Chapter Two:
That smirk.
That smirk.
THAT SMIRK.
"I'M GONNA BURN THAT SMUG LITTLE SMIRK OF YOUR FACE YOU JERKWAD!" Ivy screamed.
"Oh yeah?" Her cousin, Dudley Dursley taunted. "You couldn't hurt me even if I stood still."
"I'll show you what hurt feels like buddy." She growled in reply. Ever the picture of maturity, Dudley stuck out his tongue. This, apparently was the push that sent Ivy over the edge. A short bellow of anger escaped her as she charged at him, fists and hair streaming flame behind her. Ivy began with a quick right jab that Dudley knocked aside with his own right hand. Her fire hissed in protest, diminishing severely at the point of contact of their hands. Ivy leaped back instantly, avoiding Dudley's counter easily.
"Picked up a new trick Duds?" Ivy began. "That was-"
She was cut off as Dudley charged her this time, not giving her the time to puzzle out his new spell. That was fine by Ivy though. She learned best by doing instead of thinking. She ducked under his swinging right, coming up with an uppercut she had to abort in order to block the knee heading for her gut. She was in close now though, and neither of them could block the next blow. Dudley staggered back from her hit to his gut, her flames once again hissing as they impacted him, while she tanked his elbow on her back. Cold radiated from the spot where his elbow had struck, so Ivy brought her body's temperature up in response.
"Nice one." Ivy complimented Dudley. "An ice spell on your own body to keep my flames from burning you up too bad and to weaken me. And it's really cold too. How long can you keep it up though?"
"Long enough." Dudley said, his damnable smirk still in place. They charged once more. Fists and feet flew, just as many connecting as were dodged or blocked. Dudley rolled under her high kick, taking her other leg out from under her. He rose as Ivy crashed to the floor, just enough to come down on her in a vicious pile driver. Ivy barely managed to roll away in time, leaving Dudley to crater the floor instead of her gut. She rose instantly, managing to catch Dudley with a round house kick before he could put up his guard. He stumbled back into the wall dazed. Sensing weakness, Ivy closed with a right hook that Dudley barely managed to sway away from. Unfortunately for Ivy, she'd been to eager to end the fight, and got her fist stuck in the wall for a moment. That moment was all Dudley needed to slam a kick into her gut, sending her stumbling back. He stayed on her as she backpedaled, and it was all Ivy could do to redirect the next three blows. The fourth punch caught her in the cheek, and in response, she flared her fire as bright as she could for an instant.
The impromptu flash caught Dudley off guard. He stumbled back, blinking rapidly. Having learned her lesson from last time, Ivy sent three quick jabs into his face and his gut instead of committing to one massive blow. Dudley grunted in pain, but he wasn't out of the fight yet. He dropped under her next punch at his face, coming up with a sucker punch to her gut. Ivy's return hammer blow sent him crashing to the floor. Ivy dove down to grab him in a headlock, flaring her body heat high to protect from his ice spell.
"Tap out." She commanded, tightening her arm around his neck. Instead of responding, Dudley pushed more power into his ice spell to try to force her to let go. Ivy couldn't let such an obvious challenge go. She brought her power boiling to the surface of her skin. The air around them shimmered as it was instantly superheated and supercooled in turns. "Tap out Duds, I'm totally gonna win this." She repeated. Two taps rang through the cracked and cratered workshop. Ivy backed off of Dudley instantly, and paled when she realized the sound hadn't come from him. She and her cousin turned to the source of the sound simultaneously, both ashen-faced. Uncle Vernon stood in the door of the workshop; his hands still clapped together to show what had made the sound. Uncle Vernon was a large man. Easily reaching a height of six feet, his body rippled with lean, corded muscle. His brown hair was speckled with gray, the only visible size of his age on his body. Otherwise, he appeared to be a very fit man in his late twenties. He needed every inch of that athletic prowess to safely fulfill his job as a treasure hunter.
"You've both improved tremendously." He said, an easy grin on his face. "I truly would not have expected this level of destruction from a simple two-minute spar, in spell reinforced concrete no less." His hands dropped to his sides as he approached the pair slowly, making a show of inspecting the damages as he did so. Ivy cringed when he stopped near the blackened imprint of her fist burned into the wall.
"She did it." Dudley was quick to point out.
