Chapter 20 - Third bell

"Is' bloody scary, 's wha' it is," Rubeus mumbled as he rummaged through his jacket.

Dumbledore stood across from him with a patient smile. He had explained the plan, once, then again. But Rubeus wasn't all that great with plans. But what he was good with was being a part of them. Especially if they involved Dumbledore.

Dumbledore always knew best, he'd see to it that it was made right. Great man, Dumbledore.

The other man though... Rubeus wasn't so sure. But Dumbledore did trust him. So that was good enough for him.

"Ah, there we go," he said as his fingers finally found the giant key ring and pulled it from the depths of his pockets. "Here's the little blighter."

He flipped through the assorted keys big and small, sterling and rusty alike, until he gripped a large brass key, which had four tiny jewels encrusted at the top, red, blue, green and yellow. It's always been his favorite one. Even though he'd never done much with it except give it to Dumbledore on occasion.

But he supposed that was the whole point, wasn't it? He was the one person Dumbledore could trust. The one he could trust to keep it safe, to return it when needed, and above all, to never try to use it.

Rubeus had always felt proud about this in particular, the heavy metal key against his chest a permanent reminder how much the headmaster valued him not just as the groundskeeper, but as the Keeper of Keys as well.

Which was why he was so nervous about this. He had never done anything like this. He was never supposed to do anything like this. It was wrong, was what it was.

To try and use it like that... But—

But it was true... You-Know-Who was out there. And Dumbledore needed him, needed it, to protect the students. That was one goal he could always get behind.

Professor Black stared at the key held in his hand with the same worry and anticipation that he was feeling himself right now.

"Yeh sure about this, Professor?" Rubeus asked one final time.

He really didn't like questioning Dumbledore on anything. But the last time he hadn't when he should have...

"I have absolute faith in him, Rubeus. There is no need to worry."

And that was that. As much as he disliked the idea, the decision was made. And Rubeus trusted that Dumbledore would know what he was doing, as he always had.

Almost always.

He flipped the key in his fingers, pressed his thumb against the crystals at the top, and raised it to his mouth to whisper.

"Transfer. Twenty-four hours, full control."

A small flash of yellow light signified his job as complete. With a final sigh, he held out his hand, and presented the key to Professor Black.

~V~

Iris took a deep breath, trying to keep her hand steady. This was it. Tracey had really come through, hadn't she? It had all the bells and whistles. All the paragraphs and formalities. It was the genuine thing. It was just missing... the Name.

Her instincts were split on that one. Everything she knew about rituals told her that this shouldn't work, but she also had a very distinct hunch that it would work... if she managed to get his Name involved. After all, Names would work a bit outside the rules, wouldn't they? She wasn't sure if that applied both ways, or just to the one bearing the Name, but it was the only idea she could come up with. Then, there still was the issue of the sacrifice. But if thinking his Name was any indication, then what she was about to do would be quite the sacrifice if there ever was one.

Iris took another shuddering breath, clutched the quill a little tighter, dipped it into the ink well, slid it along the edge to get rid of the excess, then raised it up to the regular piece of muggle paper, and wrote a single letter V.

As soon as the quill left the paper, it felt like it was catching fire in her hand. That one letter alone was burning in a bright red, eating through the paper and yet leaving it intact. Glowing in a blinding light while still remaining a simple regular black letter.

This wasn't good. Holy shit this wasn't good. This felt like a ritual going horribly wrong from the start, and she had only written the first letter. Could she even? Was it even possible to write the whole Name out entirely? Steadying her shaking grip, she closed her eyes for a second, then set it back down again. As soon as she moved, it felt like the quill had gone from light as a literal feather to completely and utterly immovable, a mass the size of a mountain. She was stuck!

But she had come this far. She wouldn't let something as silly as physics stop her. Iris growled and brought a bright blue light into her hand, and began to move. With a heavy grinding noise, as if she were moving heaven and earth, the tip of the quill scratched the paper in a circle, forming the letter̶͚̾̈́O̴̱̩͒.̴̺͒̅

Pain lanced through her as her eyes met the incomplete name written on the document, and she growled and wrenched them right back shut. "Damn it, Iris! Don't look at it, don't try to read it, just write. One letter at a time. You can do this," she whispered to herself.

