Chapter 40 - Nautical twilight

"Harry! Wait up! Where are you going?"

Iris was running behind her brother, who seemed dead set on getting somewhere, but she had no idea where, or why.

"Come on! I heard the voice again! It's over here!"

He kept turning another corner, and Iris scrambled behind, but almost smacked into him, as she realized he had finally come to a stop.

"Potter."

Her eyes widened as her sight came upon none other than Draco Malfoy, who had just gotten up from where he had been kneeling above a body on the ground. His eyes met hers and his face twisted into an ugly scowl. "This is your fault!"

Iris froze, then slowly looked down onto the ground. Brown hair was splayed over a face that was only all too familiar.

No.

Before she even knew what to think, Malfoy snarled, raised his wand and shouted "Everte Statum!"

A bright flash and a spell came flying at Harry, who hadn't even drawn his wand. Iris gasped, and grabbed at Harry, pulling him to the side, just barely avoiding the spell, until he finally managed to draw his wand as well. "Expelliarmus!" At the same time, Iris had drawn her own wand, and shouted "Depulso!"

Twin spells came rushing at him, and he grinned, swiped his wand down, and a brilliant golden shield came into existence with a shout of "Divine Shield!"

The two spells impacted him to absolutely no effect, and he just smirked and tilted his head, still protected by the goddamn golden bubble. Of course he would be a stupid Paladin.

There was nothing for it. She'd just have to defend for eight seconds until the shield ran out.

"Locomotor Wibbly!" Her eyes widened and she whirled around, only to barely dodge another spell from none other than Warrington. Harry turned to look at her and yelled, "Run!"

Iris didn't need to be told twice. They started off down the hallway, both Warrington and Malfoy in tow, spells of all colors sizzling past them. A sudden hissing noise from her right made her head snap to the side, and she gasped. A massive green snake was coiling through the unlatched window, and turned to look right at her. Crap! It was going to petrify Harry!

She whirled around, trying to drag Harry to the side, and shouted, "Quick, we have to capture the Essence of Procrastination so we can create an antidote!"

Harry turned back to her with a confused expression. "Don't we need to... Not do that, in order to capture the essence?"

He had a point there. But then how were they supposed to create the antidote at all? Turning back, she noticed Malfoy catch up with them, his shield finally gone, but now there was a tall blonde man standing next to him, and resting a hand on his shoulder.

"You see, Albus?" the man said flatly, gesturing with his cane while looking to the side at the approaching headmaster, who was holding a black cat. "I was right to be worried."

"Please, there is no need to be worried," came a third voice who was strolling into the room from the other side, flashing a blinding smile at them. "For you see, I finally found the heir!"

"Iris! No!" Harry called out reaching a hand towards the girl that Lockhart was dragging into the room. "You're wrong! She wouldn't do that!"

The girl scrambled to her feet, her wrist still held firmly by the tall Defense teacher, and she looked around with a worried expression. Iris felt like she was standing beside herself; the girl looked so much like her.

"You must be her accomplice then," declared Malfoy senior, pointing an accusing cane at Harry.

"No! Please! It wasn't me!" yelled the girl—herself. "He... he made me do it!"

"Oh please..." came a voice that made her insides turn to ice. Her head turned, until her eyes met the deep blue of her old Defense teacher. "Everyone knows it's impossible to prove the Imperius in court."

"Sir!" Harry yelled out, his desperate pleading gaze latching onto their headmaster. "It wasn't her. You have to believe me!"

"As much as I would like to believe you just like that, Harry, do you have any evidence to support your claim?" the old man replied with a saddened expression, while beginning to pet the black cat.

Suddenly, she felt her body constrict as a hand settled on her shoulder, and a man in a trench coat stepped out from behind her, quickly joined by another man with long dark hair, who spoke up. "As you know, using a basilisk to attack other students is a violation of the Magical Creature and Students Regulation Act 1845, paragraph 2 through 4, section C."

"What? But I didn't-" Iris replied dumbfounded.

"The punishment is eleven years of unjust imprisonment in Azkaban," added the man in a trench coat, while taking a drag from his cigarette.

