October 31, 1992

"Something dreadful is going to happen."

"You don't know that."

"Something dreadful always happens on Halloween."

"I thought you weren't superstitious."

"It's not superstition, it's a well-thought out conclusion drawn from previous experience."

"But you can't make me go by myself."

"Watch me. Besides, you won't be by yourself. You have Sabrina."

"That's why you have to go with me. She's making me go and it's going to be all Slytherins there," Sirius pleaded.

"You didn't seem to mind a couple weeks ago."

"Are you still on about that?"

"Yes."

"I said I was sorry," Sirius muttered.

"No, you said you were sorry for making me have to explain to half a dozen people why someone who looked like Barty Crouch Jr. was running around chasing you."

"On the bright side we know his new identity will hold up."

Harry sighed. "I can't believe that worked," he said, shaking his head and looking up at the sky.

Sirius shrugged. "Well, everyone here is related anyway, so it's not that big of a stretch to have some second cousin that looks similar."

Harry kicked an invisible rock in front of him. "So, do you think it's too late to back out of this?"

Sirius mumbled something that Harry couldn't quite make out.

"What was that?"

"Hmm? Nothing. Just calculating the probability that I would meet an early death if I left you here by yourself."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Very high. Higher when you consider that you'd be leaving Sabrina here as well."

Sirius gulped. "Well, let it not be said that I lack self-preservation instincts."

Harry snorted.

"Okay fine. Let it not be said again that I lack self-preservation instincts."

"Better."

"Tomorrow's no guarantee though."

"But of course."

"Once more unto the breach?"

Sirius and Harry shared a glance and both stood up a little straighter.

"Ah, Lord Peverell, or should I say, Lord Slytherin. How good to see you."

Harry grimaced a bit and turned around. "Lord Deverill," he said with a polite nod.

"What luck it is running into you here. I was hoping for an opportunity to hear your stance on…"

"Henry is looking rather uncomfortable, isn't he," Anthea said. The other two ladies nodded.

"Shall we help him?" Remei asked.

"Leave it to me," their hostess replied. "I've been dealing with Magnus for years."

Harry was only mildly panicking. He had no idea what Lord Deverill was asking him about. He probably ought to pay more attention to the current political climate, but it was a little late for that right now. Suddenly he spied Carita Burke coming their way. He allowed himself the tiniest ray of hope that…

"Ah, Magnus, so good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us this evening."

Lord Deverill and Lady Burke exchanged pleasantries, and soon Harry found himself whisked away from the uncomfortable conversation. As he was pulled towards a small group of familiar faces he couldn't help but feel that he had a new favorite person in the world.

An hour later he decided he actually had six new favourite people, although Narcissa was technically on the list already. For once he was actually enjoying a social event. What a pleasant way to spend an evening.

"Henry, do you have a partner for the first dance?"

Never mind.

His face must have given him away because Narcissa laughed and said, "Don't you worry, dear. We'll take good care of you."

In the end, he ended up dancing with each of the six ladies who may or may not be working with Sirius to set him up, but as it prevents him from being forced to dance with any of the witches giving him flirtatious smiles he wasn't about to complain. A couple of them had tried to introduce him to some unmarried witches, but Lady Burke had once again come to his rescue and had kept introductions to a minimum. Thus, he made it through the entire evening without a single uncomfortable dance or awkward encounter of unfortunate length.

As they made their way home Sirius asked, "So, does this mean I'm forgiven?"

Harry simply grinned. "Nope."

Ivy wasn't sure she really felt like celebrating tonight. Despite what had happened on this day years ago she didn't feel a particular somberness in association with the day itself, but it did tend to make her think a little bit more than usual about her family. Last year had been fine, but this year she was a little preoccupied with thoughts on her family, and it left her in not the most celebratory of moods.

Most of her friends seemed to sense this, and several offered their condolences, no doubt assuming she was thinking of her parents. She was, in a way, but it was too difficult to try and explain what she was really focused on, so she just accepted their words with a heartfelt smile and thanked them for their concern. This seemed to satisfy most people, but some of her closest friends were not as easily persuaded that she was, in fact, alright.

