Chapter 21 - A jolly good time

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Bravo! Simply marvelous! A perfect cast!"

Iris grinned at her Charms professor. After months of nothing but failures, finally getting it right actually felt amazing. So far, she still needed her prism to set up the correct colors before casting a spell, but she was getting quicker at doing that every time.

Then, she decided to try something new. Iris aimed her wand back at the prism she had brought with her, and narrowed the two beams together, until they reached both Orange and Yellow respectively. Swinging her wand in the spiral pattern she had been practicing when trying this spell with a color just in between the two, she incanted "Ventus!"

A gust of wind gripped the office, snatching up parchment, feathers and other light utensils that Flitwick had strewn around his office, and blowing them around the room. The beaming expression on her Charms professor's face as her attempt succeeded was infectious, and she couldn't help a silly smile as she cut off the spell while he was applauding excitedly. She hadn't felt this happy in a long time.

Iris glanced down at her wand, tried to call her light again and gasped. It was faint, but definitely... No, it couldn't be!

This felt nothing like doing two colors, she had expected it to be so much harder, but it felt, well... So very effortless, but also so very different.

Both Iris and Flitwick stared at the faint glow of White light shining from her wand. Dare she hope?

Could Transfiguration truly be within her grasp?

Without thinking about it, she reached for her bag and retrieved that one foolishly hopeful matchstick she had kept carrying around.

Focusing on the feeling inside her wand, desperate to never let it escape her grasp, she placed the matchstick on the desk with shaking hands, aimed her glowing wand, pictured a needle, and spoke the words.

And the matchstick remained as it had ever been. At this point, she would have rather it had at least distorted again. No. Why didn't it work?

She saw her light flickering already and immediately focused back on that initial feeling, trying to bring it back, and after a second, it stabilized.

Maybe she just wasn't any good at Transfiguration?

Both she and her professor seemed to hold their breath as she assumed a defensive stance, swished her wand in an arc, and incanted "Protego!"

And again, nothing.

They both stared at each other in silence, the white glowing wand flickering uncertainly.

"W-Why?" Iris whispered desperately. "It should work, right?"

"Shall we have a look at the spectrum?" he suggested hesitantly.

Iris swallowed. She really wanted to know, but she was also kind of afraid of what it would show. Then she had a realization. What if it just showed red, green and blue together? Wouldn't that look like white? But it wasn't true white magic! That had to be it!

She pointed her wand towards the prism, and carefully narrowed the light into a beam.

And the beam of brilliant White struck true, braved the prism, and emerged on the other side at an angle, but completely unchanged, still as white as it had ever been.

What?

That... wasn't possible, was it?

Everything she had read in her physics book told her that this was impossible. White light was a combination of different colors, and a prism was supposed to split it into all colors equally. What in the world was going on?

Flitwick had stepped up to her, and was waving his wand around her again. Then, he gasped.

"Miss Potter, I need you to put out this light, now please."

Iris was so shocked by his sudden outburst, that her light faded all on its own. Flitwick breathed a sigh of relief.

"What? Professor, what was that about?" Iris asked hesitantly.

"That... unless I am very mistaken, was Light polarized magic. It is a very dangerous kind of magic, nothing that should be handled by any student, much less a first year..."

Iris' eyes widened. That had been... Huh.

"It would explain why the prism showed what it did. Light polarized magic is an entirely different kind of magic. It does not contain any aspects, and thus not any colors either, would be my guess. It is simply pure brightness, as in the opposite of darkness."

That... was not how physics worked. But she guessed, the rules didn't always apply with magic.

"I must insist that you do not attempt to produce this kind of light again, it could very well kill you."

Iris swallowed at the reminder. She guessed she would just have to use her next 'detention' to practice this as well.

Then, his expression shifted again, and he said, "Now, I admit that we got a little sidetracked by your incredible achievement, but there was a reason I asked you to stay after class in the first place."

Iris blinked. Right, she had completely forgotten. She'd been so excited to show him the spell she had managed that she had all but barged into his office wand blazing and immediately begun setting up the colors.

He just stood there, looking at her, saying nothing for some time. Iris started shifting around uncomfortably.

Finally, he spoke up. "I believe I owe you an apology, Miss Potter."

Iris turned to face her professor and quirked an eyebrow. "Sir?"

