An Unfortunate Miracle: Part III

Chapter One

Intermission

Author's Note: HAPPY HARRY POTTER DAY! WOO! I hope you're all having Support Harry Potter Parties. I am. Even as I post this, I'm already dressed in my Ivy costume, complete with wand star-shaped necklace (I've looked everywhere for a star-shaped locket, but have yet to find one). I'm so excited, both for my party and this story. I really think you're going to like it, and possibly hate me later on. I'm having an underground bunker built, in case Kaylin decides to kill me. She's the only one who knows where I live.

Anyway, this is the only chapter I have completely finished at the moment. I usually like to have the first few chapter written out before I post chapter one, but I've been putting it off because it'll only bring me closer to the end, which I'm very much in denial about [sob. I do have some events planned out for certain, it's just a matter of finding time to get it all written. So please be patient. I'm trying to deal with the load of school work that never seems to end.

If you haven't already, Please reread chapter one of Part I! I've completely rewritten it, and things mentioned in that introduction will be very important in the end. I've also changed chapter fourteen of Part II to fit the seventh book, so you can reread it if you want, but it's not as important as changed made in Part I.

I was thinking the other day about whether I'll still be writing Harry Potter fan fiction in the future. I really can't imagine not writing Harry Potter stories now, I've been at it for so long (around seven years next year!). I love writing, so much so that I've been seriously considering switching my major from Music Business to some kind of writing. The problem is, I have no idea how to tell my parents (who've been paying for my tuition, God bless them) that they've been wasting thousands of dollars on music classes that I'm not going to need.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I'm calling the dimension where the Wizarding world is real the Potterverse, and where they're only books I'm calling the Rowling Universe. Yeah. Just to clear up any confusion about the summary.

My rant about book seven, if you haven't heard yet, will eventually be on my LiveJournal page (see my author's page for the link). Just a warning for all of you, Deathly Hallows spoilers abound after this paragraph. In fact, there's one in the next paragraph.

Disclaimer: If I owned the Harry Potter franchise[George wouldn't be sad. (Spoiler censored for those who have yet to read the book, for some reason).

Summary: Sequel to An Unfortunate Miracle: Parts I & II. It's Ivy's third year in the Potterverse, and times are getting darker as the Wizarding world quickly falls under Death Eater control. While the Rowling Dimension awaits the releases of book seven and the fifth movie, Ivy must keep her secret more closely guarded then ever. DH Spoilers!

Walking down the hallway, I came to a halt outside Scott's room. He was standing in the middle of his room, scratching his head. "Scott, hurry up, we haven't got all night!"

My brother glared at me. "Well, Ivy, you didn't tell me we were leaving today. Why can't we wait a day or two?"

I sighed in annoyance. "Because I already bought the plane tickets, and Lee and Aunt Becky aren't around to insist on seeing us off. Do you have all Lee's school books in your trunk?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"And your wand?"

"Yes, go away!"

With one last "Hurry," I continued down the hall to my own room. I sat down at my desk and pulled a piece of parchment and a regular Muggle pen toward me and started scribbling.

Fred and George,
I've decided not to wait. I'm taking Scott to you-know-where tonight. Don't worry, I'll be back in a few days. Please take care of Tobey while I'm gone.
Sorry for the abrupt departure, love you both,
Ivy

I tossed my pen down on the desk, rolled up the short letter tightly, and conjured a green ribbon from my wand, which tied itself flawlessly around the scroll. My tawny owl, Tobey, flew down from the top of the wardrobe, landed on my shoulder, and stuck out her leg expectantly.

I smiled slightly. "Sorry, Tobey, gotta wait until we leave. Don't want anyone trying to follow us to the airport." Tobey fluttered down to the desk and watched as I headed to my bed, where my duffle bag lay half-packed. I carefully dropped another spell book into my bag. Over the last month, I had been collecting and learning as many defensive spells, jinxes, curses, and hexes as I possibly could. I would need them if I wanted a better chance of making it to the final battle.

