Chapter 3 - Books and Handshakes

Forever, however, came sooner than expected. Iris had no idea how Harry hadn't gotten bored throughout the month. When Hagrid had told them they weren't supposed to do magic outside of school, Harry had taken him by his word, and thus returned to his fantasy books. Iris had been undeterred. They had been doing magic before, after all, surely it couldn't hurt to practice a bit more for the last month before school, right?

Eager to learn how to do actual magic she had spent quite a lot of time combing through her new books, mostly A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration and the Standard Book of Spells. She had of course also tried to perform several of the spells mentioned in the book, however to no avail. Nothing she had tried had any effect whatsoever. It seemed like there was some sort of trick to it, and she hoped the teachers would help them with that.

The one thing she could do however, she had practiced religiously. Her light. When she was holding her wand, it was a lot easier to make her light do certain things, turn it certain colors or shine it in a cone like a flashlight.

In a flash of inspiration, she had tried to cast the spell, while holding her iridescent light within her wand. This had done... something. But the results were more akin to Harry trying out all the other wands. Every time she tried something else would go wrong. She had wanted to do a spell that—according to the book—should have been simple; making her physics book float. So far, all she had managed was to turn it blue, flip it on its head, make it very squishy, make it try to bite Harry, and finally set its edges ablaze slightly. Luckily none of those things had been permanent. Never had she been able to make the same thing happen twice, and never had she actually made it float, either.

Dismayed with her preliminary results, she decided to give up on her experiments and hope one of the teachers would explain how to do it properly. And even though she wasn't exactly big on rules, the big red warning on the first page of her transfiguration book had successfully deterred her from trying anything from that book yet, no matter how much she had wanted to.

However, she still really wanted to have something she could show to Draco tomorrow. The levitation charm would have been cool, anyone wanted to make things float with their mind, right?

She paused. Maybe there was another way...

Usually, she would just get inspired in the moment to do those things, this would be the first time she would try to intentionally make something happen from the start. How hard could it be?

Slowly, a plan started to gather in her head.

~V~

Harry returned to find Iris sitting on the ground, a bunch of things strewn out in front of her. There was a circle drawn on the ground. On the edge of the circle rested several objects. There was an inflated balloon, a feather, a paper airplane, and... was that a magnet? In the center lay the physics book she had been reading for the past month. Before he could ask what she was doing, she took out a small plastic tube, opened it, took a deep breath, and proceeded to blow soap bubbles at the book. He sighed and made to reach for her, but before he could, one of the bubbles hit the book.

For a moment, Harry was slack-jawed. The book had floated off the ground, and joined the rest of the bubbles on their journey to the other side of the room. Iris turned around towards him with a bright smile on her face.

"It worked! Look, it's floating!"

Harry gaped warily at the heavy book floating across the room, but he couldn't help but smile back. Iris' smile was just that infectious.

Still. What would Uncle Vernon say if he saw that?

"Wow, good job! Uhm... But you better make it stop before Uncle Vernon comes home..." Harry said uneasily.

Iris deflated a bit, but apparently realized the truth of his words, as she bounced over to the still floating book of science, and jumped on her tiptoes several times until she managed to grab it.

"Got it!" she waved it about, then skipped back over to him and put the book down on the table.

It promptly started to float again.

"Uhhm..." Iris muttered and flushed, as she caught the book again red faced. "Whoops?"

~V~

Uncle Vernon had been all too eager to take them to Kings Cross, on the promise of being rid of them for ten whole beautiful months. He also had taken great pleasure in mocking the non-existence of their assigned destination. Harry was worried about that himself. Even though he trusted Hagrid, the aptly named platform nine and three-quarters didn't seem like something they would just find on a random sign.

Currently, they were standing around on platform nine, and were utterly lost. Harry eyed his surroundings, looking for anything out of place.

"Woah, pretty!"

And as per usual, Iris wasn't of any help either. She was currently admiring a graffiti drawing on the wall apparently.