"But it wasn't me!" Iris yelled out, as the two Aurors enclosed on the girl and Harry, both looking equally terrified as they forced handcuffs onto them.

"No! I won't let you!" shouted Iris, having drawn her wand. "Depulso!"

Iris stared in disbelief as her wand remained just a cold hard stick in her hand. "Depulso! Stupefy! Expelliarmus!"

What? Why wasn't it working? She... what on earth was-

Professor Quirrell stepped up to her and crossed his arms. "Having trouble, Miss Potter? How... disappointing. You should know that there is one spell that is always going to work..."

Iris rapidly shook her head. No way. Especially not in front of all of them, what was he thinking? She wouldn't let anyone hurt either of them, but still... There had to be another way.

Iris looked back up at the retreating forms of the Aurors with Harry and the girl in tow, until suddenly the girl did a little flick with her hand and the handcuffs simply fell off. Iris' eyes lit up. Yes! They could do it! They could get out of this!

The girl stopped, turned around, and for the first time, looked at her. Her eyes were purple.

The girl's mouth twisted into a smile as she tilted her head, then a grin, growing wider, somehow gaining extra teeth, as she raised her hand, which was clutching a bloodied dagger, the very same color as her hair. Her mouth opened just a sliver, and she whispered, "One must die."

With a sudden lurch, she spun to the side, raised the dagger up high, blood-red metal glinting against the torchlight, until it slashed down towards-

"HARRY!"

Iris was breathing deeply, scrambling around, and it took several seconds before she managed to untangle herself, and she felt something slide off her body and to the ground. Sitting up, she tried to catch her breath, and gather her surroundings.

From the bed opposite her, Tracey was staring back at her with wide eyes.

For seconds the silence stretched, until Iris finally found words at last.

"Uhm... Good morning?"

Really. What the hell had that been all about? She already knew Harry was in danger, she didn't need her brain trying to bash her over the head with a reminder like that.

~V~

As ridiculous as it had been, the dream simply refused to let her go. Not to mention, she still didn't know what to do about Lupin. She supposed that he would be found sooner or later, but she couldn't just go and tell someone, that'd lead to questions on how she found him, and what she had been doing there. And this time, she really didn't have any sort of answer to that. So, after being stuck in her spiraling thoughts for all of Charms class, she had finally elected to do something about it. By which she meant she had badgered Harry into coming with her to hang out at that tree by the lake again. She didn't even know what she wanted to do with him yet, just that she wanted to spend some time with him. The Scottish hillside was still covered in snow, and the lake was partially frozen over, yet it wasn't very cold, in fact, temperatures were probably even above freezing, even though it was still the middle of January.

Iris had gathered some dead wood from the nearby tree and piled it on the ground between the trunk and the lake. Then, she removed her wand, lit up the tip in orange color, flicked it at the pile with a thought of Incendio, and watched the hungry flames start to engulf the campfire with a soft crackle. Harry carefully sidled up next to her and held his hands out towards the flames, and only several seconds later she realized that he was staring at her.

"How'd you do that?"

Iris just gave a wry smile back. "Silent casting. Myrtle showed me."

They both just silently stared at the flames for a bit. That's right. Harry couldn't do that. From the start, Harry had always been pretty talented, learning several advanced spells to try and protect her while she wasn't able to do any magic at all, but over the past year, the roles had slowly reversed. And lately, she had begun to glimpse just how high the ceiling truly was. She had realized how big the gap was between her and most of her classmates—and it was only growing. But also, that it was insignificant compared to the gap between her and someone like the Dark Lord...

It was just, well, as much as she hated it, she knew he couldn't protect himself, not from something like that.

"You're spending a lot of time with that ghost lately," Harry remarked.

Iris just shrugged. Well, she supposed she was. But she had learned so much in their little sessions, and she could feel herself growing stronger with each one. When all was said and done, that really was her best shot in trying to prevent Harry from getting hurt.

And it still wasn't enough. There was the heir and the basilisk, there was Malfoy, there was the Dark Lord... And who knew what else. Turning to look into Harry's eyes, she suddenly saw a flash of a bloodied blade and a mad grin on a face bearing purple eyes.

