Iris Evans

Chapter 13: The Forbidden Forest

Iris bounced on her feet as students passed her by. Next to her Nico stood, just as eagerly craning his neck above the crowd to look for their group of misfits. Students passed them by in the large corridor as their eyes trailed along looking for different colors of hair.

They of course spotted Blasie first. His gangly arm waving at them high up above in the air as he pulled a shorter Draco along with him. Iris wrinkled her nose as soon as she saw him. The boy seemed to have a growth spurt during the winter break.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Ka screamed as she barreled through with Ai dragged behind her. The twins grinned as they reached their group of friends.

Blasie soon stepped up towards them with a smile. "Did you two have a nice break?"

Nico frowned at the thought of being in the Gryffindor common room once more. "I guess so." He hummed as he fidgeted. His eyes trained onto Ka as a million thoughts ran in her head.

"Where's Draco?" Ka asked as she looked around for the blonde boy.

"Huh?" Blasie muttered. "I swear he was just behind me." The boy turned his head to look for the familiar Malfoy.

"Maybe Pansy got to him." Nico said nonchalantly as he picked at the dirt underneath his fingernails. "Should I paint my nails?" He mumbled out loud.

Iris snorted. "Make it black, it's time to embrace the emo mate." Blasie grinned clasping a hand on Nico's shoulder.

"Oh, Draco." Ai spoke quietly. "You're finally here." There stomped towards them the heir to the Malfoy name. A scowl perfectly adorning his perfect face.

"If I hear someone utter the words Harry James Potter in a sentence, I'm going to explode!" He screamed, drawing attention to their little ragtag group.

"Oh woe is you," Nico smirked as Draco fainted into Ka's arms. The girl blinked as she shifted his body to her dominate arm.

"What happened this time?" Iris asked as he adjusted himself comfortably.

"Oh you know," He cleared his throat as he prepared to make his voice a higher pitch. "'Potters so perfect, he has good grades, and he's great at Quidditch. Do you think that he'll notice me?'"Iris wrinkled her nose as she let her friend carry on.

"I don't know." Harry spoke from behind them. A calm smile on his face as he looked into Draco's horrified expression. "If you wanted my attention all you had to do was ask."

Iris snickered as she nudged Ai beside her. "You see that? I taught him that." Ai rolled her eyes but nevertheless nodded along.

"Anyway Iris," the girl hummed in response. "I have this idea I want to run by you. Later at dinner sound good to you?"

Iris looked over at Ai and Ka as Draco battled it out with her brother in background. The twins were looking expectantly up at her and she was just dying to know what was going on their brains.

"Sure."

Ai coughed lightly into her fist as she prepared her voice. "So I was thinking about Ka's offer. She wanted to pull a prank of 'epic proportions that it would compete with the Weasley's own.' So over the break I thought some things up and decided on paint."

"Paint?" Iris asked as she tilted her head. Ai shifted around as she played with her food.

"I was thinking we could enchant some places around the castle that would trigger a mass of paint ballons to fly at them. But the problem is-"

"We have no paint." Ka frowned. The Gryffindor stabbed a piece a food before stuffing her mouth with it.

"Ah," Iris hummed. "Don't worry about that I have my ways." She smirked dangerously.

"Girls," Draco hissed. "If you think you'll be causing some trouble, I swear-"

"No need to be a mother hen Drac-y poo!" Ka teased, reaching over to boop his nose. Only for it to be swatted away.

"Eat like a proper lady!"

"You sound like my mother!"

Ai returned her attention to Iris as she smiled watching the scene play out in front of her. "Is tonight good to set everything up? All I need to do is enchant the places, we already know the proper spells and all. So you just need to use this spell," the girl slid over a piece of paper that held a name with a few drawings of wand movements. "And place the paint by tonight."

Taking it, she slipped into her skirt pocket that Cho had sewn in. Saying it would benefit her later or something and nodded. "No worries," Iris grinned. Everything will be done by tonight!

The moon had risen above the sky when Iris slipped on her sweatshirt. She had tiptoed over to her roommates and tapped their noses one by one to see if they were awake. Gently of course.

The red head grinned as she left with only socks on her feet. Something to cushion the sound of her footsteps against the cold stone. The girl slid out the Ravenclaw tower, the knocker of course having something to say, all  riddle-y and scolding.

But she rolled her eyes and continued to follow the cruddy map that was obviously drawn by Ka, (Ai had inherited the artistic talent as discovered before,) but it was still decipherable.

Juggling both paints of different kinds and her wand that held a dim light, the girl tiptoed across the castle as she casted the spell over and over again. Hiding The paint balls within places that could be triggered by a spell.

When she reached the ground floor the red haired girl couldn't help but notice the faint lights exiting the forbidden forest. Quickly with her wand she hid the last paint balloons behind a suit of armor, ready to be triggered in the morning and dashed out into the open field.

Iris ducked lowly and hissed as she stepped on a pebble, now regretting that she didn't at least wear some slides.

Iris slinked against the growing grass beneath her feet as she slid into the forest. The tall trees blocked out all the natural light she had. The girl waved her wand creating the light to appear. "Lumos." She whispered.

The bright light appeared as she ran deeper into the wooded area. Grabbing onto a branch she pulled herself up. A small clan of spiders crawled out seamlessly out of the shadows, darting across to the other side towards the darkness.

Iris shivered as she let go and landed back onto the ground. Just then sparks of red light shot into the air.

Danger.

Iris pulled on the wedding ring near her neck and ran forward, adrenaline pumped in her veins as she pushed through the branches of the trees. Her blood pumping through her legs as she sped through the forest, reaching a clearing.

There stood a dead unicorn, it's once majestic silver glow gone as a hunched figure of darkness drank its blood.

To her left stood her shaking brother, Draco and Fang. The dog and her friend stood their shaking in fear. Iris scowled and pulled up her hood, obscuring her face.

Iris jumped out the wood and slipped her wand into her sock. Gripping her double edged sword, knowing it wouldn't even wound the figure she rushed him.

The red head brought the blade down as the figure brought up its arm in defense. To her surprise the blade made contact. Twisting her grip on the hilt she pivoted as the figure kept foreword.

The girl leaned back as she brought her leg to give him an axe kick. Before she could a hand wrapped around her stomach and pulled away before the figure can turn and rip her neck.

Wide eyed she twists her head to face a centaur as he pulls her up into her back. "Grab the boy demi-god!" Iris nods and without complaint pulls the boy as the centaur turned to shoot.

Iris without any trouble pulled her brother by the scruff of his shirt. "Got him." She mumbled, holding the boy in front of her.

The centaur nods before taking off, out of the clearing. Iris held her sword across her lap, noticing the blood that dropped  off of it. It wasn't the typical gold but it wasn't red either. It was black.