Chapter 38 - Empathy

Iris was pacing. She usually wasn't one to do that, but she felt the situation justified it. What on earth was going on?

She had awoken to yet another magically amplified announcement from Snape that Aurors would come searching their rooms, which had then never shown up. Also, while she had been waiting, something had happened to Harry. She had no idea what, but she had never felt anything like this. So she had given up waiting for the Aurors and had gone to try and find Harry using the shadow realm.

What if it was another attack? What if Harry had been- no. She wouldn't entertain that thought, until she had proof one way or another. Also, the announcement had come before she had felt whatever she had felt through their friendship bracelet. So whatever had happened that had caused Aurors to show up, Harry had still been alive after that. So right now, she was pacing in front of the Gryffindor common room entrance, still not having managed to sneak inside using the shadows.

"What's going on? Why are we sneaking around in front of the Gryffindor common room?"

Iris jumped and turned at the whispered voice, then sagged. She was already regretting having agreed to take the ghost with her.

She opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by the portrait suddenly swinging open. Luckily, she was currently far enough away from the entrance to be able to dive behind cover before anyone could see her. Her eyebrows went up as the portrait slowly closed back up, without anyone ever having stepped out. What? Why would... was that-

She stuck her head around the corner and whispered "Harry?"

A gasp, and suddenly, Harry's floating head appeared right in front of her. "Iris! What-"

"Are you okay? I felt something happen through the bracelet, what's wrong?"

He shifted under her gaze, and quickly replied "I'm fine, but... well, I had a dream, and-"

"Hello there, Harry," came a purr from next to her, as the annoying ghost stuck her head past Iris shoulder to take a look at her brother.

This caused harry to pause, and blink. "Who's... that?"

Iris sighed. "This is Myrtle. She wants to help investigate the attacks, and apparently she seems to know her stuff."

"Mhm!" The ghost nodded energetically with a smug grin.

"Feel free to just ignore her. Most of what she says is actually nonsense."

"Hey! I'm right here, you know?" the ghost exclaimed indignantly, and her face twisted into a pout.

Iris proceeded to follow her own advice and turned back to Harry. "What's going on, really?"

Harry swallowed, took a breath, and his face settled into a grim expression. "He's back."

Iris' breath caught in her throat. No. He couldn't mean-

"I saw it. In a dream. He was doing a ritual, and he sacrificed the stone, and a piece of jewelry that was one of apparently five things that was somehow making him immortal."

There was a gasp from next to Iris. "A-are you talking about-"

"The Dark Lord. He's back. He has a body. And apparently, he is even more immortal now, somehow."

Iris stood frozen, unsure what to think, or say. This was too soon. She wasn't ready! Not that she thought she ever would be, at this rate. But what on earth was she supposed to do against a threat like that? If he really had sacrificed a stone that could heal any injury, would that mean his body now possessed similar properties?

Then, another thought entered her mind. "What about the Aurors? Do you know why they are here? Did he send them somehow?"

Harry blinked. "Oh... Well, yeah. They were here to look for the heir, I think. They thought it was some sort of dark artifact, but turns out, apparently it was Scabbers."

Okay, no. She must have just misheard him. "Come again?"

"You know Ron's pet rat? Scabbers?" Harry began.

"...Yes?" Iris replied incredulously.

"Well, the Aurors came into our room, cast Revelio, and some other version of that spell, and suddenly one of them just threw a spell at Scabbers that knocked him out. Apparently, he was something called an Animagus, which is a person that can turn into an animal, just like McGonagall."

Iris' mouth dropped open. "He was... What? You mean... that was actually... a wizard? The whole time?"

"Err... well, looks like it. They did some sort of spell, and he turned into this really ugly looking man. And while none of them recognized him, apparently, he had the Dark Mark on his arm, which is the symbol of You-Know-Who's followers. So it looks like that he might have been the one attacking people."

"That... that is... Well, it would explain why Muggleborns got attacked, if the supposed heir was actually one of his followers. Still though... I mean he was in there with you the whole year! What the hell?!"

