(Iris Potter - PoV)
"We got you Iris, and we will get those scum back for everything," Coeus promises, hugging me as we sit on the couch.
When he pulls back I look at him and remember...remember what Phoebe said last night. That is what he is talking about right now...
He will...he will kill for me. The freak. And Phoebe trusts me enough to tell me.
They have...done everything for me...and trusted me...with everything...
If they can go so far for me...then I can...
Taking a deep breath, I stand up, close my eyes...and show them...show them my shame...
...
My skin tingles. I swear I can feel everyone looking. Seeing the evidence of...of everything.
...
O...Ok. Ok, that's enough, right?
Covering everything up like proper, my legs drop me into my seat.
Reaching for the twins' hands, I grasp them desperately.
They...they don't pull away.
I was so afraid they would pull away, after seeing...
That's...that's good, but I still don't want to show the rest...
Ted says that's ok.
I still have to do the checkup, which is less ok.
But...I guess if they have already seen anyway...
...
I sit with the twins, for what feels like ages, while Ted probably looks at...everything.
I...I don't like it. I don't even know what he is seeing but I DON'T LIKE IT!
I try to clamp down on the panic, the urge to run. Coeus and Phoebe squeezing my hands helps.
I keep as still as possible, but the only thing keeping me from running out of the room is the twins holding my hands.
...
After far, far too long I see Ted lowering his wand with a sigh out of the corner of my eyes.
He says we are done.
Getting up, I leave with the twins, trying to avoid looking at anyone. I...I can't...
(Andromeda Tonks - PoV)
The kids leave, Iris walking briskly but incredibly stiffly.
That poor girl...a glimpse at Edward's notes was all it took to know it was so much worse than we thought...
Shaking my head, I turn to ask him what we should do now, only to find him gone.
Hearing a clink, my gaze finds him closing the liquor cabinet, a bottle in his hand.
Ah...
He pours two tall glasses and hands me one as I walk over, leaving the bottle open on the cabinet.
"That bad?" I ask
He throws back his glass, chugging like we used to before we had Nymphadora.
...
I sip at my own for the moment.
He slams it down and refills it.
"Edward?"
He sighs.
"She wasn't outright tortured, or sexually abused, as best as I can tell," he answers. "And she isn't currently sick with anything."
Ugh. It is awful that he needs to confirm those facts. And that there is a spell for checking a girl's hymen, it has caused no end of grief.
I wait for him to continue.
...
He looks at me and goes back to his drink.
Ah. Shit.
Tilting the glass, I take a larger drink than I really should.
"Dozens of broken bones, torn muscles, constant, literally constant and major contusions, scrapes and cuts all over her body. She's been beaten to the point of organ damage several times. Severely burned a number of times. Bitten by some sort of animal, likely a dog, repeatedly. All things I have seen before, and mostly things that happen to many people, but never like this Andy, never like this."
My hand goes to his back, and I rub it reassuringly as he continues.
"I thought she was just shy, at Malkin's, but she was trying to hide all of it. All of the damage, under her clothes."
I thought the same. We both knew something was wrong, but this?
"But then there is the severe malnutrition. She is skinny, sure, but my checks are...all over the place. I think her magic is doing something to try to keep her healthy, but from everything I understand, it will be very, very bad for her long term, nevermind the fact it shouldn't be possible in the first place."
He sighs again.
"I know she won't want to, but we have to take her to Mungo's. I have no idea how to even diagnose something like that properly, some kind of accidental magic, much less treat it."
I frown but nod.
"It is a good idea anyway," I say "Dumbledore...I don't know if he is going to fight us on this. If he tries to, having documentation from Mungo's will help immensely. Let's see him try to argue that she should be sent back there when we threaten to publish all of that in the paper."
Edward starts to nod, but stops.
"Andy..."
"I know. We won't actually do that, I can't imagine what it would do to the girl. But Dumbledore doesn't need to know that," I tell him.
He breathes out in relief.
We stand together in silence for a time.
"It's not going to be easy, you know?" he asks.
"I know," I tell him. "But while I would like to think I would save any child from such a fate, she isn't any child Edward, she is the Girl-Who-Lived. She ended the war."
Looking him in the eyes, I continue.
