June 17, 1994

"I don't think I want to use that one."

Kenneth sighed, albeit internally. "I'm not saying you have to use it, I'm just saying it might be good to learn just in case."

"Just in case someone starts bullying me again, you mean."

"Yes."

"I have friends now, you know."

"Luna, please just take the book."

Luna took the book, but he sincerely doubted she would ever open it.

"Look, I know you'll probably be fine, and there are plenty people that will be keeping an eye on things if they know what's good for them, but I don't want to leave you to come here next year unprepared."

"It's all right, Neville will look out for me."

"Nevi…Longbottom? Fine, you know what? Just, fine."

"I'll miss you too," Luna said, leaning into his side.

"Yeah, well, you're stuck with me now, princess," Kenneth said, pulling her in for a tight hug.

"You make a good big brother."

"Of course I do. I'm the best."

"Here's the list of books. We updated it last night."

Cedric went to take the list form Percy but Bridget grabbed it before he could.

"You know, this isn't going to do much. Ivy has the entire Peverell and Black family libraries at her disposal, and even if she didn't she's not going to be dissuaded by a few light misdirections," Christopher said, smirking slightly at Percy's eye twitch.

"This is our very last evening at Hogwarts, Walker," Thomas said wearily. "Just let us have this."

"Why is there even a book on the art of defenestration in the library?" Bridget asked.

Cedric leaned over to see the list. "Hey, why is a book on Kneazle breeding on the list?"

The two almost graduates looked between the Hufflepuffs for a moment before turning away and walking off without another word.

"That was strange," Cedric mused, more to himself than to anyone else present.

"Not really," Christopher said. "They have dedicated an inordinate amount of time to their babysitting efforts, after all."

"And we're the new babysitters?" Bridget asked jokingly.

Christopher just grinned at her.

"What about the twins and the Slytherins?" Cedric asked. "Why not give this to them?"

"Do they look like babysitters?"

"Do we?"

"Do you see any babies here?" Christopher countered.

Cedric couldn't argue with that logic.

"It's up to the two of you now."

"We know."

"You have to make sure she doesn't lose interest."

"We know, Flint."

"Every week, do you understand?"

"Yes, Marcus, we get it. We already told you we would."

"Good. See that you do."

They would. There was no way Terence was going to risk the wrath of Marcus Flint, removed from Hogwarts or not. Not when it came to Ivy and Quidditch, particularly in combination. No, he and Adrian would be the encouraging team members Flint wanted them to be. Hopefully Wood would give up his original plan of asking for weekly progress reports though. He could do without those.

"Psst. Ivy."

Ivy only had a split second warning before being dragged around a corner and into an unused classroom.

"George, what are youdoing?" she demanded, though she carefully matched his low volume of speaking.

"Why is your dad at Hogwarts?"

"What?"

"Your dad. He's here on the map."

"What map?"

Fred had chosen the precise moment to enter the room as well, but he began slowly backing up, only to have his brother motion for him to come over.

Ivy watched in amusement. "I'm just kidding. I know about the map."

"You do?" Fred asked.

"Figured it out," Ivy said with a shrug and a grin. "And Dad may have mentioned it once or twice. Sirius too."

Fred chuckled nervously. "Well, isn't that something."

"But why is your dad here?" George said, returning the conversation to the matter at hand.

Ivy frowned slightly. "I can take a guess, but I don't know how accurate it would be. Where is he?"

Eying Ivy warily Fred pulled out the map and whispered the passphrase too quietly to hear, much to Ivy's amusement.

"Here he is," George said, spotting the name first. "But what would he be doing in Professor Binns's office?"

"Oi, look at that," Fred said, pointing to another name just arriving at the same location. "What's Sirius doing there?"

"Snape too!"

The three stared at the map for a moment in silence.

Finally Ivy spoke. "I think this is probably one of the things I get to learn about when I get home," she said.

Suddenly Binns's name disappeared from the map. Three pairs of eyebrows raised exceptionally high.

"Well, um…"

"Definitely one of those things," Ivy said in awe.

"Did he just kill Binns?" Fred asked, in a slightly awed, slightly horrified voice.

"Can you kill a ghost?" George asked back.

"I think… I think maybe we had better leave this alone for now," Ivy said, giving the map a chary look.

"You sure?" George asked.

"Just for now," Ivy hurried to say. "Dad told me there were some things he couldn't tell me about until I learned occlumency. And I've been practicing with Sirius all year. So, well, when I get home…"

Fred nodded. "Let us know if you need help."

"Thanks."

All three turned back to watch the map very intently. They watched as Sirius and Professor Snape both left, and waited to see where Henry would go, only to see his name vanish as suddenly as that of Professor Binns.

