If there was one perk to being out and around other people, it was being away from his parents and the frequent reminders of the fact that his sister had been taken.

Idia was never allowed to forget about what happened. How his sister was kidnapped by mages when she was barely seven months old. How his parents had tried everything to find her, only to fail. How his mother insisted on performing expensive rituals to find her every Halloween, though thankfully his father had at least allowed him and Ortho to opt out of those when they were old enough to say something.

It was painful to watch his mother's hopes get dashed year after year after year.

Night Raven was a blessing, because it meant he and Ortho could avoid the near constant reminder of it.

When Ortho finally entered the school, he blackmailed Idia into at least dressing up for the ceremony by using Circe against him. While he had never seen his sister, there were a few baby pictures that Idia had managed to get a hold of. He had been able to use computer software to age up the face, using his and Ortho's as a possible template for what she might look like now.

Idia was very uncomfortable being around his fellow housewardens and did his best to focus on getting this over as soon as possible.

It was during the sorting that some instinct caused him to actually observe the freshmen lined up in front of the mirror.

A tiny slip of a thing with their hood doing a rather good job of obscuring their face walked up and was sorted into Ignihyde. Idia watched them, and wondered why he was even taking note of a mere freshman.

It felt like an eternity later when he called the new Ignihyde students to him. Ortho was thankfully doing all the talking for him, as he just wanted to crash.

For the first week, everything was fine. And then...the freshman who had his attention during the ceremony reluctantly knocked on his door.

His tablet floated outwards.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"I was looking for permission to let my familiar roam outside the dorms. Being kept in the special case isn't a good idea long term,"they asked quietly.

"...What sort of familiar is it?"

"It's a dog. A rather large breed at that. It's too big for me to keep in my room, and I will clean up for any messes he makes."

"I'll need more specifics than large dog."

"He's a short-haired breed with minimal grooming requirements, well trained as a guard dog, leash trained and isn't aggressive so long as he's not on task," said the student. "The only real issue is his size, as he's a bit big."

Idia wanted to sigh.

"Let me get a few things and we'll head outside the dorm's main rooms."

Needless to say Ortho wanted to see the dog too. He loved animals.

The freshman brought out a spelled carrying case, and ignored the semi-large crowd who had gathered to see what sort of familiar they had. To be fair, most of them were bored.

Dead silence when they whistled loudly, but in a firm tone. Nothing happened...and then a massive paw appeared from the case. The thing barely fit through the opening. The magic inherent in the case kicked in and the thing expanded to allow the creature inside out.

Idia wasn't the only one staring in disbelief as a barely adult male Cerberus came out of the case.

"This is your familiar?!" squeaked Idia in shock.

"Fluffy, Sit," commanded the freshman.

"...You have a male Cerberus, and you named it Fluffy," choked a sophmore.

The freshman rolled their eyes.

"I didn't give him such an undignified name. Hagrid bought him off a Greek wizard and decided it was an acceptable name. It's all he answers to at this point," they said annoyed. "I'm just glad he let me keep him, because Fluffy was miserable being chained all the time."

Ortho tentatively walked up to the three headed dog. Fluffy gave him a long sniff...before promptly covering him in slobber. Ortho giggled with delight and pet the hellhound.

Emboldened by his success, a few braver students went up to him. It was clear that while Fluffy tolerated their presence, he preferred Ortho best.

Idia stared at the scene, before cautiously approaching the dog. It wasn't as terrifying as his father's personal hounds, or Seven forbid the current gate guardian.

Fluffy sniffed him once, before treating him to the same slobber treatment as Ortho.

"I suppose Fluffy can stay outside in the outer areas of the dorm," said Idia after a moment. It would hardly do to keep a trained Cerberus cooped up, considering who their dorm patron was and the fact that the Cerberus was the dorm's official mascot.

Fluffy barked happily, his tail wagging like crazy.

The odd freshman, who only went by the name "Black", found themselves with several volunteers to help clean up after their new dorm mascot.


Iris woke up in a cold sweat. Being allowed to keep Fluffy outside the case had helped a bit, because she hated cooping him up in that case.

However it also meant she couldn't curl up against him whenever she had a nightmare that reminded her why she was hiding in a primarily male school.

She would never forget that moment. The final battle with Voldemort, the amount of dark magic in the air. One had grazed her hair, causing something inside her to snap.

One moment she had been struggling, the next she felt a surge of power as her body began to absorb all the dark magic in the air. Unnoticed, her previous black hair began to lighten up and float upwards. Had she registered the change, she would have known her hair began to blaze from some internal fire, her green eyes shifting to a more golden color. She only barely noticed that her skin went from a tan color to a healthy shade of pale.

Power welled up from inside her as her spells became more powerful and vicious...and it had nothing to do with the Elder wand.

Her phoenix feather wand had burst into flames by the end of it, singing one final song when she put Voldemort down for good.

Fluffy, who had demonstrated his loyalty to his true master, howled in triumph.

Iris thought her friends would be happy. The war was finally over.