"Wha-? Hey!" Ivy exclaimed. "But you did-" She was cut off by the sound of Uncle Vernon chuckling.
"You can stop playing the blame game you two. I'm not going to punish one of you for this." Color slowly began to return to the young cousins' faces as the tension visibly left them. "All the same, what sparked the fight off this time?" He inquired.
"Ask her." Dudley said, thumbing in her direction. Ivy blushed, beginning to fidget slightly.
"Well, uh. I mean, the thing is, um." Ivy stammered out. "HegottonamemynewswordbutIwantedtodoit."
"In English please dear." Her Uncle responded.
"He named my new sword for me even though I wanted to do it."
"Uhhh…" Her Uncle trailed off. "That's it? Just rename it then."
Ivy blanched. "I can't do that now! It's already been Named!"
"I fail to see the problem here Ivy. Just call the pointy stick something else."
"Besides, it was an awesome name anyway." Dudley contributed. "Don't tell me you had a better one lined up, miss name your fire sword burning."
"Okay Uncle Daniel." Ivy responded heatedly. "You, me, Cousin John, and Aunt Lucy can all go off and start giving everything in here new Names."
"Swords are different from people Ivy," Uncle Vernon explained. "And, swords and even some people change their names sometimes. Like that one sword Narsil in our vault used to be called Anduril. Or how Caledfwlch then became Caladbolg and then Caliburn."
"And in each of those incarnations of those swords it became a different sword." Ivy countered. "Anduril was more of Narsil's child than Narsil itself, and the other three swords all had different partners and abilities. They were all completely different identities for those swords. Even humans only change their names when they change their identity. How do you not know this anyway, you track down treasures like that all the time?"
"I don't name them; I just find them." Uncle Vernon replied lightly. "What was it about Dudley's name that got you so angry anyway? Was it that terrible?"
"No, Tempestas is as good a name as any I would have come up with, it's just…" Ivy trailed off.
"You wanted to do it yourself."
"Yeah." Ivy grunted out. She began walking towards the workshop door. "I'm gonna head to Daphne's to blow off some steam then." Uncle Vernon's hand came down on her shoulder as she passed him.
"You aren't going anywhere young lady."
"What?" She exclaimed. "I thought you said you weren't going to punish us?"
"I said that I wouldn't punish one of you." Uncle Vernon smirked. "But there's no way I can let you both off after what I just saw. Both of you are grounded until you learn to throw a halfway decent punch."
Three weeks later:
Two monstrous creatures walked side by side. Their flesh was mottled with a riot of ugly purple, black, blue, and even yellowing skin spots. Their bodies appeared as if they were crafted by the worst stone carver the world had ever seen, covered as they were in bumpy welts. Many muggles would have run screaming from their hideous appearance, but the wizards occupying platform nine and three quarters were made of sterner stuff. They merely shuddered in disgust as they passed by the malformed duo.
Okay, they didn't really look that bad. Ivy and Dudley's punishment had lasted the entire three weeks remaining before Ivy was set to leave for Hogwarts, and the brawling pair had both come out the other side with a few ugly bruises to show for it. Ivy was worse off than Dudley; Uncle Vernon had decided she needed to learn how to fight more defensively while Dudley needed to learn to be more aggressive. This had generally meant she was used as Dudley's punching bag for most of their sessions. She did get to punch him back when she was learning defensive counters though so it wasn't all bad.
Uncle Vernon had also forbidden them from having their wounds magically healed. 'Pain is a great motivator,' He'd said. 'So learn how to deal with it, or avoid it.' Needless to say, she'd pretty quickly improved at blocking and dodging Dudley's attacks. Unfortunately, he'd also improved at punching her. Then she'd learned counter moves and quickly improved at punching him… Several of their 'lessons' after that had devolved into simple slugfests. Uncle Vernon was pleased. The sadist.
"Remember to get your studies done before you run off to have fun Ivy," Aunt Petunia began. "And don't forget that your uncle and I are one letter away. Don't hesitate to ask us if you need anything."
"Thanks Aunt Petunia." Ivy said. Aunt Petunia's lips twitched into her subdued version of a smile.
"Run along now Ivy, you do not wish to be late."
Ivy picked up her trunk and hastened to comply. "Seeya at Christmas!" She exclaimed over her shoulder. With one more step, she boarded the train.