"Well I don't imagine he died," Fred said.

George elbowed him in the side. "He could have apparated."

"Inside Hogwarts?" Fred asked incredulously.

"Oh, I think he's done that before," Ivy said, still giving more attention to the map than to anything else and therefore not in a position to see the looks on her friends' faces.

"Right," was all either twin managed in response.

It was the last night at Hogwarts for the students, and nothing entirely terrible had happened to Sirius. It was a good thing, really, and maybe the fact that he had only planned on staying a single year in the first place canceled out the curse, but seeing as he had been unable to find the source of the curse all year, he was not about to let his guard down. His family may have been a crazy, bigoted, curse-happy lot, but sometimes inherited paranoia wasn't such a bad thing.

"…regret that I announce the departure of our beloved Professor Binns, who has finally moved on…"

Sirius suppressed a snort. He didn't think there was a single person living or dead who would actually miss the ghost as a professor. Well, perhaps some of the students would miss having a free nap period, but then again they might also enjoy learning about something other than goblin wars for a change.

"…announce the winner of the House Cup…"

Sirius continued to tune out the general noise in the hall and, more precisely, the ramblings of the headmaster. He had gone the entire school year without cursing the aged wizard and he wasn't going to give into temptation now by paying close attention to the words coming out of his mouth. Severus could handle that.

"…Gryffindor, with 547 points, and…"

Then the headmaster paused and Sirius glanced up to ascertain the cause.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "And in first place, Hufflepuff, with 1,483 points."

Everyone cheered, though no one as loudly as the Hufflepuffs. Understandable, really.

"Yes, well, congratulations to Hufflepuff," the headmaster said, sounding rather bemused.

Sirius was rather confused as well. How had that house managed to get so many more points than any other house?

It was a mystery worth… Why did Ivy look like she was about to fall out of her seat laughing?

It all came crashing down on Sirius's mind at once. It was him. He was the reason Hufflepuff had so many points. He had never given Ivy's little habit much thought, pretending to give points to Hufflepuff. Except then she had gotten him doing it, and he was a teacher, and apparently those points did actually count…

He slunk down in his chair, but not enough to make anyone suspicious. Hopefully.

Ten points to Slytherin, he thought.

"How did we manage to get that many points?" Wayne whispered.

"No idea," answered Justin in a whisper to match that of his friend, "but just go with it."

Similar conversations happened up and down the Hufflepuff table amidst their cheering and clapping, with similar results in all cases. They might not know how they did it, but they weren't going to complain now.

June 18, 1994

"Right. Here you go."

"Both of them?"

"Well I couldn't very well separate them now, could I?" That was Harry's reasoning and he was sticking to it.

Sabrina eyed the wolf cubs, if they could even still be called that. Harry was fairly certain they had passed that stage months ago but if needed he would still appeal to their cuteness. Or just leave. Whatever worked.

"I'm not getting out of this one, am I?"

"Nope," Harry replied cheerfully.

Sabrina gave a long-suffering sigh before turning towards the door. "Come on in," she said, before whistling to the wolves. Dante and Otso followed obediently behind.

It took Harry just a moment to stop staring at the two perfectly behaved wolves. "Now how'd you get them to do that?" he asked, following Sabrina inside. They had never listened tohimthat easily.

"So rumor has it that Binns has finally passed on," Sabrina said more than asked.

"That was fast," Harry muttered into his teacup.

"You didn't expect otherwise, did you?" Sabrina asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not particularly," Harry admitted, "although I did think it'd wait until the Express arrived this evening."

"So how did you do it? Last time we talked you still weren't sure."

Harry shrugged and leaned back in his seat a bit. "We just had a chat, really. He was really quite cooperative once we informed him Barty has completed his mastery. Did ask whether he could be counted on to teach about the goblin wars though. He was rather insistent on that point."

"Yes because I'm sure that's what Barty will be most concerned with," Sabrina said dryly.

"I'm sure he'll mention it," Harry said with a slight smirk. "Eventually."

"So no special 'Master of Death' powers involved?" Sabrina quipped.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, I don't know if you could call it that, really. Binns did ask permission to move on, which was strange, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything."

Sabrina hmmed.

"It doesn't. It's not like I did anything."

Sabrina did not expound on her previous reply and Harry resisted the urge to fidget.

"Well I didn't," Harry said. So there. That was all there was to it. He had had a nice little chat is all. No extraordinary powers or magic involved whatsoever.Probably.

"You used to like small animals."

"He's not that large."

"Whatever happened to you liking small animals?"

