February 22, 1992
"Wait, where are you going?" Draco looked anxiously at Ivy. What was she doing?
"I'm going to go sit by Megan."
"Wait, you can't sit there. That's the Hufflepuff section."
"I didn't see a sign."
"What? No, of course, there's not a sign."
"Then how do you know that's the Hufflepuff section?"
"Because that's where all the Hufflepuffs are."
"Well maybe it's really the Ravenclaw section but none of them knew that. Because there isn't a sign."
Draco's eye twitched but his further protests fell on deaf ears. Of course, being the good friend he was, he couldn't abandon Ivy to the nefarious schemes of the Hufflepuffs. They were far too nice. They must be up to something.
Ron looked over the stands in search of Ivy. He knew more about quidditch than Malfoy, and he was determined to prove it. But she wasn't anywhere in the Slytherin section of the stands, and neither, for that matter, was Malfoy. Suddenly he caught a glimpse of Malfoy in…the Hufflepuff section. What was he doing there? And was that… *gasp.* It couldn't be, could it? No. It was! Malfoy was sitting with Ivy in the Hufflepuff section? Oh, he was good. But no way was Ron Weasley going to let Draco Malfoy show him up. Not in this. He started to move in the direction of the Hufflepuffs but decided better and grabbed the two nearest first years he could grab hold of.
"Hey! What are you doing? Let me go!" Hermione didn't particularly care for quidditch herself, but she was determined to stick it out, and Ronald Weasley of all people was dragging her away for some unknown reason.
He mumbled a reply but she couldn't quite make it out. She shot a glance at Neville, who had the unfortunate distinction of also having been pulled away by Weasley, but he just shrugged his shoulders, obviously confused as well.
She huffed. "I can't understand you. Why are you pulling us away?"
Weasley slowed down just enough for her to hear his reply. "I need you to go to the Hufflepuff section with me."
"Erm, okay. But, why are we going over there?" Neville asked.
"Because Ivy is there and I know more about quidditch than Malfoy does."
Hermione thought she heard Neville mutter something along the lines of "Why me," but she might have been mistaken. It was a little difficult to hear at the moment.
She herself had no problems sitting with Ivy, or in the Hufflepuff section, and so, deciding that it wasn't worth being put out any more by Weasley's rude behaviour, she snatched her arm away and walked towards her friend by herself. Weasley seemed confused, but just shrugged and followed her, still dragging Neville behind him.
Pansy looked around for a glimpse of Draco but did not see him anywhere. She knew he would never willingly miss a quidditch game, so something was obviously wrong. A moment later she spotted him. Oh yes, something was definitely wrong. Why was he sitting with the Hufflepuffs? Oh, and was that… Granger. What was she doing there? Oh, this would not do at all.
"Come on," Pansy said. "We're moving."
"What?" "Why?" Blaise and Theo looked at her in surprise.
"Because Draco is over there and we need to save him."
"Save him?" Blaise mouthed to Theo, who just shrugged and shook his head.
"Ooh, Parvati, look! Everyone is sitting over by the Hufflepuffs. Oh and look, Pansy is already there. Come on, let's go."
And so Lavender and Parvati too made their way over to the Hufflepuff section.
"Hey Padma, why is everyone sitting over there?"
Padma looked to where her friend was pointing and saw her sister and several other first years of various houses sitting together in the Hufflepuff section. "I have no idea," she said.
"Do you think we ought to go over there too?"
"Sure. I don't see why not."
And so two Ravenclaws joined the growing group of first years, though they were soon joined by the other first years in their house, who were afraid they had accidentally missed some sort of memo.
"What are all of them doing here?"
Justin looked over at Zach, who was this close to getting on his last and final nerve.
"I believe they're watching quidditch."
"I mean, what are they doing here? This is the Hufflepuff section."
"Funny. I didn't see a sign," he said dryly.
"Hey, that's what I said!"
Justin turned around and came face to face with Ivy Potter. He laughed. Of course, she had something to do with this. He turned back to see Zach scowling and rolled his eyes. Maybe it wasn't too late to find someone else to sit next to.
"Hey, mind if I sit here?"
Theo looked up to see one of the Hufflepuff first years gesturing to the seat next to him. He shook his head and the boy sat down. What was his name again?
"I'm Justin."
Well, that was helpful.
