(Coeus Black - PoV)
"Hey Iris, look! It's Grandfather!"
"What? Where?!" she asks, looking around the Astronomy tower top.
"Here," I reply, gesturing to my telescope.
"Huh?"
Phoebe lightly pushes her over to it. We wait until she looks to explain.
"Arcturus is a star. The Blacks have a tradition of naming the boys after constellations. The Bastard is over here..."
Once she lifts her head I readjust the telescope slightly, allowing her to examine Sirius's namesake.
Phoebe shakes her head.
"Don't be like that, Brother. Sirius is a perfectly respectable star. You shouldn't blame it for his failings."
"...That's fair, I guess," I concede the point.
"Draco's up there too."
"Draco? But I thought he is...err...a Malfoy?" Iris asks, tilting her head before muttering something to herself about families.
"He is, but his mom, Narcissa, is a Black. She is Sirius's cousin. A lot of the old pureblood families are at least somewhat related."
Glancing up, I smirk before calling out, "Hey, Draco! Your tail is looking dim tonight!"
"...What?!"
Iris is looking at me questioningly.
"Draco is a whole constellation, not just a single star," I explain.
Professor Sinestra slowly wrangles the rest of the class back on task while Phoebe and I teach Iris a few of the major constellations.
"What about you?" Iris asks.
"Hmm?"
"You are a Black. Do you have a star?" she asks, waving at the sky.
"Ah, no..." I admit. "It's a little complicated, with the family and the situation and everything, but really, it's the Bastard's fault."
Like everything else.
"But whatever," I shrug. "We are named after a pair of Titans, the ancestors to the Greek gods. Coeus was a god of the mind, or intelligence, while Phoebe was a goddess of prophecy."
Iris nods, and Phoebe speaks up.
"Mother had some sight, but clearly needed practice. Only one out of two..." She shakes her head sadly as she trails off.
...
"Hey!" I object to her insinuation.
Giggling, Phoebe waves a hand.
"Fine, fine. Coeus was also associated with heavens and prophecy as well to a lesser extent. So, maybe?"
She shrugs.
Frowning, I look up at the sky.
"And Phoebe means bright, or radiant, right? We really should have stars..."
...
"Uh..." Iris starts.
"Be careful, Brother."
"Yeah. Not something I can manage right now, for certain."
Phoebe shakes her head.
"Even later..."
I look over at her.
"Do I break the world again?"
"Of course. And all sorts of other things, but that's expected if you want to make a star. But you might...maybe...take out multiple worlds?"
...
"No."
"But Phoebe...!"
With how late Astronomy class is, we get to "sleep in" the morning after.
"Butter," Iris demands with a half glare before pulling the, "requested," dish from Death Cart.
I have no idea if they take the weird schedule into account when serving breakfast, so we decide to just eat in our room instead.
Mmmm.
*Munch Munch Munch*
It's nice.
No annoying complaints. No bloody owls fighting for my bacon.
"What next?" Iris asks as we finish up. "We still have a fair bit until...err, lunch?"
She scrunches up her face.
I shrug.
"I dunno. M-"
"Shower," Phoebe interrupts.
I roll my eyes.
"Right. Shower first, of course. Then whatever."
"So. What are we going to do next?" I ask Phoebe while she washes my hair.
"You don't have any ideas?" she asks leadingly.
Snorting, I shrug my shoulders.
"I mean, we could do the usual. Practice our spellwork, hit the books, and such, but..."
I grimace.
"It's not going to be enough, is it?"
She doesn't answer, her fingers continuing to move silently.
"Our current spells, whatever is in our books, it won't really make much of a difference. Not quickly. Not for whatever is going on. We need something...something..."
I blink.
"Dumbledore!"
Her fingers stop.
"What?"
"It's the perfect time to go yell at Beardy and make him give me permission so I can learn Fiendfyre!"
"I..."
"And that is exactly what we need!" I declare with a decisive nod. "Proper firepower."
...
"Ow!"
I yelp as Phoebe stops scrubbing and instead smacks me upside the head.
"Idiot," she mutters. "I showed you what happened with the desk. That was...It usually acts through "opportunities" like that. What do you think is going to happen to Iris if you start trying to cast Fiendfyre around her?"
"...She punches the fire in the face and throws it out a window?" I try joking as my heart sinks.
Damn.
She's right. I hadn't considered that.
Well, there are ways around it, right?
