June 16, 1992

Sirius choked on his coffee when he caught a glimpse of the headline Harry set in front of him. Merlin, that was hot.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I was hoping you knew," Harry said. "You didn't do this, did you?"

"What? Of course not. You think it was on purpose?"

"Their entire house burned down, and no one could find a cause."

"And you're upset about this because…"

"Okay, maybe not upset per se, but still, what if someone was after Ivy?"

"They weren't," Remus said, coming into the kitchen.

"Wait, how do you know?" Harry asked him.

"Well, I'm the one who did it, obviously."

Sirius was about to argue that it wasn't in fact obvious, but Harry beat him to the punch.

"You went and burned down the Dursleys'?"

"Their house, yes."

Harry and Sirius both stared at Remus.

"They weren't there," Remus defended.

They kept staring.

"They have excellent insurance."

"Why would you even know something like that," Sirius heard Harry mutter.

"Because I did research, obviously."

Again, not obvious, but it did clear a few things up. Mostly it clarified that this wasn't a spur of the moment decision.

"Okay sorry, um, why?"

"Now Dumbledore can't try to get Ivy to go back."

It was a somewhat valid point, Sirius supposed. "Hey, can you go do my house next?"

Albus took in the charred remains and sighed. It would appear that Peverell would do anything to keep Ivy under his own control, even attempt to kill her last remaining family. Thankfully they hadn't been home when the attempted murder took place. Unfortunately, however, the last remaining fragments of the blood wards had been destroyed. They had weakened significantly since Ivy's disappearance, but the fire had obliterated the remains strands. There was also absolutely no evidence tying Peverell to this crime. There was no residual magic, no eyewitnesses, and, worst of all, Peverell had been spotted in Diagon Alley at the same time the fire was said to have occurred. He certainly covered his tracks well, Albus thought with another resigned sigh.

July 4, 1992

It had only been a couple of weeks since the end of the school year, and already Sirius's respect for Harry had shot way up. Maybe he had been distracted at Christmas with Remus and trying to get to know Ivy and the fact that it was a rather full house, but now that it was just him and Harry and Ivy… Harry was an amazing parent who had managed to keep this little fireball alive, and that was something worth his utmost respect.

Not that Sirius did anything to discourage Ivy. Of course not. He was a very willing participant in her schemes, it was just that Sirius respected Harry for being the responsible adult in this situation.

"Alright, so what are we doing today?"

His goddaughter beamed up at him. "I'm going to introduce you to Bogrod and Gornuk."

Those sounded suspiciously like goblin… No. Nope. Not going to happen.

Sirius shifted in his seat. Ivy had been chatting to the two goblins for a half hour already, and they had all been smiling the entire time. Sirius couldn't understand them, since they were speaking the goblin language, not, you know, any languages that Sirius actually knew. It would have been fine if he wasn't slightly suspicious that they were plotting the demise of some unfortunate soul. Well, as long as it wasn't him he supposed there were worse things they could be doing…

And what in the name of Merlin was taking Harry so long? Ivy might be content to sit there and talk to her goblin friends all day, but Harry was not nearly so eager to remain in Gringotts. Sirius knew Harry had received a letter saying he needed to come to Gringotts as soon as possible for some business regarding his vaults or something like that, but why was it taking so long?

Sirius sighed. At least the goblins' attention wasn't on him.

"No."

Ragnok just smiled at him.

"No," Harry said again.

Still, he received no reply beyond that bloody smile.

"Just… why?"

"Well, since the previous claimant is now completely deceased, as the next closest eligible heir, and as the defeater of the previous heir, the title now passes to you."

Why did this sort of thing always happen to him? Feeling like the subject of every cosmic joke ever, Harry did what any reasonable person would do in this situation. He ran.

Sirius looked up at the sudden commotion. Was that… Yes, that was Harry running down the hall followed by several goblins who didn't look mad, so maybe they weren't trying to kill him, but still… Should he go… help? He wasn't sure what to do in this situation. He glanced at Ivy, who looked at Harry, rolled her eyes, and went back to her conversation with her goblin friends. This was proving to be one of the more uncomfortable days of Sirius's recent experience.