"Theo," he said.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Theo. Welcome to Hufflepuff."
Theo laughed. "Sorry for invading."
Justin grinned. "Not a problem. Besides, maybe this way we'll scare the Gryffindors into thinking everyone is going for Hufflepuff."
"Hey, I heard that!" Theo couldn't identify the speaker, though it was obviously one of the Gryffindors.
Justin rolled his eyes. "Ignore Dean. He's very… invested in quidditch."
"And you're not?"
"Not really," Justin laughed. "I'm mostly just invested in not having to listen to Zach complain for the next hour or two."
Theo glanced down the row at Zacharias Smith who was obviously less than pleased at the number of fellow classmates surrounding him.
"Yeah, I can understand that," Theo said, grinning a little. He knew Smith. That was all that needed saying, really.
Oliver glanced up into the stands as his team walked onto the field. Ivy had promised she would be here, and he was determined to hold her to it.
Finally spotting her, he turned to the closest Weasley and asked, "Neither of you pissed off Potter again, did you?"
The twin who Oliver was now fairly certain was George by the affronted look on his face said, "Of course not. You and Flint ganged up on us, remember?"
Oliver did remember. It had turned out that Flint was good for something after all, and they had declared a momentary truce in an effort to strike the fear of the quidditch gods into anyone who might interfere with Potter's future in quidditch, whether that be by distraction, discouragement, or the introduction of anything that might be considered a conflicting interest. It had only been partially successful since most of the people they had tried to talk to had run off before they had had the chance to properly threaten them. What had not occurred to Oliver, but had occurred to a few students who had avoided him and Flint for a day or two, was the fact that it was so highly unusual to see the two of them together without any indication of a coming scuffle or shouting match, that it was deemed safest to just avoid them both entirely until whatever strange potion they were on wore off. Besides, practically the entire school knew what the one thing they agreed on was, and no one wanted to get in the way of that. So really, it was probably unnecessary for the two quidditch captains to have done anything at all since the fear they had hoped to instill was already properly present in most of the student body by this point. Of course, this had not occurred to either of them and so Oliver did not actually have any of those thoughts or realizations.
"Why'd you assume we did something anyway?"
Oliver gestured up to the stands where Ivy was sitting.
George took a look. "Huh." He nudged his brother who had come up beside him and pointed out Ivy sitting in the Hufflepuff section.
"Wasn't me!"
Oliver and George both rolled their eyes.
"Any idea why she's up there then?"
At that moment Katie came up behind them and laughed. "She's probably just sitting with friends."
The boys all frowned. "You mean she's not cheering for Hufflepuff?" Oliver asked. After all the work he had put in… Slytherin he could reluctantly understand. Gryffindor he held out an optimistic hope for, but Hufflepuff? He would have to convene with Flint to strategize. No way could they let the Hufflepuffs take this away from them. This was between him and Flint, a way to settle their long time rivalry once and for all, not to mention the satisfaction of being the one to convince Ivy to play. So no. There was no way he was letting those happy, smiley Hufflepuffs get all the credit.
"I'm sure she's cheering for you," Angelina said, rolling her eyes. "Come on, we've got a game to win."
"Oh look at that. How sweet. All the first years are sitting together."
Severus did share Pomona's sentiment but decided that it probably had something to do with Potter, and since it was occurring in the Hufflepuff section and no one appeared to be injured, it was not really his problem.
This was not exactly what Ron had planned, although to be completely honest he hadn't had much of a plan to begin with. He just knew that whatever plan he might have eventually formed, this was not it. How was he supposed to show Ivy that he would be a much better friend than Malfoy if she kept talking to so many other people?
Well, if he couldn't talk to her, he could at least keep Malfoy away from her.
Draco clutched his sides as he laughed and struggled to breathe. The Hufflepuff team really was pretty bad, and at least someone appreciated that fact. Weasley was hilar… Wait.
He looked at Weasley, who looked back with a similar expression of horror. With a curt nod they shared acknowledged their mutual desire to never speak of this again.
Ivy looked over at Draco and Ron. Oh yes, this was coming along nicely.
"I honestly didn't think this would work," Hermione whispered.
Ivy grinned. "Of course it did. Well, I guess it's not done yet, but still, it's coming along nicely, wouldn't you say?"
Hermione nodded and Ivy grinned. The look on their faces… Yep. Totally worth it.
