Only the Good Die Young

Part 6: Sixth Year: Holier than Swiss Cheese

Iris was glad it was Friday.

She sighed as she walked into detention for the last time that week, she'd probably be back in on Monday for who knows what.

Yesterday, Iris started tutoring a little Hufflepuff first year named Gregor, yeah, poor name, but he wasn't a poor kid, he just had trouble paying attention.

They went through a full textbook's worth of information on beginner's potion making yesterday and now they were actually going to try and make one.  Iris shivered at the thought of making a potion with Gregor.

He was a sweet boy but when she heard what caused him to fail the past time on his potion making, well let's just say Iris liked her hair on her head and not burned to a crisp.

Yep, school had only been in session for a week and Gregor had managed to blow his potions up. Every. Single. One.

Iris found Gregor in the spot they were at yesterday as she greeted the boy hello.

"Hey Greggy!" Iris smiled as she sat down and grabbed the textbook they would be needing for the potion.

Gregor looked up at Iris's hello and grinned sheepishly.

"It's not fair Iris! You don't have a good name for a nickname, and I'm stuck with Greggy!" The boy whined as he began to open his own textbook to the page Iris's was opened on.

Iris rolled her eyes at Gregor and smirked. "Well, Greggy that's just the way the world works, but if you want, I'll let you call me a secret nickname my friends have for me."

Gregor smiled at the thought of being let in on a secret with Iris. "Sure, what is it?"

"My friends like to call me Hoot and you can call me that too. Since it's a secret though, you can't ask why they call me that, okay?" Iris smiled at the boy who looked deeply in thought at the prospect of not being able to know the secret.

"Okay Hoot I'll try not to ask."

"Perfect! Now let's start this potion and try not to explode it." Iris said as she winced slightly, thinking again on how the potion might not go so well.

"Sure thing Hoot. I'm warning you though, that's never happened before." Gregor smiled innocently as he looked at Iris shivering.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake let's get on with this." Iris sighed and began to collect the ingredients needed for the potion that hopefully wouldn't fry her hair off.

This was going to be a bloody long detention.

---------------

Iris walked out of detention a new woman.

After two successful attempts at Gregor making the potion, Iris let him do it by himself.

That was not a good idea. Actually, it was a fucking horrible idea.

He exploded it. 

And now at the end of detention, Iris walked out with half of her eyebrow burned out of existence and in need of a whole new tie.

 And skirt.

 And top.

With Iris's luck, she didn't have time to change before the names were drawn from the goblet. So, she wobbled, yes, she was still sore, looking like a zombie into the Great Hall.

As Iris walked up to the Marauders who were too busy talking to notice her haggard state, she let out a sigh as she sat down next to Remus and laid her head on his shoulder.