"To my shame I have to admit that I had assumed Septima would take the lead on your particular case going forward, since frankly, she is a lot more qualified than me in topics of experimental magical research. And as Morgana would have it, Septima did assume the same about me, since I was her senior, and you were my student."

Flitwick gave her a long look and continued. "In the end I was the one who had initially approached you about this, and as my student, you were my responsibility, and it fell to me to ensure your other teachers would know what to expect."

Oh. Was this about what the Defense professor had mentioned?

"It was due to my negligence that this has been going on for as long as it has, and for that, you have my deepest apologies." He sighed, gaze falling downward, an exhausted expression marring his face. He wearily folded his hands and continued. "This miscommunication rests solely on my shoulders, I am afraid, and I really don't have anyone else to blame but myself."

He... What? If anything, she had been mad at McGonagall, but now Flitwick was saying that it was his fault? Iris wasn't sure what to think about that.

"Severus will talk to you in the coming days on how we shall proceed with your Transfiguration classes going forward. Luckily, it seems that at least your issue with Charms is finally on a good track to being resolved, and very much so due to your own incredible efforts."

That caused her to blush, as she looked down at her wand.

"...Thank you, sir."

~V~

Iris reached for another helping of pancakes, and hesitated half-way. Someone had sat down next to Tracey.

Well, the strange thing about that was, nobody ever sat next to them at the Slytherin table. She raised an eyebrow and looked at the boy. He was pretty thin, had short black hair, combed back into a neat cut, and brown eyes, a shade darker than Tracey's. Iris' second eyebrow raised as she recognized him. He was one of the kids who had hung out with Draco, and who had kept hanging out in the corridor before her, well, episode. She wasn't sure, but there was a good chance he was also one of the students she had trapped in the fire that day. What had his name been again?

"What do you want, Nott?" asked Tracey dubiously.

"Hey, hey, peace," he said and raised his hands in a calming gesture. "I'm just here following your advice," he said, with a look at Iris.

She shot him a sharp look, causing him to blink. "Advice?"

"I'm reconsidering whose good side I want to be on."

They both gave him disbelieving stares.

He sighed. "Listen, I'm serious. I know we didn't have the best start. I don't know what exactly happened between you and Draco to get him mad enough to try and turn the whole house against you, but the more I see, the more I think he's on the wrong side of this; that he hasn't told us everything."

Iris mulled over his words for a moment, but he continued.

"And even if he did, I can see the tide's changing. And I don't want to be caught on the wrong side of it. So, for what it's worth, I'm sorry," he said seriously.

Iris blinked at that statement. On the one hand, the Gryffindor part of her wanted nothing more than to tell him exactly where he could shove it, after he had spent the better part of a month jeering and trying to hex her in the corridor, but there was another part of her that was at least just as vocal. Whether his intentions were honest, or he had some other ulterior motive, she was sure she had sufficiently scared him that he wouldn't try anything for at least a while. And if he could really prove an ally in the meantime...

She finally looked up and gave him a small smile. "Then how about we start over fresh?"

The boy blinked for a moment, until he gathered himself, and held out his hand with a charming smile.

"Theo Nott, nice to finally meet you," he said confidently, even though she could still see uncertainty in his eyes.

Iris regarded it for a moment, then realized she still had too much Gryffindor in her to fully let it go. She threw a conspiratorial glance at Tracey, then reached for his hand with a wide grin and replied in her usual chipper tone, "Iris, nice to meet ya!"

He blinked at the sudden shift in tone, which caused Tracey to grin and immediately join in.

"I'm Tracey, let's be friends! Do you like cats? Iris has a black cat called Salem!"

"Oh, yeah, she's soo cute! You simply have to meet her!"

An expression of painful clarity came over his face for a moment as he realized just what he had signed himself up for.

~V~

"Miss Potter, would you please stay behind?"

Iris internally groaned. Was this becoming a regular thing now? She gave Tracey a helpless shrug, and started to pack her things while the rest of the class slowly filed out of the room. She looked up at the disheveled appearance of her history professor bearing a strained expression. Iris swallowed as she once again remembered the revelations of last week.

"I suppose you can imagine why I wanted to talk to you?" he asked carefully.

Iris just nodded reluctantly.

He stared for a moment then sighed and buried his face in his palm.

"I am so sorry, Iris. I cannot express how deeply regretful I am for the incident last week. There is no excuse for what happened."