Somehow the weight seemed to grow even heavier, but she just increased the Force to match and wrote the letteȑ̶̯͓͎̻͙͎̜̙̎̀̈́͊́̿͛̊̚Ḻ̶̨̤̘̦̩͙͎͍̰̦͌̈͌.̷̨̛͙̮̠͔͇̞͙̈́̈́͆͂̕͠

There was a faint hint of smoke in the air. A glance down revealed the edges of the document turning singed, as if it had begun smoldering, except without any fire. Through her off hand, she forced Orange and Yellow into the piece of paper and twisted it into the single easiest charm in existence that every witch and wizard—except her—learned in their first Defense class.

Somehow even more worryingly, while the paper had stopped blackening, it was still faintly smoking all the same. Iris gripped the quill with all the force she could muster and continued to write one letter after the other.

When she reached the seconḑ̸̨̗͖̱̘͖̩͈̱̮̗̃̉̏̍̃̐̉͐͆͊́́̽̉͐̍͊̂͘͘͜͠͝͠Ó̴̢̲̘̱̣̪͈̞,̵̗̤̤̜̪̭̹̹͉͚̳̟̊̎̀̓̈̂͐̆̂̀̃̅̈́̌̎̎̏̒̑̕̕͘͘̚̚͝ ̸̡̨̡̛̛̪͍͔̘̲̰͇̱̫̮̻̲̜̬̭̪̠̒͑̎̑̈͗̈́̃̒̈́̌̑͆͑̾͐̇͂̂̅̔̕͝her quill actually caught fire in her hand. Luckily, her Flame-Freezing-Charm seemed to cover that as well. But that didn't change a thing about the fact her hand was on fucking fire, even if it wasn't burning yet. But the pain was there all the same.

V̸͉͚̭͕̼̹̀̒͘͘͜ͅo̷̧͚̫͉̲͎̳̥̕l̷͓̥̱̣̜͎͉̇̓̅̏̊̉̎́d̵̫̥͖̎̈͐̕͝e̷̫͍͆̎̓̚m̷̱͆́̑̐̐͂͘ơ̴̰̺͉͋͘ŗ̴̠̱̦͖͕̐̽͗t̸̮̏̾̽̔̓͊̕͝

She tried to top up her quill in the inkwell, but the flames immediately caused the black liquid to bubble and evaporate within seconds. She'd just have to make do and hope it would be enough. Gritting her teeth once more, she set the quill back down and began to draw the shape of an ̸̢̬͓̭͎̐̀́̓̑͘͜Ṙ̸͎̳̫̦͚͎̼̝̰̘̖̼͉̿̄̆͆͂̽̊̌̆̇͌͆̉̈́͜͝͝ͅ.̷̨̨̼̫̫̯͓̜͇͎̹̤̼̺̼̘͐͐͋̄͜ ̵̛͔́̈́͛̀̔̇͊͒͒̈̑̽̓̊́̕T̶͔̝̝͉̄̐ḧ̸̠̺̪é̶̩̌̏ ̷̧̱̫̜̗̲̰̗̤̝̩̼̫͙̙̪̀̈́̔͒͝Ŕ̷̜̙̤͌͂̀̍̚͠ͅ ̴̢̛̤̰̮͍͙͇̜̼̙̲̝̩̑̍̈́̀͒͆̍͌͊̕̚̚͜͝b̴͓̩̀e̴͎̚g̶̜͋͝ǎ̸͉̀n̵͉̉ ̷͕͂ṭ̸̒ó̶̟̍ ̶̞̎̚g̷̦͚̎͌ȑ̷̞̪ŏ̴̹ŵ̷̠ ḁ̵̳͗n̵̢̤̙͇͂̈́͋̚͝ḍ̵̼͋̀͋ ̸̻́̄̂̈́̇͝g̴̡̗̬̙̘̹̗͛͌̂͑̏̒͝͝r̴͇̥̳͂̄̀̈́͊͋ȏ̵̥̘̱͖̖̪͖̗̌w̷̩͕͕̎͑̚, g̷̼͙̽͛r̸̹̀̊͜ỏ̵̬͝w̷͉̚i̶̫̗̅n̴̮͚̔g̴̟̚ ļ̶̠̹͔̠́͐͗̒̒͊͝ͅͅả̵͍͓̱̪͝͠r̷̨̙̭͈̉̑͑͛̚͝g̴̖̳̹̾̂̓̇͗̄͌͝e̴̯̘͖͚͂̂̌̊̓r̷̭̺͓̪̄̀̈́̕, taking up the whole paper, and then b̵͈̥̣͉̙̮̪̥͍̜̦̗̱̤̃͑̅̊͗̿̈̄̽̕͜͠͝͝è̸͚̭̲̝̩̥̻͓̰̭̀̇̎͂̉͊̅͐̅̉̒̾̓̏͌̏y̸̺̪̟̠͓̠̲̦̠̓̉̎̂̈̿̒̓̅̀̈̉̉̑́͘͜͜͝ö̵̪͈̝̣̬͔̺͕͈̖̩̫̹͐̋n̸̻͉̑̓͌̈͠ḋ̴͓̫͓̏̎̃͛̑̍̓̃̈́̎̚̕͝. Furniture and chairs moved to make space for it, then the walls and the ceiling too. Everything was pushed aside, leaving only the dark, black void.

