Tainted Love

Thin Ice

IRIS

It was funny how much could change in a week. Last Wednesday, Iris had woken up dreading going to work and having to deal with Draco for the entire day.

This Wednesday, though, it didn't seem quite as gargantuan of a task.

She doubted that she and Draco would ever be able to work together without a couple of sarcastic comments being thrown across the room (mostly coming from his side, though Iris could hold her own). But in the past two days, they had found a way to work together.

As angry as he had been that she had reported him to Hermione, she supposed it was worth it. He was more wary of insulting her now, she could see that much.

But their argument had also given her insight into who he truly was. The fact that he wanted to keep this job as proof to himself that he had changed was the only thing she had learned about him that she had liked.

And she found that brewing potions is easier when you have someone else's notes and insights to compare yours against.

So, when the lift stopped on the ninth level and Iris walked out into the atrium, she was feeling more optimistic than she had in a while.

Opening the door to the Love Chamber always filled Iris with a sort of joy. The light pouring in from the window, the meadows and the mountains beyond it, the big gold clock and the falling petals and the old paintings that stared down at her as she made her way across the room felt as though they were welcoming her back.

It was rare for her to get into work before Draco - in fact, the only other time it had happened was last Friday, and he had only been late because he was in a meeting with Granger.

She took her time setting her things down, and muttered a quick Incendio to start heating up her cauldron. She pulled out her notes, skimming the margins to go over the properties that she had started to figure out the night before.

A couple of minutes went by as Iris finished heating up the mixture she had left yesterday. She pulled up her hair and added a pinch of the final ingredient, stirring counterclockwise. The potion changed color, becoming a sort of dark green. Squinting, she added another pinch, and it promptly lightened into the green that she and Draco had decided it should turn to.

She noted the extra pinch at the bottom of her page of notes, then turned to the big clock on the wall. She had only been at work for fifteen minutes, but being all alone in the Love Chamber was strange. She wondered how Draco had gone through with it - but then, he had always been a solitary creature. He made sure to remind her of that at every chance he got.

As if called by her thoughts, Iris heard the doors to the Chamber swing open. She gave a final stir to the potion as the thought crossed her mind that when Draco entered, he usually swung open the doors with a flourish, letting them bang on their hinges.

He did it to bother her. But he hadn't done it today.

"I've finished the -" she began, looking up from her cauldron as she spoke, but the look on Draco's face cut her off.

"Are you alright?" She asked instead.

He did not look anywhere close to alright. He usually froze his face in a blank expression that betrayed none of his inner thoughts. When he was trying to make Iris feel inferior, he sometimes adopted a passing look of condescension or annoyance.

Today, he wasn't bothering to hide what looked like cool rage.

"Am I alright?" He said, mocking her, "fuck off, would you? It's ten in the fucking morning, I shouldn't have to hear your voice til at least noon."