Something about this whole thing really didn't sit right with her.

"And also, if he was in your dorm the whole time, and he was one of his followers, why wouldn't he attack you? Why attack some random Muggleborns instead?"

"I don't know, and right now, I don't really care. I have to go and tell Dumbledore about You-Know-Who."

Iris' eyes widened. Right. If the Dark Lord really was back, their best hope was probably him. The only one that the Dark Lord had allegedly ever feared. Iris gathered her resolve, and nodded in agreement.

"Let's go."

"Really? Please don't make me go talk to that boring grandpa..."

Iris shot the ghost a flat look. "You know, you don't have to come along with us, right?"

"Hm, hm!" the girl replied, nodding, but then she seemingly changed her mind and just faded into thin air.

Iris rolled her eyes and turned towards Harry with a shrug, who tossed his cloak over her, and together they began to make their way towards Dumbledore's office.

Iris followed along Harry's lead, having never actually been to Dumbledore's office, until he stopped right in front of a stone gargoyle.

Harry proceeded to remove the cloak and shout at the thing. "Hey! Open up! I need to speak with Dumbledore!"

The stone gargoyle seemed unimpressed, as it surprisingly remained, well, a stone statue.

"Erm... how did you get in there the last time?"

"Well, McGonagall said some kind of password? I think it was... Licorice Wands!"

The gargoyle glared back at them, but other than that, nothing happened.

"Uhm... what's supposed to happen?" asked Iris carefully.

"Well, it's kind of like a door, except it opens into a spiral staircase somehow..."

Iris risked a glance behind the gargoyle and noticed that there was a long round shaft leading up. Well, she supposed she could try the shadows, but A: she really didn't want anyone else to find out about them, and B: she had no idea if his office wouldn't be just as protected as the Gryffindor common room, and C: Harry probably wouldn't want to go along with it.

Iris frowned and glared at the unmoving stone statue. Well, he did say it was like a door...

With a shrug, she withdrew her wand, called up yellow light, jabbed forward and twisted forty-five degrees clockwise. "Alohomora!"

A flash of yellow light, and a deep sound followed the impact, and suddenly, the gargoyle's eyes started glowing yellow. Yes!

The ground shook for a moment, and with a groan, the gargoyle started rotating and ascending like a corkscrew, revealing the spiral staircase beneath, which was slowly growing upwards.

Harry shot her a thankful look. Wow. Apparently, the situation was dire enough that he couldn't even find it in him to be worried at her basically breaking into the headmaster's office. They stepped onto the rotating staircase and looked at each other warily as they slowly ascended up and up until they reached another door. Just as Iris raised her wand again, Harry stepped forward, raised his hand, grabbed the door knocker, and made to knock.

Oh. Well, of course. Iris blushed.

Before Harry could even manage the first knock, the door suddenly clicked and swung open by itself, allowing them to step inside.

"-surely, you're just as worried as me about the safety of the students, Albus?"

Harry and Iris snuck into the office, realizing they were intruding, and consequently seemed to have logically agreed to eavesdrop.

"I assure you; nobody worries more so than I," came the voice of their headmaster from around the corner.

"Well, you see, I can't help but be concerned still. According to my source, it was supposed to be a dark artifact, which was what we came here to find. And correct me if I'm wrong, but we still haven't found it," spoke the second man.

He had long smooth blonde hair that ran all the way down his shoulders, wore neat perfectly fitting black silver-trimmed robes, and was holding a cane, but apparently that seemed to be more for decoration rather than because he needed it.

"According to Auror Shacklebolt, the heir has been apprehended. The official investigation has concluded, and I'm afraid I cannot allow visitors free rein to search the castle outside of official channels—no matter their intentions. I'm sure you understand. But you can rest assured I shall handle your warning with utmost seriousness and will advise my staff to be on the lookout for such a thing."

There was a moment of silence, as the two men were just staring at each other, even Iris and Harry holding their breath as they peered around the corner into Dumbledore's office.