In fact, she had been rather ganged up on when it was time to go to the feast. The twins and Draco had both tried a distracting technique, Neville had shrugged his shoulders in apology for their antics, and Hermione had insisted that they head towards the great hall now so they wouldn't be late for the feast. When she didn't respond in the way they had probably hoped, they all shot each other looks of concern that were hard to miss.

In the end, it was Luna that had come to her rescue, skillfully directing the others in a way Ivy was almost sure she would never be able to replicate. There just wasn't anyone else quite like Luna, and Ivy loved her for it.

Finding herself alone with Neville, they walked together in companionable silence towards the hall, making no effort to catch up with the rest of the group.

"Is it hard today?" Neville blurted out, looking apologetic as soon as he did so.

Ivy shrugged. "Not really. Not in the way people keep thinking, I guess."

Neville looked like he wasn't quite sure what to say, so they continued on in silence for another minute.

Finally, Ivy broke the silence. "Neville, do you miss your parents?"

His breath caught a bit and she felt bad for asking him. "Sorry," she mumbled.

Neville shook his head. "It's alright. I do. I think I miss what it could have been like, you know? If they had been okay?"

Ivy nodded. "Do you think…" She trailed off, and Neville paused, turning towards her.

"Yeah?"

Ivy stared at the ground, kicking an imaginary rock on the ground. "Do you think I'm a bad person if I don't?"

"Don't what?" Neville's voice was concerned, but kind.

"If I don't miss them," Ivy said softly.

Neville seemed to think about it for a minute. "No," he said finally, shaking his head. "I don't think so."

Ivy smiled slightly, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Thanks, Neville."

He smiled back at her but made no move to continue walking.

Ivy looked up at him, wondering what he was thinking.

"Ivy, remember last year, with the mirror?"

Ivy frowned. "Yes?"

Neville shifted on his feet a bit. "Did you, I mean… You didn't see your parents, did you?"

Now it was Ivy's turn to shift uncomfortably and Neville flushed. "Sorry," he said. "You don't have to tell me."

"No, no, it's okay," Ivy reassured him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you then, but I wanted to get us out of there and…"

"Why?"

Ivy was taken aback by Neville's question. "Well, it seemed like a dangerous thing. It showed us something that wasn't real. It showed us what we wanted, but how did it know that? It didn't seem like a good thing to be around for too long."

Neville sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Sorry, Neville."

Neville shrugged. "It's okay. I think you're probably right. But why did you say you saw your parents?"

Ivy clutched her arm across her chest. "I said I saw my family, which wasn't really a lie. I… I did see my family. Just not my parents."

Neville gave her a questioning look. "So you saw Henry?"

Ivy smiled softly. "Yeah. And Sirius, and Remus, and you…" Neville blushed. "And Fred, and George, and Draco, and Percy, and Thomas, and a whole lot of others, but there were some people I didn't recognize, and…"

Now she brushed off a rogue tear that threatened to fall. "There was someone with Henry. And he looked so happy, and it was like we were a real family," she finished softly.

In a slightly uncharacteristic move for the shy boy, Neville threw his arms around her and gave her a big hug. "Does this mean we can be family?" he asked.

She returned the hug with equal force. "Of course we are."

Neville smiled at her and she smiled back. "Thanks, Ivy."

Percy turned at the feel of someone tapping on his shoulder. He was surprised to see Neville Longbottom there, but was even more surprised at what the younger boy whispered in his ear. Percy nodded and got up from his seat at the Gryffindor table, to the relief of Longbottom who went to go find his own seat. Fred and George shot him a concerned look and he mouthed "Ivy" at them, but at their move to get up also he shook his head and they reluctantly sat back down.

A few minutes later he found Ivy, and she expressed her surprise at seeing him there instead of at the feast. He explained that Neville had told him she was out there and could use his assistance.

Ivy grinned. "Well, he did say you're the smartest person he knows."

