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Days passed after that initial encounter with the other Shielded and in that time, Kai and Khalee had begun to teach her how to control herself and her newly-explained powers. They gave her the Shielded 101 on how to produce their most defining feature— their shields. They were strong; the equivalent of the Protego charm with a bit more kick and more solid. As well as being much easier to produce as they came directly from their own hands, often by pure instinct, though with practice Iris was told that she would be able to summon a shield at will every time.

Another interesting fact Iris had learned is that each set of twins had a unique colour associated with them. For instance, Khalee and Kai's colour was electric blue and Audrey and Mira's was purple. Iris had made the discovery that her own colour was red— which explained a lot of things.

Since she had returned to Hogwarts, Dumbledore had taken up training her daily, teaching her every variation of duelling possible. He wasn't babying Iris— something she learned pretty quickly. The elder guardian wanted her to be prepared for the worst at any moment, and though the endless learning of new spells and constant duels against Dumbledore was wearing her down, Iris was grateful for it, knowing he was right to be worried.

During her breaks, however, Iris would wander the castle in search of any form of entertainment. She often talked to the ghosts that roamed throughout Hogwarts or the hundreds of paintings that lined its walls. Iris found them all beyond knowledgable, with countless tales to tell from their years spent in the castle.

On that particular day though, Iris ventured into a different area in Hogwarts. The kitchens were a spot she hadn't stepped foot into in quite a while. The brunette came to a stop before a large painting of a fruit bowl and stood motionless for a moment as memories echoed through her ears.

"Y'know, when I agreed to go on a date with you I kinda thought I would actually be able to see you," Iris laughed.

Cedric joined in on her laughter, "We're almost there," he said moments before stopping in place.

Iris frowned as she reached out and tickled the pear in the painting. The fruit released a little giggle before turning into a handle for Iris to grab. She turned it and stepped inside, the familiar setting of the Hogwarts kitchen glistening cleanly in front of her.

The room was emptier than usual, which Iris suspected was due to it being the Summer holiday and hence the need for house-elves was lower. However, only seconds after she had entered the room, a high pitched speak sounded along with a call of, "Miss Issy Potter!"

A tiny body bulldozed into her legs moments later and Iris looked down, chuckling, "Hi Dobby, it's good to see you again."

The house-elf was practically bouncing on his toes as he stared up at her with his huge eyes, "Oh Dobby is so happy to see Issy Potter! Dobby has missed his friend!" He reached up and grabbed her hand, eagerly pulling her over to the side of the kitchen where there were a few round wooden tables. As they approached, Dobby called out, "Look Tinky! Miss Issy Potter has come to visit!"

Iris heard an excited gasp before a second house-elf came into view.

"Hello Miss! Tinky will get Dobby's Miss Issy food right away!"

The kind house-elf ran away at lightning speed faster than Iris could object. Dobby sat her down at one of the tables before rushing off to help Tinky with her pursuit. Only a few minutes later they were both rushing back to her with multiple plates.

"Oh guys, you didn't have to do all this!" Iris told them sincerely as they set the plates down before her.

Both Dobby and Tinky assured her that it was their great pleasure as they then each took a seat around the table. Iris, not wanting to waste all of their work on preparing the food for her, began eating. The two house-elves chatted with Iris as she ate, seeming to never run out of things they wanted to tell her.

When she moved onto the second plate, which held an assortment of sweets and dessert-looking foods, Iris hesitated on a particular item.

There were a few chocolate truffles scattered around the plate but as she picked one up, she was reminded only of more now-bitter memories.

"Oh my god, this has to be one of the greatest things I've ever eaten," Iris mumbled out through the food in her mouth.

She noticed Cedric watching her adoringly with a small smile on his face.

"What?" She asked him, swallowing, wondering why he was looking at her like that.

The smile on his face grew, "Nothing... it's just, I don't know how you manage to make everything look perfect, even shoving your face with food."

Now, as she ate it, the truffle— once a delicious dessert— tasted what Iris could compare to sawdust. The sadness that had been eating away at her heart every day since he had died had seemed to claw its way up her throat as the chocolate flavour of the truffle only made her miserable.

"Tinky has not seen the Miss in a long time— not since the Miss came here with the nice Diggory boy."

Iris blinked, swallowing heavily as a lump in her throat developed. She could feel the familiar prickling sensation behind her eyes and immediately knew tears were coming next. 

