Chapter 6 - Squib
Iris groaned softly. Her whole body felt tingly. What was going on? Where was she? How did she get-
Oh. That's right. She had buggered up the flame freezing charm, and burnt herself at the stake like an idiot. That had hurt like hell. Her whole body had been telling her that in front of her was fire, it was hot, fire was bad, and she should stay as far away as possible. Yet, she had overridden her instincts and stepped into the flames, just because everyone else had done it.
What had she been thinking? So far, every single charm she had tried had failed on her. Yet, there had been that niggling, hopeful voice in the back of her head, telling her that it would work this time. That she really was a witch. She had wanted nothing more than to prove the world wrong and show everyone she could do magic. And if the flame freezing charm was really so simple that everyone had managed it on their first try, this would have been the perfect opportunity.
Yet when she had swished her wand, nothing had happened. She had assumed that this was how it was supposed to work, as she hadn't seen anything happen with the others either, and had taken a leap of faith. And look how that had turned out.
"Mr. Potter I can't tell you any more what happened than your professor, but I do have a theory," she heard a low voice from behind the curtains around her bed.
"You see, when You-Know-Who attacked your family ten years ago, when he left you with that scar, there was an eruption of polarized magic of sorts. I don't know the details, but your sister got caught up in it somehow. She was in even worse shape than she is now, and her magic took significant damage." the woman said.
"What do you mean? What does that have to do with what happened to her today?" Harry's desperate voice came.
"Well, the thing is... And I'm not saying this is what happened, and you would do well not to mention this to her, but at the time, looking at her injuries, there was a high chance that she had taken permanent damage to her magic, perhaps even to the point of becoming a Squib."
There was a long pause. Then Harry asked meekly, "What's a Squib?"
"A Squib is a person born to magical parents that cannot do magic," the woman said sadly.
Harry gasped.
"Y-you mean she can't do magic?"
Iris felt tears well up in her eyes against her will.
"It's a possibility we cannot discount, given what happened," the voice said softly.
"B-but that can't be right! Iris is a witch! I know it! You're wrong! There must be some way to fix this!" Harry shouted desperately.
"I'm really sorry Mr. Potter, but if that is indeed the case, there is nothing we can do about it."
"No... NO! Iris has to be a witch! She's been doing magic the entire time at home!" Harry proclaimed, sounding more determined.
"...And you are sure that the magic she was performing has not been your doing?" the woman asked softly.
There was more silence.
Then a third voice spoke up. It was the Defense professor.
"I have to corroborate Mr. Potter here. While she apparently has failed in performing the flame freezing charm, I did observe her doing magic in the corridors earlier today. Perhaps this would require further... investigation."
Iris thought back to that time he had caught her in that circular room. She had been using her light at the time, hadn't she? So, if her light did count, then yes, she was magic after all. She firmed her expression and managed to choke down the sobs before they had even begun.
That's right. No more Cryris. She had sworn to herself to be rid of that stupid nickname now that she was finally away from Dudley.
"Well, regardless, we have to be vigilant. We will have to observe how she does in her other classes before we can draw any more conclusions here," the woman said.
Iris tried to shift onto her side and gasped as she felt a sharp stinging sensation on her skin.
There was shuffling outside, and then the curtains burst open. It was Harry.
"Iris! Are you okay? Are you hurt? I was so worried, what happened?" Harry rambled beside himself, moving to the bed to clutch her hand.
Iris groaned and opened her mouth. Her voice came in a raspy tone.
"I'm okay, hurts like hell though."
She shifted into a sitting position, hissed as her arms pressed against the bed, and then said.
"Somehow I don't think that's how the flame freezing charm is supposed to work."
Harry chuckled weakly, worry etched onto his face.
"Indeed, Ms. Potter," came the low voice of their Defense professor, "I'll have to ask you to refrain from attempting that spell again, at least in the presence of fire."
"Don't worry Professor, I don't plan on getting myself grilled again any time soon. I'll leave that up to the exams."
There was a slight smirk on the professor's face, then he said, "I'll be seeing you in class then," and he turned on the spot and stalked out of the room.
~V~
Iris had been released from the hospital wing just in time for dinner, her skin completely healed. Magical medicine really was amazing, she supposed. She had forced herself to eat something, she was still hungry, even if she didn't feel like eating. Also, the matron had made her promise.
