January 3, 1993

"Hurry up, we're going to be late," Harry called up, tapping his foot ever so slightly.

"Uh, Harry, the train doesn't leave for two hours," Sirius pointed out.

So maybe it was ever so slightly possible that Harry's past experiences with the Weasleys and the how-many-seconds-before-the-train-leaves-can-we-get-there game had left an impression somewhere along the line. Maybe.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Ivy said, coming down the stairs, trunk floating behind her.

"Okay, not that this is going to change absolutely anything, but you do realize that you're not supposed to use magic outside of school, right?" It was a token effort but Harry felt it was sufficient to check off that box on the list of parental responsibilities.

"Yep!"

"Okay, just so you're aware."

"Does it still count if I didn't use my wand though?"

"Uh, not sure about that actually. Sirius? Barty?"

"It's probably fine," Sirius said.

"You haven't been expelled yet."

"Thanks, Barty, for that contribution," Harry said dryly.

"What are minions for?" Barty said with a grin.

Ivy came to a sudden halt. "Barty's your minion? I thought you said I couldn't have minions. Why doyouget a minion then?"

"Because…" Harry scrambled for an answer. "I'm an adult."

Surprisingly, this seemed to work. Ivy was instantly mollified, and appeared to take Harry's answer as a reasonable explanation. "Oh, that makes sense," she said, much to Harry's relief. "I'll let Fred know then."

"Wait, let Fred know what?" Harry watched Ivy walk out the door, trunk still following behind. "Ivy…"

So maybe they were just a tad early to the station, but it wasn'tthatbad. Ivy didn't seem particularly convinced of that statement, but what can you do.

"Hey, remember when we waited for that train in Bergen?"

Harry sighed. "Why couldn't you have brought up the train in Frankfurt? Or the one in Sri Lanka? Or the one in Darjeeling? Did you have to bring up the one in Bergen?" What was he saying, of course she would have brought up the one in Bergen. And… Yep, there it was. She was grinning. She was a little menace sometimes and she knew it.

Harry sighed. Dramatically. He felt he had earned that much. "One time. It happenedonetime."

Ivy was still grinning. "I still can't believe they thought your accent was real."

Harry felt his eye twitch. "It wasn'tthatbad."

Ivy grinned wider. Just as she was about to say something though she seemed to have some sort of realization. Harry braced himself. "Wait, is that why we went to the States after that?"

"No?" Harry held onto the tiny, minuscule, infinitesimal hope that somehow he had come across as convincing.

Ivy gaped. "Itis. Oh, wait 'till I tell Sirius about that. I can't believe you took us to the States just so you could try to fake an American accent."

"Hey, I can fake one," Harry declared stubbornly. "Now," he added under his breath.

Ivy just shook her head as if he were saying something terribly amusing.

Harry most definitely did not pout. Not at all. And there were no witnesses so ha.

Okay, so maybe they had been really early. Their conversation had strayed all over the place, per usual, but they had ended up spending a long time talking about Luna Lovegood. Both of them, actually. Ivy loved Harry's Luna, of course, but he had been slightly perplexed when she had called his Luna, well, his Luna.

"Uncle Henry," Ivy had said seriously, "you have your Luna, I have mine."

Harry's brain had blanked out for a moment as he worried who had told Ivy something or what she had figured out. He wasnotready for that particular situation yet. There were so many things he needed to do first. Like teach her occlumency. Or fine someone else to teach it to her. Make sure there was no way for her to make an interdimensional adventure attempt. Or time travel. Would it be rude to go destroy all the time-turners? Probably. He… oh. She probably just meant because there were two Lunas now, huh. And one was her friend while the other was Harry's… friend. Right. Yes. No need to panic. Still time to work on occlumency.

Harry then gave a small shudder.

"Yes, you'll be fine. Okay, here's your lunch," he said, handing a small sack to Ivy. "Try to eat thatbeforeyou empty the trolley."

Ivy rolled her eyes but took the the sack with a poorly hidden grin.

There was some kind of aww-ing sound from somewhere behind him, but he wasn't really paying close attention. Someone's child probably just did something cute. Kids did do that sort of thing sometimes.

"Hey, Fred, good news." The compartment's occupants all looked up at the grinning Slytherin.

"Yeah? What is it?" Fred asked.