Harry resigned himself to his fate. Mostly. If he could just get away from the goblins, then maybe…

"Just place this ring on your right hand and sign here," Ragnok said, the grin on his face causing Harry to immediately comply.

"Congratulations Lord Peverell-Slytherin."

Harry groaned.

"Come on," Harry said, grabbing Sirius and Ivy who hadn't noticed his sudden reappearance. "We're going."

Ivy laughed a little and waved goodbye to her friends who grinned back. Sirius shuddered as he let himself be pulled away.

"So where are we going?" Ivy asked.

"Brazil."

July 5, 1992

Remus looked at the letter and accompanying portkey and sighed. Whatever had happened to make Harry and Sirius leave in such a hurry must have been pretty bad. At least they had reassured him they were all alright. No one had died, so that was good. Now Remus just had to go make sure it stayed that way.

July 9, 1992

"Isn't this a wonderful place?"

"Yeah."

"We could just stay here."

"Agreed."

Remus rolled his eyes at the two. Eventually, they would need to return to England, but he did have to admit it was rather nice here.

"What do you think, Ivy? Want to move here?"

"It's a long way from Hogwarts."

"You could always transfer."

Now Ivy rolled her eyes. "Not happening."

Harry pouted and Remus laughed, though he couldn't blame Harry for trying.

July 24, 1992

"Must we?"

"Yes."

Harry sighed.

Remus tried another tactic. "We have to be back in time for Ivy's birthday."

"We could celebrate here."

"You told her she could have a party."

"We could have a party here…"

"What are you going to do, give all her friends international portkeys?"

Harry looked like he was actually considering doing just that.

"No," Remus interjected. He needed to get Harry out before he accidentally gave him any other ideas. "Time to go."

Harry sighed again. Remus wondered when he had become the responsible adult in this situation.

July 31, 1992

Harry's eye twitched. Plan a birthday party, they said. Invite a few people over, they said. It will be fun, they said. He wasn't sure who had said that, but they were wrong. This was terrible and he absolutely did not enjoy having five hundred people at his house. And how was there even enough food for all of them? He gasped. Sirius.

"You knew about this?"

Sirius wasn't sure what Harry was referring to exactly. "What this?"

"This," Harry said, gesturing to the party. "All the people."

"Um, yes? Didn't you?" Sirius was confused. Harry did remember Ivy inviting people to her birthday, right?

"No! Why are there so many of them?"

"Them as in people?"

Harry nodded, looking a bit pained.

Sirius cleared his throat. "I thought you told Ivy to send out invitations to all her friends?"

Harry looked more pained now. "You mean these are all her friends?"

Sirius glanced around at the faces he did recognize. "Well, I think it's probably more along the lines of her friends and their families, but yeah."

Harry's eye twitched. "I'll be right back," he said to Sirius. "Hey Ivy," he said, calling out to the birthday girl, "remember last week when…"

Harry groaned. This was all his own fault, really. When he had told Ivy to tell the printer what she wanted for invitations, he had neglected to stay close enough to hear the number of invitations she asked for. Two hundred. She had sent out two hundred invitations. How did she even know that many people? It was like she had invited all of Hogwarts and their extended families and… He gasped. That's probably exactly what she had done. Or at least close. And apparently, she hadn't limited herself to Britain either. That wizard was definitely from Spain, and he was pretty sure that the witch was Russian or something. Seriously though. How did she know this many people?

"Ah, Peverell. There you are. Been looking for a chance to introduce you to some people."

Harry groaned internally and automatically straightened, Narcissa's words from years ago echoing in his mind. "Lord Deverill," he said, turning and nodding at the speaker.

"I don't believe you are acquainted with Lord Harrington or Mr. Pyrites, are you?"

Harry shook his head.

"Ah, well allow me the pleasure of introducing you."

Harry reluctantly followed Deverill over to the men he supposed were the aforementioned wizards he was to be introduced to. One letter. He had sent one letter to Deverill, and now he was being subjected to being introduced to the whole of the upper echelons of British wizarding society. And no, he was not being dramatic. He was never dramatic. Quite undramatic as a matter of fact.