"Isn't he beautiful?"

Harry eyed Buckbeak warily. Bloody Hippogriff seemed amused. Harry was much less amused.

"So can we keep him?"

"Do I want to know why he's here instead of with Hagrid?" Harry muttered, mostly to himself.

"That wasn't a no," Ivy prompted.

Harry sighed. It wasn't the worst thing she could have brought home. Better this than a boy, at least. Or a dragon. Honestly the dragon was more likely and nothing about that thought filled Harry with any sort of confidence. "It wasn't a no," he agreed.

"Come on, I'll show you around," Ivy said to the hippogriff.

Buckbeak appeared to give Harry a small bow before following Ivy. Harry chose not to think too hard on that. It's not like the hippogriff could sense familiarity in him, right? This wasn't the same Buckbeak he himself had known once upon a time and universe. It was probably just a figment of his imagination.

Then Harry's line of thought came to an abrupt halt. "Wait, you didn't bring him on the train, did you?"

Ivy was not so far away yet and turned back towards him. "Of course not," she said. "He flew."

Right. Flew. That was good. Not actually as obvious as she made it sound, knowing her, but still.

"Besides, he wouldn't fit through the door," she added.

There it is, thought Harry. He chuckled to himself. Ivy may be growing up but it looked like some things weren't going to change. At least not yet.

June 20, 1994

"What can Gringotts do for you today, Lord Slytherin?"

"Yeah, yeah, focus on that part. I still blame you, you know."

Gornuk grinned and Harry suppressed a shudder. You would think he would be used to this by now, but every time he entered Gringotts they seemed to find new ways to unnerve him. Okay so maybe it wasn't always a new way, since their grins seemed to do it just fine a majority of the time, but even then…

But back to the matter at hand.

"Dolores Umbridge."

Gornuk snorted. Actuallysnortedat that. Harry only resisted scowling because he knew Gornuk would find it amusing and that would accomplish nothing he wanted.

"It is amusing, is it not, what…creaturescan prove the most troublesome?"

Harry didn't doubt for a second that Gornuk's word choice was entirely intentional.

"So… Have anything I can use?"Because I need a good reason to keep telling a bunch of spell-happy wizards that murder is not the answer, he thought to himself.

Gornuk looked amused, and Harry wondered what he had ever done to deserve being the recipient of goblin humor.

"Gringotts of course prides itself on anticipating the needs of our…favoriteclients," Gornuk said with a sharp-toothed grin.

Harry did not like being their favorite. He did notwantto be their favorite. He had done absolutely nothing to deserve this whatsoever.

"Unfortunately the Ministry Toad deals mostly with the secrets of other witches and wizards, so there is very little Gringotts can do apart from providing you with a thorough list of such incidents."

With that Gornuk snapped his fingers, bringing in a brief flash a rather thick document. Harry had no doubt Gornuk was not over-exaggerating in the least when he said the list was thorough.

"Thanks."

"Is there anything else Gringotts can assist you with today, Lord Slytherin?"

Harry shook his head and started to stand. "Actually, you have anything that can explain the Master of Death thing?"

Gornuk just smiled a knowing smile that looked vaguely patronizing. "Good day, Lord Slytherin."

"Mr. Potter, welcome. What can I do for you today?"

Harry glanced around to make sure he didn't need to throw any memory charms around. "You know, Mr. Ollivander, no one actually calls me that anymore."

"But that does not make it your name any less, does it?"

"I think the goblins would disagree with you there…" Harry muttered.

Ollivander laughed as if Harry had just said the most delightful thing. "Come in, come in. Here, have a seat."

Harry sat down, expecting Ollivander to say…something else. Instead the aged wizard just sat there looking at Harry expectantly.

"So… You have any idea what a Master of Death is?" Might as well get straight to the point.

"Someone who has mastered the Hallows and Death itself."

"I head a capitalization in there. Death as in an entity of Death?"

"Well no one knows, do they. No one has died and come back."

"Well I have," Harry said, not that he entirely meant to. It just sort of came out. "And there's all the ghosts. What about them?"

"I believe you would have to ask a ghost that, Mr. Potter, but it is generally believed that though a ghost has died, they have not yet, in fact, truly met Death."

"Right… So, when someone… say you, or the goblins, perhaps… gets all excited about me being the Master of Death, does that actuallymeananything?"

"Well I'm sure I don't know. I've never encountered one before, you see."

Harry wanted to groan, but kept it on the inside and instead nodded politely.

"But of course there are stories. Mostly forgotten now, I should think, though the story of the Hallows themselves lived on quite well."

