Iris dipped one hand in blue paint and one hand in green paint, then smeared the blue on the upper half of the canvas and the green on the lower half of the canvas. Then she dipped her fingers in yellow and orange paint and blotted the center of the page randomly, then added a few blobs of red and pink in the center as well. She frowned thoughtfully at the page for a minute before quickly dipping her fingers in white pain and scribbling them around in the blue portion before grabbing a bit of yellow paint and throwing it at a top corner of the canvas.
She smiled proudly as she watched the paint transform and melt into a simple but pretty painting of a meadow field with yellow, orange, red, and pink flowers covering the green grass under a blue sky with a few thin clouds and a shining sun. She clapped her sticky, colorful hands together.
"All done!" Iris announced loudly.
"Isn't that cheating?" Harry asked from where he was sitting in the center of the living room with a board game.
"No!" Iris insisted. She shoved her hands out for Harry to see. "I still had to get my hands dirty."
"Right," Harry said as he picked up the dice and rolled, smiling happily at the number he got.
"Hey, didn't you already roll the dice?" Iris asked, crossing her arms.
"I was warming them up the first time," Harry said with a shrug as he moved his piece down the board.
"Uh huh," Iris said.
They both paused to look up at their father as he emerged from his study and pulled his teaching robe off a coat hanger and slipped it on.
"Are you both ready for lunch?" Severus asked. "Put all that away—Iris, wash your hands, and let's head to the Great Hall."
Harry folded up and packed away his board game while Iris ran off to wash the magic paint off her hands in the bathroom sink. Once they were ready to leave, they each accepted a hand from Severus before they eagerly pulled their father out of their quarters, trying their best to make him move faster toward the Great Hall.
"I can't imagine you two are starving after the large breakfast you had," Severus commented, smiling in amusement at their antics.
"We just want to see friends," Iris said. "You're keeping us locked up all day in our rooms."
"Perhaps if you stayed with your student escorts, you wouldn't have to stay in my sight all the time."
"We will this time. I promise."
"Now you promise me." Severus couldn't help the small roll of his eyes. "You will survive another couple more days. The students leave very soon, you know."
"Which is why we have to spend more time with them before they're gone forever!"
They arrived at the Great Hall, and with Severus's permission, Iris and Harry ran off to find familiar faces while Severus joined the other professors at the head table. Iris quickly found Zuri at the Gryffindor table while Harry tracked down Terrell at the Ravenclaw table sitting with other fourth years.
"Hey, little man," Terrell greeted as Harry climbed in the seat next to him. "What have you been up to? Seems like your dad has you and your sis on a short leash."
"He does," Harry said. "We took off from our student escort the other day so now we have to stay in Daddy's sight all the time!"
Terrell and a few nearby Ravenclaws who heard him chuckled at Harry's exaggerated tone, some of the older girls making awed faces at him.
"Well, take advantage of the free time while you have it." Terrell pulled a plate closer to Harry before assisting in grabbing whatever items Harry pointed at. "Any plans for the summer?"
"Dad didn't tell me any," Harry said as he picked up a finger sandwich and bit into it. "What are you doing this summer?"
"A lot of surfing. Honestly, autumn is a lot better for the sport, but of course, I'll be right back here then, so summer it is."
"Can I come visit the hotel castle and surf too?"
"That's up to your dad, but I don't see why not."
Harry smiled excitedly at that before he focused on eating his fill of lunch. He really liked the beach, and he hoped Joshua would be there too. Surfing wasn't exactly Joshua's favorite thing, not like football, but he still gave it his best shot. Harry was just excited about the new experiences and opportunities his family gave him. After lunch, Harry sadly said goodbye to Terrell as the older kids left the Great Hall, then joined Severus at the head table. Iris was already sitting next to him talking about her long conversation with Zuri, and Harry sat in a vacant seat next to her, glancing at Charlie who was standing at the end of the head table talking to Hagrid about the small Barkeater dragon resting on the boy's shoulder.