She sniffed, trying to push them back, "Yeah, I— uh, I've been busy." Iris suddenly pushed her chair back and stood, "I actually have to be going now— thanks for lunch, I'll um— I'll come visit again soon."

With that, Iris rushed out of the room. The brunette walked down the corridor towards the stairs that would lead up towards the Front Entrance and Great Hall, wiping at her eyes uselessly the entire way. She only reached the first step when a tear finally slipped past, rolling its way down her pale cheek. That was all it took before the dam gave way and Iris burst out sobbing.

She collapsed onto the stairs, sitting down with her head in her hands as her entire body shook. It had been roughly three weeks since Cedric had been killed, but every day she felt his missing presence like a piece of her heart had been taken along with him.

Iris sat there for a while, trying unsuccessfully to not cry too loudly just in case one of the Professors staying at Hogwarts over the Summer happened to hear her. She shook with each sob, the tears pouring down her face like an endless rainstorm. Iris finally decided to stop moping when she was struck by an idea.

She stood, brushing the last of her tears from her face as she marched her way up the stairs, a mission on her mind. Iris would no longer train casually with Dumbledore, she would not take things lightly, she would not let Voldemort get away with anything. The young girl had a dagger in her heart and a dagger in her hand, and she was no longer afraid to use it.

Iris Potter would learn to fight. She would do it for Cedric, for the Wizarding World, and most of all, for Harry. He would need all the help he could get to take down the Dark Lord, and Iris wasn't going to stand by as her brother stood in the face of danger. She would throw everything she had at Voldemort, fighting to her last breath if it meant Harry got to live in the end.

But first— she needed to do something. She needed to face the one thing that could hold her back: her fears.

In a matter of minutes, Iris was making her way up the several flights of stairs at the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch until she finally reached the top. The wind whipped through her hair, sweeping her fringe to the side as she carefully walked forward to the edge of the very tall tower. Iris clutched tightly to the half-wall that was the only thing separating her from falling.

Breathing in tightly, she took a few steps back. Two years ago, Iris had faced a boggart in Professor Lupin's class. While all of her classmates were confused by the seemingly strange fear of a door, Iris had known immediately the deeper meaning. Her greatest fear was losing control. Doors to her were a means of navigating life through someone else's eyes, but with the ability of perfect legilimency came the cost of needing to know when to stop.

Iris had had bouts over the years of her life where she had lost control, let too many voices in and couldn't get them out. It was how she had met Cedric... To Iris, these moments were terrifying. If there wasn't someone there to pull her out of it, Iris didn't know what would happen to her.

She scared herself at times, with the power to know what anyone is thinking or has thought at any second, Iris feared accidently going too far and damaging relations. Sometimes she couldn't help it, innately looking within her peer's heads without thinking twice.

But Iris had learned since then, and she had grown in more ways than she could have seen coming. Her first step towards standing a chance against Voldemort was conquering this fear, which Iris had come up with a potentially dreadful idea for.

As she stood up on that high tower, the beautiful skyline of mountains and the Black Lake behind her, Iris readied herself, breathing heavily as she mentally asked herself if she was insane. Taking out her massive fear of heights at the same time was only a bonus to the excursion.

Finally, she told herself to stop stalling and took off running. She made it a few steps before jumping onto the lowest seating bench and leaping over the railing.

Iris only plummeted for a split second before she threw her hands out beneath her, willing the familiar magical sensation to take over as cherry red flares ignited from her palms. Then, suddenly she was floating as her feet slammed into a solid surface.

Beneath her was a thin glowing layer the same colour as the light projecting from her hands. Iris let out a shocked laugh as she admired the shield supporting her easily. That was just the first step though, next came the hard part. Iris inhaled before raising just one of her hands and gesturing as though she was throwing a frisbee into the air a few feet in front of her. At the same time, Iris pushed herself off of the shield she was already standing on and landed right on top of the new one.

She repeated the action, slowly gaining speed with each leap onto a new shield until she was in a steady rhythm. Iris found that Kai and Khalee had been right: it felt so natural to her. The shields came and went as easily as she wanted them too.

With a new outlook on her life after that, Iris knew it was time to get serious. Training with Dumbledore would be the hardest thing she had ever done but it was worth it to Iris. Part two of her plan was simple: practice, practice, practice.

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i hate how this chapter turned out but it is what it is 😗✌️

i hope you guys at least enjoyed it! I've got some good stuff planned for the next few chapters so stay tuned :)))