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Iris didn't know what to say as the woman stared her down. Luckily, she didn't have to say anything as instead, Dumbledore spoke.

He walked a step forward beside Iris, staring at the mystery woman with a faint recognition, his guard not fully up, "Audrianna Simmons... to what do we owe the pleasure?"

The woman— Audrianna, smiled tightly as she shifted her glance off of Iris and to Dumbledore, "You remember me— good, it'll make this all much faster."

"Make what faster?" Iris spoke for the first time.

Audrianna's eyes shot back to her, observing Iris closely for a moment, "I have been waiting many years for this moment— when I finally get to tell you all about what you are."

Iris stared, "What I am?"

Dumbledore moved across the room in interest, taking a seat behind his desk as he listened intensely. Noting that he didn't seem to be worried about the stranger before them, Iris slowly crept forward and sat down in a third chair beside the large wooden desk.

Audrianna's eyes glimmered as she readjusted herself, "Surely you've both noticed that you seem to possess qualities unlike those of your peers? Haven't you wondered why?"

Iris exchanged a glance with Dumbledore... the woman was right. More and more frequently in the past year or two, strange occurrences, even for a witch, had been happening to Iris. Memories ran like a moving picture behind her eyes as she remembered all the times unexplainable red sparks had come from her hands; all the times she should have been injured but wasn't.

The red-haired witch smiled tightly, "You're special, Iris Potter. There are rare occurrences every so often when a special type of witch or wizard is born. These people always possess two gifts: one, a unique magical ability, in your case natural legilimency, and two, all of these special witches and wizards have the ability to produce magical shields."

Iris listened with wide eyes, recalling vaguely the few times when a red shield had formed from her.

Audrianna continued, "Those who are born with the gifts all follow a certain set of guidelines— all of them are a set of twins. My sister and I are the current leaders of a group of these particular people that goes back centuries... we're called Shielded. We work to locate new Shielded and then help them— teach them to use their powers."

"Hold on," Iris cut in, confused, running a hand over her face, "If it's always a set of twins then how come Harry doesn't have any of this stuff?"

"In extremely rare cases," the woman said, "only one of the twins is born with the powers of a shielded. It's only happened once before in our history. The simplest explanation I can give is that your brother has his own destiny to follow... the gifts would only hinder him reaching his final goal. You, however, Miss Potter, are destined on a different path." She leaned forward very slightly, saying sincerely, "You are meant to be the best of us."

Dumbledore, who had been listening silently as he thoughtfully stroked his long beard, finally spoke, asking, "You know of the prophecy then? Of the fall of Lord Voldemort?"

Audrianna nodded, "We have our ways of finding these things." She looked to Iris, "Or organization has been looking out for you, watching you since you were just a baby. Our way of finding and tracking other Shielded usually does not work until the witch or wizard is a teen— old enough for their powers to start emerging— but you have one of the strongest presences we've seen in a very long time. We knew of you only months after you were born. We watched you, as well as your brother to see if he would show signs, though he never did, until we decided that the time was coming to reveal ourselves to you."

At her words, something clicked in Iris' brain, "You left me that note!"

Audrianna gave a small smile, "Yes, though I apologise for the dramatic flair... one of my pupils has too much fun with these things." She paused for a moment before continuing, speaking to Dumbledore, "Professor... I would like Miss Potter to accompany me back to our Headquarters. I will return her tomorrow, but I wish for her to meet the rest of us." She turned her head back to Iris, "There is still so much for you to learn."

Dumbledore stared at his desk for a minute, looking deep in thought before he finally looked up and nodded. He looked at Audrianna, "When you return I wish to have a further in-depth conversation about this topic— over tea, perhaps?"

Iris glanced between them, confusion striking her once more, "How do you two know each other?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Ah, Ms Simmons was a student of mine. She came to Hogwarts just a few years before your parents if I am remembering correctly?" With a nod of confirmation from the woman, he continued, "She and her sister were top of their class, exceptional witches indeed," the old wizard flattered.

"Oh Professor, you're too kind," Audrianna replied modestly.

Iris could tell that the redhead had softened her initial cold exterior over their chat, which Iris was glad for. Mere minutes later, Audrianna was leading her into the floo after a short goodbye to Dumbledore. As they travelled through the green fire and into a new location, Iris began getting slightly nervous. She stepped out into a large study beside Audrianna. The room was covered in dark wooden features that made it feel very warm and most of the walls were hidden by shelves holding hundreds, maybe thousands, of books.

Not dawdling, Audrianna quickly led her out of the office and into a grand hall. It looked like they were standing in the front foyer of an old manor. The older witch called out for everyone and a minute later standing before Iris were five new faces.

It was easy to tell who the twins were. There was one woman who looked almost identical to Audrianna, obviously her sister, along with two blond boys who looked a few years older than Iris and a girl and boy who looked around her age with dark hair and startlingly blue eyes.

As they all stood in front of her with varying expressions of excitement and kindness, bells started going off in the back of her mind. Gazing over their faces once more, Iris noticed something.

She squinted, pointing at two of them, "Wait a minute... I recognize you two..."