"We have the end of year staff meeting after lunch, Severus," Minerva reminded her colleague. She cast concerned eyes at Iris and Harry. "You don't mean to bring them along to sit through it, do you? You know they tend to last a couple hours."
"I forgot about that," Severus muttered. He glanced at his kids while frowning in thought.
"We can go to the lounge!" Iris suggested, a big grin on her face.
"I don't know," Severus said. "I would feel better if I knew someone was keeping watch of you two. And there better be no taking off on your escort if I can find someone or I'll have you sitting in our quarters with a babysitter."
"We won't this time," Iris said, looking at Harry, who nodded in agreement. "We promise."
"I can watch them," Charlie said, walking in front of the head table over to where Severus and his kids were sitting. "I have a lot of siblings at home I watch all the time."
Iris and Harry grinned at Charlie before looking at their father expectantly, and Severus hesitated for a few seconds.
"That's very kind of you, Mr. Weasley," Severus began, "but I'm not sure . . ."
Severus struggled with the right words for a moment when Bill appeared behind his brother, resting a hand on his brother's shoulder while smiling placatingly at Severus.
"How about," Bill said, "I watch my brother watching your kids, sir? Two pairs of eyes are better than one, right?"
Severus sighed in relief at the easy solution presented to him. He felt a little more confident in the elder Weasley's ability to handle his devious kids than the younger Weasley, and with both kids keeping an eye on them, there was less likely a chance of Iris and Harry slipping away. And he knew how mature Bill Weasley behaved, which is what earned him his place as Prefect that year.
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley," Severus said. "Two pairs are certainly better than one. Where do you think you will reside for the afternoon?"
"We are going to the library for an end of year review," Bill said. "Charlie is going to join us and can amuse your kids."
"I was n—" Charlie tried to say when his older brother tugged the hair at his nape sharply, silencing him quickly. He glared up at his brother before sighing and saying, "Yeah, I was going to do a bit of reading on Barkeater dragons. Thought Harry might find it interesting."
"I'm sure he would," Severus said, raising a brow at the boys. He sighed and relented however. "Alright. Harry, Iris, behave for the Weasleys. I will pick you up from the library as soon as the meeting is over."
"Yes, Daddy," Harry and Iris said in unison as they stood up and walked around the table to the Weasley brothers. Bill gestured for Charlie, Harry, and Iris to follow him out of the Great Hall and to the library.
"You're not really doing some "end of year review," are you?" Charlie asked.
"Sort of," Bill said with a shrug. "All my dormmates worked on a homework assignment so we could all trade information before we leave for the summer."
"Isn't that cheating?" Charlie glared at his brother. "Wait till Mum hears . . ."
"We're not copying off each other's assignments," Bill said with a roll of his eyes. "We're just . . . sharing tips."
Harry and Iris shared a smirk while Charlie scoffed under his breath. They arrived to the library quickly where several other fifth year Gryffindors were sitting in a circle at a table. Bill quickly joined them, but not before eyeing Charlie, Iris, and Harry with a stern look only an eldest brother could master.
"Library rules still apply," Bill said, "keep quiet, but you can read or play any of the games around here. Stay where I can see all three of you, okay?"
"I'm not Ron or the twins, Bill," Charlie said, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, but Snape entrusted you with his kids, and I'm not getting on his bad side by losing them. You're stuck with me until Snape comes to pick them up." Bill ruffled Charlie's hair a bit roughly. "So get comfy, little brother, and stay close."
Charlie huffed and turned away, and when Bill joined his friends at the table, Charlie gestured to another table with several abandoned books sitting out for their leisure.
"Thought I'd be able to sneak you guys to the common room," Charlie said apologetically, "but looks like we're stuck here. Hope you like reading."
"Can't we play a game?" Iris asked as she sat down at the table. "I can read at home anytime."
"These look interesting, though," Harry said as he walked around the table looking at the many book covers. There was a Hogwarts: A History sitting in the center, along with a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them off to the side. Some of the books looked like leisure books, like a word search and crossword book, and one that was titled Ancient Runes and Puzzles. Harry opened the last one, wondering what kind of puzzle book it was. There was a long paragraph that Harry skipped right over, his eyes falling on some strange words at the end of the page.