"-packed with Muggles, as always-"

Harry's head snapped around, trying to find the source of the voice. His eyes found a plump woman with flaming red hair, leading a gaggle of more red-haired kids along the platform, pushing along several carts holding large wooden trunks.

He turned back to Iris, who was standing close to the drawing and holding her hand out as if to touch it.

"Hey, Iris, I think those are wizards!" He whispered and pointed at the odd group.

She blinked and turned around, and followed his pointed finger towards the assortment of redheads. Her eyes widened.

"You're right! Let's ask them!" Iris declared, put on a bright smile and made her way over to the group.

"Hey! Sorry, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to platform nine and three-quarters?" Iris asked the woman who was currently fussing over a girl that looked very much like her daughter.

"Hello, dear. First time? Don't worry, it's quite easy. All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platform nine and ten. Don't stop, that's very important, maybe run a bit if you're scared. Percy, could you-"

"Thanks!" Iris chirped. She turned to look at the wall, and after a second's hesitation, shrugged and quickly pushed her cart towards the wall. Within a second, she was gone.

Harry blinked. The woman quickly started to wave through her children, one after the other disappearing into the wall. He didn't want to intrude on the family, but he also didn't want to lose Iris, so he firmed his resolve, took his trolley and approached the group.

"Uhm... Excuse me?" Harry called meekly.

"Oh dear, you're in first year too? It's nothing to worry about, you'll see. It's Ron's first time as well. Just run right at the wall, anywhere will do really," she said, pointing her hand somewhere next to the graffiti.

Harry beheld the very solid looking wall. The wall which his sister had just disappeared through. Steeling his resolve, he gripped his trolley and charged at the brick barrier.

"Okaay, fine, you got me. It's just a joke we keep playing because he kinda looks the part..."

He was greeted not by a crash, but by his sister's voice from next to him.

Looking around, Harry found himself on a platform that was actually numbered nine and three-quarters, and a large sign proclaimed that the Hogwarts Express was leaving at 11 am. Next to him, his sister was arguing with two of the redheads. Said boys turned as one to look at him and grinned.

"I can see what you mean..." one of them said.

"Indeed, O brother 'o mine... Well, we must commend you on your attempt, ickle firstie, but you should know better than to try and prank a prankster," the other said with a smug grin.

"Trust me, that's not a war you wanna start," the first of the identical looking boys said.

Harry was already lost. What had happened in the few moments she had been gone?

"Well, nice meeting ya, gotta go!" Iris chirped and stepped over towards Harry to clutch on his arm.

He decided he didn't want to know, and they made their way towards the train and found an empty compartment. Together, they managed to heave their trunks to the top and flopped into the seats. After a few minutes, Iris reached back up, pulled her physics book out of the trunk, and dropped down to lie across the seats opposite Harry. Her book gently floating above her head, she settled in to read. Harry sighed. He supposed doing magic in front of wizards wasn't a big deal like it was with the Dursleys, was it?

The compartment door slid open, revealing the youngest one of the redheaded boys.

"Hello, can I join you? Everywhere else is full..." he said awkwardly.

Recognizing the boy from earlier, Harry smiled and said: "Oh, sure, come in."

The boy shuffled into the compartment, wrangled his trunk onto the rack with Harrys help, and sat down, staring at him.

After an awkward minute of silence, he blurted out "Are you really Harry Potter?"

Harry nodded.

"And you've got the..."

"The what?" Harry asked awkwardly.

"The scar!"

The boy looked at his forehead eagerly.

Harry smiled shyly and pulled his hair to the side, revealing the lightning bolt scar.

"Blimey, I thought for sure Fred and George were trying to pull one over on me..."

He gathered himself and then smiled. "I'm Ron, Ron Weasley."

Then Ron turned to the third occupant in the compartment.

"Whoa! You're doing magic?" he gaped at Iris lying across the seats on the other side.

Iris looked up and grinned. "Hi, I'm Iris. Nice to meet ya!"

"How are you making it float like that?" Ron gaped.

Harry sighed and rubbed his head. "It's the book. It just... kinda floats on its own."

Ron nodded. "Wicked! I've heard of those... We don't have any books like that."