Oliver wished it had not taken so long, but at least they had won. Honestly, by the end, it didn't even matter who caught the snitch, since Gryffindor was up by so much, but his seeker had eventually found it, making him feel marginally better about his choice. Too bad he was a sixth-year and wouldn't be around for much longer.
Suddenly he was very nearly pummeled by a small hurricane that turned out to be Ivy.
"You did so great!" she shouted, jumping up on him and giving him a big hug.
"Hey! What are we? Chopped liver?"
Ivy stuck out her tongue at George. "I was getting to that."
"So you weren't cheering for Hufflepuff?" Oliver needed to be sure.
"Of course I was. They weren't very good, but I didn't want any of them to feel bad." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Oliver felt like he could live with that.
Walking towards the changing rooms with a koala-like Ivy still attached, Oliver noticed a grumpy looking Flint looking their way and flashed a smirk. Flint narrowed his eyes and Oliver grinned widely. Yep. He had definitely won today.
February 25, 1992
"Hey, Percy, which one of these do you think Ron would like better?"
Percy looked up from his textbook and saw Ivy holding up two… Well, he wasn't entirely sure what they were.
"I have no idea. Maybe you should ask the twins?"
She nodded solemnly and Percy breathed a sigh of relief.
Wait a second.
"Wait! How do you keep getting in here?"
Neville looked up to see Ivy skipping through the Gryffindor common room. It was a testament to the ever increasing frequency of this sight that only a couple of the older students even looked surprised to see a Slytherin first year running around their common room.
"Hey, Ivy, what're you doing?"
"Oh, hi Neville. I was just looking for Fred and George. I wanted to ask them about something for Ron's birthday."
"Oh, is it like what you gave me?" Dean asked, coming over to where Neville sat.
Ivy shook her head. "No. I didn't think he'd like something like that as much."
"Well, what is it then?"
Ivy showed them.
"Um, what is that?" Ivy was holding up… something. Neville just had no clue what that something was.
"It's a chess set."
Neville and Dean looked at the thing Ivy was holding sceptically.
"Are you… Are you sure?" Dean asked.
Ivy nodded. "Of course I am. So. Which one do you think he'd like better?"
"Is there a big difference?" Neville could not see one, but that didn't mean one did not exist. And to be honest he was still rather skeptical that either thing was in fact a chess set.
"Well, this one had mini dragons that will destroy your opponent if you ask nicely, and this one has little pieces that fly around and try to knock other pieces off their brooms like in quidditch."
Dean sputtered, saying that that was not the point of quidditch (based on his own observations Neville felt otherwise, but chose to remain silent), but Neville caught onto one other thing Ivy had said. "Destroy your opponent's pieces, right? The dragon destroys their pieces?" Internally Neville was thinking please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.
"Mmhmm, sure. Anyway, what do you think?"
Neville, not feeling at all reassured, felt the flying one was the safer of the options and gave his vote for that one.
"Well dragons sound pretty…"
"NEAT. Dragons sound neat," Neville said, cutting Dean off. "But obviously flying pieces are so much cooler, right Dean?" He levelled his best glare at the boy, who did not seem to be picking up on the hint.
"Oh yeah, flying is cool. But the…" Dean let out a little yelp as Neville kicked him in the shin.
"You're probably right," Ivy said. "Well. Thanks guys! This has been a big help."
March 1, 1992
"Happy birthday, Ron!"
Ron grinned at Ivy as she plopped down across from him. "Thanks!"
She put a package not he table in between them. "This is for you. I wanted to give it to you now so I could watch you open it."
"Oh, okay. Thanks!" Ron wasn't sure why she was doing this, because chances were high she'd end up in the Gryffindor common room later anyway. No one had owned up to ever having let her in, or given her the password, yet somehow she kept turning up. It bothered Percy to no end which of course made it hilarious.
He inspected the contents of the package for a minute. "What is it?"
"It's a chess set."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, silly," Ivy said, rolling her eyes. "Here, let me show you. You just have to open it like this."
She pressed one part of it and it opened to reveal… oh, that was a chess set. How about that.
"Thanks, Ivy."
"You're welcome."
"Hey Ivy, are you ready to…" Malfoy, who had just come up to the Gryffindor table, completely ruining Ron's morning, gasped. "Is that the Montrose Magpies commemorative chess set?"