Iris flinched and scrunched her eyes shut, shaking her head, which caused her hair to fling across her face. She wouldn't. She wouldn't let it be her fault. She wouldn't let anything happen to him.

Iris stiffened as she felt a pair of arms gently wrap around her, as Harry just sat there, wordlessly holding her.

Finally, he whispered, "It's alright, Iris. You know I'll always have your back. I'll protect you. I promise."

Oh, he had no idea, didn't he? Or maybe, he was just saying it to calm her down. He still wanted to protect her, when in reality he himself was truly the one in need of protection.

Harry began rubbing his arms down her back like he used to back in their cupboard, and suddenly, something broke within Iris.

Unbidden tears came, and she didn't even know why.

Iris couldn't manage any words, not that she would have known what to say, anyway. She was just silently weeping tears of worry, of despair, of love, as he held her close, providing his unspoken support.

He would be fine. She'd make sure of it. No matter the cost.

~V~

In the end, they hadn't even really done anything for the rest of the day, they just spent hours in each other's company, and she wouldn't have it any other way. Only when dinnertime approached had they finally returned to the castle and made their way to the Great Hall. Glancing down the table, she found a free seat next to Luna and Ginny, which she happily took, with Harry following suit.

"No, Luna, I told you, that's been proven false. The ministry looked into this whole thing. As did Witch Weekly. They even sent qualified mind healers, but—who would have guessed—they cleared everyone involved of any memory charms."

In return, Luna gave Ginny a patronizing look. "Of course; that's because they are in on it."

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Iris curiously.

This just caused Ginny to shake her head exasperatedly. "Luna is going on about that conspiracy theory on how Lockhart is a fraud again."

"It's only a theory until it gets proven true," replied Luna sagely.

"Or false," added Ginny exasperatedly.

"Back up, why would you think he's a fraud? Have you been to his classes?" asked Harry.

Luna leaned forward and cupped a hand to her mouth, as she whispered, "Oh, I'll admit, it's devilishly hidden, but it's really quite obvious once you know how to read the signs..."

"Again, what are you talking about?" Iris cut in with a raised eyebrow.

Luna's eyes lit up, and she leaned closer to Iris. "Well, you see, while at the surface, Lockhart is just the valiant hero from his books who travels the country, solves the mysteries, and saves the day, the truth is far more sinister than that..."

"Aand here we go..." groaned Ginny, as her head hit the table with a thunk.

"You'll notice that none of his books make any mention of exact dates, but since they are all supposedly based on real events, you can do the research yourself, and assign exact dates to most of the events in the stories. And Daddy did exactly that," she said with a happy smile, and picked up the colorful magazine that had been resting on the table in front of her, and placed it down between her and Harry.

Iris took in the proffered page of what was apparently called The Quibbler with a raised eyebrow.

"And what he found were several discrepancies. The first few chapters of Laughing with Lethifolds take place during a winter. And while the final chapters have been successfully dated into the summer of 2005, that would mean he was stuck in Cumbria during the winter of that year. But here's the problem. The last chapter of Dining with Dragons has been dated to March of 2005 as well. So either, there are several people posing as Lockhart, he has access to a Time-Turner that can somehow go back more than 12 hours, or, he's a fraud. Personally, I'm firmly in the last camp."

"Or, you know, he could have just apparated," added Ginny in a deadpan voice.

Luna shook her head. "But why would he do that? He was in the middle of another mission right then. Also, he lost his wand during the second chapter, how do you explain him casting all those spells at the final confrontation with the dragon then?"

"That he just got a new one? Why would he go up against a dragon without a wand?"

"Then why would he get another wand in chapter four, then? If he already had one?"

Ginny leaned back and sighed. "Because that one was especially made for him. Really, arguing against you is like arguing against a wall."

"That's because I'm right," Luna replied with a smile.

"Now hang on. What do you even mean by him being a fraud? As I understand, all the people involved did confirm the story, right?" asked Harry with confusion evident in his voice.

"Well, yes. But they could have just been memory-charmed," Luna said with a nod.