He seemed to lose interest again, and turned his attention back to Harry.

"You must have all kinds of cool stuff!" Ron said excitedly.

Harry looked down. "Not really... Our relatives never let us have many things."

"They what? But you're the boy-who-lived!" Ron exclaimed aghast.

"Well, they didn't even tell us about magic until our Hogwarts letter arrived..."

"Oh... Are they muggles then? Does that mean... you don't even know about Quidditch?" Ron said with horror in his voice.

"What's Quidditch?" Harry asked.

Ron quickly launched into an eager explanation of what he proclaimed to be the best sport in the world. Harry listened with rapt attention. Just as he was explaining the intricacies of why bludgers were only ever allowed to be sold in pairs, the compartment door slid open again. A girl with bushy brown hair had just burst into the compartment.

"Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one." she said in a sort of bossy voice.

Ron just shook his head.

"Sorry, haven't seen a toad" Harry said.

However, the girl's eyes had come to rest on the third occupant in the room.

"Are you doing magic? That's the levitation spell, isn't it? I've read about it in the Standard Book of Spells vol. 1, but it's not one of the spells I've tried yet. How are you doing it without a wand?"

She said all that in a single breath. Iris looked up, or rather down, from her book with a smile. However, Ron beat her to it.

"No, that's just an enchanted book."

"Oh..." The girls excited gleam dimmed a bit, but it quickly came back. "Hold on, that's not a magical book. I recognize this book from our library. My whole family are muggles, so there is no way they would have a magical book. I'm Hermione Granger by the way. Who are you?"

"I'm Ron Weasley," said boy reluctantly introduced himself.

"Iris Potter, nice to meet ya," Iris said with a smile on her face.

"Are you really?" Hermione's eyes widened and then flicked over to Harry. "Does that make you..."

Harry realized where this was going, sighed and nodded. "Harry Potter."

"I know all about you, of course. You are in Modern Magical History on page 108 through 112." With that she turned back to Iris with a demanding expression.

"As I was saying. There is no way this is a magical book. It was printed by Cambridge, it's even on the cover! So why is it floating? Do you have your wand hidden somewhere?" the girl said with what she probably tried to make a very stern voice.

Iris' lips tightened at that. The way this girl had demanded her answer as if she had done something wrong rubbed Harry the wrong way too.

"What do you mean? It's a family heirloom. I thought that was on page 110..." Harry said with a slight quirk to his lips.

Hermione looked confused, as if about to correct him, then realized what was happening and narrowed her eyes.

"Fine, be that way. You three had better change, I expect we'll be there soon."

And with that, she left the compartment in a huff.

"Whatever house she's in, I hope I'm not in it." Ron said at that.

Harry nodded sagely, and then clarified, "House?"

Ron kindly provided an enlightening explanation on the four houses of Hogwarts, and why all of them except for Gryffindor were kind of rubbish.

Harry didn't quite understand how one's house would make them a good or bad person, but he supposed he didn't really know anything about it.

The next time the compartment door opened, it was a much more welcome sight. Food.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Ron looked like he was about to decline, but one glance at Iris showed that they had similar ideas. One minute, and several galleons later, they now had an assortment of pretty much every single snack, sweet and other kinds of food that the trolley lady had to offer sitting on their table. Ron looked a bit reluctant, but after some prodding from Harry also gratefully dug in.

They tried several pastries, candy, cakes, and other strange things. Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Licorice Wands, they had all kinds of strange magical sweets that made varying amounts of sense. While Harry gladly ate his fill, it seemed like Iris and Ron were in some sort of unspoken competition to finish the entire lot.

Harry smiled to himself. They had made a friend, they had great food and sweets, and they were on a train heading to a magic castle to learn magic. And they wouldn't have to see the Dursleys again for ten whole months. This was quickly turning out to be the best day in his life.

~V~

Iris swallowed the final pastry with gusto, and jumped up from her seat. With a quick swipe, she caught her free-floating physics book out of the air, which she proceeded to stuff back into her trunk. Then she turned to head for the door. "I'm gonna see if I can find Draco. See you later!" she declared, slid the door open and stepped outside. She missed Ron's aghast expression completely.

