Author note: a massive thank you to those of you who have taken the time to review my humble fic, it means so much to me and I've decided that this time I'll reward you, everyone who reviews this chapter will get a sneak preview of the next (sorry it cant be much more of a prize but there you go) just to say thank you for it. So here it is chapter four, I hope you enjoy. :)

Chapter four

Ivy

My parents weren't strict, not in the slightest, by normal standards they were actually quite accommodating and supportive since they had dealt with my visions well and had been very supportive of the whole witch thing. By anyone's standards my parents were not strict. They weren't against me having male friends either, they both liked Harry and Ron a lot and were glad that I was friends with them, they had even asked me if I liked either one of them in a way more than just friends, a question that of course I had answered with a shocked, loud and categorical no. So I wasn't worried about getting in trouble for being caught in the living room alone with a strange boy, however, what I was worried about was the jibes, innuendos, embarrassing conversations and humiliation that was sure to follow their discovery.

I turned to Draco, who was wearing one of his unreadable and slightly disgusted expressions as he looked in the direction of my family, I felt my brow furrow and I glared at him. He looked like he couldn't just believe that he was being forced to sit here, that he could have such bad luck as to be roped into conversing with Muggles and muggle borns, he also looked a bit like he was suffering through this for some higher reason, he looked like he thought he was a martyr and that serious annoyed me. I shouldn't be surprised by his expression, I knew full well how he felt about Muggles, but for some strange reason I was foolish enough to have thought that he would abandon his false prejudices, if only for now, of course he hadn't so I waited until he felt my heated gaze upon him and turned to look at me in confusion.

"If you say anything offensive to them, I'll kick you out of this house so fast that you won't have the time to register what's happening to you, you got that?" I hissed angrily in a tone too quiet for my family to hear "I don't care how sick you are." His eyes tightened in indignation but I turned away from him before he could either deny of confirm my accusation.

"Er, hi, you're back early." I said, standing up and regretting my words almost instantly as I realised that I sounded like I was guilty of something and gutted that they were back early "did you have a nice time?"

My mum raised an eyebrow and said "yes, it was alright, did you have a nice time while we were out?" and then looked at Draco pointedly, I rolled my eyes and felt a blush creep up my neck as my mum took of her coat and sorted her short blond hair.

"Sure mum, nursing a travel sick bloke really is the highlight of my Christmas holidays so far." I said my voice heavy with sarcasm as I shot them all a warning look, my thirteen year old sister Kelly returned my gaze with a mischievous smile, I didn't even want to know what she had in store for me, I was sure to never hear the end of this.

"I don't need nursing," Draco insisted in an attempted macho voice that only managed to come out as a weak whisper. I turned to shoot him a sceptical look.

"You don't need to try and explain yourself, you're old enough to do what you like, within reason of course," my mum said and I felt my mortification mount as they all gathered in the living room.

"Mum," I chastised as I blushed furiously, had she no shame. She only grinned at me as my dad said,

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend," I nodded, not about to dispute his liberal use of the word friend because I knew my family well enough to know that if I did, they would take it to mean that we were something more than friends and not something less.

"Fine, everyone this is Draco Malfoy," I said gesturing towards him "Draco this is my mad family, my mum Rose, my dad Andrew, my two little sisters Kelly and Jess and my little brother Matt." I said, pointing to them all in turn, my dad frowned a little at the mention of Draco's name; I suddenly regretted telling them as much about Hogwarts as I did, this could be awkward.

"Nice to meet you Draco," my dad said politely before shooting me a questioning glance, clearly wanting to know why I was talking with someone I had complained about countless times to him, I only shrugged, there was nothing I could say. I was glad that he couldnt find anything to say either.

"It's nice to meet you all as well, Mr. Jones." Draco said, surprising me a little since I knew how anti-muggle he usually was, he was actually being civil to them. His voice was weak though and he sounded faint, he still managed to throw me a pointed look that said something like, 'ha, see, I can be good'. I only raised my eyebrows at him.

"What's wrong with him?" my eleven year old sister asked, her golden blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail and her expression worried.

"Draco splinched when he apparated here," I told them and my family cringed, I had told them all about how we were learning to apparate at school and what it involved, they had been fascinated by the prospect of split second travel but horrified by what could happen if it went wrong and so I knew that they would understand what I had just said "and I think he gets travel sick, but Draco reckons otherwise." I said with a pointed look towards the pale, blond, wizard, he threw me dark a look.