"No, they obviously weren't. Never mind the fact that you can't just memory-charm hundreds of people, I told you, they checked. Exactly because of crazy theories like this one. And everything checked out. They even found spell-residue from his wand in all the places that he mentioned in his book. Sorry, Luna, but I think your theory really doesn't have a leg to stand on anymore," Ginny declared resolutely.

Luna just shook her head. "So naive... As I said, that only works unless they are in on it. Every time he publishes a new book, there are immediately several issues that people find and point out, and Daddy writes a whole article about it, but as soon as the 'official' investigation begins, he makes another 'donation', and they all just disappear or... get 'disproven'. Open your eyes, Ginny! It's all connected!"

Ginny turned a desperate look from Luna over to Iris and all but begged, "Can we please get a change of topic?"

Iris just shook her head in amusement. "Sure. What about you? You seem a lot... livelier today, I gotta admit. You doing okay with... well with what happened?"

That caused all of Ginny's remaining good spirits to instantly evaporate. "I... Uhm... Does everyone know about that?" she asked with an uncertain voice.

"I don't think so... Harry and I just happened to be in the headmaster's office when McGonagall told him about it."

"Oh... Well yeah, I..." Ginny paused, then shot an uncertain look at Harry. "I'm doing better. I really didn't realize at the time how much he was... in my head..." she whispered.

Iris replied in confusion. "He?"

"Well, at least I assumed it was a him. I don't know his name or anything."

"Do you remember anything about him? What he looked like, how he talked, what you talked about?"

Ginny shrank back hesitantly.

"Uhm... sorry, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, It's just... We're looking into the whole thing with the heir, because... I think from the attacks so far, the heir's goals are aligned with the Dark Lord's side of the last war, and well... that means it's only a matter of time until he comes after Harry."

The girl's eyes widened and she nodded. "I... I don't remember much, honestly it's kind of scary, but... I know he always liked to talk about my feelings, made me feel like he understood, like I could rely on him, and looking back on it, he was also driving me away from my friends and my brothers... Whenever we would have these long talks about feelings, about emotions, I don't really know where they stopped, it all just blurred together, and then I woke up in my bed the next morning, and... there was another attack."

The youngest Weasley was looking so very small right now, and Iris just wanted to wrap her in a hug. But before she could even finish that thought, Luna beat her to it. "It's alright," the silvery-eyed blonde whispered, as she squeezed the girl softly. "He's gone now."

Ginny just nodded, for the lack of a better response, while Iris and Harry watched them awkwardly.

"Iris, there you are! Where've you been the whole day?" Iris turned to find her roommate approaching, and squeezing herself into a spot next to Harry.

"Oh, hi Tracey. I've been by the lake with Harry."

Ginny looked up at the girl warily, and Iris blinked for a second, until she facepalmed. "Oh, right, introductions. My bad. Ginny, this is Tracey, my bestie and roommate. Tracey, meet Ginny, she's a firstie, and friends with Luna, so she's obviously awesome."

Ginny blushed and Luna just smiled serenely, as Tracey grinned at the girl and gave her usual chipper introduction.

"Oh, right, and this is Harry, but you probably already know each other," added Iris with a giggle. Ginny looked up, and her blush redoubled as her eyes met his and he smiled at her.

"We actually don't. It's nice to finally meet you, Ginny," said Harry with a smile, which made the girl attempt to disappear into her seat.

"Hi... uhm... ah..."

Iris couldn't hold back a giggle as the adorable girl rapidly attempted to imitate a tomato.

"Come on, Harry, give the poor girl a break," interjected Tracey with a grin, which only got a confused glance from Harry. "What?"

That caused the whole group to descend into giggles. Did she have a crush on him or something? Or was it because he was the Boy-Who-Lived? Iris wasn't quite sure what was going on, but it was adorable as heck.

A screech interrupted the merry group as a snowy-white owl made its appearance known and fluttered towards them. Hedwig? Why was Harry's owl here? Also, didn't post usually arrive in the morning? Not that they had really ever gotten any mail during the year anyway.

