"Those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly." For Iris Potter, these words defined her whole life. Born with a natural talent for Legilim...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
⌗ ⌗ ⌗
It was raining.
Iris could hardly believe her eyes. She numbly took a few steps backwards until her feet found their way out the bedroom door. They carried her down the stairs and out the front door, where she flinched as raindrops caressed her skin for the first time in months. Iris couldn't help but let the rain soak her as she stood on the cobbled sidewalk, overwhelmed with emotion.
It didn't surprise her all that much when the first person walked by, fading in and out of opacity as they minded on down the sidewalk towards town. She sat on the door stoop and watched as one by one more shadows traversed past the front gate, the sky opening up more each second.
After a while, the squeak of the front door behind her was dulled by the pounding rain. Cedric took a seat beside her, the silence between the two speaking volumes. They both knew what the rain meant; Iris' time was limited. The thunder roared overhead, calling for her to come home.
She reached over and grabbed his hand, trying to imprint the memory of how it felt in her mind.
"They must have figured out how to save me..." she spoke for them both. "I'm really gonna miss you," she swallowed thickly.
He let out a short breath, "I didn't get the chance to say goodbye the first time... at least now we can."
Their eyes met, and a tear rolled down Iris' cheek, disguised in the rain showering down on her.
Cedric said sadly, "This is time we were never meant to have together. And it's been amazing... but you don't belong here." Iris looked away in anguish, "You need to be alive, you need to stop Voldemort."
It was a painful truth for both of them. Their borrowed time was up. Iris had crossed certain lines in the magic protecting her by bringing Cedric there, and she had no idea what to expect as the consequences. She would be changed forever by her experiences, it had been so long since she had seen anyone other than him; Iris couldn't even imagine what chaos could be going on outside her asylum.
"I know..." Iris said quietly, "I miss Harry. Everyone really, and I'm ready to go back, I just— I don't want to leave you again."
Cedric wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, "I'll stay with you until the end."
They sat and let the rain soak them all the way through, hair and clothes stuck to their skin.
Iris...
She heard a whisper that sent a jolt down her spine, sitting straight up and looking around. Cedric watched Iris cautiously as she stood and waited. Like someone had tied a string around her, Iris' gut pulled her to walk out of the front garden gate and down the sidewalk to stand before the house next door. Every day since she had arrived in Godric's Hollow, Iris had stared at this house with its missing chunks of roof and broken walls with a painful sting in her heart. It looked especially miserable in the storm, with the dark clouds and sheets of rain the perfect backdrop to its ruin. She pushed through the rusty gate and made her way forward toward the door she had not passed through in fifteen years.