"Turns out I can have minions after I'm an adult."

Fred grinned. Ivy grinned. The others groaned. It was a beautiful moment.

Thomas collapsed on his bed and started laughing into the pillow.

"Uh, everything alright there?"

"We made it," Thomas said, perhaps a little hysterically, but really, who could blame him. "We made it."

"You did what?"

"The entire train ride. Nothing happened. We made it through the entire train ride."

"Right… So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this has something to do with Potter?"

The twin snorts from Marcus and Kenneth were insufficient to wreck the moment of triumphant joy that Thomas was experiencing.

"Corvin," he said, leaning up off the bed, "we made it through theentire train rideandnothing happened." He gave his roommate a pointed look.

It only took another second or so for the other wizard to catch on, and when he did, a look of slight awe flashed over his face. "How did you manage that?"

Thomas grinned. "Did you hear about all the new pets students brought back with them this term?"

Corvin's eye widened. "That wasyou?"

Thomas shook his head. "Nope. I had nothing to do with that. Just used it to my, well,ouradvantage."

Corvin shuddered. "Anyone in Slytherin?"

"Nope. Ivy's the only one," Thomas said with a grin. "Heard there's quite a few in Ravenclaw though."

"Twelve," Kenneth interjected. "Four in Hufflepuff, one in Gryffindor."

"Seven… There'sseventeennew snakes here?" Corvin looked horrified. Thomas couldn't exactly blame him.

Kenneth sighed and they all turned his way, only to see a wistful look on his face that didn't quite match his… well, existence might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a close thing.

"What I wouldn't give to be in that staff meeting," he said to the somewhat puzzled looks on his classmates' faces.

Thomas felt a momentary pang of sympathy for the other heads of house. He wasn't sure they were prepared for this sort of thing.

January 8, 1993

Severus groaned on the inside. Loudly, and with vigor. It was January. In Scotland. Did they all have to be so… cheerful?

And leave it to Albus to sound optimistic about the number of students that had brought back snakes as pets for the new term. Sure, the headmaster was technicallyopposingthe snakes, but he was doing it in the most horrifically cheerful way imaginable, twinkle and all.

Staff meetings were terrible. Also, his third year class this morning had ended in four trips to the hospital wing and eighteen destroyed . Severus was fairly certain it took a special kind of skill to destroythat manyin one go. And the Weasley twins weren't even in that class, so he had no idea who might be capable of such a thing. It was mildly irritating.

"Sorry, how many students did you say showed up with snakes?"

Really, it had already been stated once nearly fifteen minutes ago. Had no one been paying attention?

"Seventeen," Minerva replied.

"That you know of," Severus couldn't help but add. Sue him, he was bored. Also the twitch in Albus's eye was worth it, as was the slight upturn in the corner of Filius's mouth.

"Well, that's one response to Ivy being a parselmouth," Lupin muttered.

Severus dearly wanted to deliver some scathing remark about how dare he assume this had anything to do with Potter, but he was almost certain it did, in fact, have to do with her.

"Oh yes, my Ravenclaws are all excited to learn more about the proper care of snakes," Filius said. That explained the twelve snakes in Ravenclaw then.

"It's so good to see them taking such good care of the little things," Pomona added.

"How about you, Minerva?" Severus asked, waiting for the eye twitch… ah, there it was.

"One, Severus. Lysander Westbrook, if you must know."

Severus was mildly impressed. He hadn't thought the little first year had it in him.

"And what about you, Severus? How many snakes in Slytherin?"

Oh the possibilities with that question. He could see Lupin trying to hold back a smirk, and was momentarily torn between scowling at Albus for assuming his perfect little snakes had possibly done anything wrong, and Potter didn't count at this point, and scolding at Lupin for finding the same things amusing as he did.

He settled on a general scowl and acerbic answer. "Just the one, headmaster. Same as always."

Albus frowned, Lupin moved a hand to cover his mouth, and likely a laugh, and Severus resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Yes, well, snakes are not allowed at Hogwarts, so I am afraid we will have to require all students to return their new pets home. I…"

"Albus," Minerva interrupted with a tinge of exasperation in her voice, "Miss Potter has had a snake at Hogwarts for the last year and a half and no issue has been ," she continued, cutting off Albus's attempt to interject with something or other, "she is certainly not the only student to possess a pet that is not, strictly speaking,allowed. Need I remind you of the other animals currently residing in Hogwarts?" She didn't pause for a response. "We have a tarantula, a gerbil, two hamsters, three guinea pigs, one fox, one sugar glider, four ferrets, two hedgehogs, nine salamanders, six lizards, and one miniature pig."

