"Is it straight?"

"Yes,"

"It is not you liar, don't listen to him Ivory, you should never listen to him." Remus said looking pointedly at Tom, who had been trying to mislead Ivory.

Ivory listened to Remus as she took out the seventh attempt at a ponytail in the direct center of the back of her head. She sighed, "Screw it, I don't know how mum manages to get these things straight. I'll just leave it down."

"Your hair goes down past your waist, how can you deal with it being down?" Remus asked.

"Push all of it behind my shoulders and hope for a miracle," Ivory answered easily.

"Why are you messing with your hair again? It seems like a waste of time." Tom said disinterestedly, entertaining himself by pushing his insubstantial hand through the mirror repeatedly.

"It's my birthday, I thought I'd do something special. If you don't want to be bored by this you can go away, I've been trying to get you to for over a year." Ivory replied as she moved to leave the room.

"Ah, but that would be doing what you want. Where's the fun in that?" Tom answered and moved to follow her.

"No Tom, they already think I have psychological issues because I accidentally talk to you, I don't want you following me around today. Remus can come if he wants to though." Ivory added and Tom pouted.

"Why does he get to go?" Tom asked, he had become fairly childish when he was being punished like this.

"First of all, Remus doesn't annoy me. Secondly," Ivory frowned at the memory, "Aiden."

Ivory shook her head and left the room faking a smile, Remus following her. Tom scowled, one little mistake and he hadn't earned her trust back since.

Tempus Praeter

Remus smiled, Ivory had been reasonably happy yesterday for her birthday, but now… She was actually smiling, or grinning would probably be a better word. Yesterday she had been promised a wand, and just five minutes ago she had found out it would just be her and her dad (Vaughn was subbing for another teacher at the martial arts dojo she taught at and it had been arranged for Kris to spend the day at the Hawthorn's). After a trip to the Leaky Cauldron via floo powder she found herself in an overcrowded Diagon Alley, and after two minutes of utterly failing to stay next to Wolf, she did something she hadn't done since… She had never done this before, actually.

Silently she tried to hold his hand to stop them from being separated, which was weird enough. After seeing that that wasn't working so well, she moved his hand to her opposite shoulder and smiled knowing that this would work. Wolf zoned out for a half a second, remember how he had grudgingly done something similar his first time in Diagon Alley. Of course, that had been years ago and he had allowed himself to be led around by an almost complete stranger because it was better than being alone surrounded by complete strangers. Ivory was by his side because they were family. Vaughn had said one of her supposed reasons for leaving was that she never even saw him, which made Wolf feel a little uneasy.

Finally they arrived at their first destination, Ollivanders, even though it was now being run with his nephew. Wolf greeted Ollivander, so he missed the expression on Ivory's face as she saw the end of his life span. Thirty-seven and a half hours, or forty hours. Ivory casually averted her eyes looking at the middle-aged nephew behind the counter, who was smiling as he rolled his eyes at his uncle talking with Wolf, "Shall we get this lovely process started?"

He did some measurements of her arm and hand and then made his way to the shelves full of wands and pulled out a few boxes before returning. He hesitated in which to have her try first, but soon held one out for her to hold, "It's holly with unicorn hair, it's a bit long, but we'll see what happens. Just give it a wave."

Ivory waved it gingerly… which resulted in a small explosion about two feet from her face. She handed it back to the younger Ollivander and wiped the thin layer of soot from her face.

"Okay, that obviously didn't work, you don't react well with the unicorn hair. I spent years studying wands and found that some things always have the same reaction for people who use a certain core," He said pushing a few of the wands aside and he picked another, "Beech and phoenix feather, nine inches."

This time there was a shower of sparks that almost caused injury, but the wand was snatched from her hand and the sparks vanished. With a quizzical look on his face he disappeared into the long row of shelves and returned empty handed, "Where the hawthorn and phoenix tail, eight and three quarter inches?"

"Top shelf behind the counter in the box labeled ebony and dragon heartstring." The older Ollivander answered.

His nephew shrugged and climbed up to retrieve the box, surprised to find it was in fact the hawthorn wand he had been looking for. Which made him wonder why it had been labeled thus in the first place, but figured that it was better not to have to deal with his uncle's rantings. He handed it to the young girl, almost afraid of the consequences, hawthorn wands were unstable at best when they had phoenix tail cores, and usually burst into flame while they were being made. Even so, a handful of hawthorn and phoenix tail and hawthorn wands had been made, and had all been matched with those who had unstable magic themselves in order to balance it out. And those with unstable magic generally had equally unstable minds that tended towards evil, the best example being Gellert Grindelwald.

