She hated him. Oh how she hated him.

She loathed him, despised

him, detested him. She wanted to watch him die a slow, agonizing
death. I could make it look like an accident, Iris thought. I would slam
his pretty little head against the wall, cut him into pieces and every
Christmas I would sent a body part of his as a present to his dearest
friends. Hmm, it wouldn't look like an accident exactly. She smiled
grimly that lopsided grin of hers. If only she had the nerve to do it. If
only.

"Get out of the way, ginger!" An eleven year old Iris Mulligan was
pushed violently out of the way. She hitted the floor of the train's
apartment hard, a mind-numbing pain started spreading from her nose
to her brain.
"What is wrong with you, you bloody idiot?" She shouted angrily rising
unsteadily to her feet. She saw a dark clothed boy stop dead in his
tracks. He slowly turned around, like he couldn't believe what he had
just heard. He walked towards her, two other boys on each side of his.
He was pale white like a dead man, his dark shaggy hair slightly
grazing his shoulders.
"What did you say?" He asked slowly, emphasazing every word. He
was slightly taller than her, his eyes burned into hers.
"Are you friggin' deaf, I asked what is wrong with you, you fool!" The
way he had spat out those words had irritated her. No one could talk to
her like that, not even her mother would use this tone.The boy looked
like he had swallowed a sock. His cheeks had gotten a red glow, but
his eyes still rested on hers.
"Nobody talks to Sirius like that." A boy with also black hair and
glasses chipped in from where he was-next to the Sirius boy.
"And who are you? His girlfriend?" The whole scene seemed very
familiar to Iris. I know your kind, she thought. I've met bullies like you.
The boy with the glasses opened his eyes in shock.
"I...am..I.." he stuttered.
"Never mind James." Sirius said suddenly. His eyes, never away from
hers, had now a glint in them. His mouthed curved into a grin.
"Fiesty, aren't we?" he asked still smiling. She however remaint silent,
there was no point answering this stupid question. He leaned towards
her.
"Aw, did you get shy all of a sudden?" He said in a mocking baby
voice. What an idiot, he was a baby himself. Iris still didn't feel the
need to say anything. She only wanted to do something.Like punching
him, but she wouldn't dare. She had gotten herself into trouble far too
many times. He wasn't worth it. He leaned even closer, just a few
inches away from her angry face.
"Don't you have anything to say?" He mocked her again.
 "Anything at all?" He asked once more. Her mouth was so close to his
face , she only had to whisper. But she didn't.
"Get away from me you arse." She said loudly enough for the whole
apartment and the corridor to hear. Immediately gasps of shock were
let by students standing nearby.
"She sweared" The James kid mumbled in shock. "She sweared!" he
said louder. Sirius however let out a booming laugh.
"You" he pointed at her "are fun."
"Well you" she emphasized the last word "are not."
"We could be friends, if you didn't have red hair. And freckles."
"Well it's too bad I do."
"It's too bad, indeed." Her eyes were burning holes into his. She
wanted to get away from him as quickly as possible.
"I'm Sirius by the way. Sirius Black. You'd better remember the name."
And with that he was gone.

"Sorry I'm late" A panting seventeen year old Sirius Black bursted into
the Herbology classroom. Twenty five heads turned to look at him. It
was a classroom of twenty seven.
"This is the third time you're late for class Sirius and you're here for
only a week." Professor Sproute said in a stern voice.
"Oh this is the last time Miss, I promise I'm not doing it on purpose .
You know how much I love your class" He smiled innocently at her.
Even Iris nearly believed him. His flattery seemed to do the trick.
"Oh alright, but this is the last time . I won't have any of this again."
Please, you said that yesterday too, Iris thought. She was the only one
who hadn't turned her head, she knew what she would see. Another
female abandoning her sense when it came to Sirius Black. Age,
identity, profession, none of that mattered. They were all victims,
innocent small animals falling in his deadly traps. Fools.
"Morning beautiful" he told her as he was passing by her. She grabbed
the weird looking creature they had to plant really tight from her fury.
She hated it when he called her names like that. For six years now they
were either ignoring each other or intensely annoying each other. But
it was mostly jinxs, curses, pranks and stuff like that. But he was
mean. Mean and clever at the same time. Pranks weren't so much fun
for him anymore. He needed something good, something that would
really get him under her skin. And that's where Remus comes in.