"Is it serious?" my second sister Kelly asked her own blonde hair a shade or two darker than Jess's and a worried tone to her voice.

"It was only the corner of his ear, he would have it back right now if he'd let me call the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad." I said as I sat back down on the sofa opposite the one Draco was on, and my family inspected the clean cut on the top of his ear.

"It's only a little but of my ear." He told me as he sat up, not wanting to look weak probably.

"Only a bit of an ear," my dad muttered as he shook his head in disbelief, I met his gaze, trust me, I thought as I looked at my dad, I know exactly what you mean.

"Is that why he's still here then?" Matt asked as he folded his arms across his chest in a pretty protective sort of way, I resisted the urge to snort, Matt was a year younger than me but seemed to view me as another little sister, and he was always annoyingly protective and was acting that way now. Draco caught the tone of his voice and looked up at him, assessing his body language and hardening his features, Matt only looked down at Draco with a distasteful expression on his face, I'd probably told him a little too much about Draco for this to end well, I thought guiltily.

"Yes, Matt," I said in a defiant tone "and he'll be here until he's well enough to leave." I said before I could think it through, great, I thought as what I had just done sunk in, by trying to get my brother to back off I'd managed to acquire us a rude house guest for the night, swell. "If that's okay with you?" I asked looking at my parents.

"As long as he sleeps down stairs," my dad said in a fatherly tone "he doesn't look well enough to be leaving anytime soon and it's getting late."

"What part of friend do you all not understand?" I muttered under my breath, well aware that everyone could hear me as I reached for my wand and stuffed it back in my pocket.

"You forget that we know you," Kelly said as she unwrapped her scarf from around her neck and grinned at me slyly.

"What's that suppose to mean?" I asked, indignation filling me, exactly what were they tying to call me here?

"You know she doesn't mean it like that," my mum said, an all knowing look in her eye "we just mean that we know you is all." She said with a wink and I groaned, mortified as she looked meaningfully at Draco, he looked confused until he saw my furious and humiliated expression and then grinned mockingly; he knew that my mum thought that I fancied him. So wrong. I thought as I rested my elbow on my knee and lent my chin on my palm.

"How was it down at the Boatman's then?" I asked them not only so that I could change the subject but also out of genuine interest, the Boatman's Rest was the name of our local pub "that is if you've finished making inaccurate assumptions."

"Someone's going into defence mode," Kelly chimed as she sat in the arm of the sofa I was sitting on, Jess laughed at me and I glared at them both.

"It was fine," my dad said as he too removed his big winter coat "Paul, the landlord," he added for Draco's benefit though I was sure Draco couldn't have cared less "got a bit too much into the Christmas spirit, we reckon he'd been at the whisky for a little while before he opened up since he was handing out free drinks like it was going out of style," my dad chucked and I grinned, imagining Paul the portly and good natured landlord running around, red faced, handing out free drinks and talking cheerfully.

"Sounds about right," I laughed as I sat back against the sofa cushions and listened.

"Sue and Brad say Merry Christmas, by the way, and Joe says he'll bring your present tomorrow, that is if he ever gets around to buying it" my mum said with a fond smile as she thought of her three life long friends, she had known them all since primary school and they had all been inseparable ever since. Sort of like Harry, Ron, Hermione and I, I guessed.

I grinned back at her "Okay, I'll not hold my breath though, Uncle Joe doesn't have the best memory." I said and my family laughed along with me as we remembered some of Joe's most memorable antics. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Draco shift a little uncomfortably as he hadn't a clue what we were talking about, though I doubted that he wanted me to see that, feeling a little guilty I resolved to save this conversation for later, so that Draco didn't feel like a spare part, besides it wasn't that polite to ignore him like this.

"Sue and Brad are married, the two of them are old friends of my mums, along with Joe," I explained to Draco as I caught his confused expression, which he promptly changed for a indifferent one, I frowned at his uninterested expression, wondering why I was even bothering to try and fill him in, let him feel uncomfortable, I thought venomously.

"Corey asked after you," Matt said, his expression still sombre and his arms folded across his chest.

My stomach dropped a little and I felt my face go cold and expressionless, though not due to an oncoming vision, I quickly shrugged it off. I then turned to face Matt with an uninterested expression on my face "good for him," I said coldly before looking away again and glaring at the floor as I tried to force a certain face from the forefront of my mind. Unfortunately Draco saw this and watched me with interest.