Instead she saw Ron and Hermione looking at her with shock and horror on their faces. There was an emotion in their eyes that she had thought only the Dursleys were capable of whenever she was in their presence and forced to acknowledge her as kin.

Iris didn't want to think of the days she spent holed up in a small apartment that was under a fake name. Didn't want to even consider the number of nasty letters sent to her 'official' residence that contained any number of howlers and nasty spells or unsavory contents.

It took everything in her power not to curl up in a ball and cry, because she had spent far too much time doing exactly that after hearing the words "half-breed hellspawn" from a howler sent by Ron in his voice. She confirmed the magical signature was his as well, which made it cut all the more deeply.

Out of the people who had been there, only four had openly come out and stood beside her. Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom (who had gone no-contact with his family over the matter), and Fred and George, who had gone so far that they had openly dropped the name Weasley and had instead taken up the mantle as Lords Prewitt, because no one wanted to try and figure out which twin they were dealing with.

Molly was beyond livid over the matter, but there was nothing she could do about it. Bill had made it clear that while he still considered Iris an adopted Weasley, it was probably for the best she not come back to the Burrow anytime soon. Mostly because Molly, Ron, and Ginny had taken her 'true form' rather badly and would raise one hell of a stink about her being there.

The hurt from that betrayal stung deep, especially hearing Ron call her that.

Iris did her best to wash her face...while her features were often obscured by the hat she wore constantly, Fluffy would get all defensive if he smelled she was in this state again.

It was weird treating a Cerberus as an emotional support animal, but it was helping.

Her fellow students ignored her, as they were all private people to begin with.

Fluffy sniffed her over, smelling her unhappiness. He gave a light lick, knocking off her hat. She sighed, and picked it up before giving it a light dusting before hiding her hair. For some reason, charms to hide her hair color refused to stay more than an hour or so without some serious work put into it.

Unnoticed by her, the cameras outside the dorm caught the moment.


Idia sighed...he hated Halloween. The holiday was the one time of the year where they were reminded rather painfully about the fact that his sister was still missing.

His father had even sent him a pendant, one that had some of the last physical remnants of his sister. Supposedly, it would do something if she was within range of the spell. It wouldn't last long, just a few months or so, but the fact he was being made to carry it sucked.

You could imagine his shock when it suddenly began to heat up to almost painful levels.

Confused, Idia pulled out the pendant...and was bewildered as the thing was glowing the second he walked into his dorm.

That glow only got worse until it started moving without any input from him.

"Is this thing defective?" he mused out loud.

He made a beeline to his room, completely ignoring the pendant until he had it looked at by someone he trusted.

In the Board Game Club

"So your father sent you a special locator pendant and you think it's malfunctioning?" said Azul, pushing up his glasses.

"It's supposed to track someone specific, but it's operating on a type of magic I'm not familiar with at all," said Idia. "I specialize in technomancy, not blood magic."

Azul hummed to himself.

"Who or what is the pendant supposed to track down?"

Idia visibly looked like he was debating on saying anything, but eventually settled on a half-truth.

"A...relative...of mine was taken when they were very young. My parents are determined to find them and bring them home, and have spent a considerable amount of time and resources to do it."

"How young?"

"Seven months," said Idia promptly.

Azul stared.

"Exactly how long ago was this?"

"They would be about a year or so younger than me now," said Idia.

"...How do you know this...relative...is even alive?"

"We would have been notified," said Idia without hesitation. "The ones in charge have a special notification when one of our line is killed and they are automatically sent through that afterlife."

Azul stared at his friend, knowing Idia left a lot unsaid.

"Let me see the pendant. Maybe I can figure out what spells are on it and see if they're defective or not," said Azul.

Idia pulled it out. It was still warm, but not as hot as before and no longer glowing.

Azul studied it for several moments.

"Seems like a basic tracking spell. Whatever is inside the pendant appears to be reacting to outside stimuli. Maybe this missing relative of yours is in Night Raven at the moment...it's not outside the realm of possibility."

Idia stared.

"Wait...you think they're here?" said Idia.

"The spells are functioning properly to the artifact inside the pendant," said Azul firmly.

Idia was floored. But there was one key piece of information that he hadn't told Azul.

Azul didn't bother to ask where Idia was going. And since this was clearly a family matter, he didn't feel the need to impose.

"Good luck," was all he would say.

In the headmage's office

Crowley looked at the Ignihyde housewarden with some bewilderment. The boy's dislike of being outside his little cave, er...room was well known. For him to come personally meant it was serious.

"Headmaster...have any female mages enrolled at Night Raven recently?"

Crowley looked at Idia with some confusion.

"A female mage?" he repeated.

Then he took note of the pendant in Idia's hand.

"Ah. Is this a family matter?" he asked.

Idia nodded curtly.

"There is one female mage who has enrolled in our school. She's a freshmen...and last I checked, she was sorted into your dorm."

Idia felt a strange flutter of hope in his chest. Come to think of it, the pendant hadn't started reacting until he entered his dorm.

Crowley had given him enough information...now he just had to figure out which of the freshmen was his missing sister.