ELYSIUM • G. WEASLEY

PROLOGUE

"Of all the colours I've seen, yours is the brightest."

The woman looked up from her book, her gaze—eyes so vibrant they appeared red for a second as the light from the window outside caught her pupils—rather unimpressed as she raised a carefully trimmed eyebrow at the boy—almost young man by now—laying on the carpet with a pencil at hand and a notebook in front of him, his eyes, so similar to hers, wide as he waited for her approval. She looked at him closely, attempting to figure out whether he was joking or not, and when she didn't catch sight of him fooling around, she rolled her eyes with a short scoff.

"Priam, John might be a hopeless romantic but this is so cheesy even he will be bothered by it."

With a groan, Priam rolled on his back. "You're the worst sister ever, Iris! Come help me!"

"No, I'm not going to help you woo your boyfriend," she huffed as she turned back to her book, "you must have managed to woo him before. Do it again."

She returned to her book but hardly managed to read over a sentence when Priam placed his chin on the top of it lightly, eyes wide as he pouted at her. "Come on, please."

She narrowed her eyes at him but relented soon enough as she let out a sigh and put her book aside. Priam cheered as he jumped over to his notebook, grabbed his pencil and flopped on the couch beside Iris with a grin. He handed her over the notebook. She took in the messy handwriting and the sentences scratched out before she briefly looked up at her little brother. He nudged her and gestured to the notebook. With a small sigh, she grabbed the pencil and got ready to write.

"What do you want this for again?"

"I just want to write him something sweet. That's all."

Iris briefly sent him a smile before turning to the notebook. She tried to think of anything as she brought John to mind. As she spoke, she didn't turn to face Priam.

"You said he likes flowers?"

"Yeah."

"Why don't you bring him flowers instead of writing something for him?"

He shrugged, "I did that last month."

Iris let out a small sigh as she turned back to the notebook. Before she could even think of anything, though, there was a knock on the door. Priam rushed to his feet and headed to the door. She watched him as he checked who it was and then opened it wide.

"There's our cousin!"

A smile crossed Iris's lips as Priam hugged their cousin as tightly as he possibly could, bringing her to laugh. Slowly, Iris left the notebook to the side and stood up, grabbed her purse and moved over to her brother and cousin.

Hermione Granger was Iris's one and only (not biological) cousin from her mother's side. She had wild bushy brunette hair Iris had been unfortunate to have in her face a couple of times in her life and dark brown eyes that took in their surroundings curiously. Iris was a year older than Hermione but they had still managed to get on well and they were the best of friends, especially after Iris had found out Hermione was a witch about a year ago while she had been at Hermione's room, looking for a book good enough to read. This morning, it had been decided Iris would at last meet Hermione's friends.

"That's a bit too tight, Priam," Hermione laughed as she slowly pulled back. She briefly turned to face Iris with a wide smile before she turned to Priam once more. "Where's Aunt Rose?"

"She's taking a shower," Priam replied before Iris could. "Are you going to stay for a while?"

"I'm afraid I can't, Iris and I are late," Hermione smiled apologetically at him as Iris walked by her side and left the apartment.