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Name: Iris Blackwood
House: Ravenclaw
Year: 5th Year
Looks: Around 5 foot 7, moderate weight, bright red hair shoulder length curly, extremely pale with a light sprinkling of freckles. When not in school robes, loves to wear comfortable jeans and sweaters. Favorite color is green.
Personality: Quiet and contemplative, usually content unless stressing over an assignment. Is kind, and is usually easy to like. Doesn't have many close friends, but is okay with spending time with her black cat, Demetrius. (Some wonder if Demetrius is an animagus, her childhood friend)
Friends: Likes everyone, no close friends (yet).
Family/Background: Is suspected of being distantly related to the Weasleys, but not confirmed. Grew up without family in an orphanage, best friend when young was a boy named Demetrius. He disappeared at age nine, around the time her black cat showed up.

"Oh, not again!" I muttered under my breath as the goblet I was supposed to be filling with water burst into green flames. "I can't believe this. I don't even know a spell for green flames!" Professor Venturi, who had taken over for Professor Flitwick after his retirement in my second year, was standing behind my desk, a rather amused expression plastered on his face.
"Aren't you a 5th year in Ravenclaw? I would have expected more than this from someone such as you. Let me help you start over. Aguamenti!!" The cup immediately ceased burning as water ruptured out of the end of his wand. I turned to Professor Venturi in frustration.
"Sir, I'm having an awful day. May I go to the infirmary and lay down so I can calm down?" Noticing my near teary expression, he reluctantly nodded and dismissed me from class early. I headed down the hallway, straight for the library. I didn't want to stop in the infirmary, and the library seemed like the perfect refuge.

"It's nothing. I just don't understand why I fail at charms. Did you know I'm still at the fourth year's level? For someone in Ravenclaw, that's just embarrassing." Iris stopped suddenly and looked up.

"Wait. You got kicked out AGAIN? Isn't this the fifth time this month!?" A serious goody two shoes most of the time, it took her a while to get her mind around the idea of getting kicked out of class ON PURPOSE. Finally she relaxed, flashing one of those rare smiles that showed some real sass.

"It was Professor Diggory, huh?" I really felt sorry for Professor Diggory. The younger brother to Cedric Diggory, Malachi Diggory had always gotten the short end of the stick. When Cedric had died after that Harry Potter ran into Voldemort a fourth time, all of the family hopes were thrown on him. His father forced him into wizarding education, and...well...you can guess at the rest.

Professor Diggory was a wonderful house teacher, but potions avoided him like the plague. He only did book work, and asked his student teacher and teachers pet, Angeline Rowely, 6th year, to teach the class in his stead.

"I can understand why you'd skip out. Angeline was sick this morning in the dorm. So..." Iris glanced around quickly, "Do you want to explore those secret passages again?"

"Nah...we don't need anyone else. Oh, and by the way, I found this in the Room of Requirement." She pulled out a trifolded piece of paper and blew the gathered dust off of the cover. With a mischievous smile, Iris placed the tip of her wand on the paper. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." A map of Hogwarts unfolded in waves of ink across the page. Iris absorbed the look of utter shock that spread across Laura's face.

"You haven't even been to the Room of Requirement, huh? I know you checked out the passage where it was supposed to be, but that Fiend Fyre they told us about the night Voldemort came here apparently seemed to seal the magic of the room. They were wrong. Apparently it now sits on the second floor, just a few halls from here. What do you say we..."she grinned with utter joy, "use this little friend of ours and explore a bit."

Without another word Iris set off out of the library doors and off down the hallway, just listening for the patter of Laura's footsteps behind her.

Iris began to pace back and forth, wandering in front of a certain spot on the wall, her face pulled into an almost comical look of concentration. She passed it once....twice...three times...four times...on the fifth passing, a door materialized in the wall, melting down into solid oaken doors, a shiny golden handle gleaming in front of her face. She turned around and motioned silently and frantically as the Caretaker shuffled around the corner. Laura sprinted and made it through the door seconds before Iris closed her out in the face of sudden danger.

At first, there was only darkness. Laura heard a faint breath in as Iris prepared herself for what might be her first success at a wordless charm. In her head, she thought very clearly, Lumos! The tip of her wand burst into a sphere of light. Iris turned with utter joy to Laura, ready to brag at her first success with a wordless charm, but stopped when she saw the look of shock and slight fear that had spread across the features of Laura's face.

With a building feeling of ominousness, Iris braced herself and turned the direction Laura was looking. In the faint light her wand was emitting, a pair of shoes were just visible in the darkness. Glancing up, she paled greatly as her eyes were greeted with the blank and deadpan stare of the pale corpse swinging from the rope hanging from the ceiling.

Forcing herself to swallow her terror and keep a cool head, she grabbed the arm of Laura and turned her away from the body. Laura for once seemed frozen, which was more terrifying than anything else that was going on. Taking tentative steps closer and closer to the body, a faint suspense seemed to build. Without a thought, Iris uttered the last words she ever expected herself to hear: "D...dad...? Is that...you?"

With a gleam of determination, Iris forced a strong burst of energy into her wand, thinking Lumos Maximus! The rest of the room was illuminated, revealing an empty room but for the long dead figure and her pet cat, Demetrius.

