Chapter Two: How the other half lives

Voldermort woke late the next day. He was instantly worried. Where was Isabeau…the child hadn't let him have a decent nights sleep since she got there. So where was she?

Voldermort held a Death Eater meeting. She didn't even turn up!

"Where is she?" He asked frantically.

"Uh…Isabeau?" Nott asked.

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldermort snapped and Nott fell to the ground, "Who the hell else would I be talking about? Santa Clause?" Then he realized what he said. "Oh god, now I sound like her!" He muttered in despair.

Another Death Eater bowed and asked, "My Lord, isn't Isabeau not being here a good thing?"

A flash of green and he too was dead. Two already…he must really be stressed.

"Of course it's not, then I don't know where she is and what she's doing! She's dangerous, and she knows too much!"

The Death Eaters all looked at each other. There weren't many of them left nowadays. Voldermort's temper was so short that he would kill them at the slightest slip up! And then he would get angry with the rest of them when he realized that he needed them!

Voldermort sighed, why did I have to choose to be a Dark Lord? Why did I have to have a child! Why?

Isabeau…

She sighed and stepped up onto the steps of Hogwarts. It was quite cold outside and she wanted a fire. No, she demanded one. So she marched up the steps, ignored the spluttering protests of and old, filthy snivelling man who had a ginger/grey cat following him.

Izzie rolled her eyes. If that was the sort of people Hogwarts employed then Izzie seriously doubted what Voldermort had told her about Dumbledore (well, technically he hadn't told her anything, she just loved to eavesdrop.), speaking about her father, she wondered how he was doing. Freaking out no doubt, wondering where the hell she was!

She continued into an Entrance Hall and then saw another set of large oak doors. So, thinking they looked important she opened them and walked in –

– Right when Dumbledore was speaking. She stopped as the whole hall turned to look at her.

"Oh, hello…um I'm lost." She said, quickly adopting an innocent sweet face (innocent?) and looked up at Dumbledore with sad eyes.

If what she heard was correct (and knowing her sources it probably wasn't much to go on.) then Dumbledore was a sucker for kids without parents, had been abandoned or were in pain.

Dumbledore nodded, and was about to speak when the grubby old man limped in and said, "Didn't look so lost when you stormed past without a second glance." He growled.

Izzie snorted, "I didn't see you, your clothes made you blend in with the wall." She told him. And then she turned back to Dumbledore, looking slightly smug. "My father…is sort of, uh, unreliable, and I was trying to find someone and well, I ended up here. Is this Hogwarts?" She asked, feigning ignorance.

Several people laughed and snorted, others gave her looks of disbelief.

"How big do you want a school to be?" She heard someone say.

She looked, it was a red head boy. Sitting next to a raven-haired boy who could only be the boy she had witnessed Voldermort attack the first time she saw him, at the graveyard.

She looked at them blankly for a moment before looking back up at Dumbledore as he spoke.

"Yes this is Hogwarts. May I ask your name?" He asked.

"Sure, you can ask." She answered. Then she quickly corrected herself this wasn't the Ruin's anymore, "Isabeau Marvelo. My fathers name was Evan Marvelo." She said.

If he didn't find out from that then Izzie knew she was safe – and that Voldermort's worries over how smart Dumbledore was had been greatly exaggerated.

She had found out that her mother's maiden name had been Evens. So that's why she said her father was Even. So she hadn't lied much…

A lot of people were looking at her in disbelief.

"Even Marvelo?" McGonagall asked.

She nodded. "Yes."

Someone gasped. Izzie looked over to see a bushy brown haired girl leaning forward and whispering something to Harry and his friend. Izzie frowned slightly when she felt someone staring at her. She looked back at the Staff table and gasped.

"You!" She yelled suddenly, "What are you doing here?" She asked the greasy black haired, crooked nosed Snape.

"I could ask you the same thing. Does…Even, know you're here?"

Izzie snorted and shook her head.

Snape rolled his eyes. "What are you doing here then?"

"What else, to annoy father and meet-" She glanced over at Harry, "People. So can I be sorted now?"

"What makes you think that you can stay?" Snape asked

"You of all people should know that I always get my way." She snarled with a glare worse then Voldermort's, arms crossed.

Snape looked away and muttered something indecipherable. Everybody was looking nervously from either Snape, Dumbledore or Izzie. Dumbledore waved his wand and a tatty black old hat appeared. Izzie eyed it distastefully.

"Try it on." Dumbledore told her.

Izzie walked up to the table warily and put on the hat, letting it fall over her eyes.

"Hmm, interesting, very interesting. I could place you in Slytherin, you'd do well in there diffidently, but there's bravery and loyalty too, that would do well in Gryffindor…with your brother!" The hat murmured into her ear.

"I'll go with the lion thanks." Izzie muttered.

"Are you sure? Yes? Just like your brother I see, oh well…GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled for everyone to hear.

Izzie looked at Snape and grinned smugly.

