Chapter 21

Hermione was in a bit of a dilemma. Iris had always listened to her and answered her questions. It's not like she asked a lot of them! She just wanted to know how Iris got accepted as the fourth champion. But to think Iris completely ignored her and kept eating!

Hermionie huffed, "Iris, that is not the way to talk to someone! I was just asking what everyone wants to know."

Smirking, clone Iris replied in the same bland tone, "Well I can't help it if I don't have any manners. My parents were killed when I was one year old and then was abandoned at the doorstep of muggles who hate magic and everything related to it."

The silence in the hall was golden. McGonagall sent a glare towards Dumbledore who paled a bit when Iris claimed to have been abandoned as a toddler.

"Anyway," The clone continued. "You've known me since the day we met in the Express before our first year and have been my dorm mate ever since. Tell me one, just one instance where I acted like a bitch who seeks attention and wants, as our dear friend Ron stated last night, all the glory and fame for herself and don't want to share it. Well, let me remind everyone here why the hell am I famous among wizards."

As the clone stood up, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown could have sworn that it did a sneer in front of which Snape's sneer looked like an infantile smile. "I survived a fucking killing curse while my parents were murdered by a self-styled lord who is nothing but a lunatic. You all call Loona Lovegood loony? Well, Voldemort-" and everyone flinched. "-Oh come on! The dork can't hear us. Where was I? Ah, Voldemort is the living definition of the word loony. He tried to kill a baby with a killing curse and got himself defeated. How laughable. And thus, I was given the moniker of Girl-Who-Lived."

The clone paused as the sheep digested whatever it had said and resumed, "You all celebrate that asshole's demise every fucking year and forget one important fact. I lost my parents that very night! You dumbasses celebrate the death of my parents. And Ron, you, you had the gall, to ask me why I wasn't celebrating and eating a freaking pumpkin pie, which by the way was already half stuffed into your pig of a mouth, on Halloween in our first year. You all envy me for my fame. But think, for once think with your pea-sized brains, what was the price I had to pay for it."

"You want to know how I became the fourth champion? I have no fucking clue, you shitheads! If you feel salty over it then it's your fault that you all suck! Oh, I laugh at you, in your face! You assholes are so pathetic to not even get selected in this tournament which is moronic in its own right and think that it'll earn you the so-called fame and money! The prize for the winner is just 1000 galleons! My shit is worth more than that. So why don't you just take those sticks out of your sorry asses and sod the fuck off!"

The clone then turned towards the teachers' table and said politely, "I am very sorry for my uncouth behaviour today. It's not my fault! I was a baby who had lost her parents and was abandoned at the doorstep of magic hating muggles a few hours later."

Turning around, the clone walked out and just as it reached the doors, the great hall thundered with shouts of indignation, shock and disbelief.

Back in Edmund's mindscape, Iris was gaping like a fish. She turned towards Edmund and began rapidly slapping his arm, "What has your clone done?! This is a disaster!"

Edmund was laughing his ass off. His clone had outdone what was originally expected of it. Getting control of his laughter, he grabbed her arms and spoke in a calm voice, "That was to show that you're not someone they can mess with. If they try to push you around, they'll get the fangs. Iris, those morons have done nothing for you and you owe them nothing. They worship you when they need you to stand between them and danger while they condone you and curse you when they need a scapegoat to take their shit. You were thrown away and forgotten for ten years with a magic hating family. Then they introduced this, magnificent world of magic as an escape from your home life. You face every kind danger here and are sent back to your aunt, just to repeat the process next year."

Iris herself was analysing whatever had happened until now. "Don't you see it? They are grooming you to be a pig for slaughter. We both know Voldemort will come back someday and so does Dumbledore. Why hasn't he done anything about it? Every year he tested you with his tasks of saving the day and grooming you to be reckless and put your life in danger for others. He is grooming you to be a martyr in the coming war against Voldemort because believe it or not, he will come back and bring war upon us."

The gears in her head were turning as she saw clarity of what Dumbledore had been doing. She slumped into the couch and rubbed the sides of her head. "What do you suggest Edmund? What should I do now? I'm completely lost. Who should I trust? I can't even trust Hermione given the way she was asking those questions so loudly. How am I supposed to defeat Voldemort and get away from Dumbledore's grasp?"

Edmund smiled at her and replied, "By becoming more powerful than them, magically, mentally and politically. It's time to lose the mask you've created to hide away your brilliance just to appease others. It's time to think for yourself and embrace what you're capable of. You have extraordinary courage that is rarely seen in anyone. The world has been cruel to you and manipulated you at every turn. Use your courage to become so strong that the world knows never to mess with Iris Potter."