"She saved us. She saved you. I will be damned if I don't at least try to pay her back for it, however it happened."
He nods. "She's a good girl, I just...I hope we can help her. I have no idea what I am doing..."
I snort. "Does any parent?"
We rest our heads against each other for another long moment.
"I should start lunch, I am sure everyone will be hungry." I want to focus on something else for a while.
"Lunch...lunch is good."
I roll my eyes. "You could stand to miss a lunch or two," I say, swatting his belly.
He chuckles as I head into the kitchen.
(Coeus Black - PoV)
Phoebe and I take Iris to our room and sit her on our bed.
She stares at the floor.
We try rubbing her back.
"Iris?" I ask her.
She doesn't answer.
This isn't working.
I check with Phoebe, but she doesn't have any ideas.
I look and I see.
Hurt. Shame. Ugly. Freak. Rejection.
No, no this won't do at all.
"Iris. Iris look at me." I demand.
She complies. Very, very slowly, but she complies.
Looking directly into her eyes I say it.
"Pretty. You are very pretty Iris. And not a freak. They are the freaks, not you."
Phoebe wraps around her from behind, repeating the same thing.
(Edward "Ted" Tonks - PoV)
After lugging my way up the stairs for lunch (Andy may be right, I probably could stand to skip a meal or two), I stop in the doorway of the twins' room and take in the scene.
Both twins are wrapped around Iris on the bed, their limbs so tangled together it is hard to make out what belongs to who. All three are fast asleep.
It is impossibly cute, I have to show Dora. I quietly make my way past the room.
Also, I guess I won't be the one missing lunch.
My knuckles rap quietly on Dora's door.
A muffled crashing from beyond implies she heard me. I wait while she either picks herself up or hopefully fixes whatever she broke. That girl...
The door swings open. She is blue-haired and absolutely tiny now, wearing clothes she likely stole from Coeus. Presumably, so he will be less likely to smear chocolate on these.
"Lunch?" she asks.
She gets a nod, but I put a finger to my lips, and motion for her to follow.
We head to the twins' room. After getting a look inside she claps her hands together and quietly squees.
"So cute!" she whispers.
"Need to show Andy still," I tell her.
She bounds off down the stairs before I can take more than a couple steps.
I listen for the inevitable crash...yup, there it is.
At least it was downstairs and didn't wake the sleepyheads.
With just the three of us at lunch, I fill Dora in on what she missed.
The suddenly redheaded teen nearly rips out of her(Coeus's?) clothes with her rapid shifting.
"What about the DMLE?" she asks. "Are we going to get them involved at all?"
I look at Andy.
She frowns.
"Probably not. They would require statements and drag everything out considerably, making everything far more complicated. If Dumbledore won't budge we may have to, but otherwise..."
She shakes her head.
"Getting her to go to Mungos is going to be hard enough, I don't want to think about trying to get her to talk to a DMLE officer."
Aye, I hate how much we have pushed her already. Making a kid go to bed is one thing, making them talk about something like that? How do you even do that?
Dora nods. "When are we doing Mungos then?"
"Soon," I say. "I really don't like a lot of what I found. I would go today if possible but...Andy?"
She shakes her head.
"I'll send a letter to Arcturus right now, ask for a meeting with a discreet healer. We don't want this spread all over the papers, which it will be if we just show up with the Girl-Who-Lived."
Damn. She's not wrong.
(Iris Potter - PoV)
My nose itches. I try to scratch it, but can't. My arm won't move?
Opening my eyes, I see Coeus's face right in front of mine.
What?
I try to get up but can't, I'm too heavy.
It takes a minute to figure out the problem, we are all tangled together. And it is Phoebe's hair that was tickling my nose making it itch.
Coeus opens his eyes, probably woken up by all of my shifting around. So blue...
He blinks a few times, looking around and shifting a bit, much like myself. We are rather tangled up.
"Iris?" he focuses on me. "Feeling better?"
I pause, considering the question.
Yeah. Yeah, a lot better.
I nod.
He smiles and bumps his head against mine.
"Good. We told you."
I can feel my face heat up, remembering exactly what they told me.
When did we go to sleep anyway? And for how long? It's still light outside, so it couldn't have been too long.