Throughout dinner, in the halls, on the way to the dungeons, even in her common room, there had been whispers. She hadn't understood what they were saying most of the time, but they made her feel... awkward. It seemed like the whole school was talking about her behind her back. People would spot her, then move out of the way, as if worried she might spontaneously combust or something. Some of them would giggle, some gave her pitying looks, some would just stare. But worst of all was that one word that kept following her around.
Squib.
Apparently, nobody had ever failed to perform the flame freezing charm in their traditional first Defense class. And apparently, that was a really big deal. It didn't help that her own thoughts had been swirling with doubts even before. When she had failed to perform the charms from their textbook at the Dursleys', she had assumed there was some trick to it that a proper teacher would probably explain better than a book. When she had failed to change her matchstick in any way, she had consoled herself by the fact that half the class hadn't managed anything either. However, this was like a slap in her face. Everyone had managed this charm, on the first try, since forever ago, no matter how sloppily they cast it. And here she was, having tried her very best, and gotten herself burnt alive for her trouble.
It just wasn't fair.
The worst part about all this however, was Draco. He hadn't said anything, but he hadn't needed to. The look he had given her was enough. It was a mixture of pity and dislike, as if she didn't belong. She didn't know how much she was imagining it, but she hated being looked at like that. Especially by her friends.
She knew it was illogical. She knew she shouldn't have to prove anything to anyone, but she wanted to do something anyway. If only to prove it to herself. She wanted Draco to look at her again like he had on the train.
Iris was tempted to just whip out her magical light in front of his nose, but while it was a neat trick, it didn't do much, and as soon as they realized that was all she could do, she would be right back where she started. If not worse. No. She had to do something amazing. She would show them all that she was a real witch.
But what could she do? Usually, she got her ideas when she needed to do something specific, not just to do something flashy for the sake of it. She looked around the Slytherin common room, waiting for inspiration to strike.
And waited. On the couches to her right, she heard a groan.
"What's with the bloody cold, it's the start of September for Merlin's sake," complained Vince.
Draco shrugged and said, "Well, this is Scotland..."
Iris was dubious. The rest of the castle hadn't seemed as cold as the common room. It also hadn't been that cold yesterday. What was... Oh, right.
"Draco, you know the Fire charm?" asked Greg, looking at the cold and unlit fireplace.
She still found it strange that a fireplace could manage to heat this corner of the common room, even if the whole thing was like a giant open labyrinth, but yesterday it seemed to have worked.
"Elemental spells are third year, Greg," said Draco with a raised eyebrow.
Greg looked around, but only saw a group of first years gathered in the room. Iris blinked. This was it! She had even done that before.
She jumped up from her seat, started running towards her dorm, and yelled, "I got it! Just hang on a second."
Iris returned a minute later, clutching several things in her hands. Draco, Vince and Greg were sitting in front of the fireplace, looking at her dubiously. Draco still had that look on his face, which she really wanted to wipe off it. She knelt down in front of the fireplace. Then she started to pick up wood from the stack next to it and place it in a neat pile inside it.
"What are you doing?" came the confused query from Draco.
She took some of the parchment she had brought, crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it into the center of the pile. Vince gave a snort.
"Are you doing fire the Muggle way?" he said incredulously.
Iris blushed slightly, but continued to crumple and stuff more parchment into the pile. Then she brought out McGonagall's box of matchsticks. She heard someone chuckle behind her. The whole room was watching her now, and she was pretty sure she heard the word Squib uttered somewhere. She knelt down and placed the whole box unopened in front of the grate. Draco's eyebrows raised at that.
Then, she produced a muggle lighter. She placed it next to the box of matchsticks. Finally, she took a handheld magnifying glass, which she set on the other side of the matchsticks, causing the items to form a sort of half circle around the grate.
Nobody was talking now. At this point, everyone was just curious. Slowly, Iris got back to her feet, and looked back at Draco. She gazed at him intently. Then she flicked her hair out of her face, as she raised her hand, fingers poised. A small smirk grew on her lips.
At last, she uttered a single word, "Fire."
Iris snapped her fingers, a few sparks flying from them, but that paled in comparison to what came after.
