Chapter 9

August 26th, 1994

No one really had any options but to stay through the rest of the night. No way of leaving until the morning portkeys. But not one person in that tent went back with ease. And a visible sort of relief washed over everyone when Tracey had asked if everyone wanted to camp out in the sitting room together.

All pillows and blankets that could be found were found and thrown together to create the best sleeping arrangement they could manage. Jane, Sally, Valeria, and Tracey huddled together on the floor, finding the best comfort to hopefully get some more sleep in the safety of being together.

Iris laid face up on the couch, no energy to quite keep herself upright, but her wand spun between her fingers. Eyes locked on the exit… no chance she would be sleeping that night. Her legs stretched the entire couch, resting partially on Theodore's lap at the other end. He rested his arms on her legs as he read his book.

Well, "read." He wasn't making much progress.

As the minutes dragged by, he read less and less, and eventually, his eyes shifted to where his mind already was, "You should really get some rest."

Iris' gaze briefly dropped to where the other girls were all already asleep, then they returned to the exit, "Wouldn't be able to anyways. You should take the chance to get some sleep, though."

Theodore's eyes moved just once to the exit but were back to Iris quickly, "Wouldn't be able." He paused…. Taking in the girl's tired eyes, her near expressionless features, the way she hadn't stopped spinning that wand, "What happened?"

The silence that hung in the air was… heavy. And not for any good reasons. It was the heavy that came with a mind racing at something that had happened. Iris' head replayed her night nonstop. Something… something definitely had happened. But Iris showed no signs of such, remaining perfectly stoic.

Theodore just tried to return to his reading after several long moments of silence.

"Am I really more beautiful than a Veela?"

Theodore cringed, no doubt wishing he would have left the night to pass by without conversation. But he recovered quickly as he met Iris' eyes, a slight tease to be found in her face, "Objectively, anyone would agree you are pretty."

Her grin was lopsided, "Just almost seemed like less than an objective statement and something else."

A pause… another one, this one less heavy… more playful. And Theodore Nott was not one that easily backed down from Iris, "Since you want to talk about it so bad… you were the one who couldn't even look at me afterward."

Iris blinked, the words throwing her for just the smallest of loops… or maybe not the words but the confidence. The way he just stared right back at her. She eventually just settled for dragging her eyes back to the exit, "My only job was keeping you distracted from the Veela. After that, why would I have wanted to spend more time looking at you?"

Theodore rolled his eyes, but an eye roll loses meaning when you smile through it. Even if it was just one of his ghosts of a smile. Nonetheless, he just returned to his book… this time actually making progress.

And with time, he could feel the telltale sign of Iris in his head, relaxing as much as she could allow herself to focus on the words flowing through his mind.

XxxxxX

Iris was… distant. She could be snapped back to reality. She could smile and laugh and talk. But she was constantly in her own head. Always looked on edge, ready to jump into action. Something was eating away at her.

Something lingered at the back of her mind. Something lurked deep within her gut. It was that feeling that something was building… that feeling her father had described to her just about ten years ago. It was something that had been there for a while… just overshadowed by the other problems in her life. The TwiWizard Tournament bringing back an old friend into her life, her fights with Remus, and the anniversary of Leo's… death.

But after the madness of The Cup… after her encounter in the woods and the mark in the sky… that feeling had consumed her.

The impending sense of dread was almost suffocating.

"…rumors that several dead bodies were recovered from the woods…." Iris briefly snapped out of her trance. Drawing her eyes away from the cover of the paper Remus was reading… a snapshot of the Dark Mark.

Remus scoffed as he shut the paper, throwing it down on the table, "Rita Skeeter has no shame. Stirring up more fear than she has any right to. No bodies were pulled out of those woods."

Iris looked away… perhaps for not having told Remus, or anyone, that hers very nearly could have been. The encounter with that man in the woods was a fog of a memory. One that she so desperately wanted to clear, his voice and face just distorted enough that she could not solve why she should have remembered him.

Once more, Iris had to be snapped back to attention, already having drifted off again, "You need to finally get along to Diagon Alley soon. Get your school supplies."

She just hummed, "I was going to go tomorrow. Need to go pull out some money for the year as well." And that was it… no passing conversation or any elaboration on what she would be doing with her money… Iris liked to ramble. And ever since she returned from The Cup… well, she just hadn't.

Remus noticed it. The way she was so quiet. It was something her father used to do… and her current state very much so reminded him of how Leo was when the war started up many, many years ago.

And that was… an uneasy thought to have.

But Leo had also been that way just before his father's death, before Melody Peverell's passing, before his brother was cut off, before his sister's disappearance, and before the announcement that Regulus Black had been missing for a month.