Then she went and sat at the confused, cheering table. In fact, Izzie was pretty sure she had succeeded in confusing almost everyone…maybe not Dumbledore.

It was two days later when she spotted another familiar face in her potions class.

"Well if it isn't the busy bee!" She sneered, walking up behind Draco Malfoy.

He spun around in surprise. "You!"

"Me. I hope you're being a good little bee, you know he doesn't like busy bee's!" She said and then giggling, walked over to a free space at the back of the room where she had a good view of Harry.

Izzie didn't do much in her classes, she thought they were either boring or easy. Most of her time in potions was spent studding her half brother (who would occasionally glance back at her when she stared for too long) or harassing Snape.

"Why are you here?" He had hissed at her in their first class.

"None of your business!" She snapped, "If you don't go away I'll tell everyone about your handy little tattoo!"

Snape glared at her, "You wouldn't do that."

"Try me, it would be so entertaining to see just how mad he'd get when he finds out you slipped up!"

"Why?" He snarled.

"Because I don't like you. There are other students who actually need help you know!" She said loudly, a wide grin spreading across her face.

"Ten-"

"I don't think so." She said over top of him, staring at him meaningfully.

Snape swept away with a swish of his rather annoying looking robes.

Today however she was sitting at the back, swinging on her chair and setting off random bits of music. No one seemed to know why Snape never punished her, or why he always left her alone. But it made Harry angry, because he never got away with anything. So Izzie decided to stick up for him too.

"Potter! What –" Snape barked.

Izzie decided that now would be a good time to tip her potion over. The cauldron crashed to the floor with a flick of her wand. Everyone looked back at her.

"Oops." She said in a way that made it obvious that she had done it on purpose.

Harry looked at her with a tilt of his head. She grinned back and looked at Snape.

"Sorry professor, but I needed your attention but you were to busy picking on Potter to notice and then my potion tipped and, well…" Izzie said innocently.

Ron snorted and started to cough. Izzie's grin got wider.

"You…just – oh!" Snape snapped in exasperation. He cleaned the potion and at that precise moment the bell went.

Izzie just laughed, grabbed her bag and left, saying as she went, "Bye Snivelly!"

He called after her, "You'll be gotten one day Isabeau!"

She just laughed more and headed to transfiguration.

"Hey!"

She turned to see Harry and his two friends walking after her.

"Thanks." Harry said.

She nodded, with a slight smile. "He's a jerk anyway's, I don't know why V-, why anyone trusts him." She said, quickly correcting herself.

Harry nodded, "Where'd you get the name from?" He asked as they continued down the hall.

"What Snivelly?" She laughed, "Saw some of his memories once, some kids were calling him that, I haven't let him live it down! He's such a jerk, and I know he wanted my Mum. I'm so glad she got the guy she deserved, but then…that didn't last long!" She sighed and then looked at Harry with a grin. "So how was your life?"

Harry rolled his eyes. Izzie laughed. They entered into the Transfiguration class and took their usual seats, Izzie always at a spot where she could see Harry.

She listened for about ten minutes, then she interrupted.

"Yes, miss Marvelo?" McGonagall asked.

"Well, I just noticed, but…are the spells getting easier? 'Cause at the start of the year we were looking at… well it was still easy but they were harder spells then what we're doing now, now it's all easy! I feel like I learnt this when I was five!"

McGonagall stared at her in shock.

"What?" Izzie asked, slightly irritated that everyone was looking at her.

"You call this easy?" Ron asked, whose goblet was still pink and oinking like a pig.

Izzie snorted, "Yes."

"Miss Marvelo, would you perhaps set the record straight and tell us all where you are up to in means of transfiguration?" McGonagall asked.

Izzie shrugged, "Sure, I'm past Animagi."

Everyone gaped at her, though, she thought Harry's was a little less surprised.

Finally McGonagall managed to speak again, "You can – you have an Animagi?"

"Not an." Izzie said with a smug smile.

McGonagall's mouth dropped and Hermione gaped at her.

"Show us then!" Malfoy told her.

She glared at him, "No."

"Why not?" He challenged, though he did shrink back from her stare.

"Because I don't want to, now shut up busy bee, before you say something that you'll regret!" She snapped and turned her icy stare away from him.

Malfoy shuddered.

Izzie looked back at McGonagall and then glanced quickly at Harry.

"You want me to show you?" She asked as if she was bored.

Most the class nodded.

Izzie shrugged stood up and then in a blink of an eye, a large black winged mare was standing in her place with sharp green eyes. Many people gasped. The horse turned its gaze to Harry who regarded it with a curious stare. Then it went to jump. Harry started backwards but as the horse reared and pushed off it slowly changed –

– into a small black fox (still with the sharp green eyes!). It landed on Harry's table. He looked at it in surprise – and then Izzie was sitting cross-legged on the table in front of him.

"So…you're Harry Potter?" She said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, you've known that for a while now." He answered.

She grinned, "Maybe…I hear you're my brother."

Harry stared at her… "WHAT?"