A massive column of flame erupted from the fireplace with a roar, engulfing the pile of wood and extending all the way to and beyond the grate. The unnatural fire seemed to be very intent on its size, burning things that weren't there, and causing most of the assorted first-years to yell in shock or scream in fear. Everyone started sweating as the fire kept blazing, its ominous orange glow filling the whole common room, Iris' outline barely visible in front of it. Her hair tossed around wildly by the surge of air the inferno was creating, and nothing could be heard but the sound of the roiling flames.
Then, Iris almost casually turned around to face the fire, moved a finger to her lips and made a long shushing sound.
The fire, like a reprimanded dog, receded to a much more manageable level.
Iris turned to look at the assorted Slytherins, who were looking at her with varying levels of shock and awe. In the corner of the room, she spotted Tracey, who had a big silly grin on her face. She looked down at Draco, cocked her head and simply said, "You're welcome."
The look Draco gave her had changed completely. It was no longer one of pity or disdain, but it also wasn't one of awe or even fear, like the rest of the students. No, he was looking at her in suspicion. She turned back to the fireplace, gathered up her things, and started walking across the room towards her dorm.
Tracey intercepted her by the stairs. "Wow, what was that? That was so cool! And wandless, even. Let's see them claim you're a squib after that!"
Iris blushed a bit. Had she overdone it? Oh, well. Tracey was right. At least that should stop the whole Squib thing here in Slytherin. Iris just smiled and joined Tracey on the walk towards their dorms. The excited girl continued her questioning as they kept climbing the maze of stairs.
"How are you by the way? You're out of the hospital wing already? Also, do you know what happened there in class? Are they gonna sack the Defense professor already?"
"Whoa, Tracey, breathe, one question after another," Iris said with a smile.
"Also, why would you want him sacked, he's great!" she added indignantly.
"Well yeah, he is. But I heard there's this curse on the Defense position. Every single professor has been either made to leave, or suffered some sort of tragic accident. Nobody has lasted longer than a single year."
Iris blinked. That sounded stupid. Who would curse a teaching position of all things?
"Anyway, I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey fixed me up in like an hour," Iris said with a smile.
"Ah, that's good. So, what did happen in class then? Did the professor do something? Or one of the students?"
"I don't know... I just tried to cast the spell, I'm pretty sure I did it just like he described, and it did nothing. I thought that was fine, as none of the others seemed to do anything either, but..." she trailed off.
Tracey went quiet at that. They turned down into the long corridor that headed towards their dorms. After a few seconds she spoke up again.
"But then what went wrong? I mean, you're obviously not a squib, and there is no way you could have botched the charm, at least that's what the professor said..."
Iris suddenly stopped walking. Tracey stumbled, then turned around to face her, "Wha-?"
Iris frowned, then took out her wand and stared at it.
"Maybe it's... this?" she mumbled to herself.
Tracey peered at her wand and then gasped.
"What kind of wand is that? I've never seen anything like it!"
The girl gazed in awe at the dark obsidian wand, and the iridescent crystal at the top refracting the torches on the wall.
"It's the only one that worked for me... I tried pretty much every wand in Ollivanders shop, and this was the only one that did... well anything. Actually, it only really did anything when I put my light through it..."
"What light?" Tracey asked curiously.
Absently minded, Iris raised her other hand towards Tracey, and called her orb of iridescent light into it.
There was a gasp. "Wow! It's so pretty! How are ya doin' that?" Tracey gushed, fingers reaching out as if to touch it.
Rays of color were dancing through her fingers, licking across her skin, and reflecting off her astonished face.
Iris smiled back sadly. "That's pretty much the only magic that I can do just like that."
Tracey's eyes widened. "But... the fire?" she asked in confusion, as she looked back down the corridor, or rather up, at the ceiling where they could still make out the common room area lit up by an orange glow.
"That's... different. I need some things to make that happen, and it takes some setting up. That light is pretty much the only thing I can do just by... wanting it, I guess? And the only time I managed to make my wand do anything is when I put the light through it..." she trailed off.
Then, she let go of her light, gripped her wand again, and pushed the light into it. The corridor was lit up, the torches started blazing, the floor started sparkling, it felt like the air was singing. Tracey sucked in a breath.
"But anytime I try to cast anything like this, only random stuff happens. And if I try to cast without the light, nothing happens at all. I thought maybe there was some other trick to it, and using my light like that was wrong, because everyone else seemed to do it differently, but if it didn't even work for the flame freezing charm..." Iris sighed, and put her light back out, leaving the corridor cold and dark.
