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Dreams are fascinating things. Showing you things you yourself can't imagine but that are lingering just behind the veil of your subconscious. Iris had often experienced the feeling of floating within the unlimited expanse that is dreaming, as she would frequently and unintentionally seep into the thoughts and landscapes that lived within the heads of her also sleeping peers.

She had seen many things with her gift. So many of her friend's happy memories, their dreams in life, their fears. In a way, Iris enjoyed travelling around in her sleep through different dreamscapes. She enjoyed getting to know people when they weren't worried about putting up a specific front to disguise themselves in the crowd. Dreams were another way for Iris to escape, to release all her worry, doubt, fear and just simply dream.

Though not all dreams are good. Not all have the sun shining overhead and puffy white clouds in the sky. And with just a tap everything goes spiralling into darkness.

That's where Iris found herself the first night back at Hogwarts. She had drifted into the mind of one of the many Gryffindor students; One that was, unfortunately, in the middle of having a nightmare.

The teenage witch was then forcefully launched into a nightmare of her own making. One that contained scenes that replayed over and over of horrible flashes of green light, haunting laughs that echoed throughout the empty darkness, and a strange image of glowing red eyes. 

She woke up with a start, her dark curls strung wildly across her face as the last of the never-ending eerie visions burned behind her eyelids. A new, but equally horrifying, image had graced the final seconds before she woke, in the form of a snake lunging at her, fangs bared.

Iris sat up, breathing heavily as she looked around her dormitory room with wide eyes. Of course, nothing was in there other than the girls she shared the room with, but she couldn't shake the chilling feeling the nightmare had given her.

The young Gryffindor sat awake for the last few hours before the sun finally began to rise. Leaning her back against the wooden headboard of her bed, the blood-red curtains were drawn tightly closed around the perimeter of the canopy bed frame. She sat there sinking into the plush mattress, knees pulled close into her chest as she stared dully out at the red veil shielding her vision of the room. The girl twitched at every sound, scared to close her eyes for fear of what lurked behind them.

Iris eventually got out of bed, peeling the curtains back and carefully stepping out into the open. She went about her normal activities as she got ready for the first day of classes, being careful not to disturb the other sleeping girls in the dorm as it was still much earlier than the normal waking time.

Alone in the Great Hall, she watched the light begin to pour in through the large stained-glass windows around the room. Iris sat at the Gryffindor table in silence, letting her thoughts drift off as her vision became unfocused. Her face was impassive, simply blank to anyone who glanced at the young Potter as a few students started trickling in for breakfast.

Iris thought about all the times she had sat in this exact same spot, gazing off into space the exact same way, looking hopelessly to find some sort of semblance of equanimity in the disorder that was her life.

She missed feeling free.

She missed the adventure of being ignorant to all the bad in the world.

And oddly enough, she missed all the times when Harry was the only good thing in her life. When it was just the two of them against the whole world.

Everything was different now. There was no more blissful ignorance, no more childlike wonder. No more happy endings. Iris couldn't believe in a happy ending when everyone around her always meets one so sour. Her parents were long gone, she could barely contact her godfather because everyone thought of him as a murderer, her brother's godfather had been publicly shamed for something he couldn't even control, and now the imminent threat of doom hung over her head like a sword in the shape of the Triwizard Tournament.

The Triwizard Tournament. Every time those words ran through her head her stomach turned. There was a pit that sat within her saying that nothing good would come out of this.

And she couldn't help but believe it.

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"Alastor Moody."

Said man turned to the awaiting empty green chalkboard behind him and scribbled his name in chalk onto it.

"Ex-Auror. Ministry malcontent." He turned to the class, "And your new defence against the dark arts teacher."

He surveyed them all, his one mechanical eyeball whizzing around in its socket, never staying focused on one thing for more than a few seconds.

"I'm here because Dumbledore asked me, end of story, goodbye, the end," he snapped at them. "Any questions?"

The strange, and slightly scary, man stared them all down, most of the students avoiding eye contact.

"Right then," he said, when no one spoke, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures - you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other."

He paced slowly before the students, all of the fourth-years in Iris' class watching him carefully.

"When it comes to the dark arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are?"

"Three sir," Hermione stuttered out from beside Iris.

Moody nodded, turning back to the chalkboard and scribbling that down, "And they are so named?"

Hermione took in a deep breath, glancing at Iris before answering, "Because they are unforgivable. Use of any one of them will..."

"Will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban. Correct." He finished writing and turned back to the class, "Now the ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you're up against, you need to be prepared," He wrote numbers one through three on the board, "you need to find somewhere else to put your chewing gum other than the underside of your desk Mr Finnigan!"

"Aw no way, the old codger can see out the back of his head," Seamus muttered.

Moody whipped around, launching his stick of chalk at Seamus, "And hear across classrooms!"

