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Iris rejoined her brother and friends at about the same time Hermione and Ron returned from their prefect duties. They spent the rest of the train ride talking and eating sweets from the trolley, but there was an underlying tension that grew as they got closer to Hogwarts.

Only a little while after the sun had set, they pulled into Hogsmeade Station. They all left the compartment quickly, anxious to get to the Great Hall for dinner. They started down the path toward the Carriage Road, but Iris was frowning: everywhere she looked her eyes were met with nervous glances, furtive whispers, and copies of the Daily Prophet.

Obnoxious laughter came from behind them, causing most of the teens in Iris' group to look over. A short distance away, Draco Malfoy, followed by a small gang of cronies including Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson, was pushing some timid-looking second years out of the way so that they could get a coach to themselves.

When Malfoy caught sight of the group, he called out, "I'm surprised the Ministry's still letting you two walk around free, Potters. Better enjoy it while you can— I expect there's a joint cell in Azkaban with both of your names on it..." he smirked, looking directly at Iris for his next words, "Though I suppose being locked up is a better alternative than what your boyfriend got, isn't it?"

He laughed cruelly, his companions clapping him on the back as though he had made an outstanding joke... then, without warning, Harry suddenly lunged toward Malfoy. The blond bully flinched backwards. Iris and Ron both grabbed Harry's arms, holding him back from attacking the boy.

"Harry," Iris said sternly, trying to get him to look at her instead, "Knock it off."

Ron stared at his best friend, shocked by his outburst, "It's only Malfoy, Harry. What'd you expect...?"

Malfoy straightned his robes, trying to act like he didn't just get scared. Harry glared at him, struggling against Iris and Ron's hands to yell at him, "Just— stay away from us..."

Malfoy scoffed, muttering to his friends as they walked away, "What'd I tell you— complete nutter."

They watched the Slytherins leave, but Iris and Ron didn't let go of Harry until they were a sizeable distance away.

Iris sighed. She looked down for a second before bringing her head back up to look at Harry. Her hands absentmindedly brushed her chocolate brown hair from her face as she frowned, saying, "Everyone already thinks we're crazy Harry, don't give them more reason."

Harry stared back at her for a moment before releasing a loud breath. Iris shared a look with both Hermione and Ron before the four of them, plus Ginny and Luna, continued their walk towards the castle in the distance. As the group approach the rain-washed road, one of the carriages was just leaving; inside sat the familiar face of Cho Chang, along with several of her friends. As Cho spotted Harry she hesitated, a shy smile coming across her face. Harry stared after her, raising his hand slightly to wave. Iris looked at her feet, a rare smile tugging at her lips as the carriage rattled away.

As the next carriage pulled up, Iris turned toward it and suddenly found herself face to face with a large skeletal horse with pupil-less eyes and leathery wings. Her eyes went wide, her feet carrying her back a step in surprise.

Beside her, Harry asked, in a dumbfounded voice, "What is it?"

"What's what?" Ron said, looking confused at where Iris and Harry appeared to be staring.

"That. Pulling the carriage." Iris said, her gaze not moving from the creature.

Ron and Hermione shared a concerned look.

The bushy-haired girl spoke cautiously, "Nothing's pulling the carriage. It's pulling itself— like always."

Iris glanced at Harry, a frown pulling at her lips. She knew they weren't actually insane... so what exactly was this horse thing?

"Shall we get in, then?" said Ron uncertainly, looking at Harry and Iris as though worried about them.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah, go on. . ."

"It's all right," said a dreamy voice from beside the twins as Ron vanished into the coach's dark interior. "You're not going mad or anything. I can see them too."

"Can you?" said Harry desperately, turning to Luna. Iris pulled her stare from the creatures to look at the girl. She could see the bat-winged horses reflected in her wide, silvery eyes.

"Oh yes," said Luna, "I've been able to see them ever since my first day here. They've always pulled the carriages. Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am."

Smiling faintly, she climbed into the musty interior of the carriage after Ron. That was only slightly reassuring as Iris knew for a fact that Luna had an abundance of creatures going throughout her brain that according to official sources, didn't exist.