"She doesn't have to be there?" I suggest. "While I am learning. No accidents if she is not there, right?"
Never mind...Never mind what I think about regularly sending her off by herself.
...
"Not from Fiendfyre, no," Phoebe agrees. "Hopefully, at least. But sending her away..."
"I know," I admit, slumping down. "And even if you don't see anything, the idea of her being alone while this is going on sounds like a bad idea..."
We both grimace.
...
"We need the spell though. We need something that might actually matter," I insist.
...
"We- We should probably ask Iris, shouldn't we?"
Phoebe pauses for a moment.
"Yes," she agrees. "Yes, we should."
Nodding, I stand up and make my way over to Iris's stall.
No idea why I didn't think to grab her earlier, we obviously need to involve her in this conversation. Not to mention Phoebe's mood already seems to be improving.
Brushing aside the curtain, I step halfway in.
"Hey, Iris," I start, only for her to jump reflexively before spinning around and pressing her back to the wall.
"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."
I should have knoc-..err..announced myself? Or I could have knocked on the side of the wall I guess. Eh, not important.
"Anyhow, Phoebe and I w-Oof!"
Phoebe shoves me from behind, pushing me fully into the stall and causing me to slam into Iris.
*Eep*
"Bloody..." I mutter, pushing myself off of her.
"Sorry," I say, meeting her wide eyes and patting her on the head. "Phoebe..."
Shaking my head, I turn around.
"What the hell, Phoebe?!" I demand.
Lounging in the...curtainway(?) she raises an eyebrow.
"You were blocking the entrance," she replies as if it is the most obvious and reasonable thing in the world.
"Ugh," shaking my head again, I turn to Iris.
"As I was s-"
"You aren't done yet, are you?" Phoebe interrupts, stepping closer to Iris.
Damnit Phoebe!
Iris stares back, her eyes wide, clutching at herself without replying.
Crap, I didn't hurt her when we slammed against the wall did I? I didn't think a little bump like that could do anything, but-
"Here, I'll wash your hair while we talk. Brother has an idea that...could be useful. Maybe. But there are...drawbacks," Phoebe explains.
Reaching out, she slowly grasps Iris's shoulders.
"Back over this way, then. Come on," she cajoles, pulling her away from the wall.
"Right here should be good," she says once Iris is back in the middle. "Now, here, hold this," she says, grabbing a bottle and handing it to her. "Oh, and this one too."
I open my mouth to start to explain but Phoebe cuts me off with a look.
Damnit, Phoebe. Are you playing games again?
You could just tell me, you know. It's not like I ever- I mean, I love you very much, so I usually go along with what you want anyway.
"There we go! Now, let's get a good look at you!" Phoebe chirps.
Freezing in place, Iris's eyes manage to, if anything, go even wider.
It finally clicks.
She was clutching at herself. Phoebe used the bottles to trick her into opening up.
Ugh.
It's the scars again, isn't it?
She has gotten better about it, doesn't put as much effort into hiding them, but here in the shower you can see them all.
Looking her in the eyes, I approach slowly.
"Iris," I tell her. "You are awesome."
The freeze becomes hesitation.
She *Eeps* when I pull her in for a hug and I chuckle.
"Iris...Iris Iris Iris," I mutter, my head over her shoulder before pulling back to look her in the eye. Or try to, at least. She won't meet my gaze, looking embarrassed.
"You, are ridiculous sometimes," I lightly semi-admonish her.
She blinks before half looking up at me.
"You are stupidly powerful. Amazingly talented. You can do things with magic that shouldn't be possible. You punched an untouchable ghost. The world itself is out to get you and it can't because you are too awesome."
Her breath catches when I look down.
"And yet you let this," I run my finger over a scar on her chest, "get to you."
"It's- I'm sure it's not easy, to just let it go, or whatever, but Iris," I manage to catch her eyes this time.
"Like we keep telling you, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You. Are. Awesome."
She stares back before jumping when Phoebe hugs her from behind.
"All true, Iris!" she sings. "Though Brother is forgetting something, of course."
What? I am?
Giggling, she grabs a bottle from Iris's hand, squeezes some out, and then all but shoves the bottle back into her hand before continuing.
"Don't you remember when we first met Iris?" she asks as she begins running her hands through Iris's hair, leaving her with a complicated expression. "There is something else you need to tell her."
When we fir-Oh!
"Iris," I draw her attention away from the hair washing.
I don't think she even heard Phoebe talking, did she?