Blackwells were attuned to sensing that something was coming. But it didn't always mean something world-changing… not in the broad sense. It just meant that something in their world, something important in the course of their lives, was about to change.

So, Remus held onto it just being something in her world. An easy thought to have. Something easier to think about as he tried to carry on as usual… knowing that there was no way he could help her. Nothing he said could help with the unknown future that was running her way. The most he could do was let her be, trying to give her moments to not sit in the dread, and then… when whatever it was finally came… he could help her then.

"Have you packed at all yet?"

Remus smiled as her face immediately pulled into a scowl. A deep breath in before she mindlessly began to ramble, "Hogwarts needs walk-in closets. I have no idea how they expect me to plan what outfits I must sacrifice so I can fit everything I bring in those damn wardrobes and trunks…."

XxxxxX

Iris stood in front of Remus on platform 9 and 3/4 with a stern look, "Remember, you do not allow my dress to travel by owl. You will pick it up from the designer and bring it to me in Hogsmeade. That dress is worth more than the Black fortune. It cannot be left to travel in the elements."

Remus just nodded along, although he did pause at the comment on how much it was worth… an over-exaggeration, of course… but the fact he had to think about it said everything.

The train whistle blew, making Iris grumble as she shot a glare back toward it. Taking her suitcase in hand and adjusting her backpack, Iris softened her gaze at Remus, "Remember that you ask me if you need any money. I know you have a job, but it is part-time, and hours vanish after the holidays. If you are short on money for food, you do not starve. You just ask me."

She didn't give him time to even so much as think of arguing, giving him a quick smile before running off, shouting over her shoulder, "Remember to write once a week, Moony!"

That… Moony… still stabbed at his heart from time to time. He had been Moony most of his life… and those few years without it were strange. Those few years alone… those were the roughest years of his life. And now, with one friend no longer a traitor and his best friend's daughter no longer a ghost… he felt happier than he had been in years.

The only pitfall in that exact moment, as he watched her jump aboard the train last moment, shooting him a wave as it started off… he shouldn't have been standing there.

Remus shouldn't have been the one standing there, writing her letters once a week, taking care of her dress… feeling that sense of missing her as the train vanished from site.

All that should have been Leo.

Leo should have been the one watching her grow… but Remus was glad he could have the job in his absence.

XxxxxX

Their compartment was packed this year. A year ago, Theodore probably would have been driven to madness having his peace destroyed. He wouldn't be able to focus on his book, wouldn't be able to hear himself think, wouldn't be able to zone out of conversation…. But he seemed to be doing alright. Able to switch effortlessly between ignoring everyone and adding in some comments.

Iris had changed him from someone who absolutely needed to be alone to someone who could handle group settings…. Unwillingly on his part… but this is really what he wanted all along.

To be surrounded by screaming teenage girls every day of his life… truly…. Okay, maybe after the third squeal over how much hotter Cedric Diggory had gotten over the summer… he seriously debated spending the train ride with Draco Malfoy.

But even while listening to their almost unintelligible language that only they seemed to understand, he had to admit that this was a far more intellectual conversation than any Malfoy and his lackeys were having.

And besides… he was too focused on Iris Blackwell to leave.

She had been distant. Since they found her in the woods, in so much pain, she couldn't stand. She had told them it was a side effect of apparition… but why had she apparated in the first place?

A year ago… hell, maybe even a few months ago, he could have just brushed it off. But watching as she spent more of the train ride looking out the window than laughing along with her friends…. Watching as she pulled out of her own head for only really seconds at a time…. Watching this now, after she shoved her way into his life, it wasn't something he could just brush off. He had questions.

"My parents were happy to hear that you had stayed with us… well, they were happy you stayed with me when we had to run into the woods. They have been off my back since we have been spending more time together." Jane rambled to Theodore about her parent's excitement over their daughter's potential 'good match.'

The conversation pulled Iris back, her eyes landing on Theodore with an obvious question, "Would your father accept the match? Or will he try and force your hand in an engagement anytime soon?"

It was a question everyone was interested in the answer to, every set of eyes on him. Theodore thought it over momentarily, "My father and mother didn't marry until he was 30. I doubt he ever forces my hand on marriage. It's normal for the men in my family to remain bachelors for a while. The trust is there that we will eventually just settle down." He looked to Jane, who sat beside him, "He has been hinting towards his approval of you and your parents. Supposed to have dinner with them soon."

Jane nodded, a ghost of a smile hitting her lips, "Well, then they can all believe that the two of us are going to get on the right path someday. I just need them to back off until we finish school and I can get a job."

Theodore nodded, turning back to his book to at least finish his page, "Just never expect me to do some fake dating act with you."

Jane cringed, "I can assure you that would be my greatest nightmare."