"My son attends this school as well, as I'm sure you know. How can I in good conscience return home knowing that nothing was done to address this threat?" the blond man snarled, gripping his cane tightly.

"I'm very sorry, Lucius, but my hands are tied. I cannot simply allow you to go and search the entire castle by yourself, no matter how your intentions, with as little evidence as this, we wouldn't even know where to start..." Dumbledore said in a regretful tone, causing Iris' eyes to widen. No way.

Lucius, apparently, was subtly shifting around on his cane, and Iris thought she could see a drop of sweat roll down his forehead. The two men were just staring at each other for seconds and seconds, neither of them yielding, but it was plain that something was stressing out the blonde man to no end, and he seemed like he was about to break.

"My... source... gave a vague description of the person he suspects to be in possession of it," the wizard finally growled.

"Oh?" Dumbledore replied, his visage shifting into an interested expression.

"He claimed it was a young girl, quite possibly a first-year student, with red hair."

Harry and Iris exchanged a worried glance at this. He wasn't talking about her, was he?

"Truly? How very interesting... Well, in light of this new information, I shall of course take the necessary steps to verify it right away."

Dumbledore suddenly had his wand in his hand, and a blinding silvery bird burst from it. Iris felt a sudden inexplicable feeling of warmth envelop her chest. As quickly as it had come, it disappeared again. Harry shifted next to her, and stepped around the corner, apparently unable to put off the reason he was here any longer.

"Sir! Professor Dumbledore!" Harry called out, quickly approaching the old man, as the blonde took him in, and his eyes widened.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded the man known as Lucius.

"Sir I... I need to tell you... something important! I... uhm..." he looked around, threw a worried glance at the blonde man, and Iris couldn't help but agree. "Just you." Harry added with determination.

Iris had a suspicion that this man knew a lot more than he let on about what was going on, and Dumbledore had been doing a great job of wringing that information out of him, but she didn't think it was a good idea to let the man know what Harry had seen, and luckily, Harry seemed to be of a similar opinion.

"It looks like my duties are demanding my undivided attention, Lucius. I'll let you know at once if your information bears any fruits. Would you please excuse me while I deal with this matter in the meanwhile?"

The man's eyes darted between Harry and Dumbledore for a bit, as he ground his teeth while fumbling with the head of his cane. What on earth was going on with him? He seemed like he was about to object, but then Dumbledore suddenly swished his wand again, and Iris felt a funny feeling settle in her throat.

"Well, Harry? Why was it you wanted to speak to me, in the middle of the night no less?"

Harry threw a worried glance at the paling face of the other man, but Dumbledore just chuckled. "Not to worry. I cast the curse of Babel on the three of us. Anyone else who might be listening will only be able to understand gibberish."

Harry squared himself and nodded. "He's back, sir! You-Know-Who. I saw it, in a dream, just like last summer."

That effectively froze the conversation in its tracks.

"Are you sure, Harry?" was all the old man asked.

"Yes. He did some sort of ritual, he sacrificed the stone, and he has a body again." Harry then proceeded to launch into a brief explanation of the events he was able to recall from his dream.

"Also, he called his followers, and I think... well... he called one of them Lucius, and told him to retrieve something for him..." Harry added with a worried glance at the room's fourth occupant.

"Did he now..." Dumbledore mused and shot another glance at the man who seemed torn between rage and worry.

Suddenly, a bright silvery cat burst into the room, and Dumbledore swished his wand again, causing the strange feeling to lift from Iris' throat.

The cat opened its mouth, and the familiar worried voice of McGonagall came sounding from it.

"Albus. I have interviewed Miss Weasley as you have requested. She admitted to having been in possession of such an artifact, but also claims that she has destroyed it after the last attack as she suspected it to have been responsible."

The blonde man visibly sagged; his eyes wide. "No..."

"Well, this is certainly a relieving turn of events, is it not, Mister Malfoy?"

The blonde man, who was apparently Malfoy's infamous father—which wow, how had she not made that connection before—was just staring at them, a pale drop of sweat running down his forehead. "Indeed."

