More often than not, if somebody needed to find Iris Potter she would be sat in the library, stumbling over words in a children's book Remus had gotten her. She had had a few lessons as a child, but not enough to get past sounding things out. When Remus introduced the concept of silent letters, and the fact some words were spelt the same but pronounced differently, the red-haired girl almost wanted to give up.
During dinner one evening, when the table was more tense due to the countdown to Harry's hearing with the ministry regarding whether or not he would be expelled, Iris had decided to be more sociable than usual. "What?" she gasped in amazement at Sirius "So it's pronounced like serious, but spelt differently? Why? Did your parents spell it wrong when you were a baby?" Iris asked in genuine intrigue.
The table around her chuckled good naturedly "No, I was named after a star, it's a Black family tradition, like you being named after a flower, that was a tradition in Lily's family" Sirius indulged, Iris smiled slightly, she hadn't known that.
"But Harry isn't named after a flower? Is he?" Iris asked in confusion, the boy in question looking up when hearing his name.
"No" Sirius chuckled "It was just the girls" Nodding in understanding the girl started firing more questions about words "You know, Hermione here is a bit of an expert when it comes to reading. Maybe you could ask her for help when Remus isn't here?" Sirius brought up the idea, Hermione blushing at the compliment whilst Iris pondered it.
"Would you?" she asked the bushy haired girl, who was completely surprised at being addressed by the runaway teen who had almost made it a mission to avoid them all. "I see you reading a lot of those huge books" she added
And after that when Iris was in the library, she was often joined by Hermione Granger, who was kind and patient with the often frustrated girl. And because Hermione was there, so was Harry and Ron, who were then joined by Ginny who hated to be left out of things, and that frequently led to Fred and George deciding to disturb them. All the while during her lessons, the teenagers liked to talk about what was going on, very little of which Iris understood, but the worries Harry had about his trial was a topic Iris was privy too. "You shouldn't be so worried about if you get expelled" Iris chimed in one afternoon, the others looked at her. "What? I've listened to you all go on about Harry all summer, he seems to get out of many a ridiculous situation that anybody else would have been killed in" Iris shrugged.
Fred and George where the two to laugh "Good old Iris, always knows how to lighten the mood" Fred teased the girl.
Iris rolled her eyes "Besides, at least you'll still have somewhere to go, Sirius won't see you anywhere but here, so you know you'll be somewhere with people who cares. And living as a muggle shouldn't be hard, considering you did it before Hogwarts. Plus, your magic comes from within you, your wands just help you concentrate it, makes it easier and more predictable to use. So why not just practice and do wandless magic instead" Iris reasoned to the witches and wizards who were looking at her mouth agape. "What? Because I can't read, I can't listen and comprehend?" Iris scoffed, suddenly disliking all the eyes on her and picking up her book to leave.
Sirius Black was a man of many moods, catch him in a good one, and he was your best friend. Catch him in a bad one, and you can understand why people thought he could be a murderer. Most people knew to stay away from him in his bad mood, Iris however (despite wanting to be left alone herself most of the time) didn't particularly care about avoiding him. She knew he would be in his bedroom, sulking, due to the fact there had been an order meeting and once again he had been made to feel inadequate, his request to go outside ignored. Iris knocked and ignored the yell of go away, walking in and sinking to the floor of his room, lighting up a cigarette and offering the man one. "Will you let me stay here, even if I'm told I can go now?" Iris asked the man suddenly.
Sirius, who until that point had been sitting on his bed, knowing there was no point trying to get Iris to leave, wondering when his life got to the point the person who could relate and understand him the most was the fifteen year old daughter of his dead best friend, sat up straight and looked at her, with selfish hope in his eyes "You'd want to stay. Here? With me?" Sirius asked her.
Iris shyly shuffled her feet against the floor "Aint got anywhere else to be" She responded with quietly "Knew you'd get Harry to stay here if the trial goes to shit, was just wondering if I could too. I mean, I haven't got any magic so they can't ship me off to boarding school in the middle of nowhere like the rest of them" Iris shrugged her shoulder, pulling on the sleeves of her new top.
The large grin Sirius gave was one of pure joy, selfish joy some may argue, since he was happy he wasn't going to have to be alone, alone in the house of his haunted childhood. He held his arms open and gave the teenage girl a hug, only a quick one knowing how cautious she was regarding contact. With the two in considerably better moods they bounded down the stairs, Sirius taking a seat next to his godson whilst Iris went next to the twins who were huddled in a corner discussing potential inventions for their joke shop business. "Weasleys Wizard W-w- h-hees… what's that last word?" Iris asked the pair, Fred and George only too happy to launch into an explanation of their business.