November 9, 1991

"So nothing at all happened during the quidditch game?" This child was going to be the death of him. How do you not notice a bludger coming directly at your face? Severus had noticed, and he hadn't been sitting even remotely close to Potter.

"No. Was something supposed to happen?" Why was she so cheerful all the time?

Severus was fairly certain he could feel his life expectancy dropping by the minute. He would have to keep a closer eye on Potter. Someone obviously needed to make sure she didn't get into trouble.

And clearly the headmaster was not going to be that person. Severus sighed. How a man so powerful and generally respected could be so oblivious to reality was beyond even his comprehension. Well, there had been one other… He really didn't want to think on the dark lord and his descent into madness. He would just need to keep an eye on the headmaster. And Potter. While still gathering information on Peverell. And watching out for his godson because Merlin knows the boy didn't possess nearly enough self-preservation skills. The troll incident was evidence enough of that.

Severus had never been so happy to see a snake in his entire life. Despite being a Slytherin, and head of Slytherin house, he did not particularly care for snakes themselves. There was a slight possibility that opinion had been influenced by a certain snake that enjoyed swallowing people whole, but all in all Severus thought it was a perfectly reasonable preference. Potter's snake was clearly deadly, but if a bunch of eleven year old girls could tolerate, even like the snake, he could tolerate it as well.

December 3, 1991

The entire Slytherin table watched as Percy Weasley walked to where Ivy Potter was eating breakfast with some of the other first years. They had grown accustomed to the Weasley twins showing up on occasion, and even a couple of the other first years from other houses, but this was a unique sight. Equally unique was the fact that the Gryffindor prefect was grinning from ear to ear and he walked with a spring in his step.

The collected Slytherins who were out of hearing range could only guess what was being said, but Weasley was obviously happy about something, and it most likely had to do with Potter in some way and she grinned back at him. Malfoy burst out laughing, and everyone's curiosity increased. Then, as cheerfully as he had come, Weasley returned to his own table.

A few Ravenclaws had also noticed, and the quiet murmurings of the students' whispers could be heard.

Still speculating on the cause for that rather unusual interaction, the Slytherins, selected Ravenclaws, and a few Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors who had noticed something going on watched as more Weasleys approached Potter. The Weasley twins appearing at the Slytherin table wasn't altogether unexpected, but they, in contrast to their older brother, were far from cheerful and instead practically dragged Potter out of the Great Hall. She didn't seem to mind terribly, only rolling her eyes at the twins, so no one interfered. As the observants to the exchange resumed their breakfast, many were left wondering what exactly the first year Slytherin might have done to warrant such reactions. Most could only hope that if the Weasley twins decided a pranking war was in order, that they would be left out of it.

Ivy rolled her eyes for the millionth time in the last six minutes. And she thought Draco exaggerated when complaining. Now she was sure he had absolutely nothing on the Weasley twins.

"Come on, it's not that bad."

"Two years, Potter. Two years."

Ivy rolled her eyes at Fred, again. "You only started it last year, so it's not really two years."

"But we planned. And we practiced," George insisted. "And now it's over."

"And is that why Percy was beaming when he came to congratulate me and thank me for being such an outstanding member of society?"

They both scowled at her. She couldn't help it; she laughed.

"Percy has been trying all year to ruin our prank, but nothing he did worked. It wasn't until you let everyone know how to tell us apart that it was ruined," Fred accused.

"You do realize I only told like three people, right?"

"But it was who you told. Why did you have to tell Ronnekins about it anyway? I didn't think the two of you were even friends."

"We're not, really. But he was there when I was telling Neville and Hermione. He was very excited to know all about it."

Both twins sighed in unison. "But that's just it," George said. "He was the best part of the prank."

"Yeah, we know most people couldn't tell us apart anyway, though I don't understand why," said Fred.

"Especially when there are so many obvious differences between us," said George.

Ivy rolled her eyes (number 1,004,283). "Obviously."

"But we perfected it all last year. When we got home last summer out dearest little brother had such a difficult time telling us apart."