"More like squeezed us for information," Kelly complained though she was clearly interested in the gossip of it and was talking excitedly "'why isn't Ivy here?' 'How is she?' 'Do you think she'll mind if you give me her number?' 'Does she have a boyfriend?' 'What are the chances of her marrying me someday?' he wouldn't leave us alone." Kelly giggled and my dad threw her a reproachful look.

"You know that he didn't ask the last one Kelly, don't exaggerate." He told her with a stern look, my head shot up as something she had said registered with me.

Unfazed by my dads minor telling off Kelly continued "yeah, but he said all the others and I bet he'd have said the last one if we'd stayed any longer." My little sister said as she inspected her Christmas red nails, once again she was acting older than she was.

"Tell me you didn't give him my number?" I asked suddenly fearful, well aware that Draco was still watching me intently but in the wake of the current situation unable to care.

"Of course not," my mum assured me "we would never give your number to that shallow, inconsiderate boy."

"Good," I said, trying not to think about the infuriating Corey, he had gone to the same primary school as me and along with Tara had been one of my many tormentors, he then continued to bully me whenever I went out of the house during the holidays from my first three years of Hogwarts. Recently though he seemed to have developed a crush on me that was starting to get a wee bit out of control, so forgive me for having no interest in the shallow pretty boy who had picked on me relentlessly for about five years. The fact that every girl in town fancied him aside; he was still a prat and probably always would be.

"Thanks for telling me by the way, Matt, real kind of you." I said with a glare at my brother, he was still regarding Draco though, who was in turn still watching me.

"Matt," my dad said his sharp expression directed at my brother now who seemed to snap from his trancelike state "go and get the spare duvet out of the cupboard and a couple of pillows, it's getting late and out guest probably wants to rest."

"Sure, dad," Matt said before turning and exiting the room, he managed to shoot me an apologetic look before he went and I appreciated it, he knew bringing up Corey was the wrong thing to do and was apologising for it.

"I'll help," Kelly said and winked at me once more before hurrying from the room, Jess followed after her, almost skipping with her cheerfulness, I smiled after them, all negative thoughts momentarily forgotten. I shot my dad a look of appreciation for getting rid of Matt and consequently the others, he smiled back at me just as mum sat next to me and asked,

"So, did you get your letter then?"

"Yeah, I did." I told them with a smile, though it was kind of forced as I thought about my vision and felt a strong desire to find out what was happening over at the Burrow, I knew that I had to stay here though and that annoyed me a little.

"I don't know why you couldn't just leave it till tomorrow," dad said with a grin as he settled down on the sofa next to Draco, who paled a little more though it was hard to tell if it was because of the motion sickness caused by my dad sitting down or by my father's slightly intimidating presence. I stifled a snigger which of course Draco caught and countered with another dark look "you were only there a few hours ago, I doubt much has changed in that time, I swear, the four of you will be joined at the hip soon you spend so much time together."

I grinned at my dad before mellowing a bit and saying "quite a lot can happen in a few hours." My dad's eyebrows rose and my mum looked at me in question, I shook my head at the pair of them and both of them looked to Draco at the same time and understood what I meant. Draco either didn't notice this or was trying to ignore it as he had no reaction.

"So Draco," my dad said conversationally as he turned to face Draco on the sofa but I wasn't fooled, I recognised the tone he was using and felt my eyes go wide; oh he wouldn't start with the whole concerned father talk now would he? Like I needed to give the Slytherin's any more ammunition, I thought as my mortification flared up again "what brings you out here then?"

Draco turned to face my dad and despite his obvious sickness and his worse-than-normal pale complexion he held himself with proud grace and met my father's steady gaze, my cheeks flamed. "I came to visit Ivy; I thought that I would practice my apparation at the same time but as you can see, it went wrong." Draco said in a calm voice.

My dad nodded along with Draco's words and still wore a good natured smile when he said "Have you visited Ivy often recently? It's just that I've never met you before, I've heard of you, but never actually met you."

"Dad!" I hissed in warning as my cheeks continued to heat up, what the hell was he doing? "I don't think you need to ask Draco all this." I insisted with a meaningful look at my traitorous father, did he really need to tell him that I'd told them all about him, he was bound to take it the wrong was as egotistical as he is.

"I'm just inquiring as to Draco's intensions is all, love," my dad insisted innocently and I found myself fighting the urge to drop my head into my hands in shame, intensions, he wanted to know Draco's intensions towards me, I could tell him right now they were probably nothing short of murderous ones if our past experiences were anything to go by. I groaned aloud at my dads words, but he only had to audacity to keep grinning at me innocently.