Silence followed. Only after an all too long pause, he finally spoke back up. "Thank you for your time, headmaster," he said in a toneless voice. Mr. Malfoy began stiffly walking over towards the grate, helped himself to a handful of green powder from the bowl next to it, tossed it into the flames which caused them to turn a blinding green, stepped inside and spoke "Malfoy Manor."

With a rush of flames, he was gone.

The headmaster turned back to look at them, and his expression turned grim. "Now then. The news you have brought to me is most... concerning. You can rest assured that I will take all the appropriate steps in light of this development."

Harry gave a thankful nod.

"Well, it is good that you are here, because there is another matter I wanted to speak to the both of you about."

Both Iris and Harry straightened up at that bit of news.

"What is it, sir?" she asked with apprehension.

"I have received word from the ministry, and the Auror office has confirmed the identity of the man that was apprehended earlier this night in your dorm room to be one Peter Pettigrew."

Iris blinked, and turned to shoot a confused glance at Harry, who returned a shrug back at her.

"You see, Peter Pettigrew was a friend of your fathers..."

"Hold on, THAT Peter? The one Professor Lupin was talking about?" Harry exclaimed, causing Iris' eyes to widen as she made the connection. "Wait, I thought he was dead!" interjected Iris.

"Alas, so did everyone else. But it appears that he has been in hiding all these years."

Iris didn't know where to begin with that.

"When your parents went into hiding from You-Know-Who, they employed the protection of one very advanced and arcane spell called the Fidelius charm. Its function is as simple as it is complex. It hides a secret within the mind and soul of one singular person. In this case, the charm was used to hide the location of your house. I presume your mother was the one who cast it."

"The spell is powered by the trust the caster and the protected individuals place in their secret-keeper. Therefore, your parents had to forego all other protections and place their entire faith and trust into a single person, but in turn, it would be categorically impossible to find the house for anyone who hadn't been told the secret by the secret-keeper, even if they were standing right before it."

That... Magic like that existed? Would it just... manipulate everyone's perception? Everyone's memories? Or... did it work on an even deeper level than that?

And Mum had cast it?

"And that person was..." Harry whispered. Iris had a hunch where this was going.

"Your father's very closest friend, Sirius Black."

Wait. What?

"That day when the Fidelius fell, when You-Know-Who showed up on your doorstep, Peter Pettigrew confronted Sirius Black in the center of muggle London about what he had done, and after the spellfire died down, twelve Muggles were dead, and the only thing they found of Peter Pettigrew was a single finger. Sirius Black was arrested that night, and remains in Azkaban prison to this day."

Iris had a very bad feeling where this was going.

"So if Peter is still alive, then does that mean..." Harry began.

Dumbledore sighed. "I'm afraid that the official story is missing a few very important details, it seems."

He could say that again. If Pettigrew was still alive, and had been hiding the whole time, and had the mark of the Dark Lord on his arm... But that didn't make sense, if Black betrayed them to the Dark Lord, and Pettigrew was working for him too, why would they attack each other? Unless... Black had never been the secret keeper in the first place.

"Sir, how do you know that Sirius Black was our secret-keeper?" Iris asked.

"It is what James told me, along with the rest of the Order," Dumbledore admitted.

Harry threw a look at her. "You're thinking it was actually-"

Iris just nodded. "What Order?"

"The Order of the Phoenix is a group of individuals I founded whose goal was to oppose You-Know-Who's plans. A group that I have been in the process of rebuilding ever since last summer. And they will be the first to know about what you have witnessed tonight."

"What about the Aurors?" asked Harry.

"As it stands, there are two reasons why I would prefer not to publicly announce this development to them. Regrettably, the ministry is unlikely to accept solely your word as evidence on a matter such as this; even my own word would be called into question, I'm afraid. Additionally, the fact we know that he has returned is right now our biggest advantage. Working under the assumption that he does not know about your dreams, he might be preparing plans on the basis of us being unaware of his return, which could prove to be our benefit."