Tracey watched, speechless, as Iris trudged her way back into her dorm room. Lily was already there, sitting at the desk and writing something under the light of a portable lantern. She looked up at Iris, gave a meek "Hello," and blushed. Iris had a sudden urge to write to Sabrina, but then she remembered she had left her diary in the hidey hole in her cupboard at privet drive, so Dudley wouldn't find it. She had hidden it so well, that even she had forgotten about it when it came time to pack. Iris groaned and slapped her face. Lily shot her an odd look, and returned to her homework. Iris sighed, pulled out the chair at her desk and got started on her Transfiguration homework.
Half an hour later, they were interrupted by muffled shouts. They seemed to be coming from the walls. Which was odd, since they had not heard anything through the stone walls so far. Iris got up and looked around, curiously. She jumped at the sound of a slammed door, involuntarily reminding her of the Dursleys. Iris waited for a few seconds, to see if it was over, until suddenly, there was a knock at their door. She was just about to answer, when the door burst open regardless. In the doorway stood a girl with long straight black hair. She was the girl who had answered a lot of questions in Defense. Then, Iris felt a pang of jealousy as she realized that she also was the same girl who had managed the best result in their Transfiguration class. What had her name been again?
Her cold blue gaze swept the room and landed on her roommate.
"Moon?" she said brusquely, "I wish to trade rooms with you. Would you be agreeable to a switch?"
"Huh? W-Why?" Lily responded, sounding scared.
"I find myself no longer able to get along with my roommate. I was hoping you either felt similar or were at least amenable to my situation," she said with a look over at Iris.
Her roommate? Hang on, the defense teacher had called her Ms. Greengrass, where had she seen that name? That's right! She was Tracey's roommate. And she wanted to switch... But that would make this girl her roommate... What if she-?
"Would you like to trade with me instead?" Iris asked eagerly.
The girl's gaze fell onto Iris for a moment, then her eyes widened in realization. "Right, she did say you were friends... Well, that makes this simple. We can trade rooms instead," she said in a deliberate but yet slightly warbling voice.
Iris beamed. "Yes, let's do that!"
The girl nodded. "Gather your things, I'll let the prefects know."
And with that, she turned on her heel and swooped out of the room as suddenly as she had come.
Lily blinked, then softly said "W-What just happened?" with a slightly hurt tone in her voice.
Iris looked over at Lily's crestfallen expression and felt a slight pang of guilt. She hadn't thought they were getting along all that well, apparently the girl had thought differently?
Oh well, there was nothing to be done about it now. Her mind was made up. She'd get to be roommates with Tracey after all.
Iris swooped through the room excitedly, packing up everything and anything of hers into her trunk, and started to drag it out of the door. In the hallway she was met by the Greengrass girl, who just nodded at her, and started to move her own trunk into the room Iris had just left. Full of excitement, Iris pulled her trunk across the hallway and ended up in front of the next door. Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis. That's right, her name had been Daphne. With a smile on her face, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The room was pitch black. Almost automatically, she raised her hand and summoned her light. Her smile froze at the sight that met her. Tracey was huddled in the corner of her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, and as she lifted her head to look at Iris, she could see that she had been crying.
"Iris? W-wha you doin' here?" she mumbled in a raspy voice.
"Your roommate... er.. Daphne asked if we can trade rooms..." she trailed off at that.
Tracey's head dropped back onto her knees and she let out a sob.
"I- sorry. I mean... I'll just go." Iris muttered, unsure what she had done wrong.
"N-No... It's not..." Tracey forced out, but as Iris put her hand back on the door handle, Tracey whispered, "Please don't."
Iris stared at the girl, unsure what to do.
Tracey sniffed, and looked back up at her with desperate, bloodshot eyes. "Please... I- I just need a minute..."
Iris stood there awkwardly, as Tracey kept quietly sobbing. Iris swallowed, then slowly walked over and sat down next to Tracey, without saying anything. The girl looked up again, and just wordlessly gazed into the colors wrapping themselves around Iris' hand for a minute.
"It really is beautiful," she whispered.
Iris had a realization. "Was she the one you were talking about on the train?" she asked carefully.
"Y-yeah..." Tracey sniffed, as she tried to find the words. "I- I thought we could..." she broke off into sobs again.