"Mmhmm. It's for Ron's birthday," Ivy explained. "Sorry Ron," she said sympathetically, turning back to him. "They don't make Chudley Cannons one."
"That's because you have to actually win sometimes to have a commemorative set made," Malfoy said haughtily.
Ivy rolled her eyes. "I know. Which is why you won't be getting a Caerphilly Catapults set for your birthday either."
Malfoy sputtered and flushed a little pink, and suddenly Ron's day was good again.
"Say, Ivy. How come it looks like…" Ron gestured to the unique exterior, which resembled absolutely nothing he had ever seen and certainly not a chess set.
"Oh, I was messing around with another set, testing its destructive capabilities, and it sort of… melted. Sorry about that."
A few spaces over Neville choked on something he was eating and had to have Seamus pound his back a few times before he recovered.
"Oh that's okay. It looks cool." It was an honest assessment. It did look cool. It just didn't look anything like a chess set.
Malfoy tapped his foot impatiently. "Come on Ivy, can't we go flying now? Flint said I could go with you two today."
"Oh, I thought I'd see if Ron wanted to play a round of chess first. Try out his new set, you know?"
Malfoy looked horrified at that thought. "You can't corrupt his set on his birthday! I won't let you. Come on, Weasley. Let's play chess."
Ivy shrugged her shoulders and scooted over a bit to allow Malfoy room to sit down. Ron absently wondered if Malfoy was actually aware he was sitting at the Gryffindor table. Probably not, but he wasn't going to be the one to tell him.
Draco had to admit, this chess set was pretty cool. And as far as chess opponents went, Weasley wasn't half bad. That fact was obvious since Draco would never bother playing with some stupid Gryffindor unless they were actually good. Or, that is to say, not completely terrible. Weasley wasn't good he was just, not terrible. Yeah. That was it.
Ivy was still sitting there but thankfully was not trying to give the chess pieces any ideas. A few other students poked their heads around every now and then to see what was going on, but otherwise, they had been left alone.
That is until he heard a very familiar voice laughing from just down the table. He looked up to see Pansy laughing with two of the Gryffindor girls. Patil he knew, and he thought the other one was the one that had two colours for a name, although he couldn't really recall what that might be.
Why was Pansy sitting there? She didn't even like Patil, did she? Well, at least she hadn't. Malfoy was so distracted by the sight of Pansy Parkinson sitting at the Gryffindor table that he completely missed the fact that it was now his turn. Weasley cleared his throat and pointed at the chess board, but Draco could only nod and go back to looking at the girls laughing a little ways away.
Weasley, now noticing the reason for Draco's distraction, craned his neck around to see for himself what was going on.
A moment later they exchanged a look of horror, and both instinctively turned to look at Ivy, who was sitting there, presenting an air of innocence that Draco knew had to be entirely fake.
He and Weasley exchanged another look, and Draco mouthed the word "later" to him, which was received with a nod. They needed to strategize, and Ivy was clearly somehow the culprit of this calamity.
Just then the two banes of his existence who also happened to bear the last name Weasley walked up to where the trio sat, looked around in what might possibly have been shock, and each handed something to Ivy, who accepted their offerings with a smug look that completely undid any earlier attempts on her part to look innocent. As the twins left Ivy got up and followed them, and Draco and Weasley slowly returned to their game, both mildly unnerved by what they had witnessed.
"I can't believe you did it," George said. Fred was too busy laughing to contribute much to the conversation.
"Told you I would," Ivy said with a smug grin.
"Yeah I know you said you would, but I didn't think you actually would."
"Did… see… faces…" Fred managed to get out in between wheezes.
Ivy beamed.
"Alright, so who's next on the list?"
"Well Oliver and Marcus haven't tried to injure each other recently, so I'd say that one is going well. Percy and Thomas get along fine. I always see them whispering and glancing my way though, so they might suspect something. Alright, let's see." Ivy pulled a piece of parchment out of her bag. "George, if you would do the honours."
George obliged and pulled out his wand, saying the password and watching as a number of names began appearing on the paper.
"Okay, so here's what I'm thinking…"
March 5, 1992
"I need your help."
The other three students looked at Hannah in surprise.
"Um, sure. What do you need help with?" Susan asked. It wasn't common for Hannah to ask for help with things, and certainly not to their quiet little Herbology study group.