The owl settled down on Harry's table and looked expectantly at him, until he finally acquiesced and stroked her feathers. Only when he finally handed her some of the remaining ribs from dinner did she hoot in satisfaction, and hold out her leg for him to pick up the letter attached to it.

"Look at that, it's addressed to both of us," Harry said, causing Iris interest to spike. Who would be writing to them, especially at this time of day?

Unrolling the parchment, they began to read.

Dear Harry and Iris,

I am so very sorry. You might not know me, but I have known you for a very long time. When the two of you were born, James and Lily appointed me as your Godfather. And being the idiot that I am, I have immediately gone and failed in my most important duty as such; to be there for you when you need me.

There are so many things I would love to tell you in person, but regrettably, I am not allowed to freely move about until the mind healers have cleared me to be of sound mental health after my unfortunate extended stay at Azkaban. Luckily, my rehabilitation so far consists mostly of pretty witches and Malibu beaches, so it's not all bad.

I suspect you might already be aware of the circumstances, but in case you weren't, I hope you will believe me that I wanted nothing more than to keep the two of you safe, yet still my decision has in the end led to your parents being betrayed, and I could never forgive myself for that.

If you would have me, I would love to see the two of you as soon as I am able, when I will happily answer any questions you might have.

Love,

Sirius

Iris blinked, reading and re-reading the letter again. That... that was...

She had known, she had been there when they had found out, but until now, it hadn't felt real. Just some person their parents had known, but then he had just written them a letter like this...

For the first time, it felt like she actually grasped that Sirius Black was a real person that was out there, that had been locked in prison this whole time, when he could have been there for them. She had no idea what kind of person he was, but well... She looked at Harry, and he met her eyes. Yeah. They really were in unspoken agreement that they'd have taken basically anyone over the Dursleys.

~V~

"Three, two, one... Begin!"

Draco's eyes widened as he saw the sudden bolt of red approaching him, and he scrambled for his wand. What? What spell was that? She hadn't even said any incantation! Thinking quickly, he focused on the familiar feeling of the aspect of Destruction, and produced the reflective shield with a shout of "Reiecto!"

He almost let out a breath of relief as he saw the spell split in twain, the yellow counterpart splashing harmlessly against him. He knew not every spell's visible color matched up with the color of the aspects they contained, but more often than not, they did, so he had thought it was a safe bet.

Scrambling, he jabbed his wand forwards and followed up with a shout of "Everte Statum!"

Yet, to his dismay, she simply countered with a blue reflective shield, effortlessly neutralizing his spell.

Still, how in Merlin's name had she done that? He had been training for the whole of last year, trying to gain some form of edge against her—no matter how much he had disliked his last professor and his way of teaching—but he had endured in face of the terrifying threats she had made, and it had worked. He had provided him with the perfect counter to her abnormal form of magic. But somehow, even before their first duel, she had figured out his ace for herself and used it against him. Still, since it was a perfect counter to her type of magic, and he had practiced with it for the whole year, it hadn't mattered in the end.

And yet, he had had all but a single victory to enjoy the fruits of his labor, until she somehow figured out the one weakness to his strategy within the span of a single week, and now he was cornered again. It wasn't supposed to go like this. None of this!

Scrambling, he saw a bright purple bolt coming towards him, and he desperately shouted "Protego!"

The spell impacted the shield with a resounding bang and an explosion of sparks, which caused the shield to flicker but thankfully hold. And just like that, he was now on the defensive.

He couldn't identify her spells from her incantations like that, and he wasn't sure about the wand motions—he didn't have those memorized from the other point of view. The only remaining identifiers were the color of the spell, and, he guessed, the color that her wand lit up before she cast the spell. But both of these didn't always align with the color of the aspects used. Or rather, he supposed the color of her wand did, except that the colors would blur together and become an entirely different color. But he didn't have to match the mixed color, he had to match one of the aspects it was made out of. He had known that this was the reason why people did not learn the aspects of spells and instead relied on sensing the magic, doing so would leave you open to exactly this kind of weakness. But that required you to be able to feel out spells that were coming at you, and he still wasn't able to do that.