It should have felt more dramatic, she decided, beginning her Hogwarts journey. Boarding the train was a rather mundane start. All the same, it was her start, and she was going to start it well. She set off to find her friends. Daphne had said that she and Tracey would try to get a car in the back half of the train, and Ivy had no doubt that her friends had already arrived. Daphne would never stand for even the hint of being late and Ivy knew that Tracey had been at Daphne's the night before. She had also received the invitation, but had been busy.
Ivy was pleasantly surprised when she arrived at the compartment to find two others already inside. Harry Potter was a fairly athletic boy of average height. A pair of round glasses perched over his bright green eyes, partially obscured by a mop of messy black hair. He slouched in the compartment opposite Daphne. Sitting next to Harry was his twin sister. Rose Potter was nearly his opposite. Her long black hair fell straight, reaching down to her mid-back. Her eyes were the same sandy brown of her father, although unlike the males of her family she did not need glasses. She was much shorter than her twin as well, but where her twin often slouched, her posture was always straight, creating the illusion that they were similar in height. Then there was Tracey Davis.
Tracey was Cute. Auburn hair and freckles offset her baby blue eyes. A rounded face and a short stature only enhanced her pixie-like appearance. Looking at Tracey, one could be forgiven for expecting an innocent, naïve, wouldn't hurt-a-fly attitude. She was a demon. A mischievous streak a mile wide lay behind her cute little dimples. As long as Ivy had known Tracey, she'd never paid for a single thing she wanted. A nervous giggle had the old man at Florean Fortescue's paying for her Sundae. The angry man who shoved 'cute little Tracey' out of his way found his wallet just a little bit lighter when he got where he was going. If Tracey looked like a pixie, she was most certainly a vengeful little sprite. Currently, she was spread-eagled across the compartment's bench, face down and drooling in Daphne's skirt.
"Hey guys." Ivy said.
"Heeeeeyyy… Merlin's beard what happened to your face!" Harry exclaimed. The three people awake in the compartment turned to look at Ivy and they all blanched.
"Thanks guys." Ivy groused. "You're really making me feel beautiful here."
"You appear to have lost a fight with a troll Ivy, forgive us for our worry." Daphne snarked. Ivy laughed as she moved to sit next to Rose.
"Dud and I got into a bit of a fight over the name of my new sword." She explained.
"Looks like you lost pretty badly huh?" Harry teased.
"Nah, I totally won that fight." Ivy continued. "But Uncle Vernon saw us fighting. He informed us that we looked really pathetic and said we were grounded until we learned how to throw a decent punch."
"I suppose I expect no less barbarism from any person you would call Uncle." Daphne remarked.
"HEY!" Ivy, Harry, and Rose all exclaimed.
"He's awesome." Rose finished.
"My point is proven." Daphne said. "So who was the first magical ancestor of the Potter family? Eric the Bloodaxe perhaps?"
"Secret." Rose sing-songed.
"You are aware of the true definition of secret are you not?" Daphne inquired, one eyebrow arched.
"Do tell." Harry replied.
"Any piece of information that must be told to the nearest Daphne before anyone else may know of it."
"Rose misspoke I'm afraid." Ivy cut in. "It's not a secret at all; It's actually confidential."
"Ah, of course." Daphne said mock dramatically. "It's confidential. Why, doesn't that mean that it is a piece of information that must be told to the nearest Greengrass before all else?"
"But alas," Harry cut in again. "Both my sister and my cousin are sadly wrong. It is neither a secret nor confidential. You see what it is, is classified."
"I see," Rose nodded sagely. "And classified information is any piece of information that must be told to the nearest twin." Harry leaned closer to Rose, whispering "Arthur and Morgana Pendragon" into her ear. At least Ivy assumed he had, even sitting next to Rose she wasn't able to hear what Harry had whispered to her. Daphne didn't even have a prayer of hearing anything on the other side of the train compartment.
Nobody knew where either side of Ivy's family had originated from. The Potters were simply unable to trace their line further back than the sixteenth century when a muggle named Eric Potter had married a female witch whose last name was kept a secret, even from her children. Prevailing theory held that she was a refugee, either from one of the many wars of the time or the witch-burnings.