"Loo-dee in-sip-ee-unt?" Harry frowned, pointing a finger at the word. "What does this mean?"
Iris jumped to her feet to scurry over to Harry, happy to have something to look at rather than sitting and doing nothing. She frowned at the word.
"I think you said it wrong," Iris said. She pointed at each word as she said it. "It's loo-dee in-shape-ee-ant."
"Ludi incipiant?" Harry said.
"That's better."
Suddenly, there was a loud woosh, and Harry and Iris vanished from thin air, the book flipping through several pages before slamming itself shut and lying still on the table. Charlie's jaw fell open and his eyes widened, the little Barkeater on his shoulder tilting his head curiously.
"Uhh, Bill?"
Harry and Iris screamed gleefully as they slid down a flattened staircase that twisted and swirled deeper and deeper into dungeon territory similar to Hogwarts own dungeons. They finally came to a stop in a dark hallway, laughing on the ground as the slide slowly lifted up to become an intimidating set of stairs that traveled upwards for ages. Harry and Iris stood up, looking up the stairs they had come down.
"Whoa," they said in unison.
Several torches began lighting up, revealing a long tunnel before them that ended with a door at the other end. On the ground in front of them, there was a large chalk-drawn game of hopscotch with a complex pattern, the squares numbered one through twelve.
"What happened?" Harry asked.
"I think we're in the book," Iris said. "I heard Cela saying it was possible to get pulled into certain books, so this must be one of them."
"How do we get out?"
As if to answer his question, the squares of the hopscotch game lit up in a distinct pattern, starting with one, jumping to three, then four, then six and seven at the same time, then eight, then ten, then twelve. The squares went dark once more.
"It's a puzzle," Iris said. "I think we do what it says, and it'll take us out."
"Oh, that makes sense," Harry said. "The title was Ancient Runes and Puzzles. What if it needs magic and we can't do it?"
"I don't know," Iris said, already jumping on the numbers she saw appear, arriving at the other side safely. "Tada!"
Harry shrugged, then followed her lead. However, he nearly lost his balance jumping on one leg for three turns, and he stumbled onto six without stepping on seven as well, and suddenly, the ground underneath him collapsed, swallowing the six square space. Harry managed to jump off the square and land on one foot on the eight square, glancing back at the large hole in the ground behind him. He glanced at his sister, who was staring wide eyed at him.
Harry finished the puzzle with no problems after that, but Iris and Harry stared back at the hole that was left behind.
"I hope nothing bad happens," she said, "if we get something wrong."
"Me, too."
Behind them, the door at the end of the tunnel creaked open, and after sharing one last look, the two ran ahead to see what the next puzzle would be.
"You barely had my kids for twenty minutes," Severus growled, holding the book Charlie had handed him. Charlie shrunk back slightly as he muttered an apology.
"It's not his fault, really," Bill argued from where he stood behind his brother. "Whoever checked out those books should have put them back. Honestly, I could have put the books back before Charlie sat down with them at the table. None of us could have known which books were sitting there that they would have opened."
"Severus, this was an accident," Minerva said softly over his shoulder as she looked at the cover of the book. "It's a puzzle book. Students play them all the time, entirely harmless."
"Last I knew, they were not catered to six-year-olds," Severus couldn't help but snap.
Minerva pulled the book out of Severus's hands to open it and read the cover page. Everyone was practically holding their breath as they waited to see what the professor made of the book. After Bill realized the kids had been sucked away into the pages of the book, he and Charlie had rushed to the teachers' meeting room, and Severus and Minerva both stepped away when the kids claimed it was an emergency. Now, they waited for good news from Minerva while hoping Severus didn't explode on them in the meantime.
"According to the rules of the book," Minerva said, "the games will adjust their modes of difficulty based on what they perceive from the players intellectually and magically. So, yes, Severus, they do cater to six-year-olds, though I would not recommend it going forward. Who knows what the magic components may include."
"Is there a way to get them out?" Severus asked.