Out in the mostly empty hallway, she was quickly feeling lost. They were somewhere in the middle of the train, but she couldn't see Draco anywhere, and the train seemed to just go on and on in both directions. With a shrug, she picked a random direction and set off down the corridor.

Approaching the next compartment, she risked a peek through the window. There was a group of older students huddled around some kind of game. A stack of cards was perched in the center, built up somewhat like a misshapen pyramid, except the people on the cards seemed to be trying to hold the whole thing together. Each of the students was holding cards in their hands, some of which seemed to argue or swear at them. No Draco though, so she moved on.

A few compartments down she spotted a familiar face. It was the bushy haired girl from before; she was sitting alone in the corner of an otherwise empty compartment, her nose buried deep in a heavy book that Iris didn't recognize. For a moment, she pondered knocking, but then reconsidered when she recalled how the girl had treated her before.

Moving on, she looked into the next window. A large brown spider appeared on the other side of the window. It seemed to chitter around on the glass, before she realized that yes, there was in fact glass between her and it. Phew. A boy with dreadlocks appeared next to it, grabbed the arachnid off the window and proceeded to stuff it into what looked like a cardboard box. She decided that she really didn't want to know.

Iris shook herself out of her stupor, wanting to get the hell away from this compartment, and swerved around, only to slam right into something soft.

"Owwie!" a girl exclaimed, as they tumbled to the ground and her vision got obscured by a mop of brown hair.

Iris rolled to the side and heaved herself onto her knees. "Agh... Sorry, my bad. Are you okay?"

"My bum hurts... but I'll live. What the heck were you doing anyway?" the brunette asked.

"Uh... Okay this is gonna sound kind of lame, but... there was a spider..." Iris said and flushed.

"Uh huh..." the girl said and quirked an eyebrow.

"It was a really huge spider! Right in that compartment window!" Iris exclaimed indignantly.

The girl's gaze followed her pointed finger and noticed the mentioned compartment.

"Oh, that's probably Lee. I heard he brought a tarantula to school!" The girl said like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Iris paused at that information, and then asked dubiously "Is that even allowed?"

The girl grinned and chirped "Nope!"

She didn't seem inclined to follow that statement with any further remarks.

"Who are you anyway? I don't think I've seen you before actually..." the girl changed the subject and peered at her very closely.

"Uh... I'm Iris?" she replied uncertainly as the girl's grin widened.

"Tracey. Pleasure to meet'cha!"

Iris couldn't help but smile too. Something about this girl was just infectious.

"So... what'cha doin' out out here all alone?" Tracey quipped and stared at her intently.

"Oh, I'm looking for Draco Malfoy, you seen him?" Iris asked eagerly.

"Nope. What'd you want with him anyway?" Tracey asked curiously.

"Uh... Well, I kinda met him in Diagon Alley, and he was so cool, and so we talked a bit..."

"Oh boy..." Tracey sighed. She turned to look at Iris, tilted her head, and said "Eh... Ya could do better."

Iris spluttered; not sure what Tracey meant by that.

"What? I- I mean, sure I don't know him very well, but he was so nice, and cool, and he was talking like a real prince-"

Iris words caught in her throat as Tracey's entire demeanor changed in an instant. Her hazel eyes suddenly looked a lot colder, boring into her, and judging.

"Just because his manner of speech reflects such pure high class and nobility, it makes you realize how utterly inferior you are in its presence?" Tracey demanded, as if she were a noble talking to a peasant. She was somehow looking down at Iris, despite both of them being the same height, causing her to shrink under her glare.

The image was shattered when a second later Tracey started to giggle.

"Merlin the look on your face!" she said in between giggles.

Iris tried really hard to act indignantly, but Tracey's laughter was just that contagious.

When Tracey calmed down, she said "All the pureblood families learn to talk like that, it's a whole thing about formal society in the magical world, you know."