"Yeah, it's not like we purposefully switched names or anything."

"Of course not," Ivy giggled. "You two would never do something like that."

Fred and George beamed. "You know us so well," they both said. Then they sat down with a huff on either side of Ivy. "Well, now that prank is done for. I supposed we'll have to think up something else," Fred said.

"Did you really do all of that just to confuse Ron?" Ivy asked.

"While that is definitely reason enough, oh little snake, we did also have the added benefit of seeing how many eye twitches we could get by doing it," George said.

"Oh, I love that game!" Ivy exclaimed.

George grinned. "Of course you do. Why else do you think we get along so well."

"Well, I am sorry about ruining your prank, but I'm sure you have something else you can do, right?"

The boys both assumed an exaggerated thinking pose. Ivy giggled.

"Well, nothing comes to mind at the moment," Fred began.

George tapped his chin. "But I suppose we do have several weeks before the start of the new term."

"Plenty of time for such geniuses as ourselves to come up with something, I'm sure," Fred added.

"Well you'd better think of something soon. Won't Christmas be too busy to plan something like that?" Ivy asked.

Fred shook his head. "Nah, we're staying here. Won't have anything else to do so I'm sure we'll think of something."

"Besides, we'll have the whole castle practically to ourselves," George added. "Who knows what we'll be able to accomplish then."

Ivy tilted her head inquisitively. "Why are you staying here?"

"Mum and Dad are visiting Charlie in Romania, so the rest of us are staying here," George explained.

"Oh." Ivy nodded her head in understanding. That didn't seem like very much fun. Maybe she could talk to Henry. That reminded her though… "If we come back to Hogwarts and it's not standing it's not my fault, right? I can't be responsible for Hogwarts getting destroyed over Christmas if I'm not here, right?"

Fred looked at her with a confused look. "Not that I'm not flattered that you think we'd be capable of actually destroying Hogwarts, but we don't have any intention of doing that. And why would you get blamed for it?"

Ivy shrugged. "Well Uncle Henry said he hoped Hogwarts was still standing by the time I graduated. And that I shouldn't do anything that could umm…what's the word. Jepra…"

"Jeopardize?" Fred offered.

"Yeah, that one. I shouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."

Both twins wondered what exactly Ivy had done in her short life to make her guardian warn her against destroying Hogwarts. Choosing to assume that he meant it in a clearly metaphorical way, they each decided that it was probably fine. Unless Ivy managed to get a Cerberus. Then all bets were off.

December 5, 1991

"Do you want to come to my house for Christmas?"

Fred looked up from his essay. Yes, despite all assumptions to the contrary, he did actually write his essays. He, like his twin, just chose to do it out of sight as often as possible. No need to give people any reason to believe they were too responsible, after all.

"Sorry, what?"

"Do you want to come to my house for Christmas? You, George, and your brothers. I asked Uncle Henry and he said I could invite you."

"Well, we'd have to ask out parents."

Ivy nodded.

Fred honestly wasn't entirely sure what to think. On the one hand, Ivy was cool, so her guardian was probably alright too. On the other hand, everyone always talked about Lord Peverell in slightly hushed, awed tones. That didn't bode particularly well for Fred's slowly developing opinions of the man. To him it meant Ivy's guardian was most likely either boring or stuck up. He wasn't old, so that third option was out. But, as he kept reminding himself, Ivy was fine, and she seemed to really like her Uncle. So maybe he was okay too.

Fred went to say something else but Percy ran up to him suddenly, holding a letter in his hand.

"Do you know what mum is talking about in here?" Percy waved the letter in front of Fred. Since he didn't know what their mum had said, he did not, in fact, know what she was talking about.

"What'd she say?"

"She said she's glad we're staying with friends for Christmas and to make sure we behave ourselves. I thought we were staying here?"

Fred glanced at Ivy. She shrugged. "Maybe Uncle Henry already wrote your parents."

Percy, noticing Ivy's presence for the first time, said, "oh, hello, Potter." He turned back to Fred. "So where are we supposedly going?"