He started twirling his beard as he began looking between Iris and Harry. "I will, of course, try to spread the word to those individuals who would be willing to listen. And in the meantime, the ministry will at least be able to follow the other lead that tonight's events have unveiled."

Dumbledore sighed. "Hopefully, in light of this new evidence, and through the following interrogation, we can manage to undo what appears to have been a grievous miscarriage of justice."

Harry was exchanging wary glances with her again, this time full of worry as well as uncertainty.

"Because if it proves to be true, not only has an innocent man been unjustly imprisoned for eleven years, but you should also know that said man is, in fact, your godfather."

~V~

Iris trudged back into the Slytherin common room and wordlessly collapsed in her usual corner next to Theo.

"Rough night?" Theo queried.

"Try completely fucked," Iris muttered, sinking her face into her hands.

"First the Dark Lord returns, and now it turns out I have a godfather who has been unjustly imprisoned for the past eleven years."

Somehow, not even Theo managed a response to that statement.

"Hey... uhm Iris. Mind if I join?"

Iris looked up with confusion as she recognized the speaker. Was she that worried about her mental state that she wasn't even sure if she should sit down next to her?

"No, clearly you've been excluded from our little group for showing up late," said the resident incarnation of snark.

Tracey just looked between her and Theo hesitantly.

"Wow, I know it is early but really? I thought you of all people were used to this idiot's sense of humor by now," asked Iris with a raised eyebrow.

Tracey just smiled, and finally sat down next to her.

Iris smiled back, then asked, "Why are you here anyway? I thought you were going to leave the castle over the holidays?"

Tracey shrugged. "Yeah, I... uhm... kinda messed up my sleep after the late-night search. I'll take the train tomorrow instead."

"Well, you won't hear me complaining about your company, even if shit's completely messed up," Iris grumbled.

"You-Know-Who's back, an innocent man is sitting in jail, and now thanks to the creep they've found in Harry's dorm, the whole investigation about the heir is completely pointless."

"What?! What do you mean, pointless?" Tracey exclaimed.

"Lucius Malfoy. He was the one who sent the Aurors. Apparently, he was trying to get something back that You-Know-Who wants, and he claimed it was a dark artifact that might be responsible for the attacks. Whether it actually was, no idea. And possibly, he was also the one who was responsible for the artifact being here in the first place. But if it was the artifact that was responsible, apparently Ginny Weasley had it, and McGonagall said that she destroyed it after the last attack as she thought that she might have been the one attacking people."

"Oh... But... that's good, right?" asked Tracey worriedly.

"Well it should be, but Dumbledore isn't sure that it would be so easy to destroy. So either, the artifact is destroyed, and the whole thing is done, or the artifact is not destroyed and still somewhere out there, but that would also mean it would render the whole investigation so far useless, or it was never the artifact in the first place, in which case, maybe it was Pettigrew, and again, the whole thing would be done, or it wasn't, and we could still be looking at the same suspects as before the whole thing," Iris said, and finally took a deep breath, after having gotten all that out.

"Long story short, shit's fucked."

"Iris!" exclaimed Tracey aghast, to which Iris just shot her a glare, causing the girl to blush and shrink back.

"So... I... but... you... don't have any idea who it could be, then?" Tracey mumbled.

"Which part of shit's fucked did you not understand?" Iris snapped.

"...What about Malfoy?" Tracey asked.

"No idea, but he looked like the Dark Lord was about to rip his head off once he returned empty-handed. He probably was."

"What? No- I meant Draco," Tracey clarified.

"What about him?" Iris raised an eyebrow.

"Do you think he's the heir?"

That caused a snort from Theo. "Good one."

"I- What- I mean... what makes you so sure that it wasn't him? I mean... he was talking all that stuff when Mrs. Norris got attacked... And all of his threats about allegiances... And the thing with you!" she exclaimed, pointing at Theo.

Iris opened her mouth, then paused. Something had been up with Tracey, she had been acting odd the whole time, but this was a red flag if there ever was one. Tracey hadn't been present for the first attack. How would she know what he said back then?