The introductions were made, and he managed to speak with the two for a few minutes. Pyrites he couldn't recall anything particular about, but Ivy had mentioned Thomas Harrington in several letters and Lord Harrington noticeably puffed up at the compliments Harry paid towards his son.

Thirty minutes later he had been introduced to another dozen or so fathers of current Hogwarts students that Ivy seemed to have become friends with. Did she have to be that friendly?

Finally, he spotted a familiar face. Well, familiar to him, anyway. He didn't know why they were here exactly, but he wasn't about to complain. He made his way quickly over to Andromeda Tonks, thankful that this would be at least one introduction he could look forward to.

Harry was so confused. Sure, he knew logically that some things were different between his old world and this one, the fact that his counterpart was a girl being just one of those, but he honestly hadn't been expecting this…

"And you're sure you never met him?" Sirius leaned over and whispered.

"No. I'm positive he wasn't there before. Tonks was an only child."

Sirius frowned but nodded. "I guess some things were bound to be different."

Harry nodded, but he was still a little too frazzled to respond further. Yes, it had been nice being introduced to Ted and Andy, but then they had introduced their son and Harry's brain had sort of shut off.

"And you're positive…"

"Yes," Harry whispered a little too loudly, drawing a few looks. "Look, I'm sure I would remember if… what was his name again?"

"Taran."

"Right. I'm certain I would remember if Taran existed in that world, and I'm sure he didn't."

Sirius shrugged.

"Hey, you haven't seen Tonks here anywhere, have you?"

Sirius gave him a quizzical look but shook his head. "No. Why?"

"Just wondering," Harry said, a bit too casually. It's not like he wanted to introduce her and Remus or anything. Of course not. But it wouldn't be so bad if they met a little earlier, right? "Hey, do you think she still goes by Tonks here?"

"No idea. Might be a bit more confusing what with them having been at Hogwarts at the same time."

"Yeah, but she always hated her name."

"Maybe she goes by Dora. That's what I called her when she was little."

"How'd Taran end up with such a…"

"Normal name?" Sirius finished for him.

"Yeah."

Sirius laughed. "His full name is Taranis Theodore Tonks."

Harry winced.

"Yep. Initials have got to be killer."

"Yeah. Andy?"

"Mmhmm," Sirius said, taking another sip of whatever and-it-had-better-not-have-alcohol-this-is-a-kid's-birthday-party-Sirius drink he had in his hand.

Just then a few other adults came over and Harry groaned softly.

"Have fun," Sirius said, chuckling softly as he made his escape.

Harry had to resort to cursing internally since he didn't want to offend the little old ladies standing just over there. Suffering through yet another round of introductions he idly wondered what it would take to set Ivy, Remus, the twins, and maybe a goblin or two on Sirius.

"Hey Henry, can you come play a quidditch game with us?"

Ivy was the best person on the planet and nothing she did would ever faze him again.

He made his excuses to the people whose names he had already forgotten and made his way with a much lighter step towards Ivy. Yes, he would absolutely indulge his daughter's birthday wish. All in the attempt to be a wonderful parent, you understand. Getting out of talking to anyone else was just an added benefit.

And if Sirius didn't happen to hear about it, and accidentally got left with entertaining a few older witches, or better, a few younger, very single witches, well, it wasn't Harry's fault he had left Harry alone.

August 1, 1992

Harry looked at the stack of letters with blatant horror.

"What's all this?" Sirius asked, gesturing to the pile.

Remus set down his newspaper. "It's all the society wives inviting Harry over to meet their daughters," he said, as if this weren't the worst moment of Harry's life. Adult life, he amended to himself, even if this was still pretty close to the top. "Oh, and did you two see Ivy's birthday party made it into the Daily Prophet?"

Harry let out a sound that was somewhere in between a groan and a sob.

"What, like dinner invites or something?" Sirius said, sorting through the top few letters.

"Yep," Remus said, almost as if he were amused by the entire situation. "Oh, would you look at that. You've both made it into the list of top ten eligible bachelors."

Sirius snorted. "Yeah, sure glad Harry here beat me out for the top spot."

Remus hmmed and turned back to his paper.

"Wait, I'm number two, right?"

Remus didn't respond.