"I need to know where the Ravenclaw dormitories are."
"Um, why do you need to know that?" Millie asked. Neville felt it was a fair question.
"Because Terry told Padma, who told Anthony, who told Ernie, who told Justin, who told Megan, who told me, that Ivy was in there yesterday and one of the older students asked her how she got in there, and she said 'what, like it's hard,' and now I need to know if it's hard."
Neville wasn't sure he followed that logic.
"What would be hard about it?"
"Apparently the password for Ravenclaw is a riddle, and you have to answer it."
"Oh, that does sound hard."
"But we don't know that. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But we need to find out."
"Why?" Neville felt he needed a bit of clarification first.
"Because it's important."
"So where is Ravenclaw?"
"No idea."
"Me neither."
"We could go ask someone?"
"We can't ask a Ravenclaw."
"Why not?
"They might get upset."
"Oh, that's true. We don't want that."
Neville followed all this with growing trepidation.
"We could ask Thomas," Millie said.
"Who's Thomas?" Susan asked curiously.
"Thomas Harrington. He's a fifth year in my house. Ivy seems to always ask him questions and he's really smart."
The girls all seemed to agree this was a good idea. Neville did not agree, but could not think of an argument in time, so was also dragged along to go find a fifth year Slytherin who might be willing to tell them the location of another house's dormitories. Because there was absolutely no way this was going to go wrong.
Thomas flopped down on his bed facedown and groaned. Despite his very thorough analysis of his life choices thus far, he still wasn't completely sure how he had gotten to this point.
"What's wrong with you?" Eric asked.
Thomas let out another muffled groan.
"Come on, OWLS aren't for a bit yet. Surely it can't be that bad."
Thomas propped himself up a little before flopping dramatically onto his back. "OWLS are fine. They'll be fine. It's all good. Life is fine."
"Okay… So not OWLS."
Thomas heaved a dramatic sigh. He wasn't normally a dramatic person, but this felt like an appropriate moment for such theatrics. Who knows, he might die before he had another chance.
"I know I'm probably going to regret this," Kenneth said from his own bed, "but what is causing you such distress, dearest Thomas."
Thomas shot him a glare. "Shut up, Burke," he said, though the Slytherin prefect just smirked. Prat.
Giving one final, dramatic sigh, Thomas stared at the ceiling and spoke. "I just lied to a bunch of Hufflepuffs."
Marcus and Eric both burst out laughing and Kenneth gave him a clear look of disdain. "That's what had you so upset? You lied to some Hufflepuffs?"
"Not just any Hufflepuffs. First year Hufflepuffs."
"I'm out," Corvin said suddenly, throwing his book on his bed and exiting their room. Everyone else just rolled their eyes.
"And what was this oh so terrible lie you told?" Burke said with growing amusement. Bastard.
"They asked if I knew where the Ravenclaw dormitories were."
"And you said…"
"I told them I didn't know."
"How is that a lie?" Eric asked.
"Shut up, Pyrites," Kenneth drawled. "Obviously Harrington here knows all about the Ravenclaw rooms, don't you."
Thomas went red and refused to look Burke in the eye. "It was Ivy," he blurted out.
"Potter? What's she got to do with it?"
"She was there, and somehow these Hufflepuffs got the idea that they need to go too."
"And you lied to them because…"
"Because she's corrupting them! I don't how she did it, but she's corrupting them."
"Of course she's corrupting them. We're Slytherins. It's what we do…" Kenneth said sarcastically.
"Ha, ha. I'm serious. She's going to have any army by this time next year, and I'm the one that's going to have to take care of it."
"How do you figure?" Eric asked.
"I just do," Thomas said, staring at the ceiling. This was his fate. This was his life now. He just hoped he survived.
"So, when you say Hufflepuffs, who exactly are we talking about?"
Thomas wasn't sure why Marcus cared, but he indulged the question. "Um, Bones, I think? And that Longbottom kid Ivy's around a lot, and, umm, Bulstrode, I think, and, oh, what's the other girl's name? Abbott, I think. Yeah, that's it. The other one's Abbott."
Marcus burst out laughing again. "You…" He kept laughing. Thomas's glare did nothing. "You're worried about Ivy corrupting the little Herbology club? Over this?" Still laughing. "You have any idea what kind of books she keeps giving them?"
