Chapter 6
How Iris managed to get Badeea's spark back, and get Tulip's anger to simmer down... He wasn't sure, but that night they managed to have another practice.
With that said, Iris had given him a stern talking too that he had to treat them with kid gloves and if he started to act up she was going to elbow him in the ribs as a reminder to calm down.
He managed only three elbows. They practiced every night the rest of the week as their schedules allowed, weather it was thirty minutes or two hours. Thankfully Iris and Murphy were able to practice together in the Common room, and Tulip and Badeea were able to do the same after curfew.
It was Thursday night, they were leaving in the morning to head to Diagon Alley, and instead of playing chess Murphy and Iris were both in the library hunched over their respective books. Murphy had his nose in a chess theory book he had only recently discovered, and he managed not to chide Iris as her's was currently in a book about David Austin roses.
“So are you packed yet?” Iris asked as she looked up from her book.
“I'm 91.7 percent packed, all except my toiletries.” Murphy told her not looking up from his book.
“I still need to pack, honestly I should be doing that instead of reading.” Iris said as she flipped her book shut. “I still have no idea what to wear. How are you dressing for this?”
“I'm just wearing my slacks, and my usual button up, but I'm wearing a chess piece pin instead of my snitch pin Mum sent me.”
“Hold the presses! Murphy is switching up his pins!” Iris joked. “So like, if I wear a dress or a skirt I'll be fine? So long as I don't wear anything to distracting?”
Distracting. Murphy suddenly got a brilliant idea and he wasn't sure why he didn't think if it sooner.
“No... I think distracting is perfect.” He said slowly.
“Have you gone mad?” She asked, looking at him oddly.
“I think distracting them would be beneficial, like in a subtle way that won't make everyone think we're trying to distract our opponents.” Murphy told Iris quietly.
“Oh? You think?” She leaned in, excited to hear what he had come up with.
“You know that skirt you wore to the party in the boathouse-”
“You remember that skirt?”
“Everyone remember's that skirt.” Murphy told her pointedly.
“Was it... That ugly?” Iris asked. Murphy gave her a look of someone disgusted, and bewildered.
“You're joking, right?” He asked, “the black skirt? With that matching blouse that showed just the slightest bit of your ribs? With the pompom fringe?”
“Yeah, I thought it was cute.”
“It wasn't cute.” Murphy said bluntly, and Iris's eyes doubled. “It was sex appeal at its finest. Take it from someone who is ass level with the world, your bum is the bum everyone wants, and in that skirt you made a lot of people very jealous... And or horny.” A blush crept across her cheeks and her ears.
“Well now I am most certainly not wearing that skirt!” Iris shook her head slapping her book shut.
“Fine. How about your high waisted jeans? With that blue cropped sweater you have?”
“Murphy!”
“Like I said, I'm ass level with the world and I consider myself fairly qualified to judge bums.” He told her pointedly. “Again, yours is a top quality bum.”
“Well I wouldn't know, I've never seen it.”
“Shame.” He shook his head with a smile, “so will you consider the jeans-”
“You're on thin ice pal.” Iris shot him a mock angry look, but the two both chuckled lightly. “Honestly though, I should probably go pack.”
“I'll head back to the tower with you, so long as you don't mind the company.”
“I never mind your company.” Iris told him sincerely and that same little part in his chest that felt warm, felt warm all over again.
“Well, thats very kind... Usually people get sick of me talking.” He told her honestly as he slid his books into his bag as Iris collected her books that she had checked out.
“I feel like with other people you seem to have diarrhea of the mouth-”
“Iris that's disgusting!” Murphy shook his head at her imagery. She laughed and explained herself more.
“Hear me out, with other people you're constantly on analytical alert, and it just seems like with me... You're more relaxed and aren't always thinking about numbers and trying to impress me. If you don't mind me saying, it feels like you're the most comfortable around me then anyone else.”
“It's because you are.” He told her honestly. If Iris had figured it out, there was no reason to hide anything from her at this point. “I've said it before, and that's that I have to put all of me out there al the time so people don't just see the guy in the wheelchair. You came into my life and for the first time I didn't have to do that, because you actually just saw Murphy McNully. The chair was secondary to me.” He and Iris stopped in the hallway, looking at one another, and truthfully Murphy had never felt more vulnerable.
“You have a lot to offer the world, Murphy, and the people who don't see that don't deserve your attention or your effort.” She told him wholeheartedly.
I'm going to marry this girl, and I'm going to protect her from all who mean her harm, Murphy told himself in that moment. No one else had ever said that to him except his Mother and his Gran. Iris could preform magic without a wand, she could conjure a full corperal patronus, she was an animagus, she had broken the six cursed vaults that haunted the school and broken the chains of bondage that lurked everywhere. She stared down evil witches and wizards and kept her ground, kept fighting and yet never lost herself. She had some of the top marks in their classes, she was a jack of all trades when it came to Quiddicth.
Peacemaker. Breaker of chains. Reliable. Honest. Breaker of curses. Saint. Steadfast. Faithful. Will of iron. Resolute. Unyielding. Unbending. Forged in fire, with the face of a doll.
Then he had a thought, and wondered...
“I could say the same thing for you. Your worth is intangible, and I wonder if you understand just how precious you are.” He told her, and by the look on her face... She had not heard such words spoken to her before. “Your friends, including me, have failed you if you don't know that about yourself.”
He could almost see the last remaining wall between them come crumbling down in front of him. The wall that kept whatever this was between them platonic, and opened him up to a whole knew world of possibly gaining what he thought of was ultimate happiness, or ultimate destruction.
