2 | CONFESSIONS° HARRY POTTER

15 | WITCH WEEKLY

ACT TWO, the returned
CHAPTER FIFTEEN, witch weekly

Iris listened during breakfast as Pansy ranted about Daphne Greengrass, Astoria's elder sister. Iris had never cared much for Daphne and favored Astoria out of the Greengrass sisters, but Pansy and Daphne were rivals when it came to school. Both of them were desperate to outshine the other for some reason that was beyond Iris's understanding. She had learned a while ago that it was best to let Pansy go about her business and rant to her heart's content. Besides, Iris's attention was primarily on Hermione Granger.

At the Gryffindor table, Hermione had received a letter and had gone rather red in face, looking quite upset. Harry and Ron escorted her out of the Great Hall shortly thereafter but, unfortunately, Pansy had also noticed which meant that her attention had gone from ranting about Daphne to theorizing what could have Hermione Granger so upset.

"It probably has to do with what Rita Skeeter's saying about her in Witch Weekly." Milicent Bulstrode said. Milicent, alongside Tracey Davis and Daphne, were amongst Pansy's band of followers and had been in Iris's dormitory since first year. Iris didn't like her but, then again, Iris didn't like most people. "I can't believe that she is playing Harry Potter false. A mudblood!"

Iris's expression darkened and she turned her head to glare in Milicent's direction for calling Hermione that. Milicent was a half-blood and since she surrounded herself with other children from the Sacred Twenty-Eight, she would go the extra mile to make her hatred for muggleborns known. Pansy pursed her lips at Bulstrode while Tracey Davis rolled her eyes at Milicent's comment.

Iris didn't know what happened, but suddenly Milicent was flying backwards following the sound of a loud bang. The Great Hall became so silent you could hear a pin drop while Milicent picked herself up, blushing profusely. Pansy eyed Iris from the corner of her eye with a suspicious look while Iris wondered if it was possible that she had done that. Wandless magic was hard to do, and it was something that hadn't yet learned at school nor was it something that she had been meaning to do. But, when she glanced over at the Ravenclaw table and saw Julietta looking at her with an expression mixed with hatred, curiosity, and a bit of fear, Iris found herself smirking mischeviously as a plan formulated in her head.

By the time Care for Magical Creatures rolled around, Hermione was nowhere to be found, but that didn't stop Pansy from making a comment at Harry and Ron.

"Potter, have you split up with your girlfriend? Why was she so upset at breakfast?" Pansy asked. Harry decided against dignifying that comment with a response, but he cast a wary glance in Iris's direction. She guessed that it must've had something to do with the Witch Weekly article and that it was causing some sort of trouble for Hermione.

Hagrid, who had told them last lesson that they had finishedwith unicorns, was waiting for them outside his cabin with a freshsupply of open crates at his feet. Iris hoped it had nothing to do with skrewts, but when shegot near enough to see inside, she found himself looking at a number of fluffy black creatures with long snouts. Their front paws were flat and they were blinking up at theclass, looking confused at the attention.

"These're nifflers," Hagrid explained when the class had gatheredaround. "Yeh find 'em down mines mostly. They like sparklystuff. . . . There yeh go, look."

One of the nifflers had suddenly leapt up and attempted to bite Pansy Parkinson's watch off her wrist. She shrieked and jumped backward.