"You are very pretty."
She locks up again for a moment before starting to close in on herself.
"Nope!" Phoebe stops washing to grab her arms.
"Brother's right, Iris. You are very pretty."
Looking her over, I nod.
"Yup. You are strong, amazing, pretty. No reason to hide, right?"
Hesitating, she opens her mouth, then closes it before shaking her head and sighing.
"Good girl," Phoebe praises. "Now relax, will you? You know this is better than doing it yourself, don't pretend otherwise!"
Iris frowns but doesn't say anything when Phoebe resumes.
...
"So, can I explain now?" I ask.
"Duh."
I roll my eyes.
"So..." I explain the situation to Iris.
She remains quiet during, of course, but her continued lack of response after...
"We do not want to leave you out of anything," I assure her, "Or abandon you or-"
"I know," Iris finally responds, cutting me off. "I-I know. You two are making that..." I don't know what to make of the expression on her face, "very clear."
She hesitates.
"T-Thank you."
...
"I think."
Phoebe giggles and Iris blushes.
"A-Anyhow. I...I dunno. We can't just, ignore it and hope it goes away. I'm not sure if Fiendfyre is what we need but you are right, it's something. More likely to be useful than a slightly better Reparo, at least."
I nod while she takes a deep breath.
"Phoebe...You are sure nothing bad will happen as long as I am not there? That is supposed to be a really dangerous spell, isn't it?" she asks.
Phoebe closes her eyes.
"Hmm mmmmmm?" her mildly content hum quickly becomes curious.
...
"Err, Phoebe?" Iris asks when Phoebe doesn't respond for a time.
"Nn," she replies, beginning to work her fingers once more as she opens her eyes. "That's...interesting..."
"Interesting?" I prompt.
Blinking, she finally focuses on us.
"Quirrel. Professor Quirrel. I can't see him."
...
"What."
It is not unheard of for powerful wizards to have at least some protection from her sight, but she can't see him at all? So far Dumbledore is the only one we have found that she can't get any grip on, and she has the opposite problem with him if I understand her right.
She shakes her head.
"I have encountered it once before, remember?"
Bef-The unicorns!
...
The...unicorns?
"Wait, the Professor is the one killing the unicorns?" Iris asks.
Phoebe shrugs.
"Almost certainly. It makes sense, maybe? He mentioned a curse on the turban, right? And unicorn blood..."
"Could be keeping him alive," I finish with a grimace.
"...Oh."
Damn.
...
"What...What do we do?" Iris asks.
"Dunno. You still ok with the Fiendfyre plan?"
"The...You still want to do it?"
"I mean, this doesn't really change anything, does it? He will kill to save himself. No surprise there."
"Yeah, but..." hesitating, Iris bites her lip before continuing "When we were at Hagrid's, the way you reacted to that unicorn..."
Looking away I shrug.
"Watcher. I like Watcher, but I'd kill him myself to keep you safe."
...
"Which is more or less what we are doing. Even ignoring Quirrel, if a few unicorns have to die so that we can make you safer?"
"Coeus..."
I wave a hand.
"Forget about the unicorn thing, it isn't important. Phoebe? Did you actually see anything?"
She shrugs.
"Trying to look into events around Quirrel is annoying, so many are blocked or obviously not working right, but...yes? It looks like there is no danger in learning the spell."
She hesitates.
"I really hate to rely on it, with how messed up everything is, but that part at least seems...consistent. As long as Iris is not involved," she tacks on, glancing down at Iris apologetically. "That said, Brother, you do realize that Fiendfyre is..."
Shaking her head, she lets out a small laugh.
"Dumbledore's expression, if we ask...I am not sure any First Year has ever successfully cast it. There is no guarantee you will actually get it down this year."
I wave a hand idly.
"Not a problem. I got this."
She stares at me, bemused.
"Of course."
"Right. So, Iris. Are you up for it?" I ask.
Reaching out, I grab her hand.
"It wouldn't be often, I am sure. Maybe once a week? And Phoebe would check everything out beforehand. And-"
"It's fine," she interrupts. "I can hang out with Daphne for a little bit. Or hit the library, see if I can find something useful myself."
I nod.
Both good ideas.
"And I'm pretty sure my hair is clean now, Phoebe."
"Mmm. Yes, I think you are right. I suppose I should wash your back now?"
'Wh-What?! No!"
"Front? Oh, Brother can get that, can't he?"
"Phoebe!"