"I mean I'm just a Half-Blood, but my dad still taught me the basics. Mostly, I just ignore them though. It is all rather silly," she said with a smirk.

"So, are you Muggle-born then? Wait, Draco actually made friends with a Muggle-born?" Tracey asked with mischief in her eyes.

"Well, my parents were magical, but well... We just grew up with muggles..." Iris said and looked down.

Tracey gave her a look, and thankfully decided to change the topic.

"Soo... What house ya think you're gonna be in?"

Iris thought about what she had heard from Ron, and decided to go with the tried and proven answer.

"Oh, I've got some idea..." Iris said with a smirk.

"Meaning you have no idea whatsoever," the infuriating girl concluded sagely.

Iris deflated. "Well, yeah. All I heard from Ron was that Gryffindor is the best house, and all the other ones are associated with one undesirable quality or another... But why would they bother making four houses if three of them are just rubbish?"

"Well, there is some stereotypes associated with every house, Gryffindors are the brainless idiots that rush into things without thinking..."

Iris felt her cheeks heat up.

"... and Slytherins are evil megalomaniacs. But in the end, it doesn't really matter. It just means where you sleep, who you share a dorm with, and there is this house points system that is supposed to make houses work together to beat the other houses at the end of the year. But nothing prevents you from having friends in other houses and meeting them whenever you like, and you still share classes with all the other houses."

Iris sagged in relief. The thought of not being sorted into the same house as Harry had been a constant worry ever since Ron had mentioned the sorting.

"So how do we actually get sorted anyway? Ron said he didn't know, but his brothers said we might have to fight a troll or something..."

Tracey broke into full blown laughter.

"Can you imagine?" she giggled, and then continued in a raspy, ancient sounding voice, "The sorting ceremony is now over, thank you for participating. Let's see here... Ah, yes. You have all been sorted into the graveyard. Congratulations!"

At that bit of acting Iris couldn't hold back her laughter either. She had no idea who Tracey just tried to embody, but she expected it would become obvious once they arrived at Hogwarts.

Tracey continued giggling, then caught her breath and said "Nah, you just put on a hat."

Iris stared dumbfounded. "A hat."

"You'll know it when you see it," she explained with a grin.

Iris didn't know what to say to that, so she changed the topic again.

"What were you doing out here anyway?"

"Ah, looking for a new compartment..." Tracey said, suddenly speaking in a quiet voice.

Iris raised an eyebrow, but Tracey didn't elaborate.

"Hey, I told you mine, now you tell me yours," Iris half demanded.

Tracey sighed, but acquiesced.

"Well, my friend, well I guess we used to be friends as kids, was acting all gloomy and dark, and I was trying to talk to her, or cheer her up, but I didn't really know what to say... I haven't seen her in years, and... she's just so different now," Tracey said in a small voice.

Iris immediately regretted having pushed at the look on Tracey's face.

"Well, and then I asked her how she's been, tried to make small talk and all that, and suddenly she just snaps her book shut and kicks me out. I-I don't even know what I did wrong..."

Her heart ached at Tracey's downtrodden look. She wanted nothing more than to wrap the girl in a hug, but then again, she had never hugged anyone except for Harry...

The green-eyed girl stood awkwardly in the corridor, twiddling her thumbs, not knowing what to say.

"Well... wanna come to our compartment? We've got lots of room!" Iris tried to cheer her up.

Tracey seemed to weigh the offer for a moment, insecurity warring blandly on her face, then slowly a smirk started take over.

"Who else did you say was there? Ron? As in Ron Weasley? Forget what I said before, how in Merlin's name can someone manage to be friends with both him and Draco Malfoy at the same time?" Tracey said as she dissolved into giggles. However, she did come along, even if seemingly only to mock Iris' peculiar choice of friends. They walked back down the corridor together, and finally reached Iris' compartment, only to find the door already open.

"Get your slimy butts out of here before we make you!" growled Ron.

One of the three boys standing in the compartment looked up at their trunks and frowned.

"Pity. Seems like after your parents spent all their money on your school supplies, there wasn't any left for manners."