"Unknown," Minerva said, now flipping through the pages, skipping through the written puzzles and runes for any further information on the immersive aspect of the book. "Let's talk with Albus."
Severus pointed a stern finger at the two Weasley boys.
"You better pray this resolves itself or you two will serve detention with me for the rest of your Hogwarts careers."
"Yes, sir," Bill and Charlie said, then Bill added, "I do hope you get them out safely. I'm sorry we weren't more careful . . ."
Severus sighed and shook his head, holding a hand up to stop Bill midsentence.
"It would be my luck," Severus said, "that Harry and Iris would find themselves trapped in a book. No apologies needed, boys. Thank you for acting quickly and delivering the book to me."
"Of course, sir."
Severus turned away and followed Minerva back into the meeting room. All the professors were in the room, all talented and strong wizards and witches. Someone had to have a solution to get his kids out of the book before they ended up hurt.
Harry and Iris entered a torch-lit, stone room that had a long table in the center with several vials lined up in random order. A gargoyle stood in front of the door on the opposite side of the room, its mouth wide open. As they approached the table, they noticed eight vials altogether, and in the center, there was a slip of parchment resting in front of the vials, and Iris picked it up.
"To pass this room, young children," Iris read, "you must gift the gargoyle with an offering. Only one will do. He doesn't like vinegar or anything blue. Not garlic, meat, or dragon's blood will sway him to be friends. Only the sweetest of wine will let you move ahead. Which vial holds your victory, only you can choose. It's not the one on either end, that's your only clue."
"So we have to figure out which one of the vials is sweet wine to feed the gargoyle," Harry said. "But it only gave us one clue."
"No, it gave us many." Iris set the parchment down and looked at the vials, then back down at the parchment. "It said not the ones on either end. So, these two are out."
Iris gently set the vials on either end of the table down on their side.
"He doesn't like vinegar or anything blue," Iris said. She toppled over the two blue vials waiting in line.
Harry opened a vial and sniffed it, then closed it and set it down. He grabbed a second one, opened it and sniffed it, then scrunched his nose.
"Found the vinegar." Harry set the vial on its side and picked up the first one he had sniffed, feeling the artwork on it. "And this first one I grabbed, it has a dragon on it."
"Dragon's blood," Iris said. "Not that one either."
"So, there's two left," Harry said, pointing at the pink and black vials remaining upright.
"He doesn't want garlic or meat either," Iris said. "Only sweet wine."
Harry pulled the stopper out of the black one and sniffed it. He made a face, then corked it and did the same with the pink one. He looked at Iris and shrugged.
"I can't tell," he said, "they both smell funny."
"One has to be meat," Iris said.
"Liquified," Harry said with a disgusted face. He looked at his sister again, then back down at the pink vial. Throwing all caution to the wind, Harry sipped the vial, earning a jaw drop from Iris. Harry smacked his lips, then dropped the vial and ran to a corner of the room, expelling the putrid liquid out of his stomach.
"I can't believe you just drank it!" Iris exclaimed, wincing at her brother's heaving. "But do you know what it was?"
"It tasted like raw hamburger," Harry said through teary eyes. "The black one must be wine."
"Thanks," Iris said, grabbing the vial and running over to the gargoyle. She poured the contents into his mouth, and the eyes of the stone beast turned red before the stone groaned as it parted away and the door behind it opened. Iris looked back at her brother sympathetically. Harry wiped his mouth with a swipe of his arm before he walked over to his sister.
"Better?" Iris asked.
Harry nodded, and they continued into the next room together. It was a much smaller room, and once the door closed behind them, a single torch fired up, revealing a carving in the stone wall. It was of several circles with rune symbols in the center of each. The circles were connected by two lines leading from one to the next in a star shaped formation. There was one circle that did not have a rune inside it. After the two kids had had a chance to stare at the strange drawing on the wall, five smaller torches resting on the wall below the drawing came alive, and each torch had a rune symbol carved into it.
"What is this supposed to be?" Iris asked, resting her hands on her hips.
