of emerald. Every time he looked into her eyes his heart panged with guilt. He could imagine Lily's eyes round and scared as she begged the Dark Lord to spare her son. Merlin why did he save the bloody girl, perhaps he was a glutton for punishment. Everything he got he deserved, his choices ruined the one person who ever gave a rats arse about him and he betrayed her.
When she flew into the clearing, coming to that muggle woman's rescue he thought he'd seen a ghost. He faded into the trees and watched her. His initial shock over the differences between the two became apparent. Her hair was longer and brighter red, button shaped nose, round face, full plump lips. slightly curvier build. The longer he stared the more he decided, she looked like Lily's older sister more then Petunia ever did. He revived Luicius and started to form a plan. When she flew out and crashed on the bench he was the first to arrive, as he felt her pulse he made his choice quickly, in saving her. Never did he imagine he would be stuck all year with her.
Okay first chapter, I'm really excited and I hope this version is much more exciting and cohesive