Draco turned to look at me, and for his part didn't look too fazed by my dad's protectiveness just like he hadn't been with Matt, he did however look very, very smug that he was the cause of my humiliation and that my parents thought that there was something going on between us.

"This is the first time I've visited her," Draco told my dad, I was grateful that he told the trust at least, he could have made it much worse, but then again I doubted he'd even want to lie about visiting a 'mudblood' like me more than once, I thought with a frown "why, what as Ivy told you about me?" he asked with that smug grin back in place and that haunting voice of his echoing through the room.

Go on, I dared my dad with my eyes, tell him all the bad things I told you about him, I dare you. My dad looked a bit unsure about that, I knew he wouldn't tell Draco that I'd told them he was a stuck up Slytherin with absolutely no morals and no ability to care about anyone else but himself, my dad was too polite for that. "she told me enough that I was surprised to see you here," he said with a thoughtful expression on his face, Draco's gaze flicked to mine, his eyebrows were raised and I only shrugged back at him, I wasn't going to explain "what house are you in then Draco?" my dad asked cheerfully but that interrogative tone was still in his voice, this interview wasn't over yet.

"Slytherin," Draco said, I was surprised to see that his face had thawed just a little bit and his usual haughty expression had lessoned some what, though it usually did the opposite when he spoke of his beloved house.

"Really?" my dad asked sounding surprised though I knew that he wasn't, I had told him before that Draco was in Slytherin "I thought that kids from Gryffindor and Slytherin didn't get along." Despite my discomfort I still had to fight back a snort, saying that pupils from Gryffindor and Slytherin didn't get along was a massive understatement, we hated each other with a fierce passion, and Draco and I fitted that stereotype well.

"As a general rule they don't," Draco said, not really giving a yes or no answer in terms of us, which surprised me a little as I had expected him to get on his high horse and start ranting about how all Gryfindors were either blood traitors or muggle borns and not worth half as much as any Slytherin, or some such rubbish. Instead he gave his slightly cryptic answer that hinted that that wasn't the case for us, which would be news to me. I regarded him with confusion just as my dad asked,

"So, doesn't that rule apply to you two then?"

It seemed Draco didn't have an answer to that and only watched me with a frown in his brow, as though he was angry with me for some reason, as though I had made him say what he had just said and that he didn't really agree with it. My back up I sat taller and glared back at him. It turned out he didn't need an answer to my dads question as a massive bang suddenly erupted from upstairs, followed by a chorus of girly laughter and the sound of running, not to mention Matt's loud complaints. My dad rolled his eyes but was still smiling, my mum laughed and said,

"Why don't you go and see what they broke?"

My dad nodded at my mum before flashing me an apologetic and slightly sheepish grin, I frowned at him though I was now smiling as well, and shrugged that I didn't mind what he's just done all that much. I'd most likely explode though if he subjected either Draco or I to that again. As soon as my dad was out of sight and halfway up the stairs my mum got to her feet and said, "I suppose you've both been embarrassed enough for one evening, I'll just go and get a glass of water and tell everyone to get to bed, I think you'll have to go upstairs and get those pillows for Draco yourself." She told me with a quick hug.

"Girls get out here, what have I told you about rummaging through Ivy's Christmas presents, especially the presents from the Weasleys?" my dad demanded though he was clearly trying not to laugh "oh don't complain Matt I'm sure it didn't hurt that much, besides it'll serve you right for trusting a word your sisters say."

I couldn't hear Matt's reply but I was sure that it was colourful, don't get me wrong, I love my brother to bits, but sometimes justice was just so sweet. I laughed a little and glanced up at my amused looking mother, she looked a little confused though so I explained "Fred and George gave me some stuff from their shop for Christmas, I think they got hold of the Punching Telescope." My mum nodded and chucked,

"Maybe it'll teach them to be a bit more cautious," she said until she caught my doubtful expression and added "or maybe not." She then disappeared from the living room into the kitchen.

