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It looked like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each was so angry with the other that Iris couldn't see how they'd ever makeup.

Ron was enraged that Hermione had never taken Crookshanks's attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on him, and was still trying to pretend that Crookshanks was innocent by suggesting that Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds. Hermione, meanwhile, maintained fiercely that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, that the ginger hairs might have been there since Christmas, and that Ron had been prejudiced against her cat ever since Crookshanks had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagerie.

Iris agreed with Hermione that it was probably just a coincidence that the cat hairs were there. She didn't believe that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers.

Harry, on the other hand, was sure that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, and when he tried to point out to Hermione that the evidence all pointed that way, she lost her temper with Harry too.

"Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she said shrilly. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"

Ron had taken the loss of his rat very hard indeed.

"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," said Fred bracingly. "And he's been off-colour for ages, he was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly -- one swallow -- he probably didn't feel a thing."

"Fred!" said Ginny indignantly.

"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," said George.

"He bit Goyle for us once!" Ron said miserably. "Remember, Harry?"

Iris sighed in exasperation.

"Yeah, that's true," said Harry.

"His finest hour," said Fred, unable to keep a straight face. "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as a lasting tribute to his memory. Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy a new rat, what's the point of moaning?"

The only thing that would seem to make the two set their differences aside for just a moment was Hagrid.

He had just gotten back from London with Buckbeak for his trial. The four of them (mostly Ron and Hermione) had agreed to not fight for Hagrid's sake. They weren't sure how the trial had gone and didn't want to upset Hagrid by fighting in front of him.

So that afternoon they met up and silently walked down to Hagrid's hut together with Hermione and Ron trying to put as much space between themselves as possible.

They found Hagrid wearing a gigantic, hairy brown suit and perhaps the world's ugliest yellow and orange tie, standing knee-deep in the shallows of the Black Lake, skimming rocks as big as flagstones across the water's shiny gloss. As he turned, the quartet caught a brief sight of his eyes, red with tears, before he looked away.

"How'd it go, Hagrid?" Hermione asked gently.

Hagrid threw another rock across the water, "Buckbeak liked London."

"I meant the hearing."

"Oh. That. Well, I got up an' said my bit -- You know, how Buckbeak was a good Hippogriff an' as long as yeh treated 'im with respect, he'd treat you the same. Then Lucius Malfoy got up an' said his bit -- you know, how Buckbeak was a deadly dangerous beast that no teacher in their righ' mind would expose their students to..." he skimmed another rock over the lake.

"And then?" Iris asked, nervous to hear the answer.

Hagrid sighed, "And then he asked for the worst, did ol' Lucius."

"They're not sacking you, are they?" Ron questioned.

"No, I'm not sacked," Hagrid reassured. He paused for a few seconds, looking down at the stone in his large hands before speaking, his voice heavy with sadness, "Buckbeak's bin sentenced ter death!" He chucked the last stone into the water, not even trying to skim it. Iris' eyes started tearing up as she exchanged glances with her friends.

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A few days later, Iris and Harry were sitting out in the courtyard, Iris doing work for their Charms class while Harry just sat next to her and watched. Suddenly a few Gryffindor students ran by loudly whooping. The twins looked up, startled.

"Come on, Harry! You too, Iris!" said George, jogging over to them. "Party! Gryffindor common room, now!"

"What? Why?" Iris asked, confused.

"Why not!" George replied, "Come on now, you can put down your silly papers and have fun for once."

Iris' jaw dropped in offence as Harry clapped his hand over his mouth trying to hold back a laugh with not much luck.

"Excuse you! I have fun all the time! I am a super fun person," she protested, "Let's go then," Iris shoved her schoolwork into her bag before slinging it over her shoulder and grabbing both boys by the biceps and dragging them towards the common room.

Iris had never been to a party like this before, honestly, she had never really even been to a party. The Dursleys wouldn't let Harry and her go to any birthday parties and the ones that had happened during her time at Hogwarts were ones she had avoided.

