Short, I know, but I needed this part- and the awkwardness- over with.

Warnings: Really just a mention of the man Ivy killed and his crimes-rape- and Dumbledore begins to really try and make for things. Baby steps, people, baby steps.

It was odd, really. Every time he began to visit the schools Potion Master about a certain letter, he would remember he'd forgotten to do something, whether it be sign paperwork or speak to a student.

Albus scratched his head and sighed, resolving himself to his office and figuring Miss Potter or Severus would come see him about the matter, hopefully. He had much to make up for, he knew. He had not meant for any of it, especially not for her to be abused.

Of course, he knew Petunia had loved her sister dearly, but that she'd married a rather crude man. He'd merely hoped that the man in question loved his wife enough to at least ignore the girl. He had indeed meant to stop and check on her as well, but it was as if the moment he thought of it, something else seemed to come up…

Albus felt his mouth thin, as he looked through the reports just as young Ivy had suggested. It was not pretty, and he thought he knew exactly what had happened.

Casey Jones was a man without much money, and had been found with head trauma dead in an alley. As far as they could tell, someone had hit him rather hard with some sort of steel object which was never found. Before he was found, cases of young girls going missing and ending up dead had been reported and were in an open investigation. Every girl was between the ages of seven and ten. It stopped the same time as his estimated time of death. Eventually a connection was found and the children finally buried.

He lowered his head before squaring his shoulders, summoning his house elf. "Roary! If you please, as the head of the Potter Accounts to set a date to come and see myself, Miss Potter and Miss Evans. Then return and tell me when."

"Yes sirs!"

He may never truly make up for what he'd done, but he would try. And the first step would be having the girl emancipated and informed of all her holdings(he would have done so sooner, but with all the goings on it had slipped his mind). As it stood, Petunia and Ivy were going to need a place to live anyway.

Now he could only hope for forgiveness, though he would never blame her if it was never given.

She opened her eyes slowly, wincing slightly from the sunlight filtering in through the window. She knew exactly where she was, settled in between the two red heads.

She closed her eyes to think. The only person who ever knew her was her Aunt. And now these two as well…she knew it would be fairly pointless to replace her mask in front of them. They hadn't turned away, and she would let them either.

But she couldn't just be all sunshine and daisies either, because that wasn't her. If not for her Aunt, she probably wouldn't even remember her real self. But she did. Her real self was the feisty, sarcastic, smartass, brilliant girl with a dark side with a bright twist of innocence and hope.

If she thought about it, it wasn't too much of a change except, in a second light, it was. In the first light, she would just smile a bit more often, a real one instead of such a fake one and not mind the twins. In the second, she was letting two more people in.

"George, get off."

She allowed what she'd call a sweatdrop expression to overcome her features. She really hoped she wasn't George…that'd just be weird…

"Shut up, Fred. I'm not on you." The red head on her left mumbled.

Fred's eyes snapped open to look down at her, going wide until the recollection of the night before floated to the forefront of his mind. He breathed out and felt her stiffen when he hugged her tighter. Damn, it had taken everything he and his brother had to pry it all out of her.

"We-um have class…" She said a little timidly, afraid to speak to loud or ruin it.

He nodded, "And we'll have detention for cutting."

She slithered out of their arms and smirked at them, "You will, I won't, I'll just say I was mourning the loss of my family." She flipped her hair and vanished into her room.

The twins shared a look. "Damn Slytherins." They said together.

"I heard that!" She sent a pair of hexes at them as she went towards her bathroom.