A shared giggle went through the compartment… something Theodore probably should have been offended over… but nonetheless, he ignored it.

Sally-Ann shifted conversation as something seemed to hit her. Looking at Iris, she asked, "Being royalty and all, are you in some arranged marriage of any sort?"

And suddenly, all eyes were on her, even Theodore's, as his book lost his interest to the conversation again. Iris shook her head, pulling a face at the thought, no doubt, "No, my great-great-grandfather put an end to that nonsense. Married a witch instead of the Shifter he was engaged to. It had ramifications… but allowed arranged marriages to fade out with the newer generations.

"There are still political marriages… but daughters get a voice, their own autonomy that just didn't exist."

Valeria leaned forward to look at Iris better from behind Sally-Ann, "So, say you choose to marry for political reasons… who?"

A name had immediately jumped to her mind, a deeply unpleasant one if her face meant anything, "Dante Marcella… one of the original bloodlines and the most troublesome of them. Marrying him would unite the families, blah, blah, blah," Iris rolled her eyes, "He was always a total ass…. Has an older sister who the Marcella bloodline will continue with. So marrying Dante wouldn't go back on the truce of keeping the bloodlines separate…."

Everyone felt the pause, Valeria, always invested in learning more, spurred her, "Keep separate?"

Iris nodded, gaze going back out the window, "The original bloodlines exist to keep things in balance. Natural-born leaders that keep everyone else in line. My line gained as much power as they did through marrying the heirs to bloodlines and killing anyone else it could have been passed to. Used to be seven, and now there are five. It threw off balance… gave us too much power. No one bloodline was supposed to rule over the others. So to stop full absolute control… the truce prevents any more of that. It is still very broken though…."

"The Peverells were an original bloodline." It was a statement from none other than Theodore Nott, perhaps the one person in the school that had at some point studied Iris and her people more than Hermione Granger.

Iris hadn't looked away from the window… and didn't immediately answer. And when she did, she was almost impossible to hear, "Yes, and by far the most loyal… the one bloodline that supported my ancestors though their push for absolute power…. A Peverell would do anything for The Crown…."

… Everyone took that in… and Valeria had gone to ask yet another question when Iris just bounced up.

"We should be getting to Hogwarts soon. I'm going to go change real quick."

No one followed, very much so getting the hint that she really just needed a moment.

XxxxxX

The others had gone off to change together… leaving Iris and Theodore to sit alone for the first time that trip. The silence only disturbed by the occasional rumble of thunder… a storm threatening to begin.

Iris was back to that quiet that screamed to Theodore that something was wrong. Back to that state where she seemed to lack a smile, her mind lost to something Theodore wasn't able to understand.

"Does it always rain during the trip to Hogwarts?"

Her voice had startled him, but he recovered quickly enough. Looking out to the darkening clouds himself. He didn't answer… not when he turned his eyes to her, "How many of your people are you going to see at the other schools?"

He didn't get an answer. Hell, not even the courtesy of a glance. So he tried again, "Is Ryker Pever—"

"It's not him I'm thinking about right now." Theodore flinched at her harsh tone… and after a moment of reflection, Iris sighed, sending him a weak smile, "They are all something I will just have to deal with as it comes… have until October before I need to focus on that."

She knew… she knew what was next. What Theodore would ask if she continued to act strangely with no explanation. The only thing is Iris didn't want to explain everything… the man that had threatened her life was still something she felt the need to just burden herself with…. But she could at least give the boy she spent most of her time with something…

So she held his gaze with her eyes, their color so dull… the green so dark they hardly seemed so in the poor lighting, "In our push for power… Blackwell's gained a lot of power. But in an attempt at balance remaining… there were many consequences. A lot of it is just superstition and words that would make the logical scoff, but ask any Blackwell, and they will completely believe that we are cursed. In many ways….

"My father always said that the biggest curse of a Blackwell is our intuition. We just know… or maybe not know… rather just a feeling. Sometimes it's just a faint hum; other times. It's all there is. But we are always the first made aware that something is coming. All summer… all summer that lingering feeling has been hanging around me, at times it almost vanishes completely… but after The World Cup…,"

Iris sucked in a breath, eyes closing as she reeled back in, "A Storm's A Brewin' Theo. I just know it."

Theodore… didn't quite know how to respond. But, something in him relaxed. Simply just understanding, bringing him some peace of mind. Looking out the window, he asked just one more thing… "What do you think is the greatest curse of being a Blackwell."

Her eyes opened, flicking out the window as drops began to fall… shoulders slumped and frown deep.

She didn't give him an answer that day… not to that question… but the answer was most certainly there. Passing through her mind for just a moment before she pushed it away.