2 | CONFESSIONS° HARRY POTTER

4 | THE NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK

ACT THREE, loss
CHAPTER FOUR, the noble house of black

            Mrs. Weasley followed the children upstairs with a grim look on her face.

"I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking," shesaid as they reached the first landing. "We've got a busy day tomorrow. I expect Ginny's asleep," she added to Hermione and Iris, "so try not to wake her up." 

Iris doubted that. After sharing a room with the youngest Weasley for the past month, Iris knew that the girl would be laying awake waiting for Hermione and Iris to tell her everything that had happened downstairs. 

Sure enough, when they opened the door to their bedroom, Ginny was seated on the bed with an eager look on her face. She peppered Iris and Hermione with questions while the two girls changed into their pajamas. They knew there was no getting out of telling her what happened and, despite what Mrs. Weasley may say, they told Ginny everything. Iris ended up staying awake much later than she had anticipated and she normally wouldn't have minded if it weren't for Molly Weasley waking the girls up to go in to the drawing room because she found more doxies and a nest of dead puffskeins.

Iris was not a morning person which explained the grumpy look on her face as she trudged downstairs with tired eyes and deep dark circles. Harry and Ron came down for breakfast and Iris decided it was time for her and Harry to, at the very least, talk in private. She'd been waiting for the right moment but with everyone around it seemed harder and harder to catch him alone.

She sent him a very pointed look when she excused herself from the table to "get something from her room" and since Harry wasn't completely oblivious, he rushed out an excuse and followed after her into the hallway about a minute later.

Iris waited for him in the dimly lit hallway, turning around at the sound of his footsteps.

"Look," Iris said, breathing out a long sigh. She hated this already. Harry looked only slightly confused though he had a good idea what it was Iris was going to say to him. He looked down at how her fists gripped the side of her shirt so tightly her knuckles were turning white. He wondered if she was nervous. "I'm sorry for not writing to you all summer and I'm sorry for not telling you about everything that's been going on."

Harry frowned. He grumbled, "I thought we were friends, Iris. Better friends than that, at least."

Iris's eyes widened.

"We are friends, Harry. You probably know me better than most people." Iris said. It was the truth. The majority of the people that knew who she was, who she truly was, were in this house. Harry, her parents... the only person that was missing was Oliver. 

Harry's bitter chuckle filled the air. "That doesn't really say much since I don't really know much about you."

Iris stared at him, long and hard.

"What do you want to know?" She asked. Harry seemed to be taken off guard by the question. Iris didn't break her glance as Harry searched for something to ask her.

Looking back on it, Harry likes to think that if he'd prepared himself for her to ask that then he wouldn't have blurted out, "Are you still with Theo?"

Harry's face turned bright red and he looked embarassed that he had asked about Theo.

It was Iris's turn to be taken aback at the mention of Theodore Nott because Harry had never asked her about him or brought him up in conversation and because she didn't think that that would be the question he asked to get to know her better. The only people that asked her about Theo were Hermione, Ginny, and her parents. Ginny stayed up all night in the beginning asking questions about what Theo was like and what it was like to have a boyfriend while Hermione listened. The three girls would read the letters Theo sent Iris together and help Iris figure out how to respond and what she could say. Iris had to admit, it was nice having girl friends she could talk to about her relationship with Theo since Pansy and her never talked about her and Theo. Her parents would give her advice every so often on relationships, but other than that her and Theo weren't brought up that often and she liked it that way.