"Demetrius?! Why...are you here?" As if understanding her, he leapt across the room and grabbed the hem of Iris's robes and started pulling. Without another thought, Iris followed him.

Iris found herself wandering through what seemed like a labyrinth of books and shelves of things she had never seen before. With a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, she realized that she must be wandering through the warped objects that had been effected by the fiend fyre years ago. A grotesque face peered out from behind the casing of a glass door. Demetrius, one of her closest friends, was leaping far ahead of her in the darkness, turning around only once or twice to make sure that she was still following him.

She took three more steps and froze. The darkness was replaced with light, and all of the hideous objects melted away, leaving a nicely lit room that seemed to resemble the library. The books, however, were ancient. She turned to find Laura walking slowly behind, apparently still terrified by the mirage that was obviously an ancient charm used to scare away unwanted visitors. "Laura!" she called. Laura jumped. With a laugh, Iris waved her over to where she was standing. "It's just mirages and magic, my friend...the spell ends over here." Iris froze, surprised. She had never called anyone besides her cat her "friend". But honestly, Iris felt closer to Laura than she had to any other student she had ever met. It was almost like they were made to be friends.

" I...think that this is the wierd room we always heard our Professors talk about...the room that was consumed by the fiend fyre...Maybe it messed with the nature of the objects? Or maybe it's a shield to hide what's really here. But that theory brings up another question: Who hid this place, and where are they now?"

"Right Here." A serpentine voice echoed across the room from a chair that moments before was not even noticeable. A tall man stood up and turned around, facing the two girls with a look of pure venom, one that could surely kill if they made true eye contact. Luckily the two thought better of it and looked away. The man approached slowly, like a serpent about to strike. With each step, the growl in Demetrius's throat grew a decibel. When he reached out to touch the hair of the cringing Iris, he leapt at the man and started clawing him all over. Leaning against Laura, Iris could tell that both of them were shaking.

"Demetrius!! NOO!" Iris's scream sounded strangled and frantic as the cat was flung across the room. The man who had emerged from the chair strode over with lightning fast reflexes and grabbed Iris by her hair. Iris gasped in pain as he jerked her closer to the fire, his harsh actions causing spasms of pain and blotches of red across Iris's vision.

Tearing frantically at the hand holding her hair, Iris leapt forward and struck the guy holding her, dazing him for half a second, enough to get her hair out of her grip and turn around to find a second man standing directly behind Laura. Iris charged at Laura, ready to attack the man behind her friend. Overwhelmed and confused, Laura screamed her name and then collapsed, struck in the back by the man's stupefy spell.

The other man grabbed both of Iris's hands, knocking her wand away, where the other guy walked calmly over and scooped it up. They handled the limp form of Laura harshly, tossing her around, flinging her into a chair, and binding her with magic rope. "Stop it! Stop! Leave her alone! Be careful...DON'T HURT HER!!!" Iris's voice ripped at her throat, fighting an uphill battle before escaping, for the first man had his arm around her throat and was squeezing really hard. "Wait...please...I can't.....brea....eathe............stop...................it..." the world in front of Iris's eyes began to swirl as the oxygen slowly faded from her bloodstream and her brain. Finally, she lost all consiousness. The last thing she saw was her old childhood friend Demetrius emerging quietly from behind a stack of books, murder written across his features.

"Iris...? Iris! WAKE UP, DAMN IT!!" Iris lay there on the floor as frantic hands flew to her head and neck. The voice above her, which was flooded with desperation and panic, was strange, but at the same time had a comforting, familiar Irish lilt that she had grown to love when she was very young. The unknown figure pulled her closer and just held her their, whether to protect her from any more harm or merely to check for a heartbeat she didn't know. The voice came out again. "Iris, please wake up. God, don't let me have been too late. She's fine. She has to be. Oh God, please....." She could almost hear tears.

Slowly, and with a great amount of pain and effort, Iris pulled herself out of the dense fog that clouded her brain from lack of oxygen. With immense concentration, she forced herself to take a deep breath, to replentish the lost air. Almost immediately things began to clear up. The man above her seemed to relax a miniscule, and she forced her eyes open. Abover sat the young adult form of a childhood friend she had known to be dead for many years, since the accident at the orphanage. Fear struck deep at her heart, and with a hoarse and shaky voice, she asked, "Wh...why are you...here? Am I dead? Did you come to take your revenge? I'm...I'm so sorry...I know I shouldn't have taken that wand...forgive me..." The amount of talking sent her mind reeling in dizzy circles, and she reached for her head in pain.

Concern flooded his olive colored eyes. "I'm not here for revenge. Are you okay?" Iris sat there and thought for a moment. After a couple of seconds, she nodded. "Just need to...catch my breath." He relaxed, and relief emanated from his features. He looked up at the sound of a slight rustling. He stood up suddenly. "I need to go. Your friend is waking up. She'll take care of you." He leaned close. "Stay safe, Ir." Iris nodded, laying on the floor, strengthless.

"Whatever you say, Demi." He faded into the shadows, and moments later, Laura opened her eyes and stood up unsteadily, dizzy, but untied and otherwise unharmed. Exausted, Iris lay her head back down and closed her eyes, unable to remain consious any longer.