IRIS MONTAGUE

Iris, has brown curly hair, which most of the time she wears loose, and sweet, but somewhat sad brown eyes. She's around 1.45 centimetres in height, and of slim build.

Iris's peculiar characteristics are her composure and politeness, atypical for such a young child. She never raises her voice, she has gracious smiles for everyone, and she's extremely well-mannered. She rarely speaks out of turn, but often, her face speaks louder than her words: one thing she struggles with is controlling her facial expressions. She's intelligent and quick-witted, but sometimes her quick wit can turn into pointed, if not plainly mean, remarks. Sometimes, she can also be a bit too prideful: in fact she hates being corrected and criticised.

Iris's life before Hogwarts has been anything but extraordinary, at least from the outside. She lived in the Montagues' mansion in London, rarely given the chance to make friends or, in general, to simply be a child. Her family is extremely prestigious, and both her parents, Magnolia and Claude Montague, who work at the Ministry of Magic, have always been rather absent from her life. When they were present, she was expected to be flawless, which instilled in her a deep fear of disappointing them.

She grew up under the care of a preceptor and her grandmother, the latter being one of the very few constant presences in her life. It was they who first noticed the signs in Iris. There were times when she would become unusually quiet, like her mind was elsewhere, miles away. She would notice things that did not make sense to her: feelings that were not hers, fragments of pictures in her head that she could not explain.

Iris's parents did not dismiss these things as the vivid imagination of a kid; the Montague family had seen things like this before. Iris's great-great-grandmother, Pythia Montague, had the gift of the Sight, and her great-grandmother before her. Though it had not manifested in decades after her, its return in Iris couldn’t be denied.

Iris's parents did not encourage her to cultivate her gift, nor suppress it completely. They saw it as something to be acknowledged, monitored and most of all controlled. They did not really teach Iris how to understand what she experienced.

Iris's only company during her childhood were Clarisse and Julius Bohun, the kids of Renée and Klaus Bohun, intimate friends of the Montagues, and Cecilia Biggs, the daughter of the mansion's chief maid. Even with her friends, Iris sometimes felt like she did not quite fit in, always somewhat out of place.

Since she could walk and talk, Iris has been taught how to behave in polite society, how to be composed, graceful, and controlled.

Iris was seven when she first met Cecilia: until then, she had never been allowed the company of other children. They were seated in one of the drawing rooms under her grandmother’s supervision, expected to entertain themselves quietly with some dolls, when Cecilia made a joke. Iris doesn't remember precisely what she said, only that it was unexpected enough to make her laugh; not politely, as she had been taught, with her hand in front of her mouth, but freely, without restraint, her head thrown all the way back. It startled her more than anything. At the same time, the flowers in the vase beside them, white peonies, for a couple of seconds turned to a delicate pink hue, immediately going back to their original colour.

Not all at once, and not in a particualrly dramatic way, only a few petals unfurling delicately. The two children noticed, but before they could say anything, they were interrupted.

Iris's grandmother, noticed something else entirely. “Iris.” That single word was enough. The laughter ceased at once: such behaviour was unbecoming.
For a moment, silence settled between them again, awkward. Then Cecilia shifted slightly closer and, quietly, she reached out. Her fingers brushed Iris’s, a small, conspiratorial squeeze that said more than words could have. Iris did not smile openly, but something in her expression softened just enough: Cecilia had noticed. Then, as if nothing had happened, they returned to their game.