Thoughts of having to face Madam Maxime again filled Ivy with dread. By the time she got to the pub she was miserable. The hours between the tea crowd and dinner stretched on interminably, and butterflies fluttered in her stomach every time the door opened. Finally, with great resignation, she went into the kitchen and began working in the back corner by the fireplace. Rose appeared a little later, wrinkling her nose in Ivy's direction.
"Gods Ivy, what are you making? We can smell it all the way out at the bar."
Ivy looked up at Rose, her face streaming tears, and Rose was hard put to figure out if it was from sorrow or the smell.
"Stoat sandwiches."
"Stoat sandwiches?" Rose repeated in disbelief. She took a step toward Ivy, but the smell pushed her back.
"Where did you get a stoat, and how on earth did you put it on a sandwich? And why?"
Ivy sniffled and wiped at her face, turning briefly back to her platter.
"Willa got me the stoats easy enough. There're lots of them out by the woodpile. Hagrid's the one who told me how to make the sandwiches. Before... before." She couldn't go on.
"I just figured if he loved them so much, then she probably would too, since they're both giants, and all."
"Ivy..." Rose muttered. "Here. Put a lid over that and set it out on the back step. Then come inside. I'll fix something to make you feel better."
Ivy did as she was told, setting the pile of sandwiches out on the step and then walking back through the kitchen and into the bar. Rose met her there with a goblet full of elderberry wine.
"You'd better go and change your clothes... I can still smell the..." she waved a hand in front of her face and pointed Ivy upstairs. Ivy sighed tearfully, took the wine and headed to her room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"No more elderberry wine for you," Rose announced as Ivy poured her third goblet-full.
"I don't care who Hagrid's bringing through the door. Here. Have a cup of tea instead."
Ivy took the cup with shaky fingers. She wasn't used to drinking, and the wine had gone straight to her head.
"You said I needed something..." she reminded. "To get rid of these butterflies. I'd rather be put under an Cruciatus than see him all moonstruck over Madam Maxime."
"Maybe it's not her, this time. I mean... he didn't say her name, did he? Let me see your tea leaves."
Ivy drank the last of her tea carefully, then tipped the cup sideways and handed it to her friend.
"What does it say?"
"Hold on," Rose murmured, gazing intently into the cup.
"Does it show a grotesquely enlarged woman stomping all over my heart?"
Rose waved Ivy away as she tried to peer over her shoulder.
"Go on, Ivy," she insisted. "Give the vampire trio their Bloody Marys so I can look closer."
Ivy sighed, but took the tray of drinks to the corner table where three vampires had taken to camping out nightly.
"Ah... there she is," said the tallest of the three, a Latvian diplomat named Vladimir Valenkoff. "You're looking deliciously lovely tonight, my dear."
She put the tray down on the table as Valenkoff took hold of her wrist.
"Vat did you say your blood type vas, again?"
His companions laughed as Ivy took them in stride. They'd been going through the same routine for weeks now.
"B Positive," she answered, serving their drinks with her free hand. Valenkoff's grip on her was frightfully cold and determined. He turned her wrist over to study the fine webbing of veins that showed just under her skin. Ivy, sensing his grip loosening, used that moment to pull herself away.
"Be careful, Ivy," the oldest vampire murmured, glancing nervously in his companion's direction. "And keep your vindows closed. I am not responsible for Valenkoff after midnight."
"Have I mentioned there's a really big cat in my room?" Ivy lied. "She has a certain taste for bats, as I remember. As a matter of fact, she'd rather have bats over rats, any day."
"Oh Ivy you vouldn't," the third vampire spoke up. He was younger, and blonde, with blue eyes that reminded her of Zackary Zonko.
"I vould, Sergei, I vould," she assured him. "And there better be an extra large tip on this table when you fellows leave tonight, for making me put up with all this."
"You vound us vith your callousness, little one," Valenkoff murmured. Ivy gazed into his eyes far longer than she meant to.
"No hypnotizing my waitress, Valenkoff." Rose came over to push Ivy away from the table. "I'd have to notify the Ministry of Magic, and I wouldn't want to have to do that. She can't work for me very well if she becomes undead, like you."
The vampires laughed half-heartedly as Rose led Ivy back to the bar.
