The one with the sisters - Year Six [COMPLETED]

Chapter 12 - The one with the first meeting

That morning, during breakfast as Iris was talking with Dorcas and Glenda, she noticed her owl flying over to where she was sat. She frowned.

"Hey, Alden." She gave him a quite forced smiled as the owl sat in front of her plate of food.

Noticing his owner's distress, the owl tilted its head to the side. Glenda gushed.

"Oh, he's so cute!" She said and Iris giggled.

"Yeah." She nodded, reaching over and taking the letter from Alden's leg. "Yeah, he is."

Alden screech in appreciation and after stealing a piece of Iris' bread, it flew out. Iris played with the letter in her hands. Her parents were dead. Her older sister hated her. Her twin was sitting a table away. Her best friends were all around her. Whose was that from?

"You alright?" Glenda asked as she noticed Iris wasn't playing attention to her story anymore. Instead, she was with her gaze glued to the envelope.

"Not everything is bad news, Irie." Dorcas offered with a smile and Iris only half-heartedly responded the gesture.

"Yeah." She shrugged, but still felt the weight of her worry on her shoulders. "Yeah, I guess not."

***

Iris decided to ignore the letter, but after hearing Dorcas pointing out that running wasn't the solution for her problems about five times throughout the day, Iris opened it before going to sleep.

She was expecting anything, except for what the letter really was.

Dear miss Iris Evans,

I am inviting you to a reunion. Some of your friends will be there and we will be discussing something that I judge to be of your interest.

If you decide to make yourself present, please go to the left corridor of the Seventh Floor of Hogwarts, by the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy on February 26th at five o'clock. Walk by it three times thinking about meeting me and you'll find it.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Dumbledore.

Ps: please, don't talk about this invitation with anyone. Keeping this a secret is of high importacy.

Iris frowned as she finished reading the letter. Dumbledore was inventing her for a secret meeting? Was it a joke? Why would he do this? Maybe it was a prank? Maybe James, Peter and Sirius were trying to get her. But what if it was true? Maybe she should go.

She bit her lip, thinking hard. After a minute or two, she decided. She'd go. What could go wrong anyway?

***

It was February 26th and today was the day Iris would find out if she was being fooled or not. Doing her best not to drawn attention, Iris slipped from her common room and made her way to the Seventh Floor. When she got there, she found the Tapestry Dumbledore - supposedly - wrote her about. Following her Professor's instructions, she walked by it three times, thinking about meeting him. She was with her eyes closed, thinking how stupid she was probably looking at the moment and if it wasn't for the light click, she would've missed it.

Frowning at the sudden noise, Iris spun around and gasped. There was a door. She could swear it wasn't there before. No. Before it was just a wall, but now, there was a bloody door. It wasn't a prank, she thought. Not even the Marauders at their best would manage to do something like that. And even if they had actually managed it... Why would they waste their time with her?

Iris walked toward the door and reached for the handle. She turned it gently before pushing the heavy, blue, metallic door open. She blinked trying to get used with the light of the place. When she looked around, her eyes widened, though.

There, right in front of her eyes, was a huge room, almost like a classroom, but without the organized desks. Instead, there were some rags and puffs all around the almost empty, clear space. In a wall Iris noticed a few books, some cauldrons and Potions ingredients and dummies. Distracted with her own surprise, Iris totally forgot she was standing by the door, holding it open.

"Iris." Dumbledore's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned to face the Professor that she didn't even notice before. "I'm very glad you came, but if you could please close the door..."

"Right. Sorry, Professor." She said, stepping forward and finally closing the door.

"Have a seat, Iris."

She looked around. There were a few people there, which included Marlene, the Marauders, Helen and a Ravenclaw girl from seventh year Iris couldn't really identify.

Walking toward Marlene, she sat in the puff beside the girl who smiled at her.

"What's happening?" She whispered.

"I have no idea." The brunette shrugged. "Professor Dumbledore said he's waiting for everyone else to arrive."

"Who's everyone else?"

"I don't know." She answered again. "Everyone who got the invitation, I take it. You did, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

Iris had barely finished her answer, before the door swung open again and a very impressed Daniel stood by the door, just like she had done.

"Daniel Summers." Dumbledore greeted. "Come on in, join us, please."

The boy nodded and his eyes travelled around the room. Once he saw Iris, his face lighted up. He made his way toward her and greeted the – now – Captain of his Quidditch Team and long term friend with a kiss to the cheek. Remus, who was sitting by his friends watched the whole scene and growled lowly.

"Oi, mate." Sirius said and Remus turned to face him. "He's a friend of hers, isn't he? The Summers kid, I mean."

"He is." Remus answered, looking away, not being able to whatch his ex-girlfriend giggling so easily with some other guy. "And anyway... I don't have any right to be mad. I broke up with her."

"You didn't exactly..."

"But I fucked it up, Wormtail." Remus angrily interrupted his best friend, who was just trying to help. "I fucked it up, guys..."

Deciding it was better not to discuss, the boys changed the subject and when they had a new prank planned out, Dumbledore decided it was time to speak.

"Very well..." He said and everyone's attention turned to him. James was surprised by the amount of people who had arrived. Beside himself, his friends, Summers and the three girls, now there were at least fifteen people there. Lily, Mary, Dorcas and Camilla included. "You must be wondering why I reunited all of you here."

No one said anything, but they all knew it was true. Dumbledore did too, so he smiled.

"Well... I think you all know that we're not living the best of the moments right now."

"You're talking about You-Know-Who's return, Professor?" Dorcas asked gently and the old man nodded.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about, Dorcas. I wish I didn't have to do what I'm about to do, but I see no other option. I gathered you all here because you are, in my view, the best students we have and talents like yours ought to be... used. So I thought in starting a secret class so I could teach you all a bit of what I know, so you can defend yourselves and other against Voldemort's forces."

A few people flinched at the name, but Iris just looked down, playing with the ends of her hoodie's sleeves.

"I think it's a great idea." She spoke up and everyone turned to face her. "Now that I know death up close, I don't want to risk meeting it again and learning from you, Professor, is the best thing I can do to prevent it."

Dumbledore looked at the girl with a mixture of pride and pain, but nodded nonetheless. After her words, a few other students started to agree with the crazy idea from the Professor. Dumbledore, after realizing everyone there was in, smiled. He puffed his chest and spoke up again:

"Well, then I declare open the First Phoenix Class."