"Those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly." For Iris Potter, these words defined her whole life. Born with a natural talent for Legilim...
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Everyone but Iris and Harry spent the rest of the morning sleeping. Harry went up to the bedroom he had shared with Ron over the summer, but while Ron crawled into bed and was asleep within minutes, Harry sat fully clothed, hunched against the cold metal bars of the bedstead, keeping himself deliberately uncomfortable, determined not to fall into a doze, terrified that he might become the serpent again in his sleep and awake to find that he had attacked Ron, or else slithered through the house after one of the others...
Iris knew all this because she sat awake in the next room, forcing herself not to doze off even though she so badly wanted to sleep. She remained in a medatative state for the rest of the morning, trying to keep herself alert and her mind focused on Harry just in case he fell asleep. She would not let it happen again, and until Harry could be taught to do it himself, Iris would keep Voldemort out for him— it was her most critical job now.
Later, when everyone else woke up, Iris trudged downstairs to join them, completely exhausted. Their trunks arrived from Hogwarts while they were eating lunch so that they could dress as Muggles for the trip to St. Mungo's. Everybody except Iris and Harry was riotously happy and talkative as they changed out of their robes into jeans and sweatshirts, and they greeted Tonks and Mad-Eye, who had turned up to escort them across London, gleefully laughing at the bowler hat Mad-Eye was wearing at an angle to conceal his magical eye and assuring him, truthfully, that Tonks, whose hair was short and bright pink again, would attract far less attention on the underground.
"I think congratulations are in order," Iris said quietly, smirking as she and Harry sat side by side on a train rattling toward the heart of the city.
Harry looked at her in confusion.
She gave her brother a look, "We didn't really get to talk about what happened yesterday after the D.A. meeting..."
His face flushed almost immediately when he realised what Iris was referring to. Harry's mouth opened like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure what.
"It's about time, really... I mean, you've been pining after Cho for over a year now—"
"I get it," Harry said, looking mildly embarrassed, though he did seem pleased.
When he didn't say anything else Iris rolled her eyes lightly, "Well?"
He looked at her dumbly, "What?"
"How was it?" Iris asked slowly.
His cheek seemed to glow an even brighter red as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "Wet...?" At Iris' squinted expression, he clarified, "Well, she was sort of crying..."
The brunette girl stared at her twin for a few seconds, "Oh..." she sat back in her seat, looking ahead with a furrowed brow, "Okay, um..."
Harry cringed. Iris pursed her lips in thought, "Well y'know she cries a lot these days actually. And didn't she just break up with that guy she took to the Yule Ball... what's his name— Johnny? Or Jared...? Whatever, anyway, she's probably just feeling guilty about moving on so fast," Iris reasoned, "Oh, and she's conflicted because Umbridge is threatening to have her Mum sacked from her job at the Ministry, and she's afraid of failing her O.W.L.s because she's so busy worrying about everything else."