"How many times have I told you not to look in his eyes?" Rose muttered.
Ivy rubbed her wrist, and then her forehead.
"He got me again, didn't he?"
"Yes. Just like that. Next time look at the table, or the glasses. Anything. Or better yet, let Renfroe serve their table."
Ivy shuddered. "Fine. No more vampire table for me. Now - what did my tea leaves tell you?"
"Look there," Rose started, taking the teacup and tilting in it Ivy's direction. "See that heart shape? How it's frayed a bit around the edges?"
"I knew it!" Ivy complained. "Hagrid's going to rip my heart to shreds."
"Not shreds, silly," Rose continued. "It's frayed. Almost lacy. You're going to be reunited with a long-lost friend."
"I think I need to drink another cup of tea," Ivy shot her a grin. "I already did that last year when I came to Hogsmeade."
Rose gave her a disapproving look.
"Between the wine and the vampires, Ivy..."
"Sorry."
Rose shook her head. "Look. By the size of that heart this is someone you once really cared about. The fraying only points to age - or how long ago you knew this person, understand?"
"I'll take your word for it," Ivy said. "If you say it isn't a giant foot coming down to stomp on my frayed heart... I believe you."
She paused a minute and rubbed a hand across her eyes. "Valenkoff hypnotized me again, didn't he?"
"That was ages ago," Rose informed her. "I think you'd better go splash some water on your face. Maybe that'll clear your head."
Ivy resisted an urge to stick her tongue out at Rosie, walking past her into the kitchen.
When she came back, Hagrid was leaning on the bar. Ivy let out a huge sigh of relief when she saw no signs of Madam Maxime.
"Hi, Hagrid," she said, reaching to mix herself a red currant rum. Rose grabbed the goblet out of her hand and replaced it with gillywater before she could protest.
"Where's your friend?"
Hagrid grinned, stepping aside and allowing a tall red-head some space at the bar. Ivy stared at him a minute, then her eyes lit up in recognition.
"Charlie Weasley!" she exclaimed, rounding the bar to get a better look at him.
"Ivy!" he said, grinning. He took the steps between them and held out his hands. "By Merlin's beard, it's been ages."
Ivy took his hands and stood awkwardly before him for a minute, then dropped them and gave him a hug.
"What on earth are you doing in Hogsmeade?" she asked, then her eyes narrowed at Hagrid. "You haven't won any strange looking eggs lately?"
Hagrid grunted in her direction as he and Charlie settled in at the bar. Ivy watched as the two of them shared conspiratorial glances.
"You're up to something," she told them. "And knowing you both, it has something to do with dragons."
"It's a bit of a secret, for now," Charlie admitted.
"Get off work a little early tomorrow night and we'll show ya," Hagrid said.
"It'll have something to do with the Tournament," Rose concluded, passing Hagrid's tankard down the bar.
"What'll you have, Charlie?"
"Just a gillywater like Ivy's. Got to keep my wits about me."
Ivy filled a goblet and handed it too him, while Hagrid sat back and watched.
"I can't believe you're here."
"That's what I'm supposed to say," he countered, saluting her with his drink. "How did you manage to land in Hogsmeade?"
Ivy grinned, flooded with warmth at being reunited with a long-lost friend, as Rose had predicted.
"I got homesick," she told him. "And extremely tired of Muggles."
Charlie grinned. "Life must be a lot different here though. No ekle-tricity."
"Electricity," she corrected. Her hand went to her neck to brush at an imaginary bug she felt there. As it did, her eyes drifted to where the vampires had been sitting earlier. Valenkoff was the only one left. He also raised his glass to her, and Ivy's brow furrowed as she tried to remember seeing Sergei and Andracov leave.
"Ivy..."
She blinked a few times and turned her attention back to Charlie and Hagrid.
"What?" she asked, looking from one to the other.
"We didn't say anything," Charlie said, lifting his drink to his lips.
"But I heard someone..." she sighed. "Never mind. Would you two like to order something for dinner?"
"'S why we're here," Hagrid said. "Charlie's gotta lay low til the firs' task a the Triwizard Tournament's announced."
"Oh..." Ivy took this in with raised eyebrows. She turned and pointed to a board on the wall where Rose had magicked the menu for the night. "What'll it be?"