"Miniature pig?" Lupin asked with interest.

"Folant Holmwood, one of my seventh years," Pomona explained, with a fond look on her face. Severus ignored most of the animals that found their way into the Slytherin dorms, but he knew he would draw the line at a pig, no matter how "cute" it was claimed to be. They had to havesomestandards, after all.

"So you see,Albus, despite the ratherrecently acquiredinterest in the certain breed of reptile, simply banning that animal is not feasible at this point," Minerva continued, giving the headmaster a very pointed look. Severus could have sworn he saw the headmaster inch down in his seat every so slightly. Good.

"Remus, what about your students?" Albus practically pleaded.

"I'm not a head of house, why are you asking me this?" Lupin asked.

It only took twelve more minutes to get Albus to give in, and another twenty minutes for the meeting to come to a blessed end, at which point Severus was mentally listing off the requirements for changing his name and moving to Russia, but that wasn't really important.

As much as he would love to retreat to the dungeons as quickly as possible, there was still one more little thing he had to take care of.

"Albus, I need to request the Easter Holidays off."

The headmaster looked at him with surprise but recovered quickly. "I see. Nothing bad I hope?"

Severus wasn't sure if he was making up the hopeful sound in Albus's voice that sounded similar to his I-have-a-conspiracy-theory-that-I'm-really-excited-about voice, but he let it go.

"I have a rather…pressingengagement."

Thankfully the headmaster didn't ask for further details, and approval was given. Had Severus been a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff he would have leapt in the air for joy, but he actually had some dignity to preserve, so he refrained.

"Pressing engagement?" Lupin asked him with a knowing smirk after Albus had left.

"Yes, it is unfortunate that I will not be here to witness the latest attempt by Potter and her little red headed demons to burn the castle down, but some things can't be avoided." And some things can if you're smart and possess sufficient levels of self-preservation, Severus added to himself.

"Of course," Lupin added.

Severus was too happy to give his scowl a full measure of fury so he settled on mildly irritated. Lupin was unfazed but Severus couldn't find it in himself to care at the moment.

"So how has the reaction in Hufflepuff been to all the new snakes?"

Justin shrugged. "A few people are still upset that nobody else has brought a pig. Holmwood is graduating this year and everyone is kind of upset that Furball will be gone."

"Furball?"

"The pig," Justin explained.

Theo decided not to ask. "And that's it? Everyone is okay with snakes in there?"

Justing shrugged again. "Well, yeah. We have a lot of animals in there, so it'll be fine. Totally fine. Who doesn't like snakes?" Justin laughed nervously and Theo was not fooled for a second. "What about Slytherin?"

Now it was Theo's turn to shrug. "A lot of people are upset that the other houses have more snakes than we do, and that they didn't think of it first, since it's our house and all. A few people tried conjuring them but so far no one has gotten one to last long enough."

Justin did not look nearly as excited at the prospect ofmoresnakes as Theo was, which he couldn't quite understand. The snakes were so cool, and it was unfair that Hufflepuff hadfourwhen Slytherin, the literal house of snakes, only hadone.

"You know, Hufflepuffs don't summon badgers…"

"Well of course not. Badgers are nasty little buggers, aren't they."

The pained on Justin's face was probably due to his wishing his house had a more conjure-able animal. Because who in their right mind would try to conjure a badger?

January 9, 1993

"Hey Thomas, can we go tell the twins and Neville about the basilisk now?"

Percy choked on air and Thomas screamed on the inside.

"You know, I was really hoping you had forgotten about that," he muttered. Ivy just smiled at him and he sighed. "Percy," he said, turning towards his friend and the last thing keeping his sanity in check at the moment. "There's a basilisk under the school, it adopted Ivy, Malfoy knows, and Ivy wants to tell your brothers and Longbottom."

"Abasilisk?"

"Yes."

"There's abasiliskinHogwarts?"

"Yep!" This time Ivy answered. Thomas would not have answered so cheerfully. "It's in the Chamber of Secrets."