Ivory tentatively took the wand, having not enjoyed her previous experiences, but relaxed as soon as she held it. The wand had an almost calming effect as she slowly moved her wand in an automatic movement, lifting the wand's box from the counter and setting it back down. She looked up to see three faces staring at her in awe, "What?"

"You aren't supposed to be able to do that for another four months," Wolf said, but he was smiling in approval. He had always said that just because rules are there, doesn't mean they have to be followed if you can manage to get away with it.

"Well, that was certainly unusual, but I can say that is definitely the wand for her." The younger Ollivander said as Wolf payed.

Meanwhile, the older Ollivander was quietly talking to Ivory, "You are as rare as that wand is, one in millions. Or in your case, more. You have a power that no one else has ever had, one that puts you above everyone else."

"It's a burden, not a power," Ivory said softly as she watched his time reduce to a few hours and saw how he would die.

"The hawthorn is bush that grows roses, beautiful roses. But beware the innocent looking hawthorn, for it is riddled with thorns. Do not let it consume you like it has those before you." Ollivander said talking about the previous owners of wands like hers, but she took it a bit more literally.

She grew quiet, but before leaving, she said to the younger Ollivander, "Don't blame yourself, you can't stop the inevitable."

He made a face, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll know soon enough." She replied, leading the way through the door, and Wolf followed her with an interested expression.

"What was that about? I know Mr. Ollivander looks sick, but it's not like he's going to die today." Wolf said.

She looked torn, but with a little encouragement from Remus she gave an answer, "bitola di mors, it's a little magic bug that burrows into the bodies of young magical creatures and feed off their magic, they gave a further sense of enlightenment to the person, but a longer, more painful death. It eats the organs you don't need to live before eating the heart. He has one, and today is his final day."

"How do you know these things?"

"I got bored three summers back and studied ways to die. I had nothing better to do." Ivory shrugged.

Tempus Praeter

"Okay, only eight of us will fit in the compartment, someone needs to leave." Eyra said, pointing out that there was nine people, Eyra, Lyra, Conner, Rebel, Smoky, Angel, Kris, Ivory and Mark Hart, Angel's friend from hufflepuff in her year.

"Sorry Ivory, looks like you have to leave." Kris said.

"Wait, why me?" Ivory asked, looking at the others in the train compartment.

"You're the youngest, we're all second and third years, and your just a little firstie." Kris said slowly pushing her out of the compartment, "So, bye." He pushed the door closed as soon as she was outside, and she glared at the door for a second before moving to find a compartment. Of course, they were all full except the last one, that only had two people in it.

"Would you two mind if I sat with you?" She asked, pushing her hair out of her face for the hundredth time that day.

The Neri twins looked at her strangely before answering in unison, "Feel free."

"Thank you," she said closing the door behind her and moving to the corner to sit.

The twins hadn't stopped looking at her, and finally Cyrene spoke, "You aren't afraid to sit near us? Most people avoid us."

"There's nowhere else to sit, and as long as you don't bother me, I'm fine." Ivory answered, "But yes, I do think the two of you have a frightening aura."

"Yet you stay." Vincinte commented.

"If I ran from everything that scared me, I'd have no sanctum left in this world." Ivory said with finality, and then drifted into her own little world.

Cyrene began talking to him in Italian for privacy, but Vincinte wasn't paying attention. His curiosity had been piqued by the strange girl who had decided he wasn't worth being afraid of. That was new to him.

Tempus Praeter

There were three people left to be sorted this year, and finally McGonagall called, "Potter, Ivory."

Ivory walked confidently to the stool and sat, letting her hair fall between her and her audience. She felt the sorting hat settle on her head, followed by a voice in her head. Well, you definitely aren't a hufflepuff, either a Slytherin or Gryffindor…

Aren't you going to claim that you don't want to be in one house of the other?

Just sort me for merlin's sake.

Which house do you want be in? I could be convinced either way at this point.

Some sorting hat you are, just choose the one I'd be best in.

Fine… definitely not chivalrous, and you are a black seer, an ambitious angel… SLYTHERIN!

The sorting hat was lifted from her head and she stood and walked towards the Slytherin table, seeing there was only one spot that was really available. Next to the Neris. She chose to sit next to Vincinte, quickly putting one arm on the table in between the two of them. Vincinte, was resting his head on his hand with his elbow on the table as well, putting up a second barrier. Of course, while Ivory was listening to the beginning of the year speech, Vincinte's mind was wandering. Thinking about the girl next to him to be exact, who did she think she was? Sure daughter of the killer of the almighty god of evil, Voldemort.