“You've never failed me.” Iris said so quietly he almost missed it. “In my deepest darkness, you were the only one there.”
“I'll always be.” He promised her, and in the most heartbreaking confession he had ever heard-
“And I believe you.” How many broken promises had people made to her that she had to acknowledge that she believed what he was saying? “Thank you, Murphy.”
“Thank you, Iris.” There was a few moments of silence before Iris broke it.
“I have to tell you something... About when we first met.” He felt his heart speed up, wondering what it was she was about to tell him, “in truth, the first thing I saw was a pretty face.” She smiled, lightening the mood. He couldn't help but smile back just as bright.
“Are you saying you think I'm a pretty boy, Iris?” He placed his hand over his chest, and wiggled his brows at her.
“It's the least I can do, since you told me I have the best bum.” She smiled, slapping her butt. “It is pretty good isn't it?”
“Absolutely!” He laughed. “I know my butts.” The two laughed together, just enjoying the moment and being purely happy.
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The plan was to meet in the courtyard around 8am, and head together to the Three Broomsticks, and use Madam Rosemerta's floo to get into Diagon Alley by way of the Leaky Cauldron. McGonagall had made plans for them to stay in the Inn at the Leaky Cauldron on Friday night so that they didn't have to travel back and forth Friday night and Saturday morning for the tournament.
Murphy was the first one in the courtyard, thirty minutes before the meeting time because he was so excited to get going. Badeea and Tulip arrived together with their overnight bags. The three chatted for a few minutes before Iris arrived.
Murphy had to smile when he saw Iris walking down the hallway to meet the team, wearing the high waisted jeans... And a cropped white cardigan. Her makeup was done and her hair was done up in a half up high ponytail that made her already thick hair look even more full.
“Fuck, Iris looks hot.” Tulip whistled.
“Yeah she does.” Murphy nodded in agreement before he realized it was Tulip who had commented on Iris's looks. Oh my God... A realization suddenly hit Murphy, and that was he was not the only one to see Iris for her beauty and her mind, and that didn't just include the male portion of the dating pool.
“Iris is always as lovely as a painting, you seem as though you are just now realizing her beauty.” Badeea pointed out to Tulip.
“Trust me, I'm not just now realizing it. If Iris played for the other team I'd be all over her.” Tulip admitted to Badeaa and Murphy. “She made it clear to me though before, that she is very much heterosexual and we are just friends.” Murphy felt like he could breathe again, it was worrisome enough to think about competing against the guys, let alone the girls as well.
“On the topic of Iris's beauty, do you think her hair has magical properties?” Badeea asked the two of them.
“What do you mean?” Murphy asked her.
“Well Veela's have magical hair, other countries use Veela hair as wand core.” She told him.
“I would assume so, considering that Iris's own wand core string has her own hair in it.” Tulip mentioned. Badeea looked stunned for a moment.
“Iris's wand is made from her own hair?”
“Yeah, Ollivander doesn't work with pure Veela hair, but he suggested trying Iris's since she's half Veela and it worked amazingly.”
“Iris is half Veela?” Murphy was less interested in her wand and more interested in that portion of information.
“Uh, yeah? Have you ever like even looked at her?” Tulips laughed loudly. “Typically people don't have hair that white without there being something in their blood.”
“Who's blood are we talking about?” Iris asked as she came up to the three of them.
“Yours.”
“Mine?” Iris questioned Badeea as the four of them began to head towards Hogsmead.
“About how you're half Veela, and your wand.” Tulip told her.
“Ok, that's not really interesting.” Iris chuckled.
“It is for people who had no idea you were Veela.” Murphy told her.
“Oh really?” Iris asked him, “people gossip about me so much I figured everyone knew. I'm sorry you're the last to know.”
“Honestly, I should have put it all together. Veela's are harpy like creatures when they're mad, I mean the puzzle just fits itself.” He joked and she narrowed her eyes at him, but had a smile on her lips. “It brings a whole knew meaning to the fact that you're a Harpy Eagle in your animagus form.”
“Oh my gosh I never thought of that!” Tulip laughed loudly. The conversation was light, and they shared a lot of laughs on their way to the Three Broomsticks.
Murphy though was waiting for his moment to comment of Iris's choice of clothing. It was rather funny to him that they were all dressed more scholastically and Iris had opted for her jeans.
After Badeea and Tulip had disappeared into a green blaze, Murphy took his moment.
“So uh... You're wearing the jeans-”
“Sod off... These happen to be my favorite jeans.” Iris cut him off, a grin on her face. Oh... She knows exactly what she's doing, he thought to himself.
“Mine too!” He laughed loudly, enjoying their flirting. Yes, flirting, this was exactly what it was and he was not going to act like it wasn't. Their little flirtations had changed the night previous in the library, this was just plain out loud flirtation and if Iris was willing to dish it out just as much as he did... Who was he to stop.
Murphy had to smile, but leaned back just a little to admire her bum as she grabbed a handful of floo powder.
“I saw that.”
“I meant you to.” Where that answer had come from, he had no idea.
“Oh you're cheeky today.” She wagged a finger at him accusingly.
“Haven't a bloody clue what you're talking about.” He grinned up at her.
“I'm surprised you don't slap it for good luck.” Iris turned around, floo powder in one hand and hand on the hip.
“Is that an option?” Murphy grinned, holding his hand up, wiggling his fingers.
“Murphy!” Iris shrieked, shaking her head. “Leaky Cauldron!” She smashed the floo powder to her feet and disappeared in a blaze of bright neon green.