Iris and Remus clicked from the second he talked to her. Well not
exactly from the second, maybe a moment later. She met him the day
she first met Sirius only a couple of minutes after the latter's dramatic
departure from the corridor.
"Hello, I'm Remus" A tall boy introduced himself with a low voice. Iris
eyed him warily. After Sirius' and his puppy James' departure the boy
who was previously standing on the right of Black had stayed glued on
the spot.
"Remus Lupin, this is my first year." He continued hastily. "And you
are?"
Iris thought about it for a second. Should she let some total stranger
know who she was, not that she was important. But she didn't feel
comfortable knowing that others might know even this tiny bit of
information. The boy, Remus, had kind but somehow tired eyes. She
decided she liked him enough to tell him her name.
"Iris. Iris Mulligan." She said with a small voice.
"Mulligan? Are you Irish?" he asked.
"What does it matter to you anyway?" She immediately felt bad for
her sharp tone. But she had been made fun of several times because
of her origins. When she was three her family moved to southern
France. Her white complexion, her green eyes, her freckles but most of
all her red hair had put her into so much trouble, they would all make
fun of her. Oh the names they called her.. She couldn't stand them.
But Remus wasn't rude.
"I'm sorry" he said "I didn't mean to intrude, I was just curious." His
gaze dropped to his shoes.
"No, I'm sorry, I was the one who was rude. It's just a sensitive
matter." Remus was astonished by the way she spoke. Such clever
words for an eleven year old. But Iris was clever and she knew it. The
words escaped her mouth before she could stop them.
"Wanna join me in the apartment?" She was anxious. She had never
invited anyone to hang out with her, she didn't want to. But this boy,
he seemed different. Remus glanced around, Sirius was nowhere to be
seen.
"Okay" he smiled.

"So is he like, your boss or something?"

"No he's not" Remus protested.
"Oh come on! Why are you following him around then?" Iris asked
exasperated while eating a chocolate frog.
"I am not! He's my best friend. He and James."
"Boss or not , he's really annoying. I already hate him."
"You can't hate someone that fast."
"Why yes you can! I do. I hate him with all of my heart. I don't want to
see him ever again. If I do, I will punch him!" Remus could see in her
eyes that she meant it. He laughed with the force of her passion.
"What are you laughing at?" She asked suspiciously.
 "You. You're funny." No one has ever told her that before. Iris felt the
colour rising up to her cheeks.
"You're quite good yourself, a little weak but we can work on that."
Remus wasn't offended. He wasn't weak. He had found out the hard
way. But he couldn't tell her already. Not yet. He didn't say anything
instead he smiled. It was contagious. Iris' mouth broke into a grin.

"Come on Remus, she will never find out you had anything to do with
it!"
"That's because I won't have to do anything with it, Sirius." Remus
sighed. His friend was stubborn.
"Oi Remus, stop being such a girlfriend to Iris and help Sirius, will
you?" James said tirely while making some apples fly above his head
with the help of his wand.
"I'm telling you, she's my friend. I'm certainly not telling you which
petnames she hates. She doesn't even have any petnames."
"Why would she?" laughed James "she has been single her whole
life!" Sirius high-fived James laughing,
"Hey don't be so mean to her!" Remus said "and that's not entirely
true anyway" he said under his breath.
"What? What was that my old chap? Has she ever had a boyfriend?"
Sirius asked interested.
"I can't tell you that! It's personal, Merlin's beard!"
"Leave Merlin alone." he sat on the grass next to him "now tell me,
has she had a boyfriend?" Sirius' eyes were glistening.
"Why do you even care?" Remus seemed intrigued "you hate her
guts"
"Of course I do. That's why I need to know a petname of hers. Honey,
sugar, pumkin, munchkin how did he call her?" His voice rose. Remus
remaint silent.
"If that's how you'll act.. Fine. You leave me no choice but to call the
big guns." Remus' eyes widened in terror.
"No.." he said "you wouldn't"
"Yes..I will." Sirius replied as a matter-of-fact. "You know I will."
Remus shook his head.
"You wouldn't."
"Since you insist.." Sirius turned his head towards a group of girls,
giggling and talking to each other.
"Oi, Tonks!" he yelled. A thin girl with a fair complexion turned her
head causing her bright pink hair to swirl.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Remus here-" he didn't finish his sentence. Remus had risen up to
his feet and jumped onto him, throwing him down.
"Are you mental?" a hurt Sirius asked.
 "I was going to ask you the same thing. What were you thinking?"
Remus hissed.
"I'll tell you exactly what I am thinking. I'm thinking that if you don't
tell me what I want to know I will run over there" he pointed to the
group of the shocked girls while simultaneously signiling with his
thump that he's okay "and tell Tonks you like her."
"You wouldn't."
"Do you really want to try again? One can hold a man down only a
couple of times." he smiled mischieviously "so, will you tell me?"
Remus didn't think it another time. "Oh fine! Get up you moron!" he
helped him up. "Let's go somewhere quiet."
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" a grinning Sirius exclaimed.