The void, herself, her quill, and that one piece of paper, floating in mid-air before her, missing just one single letter.

V̷̥͒̇͗͑́͗͗͒̄͌Ọ̷̧͎̺̜̜̦̼̯͉͐͌̄̀͌́̆̓́͂̏̕L̴̙͉̲̏̾̄̔͑̃̅̐͗̀̒̚͜͝Ḑ̵̺̗͇͇̳͎̈́̾̊̈́͑͒́̈́̓͝É̶̳̰̬̫̭͕̹̺͕̘̼͍́̂̅̾̋̔̀̈̈́̈́̀̕͝͠M̶̧̨̻̮͈̮͍̳͒̋̀̓̓̀̐̅̀̔̕͠͠ͅƠ̷̦̺͂̅̍̍̚͝͠R̵̪̼͔̞̱͉̠͓̪͈̺͙͆͂̏̑͋͌̍͝ͅT̸̞͈̩̮͕̣͍̳̖̹̣͙̪͛̊̊̊̽́̌͛͘͘

Iris Lily Potter!

Her mantra, like a prayer, pierced the darkness and quieted the Name. Everything became deathly still. There was only one action to take, two strokes of a quill, to end it all, to set her plan into motion.

Iris didn't even have to think about it. This wasn't just for her. This was for her friends, too.

She closed her eyes, and even her hand became eerily still, all the shaking gone, and a state of pure tranquility remained.

The quill touched the paper, and wrote the letter T.

Iris blinked. There it was. A piece of paper, sitting innocently on the desk inside her dorm room, nothing out of the ordinary about it. Except for the Name it bore, a Name that cannot be spoken, and should never have been written. Yet here it was.

Now all that remained was to fill in the location, and she'd be good to go.

~̶͎̺̫̮̽V̴͉̤̈́̀~̶̪̌͝

Daphne clenched her fists as she peered into the room once again. The link hadn't even been active, for Merlin's sake. Yet whatever the girl had just done had almost torn apart the room she had manifested her end of the line inside, and even worse, had somehow woken up his Name once again. At this rate, would it be better to just cut it and be done with it?

A simple, solid stone room, holding an old telephone with a simple rotary dial, each of the holes filled with tiny pictures.

And one of them was burnt with a heavy black mark. However that had happened. It should be impossible for anything to affect her mindscape without first entering it, especially if the link wasn't even active. Could it be related to the Name? She had looked for all of summer for more details, yet the information she had found had been depressingly little.

Most of which related to how they interacted with magical creatures. She had only ever found one book that even mentioned the possibility of humans earning Names in the first place.

Was it really worth it to keep up her partnership with the girl?

She didn't like cooperating in the first place, much less with anyone she didn't have absolute control over. And with Potter, it wasn't just that she wasn't sure whether she could take her mentally if it came down to it. No, it was everything else about the girl that tilted the scales so far it wasn't even funny. How was she supposed to control something that defied reason itself?

That had been the main question on her mind for the past weeks. And she still hadn't found an answer. One possible avenue was through the girl's friends. But from what she'd seen, Potter was already going so far as to manipulate and hurt them for her own benefit, if it came down to Daphne trying to control her through her friends... if what Daphne wanted would conflict with Potter's goal... she wasn't sure if even a threat like that would stop her in the end.

And that kind of scared her. She was supposed to be the unpredictable one. Instead, there was this monster in a girl's skin running around, butting her head into matters she shouldn't, making things complicated, messing everything up. But also, somehow, providing a path she had never even considered. And she had no idea what to do with that.

Daphne went over everything she had learned concerning the coming day so far. There were simply way too many agendas, too many opposing forces, all of them acting individually. And that was before considering whatever insane scheme Potter was undoubtedly cooking up. In short, she had no way to predict what was about to happen. But she knew where she'd place her money, if it came down to it. No matter how much she hated it.

She might have to tell her after all.