Percy couldn't help but preen slightly at the compliment, even if he wasn't entirely confident his intelligence extended to giving advice on emotion and life problems to preteen girls. Ginny certainly hadn't been impressed with his efforts in that regard.

"So… Lon… Neville said that you needed someone to talk to. Is everything okay?" He mentally cringed, because of course it wasn't okay. At least Ivy didn't seem to take offense.

"Yeah, it's fine I guess. You know, today is the day my parents died."

Percy felt in no way adequately prepared for this type of conversation, but he wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing. Taking a deep breath, he nodded, wondering what he could say. "Sorry" just didn't seem to cut it.

"Neville said it was okay that I don't miss them a lot. Do you think that makes me a bad person?"

Percy had been frantically preparing for several sorts of conversations but that was not one of them. "No," he said. "I don't think so."

Ivy looked at him hopefully.

Percy cleared his throat. "It's just, you didn't know them, not really." Great job, Percy. Way to be sensitive. Where was Penny when you needed help with uncomfortable emotional discussions? "And you can still care about them without spending all your time missing them," he continued. There. That was a little better.

Ivy smiled up at him. "You're right," she said. "I do care, so that's alright then, right?"

Percy nodded and smiled at her, feeling relieved that he didn't completely screw this up.

"Say, Percy, do you think Henry will get married?"

Oh boy.

"Um, maybe? Why?"

Ivy mumbled something that he couldn't make out. Percy nudged her and grinned. "Couldn't hear you."

"Because I want us to be a real family."

Once again, oh boy. Percy frowned slightly. "How are you not a really family?"

"Well, it's just Henry and I. And Sirius, and Remus, and Neville and…"

Percy chuckled. "Sounds a lot like a family to me."

Ivy looked up quizzically. "How so?"

"Lots of people," he said, grinning. She rolled her eyes.

"But we're not actually related."

"So?"

"So, it's not real, is it?"

"Why not?"

Ivy looked thoughtful.

"They all care about you, right?"

"Yeah," Ivy said, still looking rather contemplative.

"And you care about them?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds like a family to me."

"So you really can be my family?"

Percy felt a little lighter at that question. "Of course I can. I could always use more sisters."

Ivy grinned. "And Charlie," she added.

"You sure you don't want the twins?" Percy said with a mock groan.

"Them too," Ivy said in complete seriousness.

"Why don't you just take all my siblings while you're at it," Percy said teasingly.

Ivy seemed to consider it for a moment. "Done," she said, sticking out her hand, which Percy took and gave a firm shake.

"Well, should we go into the feast now?"

Ivy stared in the direction of the Great Hall. "Do we have to?"

"I suppose not…"

"Great!" she said enthusiastically. "To the kitchens!" With that, she grabbed Percy's hand and dragged him down the hall.

"Wait, how do you know where those are?" he asked.

"Fred and George."

"Of course it was."

"It was one of the first things they showed me."

"Of course it was."

"One time we met there in the middle of the night and the elves gave us all the leftover puddings from dinner."

"I really did not need to know that."

Ivy just grinned.

November 1, 1992

"Molly, is everything alright?" Arthur looked nervously at his wife, who was clutching a letter and had silent tears running down her face. To his relief, she smiled at him and handed him the letter she had been holding.

He read it and was completely surprised by the time he got to the end, nearly choking up himself.

"Oh Arthur, do you think Percy is alright? It's so unlike him to write something like that."

Arthur smiled and wrapped his wife in a tight embrace. "I think everything is just fine," he whispered.

With a smile and a nod Molly took the letter again and went to place it in the box, she kept her most treasured letters and mementos in.

Neither one stopped smiling the rest of the day.

"Alright, ladies. What do we have?"

All six ladies presented their findings from the previous evening. Ivy Potter's suggestions had been helpful, but it appeared some of them were slightly exaggerated. What had not been exaggerated, however, was Henry Peverell's discomfort in society. They had their work cut out for them.

