2 | CONFESSIONS° HARRY POTTER

22 | CAREER ADVICE

ACT THREE, loss
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO, career advice

    It was the first day of Easter holiday and Iris was flipping carelessly through her Transfiguration textbook when Harry entered the library with a distracted look on his face. 

Now that Iris was aware of her new feelings for Harry, she had been hesitant to approach him out of fear that she might say or do something stupid to send him running for the hills. But, when she saw how upset he looked, all of her worries washed away and changed into concern for his wellbeing. 

She stood up from her chair and walked over to him, calling out his name twice before he turned around.

"Are you all right, Harry?" Iris asked. She seemed to be asking that more lately than she had before. His brows were drawn together in a deep frown and, Iris really hadn't meant to, but she accidentally took a peak inside of his mind and was hit with a wave of disbelief, anger, and misery. 

"Oh," He said sounded distracted. Iris frowned when he didn't answer her question. "Hi. Are you studying?"

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Yes . . ." She said sitting down beside him. She opened her mouth to ask Harry if he was okay again when he pulled out a box wrapped in brown paper; it had clearly been unwrapped and carelessly rewrapped, and there was a scribbled note in red ink, reading INSPECTED AND PASSED BY HOGWARTS HIGH INQUISITOR.

"It's easter eggs from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. There's one for you . . . There you go . . ." Harry handed her a handsome chocolate egg decorated with green snakes and, according to the package, it contained a bag of Fizzing Whizbees. Iris smiled at the gesture and took it from him when she noticed the look on Harry's face had never left.

"You can talk to me, Harry. You know that, right?" Iris asked, unwrapping her Easter egg and placing a bit into her mouth. Harry helped himself to one too.

"I know that." Harry said quickly. "I guess . . . I mean, this has as much to do with you as it does with me."

"What does?" Iris frowned. 

"During my Occlumency lessons, I looked into Snape's Pensieve and saw a memory of . . . of our parents and they were messing with Snape. I know everyone always says that they were good people but the way they were messing with him . . . it's starting to make me think maybe that's not so true. And my mum was there and she hated my dad. It makes me wonder how the pair of them ever got together in the first place. Your mum was there and she tried to stop them but Sirius kept brushing her off and ignoring her; so did James." Harry explained. Iris sat quietly and patiently listening to what Harry said. 

"Can I try . . .?" Iris motioned to his head and Harry sent her a look of confusion. "Can I see the memory?"

"How?" Harry asked cautiously.

"I can find it in your mind." 

Harry stayed quiet for a moment.

"If you go inside my mind, would . . . would you see everything? Would it hurt? Whenever Snape does it, it hurts." Harry asked quietly. Iris smiled to ease his nerves.

"I have a much gentler touch than Snape does. You won't even feel a thing and, no, I wouldn't see anything else, just that specific memory." Iris said. Harry relaxed. He didn't want Iris to see the amount of times he made a fool of himself while trying to impress her. 

"Okay, then you can do it." 

As soon as Harry gave her the okay, Iris was going inside of his mind. Harry was surprised that she hadn't needed to make eye contact like Snape had insisted. He wondered if she could go into people's mind if they weren't in the same room as her. She had been right, he noted, when she said it wouldn't hurt at all. It felt like a brief moment of pressure before the feeling let up. He looked at Iris's face, her eyes were glazed over but they were moving like she was reading the pages of a book no one else could see. She would have tiny reactions as the memory unfolded in front of her: the raise of an eyebrow, the upturn of her mouth before it planted in a firm line that told Harry she must've gotten to the pranking bit.