Harry leaned forward a bit in anticipation. Now maybe they were getting somewhere. "What sorts of stories?"

"Well, some say that uniting and mastering the Hallows gives you control over Death itself. Others talk of becoming Death, or simply not being subject to Death at all."

Well none of those sounded likegreatoptions…

"Of course no one knows for sure, no one in this universe at least having become one."

"How can you know for sure?"

"Well you're here, aren't you?"

Ollivander's reasoning seemed sound, if a tad cryptic.

"And how did that get me a vault full of gold?" Harry asked.

"I believe you would have to ask the goblins about that."

"Of course I would," Harry muttered.

Ollivander laughed. "Oh, the goblins do enjoy making sport of wizards from time to time," he said, as if that were not at all a horrifying notion. "They don't care much for idiocy."

Harry didn't quite know how to respond to that. "So you don't know what this particular title means for me then?"

"I suppose not. It is all rather a bit exciting though, isn't it?"

"Did you learn anything today?"

Harry wordlessly handed Luna the packet form the goblins.

"And about being Master of Death?"

"Not particularly, no."

Luna did not seem nearly as distressed by this as Harry was. That was probably a good sign, actually.

June 21, 1994

"Legilimens."

Harry pushed by degrees until he was exerting more force than he would need to in most ordinary instances. Finally he was thrown from her mind completely.

"Well done," he said.

Ivy beamed at him. "So I believe it's time for a bit of a story, yes?"

"Yeah," Harry chuckled, "story time it is."

Ivy settled into the sofa and let Tiger wrap himself around her shoulders. "We're ready," she said.

Harry couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "Okay, so this story begins a long time ago, in a universe far away," he said as dramatically as he could.

Ivy grinned.

"Thanks for taking care of Quirrell."

"No problem."

"I can't believe you killed Hilda."

"She was trying toeatme."

"Are you sure she actually wanted to eat you?"

"Well, no. But she was definitely trying to kill me. Besides, I don't even know if it was a she. It could have been a totally different snake for all we know."

Ivy looked unimpressed by this reasoning.

"You're not going to kill her now though, right?"

"Is she going to go crazy and start killing students?"

"No?"

"Then no."

"She did sort of wipe out a colony of Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest though."

"…Yeah I think we'll be coming back to that one."

"You thought Sirius was trying tokillyou?"

"Well, yeah."

"Can I get a time turner?"

"Absolutely not."

"You had to fight adragon?"

"Well notfightit, per se…"

"I'm going to have to do that, aren't I."

"Hopefully not but…"

"Fate really hates you."

"Yes it does."

"If I have to fight a dragon can we keep it?"

"We'll see."

"That's not a no."

"Also not a yes."

"That's not what you said about Buckbeak."

"Buckbeak doesn't breathe fire."

"You'll save Cedric, right?"

"That's the plan."

"Good. You'd better."

"I know."

"Wait, they actually track underage magic? I thought that was just a myth?"

Harry's eye twitched. It hadn't done that as many time today as he was expecting, so it made sense that it was a little overdue.

"Wow. Go Fred and George. Hey, do you think we can make a swamp sometime still?"

"You do realize I'm hoping to avoid most of this, right?"

"We won't do it inside…"

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"…any important hallways," Ivy concluded.

"How about you don't add parts of my story to your to-do list just yet."

"I can't believe you and your Draco almost killed each other."

"He's not my Draco," Harry insisted. "Besides, we got over it. Sort of."

"Is that why you didn't want to go camping?"

"We all have our traumas, Ives."

"YouDIED?"

Harry was glad the house had such extensive wards. He didn't need the whole of Britain hearing that little bit of information.

"Well it didn't stick."

"I can't believe you died."

"I got better."

"So, what do you think?" Harry asked, just a tad nervous. It wasn't every day you told your alternate universe self that you were, well, their alternate universe self.

"So you really are sort of my dad."

"Well, I think older brother would be more accurate…"

"But we could be considered biologically related, right?"

"Well I suppose so, yeah."

"That's so cool."

"You know I always expect people to take this a little less well."

"I can still freak out later if you want."

"I'm good, thanks."

"Great. So when can you and Luna start teaching me how to become an animagus?"

"Isn't Sirius going to help?"

"Not if it means waiting until after the wedding."

"Fair enough. You know, there's no reason why we have to do it all right now though…"

"Tomorrow sounds fine," Ivy said determinedly.

"Yeah, alright," Harry said. Choose your battles and all that. Besides, better to have adult supervision than risk her doing it on her own. It was still strange considering himself as adult supervision, child raising notwithstanding.

"Draco is going to come too."

Great."Before or after he gives his parents a heart attack?"