Author's Notes: I was listening to "Assembly Line" by Mary Lambert while writing this chapter. Because it fits this section, yes it does.

4.

"Now," said Professor McGonagall firmly, "I'm sure you have questions for me. I will endeavor to answer them as best I can. We call non magical people, such as your family, Muggles. There are plenty of wizards and witches out there called Muggleborns. You, however, are not a Muggleborn - your parents were a witch and wizard. Your aunt and uncle hid this from you, I take it?"

Iris's eyes widened. Uncle Vernon gave a kind of squeak from the corner.

"I see," said McGonagall, lips tightening and nostrils flaring in a tightly controlled kind of anger. "You know nothing. Very well then. Luckily for you, it is my job to explain magic to all Muggleborn witches and wizards, as I am the deputy headmistress. So, to wit -"

She waved her wand and two armchairs magically appeared before the damp, empty fireplace. She waved her wand again and a warm fire blazed in the grate. "If you will please take a seat?" said McGonagall, waving. "I absolutely refuse to be uncomfortable as we talk."

Iris sat uncertainly down in the armchair in her nightgown, and Professor McGonagall began pulling an impossible number of things out of her coat pocket: a kettle full of water, two mugs, and two teabags. She put the kettle on to boil and settled herself down in the armchair opposite Iris, still quite matter of fact and dignified about the whole thing.

"To begin," said Professor McGonagall. "There is a whole world of wizards and witches out there, a world hidden from the Muggle one. We hide in pockets among Muggle places. To travel from pocket to pocket, there are several methods, but the most convenient one for you would be the bus route. Once you have a wand, you can stick out your wand arm, and a wizarding bus will magically appear, a bus that can take you anywhere in the country.

"However, for adults, there is also Apparition - you would call it teleportation - though never around Muggles. There is Flooing - traveling from wizarding fireplace to wizarding fireplace - electricity only works around magic if enchanted to, so we use fires for lighting and heating. And there are Portkeys - inanimate objects magicked to take whoever is touching them to a specific place at a specific time, mostly used by the Ministry to stagger magical entrance to Quidditch games and concerts and other such things. Quidditch is a sport. It's played on flying broomsticks.

"Yes, there is a Ministry of Magic. Its center is hidden deep in London. There is also a prison - Azkaban is an island fortress guarded by Dark creatures called Dementors.

"Hogwarts is where wizards and witches go to school. It's a medieval castle in Scotland, a boarding school, running on a seven-year-training system. The longer you're in school, the better your job prospects will be. It's built on ancient Celtic ground. The Druids were talented wand makers and scholars, very important to British wizarding past.

"Jobs in the wizarding world are much like jobs in the Muggle world. You can be a politician, work for the government, work for the bank, be a journalist or a teacher or a private tutor for children under eleven years old, be a Healer for the hospital, go into the merchant sector, go into the arts, go into sports, and a number of other jobs with Muggle equivalents. Aurors are another job with a Muggle equivalent - they go after Dark wizards and witches, or wizards and witches who perform violent, illegal acts.

"However, there are also wizarding jobs. You could be a Potioneer for the Apothecaries, for example - that's rather like a Muggle pharmacy - or go into magical research for the Department of Mysteries. There are professional Seers, Arithmancers, Duelists, Alchemists, and many other magical jobs.

"The wizarding world is a blend of the old and new. We wear robes and Victorian style clothes, have old fashioned housing, mostly small businesses, use quills and ink and parchment, messenger birds and fireplaces. However, we also have coffee, tattoos, hair dye, technomagic - technology charmed to work around magic - along with modern music, record players, and many other aspects of modern life.

"So you will spend seven years at Hogwarts, summers with your aunt and uncle, and then you will move completely into the wizarding world and find housing and a job." Professor McGonagall handed Iris her cup of tea.

"She will not be going to that blasted -!" Uncle Vernon began, gaining his courage back, and Professor McGonagall pointed her wand without looking and a jet of red light slammed into the wall right next to Uncle Vernon's head, leaving it burning and sizzling.

"Mr Dursley," McGonagall sighed, "do shut up."

Uncle Vernon fell silent.

"Now that you have a good idea of the wizarding world, my job is to tell you about your past," said McGonagall. Iris turned sharply back around to the Professor. She'd almost forgotten the Dursleys were there, and now she forgot again, immersing herself once more in tales of the magical world.

"To begin with, let me give you some history," said McGonagall. "The wizarding world did not separate from the Muggle one until the medieval witch burnings. The Ministry was created, and it instituted the International Statute of Secrecy. Wizards and witches are commanded to act and dress as ordinarily as possible in the presence of Muggles.

"This was mainly instituted because while most wizards and witches could escape Muggle clutches, Muggles did often used to set fire to wizarding children. That's why wizards are so accepting of various races, religions, genders, and sexualities - they know what it's like to be discriminated against. Some wizards and witches became very insulated here in our own little world. They have trouble letting go of the past.

"There was a Dark wizard named Lord Voldemort. He gathered an army of such people around him, mostly old blueblood Pureblood families and Dark creatures, and began a rebellion to overthrow the Ministry. Privately his goal was immortality. Publicly his goal was to destroy all Muggles and Muggleborns - kill them. He wanted everything to do with Muggles wiped from the face of the planet.