"Hey gorgeous! You're like a sun on a rainy day." The moment she
heard those words coming from a specific mouth she knew exactly
what had happened. She should never had told Remus, it was a
horrible idea, what was she thinking? These were the exact same
words Lucius Malfoy had told her when he spoke to her the very first
time. She hated him. What a surprise. He had no decency, he would
crawl just to be accepted, he would lie and cheat and steal but worst of
all. He liked her. Not in a friendly way. It seemed bizzare to her, but he
had told her he loved her the moment he had layed eyes on her. It
made her very uncomfortable and it annoyed her too. How could he
love her? The filthy, little hypocrite! He just liked her for her looks,
something that weirded her out even more.She wasn't ugly, but she
wasn't gorgeous. At least that's what she saw in the mirror. A thin girl
of average height, dressed mostly in jeans, band tees and hoodies. Not
to mention the red hair. They were everywere, at times covering her
eyes since they were so layered. She couldn't see what the Malfoy boy
saw and she didn't care about the fact that he liked her. Until he
started calling her names. She absolutely hated that. Hated all the
adjectives meant to be flattering, they just seemed stupid to her.
Beautiful, gorgeous, breath-taking and other crap. She hated all of it.
And now the person whom she hated even more than the beloved
petnames, had somehow found out about them. And she knew exactly
how.

"Remus you idiot! Why? Why on earth did you tell him?" A furious Iris
was pacing back and forth in front of an intimitaded Remus.
"I'm sorry, I truly am! I didn't mean to!"
"You didn't mean to my arse! You just couldn't keep your mouth shut,
could you?" she sighed "I knew this was going to happen from the
beggining. He has such control over you, it's creepy." she gripped him
by his shoulders and shook him slightly " You don't have to do anything
he tells you to."
"Oh Ri you don't understand! First of all he's my best mate! He's not
as bad as he seems, he's been a real friend to me. And he's got a hold
on me. He knows things about me I don't want to be heard." his eyes
darkened for a bit. Iris face became more serious.
"What do you mean? Is he blackmailing you?" No Remus wasn't
referring to his "problem". Sirius would never joke about that. Never.
"No, it's just.." he sighed dramatically "Oh whatever.. Here's the deal. I
like this girl Dora and if I didn't confess about your petnames he would
tell her."
"That sounds just like him." Iris murmured. She cracked up a smile
"Oh alright, you're forgiven." Remus smiled back.
"So...Tonks huh?" Iris tilted her head slightly grinning her infamous
crooked grin.

He watched her. She stood out of the whole crowd. Her fiery red hair
were sticking up in every direction. She was wearing a Smashing
Pumkins t-shirt, dark blue jeans and black booties. She carried her
cloack under her arms, her hands stuffed into her pockets. She was
coming towards him. He leaned near a wall and crossed his arms in
front of his chest. He waited. Smiling.

Oh he thought he was so clever. In fact he was. Oh that's not the point.

She felt her anger grow as she watched him. Leaned over a wall, hands
and legs crossed. Who did he think he was? I shall teach him a lesson
Iris thought.
"You!" she said pointing at him.