Iris froze, as she realized where he was going with this. She had expected to be admonished for being so far out of bounds that she ran across him while transformed, but instead he seemed to be blaming himself.

"I have sworn to myself to never let anything like this happen again. It was the main reason why I was so reluctant to return to Hogwarts, but yet, I have once again almost brought a most terrible fate unto not just one, but three students."

Iris opened her mouth to object, but he continued.

"Even worse, I let it come this far, even after I had sworn to protect you and your brother."

She blinked. Harry?

"W-what do you mean?" Iris asked hesitantly.

"Your parents and I used to be friends," he said in a bittersweet tone.

Iris' eyes went wide at that statement.

"They were there for me, even... during the full moon. They kept me sane, and kept me from harming others. Well... and it seems the apple did not fall far from the tree."

Iris had no idea how to respond to that.

"Whatever it was you did that night, I have never experienced anything like it. The wolf... it wanted to both... well, attack you, but also protect you. It was a paradox the likes of which I have never encountered in all these years bearing the curse. And if it wasn't for whatever you did, three innocent students would have paid the price. I truly don't know how to thank you."

Iris didn't even know where to start with this. It had been her fault they had been in the detention wing in the first place.

"Naturally, I have already handed in my resignation."

"What? No!" Iris exclaimed in shock.

"It is really the only appropriate step to take here. Rest assured; this was entirely my own decision."

"No, now you listen to me!" Iris burst out. She couldn't let this happen, not when it was both her fault, and this man was such a great teacher. Not to mention, if he knew her parents, she wanted to talk to him all the more, and she couldn't do that if he quit. "It was my fault that we were in the corridor in the first place, and it was even my fault that the wolfsbane didn't work! None of this was your fault!" Iris froze. Maybe she shouldn't have admitted to her part in the wolfsbane issue. Oh well.

However, his sad smile told her that she still hadn't gotten through to him. So instead, she would have to play dirty.

"You're probably the best teacher we've had! Everyone loves your class! I don't believe for a second that they could find a better replacement."

She stepped close to him and gave him a glare.

"If you really were my parent's friend, and if you really want to pay me back for what I did, then you'll keep teaching us as you have been."

She realized that she had only just admitted that it had been her fault, but since he hadn't seemed to accept that, she was banking on the idea that he still felt like she had saved the three of them from him instead.

His look faltered for a moment, emotions warring within his now green eyes.

Finally, he sighed.

"You have entirely too much of your mother in you."

~V~

"Focus. Imagine it like sucking liquid through a straw, except without the straw, and into your wand."

What kind of analogy was that supposed to be? Iris closed her eyes again, felt the darkness around her and pulled. Nothing. She sighed and tried to imagine it like the professor had told her. Like an empty void inside her wand, sucking in the darkness in front of it.

Was that doing anything? She could feel a sort of tingly feeling beneath her fingers.

"Very good, keep going, try to expand it to the whole shadow!"

Wait, that had been it? She was doing it? Snapping her eyes open, she could see darkness being pulled from the shadows around her, much like through a straw, and being drawn into her wand. This looked nothing like the professor had described, but it seemed to be working. Focusing on the feeling, as well the image in front of her, she tried to widen the draw, from a straw, slowly into a funnel, then even further, until darkness was being drawn into her wand from all sides.

She could feel her wand growing warm and tingly, and even start to vibrate. Just as she thought she could see tiny black arcs running along it, something gave way, and suddenly all the darkness came erupting back out, knocking her onto her bum.

The shadows seemed to angrily swirl around her, moving on their own, and beyond her control now. Just as she saw them closing in on her she let out a yell, but someone else did too, "Accio!"

Iris felt an invisible force drag her by her torso, as she slid along the ground, away from the shadows and towards the professor. Hesitantly, she got to her feet and looked back. The shadows were still alive, swirling, but they didn't seem to move from the spot very far, and were slowly growing fainter.

"And here is the reason why you shouldn't be doing this unsupervised."

Iris swallowed.

"Polarized magic can be quite... resentful, if you fail to control it. Luckily, it is also locationally bound. If you see someone gather polarized magic, you could either try to dispel it by countering with a blast of the opposite polarization, or attempt to bind it by channeling a special spell which can prevent the creation of polarized magic itself, or finally, simply force the caster to move from the spot where it was summoned, as it is all but impossible to take already summoned polarized magic with you, unless you are already using it to cast."