This was bad. Half of his training was pretty much useless, and the other half wouldn't even matter unless she used polarized magic here, and even she wasn't stupid enough to do that in the middle of the classroom. That left him with precious few options he could use to turn this back around. He only saw the mad gleam in her eyes for a second, until her wand flashed orange and he scrambled to produce another shield, hoping that Orange was the correct guess. "Reiecto!"

And it was, as her wand did indeed burst into an elemental spell, but that also made him quickly realize the problem with that. The gust of wind tore down towards him in an arc, until it impacted his shield and blasted right through, as if it wasn't even there. Of course, the shield would only reflect spells, not the elements themselves. Yet another weakness. No.

Stumbling from the impact, he just barely managed to cast Protego as yet another red spell smashed into his shield. Through the bright sparks, he faintly noticed her wand beginning to glow in a bright blue, and he hastily swiped his wand, focused on the Force aspect and shouted "Reiecto!"

And not a second too late. The bright blue bolt of magic impacted his shield and was completely reflected, and returned right back at her. But this time, she produced a blue shield of her own, causing the bolt to be reflected back yet again. It kept bouncing two more times, until it finally missed her shield and smacked into the wall with a heavy bang.

He had to do something! He- well... From what he had seen so far, and also what he had told him back then, was that she wouldn't be able to use the regular shield spell, she was instead entirely relying on the reflective shield, which required her to know the aspects of his spells in order to counter them. And also, she was using silent casting to prevent him from knowing which aspect to shield. But... maybe he could turn that around on her. If he resorted to using spells she wouldn't recognize, maybe she wouldn't know which aspects to shield either? He had learned several advanced and obscure spells from him over the past year, but he didn't have much practice with them... But it would have to be enough.

"Melofors!"

Her eyes widened as she dove to the side to avoid the pale bolt of light, and his mouth widened victoriously, not about to give her an inch of space. "Alarte Ascendere!"

She scrambled to the other side, but was now glaring back at him. Yes. He could do this. "Descendo!"

This time, she brought up a blue shield to block the spell and reflect it back at him. Well, so much for that, apparently she knew that one, or maybe just guessed from the incantation. He saw her hand flare up in iridescent colors and his eyes widened as a painfully familiar orb of light came flying towards him, but before he could even dive out of the way, he noticed that it had stopped mid-air, and was now hovering above him. What? Well, no matter, he'd be stupid not to use the opening she had provided.

"Carpe Retractum!" He jabbed his wand forward, but his eyes widened as his wand simply erupted in a shower of colorful sparks, but otherwise left his opponent unharmed.

A bright yellow spell came flying at him, forcing him to cast Protego once more, the impact this time shattering his shield and knocking him backwards. Desperately, he jabbed his wand again and shouted "Orbis!"

But once again, his wand failed to produce anything other than a burst of sparks. What in Merlin's- No. He looked up and his eyes met the floating colorful orb. Was that what it was doing? Did it work somewhat like Corrumpo? But that meant... he couldn't use any of the obscure spells he had looked up! Desperate, he swiped his wand and shouted "Expelliarmus!"

His spell was deflected like all the others, and he stumbled, trying to get back to his feet, but as he looked up, he saw her meet his eyes and smirk, as her wand began glowing in a bright Blue. Was that it? Or was it a feint? Could he risk trying to use the reflective shield, in case it was another spell? Or could he risk trying the general shield, in case it was Depulso?

Unable to think clearly, he instead took the third option, and tossed himself to the ground as the bright blue spell came rushing at him. Her wand still glowing, he barely managed to bring up a Protego when another spell impacted him, smashed straight through his shield, and sent him tumbling backwards. Groaning, he hastily tried to scramble to his feet, and noticed a red spell pass just inches from his face. He couldn't let it end like this! This was supposed to go entirely differently! He wasn't- he... He was supposed to be Seeker. He was supposed to finally turn the tables on her.

Everything was falling apart. First, the letter from his father, and now...

No! He didn't care anymore! He just wanted-

Before he even knew what he was doing, he swiped his wand through the pattern he had practiced, then jabbed his wand in her direction and cried out "IMPERIUM FULGUR!"