Nearly three hours later they had something resembling a plan of action. They had a list of social events they felt would be most conducive to their ultimate goal of acclimating Henry into wizarding society, and had a list of people to help him get to know, as well as a list of people to avoid. Priscus Walmsley was a sweet boy but his boisterous behavior and tendency to draw unfavourable attention to himself were not really in keeping with their plans.

"Do you think Henry would be more suited to someone like Julia Botterill or someone like Helen Plaskitt?"

Remei Parkinson's question began a whole other round of discussions. It could never be said that these ladies didn't take their goals seriously.

November 6, 1992

Several students scurried around the two sixth year boys guarding a corner of the Hufflepuff table. Most were willing to give them a wide berth due either to their imposing stance or the glares that they gave anyone who came too close or made too much noise.

Much further down the hall, seated at the Ravenclaw table, five fourth years stuck their heads together.

"How do we get her out?" Fred whispered.

"Why do we need to get her out at all?" Terence whispered back.

"Guys, why am I even here?"

"Shut up, Diggory," came the other four voices.

"We need a neutral party," George explained. Cedric nodded but didn't look particularly appeased.

"We could snatch and grab?" Adrian offered.

George and Terence looked at him sceptically. "You want to try that against those two?" George asked, pointing towards the self-proclaimed bodyguards.

Adrian cringed. "Yeah, maybe not."

Terence snorted. "No kidding."

"Okay, well what about a distraction?"

"What are you going to do, release a bludger?"

The look on Adrian's face was apparently not what Fred had in mind.

"No, kidding, let's definitely not do that," Fred said quickly.

"Yeah, we do place some value on our lives," George added.

"And if we died in a bludger accident the day before the game Oliver would kill us."

"Aren't you two supposed to be beaters?" Terence asked, frowning slightly.

"Yes," the twins said in unison before turning their attention back to Pucey.

"So no bludgers. That's a terrible idea."

"Although maybe a great idea for another day."

Terence glared at Adrian, who shrunk in his seat a little, worried that he might have accidentally given the Weasley twins an idea. Never a good thing, in the opinion of most of the rest of their year.

"So, any other terrible ideas?" Fred asked.

"Hey, I don't see you coming up with any."

"That's because genius takes time, my dear fellow."

"Hey, where'd Diggory go?

The four remains boys looked around.

"Wait, is that…"

"What's he doing?"

"Is he actually just trying to talk to them?"

"Like that's ever going to work."

"Merlin, are they actually letting him near her?"

"What do you suppose he said to get them to do that?"

"Wait, is she getting up?"

"And Flint is letting her?"

"Is he… smiling?"

"Did we seriously just get outsmarted by a Hufflepuff?"

"We're never going to live this down."

"Should we go after them?"

"Quick, look away. Flint and Wood are coming over here."

"Make it look like we're studying or something."

"With what?"

"I don't know, one of you has to have a book, right?"

"Why would you assume that?"

"Well, anytime we see Harrington with Percy he always has a stack of books."

"Yes, but they're like the two smartest people in the school and also Harrington is crazy scary. Have you seen some of those books he carries around?"

"Do you think they're gone?"

"Hello, boys."

The four fourth years each gulped and looked up to see their respective quidditch captains.

"Hey, Wood. Just talking about you," Fred said jokingly.

"And I hope it had absolutely nothing to do with Ivy or any plan to distract her today, would it?"

Fred laughed nervously. "Of course not. Why would you say that?"

Both captains lifted an eyebrow in sync, making the other boys shrink in their seats a bit.

"Just so we're clear, no one will distract her from quidditch, is that clear?" Flint said quietly but with an effective amount of intimidation in his voice.

"Yes sir," the two Slytherins said quickly, the Gryffindor beaters nodding along with wide eyes.

After staring their players down for a moment, the two quidditch captains appeared satisfied with the results they had brought about and nodded to the boys before turning and stalking off.

When they were safely out of range the four boys turned back to each other.

"That was scary."

"Whoever let them together?"

"Any chance we can get them to hate each other again?"

"So, where are we going?"

"Quidditch pitch."

Ivy nodded. "Should I go get my broom?"