"He killed so many people in horrible ways that most wizards and witches are still afraid to even speak his name. He was the epitome of a Dark wizard.

"Your parents were a witch and wizard, James and Lily Potter. Your mother was a Muggleborn, hence why she had a Muggle sister. You have her eyes. Your father was a Pureblood. It caused quite the scandal, really, their marriage.

"They fought on the side of the Light and the Ministry, defending Muggles and Muggleborns. They were so powerful they became targets, and so they went into hiding, where they gave birth to you. But Lord Voldemort found their hiding place on Halloween night, one of the most powerfully magical holidays. He broke into your house, and killed your parents in front of you. Then he tried to kill you.

"But it didn't work. No one knows why. The Killing Curse is supposed to be unblockable, and he was very good at it. The curse rebounded off your forehead, leaving you with a curse scar, and hit Voldemort. His body was never found; he just… disappeared.

"Without him, his entire side fell apart, and the Light won the war. You're famous in our world. They call you the Girl Who Lived. Dumbledore, your future headmaster, who led the war effort, left you with the Dursleys so you could avoid getting a swelled head. We see where that got you," said McGonagall sarcastically.

Something very painful was going on inside Iris's mind. As McGonagall's story drew to a close, she had a sudden flashback - of a flash of green light, a burning pain on her forehead, and a high, cold, cruel laugh.

The Killing Curse was green. He'd been laughing as he'd killed them.

"Look, you." The growl came from the corner. McGonagall, Iris, and Dudley - who'd also been riveted by the story - all whirled around to see Uncle Vernon come from the shadows. "We raised her perfectly well," he said darkly, "no thanks to any of you. We stamped the magic out of her; we made sure she was nothing like her parents! She's a good, sensible girl and she's not going to that rubbish school. She's going to a nice, normal boarding school and becoming a well adjusted human being! She doesn't even want to go with any of you -!"

"She wrote me a letter herself," said McGonagall calmly. "She said she was afraid of you. She asked for help."

The Dursleys were stunned into silence.

"Iris, darling!" Petunia suddenly cried desperately. "We've always taken good care of you, haven't we?! You don't want to go off and become like my freak of a sister, do you?! You owe us, after all we've done for you, you owe us -!"

"NO I DON'T!"

The Dursleys stared at her. Iris had stood, breathing hard; the scream had come from her.

"You did what anyone raising a child ought to do, and nothing more! I was never allowed to do or eat anything fun! I was never allowed to go out anywhere on my birthday! I never had friends! You lied to me about my parents! I never made any decisions for myself -!"

"We were trying to protect you!" Uncle Vernon spat.

"Protect me from what?!" Iris shrieked. Everything she'd repressed for years, it all suddenly came spilling out. "I was never allowed to be my own person! I was a carbon copy of the perfect little daughter you always wanted to have! I'm not some little porcelain doll you can bend to your will. I'm a human being. I have flaws.

"And that's not love, what you did to me and Dudley. Controlling everything about our lives. You may think it's love, but it's not. It's some weird facsimile of love -" Iris took a deep breath, her face twisted. "And I no longer need it.

"I was afraid. For a long time, I was afraid to speak. I was afraid to break the mold. But not anymore!

"I want to go to Hogwarts! I want to become a witch! I'm going with McGonagall and you can't stop me!"

There was a stunned silence.

Then Petunia screeched - Vernon roared and charged at Iris with his arms out - Dudley jumped between his cousin and his father - and there was a flash of violet light -

In Vernon's place was a pig. McGonagall put her wand away, standing calmly.

"Take your pig of a husband and go back to your home," she told Aunt Petunia, who had gone white as a sheet. "I'll Transfigure him back when I take Iris back home with her wizarding goods. I will keep in regular contact with her, and if you ever try to stop her from going to Hogwarts, I will know."

She turned to Iris. "Come with me," she said. "We're going to a real hotel." And she walked to the door.

"Can Dudley come?" Iris asked.

But Aunt Petunia gasped tearfully. "No - no - Duddy - please -"

"Nah," said Dudley at last, smiling sadly. "Someone has to stay with my Mum."

Dudley and Iris stood, looking at each other. They both knew - this was where they parted ways.

"Well, I protected you as long as I could," he said at last. "But it looks like pretty soon, you won't need my protection anymore, squirt."

Iris suddenly reached out, and hugged her cousin. "Thanks, Dudley," she said quietly. She took up her bag of clothes and technology and walked away, stopping by Aunt Petunia and the pig. "Goodbye," she said.

She walked to the door with McGonagall, and went through it with her into the storm. She didn't look back.

McGonagall grabbed her arm and turned. Iris felt like she was being sucked down a very long, tight, narrow tube, and then all of a sudden she was standing in front of a very nice hotel on a coastal city.

"Now, Miss Potter." Iris turned to Professor McGonagall, who smiled once more. "Shall we get you dressed, then go to a nice restaurant and get you a slice of chocolate birthday cake?" Iris smiled back.

The Dursleys watched as Iris Potter disappeared from the hut on the rock.