"The Chamber… Ivy… Please tell me your Uncle knows about this."

"He's the one who told me about it."

Thomas was having a mini crisis concerning his opinions of one Lord Peverell-Slytherin, and Percy looked like he was having an existential crisis of his own. Thomas tried to remember whether or not he had known that particular fact already, but was drawing a blank. There was just a lot to deal with at the moment.

"And you really want to tell Fred and George?" Percy looked desperately optimistic. The kind where you know the answer is not going to be what you want but you have nothing else to hope for.

"And Neville," Ivy replied. How could the living embodiment of chaos be socheerfulandcuteall the time? One more thing to add to Thomas's ongoing crisis.

"Thomas?" Percy looked at him with a pleading look.

Thomas shrugged helplessly. This was all going terribly and he didn't know what he was doing.

"But you're not going to take them there, are you?"

"No, Thomas said I probably shouldn't."

For the first time in this conversation Percy looked like there was hope left in this world. "Yes, listen to Thomas. That is a great plan. Let's do that."

"Okay, so can we tell them now?"

Ivy's smile was heartwarming and reassuring yet terrifying all at the same time. Thomas decided right then and there that he was going to get the most boring, mundane, no-danger-whatsoever job after graduating. Some nice little paper-pusher job in the Ministry perhaps. His father knew people. Lord Peverell seemed to like him well enough. Lord Greengrass was a pleasant wizard. Yes, that sounded like a good plan. He should talk to Percy about that.

Percy sympathized with the look on Neville's face, and tried not to think too hard about the looks on Fred and George's faces. He gave Neville a reassuring pat on the back, and tried to offer him some words of comfort, though whether it was for the new knowledge of the deadly creature living in the school or the fact that the boy's friends all seemed to attract far more trouble than he likely enjoyed Percy really couldn't say.

Then a thought crossed his mind, and no matter how much he tried to dismiss it, he couldn't let go of it.

"Thomas, can I talk to you for a second?"

Thomas nodded, and Percy abandoned Neville to the slightly more eager conversations of Ivy, Fred, and George, who were discussing the situation with far less horror than Percy felt was entirely appropriate given the circumstances.

When he and Thomas had each erected a sufficient number of privacy wards, Percy turned to his friend. "You said the basilisk, uh,adoptedIvy?"

Thomas nodded. "Yeah? So she says. The snake calls her her little hatchling or something like that."

"Right, okay. And did it, sorry,shehappen to have anything to do with Lockhart's disappearance?"

"Er…"

Percy could put two and two together. Both boys focused on their own thoughts for a bit, but it was obvious after a few moments that they had come to the same conclusions.

"We should probably…"

"Not tell anyone about this?"

"Yeah. Right. Probably not."

"Maybe ask Lord Peverell?"

"Good idea."

"Anyone else?"

"Better not."

"Yeah, okay."

"Do you think Lockhart…"

They made a face at each other and shuddered slightly before dismantling the wards. This was Peverell's business, and they would just do their job at looking out for Ivy. No need to get other people involved, really.

January 10, 1993

"Hey Ivy, where are you going?"

"Owlery. Have a few letters to send." Ivy held up the stack as proof of her statement.

"Great, so can we take Tiger?"

Ivy looked at her snake for a minute, apparently listening to whathehad to say on the matter. "Yeah, he's hungry so he wants to go the chicken room."

To their credit, Tracey, Daphne, and Millie only looked slightly concerned about that statement. Draco, on the other hand, looked positively horrified. "He wants to eat anowl?"

Ivy gave him a funny look. "No, of course not. That's the owl room. He wants to go thechickenroom."

Daphne gestured for her to explain.

"The Great Hall. He wants to go the Great Hall."

Draco looked a little better after that, and Tracey scooped up the snake and began cooing about getting him all the chicken.

"What's going on?" Pansy asked, coming up to their little group.

"Tiger isn't going to eat an owl."

Pansy didn't even blink. "Oh that's nice. Although there's a really annoying one if he changes his mind."

Draco made a token sound of protest and everyone went on their merry way. Millie, being slightly more thoughtful at times than some of the others, decided it would be a good idea to share that information with the other snake-owning students. Plus it was a chance to go see Cedric.

Hannah and Susan. She meant Hannah and Susan.