I dropped An Intermediate Guide to Dueling into the bag and stood up, looking for anything else I should be taking. I sighed. "Of course." I got down on the floor and crawled carefully under the bed. I pulled out my wand and removed the cloaking charm that hid the six Harry Potter books. I piled them up and pushed them out from under the bed before crawling out myself.

I piled them one by one on top of the spell books. Out of habit, I took extreme care with Goblet of Fire (which had lost its cover at one point). I hesitated with the last book, Philosopher's Stone. I flipped through it, pausing at some of my favorite parts. Hagrid on Sirius's flying motorbike...Uncle Vernon shouting about how motorbikes didn't fly..."Scabbers" biting Goyle...the disastrous first flying lesson...Fred and George knowing they were called Gred and Forge...

I smiled slightly and closed the book and stared at it. Next month would be the seventeenth year of the Harry Potter series. I didn't know how long it was until the seventh book came out, but I guessed it would be soon. I hadn't been to the Rowling Dimension for a while, and therefore didn't even know the title.

"What are you doing?" Scott demanded suddenly from the door. I jumped, startled. "I thought we were leaving?"

"Are you finally ready?" I asked, putting Philosopher's Stone in my bag and zipping it closed. "Are you sure you have everything?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes!"

I smiled slightly and zipped my bag closed. "All right." I stood up and shouldered my bag, staggering a bit under the weight of six novels and eight spell books. Scott sniggered. "Shut up."

"What have you got in there?"

I unzipped the bag and started pulling out books. "Six Harry Potter books and a bunch of spell books."

"You're kidding," Scott said, coming over to look at the books. "So you're basically going to America to study?"

"No, I'm going to America to see my friends and get you out of Voldemort's way." I put Feather-Light Charms on a few of the books and piled them back into the bag. I tried picking it up again and was happy to find that it was easier to carry.

"Are we going now?"

"Yeah, yeah, get your trunk." Tobey hooted suddenly and flew over, carrying the letter to Fred and George in her beak. "Oh, right. I gotta send Tobey to the twins, and send a Patronus to Remus so the Order doesn't wonder where I am – "

"Can you at least levitate my trunk down the stairs?" Scott asked as we left my room. "I'll probably break my neck doing it myself."

Once Scott's trunk was near the door downstairs, I put down my bag and started tying the twin's letter to Tobey's leg. "Stay here a minute," I told Scott. "I've gotta send this, and then we'll Apparate to the airport." He nodded and sat down on top of his trunk.

I went outside, to the Potterverse, where a light rain was falling. Tobey ruffled her feathers and looked at me reproachfully. She didn't like flying in the rain. "Sorry, Tobey, but you've got to take this for me." She hooted softly. "Stay with Fred and George for a few days. I'll be in the States, so don't let them try to send you there. Go ahead." She took off, disappearing in the rain towards Diagon Alley.

After casting a quick glance around at the deserted street, I pulled out my wand and sent a Patronus message – a spell I had spent months practicing before I finally got it right – to Remus Lupin: Leaving with Scott, be back in a few days.

I hurried back into the house, where Scott was sitting on his trunk, waiting for me. "All right," I said, grinning, "let's get going."

An hour later, Scott and I were on the plane. It was nothing short of a miracle that I'd managed to get two adjacent seats only seven hours before take-off. It was also amazing that I managed to get through security with my wand in my pocket (though that was because I Confunded the security guard). I was sitting by the window, and Scott was on the aisle seat. He was reading Order of the Phoenix for the first time.

"I can't believe we're in here," he said suddenly. It was nearly nine o'clock London time, and we'd been in the air for almost two hours. "We weren't before, were we?"

"Shush," I said warningly, as a girl in the row in front of us glanced back. She'd been looking back at us every few minutes ever since Scott had asked for the Harry Potter book. I suspected she was a fan. I shook my head at Scott, and he returned to the book. I looked back at my book, fingering my wand in my pocket. I was itching to try out the hex I was reading about, the Canary Hex. I was fairly certain it was the same hex that Fred and George used on their Canary Creams.