"She's... it's like... she's a completely different person now..." Tracey whispered. "But then she says something that reminds me so much of my friend... I don't know what's going on! I don't know how to help her, or if she even needs help, and it's just-"
Tracey hugged her knees tighter as she cried. "And I'm telling you all this, and you don't even know her, and..." she trailed off, "I'm beginning to think that I-I don't even know her either..."
Iris looked at the mess of a girl awkwardly, trying her best to not make the situation worse. What could she say to that?
"Have you known her long?" she asked carefully.
"Since forever! Our parents were friends, and we'd used to come around her place all the time. But some time two years ago we just... stopped... I asked mum about it but she never explained why. And then I thought I could finally see her again, after all this time, but- but she..."
Tracey broke off, unable to finish the sentence. Her eyes were staring blankly into the ball of light floating in front of Iris.
"What would you do if your brother just became a completely different person and you didn't know why?"
Iris swallowed. She had no idea how to answer that. "I... I guess he'd still be my brother..."
"Exactly. But it seems like she doesn't see it like that."
Tracey sniffed again, "I- Sorry for bothering you with all this... I mean we've barely known each other for two days..."
"It's alright. That's what friends are for, right?" Iris said, somewhat unsure herself.
Tracey looked away from her light over to her, and smiled weakly. "Yeah, I guess."
Iris moved over to her trunk, opened Salem's cage, took out the black cat and walked back over to Tracey. Salem hopped on the bed, and took a careful step towards Tracey, and then paused to sniff as the girl held out a shaky hand to her. Salem tilted her head, as if to deliberate, then nestled against her hand and started purring.
"You're too cute Salem," Tracey whispered hoarsely.
Iris smiled. Cats truly were the solution to all problems.
There was a loud thunk. Her trunk busted open and out came her physics book, which started angrily soaring around the room. Salem meowed and tried to catch it with her paws. When the book didn't get close enough, she jumped up to catch it out of the air, misjudged, and tumbled off the bed.
Iris turned back towards Tracey with a sheepish expression on her face. However, the girl was smiling. She wiped away her tears with her sleeve and said "Thanks, Iris. You're a good friend."
Yes, she had friends now, didn't she. She hadn't been too sure about Draco, mostly hopeful, but Tracey had actually said it. She felt a very nice feeling in her chest, that she only ever had felt from Harry.
"Wanna... go over our Transfiguration homework together?" Iris asked hesitantly, wanting to take her mind off things. It seemed Tracey had similar thoughts.
"Sure. I'd like that," she said and nodded.
Iris turned to unpacking her trunk, and soon had her half-finished Transfiguration assignment ready, and moved to sit down at their table. She focused for a second, causing her light to float to a spot over the table and turn to a single color.
"Whoa... You can make it other colors?" Tracey exclaimed.
"Uh... yeah. It just takes some concentration to keep it like that." Iris responded, sounding annoyed.
Iris continued writing, then paused. Tracey was sitting across from her, staring at her in thought.
"You said earlier that weird stuff happened when you pushed your light into your wand..." she began.
Iris quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah, so?"
"What happens if it is like... this?"
Iris stared back at her dumbfounded. That... it couldn't be that simple, could it?
She jumped up, her chair clattering to the floor, and she went back to the trunk, fumbling for her useless wand.
Iris reemerged from her trunk, gripping her wand victoriously. Tracey, eager to help, had produced her Standard Book of Spells. Iris checked over the page of the spell she had been trying at home again. Then she drew the currently blue light back into her hand and forced it into her wand. The crystal at its tip lit up, bathing the room in blue light, causing the table and chairs to shiver.
With determination, she pointed her wand at her parchment of homework, swished and flicked and intoned carefully, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The piece of parchment shot up, almost crashed into the ceiling, yet it swerved in midair at the last second, and started shooting towards the window instead, and promptly smacked into it. Then it immediately barreled away from the window again, zooming across the room, almost hitting Tracey in the head, causing her to dive out of the way with a yelp. Iris' face was a mix of excitement and apprehension. Finally, she pulled back her light, causing the room to go dark. Quickly, she created another regular one and let it float above them again. The piece of parchment lay crumpled in the corner of the room. God damnit, now she would have to write it all over again.
"Well, I guess that didn't work," Tracey said sadly, flipping through the book.