Cedric shook his head. "No. Unless you want to go flying."

Ivy shrugged. "I wouldn't mind, but I did already go today. Twice."

Cedric chuckled. "Yeah, I figured as much. You know the others were trying to figure out how to rescue you?"

"Really?" Ivy said, laughing. "From what?"

"Your bodyguards, apparently."

"Oh, you mean Oliver and Marcus?"

Cedric grinned and nodded. "They were plotting how to help you make your escape."

Ivy laughed. "That's silly. They just wanted me to get my homework done quickly so I wouldn't be distracted tomorrow."

"Alright, well what've you got?"

"Well, there's this part in the transfiguration book I don't get. I mean, it works when I do it but I can't figure out why and I have this essay I'm supposed to do."

"Well let's take a look, shall we?"

Ivy beamed. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"So how do I fix it?"

"I honestly have no idea."

"Really?" Ivy deflated slightly.

Cedric chuckled. "Most people don't have a problem with not knowing what spell they're using to get something done."

"Oh, why is that?"

Cedric laughed out loud. "You do realize most people actually say their spells, right?"

Ivy's mouth opened and shut. "But what about when I can't remember which spell it is?"

"Is that what's happening here?"

Ivy nodded.

"So you are just, what? Waving your wand around and hoping to get the right result?"

Ivy nodded again.

Cedric looked up at the sky. "Okay, tell me what you're thinking when you do it."

"Well, I'm thinking about what I want to happen."

"So are you visualizing the result?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

Cedric grabbed a rock off the ground and tossed it to Ivy, who caught it automatically.

"Okay, how about this. See if you can change that into a stick."

Ivy put on her best concentrating face and did just that.

"Okay good. Now change the color."

A moment later the stick was blue.

"Now change it into a glass cup."

Another moment later she handed him a glass cup.

"Okay, so what did you do?"

"I made it do what I wanted."

"How?"

Ivy's brow furrowed as she considered the question. "I… I think I pushed a lot of magic into doing what I wanted it to do."

"Did you think any spells or words?"

"Just to change the color. I remember that one."

"Did it feel any different?"

Ivy considered her answer for a moment. "I guess. It was easier, I suppose. I didn't feel the magic moving so much."

Cedric grinned. "Great. So how about you try using a spell for the other ones."

He demonstrated the correct spell a couple times and then Ivy mimicked his actions.

"Like that?" she asked.

Cedric nodded. "Just like that. Feel any different?"

Ivy frowned. "I didn't feel much of anything. Is that normal?"

"Yeah," he said, chuckling. "You're not using as much of your magic to make it do what you want, so you're not feeling it as closely."

Ivy nodded in understanding before scrunching her nose. "Does this mean I have to remember all the spells?"

Cedric laughed. "It'd probably help, yeah. But that shouldn't be too hard. Aren't you way ahead in most of your spellwork anyway?"

"But that doesn't mean I remember them," Ivy pouted. "I just remember what they do."

Cedric laughed again and shook his head. "Only you, Ivy. Only you."

"What are they doing?"

"I can't see. Budge over."

"They're not flying. Why aren't they flying?"

"Are they doing… homework?"

"You mean to tell me that Diggory got Ivy out of there just to do homework?"

"Looks like it. Here, see for yourself."

Fred gasped. "He's corrupting her."

Terence frowned. "How so?"

"He's going to make her be all boring."

"We have to put a stop to this."

"Come on, this can't be the first time you've seen her studying."

"But she's studying on the quidditch pitch. That's not what it's for."

"That's true," Terence admitted.

"So are you in?"

"Yes."

"And what are you four doing here?"

As they scampered away Adrian turned to Fred and asked, "Where did they even come from?"

Fred just shook his head. "No idea."

November 7, 1992

"WELCOME TO THE FIRST QUIDDITCH MATCH OF THE SEASON," Jordan's voice bellowed across the speaker. Cheers erupted throughout the stands, particularly in one section of the Ravenclaw section. Pansy wondered why she had let herself be talked into sitting there.