It was Audrianna's sister and the younger dark-haired boy. The redhead chuckled mischievously, "Paris. We were watching after you while you travelled... with Voldemort back you can't be too careful." She walked forward and held out her hand for Iris to shake, "I'm Mirabelle but you can call me Mira."

Mira was roughly the same height as Audrianna if not just a bit shorter, with the same long red hair. She had a kind face that smiled at Iris in a very maternal way, instantly making the teenage witch feel comfortable. After greeting her, Mira stepped out of the way, leaving the other four to introduce themselves.

The boy from Paris grinned at her and winked, "Kai, lovely to make your acquaintance."

The beautiful girl that stood next to him— his twin— rolled her eyes, shoving her elbow into his ribs. As he grabbed the spot in pain, the girl smiled at Iris and said, "I'm Khalee."

Iris nodded at them in greeting, already able to tell that she was going to like them, or at least Khalee. They reminded her a bit of herself and Harry.

Only the blond boys remained unknown then, though they quickly introduced themselves. Their names were Jason and Lucas and they were near identical. Luckily Iris could spot the differences, possibly thanks to all the practice she had had with the Weasley twins over the years.

"There are more of us than are here right now, Iris," Audrianna explained, "We have a few of us scattered around on various missions and such at the moment, but you'll meet them all eventually."

Khalee continued, "There's also the little ones upstairs, Emma and Ethan. They're only four but they started showing signs a couple of months ago so we had to take them in. Their gifts are a bit more, uh... difficult to handle, especially at such a young age."

Audrianna then suggested that they move to the lounge area so they could more comfortably talk.

"Everyone in the organization has a role," Mira told Iris as they walked through the house, "Audrey and I split leadership. With our gifts combined, we can find new Shielded around the world. My gift is astral projection, I can separate from my body on this plane and use Audrey's gift to guide myself."

Audrianna continued explaining, "My powers are a bit more difficult to define. I have the ability to locate other Shielded and, when combined with Mira's abilities, I can guide her to anywhere on the globe. That's how we left the note in your room."

As they entered the lounge and all took a seat on the various assortment of sofas and chairs Iris breathed out heavily, "Wow. This is all so crazy... what about the rest of you?"

Lucas shared next. His voice was calm and mature which Iris thought fit very well as he said, "Jason and I are the healers here. The funny thing about Shielded powers is that they tend to play off of one another between twins."

"With me and Lucas," Jason took over seamlessly, "I have a regenerative ability and heal very quickly whereas Luke has the gift of healing others."

Iris found all of this fascinating and entirely overwhelming. She felt like an entire wardrobe worth of information had been dumped on her in the last hour alone, but at the same time, Iris felt like she could finally breathe. She was getting the answers she had craved for so long.

Finally, with just Kai and Khalee left, Iris was eager to see what else was possible.

When Khalee flicked her hand downward, lighting it on fire, Iris imagined her eyes were as big as saucers. The brunette tossed a small ball of flames back and forth between her hands, Iris watching mesmerized.

It was Kai's turn next and as he stood from the sofa he had been lounging on with a smirk and made his way over to Iris, she could feel her heartbeat picking up with nervousness. As he stopped in front of her, Kai held a hand out down to her, willing her to take it.

After just watching his sister's hand produce fire out of thin air, it was needless to say that Iris was hesitant to take it.

"Oh go on, don't you trust me?" He smirked gleefully further.

Iris didn't bother pointing out that they had met all of ten minutes ago. Carefully, she placed her hand on top of his. He didn't move his hand but seconds later Iris felt a light buzzing sensation begin running up her arm. It was like a million little static shocks, not painful but definitely a very strange feeling.

"What are you doing?" Iris asked, looking up in wonder.

His light hazel eyes glittered as he grinned at her, clearly enjoying her reaction. Instead of answering, he slowly slid his hand out from underneath hers until their fingertips were a few centimetres apart. With a start, Iris watched as multiple arcs of electricity jumped between their fingers.

"I can manipulate, create, and control electric currents. I'm shocking you very very lightly right now." Kai explained.

Mira, who, like the others, had been watching with amusement, spoke up, "Khalee and Kai are our guides. They watch over newcomers such as yourself and teach you the basics about what we are. Khalee specializes in research— she's a bit like our own librarian," the others chuckled at that, "Kai will show you around, teach you how to use each of your gifts."

Iris knew there was still a lot for her to learn, but she was more eager than ever. She felt like her entire mind had been renewed and suddenly Iris was ready to take on this new part of herself.

Audrianna's lips curled upwards, "So you see, Iris, we all have our parts to play, and soon enough, so will you."

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Jessica Chastain as Audrianna Simmons
Bryce Dallas Howard as Mirabelle Simmons

Matthew Daddario as Kai Brant
Alexandra Daddario as Khalee Brant

Cole Sprouse as Lucas Clarke
Dylan Sprouse as Jason Clarke

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AHH TA DA!

finally this is the big reveal! I have so much backstory for the Shielded and so many plans for the future and it's honestly so exciting to finally be at the point in this story that I originally started plotting for way back two-ish years ago

there were quite a few new characters introduced in this chapter and i'm super excited about all of them so I hope you guys like them! I'd love to know what you guys are thinking so far!

anyway, happy late bday to my babies Iris and Harry <3