Iris frowned in confusion. "What do you mean? That was it, wasn't it? Everything I tried has just resulted in random things, that's the first time I've made it float. Well kind of float, more like fly, but close enough?"
"Uh... I guess? But from what it says here, it's supposed to make things float, like in a slow and controlled motion... Can you make it stay still?"
Iris narrowed her eyes and thought about it. Maybe she had put too much power into it? Nobody else's spells seemed to make such a light show after all. She retrieved her crumpled up piece of parchment, put it back on the desk, and repeated the process, this time only producing a small blue light. The result was much of the same. The piece of parchment jerked around in midair, if not quite as aggressively as before, yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make it stay in one place, or even go in any particular direction, it would mostly just do its own thing. Sometimes she felt like she could at least nudge it in certain directions, but this was not at all like the book had described.
"Well, at least it's somewhat consistent now, so I guess that's progress..." she said with a sigh.
She picked up the piece of parchment again, unwrapped it with a sheepish expression and asked, "Do you think McGonagall is still gonna accept this?"
Tracey gave a small smile. "I'm sorry, Professor, my Transfiguration homework didn't agree with my Charms homework."
They both started to giggle at that. "Don't give Ron any ideas. I've already seen him plot how to get out of his homework... Well, I guess he actually managed it in Defense."
Tracey chuckled. "I'm surprised the two of you are still friends to be honest, what with you being in Slytherin and all."
Iris looked up; her face turned serious. "That's right! You wanted to explain about the whole house rivalry thing! I guess I kind of forgot about that with everything going on..."
"Right... Well, where to start... I guess it starts before the war even. Hang on... let me put on my storytelling voice," Tracey said, cleared her throat, took a deep breath, firmed her expression, and began her tale in a whimsical yet serious voice.
"Before You-Know-Who, there was another Dark Lord by the name Grindelwald. Even though they were both called Dark Lords, and are often mentioned in the same breath, the two were as different as they could be. You-Know-Who was the boogeyman. The monster that parents told their kids about to get them to behave, except he was actually real. He built an image mostly around fear and power, made all the worse by whatever he did to his name. For a long time, most people believed he didn't even have a name, but at some point, it became clear that he did in fact have a name, it was just that nobody could even say it."
Tracey paused to gather her thoughts, then continued. "Grindelwald, on the other hand, was a revolutionary. He rallied the common wizard and witch around the idea of equality in wizarding society, of a system of progress based on merit, where it wouldn't matter who your parents were or how pure your blood was, only what magic you could wield. He gathered a large support base on the continent and started to pressure the magical governments of France and Germany to accede to their demands. First, through politics, but later he turned to force. He overthrew the magical government of France, replaced the government in Germany, and continued his way throughout Europe under the cover of the second world war. What made him truly dangerous was that most citizens of the nations he conquered would readily follow his banner into further war. Since this was an uprising of the common people, it came mostly at the cost of purebloods, including most of the nobility. In large parts of the continent, they were either stripped of their power and property, or worse."
Iris was listening with rapt attention. Why hadn't any of this been in her history book?
"Out of the two, most people agree that You-Know-Who was the most powerful, however Grindelwald was far more dangerous. His ability to inspire the masses and his tactical genius took him a lot further in his conquests than You-Know-Who's power ever did. Although, I guess You-Know-Who would have become an international problem at some point, if your brother hadn't stopped him. Now when Dumbledore finally defeated Grindelwald, there wa-"
"Wait, Dumbledore? As in our Headmaster? I mean I read something about that, but I didn't make the connection. That barmy old man killed Grindelwald?" Iris interjected incredulously.
"Well, that was over sixty years ago. But yes. And no, he didn't kill him. Locked him up in his own castle, Nurmengard, his base of operations which doubled as a prison."
Iris goggled at that. Wasn't it kind of dangerous to lock someone like that up, especially in a place that he built himself?
Tracey took a breath and continued. "Anyway, that war never quite made it to Magical Britain, thanks to Dumbledore, at least until the end. But it did have an effect on it still. People here in Britain were looking at what was happening on the continent, mostly the purebloods, and were scared. What if the same thing would happen here? Would they also be stripped of their power and wealth, or worse? So, when You-Know-Who came along, claimed he was the most powerful dark wizard in history, and promised them a future where purebloods would reign supreme and muggle-borns were put in their place, he found a lot of people willing to follow his lead, again, mostly purebloods."