"You!" she said to him. She was now standing one metre away. Her
voice sounded so cold, her hand hoisted in mid air pointing at him.
"You son of a bitch." He was surprised. She hadn't sweared at him for
at least one year. "You filthy scum, miserable excuse of a man." He
grinned even wider now.
"You manipulative, sick bastard." her words sounded more like a hiss
by now, her pointing finger now poking his chest with every word said.
"You are to never speak to me again, you hear me? Never."
"Oh yeah?" he grabbed her hand "what are you going to do about it?"
she fighted her way out of his tight hold.
"I'm going to kill you, you twat. I'm gonna slam your pretty little head
against the wall, cut you into pieces and every Christmas I will sent a
body part of you as a present to your dearest friends." she replied.
"Pretty little head? You think I'm pretty? I prefer handsome." he was
still grinning.
Shit. How had that escaped her mouth?
"Don't be such a narcissist. I am serious."
"Me too." he laughed "you get it? You said you're serious and I'm
Sirius. Ha!" She didn't even flinch, laugh, smile, roll her eyes. She just
gave him the usual cold stare.
"From now the names your friend told you will be erased from that
small peanut you have for a brain."
"Why do you always have to be such a smartass?" he whined
"Why do you always have to be such a dumbass?" she mocked his
whining.
"It's what I do. I'm a natural" he smiled. "Sugar" Iris didn't think twice.
She grabbed the hem of his shirt and pushed him up against the wall.
With her other hand she pulled out her wand. Her eyes left him for only
a second.
"Expelliarmus!" Sirius was good. And fast. He had disarmed her before
she could do anything. The sound of her wand falling on the floor
echoed acrros the corridor. Iris still had a hold of him. Sirius looked at
her hand grabbing his shirt and then raised his eyes to meet hers.
Smiling again. He bended his head forward, his lips inches away from
hers.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Iris shouted quickly letting go of him
and taking a few steps back. "Are you mental?"
"Oh come on, it's not like you don't want to!"
"Of course I don't want to! Ew! What do you think? That every female
in the world can't resist the charms of notorious Sirius Black?" her
voice dripped sarcasm. "Well I've got news for you you arrogant prick."
he raised his eyebrows."Not everyone will fall for your tricks. I know I
won't." she said fiercly.
"Oh babble all you want, girl. You'll come begging for me soon."
She didn't have anything else to say, she could see it was pointless.
She just sat there and gave him her usual cold stare, like all emotion
had vanished as quickly as it came.
"Just stay away from me." she said quietly and with that she turned
her back, picked up her wand and got out of his sight.