With a smile still on my lips I turned to face Draco, my expression sobered when I saw his face, he looked confused, troubled and was frowning deeply, sighing as I thought about what I'd gotten myself into I pushed myself up from the sofa. "I'll go and get you something to sleep on." I told the thoughtful blond before hurrying up the stairs; I reached the landing where my two giggling sisters were watching while a sulking Matt had his enormous black eye inspected by my dad, who was still suppressing laughter. I guessed that I was right about it being the telescope. Feeling a wide grin grow in spite of what waited for me downstairs I rushed into my bedroom and went to the pile of opened presents on my bed, from which I extracted a tub of cream that had come with the telescope, I then headed back out of my bedroom before tossing the tub at Matt, he caught it just as I said,

"Here, try this; it came in the same box." I then headed for the hall cupboard and pulled the spare duvet and pillows from the shelf there and ran into my mum and dads room so that I could pull out one of his spare pyjama bottoms for Draco to use, my dad didn't bother with pyjama tops, I raised the bottoms questioningly at my dad who nodded for me to take them. I then headed back down the stairs; I managed to spot Matt cautiously applying the cream to his throbbing eye before I reached the foot of the stairs and giggled.

"Night then, Draco, I hope that you feel better tomorrow." I heard my mum said just as I walked out of the front hall and into the living room.

"Thank you, Mrs. Jones." Draco replied a little unsurely, my mum missed this and smiled at me once before heading off upstairs. I frowned at Draco for acting like that around my mum and walked towards the sofa he wasn't sat on and dumped the pillows down by the headrest and put the folded duvet down about halfway down the sofa and set my dads bottoms down on top of it.

"There," I said as I folded my arms and moved to face him "that should be all you need, the bathroom's upstairs first door on the left if you need it."

Draco only nodded at my words and stood up; though he was trying to be strong about it I could tell that the action was pushing him on the verge of throwing up again, as he struggled to move across the distance with the bucket, tissues and water bottle in his hands I made no move to help him and he didn't so much as open his mouth to ask for my help. He reached the sofa, set everything down and then lowered himself onto the sofa, satisfied that he had made it to the sofa without passing out or throwing his guts up on the carpet I turned to leave, my hair, which had now dried wavy much to my upset, spinning out in my haste to leave him.

"I'll see you in the morning, night," I snapped as I fled from the room hurriedly and went to lock the front door, as I did so I could have sworn I heard him mutter a soft goodnight in reply, but surely I was imagining that.

Quickly I headed up the stairs, the landing was quiet and empty now as everyone had retreated the their bedrooms for the night, I sighed at the momentary silence before heading to the bathroom and getting ready for bed, I emerged in my red and white striped pyjama bottoms and red strappy top, my face washed and my teeth brushed, with my brown hair pulled back in a messy pony tail. I then headed to my bedroom, flicked the lock on the other side out of habit and was about to climb into bed when I heard some more tapping on my bedroom window. Quickly I hurried towards the tapping noise and hastily threw open the window so that Athena could get it, it was well and truly snowing out there now, I thought as I took in Athena's snow covered feathers and looked past her to where the wind was kicking up a snow blizzard outside. Athena ruffled her feathers and shivered so I closed the window and turned to face her as I quickly drew my curtains closed.

"Have you got a reply for me then girl?" I asked my owl, who hobbled towards me and let me take the roll of parchment from her beak. I stroked her feathers in appreciation before walking her to my desk and opening her cage for her so that she could hop in, she jumped into her cage quickly and promptly snuggled up and closed her eyes. "night then," I said as she tried to get to sleep, I guessed I wasn't sending a reply to this letter tonight then, I thought as I sat down on in my bed and drew my covers up around me "Lumos," I muttered igniting the tip of my wand as I sank back into my pillows and read my letter.

Ivy, it read,

Mr and Mrs. Weasley say thanks; they appreciate you saying that you were sorry. Ron and Fred and George are not happy that you figured out their plan, but everyone knows it's for the best that they don't do that, even if I'm siding with them on this. Even I know it wouldn't have ended well. Thanks for the warning, will see you soon.

Harry

I smiled at the sheet of paper in my hands, I suppose it didn't really need a reply and I was glad that I had gotten my last letter to them in time and that there wasn't a need to worry about them any more, I didn't care how justifiable their actions would have been, I didn't want anything bad happening to my friends. Content and almost completely forgetting about who was sleeping downstairs at this very moment I extinguished my wand light and set both it and my letter on my bedside table before snuggling down beneath the sheets, the only sound other than my ticking clock was the soothing sound of Althea's breathing. Despite everything that had happened today, or maybe because of it, it wasn't all that long until I fell asleep and started to dream.

Author note: So yeah, that's it, I'm not too sure about this chapter I think its not that strong, to be fair it isn't exactly a key chapter or anything but I still like to do a good job of things, let me know what you think please, I'd love to hear and you'll get a preview of what happens next if you do! Yes its bribery but there you go! Lol. Much love to you for reading. oh, and merry christmas in case I dont update again before the 25th :) x