Fred motioned towards Ivy. "Ivy and her guardian, Lord Peverell," he stressed, knowing that Percy would be on board with any opportunity to suck up to someone as prestigious as that, "invited us to spend Christmas with them."

Percy looked mildly shocked at that, but pleased. Percy was really too easy to convince, sometimes. "Well, that's very nice of you," he said to Ivy. "I'm sure we'd all be delighted."

Ivy beamed, and Fred felt better about the situation. Even if Peverell did turn out to be like some of the people Dad had to work with, Ivy would be happy, and that was more important.

"Oh, I'm so excited. It'll be so much fun to have more people there! And you'll get to meet my godfather too. I get to meet him for the first time at Christmas, and I'm sure he'll be great. We're going to have so much fun!"

With that she practically skipped out of the room, leaving a slightly frozen Fred and Percy Weasley, who had suddenly remembered that Ivy Potter's grandfather was, in fact, Sirius Black, the notorious not-actually-a-murderer whose innocence they had themselves played a tiny part in. The great ratscapade was not far from their minds. Not to mention the news a few weeks ago that said the-real-murderer-this-time had turned up dead. But it was fine. It was all fine. They'd be fine.

Both recovering from their slight moment of we're-not-going-to-get-murdered-over-Christmas-are-we panic, Percy was suddenly struck with another revelation.

"Fred," he asked, "how did Potter get into the Gryffindor common room?"

Fred looked at the entrance to said room. "I…have no idea."

Percy began wondering who had let such an important secret out.

Fred wondered how he could get Ivy to share her secrets.

December 9, 1991

"Mr. Weasley, I was under the assumption that you and your brothers would be spending Christmas with us at the castle this year, yet none of you have put your names on the list. Has there been a change of plans I should be aware about?"

George looked up at his head of house. Honestly, why hadn't Percy already taken care of this. He was the prefect. That fact that this was in no way covered by a prefect's duties was conveniently ignored.

"Uh, yeah. We're staying with Potter and Lord Peverell."

"And have your parents given their approval for such a visit?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Professor McGonagall peered over her glasses at him for a moment, and then, apparently determining that he was in fact telling the truth, said, "very well. I hope you boys have an enjoyable Christmas." Then she smiled and continued on.

George sighed. They had gotten far more smiles than eye twitches from their head of house over the past week. They were obviously slacking.

December 22, 1991

Albus Dumbledore placed the finishing touches on his gift for Ivy Potter. This would have been so much easier to do with the invisibility cloak, but alas, that was long gone. This would have to do. And he couldn't help but think that it was a rather good idea, if he did say so himself, which he did. After all, he was quite positive that Lord Peverell had not been an acquaintance of James and Lily, so he was unlikely to have many, if any, pictures of Ivy's parents to show her. Not like the ones now filling this lovely little photo album. Add to that an offer to tell her stories about her parents, and Ivy would no doubt be eager to meet with him and learn all about her heritage. Perhaps he could invite Sirius or even Remus to meet her and share some stories. Not too often, of course, since he didn't want her growing too attached to either, at least not yet. It was rather unfortunate that Sirius had been unable to gain guardianship of Ivy. And the poor boy had seemed so distraught. Hopefully that wouldn't negatively impact his ability to influence the Black heir further.

All of this would have been easier if he had managed to get Ivy to stay at Hogwarts over the holiday. He knew from the beginning that it was unlikely to happen, but one could always hope. He would just need to find a way to get her to encounter the mirror some other time. At least the Weasley boys were spending Christmas with her. He was rather fond of the Weasley family. They were strong supporters of the light, and would no doubt be a good influence on Ivy. Maybe he could suggest that Molly reciprocate the invitation over the summer holiday. He was sure Ivy would benefit from a strong mother figure in her life, and any time spent in a light family's home would be well worth any effort.

Yes, things might not be exactly as he would have liked, but all in all his plans, though changed, were progressing satisfactorily.