"Oh Lily, stop it! You talk about Potter 24/7! Get a grip!"
"Oh Karen you don't understand.. He makes me mad, he's so
persistent. Why can't he just accept rejection?"
"Yeah like you don't fancy him at all."
"God Karen how many times do I have to tell you? I don't fancy him.
He makes my insides turn. And not in a good way".
Iris was at the library. At the place where she found most peace-it
was always so quiet. Well obviously, not always. The voices and all the
giggling came from a table behind her. Unfortunately there was a large
shelf filled with books in between them. If there wasn't one they might
see her and stop talking. In case she heard something they wouldn't
want her to that is. Lily Potter was the perfect resident of Hogwarts.
She was smart, beautiful, everybody loved her. How could they not?
Poor James Potter. He was practically begging her for a date, the whole
school knew. Iris found herself wondering what she would do in her
position. What would she do if someone whom she hated with such
passion asked her out. She already knew the answer. She woul-
"I'm sorry..Do you mind if I sit with you?" her stream of thoughts were
blocked by a throaty voice. She raised her eyes from her book and
looked up. Nymphadora Tonks was standing in front of her her grey
hair falling loosely down her shoulders. She wore the school uniform
and carried a bag.
"Um.." she completely cought her off guard. Why should she share her
table with a total stranger? "I like this girl Dora" Remus' voice echoed
through her mind.
"I don't mind. Sit" she watched carefully the girl in front of her. Her
hair were now a bright shade of green. She smiled and took a sit
across Iris.
"I'm Nymphadora. Dora-if you have trouble pronouncing it." she kept
smiling and watched Iris with anticipation.
"I'm Iris." she said and returned her focus on her book. If I have
trouble pronouncing it? Oh man. She had already regretted her
previous decision.
"So.." Tonks chewed her bottom lip nervously "what are you reading?"
Iris stared at her,lifting the book to the girl's eyes so that she could
read the title not saying a single word.
"Salem's Lot? Nice.." Iris raised one eyebrow while the colourful haired
girl kept on going.
"I just love Stephen King. My favourite book of his is The Dark Half,
yours?" She read Stephen King?
"What? You think you are the only one here who reads something
apart from romance books? I mean, nothing wrong with them, but I'm
more into the terror slash science fiction slash drama." Her words were
accompanied by many hand gestures.
"Well say something, don't just stand there."
"Why are you talking to me?"
"What do you mean?" she seemed confused. What does she think I
mean?
 "Hm, what I mean is why are you talking to me now? This is our
seventh year at Hogwarts. What is different?"
"Nothing's different.. I just saw you there sitting all by yourself so I
thought I might join you. You seemed pretty lonely." she shrugged.
"How nice of you!" Iris smiled widely ironically "Well thank you for your
sympathy but spare me." the smile vanished from her face "Now cut
the crap and tell me. What has changed?" she emphasised the last
three words.
"Well I..I mean I.." Dora was fidgeting. "I just thought you might need
a friend...And I.."
"Oh faster woman! You what?" Iris raised her voice, her patience lost.
"Well, I'm a bit interested in..in your friend..Um..Remus?" her hand
was now messing with her hair, she looked pretty damn nervous. Iris
smirked. Things couldn't have turned out better.
"So you thought you could use me in order to get to my friend's
pants?"
"No, no! I mean yes-um, kind of." she sighed. "I don't want to get into
his pants, I just want to know him. And I'm sorry. I kinda thought of
using you."
"It's okay. You can use me all you want." Iris grinned. The girl looked
taken aback.
"What do you mean? Aren't you mad?"
"Yeah but it's the kind of thing I would choose to do. And you were
honest anyway."
"That doesn't make it any less wrong!"
"Oh stop it before I change my mind."
"Okay, okay.." Tonks was eyeing the girl opossite to her warily.
"So...now what?"
"Nothing. I'm sure you don't expect that I will hook you up with my
favourite guy in the world without first knowing what kind of cookie
you are."
"Cookie?"
"Oh you know.. What kind of girl you are, if you want to put it that
way."
"Hm. Sounds fair."
"Of course it is. I thought of it."
"Oh you think you're so clever, don't you?"
Iris tilted her head slightly to the right and smirked.
"I don't think so. I know so." and with that she grabbed her book from
the table and continued from where she was. Tonks let out a small
laugh, reached out to her bag and pulled out a book of her own. The
only thing that could be heard was the sound of pages being turned.
Iris' favourite sound. Little did she know that it was Tonks' favourite
sound too.
Sirius wasn’t one to stay away. He completely ignored her order and
went and did it again. And again. And again.

“Morning beautiful” he had told her as he passed by her. He laughed

seeing her getting red from her fury, the poor creature she was holding
was ready to suffocate. Oh Iris was so much fun. He had hated her at
first. Who was she to speak to him like he was a commoner, a trash?
She thought she was better than anyone else, such a snob. Never
taking a minute to talk to anyone, no one was good enough for her.
Her only company? Remus, books and an mp3 player. Walking down
the corridors, music blasting through her earphones, her face literally
stuck into a book. And when she would bump into anyone she wouldn’t
even look up to apologize. She would only mutter a single “sorry” and
that was it. She just kept on going. He couldn’t bear her staring.
“You’re a stupid, shallow boy. Just like everyone else. ” Her eyes
seemed to bluntly state that specific sentence. And he hated them for
that. All green and big and clever and beautiful. Wait, not the last part.
That’s what everyone else said about her. Such a pretty girl, why did
she have to be so weird? But as time passed his hatred for her seemed
to lessen. He didn’t hate her that much anymore. He just liked to mess
with her, she was so much fun. He liked teasing her, making her mad
and furious and finally passionate about something. He liked that he
was the only one in the school who could extract a reaction from her.
And he liked that she fought back.