In his musings, he completely missed the fact that his elbow was slipping on the table, and before long, his arm slipped out from beneath his head and collided with her elbow. He retracted his arm, then felt a sharp pain on his cheek and his head had moved. Ivory was now sitting with her arms crossed muttering something about him being a personal space invading jerk. He slowly lifted his hand to touch the skin that still stung, what had happened? Then the idea came to him, Ivory had slapped him. Sure, it was a crude reaction, and probably overkill for his offense, but she obviously had her issues with people invading her space.

Yet, while he would usually be indignant that anyone would so much as touch him, he couldn't bring himself to be upset at the girl. In fact, he almost respected her for her reaction. After all, it took guts to slap a half vampire, or even some random stranger that obviously gives you the creeps. He looked back to Ivory who was now just scowling as she averted her attention from Vincinte. This time he looked at her a little closer, noticing how long her hair was, the exact shade of green her eyes were, and the frown she had on her face. He finally decided that he found her to be quite cute, and spent the rest of the feast watching her with a small smile on his face.

Across the table and five people down, Smoky was fuming. He saw the look on Vincinte's face even though Ivory didn't, and the second he had seen a smile on the half vampire's face his right hand had burst into flame. Audrey Goyle had not found this the least bit amusing, seeing as he had accidentally singed her hair. Smoky glared at the twins, wishing he could tell Ivory that they were bad people, but he was positive that their threat would still be honored.

Meanwhile, at the staff table…

"Potter,"

"Yes, Severus?" Wolf replied, rolling his eyes at the childish use of his last name.

"Your daughter just slapped one of the other students." Snape replied, "The year hasn't even technically started."

"Who did she slap?" Wolf asked, looking over to confirm that his daughter looked pissed off.

"Vincinte Neri,"

"About time one of those two got slapped, they're too arrogant for their own good." Wolf said and was about to return to eating when Snape cleared his throat, "What?"

"As her father you should correct her behavior."

"Like hell I should, you're her head of house."

"You punish Kris."

"Because he's in Gryffindor, and I'm unofficial co-head of Gryffindor. Ivory's a Slytherin though, so she's your problem." Wolf explained as Snape's frown deepened, "Or does she scare you?"

"She just slapped a half vampire, and he didn't do anything about it. Also, she was raised by you and Vaughn, which means she's probably a wild child and has your wife's love for sharp pointy objects." Snape argued.

"First of all, they're called knives, and Vaughn is really sorry about that Christmas party four years ago. However, I blame Neville for suggesting pin the tail on the donkey while ninety percent of us were drunk. As for Ivory, she takes after me more than Vaughn, so she'll probably just glare at you until you go insane or feel uncomfortable enough to leave her alone. And perhaps swear. She does that."

"That makes me so excited about meeting her." Snape sighed.

Later in the Slytherin common room

"Ms. Potter, a word?" Snape asked.

Ivory gave him a questioning look, did he really need to ask if all she was doing was playing with a quill(well, she had at least turned it into a gecko so it was somewhat interesting). She shrugged, "Sure." Reluctantly, she turned the gecko back into a quill.

Snape raised an eye brow, "You're quite good at transfiguration."

"I've always had an unusual amount of control over my accidental magic. What did you want to talk to me about?" Ivory asked.

"At the feast I saw that you struck another student." Snape answered, "Why?"

"He touched me."

"He touched you?"

"Yeah, my elbow."

"And that's all?"

"Yeah."

Snape sighed, "We in Slytherin are courteous to our fellow Slytherins, which means we do not make enemies of them, strike them, or set them on fire. Understood?"

"Let me guess, Smoky is the reason you added fire onto that."

"Yes, now tell me that you understand."

"I understand, and I'll do my best to comply. I'm sure my father has told everyone that I have issues with authority. I'll try though."

Snape stared at the girl for a moment, deciding that perhaps she was more like her father. If she was more like Vaughn, she would have been beaming during the entire conversation. "I will take that as a promise to be on good behavior."

-

(A/N: sigh, I have a feeling that I will be called lazy for not having updated in… I don't even remember the last time I updated. Oh well, I took some time to actually think about how the story will progress and how it will end. And I actually drew a comic of Ivory's slap, it was a slow day in math. As always review and wait force-at-be-knows-how-long until I post the next chapter!)