"Good one, Vince" said the second boy.

The third one, who turned out to be Draco, sighed.

"Boys, let's be civil about this. No need to stoop to his level." He shook himself and took one step forward and held his hand out.

"This is a simple offer of friendship, no strings attached, Potter. Unlike what your friend here seems to believe, I do, in fact not spend my free time kicking puppies. I simply wish to get to know you better, and offer to introduce you to the intricacies of our world."

Iris took an uncertain step into the compartment, but nobody noticed her presence.

Ron seemed like he was about to explode again, his face completely red. Harry regarded the extended hand warily.

After a long deliberation, he sighed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I don't think that we could be friends." Iris felt a jab of disappointment at hearing that. However, Harry continued.

"But that does not mean we have to be enemies, either."

The two boys stared at each other quietly for a few more seconds until Draco grinned.

"See, now he's making us look bad by being the reasonable one. Well played Potter. Looks like you're learning already."

At that, Draco spun around to strut out of the compartment, only to almost collide with Iris and Tracey in the doorway, and his self-assured smirk faltered for a second.

"You! What? Iris? What are you...? You are his sister?"

Iris grinned as she saw her chance, and held out her hand. "Iris Potter, nice to properly meet you at last."

Draco took a few seconds but managed to shake himself out of his stupor and smiled back, as the other boys seemed to smirk at the other occupants.

He took her hand and shook it. "Well, I suppose something good came out of this visit after all. Talk to you at Hogwarts, then."

And before Iris could even think of a way to try and keep the conversation going, he swept out of the compartment, his two friends in tow, leaving behind a stupidly grinning Iris, and a slack-jawed Tracey.

"When were you going to tell me that your brother is the flippin' boy-who-lived?" Tracey exclaimed indignantly.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that?" Iris said with a grin, then turned to the other occupants. "Ron, Harry, this is Tracey."

"Tracey Davis," she helpfully filled in.

"I ran across her in the hallway and she's looking for a new compartment-"

"Why did you do that?" she was cut off by an angry accusatory yell from Ron.

"I... thought we could use the company?"

"What? No not her, I mean Malfoy. Why did you act all buddy-buddy with that slimy git?"

Iris blinked, then sighed and slowly turned to look towards Tracey. "I think I see what you meant now." Ron opened his mouth, but did not have a reply to that.

She climbed up to her trunk and unlatched the lid, causing her book to come floating out of it. She plopped herself down on a seat, with the book floating up next to her.

"Whoa! How are you doin-" Tracey exclaimed.

"It's just a ruddy enchanted book" deadpanned Ron.

Said book proceeded to whack Ron playfully over the head.

"Oy!"

The compartment promptly disintegrated into laughter.

~V~

Harry still had no idea what had just happened. One moment, they had been sitting in their compartment, he and Ron idly chatting, while Iris mostly kept to herself and her book. Then, Iris had suddenly left to find Malfoy, causing Ron to go on a ten-minute rant about the Malfoys, Slytherins, and generally all things evil. Only for the subject of the rant to show up in their compartment and almost end up in a straight up brawl with Ron. Harry knew he wouldn't be able to be friends with Malfoy like Iris probably would have liked. His gut feelings very much disagreed with being around the boy. But he also knew Iris was trying to be his friend, and didn't want to needlessly antagonize him, so he tried for the neutral ground.

Just as he thought he had made it through the ordeal, Iris had shown up, and just had shaken Malfoy's hand in front of them. Then she had rejoined the compartment, and brought with her this girl, Tracey Davis, and together they had completely taken over the conversation. Instead of fun topics like Quidditch, they were now talking about all kinds of boring things. Well, mostly it was the two girls doing the talking. At some point the girls had even kicked them out of their own compartment to get changed. Girls were weird. Iris alone was hard enough to understand, and now there was two of them. The fact that they seemed to be so similar didn't fill him with confidence at all.

Still. Harry was happy that Iris had made another friend. At least with Tracey, his gut wholeheartedly agreed with the decision.

He was just hoping they would all be sorted into the same house.