Thomas wondered several things at the moment. First of all, how did Marcus know all of this? Second of all, how did he not? Third… Was this… yeah… this was probably going to haunt him in some way.
"You do realize only a couple of those are even Hufflepuffs, right?"
"It's the principle of the thing," Thomas practically shouted, and Eric raised up his hands in surrender.
Marcus, still laughing, got up and walked to the door. "That's my girl," he said, still laughing as he made his way out of earshot.
Thomas felt betrayed by every single one of his roommates. Did none of them understand what was at stake here?
This was useless. He needed to find someone who understood. Someone who could commiserate with him.
"And so I lied."
Percy was understandably concerned. He could already imagine the chaos. "We have to do something," he said.
Harrington nodded. "But what? She's going to corrupt the Hufflepuffs. I'm only sixteen. I can't have 'failed to stop an army of Hufflepuffs from forming' on my record."
Percy personally didn't think that was the most relevant issue at the moment, but he was dealing with a distraught Slytherin and he honestly didn't know what to do in this type of situation.
Just then the subject of their discussion walked up to them.
Harrington shuddered slightly, and Percy took it upon himself to ease his fellow student's worries. "Hi, Ivy. What are you doing?"
"Oh, just looking for a book I was telling Millie about, but I can't remember the name of it."
"Oh, well what's it about?" Percy didn't understand why Harrington was frantically nudging his foot under the table.
"It's about magical fungi and their uses." The nudging got harder and Percy shoved back under the table.
"Did you ask Madam Pince yet?"
"No, not yet. She'd know though, wouldn't she. Thanks, Percy!"
After Ivy was out of earshot Percy turned to Harrington. "What was that about?"
"Do you realize what book she was looking for?"
"Wait, why didn't you just tell her if you knew?"
"You really want me handing over a book on magical fungi and their theorized uses in modern warfare to Ivy Potter?"
"Oh, I see your point."
"Yeah. Come on. If we hurry we can get it before she does."
Percy nodded in agreement. That sounded like a good idea.
Irma Pince looked at the two fifth years in suspicion. It's always the quiet ones, she thought, as they checked out their questionable choice of reading material.
March 18, 1992
"Alright, I've got Famous Wizarding Battles of the Norse Conquest and 100 Sumerian Curses and Their Practical Uses for the Modern Day Militarist. What about you?"
Percy glanced again at the titles in his bag. "Er, I've got 1001 Deadly Microbes and their Magical Uses, A Beginner's Guide to Siege Warfare, and Untraceable Potions, Vol. 1."
Harrington nodded. "Good. Alright, I think that covers this week's list. Any others you heard about that you think we need to check out?"
"No, but Madam Pince was giving me the strangest look. Any idea what that might be about?"
"She did the same to me, and I have no idea. We always turn the books in in excellent condition."
"Exactly! I don't know why she seemed to think I'd possibly do something to them."
"Maybe she's just worried we're not spending enough time studying."
Percy nodded. "That could be. Hey, speaking of which, what did you think of chapter nineteen in Elderkin's treatise…"
March 23, 1992
"But we have exams and we need to study."
"Why are you telling me this, Granger? I do plenty of studying."
"Well I was trying to tell Ivy, but I couldn't find her anywhere."
"Then tell her later," Draco said. "Besides, we have plenty of time to study for exams. They're not for a long time."
"They're only ten weeks away! We need to start studying now or we'll never have time to get everything done."
Draco rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe he was doing this, but… "Look, Granger. You're one of the smartest people in our class. You're going to be fine. And Ivy will study." He noticed the incredulous look on Granger's face. "Eventually," he amended. "So no need to stress about it now. Besides, you'll have the entire Easter break to study all you want. Go do something fun. And no, making a study schedule does not count," he added, sensing what she was about to say. He shooed her away and she went, looking a little put out but not as frantic as she had been a minute ago. Ivy owed him big time.
"Found her," Longbottom pointed out unhelpfully.
Draco looked to see some Weasley or others carrying Ivy on his back as he ran full speed down the hall, everyone else darting out of the way to avoid being run into.
"Fred Weasley, you come back here right now," someone yelled, chasing after them. Was that? Oh, yeah that was definitely Wood. And he did not look happy. There was someone else though… Flint? Draco decided he did not care to know what was going on and would rather not even chance being implicated in whatever was happening.