The Evans family was extremely complicated. Most people "knew" that Andrew Evans was a muggle-born wizard in the early thirteenth century. In reality, that was when the family decided that enough time had passed since the "end" of the line of Pendragon that they would be safe to come out of hiding. Even so, the Evans family had a reputation for producing wizards, witches, and mages that had a long history of staying out of other people's business. Lily Evans was the exception rather than the rule, and it could be argued that she only really stepped into the wizarding war because of the threat to her children's life.
All that that really meant was that nobody really cared who the Evans family were, because the Potters were the real mystery. Hah.
"I am thwarted again." Daphne said dryly as a small smile grew on her lips. "I fear I shall never uncover the dark and terrible secret past of the Potter family." Finally, a small snort escaped Harry, setting off a round of laughter within the compartment. The gentle shake this caused in Daphne's body shook the sleeping Tracey awake.
"D'Imissomethin'?" She said blearily. Her eyes foggy with the remnants of her nap, she peered around the compartment in confusion. Suddenly, they shot wide open in alarm. "Gorgon's eye! What happened to your face!"
Ivy sighed. "Uncle Vernon decided Dudley and I needed to learn how to fight." She summarized.
"Clearly," Tracey began. "Dudley doesn't need to learn as much as you do."
"I bet I could take all four of you at once. I wouldn't even break a sweat." At this moment, Rose decided to poke her bruised cheek. "Ouch!" Ivy flinched away from Rose's probing finger.
"Not like that you can't." She teased.
Ivy paused for a moment in contemplation. "… fair point." She admitted.
Their compartment door opened up again, reveling two more first years. The first was a bushy brown-haired girl, leading around a slightly overweight boy that everyone in the compartment recognized. "Have any of you seen a toad?" She inquired. "Neville seems to – Oh my God! What happened to you?"
Ivy glared at the girl hard enough that she actually flinched away from her. "The next person to ask me that question is walking to Hogwarts!" She promised.
"S-sorry." The girl apologized. "We'll just be going then." She made to shut the door behind her, but a hand shot out and stopped her from closing it.
"Ah, I'm sorry about that, I'm just a little frustrated." Ivy said quietly, releasing her grip on the door. She grinned up at the bushy-haired girl. "Let's just start over then. My name's Ivy, and I'm afraid we have not seen Neville's toad anywhere. "These are my cousins Rose and Harry, the freckled one is Tracey, and you may address the ice queen as her majesty."
"I apologize on behalf of my pet barbarian." Daphne spoke in the most over the top, snooty voice she could manage. "It is a wonder we still keep it around. I suppose that every group requires the witless muscle, and it performs admirably at both."
"Keep talking like that and I'll show you how much of a barbarian I really am." Ivy aimed a dark glower at Daphne.
The girl standing in the door giggled. "It is wonderful to meet you your majesty." She curtsied. "And your companions Harry, Rose and Tracey, and of course your pet Ivy as well. I'm Hermione Granger."
"Hey!" Ivy exclaimed. "I – You – Hmph." Smoke began rising up from her hair.
"Don't think too hard Ivy, your head might explode." Daphne cut in.
"Ha, ha very funny Daphne."
"No, I mean literally, you're smoking Ivy."
A different sort of heat suffused Ivy's face as she blushed. "Ehehehe." She chuckled nervously. "My bad guys."
Hermione blinked in shock. "Does something like that happen to you often?" She inquired nervously, very obviously shuffling away from Ivy.
"To me, yeah." Ivy said. "Not to other people. I'm an elemental."
"S-she controls fire." Neville spoke up.
"Really?" Hermione asked. "I read about them in a book about you-know-who. It said they were really rare though."
"They usually are." Neville said. "But you're s-standing next to three of them."
"Oh, wow!" She exclaimed. "I know Ivy is a fire elemental, but who are the other two? And how do you become an elemental? The books I read weren't clear on the subject."
Ivy, Daphne and Neville all tensed minutely. There were two answers to Hermione's question. Some elementals were born that way. They were few and far between, Gellert Grindelwald being the last naturally born elemental with control of water. The rest were forged in trauma. Ivy had gained control of fire on the night Voldemort attacked. Daphne hadn't shared how she became an ice elemental, but bringing it up visibly upset her. Neville had become an Earth elemental when his Uncle Algie had thrown him out of a window to test for accidental magic. His magic had connected deeply to the Earth, and the three-story fall felt like flopping down on a feather bed.