"Remus," Sirius pleaded. "Come on, tell me I'm number two, right? I can't possibly be number one. Right? Please tell me I'm right."

"Oh don't worry Padfoot," Remus said with a snort. "You're not number one."

Sirius gasped and went to grab the paper out of Remus's hands, but was thwarted by Remus jerking it out of reach just in time.

"Come on Moony," Sirius very nearly whined.

"Seventh. I was ranked seventh."

Harry had heard Sirius the first thirty seven times. Thirty nine now actually.

"How did I end up seventh?"

Forty.

Harry sighed. "Yes, poor you. Now can we get back to the actual problem here?" He gestured to the letters of doom piled on the table.

"Oh sure, back to all your admirers," Sirius said with a touch of bitterness.

"I can give them to you if you want," Harry said hopefully.

"No. Don't you remember? They don't want me. I only came in seventh."

Harry groaned as Remus chuckled. These two had no sympathy.

"Why do you even care? You're already dating Sabrina."

"That's not the bloody point. Just because I'm dating the most beautiful woman in existence doesn't mean they have to go printing sh…"

"Hey, Fred and George just wrote me asking if we could come to dinner tomorrow," Ivy said with perfect timing that caused Harry to grin and Sirius to redden at being almost caught. "Can we…"

"YES!" Harry shouted much louder than was necessary. "Yes," he said, his voice regaining a normal volume. "That would be great. Tell them we'd love to come."

Ivy smiled and skipped off happily to reply to her friends or cause chaos. Possibly one and the same at this point.

"There, problem solved," Harry said triumphantly.

"How so?" Why did Remus have to be so sceptical? Couldn't he just going Harry in welcoming the fact that he now had an excuse to get out of all these dinner invitations?

"Now I can just say no to all of these. Prior engagement and all that."

"You know it'd be more effective if you had an actual engagement."

"Shut up, Sirius."

Remus gave them both the you'll-get-there-eventually-if-you-try-hard-enough look. "You have tomorrow covered, yes. But what about the day after that?"

Harry's eye twitched. A common occurrence in this house really.

"Hey Ivy," he yelled out suddenly, running off to where he thought she might have gone. "How are your acting skills? Do you think you could fake being really sick for…"

August 2, 1992

"Hello, Mrs. Weasley. Thank you so much for inviting us over."

Molly had been half expecting a little girl and a haughty Lord, not a little girl and three men, two of which were dressed in muggle… what were those blue trousers called again?

She barely caught herself before she started gaping, and instead managed to usher them all inside. Arthur had taken the boys to the birthday party the other day, since Ginny hadn't been feeling well and had had to stay home. Poor girl. She had so been looking forward to it too. That was part of the reason she had agreed to letting Fred and George invite Ivy and her guardian over. Well, that and the fact that four of her children had spent Christmas with the man and it was high time she was properly introduced to the person they all kept raving about. Since she hadn't been able to meet him at the birthday party, this seemed the next best way.

"Remus!" came a double shout from the top of the stairs.

"Oh sure, I see who's really loved," the one she recognized as Sirius Black said, rolling his eyes.

Before she could raise a voice in protest towards the twins the two came barreling past her and nearly ran the poor man over, though he didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

"I apologize, Lord Peverell, Lord Black, and Mr…"

"Lupin," the man currently being tackled on the ground called out.

The other two men made a face. "What lies did you two tell your mother?"

Oh dear.

"Nothing. Just your names," Fred said cheekily.

Lord Black stuck out his tongue childishly at Fred, who responded in kind. Then he turned back to Molly and with a roguish smile said, "please, call me Sirius, Mrs. Weasley." He pressed a kiss to the back of the hand she hadn't realized he was holding.

She blushed and turned to Lord Peverell. "I'm Henry," he said, shaking her hand that had dropped somewhat reluctantly. "But please, call me Harry."

The little girl who could only be Ivy Potter snorted and Lord Pever… Harry, rolled his eyes and nudged her.

"Oh right," she said. "Hi, Mrs. Weasley. I'm Ivy. It's nice to meet you, and thank you for having us over. Could you tell me where Percy is please?"

"Oh, I believe he's upstairs in his room, dear. And please, call me Molly."