"Are you fans?"

I jumped. The girl ahead of us had finally decided to speak to us. My first instinct was to slide my spell book off the table and into my duffle bag, but I remembered I had disguised the spell books just like I had the Harry Potter books a year and a half ago. I gave Scott a warning look, and he just rolled his eyes at me.

"You could say that," he said. "Not as much as her," he gestured at me, "she's obsessed." I sighed inwardly as the girl grinned at me. I didn't want a lot of attention for looking like Ivy Wolfe, but I knew what she was going to say next.

"You know, you remind me of Ivy Wolfe." Bingo. "Did you know some people say she might be Lily and Sirius's daughter that Harry doesn't know about?"

Scott and I both stared at her for a moment, my mouth hanging open slightly. Then I couldn't help it: I laughed outright. "That's – that's ridiculous!" I exclaimed between laughs. Scott was ginning too.

She looked surprised at our reactions. "It's not that far-fetched, you know. Why else would she have transferred to Hogwarts so late?"

I wiped tears of mirth from my eyes. "She didn't transfer. She had no magical training before Hogwarts. She didn't find out she was a witch until she went to live with Lee. Her cousin. If Ivy was Lily's daughter, she, Lee, and Harry would all be related and Harry could've gone to live with Lee and his mother instead of the Dursleys."

The girl shrugged. "I just heard about it. What do you think about Snape?"

I stopped laughing abruptly. "What about him?" I asked, perhaps more harshly than I should have.

The girl raised her eyebrows. "You know, good or evil?"

"Evil," I said without hesitation. "You?"

She shrugged again. "I'm not really sure. I lean toward good, though. Why hasn't he killed Harry at some point during the sixteen years he's been at school?"

"Isn't Voldemort supposed to kill Harry?" Scott asked.

She nodded. "That would fulfill the prophecy."

I snorted derisively. "Please, Harry could get hit by a bus, and the prophecy would be fulfilled."

She laughed. "That's true, I never thought of that." I grinned. "Well, whether he's good or evil, I'm sure the book'll turn out good. Do you see the movies?"

I smirked. "Oh yes. I'm going to the London premiere in July with a friend of mine."

"Lucky!" she exclaimed. "I live a little ways north of Minneapolis, and closest premiere is in Chicago, so I doubt my dad'll let me go there. So you live in England?"

"Yeah, near Soho Square in London. We moved there a few years ago."

"Where in America are you from?"

"Nevada." Scott frowned and opened his mouth to protest. "My name's Amanda," I said quickly, before he could say anything. "My brother Josh," I added, gesturing at Scott.

"Shannon."

We spent the rest of the flight talking about Harry Potter, our personal lives (mine and Scott's carefully edited by me), and our families. We reached Minneapolis at five o'clock their time, where we said goodbye to Shannon, and then got on a connecting flight to Los Angeles. The plane finally touched down in L.A. at two in the morning. I managed to get Scott and myself a cab home to Simi Valley. We didn't even bother to try unpacking before falling into our beds, exhausted from the flight.

Author's Note: Well, folks, there you have it. Part III has begun! WOO! I'm actually going to finish this one, you should all be very excited. I've been worrying all summer that I was going to lose interest and take it down, as usual. But here I am with Part III almost entirely planned out! It's just a matter of filling in the gaps and writing out chapters, when I have time free from homework. Not often, though. Part III is the most difficult fan fiction I've ever written, in more ways than one. I sincerely hope you won't hate me by the end of it.

To Kaylin: It's Shannon! YAY!

Ooh! Guess what I found! Foreshadowing, in book one, of Fred's death! It's on page 203 in the American edition and page 149 in the British edition. Harry pulls a wizard cracker with Fred and it goes off with "a blast like a cannon" and surrounds them in blue smoke. Familiar, yeah? Yeah?

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