Dumbledore had worked closely with all three of them when they were younger to determine how so many elementals had come into being so close to one another. What he theorized was controversial enough that he had only shared it with their families instead of publishing it. Young magical people were "unstable" so to speak. Their magic had not fully settled as it would with old age. This was commonly known, and the driving factor behind accidental magic. Conversely, this made a young person's magic easily malleable. With deep enough trauma, something could be imprinted onto their magic. For Ivy, the magical fire that saved her from Voldemort was something that had saved her from the pain she'd been in. She accepted it whole-heartedly, and it had in turn imbued her with its power. Afraid of what some of the more fanatical witches and wizards would do to their children, Dumbledore kept quiet about his study. Ivy and Daphne had become fast friends during this process, but Neville hadn't impressed them much.
"Hey Neville." Ivy spoke up. "You're an Earth elemental, so can't you sense your toad through the ground or something?"
Grateful to avoid the landmine Hermione had just unknowingly stepped on, Neville replied quickly. "I normally would, but the train is vibrating too much. Actually, that's how I lost him. I normally know where he is all the time, but now I can't feel anything over the train moving. It's actually really confusing."
"So, you just have to search manually then." Ivy responded. "Sorry we couldn't help you."
"It's alright, we'll find him. C-coming Hermione?" Neville asked, still desperate to avoid more conversation with them.
"Ah, yes, let's go Neville."
"Seeya." Harry quipped.
The rest of the train ride passed fairly uneventfully, although they all had to scramble to get into their Hogwarts robes when they realized they were a minute out from the station. Most of the first years disembarking were crowded by the older students, looking lost and confused. Thankfully, Ivy's group had a Daphne Greengrass. Cold radiated out from her to surround their group, warding off anyone who wanted to stay warm. Which was everyone. Unfortunately, even if they weren't crowded by the bigger students, they still had no idea where they were supposed to go.
"Firs' years follow me!" Rang out over the crowd. As one, they all turned to the sound of the voice. Big was the first word that came to mind. It wasn't a big enough word. The man who had shouted towered over the crowd. He stood at least double Ivy's height, and head and shoulders above the second tallest face in the crowd. Ivy started in his direction fearlessly.
"Gah!" She yelped, jumping back immediately. Daphne had not moved with her, and she'd walked right into the ring of cold that Daphne was using to keep the older students away from them. She glared at Daphne, who at least had the grace to look a little sheepish.
"Sorry." Daphne said. Ivy's glare relaxed a bit.
"Come on, let's go." Ivy complained.
"Right."
They all set off towards the large man. When he was sure that all of the first years were accounted for, he introduced himself as "Rubeus Hagrid", and led them all down a short, rocky path to a pier. "No more'n four to a boat!" He yelled loudly.
Harry and Rose decided to split off from them, claiming a boat with Neville and Hermione. Tracey, Daphne, and Ivy claimed an empty boat. A brown-haired witch who introduced herself as Fay Dunbar joined them, and went largely ignored in favor of their own ongoing debate on Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Ivy thought she was making headway in convincing Tracey to join her.
"Right then! Forward!" Hagrid yelled loudly. Ivy was beginning to think he was incapable of doing anything quietly. A few large tentacles waved them off as the boats propelled themselves away from the pier. Then they rounded the corner and caught their first glimpse of Hogwarts.
A/R (Author's Rant): Dear god. I had next to no time to write these last weeks, and when I did, this chapter fought me. Words formed in my head, then committed satanic ritual suicide before going on paper. Then no more words came. I ended up drunk writing just to get words on paper, then editing half of it out before I finally hit one-thousand words. Then I got distracted with the beginning of another fic for FE: Awakening. If you don't know what that is, your childhood was terrible. Then I got caught up playing FE: Awakening to refresh my memory for the fic. Twice. Dear God.
Actual Author's Note: I updated the previous chapter as well for one syntax mistake, and made my reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail more obvious. First person to get the reference gets bragging rights because I don't really have anything else to give you. I expect the next chapter to take two weeks because I am going to spend an entire week geeking out over Avenger's Endgame which I'm going to see probably on Tuesday. 'Til next time: Ga3_Bolg out.