Iris furiously worked through that sentence, trying to commit everything to memory. One thing had stuck out though. A spell that would prevent someone from summoning polarized magic? Was that why the professor couldn't do it? Also, spells like that sounded very much like they would be using white light again...

Speaking of which... "Uhm, Professor? So, the other day, I think I accidentally managed to summon Light polarized magic in Flitwick's office, well, at least a little..."

His eyebrows raised up into his turban at that.

"Indeed?"

"Well, I tried doing it again, but it didn't work this time."

He seemed to ponder that for a moment.

"In order to summon Light polarized magic, one needs to draw on positive emotions, as opposed to negative ones for the Dark. Happiness, Joy, Righteousness, Love, all of these can work. Do you remember what it was you felt when you first achieved it?"

Iris thought back to that moment, when she had showed Flitwick how she had finally figured out multi aspect spells, and then actually succeeded with a new spell, and on her first try, well, kinda. The way he had been happy and excited for her had felt really good, as well as finally achieving something with magic, finally being good at another spell. Thinking back on it now, however, the memory was dampened by the disappointment and despair that had followed when she had thought that Transfiguration might be within her grasp after all, only to be denied yet again.

She couldn't muster the same feeling again thinking back on it, with the unfortunate aftermath staining the memory. So, she let her thoughts wander again. If it was just about emotions, could something else work as well? Just like she thought of the Dursleys to produce the shadows...

Well, the answer seemed kind of obvious now. Harry.

Iris thought back to that night at the top of the astronomy tower. When he had held her, and she had stayed there, just enjoying his company. And then he had said it again.

An involuntary smile came upon her lips, as she remembered the rare words they had exchanged. She felt something tingle underneath her fingers and looked down, yet there was no doubt in her mind what she would see there.

Light.

"Well done, Miss Potter."

~V~

"Bishop to d5, check," said the redhead smugly, causing Harry to sigh.

"Hey Harry, Ron, what's up?" Iris asked as she plopped herself down next to her brother at the Gryffindor table. Tracey followed suit, taking a place next to Ron. They hadn't gotten Theo to sit at the Gryffindor table for their routine visits yet, and she didn't think it was that good of an idea anyway, given the looks Ron had been shooting his way.

"Iris, perfect, your turn. I'm already running late to meet with Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, and quickly got up. Iris blinked.

"Uh... Nice seeing you?" she said slowly, causing Harry to blush, as he fled the table.

Iris looked down at the board and groaned. She hadn't played a lot of chess before, and didn't think she was particularly good at it, but even she could tell that this wasn't an advantageous position for her. She looked back up at Ron who was grinning at her unashamedly.

Then she looked back down. Well, his attack had kind of opened up his own king. So, if she could block his attack and return it somehow? Of course!

"Pawn to e4."

The pawn started to move one square, but then hesitated. Iris eyes went wide. "Come on, please! We'll lose if you don't go to e4!"

After some amount of begging, the piece finally moved another square, barely blocking the attack. Ron grinned and said, "Bishop to e4. And check again."

Iris' eyes lit up. This was what she had been hoping for. Now she'd only have to sacrifice her own Bishop, and...

"Bishop to f3!"

The bishop shivered in place, but remained completely unmoving. What?

"Come on! Please? Just move!"

She could see Ron growing wide eyed, as he saw what she was doing, but as the bishop continued to refuse to sacrifice himself, his grin returned.

Finally, Iris was forced to relent, and instead move her King out of the way. Ron gave her an annoying smile, and then said, "King to e6"

Huh? What would that do? That was so far from any of her pieces!

"Why'd you move the king?" she asked, confused.

He gave her a smirk. "If the king doesn't lead, then how can he expect his subordinates to follow?"

His pieces gave a round of cheers, and the game only went downhill from there. She could watch the morale of her troops continue to plummet, while Ron's pieces were cheering and jeering as they kept taking piece after piece, until he finally forced her into an inevitable checkmate.

Iris leaned back and sighed. Well, at least Ron had some fun, right?

Tracey gave her a smirk. "Ya really haven't played a lot of wizards' chess, huh? I don't think I've ever seen someone's pieces be this low on morale!"

"Thanks for the game, mate. Maybe we can play some more over the Christmas holidays?"

Oh, right, that was coming up soon, wasn't it. "You're staying at the castle?" she asked.