The teams came onto the field, and the cheers grew louder.

"…PRIDE AND JOY OF THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM AND THE NEW SLYTHERIN SEEKER, IVY POTTER!"

The rest of second years sitting in Ravenclaw cheered particularly loudly at that part. Pansy cheered also, but she wasn't about to embarrass herself by making a scene.

What followed was one of the most exciting quidditch games the school had seen for some time. It was also the only quidditch game most of the students had seen for some time, it being the first one of the year and all, so the general mood was one of excitement. Still, the game was rather exciting. Or at least that's what everyone around Pansy kept telling her. She didn't particularly care for quidditch (to Draco's everlasting horror), and she couldn't be bothered to follow along too closely, but there were some occasional highlights she found entertaining.

One of the Weasley twins performed some stunt or other that, while ultimately effective as far as she could tell, very nearly resulted in him falling off his broom. It was comical and Pansy decided that regardless of what else happened during the match that would be the highlight of the game for her. She found the twins incredibly annoying and didn't understand at all why Draco and Ivy both insisted on hanging out with them all the time.

She watched the other players, trying to remember all their names. Paying attention to the commentary in an attempt to catch the names was far too much effort. The Slytherin team was easy, especially since they had all routinely interrupted her claim on Ivy's time the past two weeks. Not that she was bitter about that or anything, but didn't people realize that the second year Slytherin girls' girl time was far more important than all this quidditch nonsense? She could almost hear Draco's gasp in the distance… But even Millie left her precious little Herbology club for their girl time. But did any of those boys appreciate it? No. For them, it was all "quidditch this" and "quidditch that" and "no, Parkinson, you can't kidnap Potter and keep her away from quidditch practice."

So how had Diggory managed it? For a Hufflepuff he sure was holding well against her usual threats. He hadn't even appeared frightened, instead, he had looked almost amused, and it was annoying. Oh well. That was a problem for another day.

Oh look, Draco made a shot. Even Pansy knew Wood was really good so that was probably impressive. She was sure she'd hear all about it later.

Just then Ivy and the Gryffindor seeker whose name Pansy didn't know and didn't care to try and figure out sped by. Had someone seen the snitch? She smiled smugly to herself. And Draco thought she didn't know anything about quidditch.

Someone passed the Quaffle to someone else (ha! Draco), and eventually someone scored. Terence eventually scored for Slytherin. He was cute. Oh, and then one of the Gryffindor chasers scored. Did her fellow second years ever get tired of cheering? And did they have to cheer for every single score? It didn't even matter who scored. Maybe they liked the sound of their own yells.

Next time she was sitting with the rest of the civilized people over in Slytherin.

Flint did something that was apparently impressive because a loud roar went up from the Slytherin section. Never mind. They were just as bad.

Pansy looked around to see if there was any decent group of students she could join. Up on the top row, she spotted Granger who was focused entirely on a book and not at all on the game. She sighed but resigned herself to her fate. It was worth the sacrifice to have a few moments without someone screaming in her ear.

Hermione looked up, startled at the unexpected sound of someone sitting down next to her.

Seeing who it was, she frowned slightly and opened her mouth to ask Parkinson what she wanted.

"Are you going to cheer fanatically at any point in this game?" Parkinson asked.

Surprised, Hermione just shook her head.

"Good," was all Parkinson said, before turning her face back towards the match.

Hermione waited for a minute to see if the Slytherin was going to say anything else, but the other girl seemed determined to ignore her, so she eventually returned to her book, puzzled, but not entirely upset.

"…caught the snitch of course, but it was getting close in points, and did you see that shot I made?"

"Mmhmm."

"And then…"

Pansy tuned Draco out. A few minutes later she realized he had stopped talking. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I asked if you think the bludgers should go faster."

Pansy frowned. "Can't you just throw them harder?"

Draco's eye twitched. "You don't throw bludgers, Pansy. You hit them. And they go flying through the air and try to crash into you."

"Sorry. I forgot."

"But I just explained it to you on Tuesday."