Also, add to that the fact that Tracey was supposed to have boarded the train an hour ago... Was there magic that could turn people into other people? Make them look like someone else? Well, yeah. A few things came to mind. Illusions, Transfiguration, Polyjuice Potion.

Now, the real question was who it was that was actually sitting in front of them. She threw a glance at Theo, who immediately met hers with a meaningful look, confirming that he had also caught on that something was up.

Well, given the questions she had asked, whoever it was, was probably interested in the Heir of Slytherin thing. But if she had come to talk to her, that would indicate that she suspected either her, or maybe Theo. Maybe she also just wanted her opinion on Malfoy, but at that point, why not disguise as one of his friends and talk to him directly?

Then, there was the fact that she didn't even react when Iris had told her that the Dark Lord was back, even though that knowledge should be only limited to Harry's dorm room, and herself. But with the way she was acting, she was probably a girl, and very likely someone who knew her personally, given the fact that she had used her first name to try and admonish her for her outburst. Also the fact she did that-

No way. Really? With a growing smile, Iris leaned over to peer into the girl's bookbag, and the end of a very familiar tape recorder came into view.

With that revelation, the final puzzle piece clicked into place. Iris turned to look at the girl, and couldn't hold a small smirk.

"This was what you needed the Essence of Empathy for?"

The polyjuiced girl looked at her in confusion, until suddenly her eyes widened. "What? I... What are you talking about?"

Iris grinned back. "Honestly Hermione. Did you really think it was me?"

"Oh, this is just great. It's Miss Law and Order herself," Theo declared with a smirk.

"I... what... I'm not-" the bookworm in disguise squeaked.

Iris just grinned at her. "Hey, don't worry. I'm not gonna rat you out. You might wanna keep it down, though. We're not the only ones in here, you know?"

The girl's gaze darted back and forth wide-eyed, until she whispered, "Y-you're not? B-but... Why?"

This time, Iris gave her a genuine smile. "You were concerned about the heir, and about the attacks, and rightfully so, you're muggleborn after all. And you've drawn the obvious conclusion and wanted to make sure. Although if you're still not sure, I'll have you know that Lockhart beat you to it. He tricked Harry and me into an interrogation under a truth spell to find out if it was one of us."

"No, I believe you. I... well, I realized half-way through that you seemed to have put far more thought into the investigation, but you obviously didn't have any idea either, and... well, I never really thought it was you anyway logically, I mean... you're Harry's sister. But I still had to make sure. Also..." Hermione broke off and threw a worried glance at Theo.

Iris caught her look, and leaned in to whisper, "What, him? Yeah, he likes to be a dick about pretty much everything, and he was there for two out of three attacks, but well... If you trust me, then believe me when I tell you it's not him. For half of the past year, he had a massive piece of blackmail on me, but he never did anything with it, and instead just helped me trying to fix it. And that was before we were actually friends. So yeah, I trust him."

"And what about Malfoy?" the girl whispered.

Iris grinned back. "Malfoy likes to talk a big game, but in reality, the chance of it being him is just about equal to anyone else in here. Except, if it really was an artifact, and it really was brought here by his father, I think that just makes it even more unlikely for it to be him, if anything. I'm very sure he wouldn't put his son in danger like that."

"I... guess that makes sense..." Hermione's eyes darted between her and Theo for a bit, until she spoke up again, "And... you're really not mad that..."

"What? About this little stunt?" Suddenly, Iris expression turned a touch colder. "It's not like you hurt Tracey or anything, right?"

"What? N-no, of course not! She's probably on the train right now!" the girl squeaked, shrinking back a bit.

Iris just gave a smile in turn. "Well, then we're good in my book. Just don't get caught on the way back."

The girl didn't need to be told twice, and she scrambled to her feet and hurried out of the common room.

She turned to look back at Theo, who met her with an amused expression. "You really seem to have a talent for making friends out of enemies."

Iris crossed her arms and pouted. "You could at least take some responsibility."

Theo made a show of glancing at his fingernails. "On a cold day in hell, maybe."

Iris very maturely tossed one of the couch pillows at him.