Iris exchanged a grimace with Harry and then gave the winged-horses one final glance before forcing herself to look away.

In a matter of minutes, the students were once again entering the walls of Hogwarts. The entrance hall was ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students crossed the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.

The four long House tables in the Great Hall were filling up under the starless black ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the high windows. Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other Houses, eyeing one another's new haircuts and robes. Again Iris noticed people putting their heads together to whisper as she and Harry passed; she avoided eye contact and tried to act as though she neither noticed nor cared.

Luna drifted away from them at the Ravenclaw table. The moment they reached Gryffindor's, Ginny was hailed by some fellow fourth years and left to sit with them; Iris, Harry, Ron, and Hermione found seats together about halfway down the table between Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor House ghost, and Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, the last two of whom gave Iris airy, overly friendly greetings that made her quite sure they had stopped talking about her a split second before. She dreaded having to share a dorm with them later that night. As Iris was looking over the students' heads to the staff table that ran along the top wall of the Hall, she noticed an unusual absence.

"Where's Hagrid?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione scanned the staff table too, though there was no real need; Hagrid's size made him instantly obvious in any lineup.

"He can't have left," said Ron, sounding slightly anxious.

"Of course he hasn't," said Harry firmly.

"You don't think he's. . . hurt, or anything, do you?" said Hermione uneasily.

"No," Iris said at once.

"But where is he, then?"

The four friends looked perplexed, but none had an answer. Moments later, Dumbledore stood from his chair at the staff table and walked forward to give his annual speech.

"Good evening, everyone! Announcements first: We have two changes in staffing this year. We are pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly- Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures while Professor Hagrid is on temporary leave..."

There was a round of polite but fairly unenthusiastic applause during which Iris, Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged slightly panicked looks; Dumbledore had not said for how long Grubbly-Plank would be teaching. Iris wondered if Dumbledore had sent Hagrid off on Order business. She hoped wherever the kind half-giant was, that he was safe.

"...We also wish to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher— Professor Dolores Umbridge."

She looked, Iris thought, like somebody's maiden aunt: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes. Iris recognized this woman near instantly from Harry's trial.

Dumbledore gestured to Umbridge, "I'm sure I'm not alone in saying good luck, Professor..."

There was polite applause, though Iris noticed many of the teachers only clapped two or three times before stopping.

Harry's eyes had widened at the sight of their new teacher, prompting Hermione to ask him, "You know her?"

Harry nodded, glancing at Iris to make sure he wasn't the only one, "She was at my hearing. She works for Fudge."

Hermione cast a look at Iris, knowing she would understand the same meaning of Fudge's right-hand working at Hogwarts.

"...As usual, our Caretaker Mr Filch has asked me to remind you—"

"Hem, hem."

Umbridge rose, stepping around the table and up to the podium. Momentarily taken aback, Dumbledore politely yielded the floor, to a murmur of shocked surprise from both teachers and students.

Her voice was high-pitched, breathy, and little-girlish and again, Iris felt a powerful rush of dislike that she could not explain to herself; all she knew was that she loathed everything about her, from her stupid voice to her fluffy pink cardigan. Umbridge gave another little throat-clearing cough ("Hem, hem") and continued: "Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!"

Iris glanced around. None of the faces she could see looked happy; on the contrary, they all looked rather taken aback at being addressed as though they were five years old.

"I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"

Students exchanged looks at this; some of them were barely concealing grins.

Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again ("Hem, hem"), but when she continued, some of the breathiness had vanished from her voice. She sounded much more businesslike and now her words had a dull learned-by-heart sound to them.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The task of passing down the ancient skills must be undertaken with the utmost seriousness. Although each headmaster has brought something new to this historic school..." A perfunctory nod at Dumbledore, "...progress for progress's sake must be discouraged. A balance then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation."

Iris' eyes flickered to the side to meet Hermione's, each of them wearing the same look of confusion and suspicion.

"Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected--and prune practices that ought to be prohibited." With that, Umbridge gave a fake smile, concluding her speech.

