2 | CONFESSIONS° HARRY POTTER

20 | THE BEGINNING

ACT TWO, the returned
CHAPTER TWENTY, the beginning

     Days had passed since the death of Cedric Diggory. Dumbledore spoke to the studens during breakfast and told them they should leave Harry alone and shouldn't ask him any questions about what happened. The Slytherin table was rather quiet for those few days while they soaked in the death of one of their fellow students. After it had happened, Pansy asked Iris where she had ran off to the night Cedric died. Iris skillfully dodged any questions that pertained to her whereabouts that evening and chalked up her disappearance that night to "needing some alone time". 

However, Iris was glad that Harry felt as though he could be around her after everything. They would meet in their usual place at the usual time every night. They wouldn't talk much, if at all, and normally sat in silence, but they were both okay with that. 

Truth be told, Iris never knew what to say to him. She wasn't always very good with words and she didn't know how to comfort someone that had just been through what Harry went through, so she opted for silence and it seemed to work well enough.

When she wasn't with Harry or studying as the year drew to a close, she'd spend time with Theo. They would sit underneath a big tree by the lake when the days were warm sometimes. She had started to carefully poke around and see what her boyfriend's opinions on Muggles and muggleborns and his father were. 

Theo would shut down whenever the conversation shifted to his father and he would get this cold look in his eye that was quite different from his usual demeanor. He would change the subject abruptly and avoid meeting her eye. Usually he'd shift the topic to making plans over the summer and Iris would smoothly fabricate a story that she would be staying with her aunt Aurelia over the summer so she probably wouldn't be able to see him. Theo didn't question it. 

Oliver, on the other hand, was a different story all together. Iris met with him in private, away from the prying ears of Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy. She had been debating whether or not she should tell him everything about Cordelia, about Voldemort, about her. She would do anything to protect her little brother and as much as she wanted to tell him everything, she knew that in order to protect him he needed to stay in the dark for a little while longer.

"What do you mean, you're not coming home?" Oliver had asked. His eyes narrowed at her and he crossed his arms over his chest. "You can't just... you can't just disappear, Iris. What's mum going to say? Where will you be?"

"There are some things that I can't tell you, Ollie. Not now, anyway, but I... I need you to trust me." Iris said. She knew Oliver would trust her if she asked him to. She met his hard gaze with one of her own. His shoulders slumped and a sad look crossed over his face.

"I don't want you to go." Oliver whispered. It was so soft that she almost didn't hear it but she did. Iris wrapped her little brother into a tight hug, moisture pricking at her eyes that she quickly blinked away. "You promise to tell me what's going on eventually?"

"I promise."

Iris's trunk was packed full by the time the Leaving Feast came around. She had received a letter from her mother. The contents informed Iris that Calypso needed to tell Iris something important when she arrived to Lupin's and that Iris would be spending the summer learning Occlumency and Legilimency. Iris found herself feeling more determined than ever to succeed in the practice, given that Voldemort had returned. She had no idea whether or not she'd even be able to do it but she knew she was going to try if it meant giving her protection against whatever was next.

The Great Hall's colors for the Leaving Feast were decorated with black drapes in honor Cedric instead of the colors of the house that won. The real Mad-Eye Moody was at the staff table now, twitching whenever someone spoke to him. Karkaroff's chair was empty since he had fled, but Madame Maxime was still there.