The Irish boy and surrounding students ducked with wide eyes as the chalk sailed by. The Professor limped up the aisle between desks, staring down each student he passed, his prosthetic wooden leg thumping heavily as he walked.

"So, which curse shall we see first?" he halted in front of Ron's desk, gazing around the room inspecting each of them thoroughly, "WEASLEY!"

Ron jumped, "Yes..."

"Give us a curse," Moody directed.

Iris didn't like where this was going. There was a reason the curses were unforgivable, and if Moody was about to do what she thought he was, the young witch was exceedingly nervous.

Her ginger friend hesitated, reluctantly speaking, "Well, my dad did tell me about one... The imperious curse."

Moody nodded, his magical eye whizzing around to the back of his head, "Ahhh yes, your father would know all about that. Gave the ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why."

Iris' hand uneasily drifted over toward Harry, carefully wrapping around his arm as she sought comfort. The corners of her lips tipped downwards as she realized what was going to happen.

Mad-Eye returned to the front of the room, reaching for a jar on his desk. He popped open the lid, reaching his hand inside to grab a spider. The Professor held it in the palm of his hand and enlarged the spider so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backwards and forwards as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a backflip, breaking the thread and landing on Dean and Neville's desk. The two boys jumped back in their chairs as the rest of the class broke into laughter.

Iris stared, horrified, as Moody commanded the spider to leap onto Crabbe's head. That made her peers laugh even harder as he tried to swat it off of his head in fear.

"Don't worry. Completely harmless," The old man reassured them as he made it jump onto Parvati Patil.

She shrieked as it crawled up her arm before leaping away. Iris couldn't believe people were laughing at this, it was absolutely awful. Even Harry and Ron were laughing loudly until Moody had the spider dangle itself over Ron's face, which immediately made Ron shut up as his face contorted to one of pure terror.

"But if she bites... she's lethal!" Moody laughed madly.

He had the spider cartwheel in the air and onto the desk Iris shared with Harry, but instead of screaming or trying to hit the poor spider, Iris gathered it into her hands carefully trying not to scare the trembling creature. Professor Moody then flicked his wand and the spider went flying off once more, swinging back and forth through the air.

Draco Malfoy then let out a particularly loud laugh, drawing the attention of the old wizard, "What are you laughing at?

Mad-Eye sent the spider onto Draco's face. The laughter grew in volume, beside her, Harry started clapping amusedly. Iris' eyebrows scrunched unpleasantly as she watched Draco try to smack the spider off.

Moody chuckled madly, "Talented, isn't she?! What shall I have her do next? Jump out the window?" The laughter died immediately as the professor's voice turned darker, "Drown herself?"

The spider contorted horribly as she hovered over a bucket of water that sat beside the windowsill. Moody had the spider return to his hand, as the students stared, suddenly realising the evil in the curse.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Iris knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will."

"The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped.

"Another.. another.. Come on come on." He encouraged them.

Iris was surprised by how many of her classmates raised their hands, but none surprised her more than seeing Neville raise his.

Moody stood before him, "Longbottom, is it? Up."

Neville Longbottom stood hesitantly.

"Professor Sprout tells me you have an aptitude for herbology," Mad-Eye told him.

Neville nodded slightly, "There's the um... the cruciatus curse."

"Correct! Correct! Come come."

Neville didn't move for a moment as Moody walked back to his desk. The professor turned, beckoning him over.

"Particularly nasty." Neville stood to the side of the desk, "The torture curse."

Professor Moody watched with a morbid sort of anticipation as he hissed out, "Crucio!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Iris was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently -

Iris, who had seen too much, and knew all too well the tragedies that Neville had been through, was horrified by what was happening.

"Stop!" She yelled, standing up suddenly.

Poor Neville's face was covered in anguish and pain as he watched the spider shriek and contort under the curse just in front of him. Professor Moody hadn't seemed to have heard her as he continued to torture the spider.

Iris' eyes bounced around between Neville, the spider, and Moody before she screamed shrilly once more, "Stop it!"

As if he had suddenly remembered there were other people in the room, Moody looked up, stopping the curse. He coughed awkwardly, glancing at Neville, whose eyes were glued upon the still twitching spider in horror. The old Auror scooped the spider into this hand, carrying it over to Iris' desk and placing it in front of her.

"Perhaps you could give us the last unforgivable curse, Miss Potter?"

Her lips quivered as she shook her head side to side, staring straight ahead, looking petrified, for she knew what would happen next. The professor looked down at her for another moment before humming.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

Iris reached under the desk and gripped Harry's hand tightly. There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air - instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries and Iris closed her eyes, not wanting to look.

"Not nice," Moody said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only two known people have ever survived it, and they're sitting right in front of me."

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hey guys! wow it's been a hot minute. sorry this chapter took so long but school's been crazy (saw that coming) anyway, thank you guys so so much for all your support on this story recently, it really has blown up quite a bit and seeing all of your comments and votes gets me so excited!

I love you all endlessly, 💛💛💛