~V~

Dear Madam Undersecretary,

I must apologize for my previous letter. As you so kindly pointed out, sending anyone but our finest would not do for an event such as this. I am also grateful for the list regarding suggestions on both which individuals to send, and the core topics from each speech which might prove of particular interest. Should any other topics or information come to light, I will, of course, be sure to seek confirmation from your department regarding the legalities.

Please do not hesitate to contact me before taking any additional actions, I will of course be happy to assist in any way I can to ensure the necessary discretion of sensitive information.

Yours sincerely,

Barnabas Cuffe

~V~

For the third time, Dolores gritted her teeth. Dumbledore really was doing everything he could to try and wriggle his way out of every possible trap she could think of. For the third time, she had received a letter concerning yet another change of plans. And of course, it wasn't just a small thing, no. The location, the orientation, the layout, the time table. Again, everything.

This constant jumbling of plans was driving her up the wall. It was almost like something she would have come up with.

She glanced over to the other letter she had received from the Chief Editor, and her lips quirked into a small smile. At least everything else that wasn't under the headmasters direct control was coming along swimmingly.

Now that public perception wasn't an issue, she just had to focus on what went down with everyone who was there in person. If only she had managed to acquire the full prophecy, this would be so much easier. But also, that thought had given her another idea. Yes, she could see it now. A path to cross Dumbledore's plans from a most unexpected source. And to that end, she flicked a few words to the side, moved the entire last paragraph, then put down her quill yet again. Cornelius' speech would need a few slight alterations. If the prophecy would come into play, it would either be a fake version, or just Dumbledore relaying the words, twisting them to his own desires. Because if the true thing contained his name, there was no chance that even he would be insane enough to display it in full at a public event like this.

Instead, she'd have to work around that by firmly penetrating the base of his argument, using the one person he would never see coming. The one person that would herself never see it coming, until she was on the spot, with all eyes on her, and it would be too late to stop.

~V~

A blinding flash and rush of tingles accompanied the familiar transition from the shadow realm to the real world.

Iris took a moment to inspect her surroundings. She was standing at the edge of the Black Lake. Glancing out across the lake, she could see the castle looming in the distance, the lights reflecting their faint orange glimmer across the surface. She'd already visited the forest, the mountains, and half-way towards Hogsmeade. This was the fourth and final edge. If she'd mapped this correctly, they should all be about the same distance from the castle, except in different directions. She was only hoping that it wasn't too far from the castle. Iris had no idea if there was any upper limit in terms of distance when it came to rituals. But anyway, it was either all or nothing with what she was trying to do.

Iris shook herself, removed her bag, opened it up, and retrieved her wand.

Wingardium Leviosa.

A faint glow, first green, then blue, and out came a large metallic pole that had no business fitting in a bag that small. On its end, the muggle warning sign was attached with some crude metal bolts. While Tracey wasn't a slouch when it came to Transfiguration, well, she was no Harry. But she supposed if it was good enough to hold, what was important was the sign. And since she'd gotten pristine muggle industrial strength aluminum signs, there was no need to worry about that part of her plan.

With a swish of her wand, the mounted sign along with the pole floated higher and higher, slowly rotating and spinning in mid-air, until it was perfectly upright, and facing away from the castle. Iris took a breath, and jabbed her wand downwards.

The sign jerked down, rapidly gained speed, and a fraction of a second later, plowed into the ground and buried itself half-way up the post. One reluctant kick against the sign post which yielded in barely a slight shudder signified her job as a success. As long as nobody would find them until tomorrow, she was all set. Which was a possible hitch in her plan, but there wasn't much she could do about that. There was no way to hide them, since the whole point was that they were supposed to be visible.

Iris took a few steps back and beheld the large red sign bearing a black stick figure, with a thick red line crossing from one corner to the other. A small chuckle escaped her lips. Who the hell needed Muggle Repellant Charms anyway; this was obviously the future.

~V~

"Are you sure?" hissed her boss once again, causing Mad-Eye to roll his eye.

"Yes, it's the final plan."

"Because if that senile chess grandmaster changes around the whole thing one more time, I'll tell him exactly where he can shove his suggestions," Madam Bones snarled.

Mad-eye didn't even so much as blink and just continued. "They attack from the forest, half the force's already there, with the other half protecting anyone who slips through the cracks of whatever Dumbledore's set up to keep the students safe. They move through the mountains behind the stadium, we'll see them coming from a mile away. And if there's an attack from the lake, merfolk agreed to be our eyes, so at least we should get an early warning."

"And if they attack from the air?" Tonks interjected carefully.