"Come on, Longbottom. Let's go."
Longbottom thankfully did not protest, though he looked a little confused as to why Draco was suddenly pulling him down the hall.
"Where are we going?" he eventually asked.
"Studying," Draco said, not being able to think of any other excuse at the moment.
Draco rubbed his forehead. He felt like he understood his godfather on an entirely new level now.
"But why does it matter which way you stir it?"
"I don't think it does." Brave words coming from the boy who blew up his cauldron at least once a month.
Some mild bickering commenced as Draco considered what had led him to this moment of being in an unfortunate study group with every. single. Gryffindor. first year. The boys, that is. Draco wasn't sure he could handle the entire Gryffindor first year group without major reinforcements. Even this was seriously testing his composure.
"Enough," he yelled out, earning himself a glare from Madam Pince, who he quickly muttered an apology to as he winced. Merlin, the lions were rubbing off on him. "Alright, here's why it matters, because yes, Finnegan, it does matter."
And so he spent the next hour lecturing the Gryffindor boys about the intricacies of potions, all the while wondering how he had gotten himself into this particular situation. Somehow, he was sure it was Ivy's fault.
"Okay, that makes sense," Weasley said when Draco finished. "But what about this one." He pointed to one out of their textbook that happened to be the exception to half a dozen different rules. Why was that even in this book? It's not like it was an important potion or anything. Who used the Snuffling potion anyways?
Draco noticed all eyes on him, obviously waiting for him to answer. He banged his head down on the table. This was going to be a long afternoon.
March 28, 1992
Despite his best efforts, Draco had somehow ended up in a study group with the Gryffindor boys for the fourth time this week. At least this time had dragged the Slytherin boys with him, since if he had to suffer they might as well suffer with him. Ivy was conveniently nowhere to be found, and Pansy had been busy planning something with Patil, Brown, and Daphne, and there was no way Draco was getting mixed up in whatever that was.
So here they sat, four Gryffindors, and five Slytherins, sitting at the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall (neutral territory and all that), studying together for some Merlin-forsaken reason.
Today's topic was Herbology. Not Draco's particular favourite, but one that Longbottom was apparently actually useful in. Weasley, Finnegan, Theo, and Greg were all apparently out of their depths when it came to Herbology. Blaise would of course never admit to a weakness in any subject, and Vince was surprisingly comfortable with it. Thomas seemed to not care about it, much like Draco, but neither did he seem too concerned.
An hour later Draco had a newfound respect for Longbottom, and a glance at his fellow first years told him they felt the same. He was now beginning to understand why Longbottom wasn't in Hufflepuff. There was no way a Hufflepuff would know all the different plants that could kill you in under thirty seconds. That just wasn't a Hufflepuff sort of thing to know. Right? His mind went back unbidden to a certain conversation with a certain girl in a certain robes shop, but he ignored it. Ivy wasn't in Hufflepuff, and Draco thought that maybe the sorting hat was rather smart, and that is was probably for the best that Ivy was in Slytherin with him instead of with those poor Hufflepuffs.
"It seems your houses have been getting along quite nicely as of late."
Severus glanced sideways at Filius's smirk and then at Minerva whose mouth twitched a little. They obviously did not hold the same suspicions as he did. Something was up, and he was determined to figure it out before it ended in disaster.
"Are you sure you don't need to worry about them?" Burbage asked, gesturing to the group of Gryffindor and Slytherin students seated at the Hufflepuff table.
Severus thought they should all be worried, as well as watching Ivy Potter's every movement, but every time he brought up something along those lines he was waved off. "Well, there hasn't been any blood yet, so yes," he said sarcastically. Minerva rolled her eyes at him and Filius obviously caught the sarcasm, but Burbage seemed genuinely concerned.
"Is that likely then?"
No one answered her, and Severus couldn't help but feel a little vindicated at the thought that even Minerva and Filius didn't have an easy assurance to the contrary. At the same time he wondered where he had failed, as so many of his Slytherins had apparently formed friendships of sorts with Gryffindors. Why couldn't it have been the Ravenclaws? Or even the Hufflepuffs? Why did it have to be those blasted Gryffindors that always plagued him?
He could feel James Potter laughing at him from the afterlife and he scowled.