Dumbledore clapped. The staff followed his lead, though Iris once again noticed that several of them brought their hands together only once or twice before stopping. A few students joined in, but most had been taken unawares by the end of the speech, not having listened to more than a few words of it, and before they could start applauding properly, Dumbledore had stood up again.

"Thank you Professor Umbridge; that was most... illuminating. As I was saying, Mr Filch has asked me to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are any number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr Filch's office door. First-years ought to know that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students--and a few of our older students ought to know by now, too. Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the first weekend of next month..."

"Illuminating? What a load of waffle!" Ron said, aghast.

"There was important stuff hidden in that waffle," Hermione commented. Harry and Ron exchanged a confused look.

"Progress must be discouraged?" Iris quoted, raising her eyebrows at the boys.

Hermione continued, "Prune practices that ought to be prohibited?"

"What's it mean?" Harry said, still not understanding.

Iris held back a sigh, wondering how her brother was so thick sometimes. She and Hermione frowned at each other before the latter of the two finally explained:

"It means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."

They all slowly looked up at the smug, satisfied smile of Dolores Umbridge, as she carefully adjusted her bow. Iris knew right then that their new professor was going to cause many problems.

After the feast, Iris and Harry left Hermione and Ron to do their prefect duties, taking the long way back to the common room in hopes of avoiding more stares and whispers from classmates.

The Gryffindor common room looked as welcoming as ever, a cozy circular tower room full of dilapidated squashy armchairs and rickety old tables. A fire was crackling merrily in the grate and a few people were warming their hands before going up to their dormitories; on the other side of the room Fred and George Weasley were pinning something up on the notice board. Iris waved good night to them, hugging Harry farewell, and headed straight for the door to the girls' dormitories; she was not in much of a mood for talking at the moment.

Lavender and Parvati had reached the dormitory first and were in the process of covering the walls beside their beds with posters and photographs. They had been talking as Iris pushed open the door but stopped abruptly the moment they saw her. Iris wish she didn't know they had been gossiping about her.

She had had difficulty all her life keeping herself from invading the thoughts of people around her. Especially as she had assumed herself to be insane for the first eleven years of her life, completely incapable of stopping herself because she didn't even understand how she was starting. It was bad enough hearing mean whispers about her escape strangers minds throughout her school years, but it coming from people she thought were her friends was a thousand times worse than any of the torment she had received over the years. Their judgement hit Iris like a train.

"Hi," she said quietly, moving across to her own trunk and opening it.

"Hey, Iris," said Parvati, who was putting on a pair of flowery pajamas. "Good holiday?"

Parvati flinched right after she said it, regret overcoming her face, "Sorry—"

"It's fine," Iris said quickly, though it was not. "How was yours?"

"Not bad," she responded awkwardly.

Parvati glanced over at Lavender who was adamantly not engaging in the conversation occurring. Iris noticed as her dorm mate was unpacking her trunk, a copy of The Daily Prophet resting beside her things. Iris deflated at the sight, looking back to her own trunk.

After a minute of uncomfortable silence, Iris glanced back up at the two girls, catching them in the middle of a silent argument. It appeared that Parvati was trying to urge Lavender to speak to the Potter, though so far unsuccessful. Iris held back a sound of frustration.

"So Iris," Lavender finally began, "What exactly did happen that night when... y'know?"

Parvati groaned, sending a glare at her best friend. Iris froze up, her eyes not leaving the books she had been withdrawing from her luggage. Her heart began beating just a bit faster.

"I mean, Dumbledore's old so it makes sense that he's unhinged, but... the claims you and your brother made..." Lavender paused before continuing in a bitter tone, "My parents didn't want me to come back this year. They think you're both liars and Dumbledore's an old crack."

"Lavender," Parvati hissed, wanting her to stop talking.

Iris rubbed the back of her neck, not looking at either of the other girls. She took a shaky breath, shutting her trunk even though she was only half unpacked.

"Sorry my boyfriend getting murdered caused such an inconvenience for you, Lavender," Iris said coolly before hurriedly leaving the room with no plans to return for the rest of the night.

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bit of a longer chapter I think but i'm so glad Iris is back at hogwarts now

her fifth year is going to be so much fun to write and hopefully for you guys to read!

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