"Ugh. What time is it?" I hear Phoebe ask from behind me, showing a similar train of thought.
Coeus tilts his head to look past us.
"Not too late, though I think we missed lunch. Heading down to raid the fridge sounds like a good idea. Who is with me?"
"You have my wand," Phoebe says tiredly.
"Iris?" he asks when I don't reply.
"Is...is that ok?"
Can you just...get food?
He stares at me for a moment, something flashing in his eyes.
"I...yes Iris. It is very much ok, most of the time. You are not supposed to do it if a meal is going to be served soon, and there are some limits on snacks and such, but in general, if you are hungry, you can either tell someone or just grab something small whenever."
He shakes his head, before locking gazes with me.
"Please tell us if you are hungry. Don't try to hide it, ok?"
I can't match his eyes. Looking down, I reply "I'll...I'll try?"
Something tightens around me for a moment, I think he squeezed me.
"That will work for now then I guess. Come on, let's go find food."
We proceed to untangle ourselves. Or try to.
"If you could just lift up a little..."
"I told you, I can't, you are on my hair!"
"I'm sorry!"
It is not going well.
"Alright, look, if I slide over this way then you can li-"
*thump*
"Ow! Phoebe!"
She giggles, as the two of us remaining on the bed finally manage to separate ourselves.
We peer over the edge at Coeus sitting on the floor.
He stares up at Phoebe in betrayal.
"You kicked me!" he complains.
"It was the most expedient method," she replies.
"You kicked me off the bed..." he repeats under his breath.
We eventually leave the room, after Coeus gets an apology hug from Phoebe, and head downstairs, finding everyone else in the dining room, reading books. Or doing homework maybe in Dora's case? She has a lot of papers around her as well.
She is the first to look up.
"Oy, munchkins! We saved you some food, it's in the fridge," she tells us.
Coeus nods and gestures for me to follow him. I try to ignore the gazes on me as I do.
Moments later we are all sitting at the table, plates in front of us, with the older ones looking at us. Me, really.
The twins start eating, but I fidget.
Dora steals a bit off my plate.
"It's good," she tells me. "Eat."
I look at her, but she has gone back to her homework. The other two are reading their books as well.
I eat.
Once we are all finished, everyone closes their books and focuses their attention on us.
They were just pretending, weren't they? For me? I mean, I suspected, but seeing it proven like that...
...
A mix of gratefulness and embarrassment wells up in me, and I can't look at anyone.
Why do I have to be such a freak...
"So, Iris, your checkup," Ted speaks up.
I can't help it, I freeze. We aren't doing it again, are we? I don't want to do it again.
"I looked over everything and confirmed it..." he sighs. "It really is beyond my ability to deal with."
To deal with? Is he...is he going to send me away? I...I don't want to go away! I'll be good, I, I promise!
"We will have to go to St Mungo's, to the Hospital."
Oh. Oh...
"We know you don't want...attention, so we will arrange a private session. You should only have to see one healer, not be paraded in front of a litany of doctors and staff."
Shifting in my seat I consider it.
I...I still don't like it. At all. But...I did just promise to be good...
I glance around the table before looking back down. Everyone is looking at me...
The twins grab my hands.
Thanks guys...
"It's...important?" I ask.
Ted shifts but doesn't reply for a moment.
"Yes, yes it is," he finally says.
Oh, he was probably nodding and I couldn't see it.
"Some of the things affecting you could have serious consequences that I don't know how to treat. So this is very important."
I nod.
"On top of that, we are still working on getting legal custody of you. This will help with that as well."
That gets my attention. I look up at him.
He looks uncomfortable.
He starts to speak, but hesitates, and shakes his head.
"If you insist on knowing why I will tell you, but I think you are better off not knowing the exact details. You will most likely feel worse if I do."
...
I...I trust Ted, I think. And, honestly, I want to stop talking about this.
"Ok."
He seems relieved as well. "Good, good. That's it for the heavy topics then." He looks at Andy, who smiles and nods.
"The visit should be soon, but we don't know when yet. You should have the rest of the day to yourselves. Maybe look at your room, consider if you want to decorate it?"
We can go then?
I look at Coeus.
He smiles and pulls me out of my seat.