Iris had a bad feeling about where this was going.
"That's why it is called a war, even though with what you would read from our history books, and the way they acted, it sounds more like what muggles would call terrorist attacks. You-Know-Who had a lot of purebloods on his side, who also made up a sizeable portion of the government. So, while the newspapers tried to paint it as such, everyone knew it was in fact a full-blown civil war, even if it was really slow at times. They would go for months without any attacks, then terrorize the whole country for weeks on end. When he was finally defeated, a lot of them came out saying they had been put under the Imperius curse."
"What's that?" Iris asked.
"It's one of the Unforgivables. Allows the caster to take complete control over someone else's mind and body, and keep it even over a distance. The problem is that it is really hard to prove. So, when a lot of the people convicted for being Death-Eaters—that's how his followers called themselves—came forward and claimed they had been Imperiused, a lot of them got off scot-free. I'm sure there were a lot of people that were truly under the curse, but pretty much everyone knows that most of the purebloods that were accused of being Death-Eaters did it of their own free will."
Iris bit her lip and asked, "And those purebloods were..."
Tracey sighed, and finished, "Yeah. Most of them were families that were traditionally in Slytherin, and a lot of the kids in Slytherin now, are their children."
Iris swallowed. She almost didn't want to ask. "Like... Draco?"
Tracey looked at her sadly, but said nothing.
"B-But he's not like that!" Iris exclaimed indignantly. Although today's events had left a niggling feeling of doubt in her stomach.
Tracey just shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. At this point, you probably know him better than I do. I met him a handful of times, and we barely talked."
Iris worried her lip. Could Draco truly be one of those people? The people that had followed the Dark Lord that had tried to kill her brother? But then why would he try to make friends with Harry?
"Right, and that leads us to today. In the eyes of the law, justice has been served. But both sides were unsatisfied with the outcome, and many people were itching for an excuse to take out their frustrations on the other side. But at this point, after two wars, especially the last one, Magical Britain had been decimated. The magical population of the isles has been reduced to less than a third of what it was before the start of both wars. And while tensions were still high, nobody wanted to risk what little remained of our world just to see grudges and feuds settled that were started by their fathers and grandfathers."
Tracey turned to look Iris into the eyes with a serious expression. "That's when the Truce came to be. The leaders of both sides agreed it was better to let the status quo continue, rather than risk everything that was left. And as long as You-Know-Who was gone, that was finally a real possibility."
Iris perked up. "The Truce! Was that what Snape was talking about?"
Tracey nodded. "Yeah. I guess he saw no need to explain it as pretty much everyone in Slytherin would already know everything about it..."
Iris grumbled. "Well, except for me..."
"Yeah, well," Tracey shrugged.
"So, what's the Truce, exactly?" Iris asked.
"Both sides agree to not continue to act on anything that happened in, or is related to, the war. That includes attacking anyone on the other side for reasons of either what happened directly, or anything to do with their blood purity, whether physically, magically or even verbally. It includes using specific derogatory terms associated with blood status. Technically, Squib would also fall under that category, although it wasn't really the focus, and most people wouldn't consider it violating the spirit of the Truce..." Tracey said and frowned.
"As you might have noticed, the Truce is not quite as effective with school children, especially if they have grown up with their parents' opinions and biases. It seems like Snape at least does his best to enforce it, but I guess he can only do so much. Although I'm sure if the Truce wasn't a thing, it would be much worse."
Iris slowly nodded. That explained some of the tensions she had felt, yet which nobody seemed to act much upon, except Ron apparently.
"And what happens if you break the Truce?" Iris asked curiously.
"Well, best case, Snape catches you," said Tracey.
Iris goggled. "That's the best case? He'd probably skin you alive!"
"Yeah, well. I'm sure he's gonna be one harsh bastard. But it's still better than what would happen if you wouldn't get out of it by getting punished by a higher authority like Snape," Tracey said solemnly.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, with children, there is some leeway, as long as they get properly punished. But if it's either an adult, or they are getting away with it, then the true punishment hits. The Truce will no longer apply to you, in some extreme cases even to your family. This means the other side is free to act against said person without violating the Truce. Of course, it's still against the law, but that hasn't stopped anyone in the war either."
Iris swallowed. An angry Professor Snape suddenly didn't sound all that terrifying anymore.