"Then this thing's over before it even starts. Just because you're a wuss on a broom doesn't mean you get to skimp on that part of the Auror training, Nymphadora," Moody growled.

Both the women shot him a glare, which he pretended he didn't notice, and just continued. "No cover in the sky. No transfiguring anything, no breaking line-of-sight, hell, you can't even properly dodge anything if your broom isn't made for that. Not to mention, no shadows in mid-air, so no Unforgivables either."

"Quite. If they decide to stage a purely aerial attack, they would be at a serious disadvantage. All it would take would be one large-scale elemental attack to throw their entire formation into chaos."

"Also, an aerial attack can be defended no matter where the force is distributed. I'm much more worried about them picking more than one simultaneous angle of attack. We just don't have the numbers to cover all of them."

Her boss sighed, and her head plopped into her arm rested on the table.

"This would be so much simpler if I didn't have to justify every single Knut spent on the force to the Minister with increasingly ridiculous excuses..."

"At least that won't be a problem after today," Tonks tried to cheer her up.

Mad-Eye gave a grunt. "If there still is an Auror force after today."

~V~

A new day had come, and Iris wasn't ready.

She'd tried. God knows she'd tried. But nothing had worked.

Iris' high spirits after the resounding success of the first part of her plan—which should have by all expectations been the hardest if not impossible part—had firmly taken a nosedive. After taking some time to calm down, she had tried to fill in the rest of the document, only to find that she couldn't.

Maybe she had to try an actual place with an address? Like Hogsmeade? Once again, she dipped the quill into the inkwell, set it down, this time, with an added Flame-Freezing Charm, and wrote the letter H. Before she had even lifted the quill from the paper, the ink began to sizzle and boil, evaporating into a thin black mist, leaving behind just an empty space.

She had tried Hogwarts, Dumbledore, Scotland, hell, even her own name. No matter what she tried to write in the other box, after writing just a single letter, nothing would stick.

A glance out the window revealed that the sun was already high in the sky. She had probably missed breakfast at this point. There wasn't any time left before the funeral, and she still hadn't figured this out! All her instincts told her that it should work, that she was almost there.

The hardest part was already done, after all. It was just a theory, but it made every kind of sense. If his Name was powerful enough to affect others, that would have to have a price. And that would mean that giving his Name would have upsides as well as downsides. And her best guess was that if someone did know his Name, and managed to stay sane, there should be some way to use it against him. Just like people could command house elves by their Names. But life was never that easy. Still. Something like this, something with meaning... It should work. It felt right. But somehow, it just didn't.

Then again, maybe, this was the sort of thing that would only work in the right moment? Like... if he was actually there?

It was a possibility that had been in the back of her mind for a long time, but she had still tried anything and everything she could think of to maybe conclude the ritual before he ever even set foot in this place. But apparently, it wouldn't be that easy.

With a sigh, Iris stowed the document, shouldered her bag, and made her way to the common room to meet up with her friends.

Or she would have, if she hadn't almost bumped into a girl she had almost completely forgotten about. The mop of black hair gave a sharp yelp as they almost collided and stumbled to the ground as if they had. Lily Moon, her original roommate, had been inexplicably scared of her from the start, and over the past year, had avoided her with the sort of existential dread that was usually reserved for the likes of Voldemort. And then there was whatever Greengrass had done with her mind, which Iris had only learned at the end of the year, but had fallen off along the wayside during the chaos of these past months.

"Whoa, sorry, I wasn't—" Iris trailed off at the expression on the girl's face. Eyes darting left and right, as if everything and anything was out to get her, and yet somehow, she seemed even more scared of even looking at her. What the fuck had Greengrass actually done to her? They hadn't really gotten along at the start, but she had still seemed like such a nice girl, someone who wouldn't hurt a fly even if she had no other choice. And yet, after two years sleeping next to a psychopath—which once again, was Iris' fault—she was... Whatever she was now.

"Hey... Listen. I know I sometimes... okay, lots of times... might be a bit scary, but... I promise you that I'd never hurt you. I don't have it out for you, and I'd never want to do anything that... whatever it is you're afraid of."

She was shaking her head violently, her short black hair tangling in a way that only too closely reminded her of Tracey, which made this all the more messed up. It was one thing to see this girl suffer like this, but to be reminded of her best friend every step of the way...

Iris slowly knelt down in front of the girl, put on a gentle smile and continued to speak in a soft voice, "You know, I think you'd have been a great roommate. You're nice, you've never done anything or even said anything about either me or Harry, you're nothing like the rest of them. Yeah, maybe we didn't get off to a great start, and I suppose that was my fault, so I'm sorry about that. I really didn't give you time to get to know you better."