"Which I totally paid attention to until I got bored and stopped listening."

Draco threw himself dramatically onto the sofa. "I can't believe my two best friends don't even care about quidditch," he whined into the cushion.

"Ivy is literally on the team with you."

"But she doesn't care."

Pansy shrugged. "Well, I'm sure she'll go throw bludgers around with you if you ask. Isn't that what she goes and does with Flint all the time?"

Draco's eye twitched again.

"Why are we even celebrating?"

"No idea. Do you think Wood realizes Slytherin won?"

"I don't know. Pretty sure he's lost it, mate."

The two fifth year boys surveyed the party in front of them. It was unlike any other Gryffindor party they had ever seen. Gryffindor had lost the quidditch match, but still Wood insisted that they celebrate. Worst of all, Potter was there. The very reason Gryffindor had lost in the first place. And Wood was happy she was there. They both had to admit though, she could down those candies like it was nobody's business.

Eventually, the braver of the two boys (or the one who had drunk some of the firewhiskey that had somehow been smuggled in), called out to Wood. "Hey, why are we even celebrating? We didn't even win."

The room quieted down a bit and many pairs of eyes turned towards the two.

Oops.

Oliver surveyed the rest of Gryffindor House, satisfied that he had done what he needed to do. He had explained in no uncertain terms that tonight they were celebrating quidditch. It didn't matter if they won or not (alright it did, but it was Ivy so Oliver could live with that and crush Flint in the overall score for the year), because they were celebrating the greatest game ever invented. He had even made sure Percy was safely away on his rounds. No need to give his friend a heart attack at the sight of the unruly bunch, and certainly no need to worry him over the firewhiskey that had somehow ended up here. Besides, Oliver was a responsible person. He made sure only the sixth and seventh years could access it. Well, and that one fifth year, but that hadn't been on purpose and he had brought it to a swift end. See? Responsible.

And while there were quite a few faces that looks confused as to why Ivy Potter was celebrating with them instead of her own house, a few well placed glares were enough to make sure that no one caused a scene. Thankfully the wide variety of food the twins and Ivy had managed to procure had made most people quite content to have Ivy as an honorary Gryffindor for the night. Now if he could only make it permanent and get her on his team…

"Hey did you see that…"

Fred and George turned to look at Ivy but she had disappeared.

"Where'd she go?"

"I don't know. Do you see her?"

"No. Should we go get the thing?"

"Wait, there she is."

"Is she…"

They looked helplessly at Ivy, who lay fast asleep in a small corner of the common room, apparently undisturbed by the noise all around her.

"Hey, Fred…"

"Yeah?"

"How many of those candies did she have?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"I think she got a bit of a sugar crash."

"What do we do?"

"Don't worry. I've got this," a voice from behind them said, surprising them both but definitely not causing them to jump a bit. Not at all.

As they watched Flint pick her up and sling her over his shoulder, Fred leaned towards George. "How'd he get here?"

"No idea."

"Should we be concerned that so many Slytherins know how to get in the tower?"

"It's probably fine."

As Marcus made his way into the Slytherin common room, he glared at everyone who dared make a noise.

"Um, Flint, is that Ivy?" Adrian asked.

Marcus grunted and nodded.

"Is she asleep?"

He glared at Hyslop who had asked his question a little too loudly.

"So, um, are we going to have our party or not?"

Marcus handed Ivy off to Thomas, who was silenced from whatever protest he was about to make by a glare. They were really quite effective things.

Thomas glanced around the room, but no one paid him any attention and he eventually headed towards the girls' dormitories.

"Now we can celebrate," Marcus said after the two were out of sight.

"How's Harrington supposed to get her there? You can't get to the girls' rooms," Marcus heard some boy say.

"He knows all sorts of things like that," some other kid said. "Haven't you seen him and Weasley? I heard they're going to take over the ministry when they graduate."

Marcus rolled his eyes but ignored the rest of their conversation. As long as they didn't bother him or try and recruit Ivy away from quidditch it didn't really matter to him what Thomas and Weasley did.