Severus cast a quick tempus. Of course he wasn't counting down the minutes until the train left. He was just…excited for Christmas… That didn't sound particularly convincing even within his own mind. But still, two weeks of relative peace and quiet? And sensible adult interaction? There were perhaps three or four people who he considered suitably sensible, and he was staying with one or two of them. Lucius was the fourth and second person, respectively. It really depended on the day.

His mind drifted back to the subject of many of his recent thoughts. Henry Peverell. Guardian of one Ivy Potter, said to be the most eligible bachelor in Britain, and almost completely unknown. For someone supposedly as prestigious as Peverell, no one seemed to actually know anything about him. Severus had been making subtle inquiries about Peverell for a while now, both at the behest of the headmaster and to satisfy his own curiosity and concerns, but it was hard to find any information about a man that no one had actually met.

He was responsible for proving Black's innocence and discovering Pettigrew's whereabouts, and he seemed to avoid spending time in normal Wizarding gathering places. He was spotted in Diagon Alley on occasion, but was reported to avoid crowds and groups of adoring women. How did a man who never went anywhere gain such a loyal following of…fangirls?

After learning the details (what little was available at least) of the circumstances of his guardianship over Potter, Severus had begun to research their whereabouts over the past couple of years, leading up to their return to England. A return, yes, because they had apparently hardly stepped foot in the country between Peverell's taking guardianship and Potter's letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. Severus had pressed Albus for details, and had finally learned that the quill hadn't even been able to write out an address for Potter's Hogwarts letter. That was only possible if they were behind very heavy wards, so clearly Peverell had not wished to be found. Yet he had allowed Potter to come to Hogwarts, and had, by all accounts, remained in the country since their return last summer.

So what was he hiding?

It was possible Lord Peverell was simply a very private man, but this seemed to border much too closely to paranoia for it to be that simple. At least that's what Severus had concluded. It was frustrating, not being able to learn anything particularly useful about the man, but Severus was patient. Perhaps it was time to enlist Lucius's help. Perhaps he had already looked into Peverell himself. It wouldn't surprise Severus in the least if he had. Who wouldn't want to know more about the man who supposedly held so much sway that he could simply walk into the head of the DMLE's office and demand the release of Azkaban's most notorious prisoner?

December 23, 1991

Sirius cast another tempus, ignoring Harry's remark that it was the fourth one that hour and that the train would get here when it normally did. He was excited for Christmas and he had no use for that kind of negativity in his life.

He was about to meet his goddaughter.

Well, technically he had already met her, but she had been a baby then, so she wouldn't remember him. Sure, he had met his godson-from-another-universe, but that was different. Today was the day, and he wondered if the Hogwarts express had always been this slow.

Remus looked once more at the letter he had received a few weeks prior. He was nervous, and he was willing to admit that to himself. Who wouldn't be, when faced with the prospect of meeting your friend-you-thought-was-a-murdering-traitor, the orphaned daughter of your other best friends, and her guardian, a man rumored to be the most politically powerful man in Britain?

He hadn't had the courage to contact Sirius, but had been delighted by the letter he received form his friend. It gave him some measure of hope that Sirius did not blame him, even if Remus personally thought he should.

The accompanying letter, sent by Lord Peverell, was a little more disconcerting. He had invited Remus to spend Christmas with them. Nothing about the letter suggested that Peverell was aware of his…situation, and he was fairly confident Sirius wouldn't have revealed it. Thankfully, the full moon had already passed, so he wouldn't have to worry about that particular problem over Christmas at least.

He hadn't thought of any good excuse to refuse the offer, so he had accepted. It would be nice to see Sirius again, even if he would have preferred to do it in a different setting. And Ivy… Remus wondered who she resembled more. How was she enjoying Hogwarts? Had she been sorted in Gryffindor like her parents? Was she smart like Lily? Had she made friends? Was she safe from people seeking revenge on her for her part in destroying Voldemort?

Remus sighed. He would find out for himself soon enough. He just hoped that Christmas went well.