The trembling had slowly reduced, and her erratic breathing was calming down a bit, but she still hadn't looked at her.

Iris reached out a gentle hand, and carefully placed it down on the girl's knee. Of course, she flinched as if burned, but after just staying like that for a second, the black haired girl didn't flee any further.

"Please..." she whispered.

Iris just waited patiently, keeping a gentle smile, hoping for her to say something. But Lily didn't continue.

"Whatever it is you're going through... whatever it is she's done to you... I'm not going to pry if you don't want me to, but if there's anything I can do, anything to make you feel better, even if it's just to leave you alone... Just say the word. I really want to help you, Lily."

The girl stiffened for a moment, and her breathing grew very calm.

She reached out one hand, towards the hand Iris was still resting on her knee, then slowly picked it up, and wrapped it in her own hands.

"Thank you," she whispered without looking up, still gently wrapping Iris' hand in her own.

Iris couldn't help a smile spreading over her lips at the words, as Lily finally opened up, even if just a sliver. Iris gently squeezed her hand with the softest touch, then continued in a quiet voice. "If there's anything you want to say, anything you want to talk about, I'll be here, okay? And if you do want another roommate, I guess I could take her up on her original offer instead. I'm sure you and Tracey would get along amazingly."

Iris hadn't really considered this before, but the idea had some merit. Especially considering what she was up to. Yeah, spending more time than she had to around the mental girl was probably not the best idea, but on the other hand, Greengrass, at least, already knew what she was up to, for better or worse. And if it could help Lily break out of whatever Greengrass had done...

"And don't worry about me, yeah, Greengrass is scary, but I can be pretty scary too, she'll learn not to try anything funny in there," Iris said, only too late realizing how that might have come across.

"So what do you say, want to trade rooms again, Lily?"

Finally, with an eerie calmness to the motion, the girl began to raise her head, and met her gaze at last. But of the tear-streaked eyes, the existential dread, and the usual Lily, there was not a single hint left.

Instead, a feral grin, a ferocious glint in her blue eyes, and an eerie stillness and confidence to her expression that she had never—no, scratch that, she had seen it once on the girl's face, only for a second.

"That's not my name."

Iris' breath caught, as the girl—or whoever it was currently occupying her—gently caressed Iris' hand in her fingers, before she forcefully snatched it back. Iris' skin still felt sort of tingly from the touch.

"But thank you," the girl almost purred, as she held her gaze with an expression that was eerily reminiscent of the younger Greengrass sister, "for reminding me."

In a twirl of robes and hair, the girl spun around and began to merrily skip down the corridor, until she disappeared into the infinite twists and turns of the Slytherin common room.

~V~

Iris hadn't managed to eat a bite during breakfast. It wasn't just the looming funeral on her mind, but also the encounter with her former roommate that just wouldn't let her go. She had no idea what to make of what had just happened. Had she been played? Had it just been bad timing? Or had she somehow managed to make things worse again? Greengrass' words from last year still haunted her mind, echoing, twisting and turning, convincing her that it was all her fault. Or was it just Greengrass messing with her again? Had she pushed too much? Or not hard enough?

Whatever the case, she hadn't seen the girl since then. Nor had she seen Greengrass, come to think of it. But who she had seen was the younger—God, she really needed to get used to using their first names—Astoria.

Whatever Daphne had done to her the day before had apparently either scared her enough to leave them alone, or... just changed enough to make her do that. Fucking hell. Iris just hoped that her Mindlight and their deal had stopped Daphne from doing anything like that with her own mind.

But then again, if she could, there would have been no need for such a show of force, if that was what it was. Maybe she just didn't care?

Iris blinked as she realized that everyone around her had suddenly fallen silent.

"Today, we mourn the loss of a remarkable young man."

Dumbledore had risen from his seat, his eyes filled with sorrow. The Great Hall grew silent as everyone turned to listen.

"At noon, we will gather by the edge of the lake, where the shore meets the forest. There, we will hold a service to honor Harry's memory, to celebrate everything he stood for, and to find solace in one another."

A somber mood settled over the students; whispers ceased as the weight of his words sank in.

"I invite all of you to join us in this moment of remembrance. Let us come together to support one another, to share our stories of Harry, and to keep his spirit alive within our hearts."

He gave a gentle nod.

"Thank you."

Dumbledore returned to his seat, leaving the hall in reflective silence.