Harry frowned as he stared at the drawing once more, then down at the torches in front of him. He glanced back up, then started tracing the circles as he studied the pictures.
"I think it's . . ." Harry started to say. "It's like a pattern. Which one comes next, kind of thing. Some of the pictures are the same."
Iris's frown deepened.
"Pretend each picture is a number," Harry said. He pointed at the very first one. "This is one. The next is two, and then two again, and then three. Then four, then five, five, three. Six, seven, seven, blank. This has to be three."
"So . . . three is whatever that picture is?"
"Yeah, a weird snake thing," Harry said, looking at the picture on the wall then at the torches below. He selected a matching picture and picked up the torch. When nothing happened, Harry held the torch to the blank space. The flame disappeared and the symbol burned itself into the wall. Each rune began to glow, following the order Harry had pointed out. Harry and Iris stepped back to watch as the wall lit up with all the symbols on the wall, then the wall lifted up, revealing the next room.
As soon as the kids stepped in, the door slammed shut behind them. They barely had time to register the classroom setting around them when the room began filling rapidly with water.
Iris screamed and jumped back to no avail, splashing in the water.
Harry stepped up on a chair in the room, and Iris followed his lead, but the room continued to fill with water.
"I think this is where magic is needed," Harry said. "Like Dad's wand."
"We don't have wands," Iris said. "What do we do?"
Harry hopped up on the desk closest to him, looking around for an escape that would not require magic. He searched the classroom for any device that may help them get out of the room. He noticed a vent in the ceiling, and luckily for them, there was a tall bookshelf sitting underneath it. And above Iris, there was another vent. If he could get to the one at the bookshelf, he could crawl through the vent to the one Iris was under and pull her to safety.
Harry looked down at the water filling in the classroom. It was already three feet high and rising. And it was moving around awfully fast, worse than the ocean. Swimming was not an option—he'd be overpowered quickly.
He would have to jump from desk to desk. And hope he didn't fall in. He wondered how much similar the feeling of falling would be to that of when he cleaned Petunia's chimney. If it was similar enough, he would never fall down. His magic would kick in, and he would always land on his feet.
Harry swung his arms, eyeing a desk across from him.
"What are you doing?" Iris asked.
Harry didn't answer. Instead, he jumped for the desk, ignoring his sister's gasp of surprise. He landed on the edge of the desk and nearly fell backwards off it. He swung his arms as he slipped back, but just like all the times he had fallen in the chimney, a force stopped him from falling back all the way, hovering over the water. Slowly, he was righted to a standing position, and he took a step forward, so he was more secure on the desk.
"Are you insane?" Iris snapped. "You're gonna fall in. The water's too strong, it's not like the pool. You could drown."
"I'm not gonna fall in," Harry said, already swinging his arms in preparation to jump to the next desk. The water was now reaching under the desks, so he had to move a little quicker. He jumped for the next one, and landed in the center, stumbling slightly until his magic corrected him. He looked back at Iris. "Don't move. I'm going to crawl through the vent and pull you up."
He pointed at the vent above Iris, and she looked up to see it, then nodded at her brother.
Harry made one last jump for the bookshelf, managing to catch himself on the second shelf, his shoes soaking in water. He carefully climbed it, scrambling to the top where he stood up. He could see the desk Iris was on was starting to rock as water rushed around it, and Iris had her arms out for balance. He had to move faster before she was knocked into the water.
Harry reached up for the vent, and he was glad when he was able to simply yank it off the ceiling. He thought that part might be more difficult, but the game seemed to favor his methods at the moment. Harry pulled himself into the vent. It was dark inside, and with no light to lead him, he blindly felt around, feeling his way forward. When he felt a vent cover beneath him, he pounded on it till it fell away, allowing light to flood in and he looked down at Iris. He slithered out a bit and held his hand out, but Iris could not reach him.
"One second," Iris said, and she fought to pull a chair up onto the desk. She climbed on top of the chair, holding her arms out for balance as more water filled the room, covering her desk and threatening to knock her chair into the water. Iris reached up and her fingers brushed Harry's.
"Jump!" Harry shouted.