This party was crazy though, and it seemed like the entire house of Gryffindor was all crammed into the common room as the party went on all day and well into the night. Fred and George Weasley disappeared for an hour and returned with armfuls of bottles of butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets.

"How did you do that?" squealed Angelina Johnson as George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd.

"With a little help from Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred muttered in Harry and Iris's ears.

Harry had told her all about the magical map of Hogwarts that the Weasley twins had given him. She thought it was spectacular. The wizards who had created it had to have been pure geniuses, she would never in a million years have thought of it. Of course, then Harry had to go and get it confiscated after a run-in with Professor Lupin the night before.

Only one person wasn't joining in the festivities. Hermione, incredibly, was sitting in a corner, attempting to read an enormous book entitled Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles. Iris and Harry broke away from the table where Fred and George had started juggling butterbeer bottles and went over to her.

"Don't you want to party?" Iris asked her.

"Of course I do," said Hermione in a strangely high-pitched voice, not looking up. "But I need to read this by Monday and partying is not responsible."

"Come on, Hermione, come and have some food," Iris said, looking over at Ron and wondering whether he was in a good enough mood to bury the hatchet.

"I can't, Iris. I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!" said Hermione, now sounding slightly hysterical. "Anyway..." She glanced over at Ron too. "He doesn't want me to join in."

There was no arguing with this, as Ron chose that moment to say loudly, "If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them --"

Hermione burst into tears. Before Iris or Harry could say or do anything, she tucked the enormous book under her arm, and, still sobbing, ran toward the staircase to the girls' dormitories and out of sight.

"Can't you give her a break?" Harry asked Ron quietly.

"No," said Ron flatly. "If she just acted like she was sorry -- but she'll never admit she's wrong, Hermione. She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on vacation or something."

Iris shook her head at Ron and ran up the stairs to the girls' dormitory after Hermione. She found her, still sobbing, in her bed. Iris sat down next to her best friend and pulled her into her side where they remained for the next half hour as Hermione got all of her tears out. Iris almost started crying herself, listening to Hermione so sad.

Hermione eventually fell asleep and Iris laid her down and tucked her in gently. She went back to her own bed and soon fell asleep.

She had a very strange dream. She was walking through a forest following something silvery-white. It was winding its way through the trees ahead, and she could only catch glimpses of it between the leaves. Anxious to catch up with it, she sped up, but as she moved faster, so did her quarry. Iris broke into a run, and ahead she heard hooves gathering speed. Now she was running flat out, and ahead she could hear galloping. Then she turned a corner into a clearing and --

Iris woke as suddenly as though she'd been hit in the face. Disoriented in the total darkness, she fumbled with her bedsheets.

Something bad was going to happen. She could feel it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Iris jumped out of her bed at once and went pelting out of the room jumping down the dormitory stairs three at a time. Running across the room and up to Harry's dormitory, she slammed the door open.

"What's going on?"

Harry ripped his bed frame curtains back, and at the same moment, Dean Thomas lit his lamp.

Ron was sitting up in bed, the hangings torn from one side, a look of utmost terror on his face.

"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!"

Iris immediately turned back around and ran out of the room at top speed through the common room and out the Gryffindor portrait hole. Sprinting, Iris ran desperately toward the castle doors. She couldn't let him get away, not again.

When she finally reached the doors she yanked them open and ran into the courtyard. She could see the black silhouette of a big animal in the light of the half moon running away quickly toward the Forbidden Forest.

Iris put on the speed but she was still falling behind. The dog was soon going to enter the forest and she knew that if she didn't act quickly she would lose her chance, so using her last resort she called out desperately,

"SIRIUS!"

The dog paused. Iris' running came to a shuddering halt.

"Sirius," Iris repeated breathlessly standing ten feet from the dog.

She blinked and suddenly standing in front of her was a worn down, shaggy-haired, Sirius Black.

"Tell me the truth."

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(A/N)

haha