Ivy gave a smile that was likely going to break a few hearts in the coming years and bounded up the stairs at a pace that could almost beat the boys.

Molly turned back to her company. "Well, the food is almost ready. Let me just get some of the kids to help finish up and then…" She turned to the twins but they had vanished out of sight. She sighed.

"I would be happy to help if you'll allow me," Harry said politely.

"Oh, of course not. Why don't you just have a seat there and I'll go…"

"Really, it'd be no trouble at all."

"Well if you're sure…"

"I'd love to! However, do not under any circumstances allow Remus in your kitchen."

"Hey!"

"It's true," Sirius said, grinning.

"What, like you're any better," Remus retorted.

"Hey, at least I'm allowed in the kitchen."

"But not encouraged," Harry said, pushing the other two men towards the sofa. He held out his arm to Molly. "Shall we?"

"Hi, Percy!"

Charlie pulled his head out of the closet at the unfamiliar voice.

"You're not Percy," the girl said, frowning a it.

He chuckled. "No, I'm not. I'm Charlie."

Her eyes lit up. "You're the one who works with dragons?"

Percy trudged into his room and was met with a scene from his nightmares. The one from May 7th, if he remembered correctly. There, seated on his bed, was his older brother Charlie and none other than Ivy Potter. Together. Talking about dragons. Merlin, there were two of them.

Panicking, he latched onto the first topic he could think of to distract them. "Hey Ivy, what's that?" he asked, pointing to the book she held in her hand.

She turned to him and held it up. "Oh, this is for you. I thought you might like to read it. It looked like some of the books you were reading before school got out."

"Um, thank you. What is… oh, Principles of Transfiguration in Pitched Battle…" his voice trailed off at the end. "Thanks, Ivy," he managed to get out.

"You're welcome," she said all too cheerfully. "Oh, I think it's time for dinner too." And then she walked out of the room as if she hadn't just handed him a book that wasn't even in the Hogwarts Library, which was saying something.

Charlie picked the book out of his hand. "Interesting reading choice there, Perce," he said with a raised eyebrow.

Percy groaned and fell onto the bed. He needed to contact Thomas as soon as possible since they had obviously not made enough contingency plans for the summer holidays.

"Hi, you're Ginny, right?"

Ginny nodded. Ivy Potter was talking to her. This was the best day ever.

"Nice to meet you. Hey, can I have your brother Charlie?"

Ginny nodded again, a little unsure why she was asking such a strange question.

"Great! Thanks."

Ginny stared at the Girl-Who-Lived and slowly followed her towards the dining room.

In the few minutes he had spent talking to Lord Peverell, or Harry, as he preferred to be called by everyone except Ivy it seemed, Charlie had come to understand so much better the reasons he had received the letter a few months prior.

Essentially, it all came down to the fact that Ivy was a creature enthusiast, much like himself, except her interest was not so focused in its scope, and her guardian apparently had a nearly full-time job ensuring that his house did not become the next dangerous creature sanctuary. Charlie did volunteer his services should that ever happen, and the look of panic that crossed Harry's face had sent Sirius Black into a laughing fit that had him grasping at his sides.

And apparently, it wasn't just creatures she tried to adopt. Somehow the twins had gotten into an argument with her about Charlie himself, with Ivy trying to claim him as her brother now. The twins volunteered Percy as a substitute, then Bill, then Ginny, but Ivy claimed she didn't even know Bill, and had only just met Ginny, so how could that possibly work (ignoring the fact that she had only just met Charlie as well), plus she was a girl and couldn't possibly be Ivy's brother, and Percy was already her brother anyway so that didn't count. Harry occasionally interjected a reminder that she couldn't adopt other people's children, especially when said children were adults and lived outside the country, but she didn't seem to care about that at all. Everyone else just watched the scene unfold bemusedly.

Ivy was excited. Not only had she met her new brother and given Percy a book she was sure he would love, but she had successfully arranged for the Weasleys to go school shopping with them. Now she just needed to write Draco and Neville and let them know what day they were all going so they could meet up. It'd be so much fun!

And Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were so nice. She liked them a lot, and Mrs. Weasley made really good food. Like, maybe even better than Henry. She hadn't even known that was possible. All in all, an excellent day.