Iris did so just as the chair was swept away, and Harry grabbed her hands and pulled her up into the vent, helping her crawl up the rest of the way when she could grab an edge of it herself. She panted as she stared back down at the rushing water in the room.
"That was a stupid one," Iris said.
"It's like an escape game," Harry said.
"I didn't like it," she decided.
"Your eyes are glowing."
"They are?" Iris blinked her eyes, then looked around the vent they were in. There were rune symbols everywhere, and the vent went down a bit before splitting at the end, offering two different routes to take.
"Yeah, it was completely dark in here before."
"They've glowed before," Iris said. She crawled down the vent to the split, looked right, then left, then back at her brother. "I guess we have to do a maze next."
"Yippee," Harry muttered, crawling after his sister.
"Here we are," Flitwick announced triumphantly, tapping a page in a book. "An extraction charm for this very situation.
"I can't believe it's taken us this long to find it," Severus grumbled under his breath, closing a book he had been looking through. After realizing the book did not offer an exit for an outsider to pull a player out (only an exit charm the player should know before going in), the professors had spent the last half hour digging through books of all kinds to find a spell or rune or charm that could help them get Harry and Iris out of the puzzle book. At last, they had a solution.
"Thank you, Filius," Minerva said. "What do we need to do?"
Severus stood behind the Charms professor, Minerva joining him, and they stared at the page Filius had found while he explained the charm.
"Well, it's relatively simple," Filius said. "We need to . . ."
Suddenly, the cover of the Ancient Runes and Puzzles book shifted slightly, and the book slid across the table a bit. All eyes turned to the center of the table where the book waited, and it slid around a bit more before the cover of the book flew open, and Iris poked her head out. She grinned.
"Harry, we made it to the end!"
Iris crawled out of the book, then Harry crawled out after her. Severus breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled both kids into his arms, hugging them tightly. The other professors applauded and cheered for the two kids.
"Why did we think your kids needed our help, Severus?" Minerva asked.
Severus chuckled softly at that, then kissed Iris and Harry on the top of their heads before setting them down on the floor. Filius was looking through the book, reviewing the last activity. He smirked and shook his head in amusement.
"Looks like your kids completed level one of the puzzle book," he said. "If they enter again, they'll go right to level two."
"Which will never happen," Severus said, his hands on his hips as he gave his kids a stern look. "What were you two thinking?"
"It was an accident," Iris argued, her own hands moving to her hips, mirroring her father. "Besides, it was fun! There was hopscotch, but you had to do it a very certain way, then we had to solve this riddle and figure out what the gargoyle wanted to eat. Then Harry did this weird math thing with these symbols on the wall, then he was jumping through a flooding classroom all over the desks to the other side where he climbed up a bookshelf into the vents! Then he pulled me up and I led the way through the maze of vents and it brought us here."
"Sounds like you two had quite the afternoon," Minerva said. "You must be exhausted."
"A little," Iris agreed.
"You both used a great deal of creativity and resourcefulness," Albus said, smiling at Iris and Harry, "not many students actually complete an entire level in those books so quickly. Though it may have been age appropriate for you, it is still an impressive feat."
"Thank you," Iris and Harry said at the same time.
"One you will not be completing again until you at least get a wand," Severus decided to say. "Maybe even a couple years after that."
Harry and Iris pouted, looking back at the headmaster, who chuckled at their expressions.
"It may be for the best," Albus said.
Severus pulled his kids against him, and after excusing himself from the meeting, he took his kids down to their quarters. After serving afternoon tea, Harry and Iris were yawning and rubbing tiredly at their eyes, the energy spent on their adventure finally catching up to them.
"The Weasleys will be pleased to know you are both safe and out of the book," Severus said as he finished writing a small note to the boys in question. He summoned a house elf to deliver it, then looked at his kids on the couch. He was not surprised to see them both asleep side by side. He smiled softly, waving his wand to summon a blanket that flew over to his kids and covered them.
"You two are more trouble than you're worth," he told them fondly.
Ludi incipiant is latin for "Let the games begin."