"Oi Sirius! Over here!" James Potter shouted while waving like mad.
Sirius smiled. His friends always had that effect on him. Hogwarts was
the one place he felt most at home and his fellow Gryffindors were
mostly the reason. He walked into the Potions class and spotted the
table his mates were sitting. He couldn't do otherwise-James' shout
was loud enough for the class to hear. Proffesor Slughorn wasn't there
yet so everyone was being noisy, laughs and murmuring were heard.
As he walked in many heads turned in order to get a better look at
him. Well mostly the females, girls. He was used to that. He didn't like
it neither disliked it-he just beared it. He swept a look over the class
while walking torwards James and Remus. Of course. He could
recognise that head everywhere. Ginger hair sticking out to different
directions, her head was as always in a ducked position resting on one
of her palms as she read something. He had forgotten they shared
Potions with Ravenclaw.
 "What are ya doing there Mulligan, reading about ways to finally get a
boyfriend?" he said smirking standing in front of her desk.
"There is no way I can answer this question" she said looking up from
her book, her expression calm, her eyes rested firmly on his. They
made him feel uneasy.
"Oh, please..Do try to." he crossed his arms in front of his chest still
smirking.
"Well if I say I'm not reading about ways to finally get a boyfriend you
will simply state that I lie and insist that I do until your last dying
breath. But if I say that I am in fact reading about ways to finally get a
boyfriend I'll know that I'm lying and I'm not ready to make that
sacrifice for your entertainment." she said with what seemed only a
breath.
"Not just yet" he winked. Her expression changed from calm to one of
disgust. Man, did he hate that look.
"Chill out Ri, don't get that pretty little head of yours buffed with such
thoughts. A no would be enough."
"It wouldn't and you know it Black. Now go bother someone else, I've
had my dosage of stupidity for one day" she smiled ironically.
"Smooth" he had taken a step back when her hand grabbed his wrist
and pulled him closer to her, her mouth right next to his ear. This feels
familiar he thought and smiled as he remembered that day when he
nearly kissed her.
"And don't call me Ri again." she whispered to his ear. Without
wanting to, he shivered. Oh man, this is wrong. Now she's gonna think
I liked that, damn it. Not that I didn't. His worst fears were confirmed
as he backed away from her and saw the look of complete satisfaction
plastered on her face. Plus, her lopsided grin. That horrible grimace-it
was neither a smile nor a smirk. It had sarcastic written all over
it-"take that you bastard" it screamed. That awful moment was -thank
Merlin- interrupted by Slughorn.
"Take a seat Mr.Black. Class is about to begin." Sirius' gaze turned to
where his friends were sitting. James Potter was sitting next to Lily
Evans looking at her with awe as she pulled her book out of her bag.
She had taken over his sit. Sirius hurried to their table.
"Oi James, what the fuck are you doing?" he hissed. The look on
James' face was priceless-if he wasn't so angry he could have laughed.
His eyes followed Lily's hands(of all places) in their every move. He
didn'y even turn to look at him as he spoke.
"Language Sirius. There are ladies here." his dreamy look never
leaving his face.
"I just learned that I could join potions. Slughorn accepts students
that may have not gotten Es at their O.W.L.s so I was thrilled to learn
that. There's no empty seat in the class apart from one but I got the
message that I could not sit there. So I sat here even though you know
how I don't want to " Lily's crystal clear voice informed him while she
looked at a drooling James apalled. He was ready to tell her that she
had to find another seat but when looking at James he changed his
mind. Oh, I shall be nice at least once he thought. James just looked so
happy over there. He met Remus' eye who was sitting next to James
and he saw that he nodded, he knew what Sirius was thinking and
agreed.
"Oh fine" he sighed and turned his back looking for the other empty
seat.
"Mr.Black sit next to Ms. Mulligan please, it's the only empty spot and
get on with it already. We won't be waiting for you forever" forever is a
long time Sirius thought as he strolled through the other side of the
classroom. Fuck.