"Yeah, mum's off to visit our great aunt with Ginny and dad, they won't be back until next year. Bet she'll still send me a ruddy Christmas sweater though..."

Christmas presents? Oh crap! Was she supposed to get people something? Well, she did have friends now, didn't she? Would they get her something?

Also, she still had to figure out her yearly book for Harry. As soon as they realized that there were times where people were supposed to give each other gifts, even though they had never gotten any, she had taken to stealing fantasy books from the library—since he seemed to enjoy those the most—for his birthday and Christmas. Somehow, she didn't think she would find any of his favorite book series in the Hogwarts library...

"Uh... on a completely unrelated note... Are there any wizarding fantasy books or something?"

Tracey perked up. "You mean like Beedle the Bard stuff?"

Ron frowned. "Ain't that a children's book though? Who'd you want to get something like that for?"

Tracey gave him a look. "You're talking about the kid's version. I meant the original."

Both Iris and Ron gave her confused stares at that, for different reasons.

"Is that something like Lord of the Rings?"

Tracey shrugged. "Well, kinda, but it's more a collection of short stories that aren't connected all that much, but the tone is pretty similar..."

That... could work, she guessed.

"What's Lord of the Rings?"

And there was another gift figured out. Although, in Ron's case, probably better get him the movies... But she had no idea how to do that at Hogwarts, so she'd have to postpone that to next year, probably.

"It's a muggle story. Anyway, do any of you know if we'll have another flying lesson? I've really been wanting to try again..."

She left out the part about her colors, as she still hadn't managed to admit to anyone what had really happened during her last attempt, and probably never would at this point.

Ron frowned. "We don't. I've been asking Fred, George, Percy, heck, even old McGonagall, but apparently, we only get the one lesson, at least, until we can bring our own brooms for second year..."

"So, we are allowed to fly on our own, if we just had brooms, huh? Does Harry know that?"

Three pairs of eyes shot between each other as a plan started to form, without even a single word being spoken.

~V~

"This was only the most recent of Arcane Upheavals. A much more famous one would be the great accounting of 1864. This was an event where much of the opposite thing happened, yet in magical terms, probably even more significant. Looking back on that year, it is impossible to find any magical records pertaining to pretty much anything. There is a glaring hole in the hall of prophecies, you won't find a single edition of the daily prophet, and even portraits won't be able to recall any events from that year. Yet, this time, the muggle world instead continued completely unaffected."

Iris was listening intently, completely lost in the lesson.

"Each one manifests differently, yet they always have something in common. Their scale, and their side-effects. Whatever effect Arcane Upheavals have upon the world, which can vary wildly, it is always global, and it causes a few very specific things to happen every time. Wards that are anchored into the ley lines experience malfunctions and disturbances across the globe for the duration, and rituals become a lot less predictable, a lot more unstable. Due to this fact, some people believe it has to do with free ritual in the first place. However, there is no clear evidence one way or another, as they seem to happen at random intervals, and so rarely at that."

She was glad that Professor Lupin was still here. Apparently, her arguments had managed to convince him to retract his resignation. Or something else had happened, who knew. But his lessons still proved to be as awesome as ever.

Just as she had made it through the lesson and was about to leave, she once again heard the dreaded "Miss Potter, would you please stay behind?"

Her housemates shot her odd looks, but at this point, she didn't care all that much anymore.

He was looking at her with a strange expression for a while, until it softened.

"I wanted to talk to you for a moment, regarding something I've been putting off for a long time..."

Iris swallowed. Was this about the werewolf thing again? Or about the shadows?

"I'd like to invite you for lunch the day after Christmas, if that's alright with you. I've already asked your brother as well. You see, as I mentioned, I was a good friend of your parents and well... I figured, you'd like to hear a bit about them from someone who knew them..."

Iris eyes went wide at that, causing the professor to backpedal.

"Right, I understand if you're not comfortable after what happened, it was foolish of me to even ask-"

"What? No! I- well... I'd love that! I pretty much know nothing about mum and dad, except people keep saying we kind of look like them..."

"...Are you sure? Please don't feel like you-"

"Yeah!" Iris nodded heavily. "When should I be there?"

Lupin sighed, and then gave a weak smile and replied "We'll meet in the entrance hall at one in the afternoon."

"Great! Thank you, Professor!"

"Please... when we're in private, just call me Remus," he said quietly.