"Pheasant stew for me," Charlie told her.
"I'll have th' steak-an-kidney pie," came from Hagrid.
"All right then," she gave them both a smile. "I'll be back with your order straight away."
She turned toward the kitchen, took a few steps, then turned back. "Did either of you call my name, just now? You didn't, did you?"
Both Charlie and Hagrid said no.
"I must be hearing things," she muttered, more to herself than anybody, as she turned back to the kitchen.
When she returned she nearly dropped the tray that held their orders when she let go with one hand to slap again at her neck. Luckily she was close enough to the bar that she slid the tray onto it without spilling anything.
"Is there something crawling on my neck?" she asked, leaning toward Hagrid and Charlie so they could see.
Hagrid went pale, then his face turned beet-red. He fumbled in his pockets while Charlie assured Ivy nothing was on her neck. She rubbed it slowly with one hand while serving his stew with the other.
"Here you go, Hagrid..." she set his plate on the bar, eyes widening as she watched him stand to his feet. He had his frilly, wand-embedded umbrella out and pointing at her chest, and his eyes blazed with something Ivy'd never seen there before. Anger. She took an involuntary step backward as she heard him bellow, "Expatrio Vampirum!"
A burst of red light left the umbrella and hit Ivy, knocking her backwards into the wall. She could hear the uproar his action had caused, but only faintly, as though both of her ears were stuffed with cotton. She felt that crawling-bug feeling on her neck once more, but this time she could see what caused it. She watched a dull purplish beetle crawl onto her shoulder, then spread its iridescent wings and take flight, its path leading directly to its master, the vampire, Valenkoff.
He smirked at her from behind where Hagrid, Charlie, Rose and Renfroe stood arguing. "Maybe next time, little Ivy," his voice spoke faintly in her head. Then the voice, the beetle and the vampire were gone and Ivy felt lighter and more free than she had all evening.
"Rose..." she said taking a shaky step toward them. Nobody noticed she'd left her place by the wall.
"Charlie," she tried to get through to someone else, but they were busy loudly chastising Hagrid for what he'd done.
"Renfroe?"
The elder barkeep wasn't listening either, so Ivy rounded the bar, eyes still wide. Her hair looked as though she'd been doing experiments with ekle-tricity. Taking a deep breath, she approached Hagrid. The others stepped away from him, waiting to see what Ivy had to say.
She stood there uncertainly for a moment, then threw herself at Hagrid.
"Thank you," she murmured, holding onto him as tightly as she could. Her arms only went part-way around him, but when she pressed her ear to his chest, she could hear his heart beat, steady and strong. Its slow, familiar cadence calmed her nerves. "I don't know how you figured that out, But I'm really glad you did."
Hagrid grunted a little, lifting her off her feet as he returned her embrace. Then he held her at arm's length, reaching to brush a strand of hair off her cheekbone.
"Din't hurt ya, did I?"
"No," she said as she tried to push her hair back in place. "You saved my life." She released him and turned to the others, but it was Hagrid who spoke first.
"If I ev'r see them vampires in here again they'll be th' ones lookin' at the enda my wand."
"Vampires? Ivy... what's going on?" Rose asked, now thoroughly confused.
Ivy explained how she'd heard someone calling her name, and felt a bug on her neck. "It was Valenkoff. Earlier he had my arm. That's when he must have put that bug on me." She shuddered at the thought of it.
"More like in ya," Hagrid explained. "It left its mark on yer neck. Right there... a Vampire's Kiss." The ball of his thumb stroked gently across a red, spidery mark at the base of Ivy's throat. It pulsed gently with her heart beat.
"By Merlin's crusty - "
"Rose!" Ivy cautioned. Red stole across Rose's face as she threw her arms around Ivy. Ivy patted her back with one hand, as the other held tight to Hagrid's shirtsleeve. It gave no sign of letting go any time soon.
Rose turned her attention to the giant.
"I'm sorry, Hagrid. I didn't realize what was happening. Forgive me for getting so angry with you."
Hagrid shook his great mane in Rose's direction, covering Ivy's hand with his own.
"Reckon if I saw somebody blast me bes' friend, I'd be upset, myself."
"That's no excuse," Rose insisted. "I should have trusted you." She raised up as high as she could on her tip-toes and managed to plant a kiss on his cheek.
It was Ivy who finally got them all settled back in again.
"No doubt your dinner's cold," she said, pointing to the long forgotten plates on the bar. "I can take them back to the kitchen..."
"Let Rose do it, Ivy," Hagrid said, pulling out a chair so she could sit down between him and Charlie. As she stepped forward her legs began to feel like Jell-O. Hagrid had to help her into the chair.
"I felt ok, before..." Ivy muttered, passing a hand across her face. For the second time in a week she looked at Hagrid and thought she would faint.
"Too bad Remus Lupin isn't here with some chocolate," Rose said, pointing her wand at the food on the bar. "It worked for dementors..." she finished as the others looked at her.
"Oh no..." Ivy whined. "Now I have to be scared to go out after dark again."
"You'll stay here tonight, Ivy. Your house isn't ready to move into, anyway."
"You have a house here?" Charlie asked, finally getting to taste his pheasant stew.
"Yes," Ivy nodded, accepting her own bowl of stew from Rose, who'd brought it from the kitchen. "You can come see it tomorrow. Maybe you can help me redecorate."
Charlie laughed. "Nobody's ever asked me to do that before."
"It'll be fun." Ivy assured him. "And you can come, too, Hagrid. I need to know where to buy a giant-sized chair, for when you come over to visit."
Hagrid didn't answer. His eyes had gone a little glazed, and his thoughts were obviously elsewhere. He stared from Charlie to Ivy and back again, watching them chat about everything that had gone on in their lives while they were apart.
"Will you come?" Ivy asked again, later, tugging on his shirtsleeve. He shook himself a little, nodded, then hid his face behind his tankard of mead.
"I'll be there, Ivy," he said quietly. "I'll be there."
The night wore on, and as Hagrid and Charlie stood to leave, Ivy remembered something.
"Hagrid!" she said, slipping off her stool. "I have just the reward for saving my life." She disappeared into the kitchen, then reappeared with a lidded silver tray. Everyone backed away from Ivy as she set it on the bar. Everyone but Hagrid.
"Oh Ivy!" Rose said, waving a hand in front of her nose. "I forgot about those. Surely they've gone rotten by now..."
"They on'y get better wi' age," Hagrid informed her, wagging his head in Rose's direction and reaching for the lid.
"No! Wait," Rose panicked . "You can take them home. Keep the tray. Just please, please don't open that thing up in here."
"Followed my recipe, did ya?" Hagrid asked Ivy, one eyebrow raised.
"To a tee," she assured him with a grin. "And I made enough for two." Her smiled faded as that slipped out, but she wouldn't let thoughts of the Beaxbatons headmistress ruin the moment.
"Hope you like them," she murmured, climbing onto a stool and leaning across to kiss his cheek. Her hand went to his face, and her thumb smoothed down one side of his moustache. Her heart ached to tell him that she loved him.
"Thanks again for saving me from Valenkoff," she managed, dropping her hand and sliding out of the chair. She picked up the tray of stoat sandwiches and walked Charlie and Hagrid to the door.
"See you tomorrow," she called, as they walked down the street, Hagrid holding his prize to his chest, while Charlie tried to stay upwind. They waved, and then they were gone. Ivy pushed the door shut, leaning on it for a moment.
"What a night," Rose said from her place at the bar.
"I'll say," Ivy agreed, crossing the pub to stand at the bar while Renfroe got ready to leave.
"What I want to know is how Hagrid figured out what was going on," he said as he shrugged into his coat. "None of the rest of us knew there was anything wrong."
"He knows Ivy," Rose said softly. "Maybe better than I do. He must have noticed something the rest of us didn't see."
Later, as the women went up to their bedroom, Rose elaborated. "Hagrid saw what was happening because he loves you. Love is the most powerful magic of all. Remember that the next time you see him with Madam Maxime. No matter how star struck he looks when he's with her, it's you that he loves."
"He just doesn't know it yet?" Ivy questioned, grinning.
"I told you men were thick, Ivy. And giants... even thicker."
"I hope you're right," Ivy whispered, as she settled into her bed. "More than anything, I hope you're right."