November 1, 1994

For yet one more time in Hogwarts' illustrious history the owlery was entirely devoid of owls.

A certain British Lord was the subject of most of the letters, particularly those headed towards destinations of greater distance, and while the details contained in each letter variedgreatlythe result was largely the same.

Lord Peverell-Slytherin was impressive, and everyone was going to know it.

Of secondary importance to the students seated in the Great Hall that morning was that matter of Ivy Potter's entry into the Triwizard Tournament. Questions such as "Who put Ivy's name in?" or "Can it still be called theTriwizardTournament" were whispered throughout the hall along with other questions such as "Is someone trying to get Ivy killed?" or "Do you think her dad killed anyone over this yet?"

The collective capacity for imagination held by the assembled student body that morning was admirable, to say the least, and it wasn't long before questions turned to speculations, which turned rapidly into rumors. Thus, thesecondround of letters that went out that day (after a few of the owls returned from their much shorter journeys) contained an even more varied account of the previous night's events.

It was a bit of a wonder, really, that the wizarding world as a whole didn't produce more great novelists, given the way stories could be told in such…creativefashion.

November 4, 1994

Harry allowed himself a single shudder before he placed the latest copy of the Daily Prophet on the table. He was about to ignite it, but feeling that the table had done nothing to deserve such treatment, made a mental note to take the newspaper outside later for a bit of pyrotechnic therapy.

It was a thing.

Remus had said so.

Harry had, of course, been the subject ofmanya newspaper article in his lifetime, but somehow none of them had ever reached this level of ridiculousness before. Although actually, the theory of him being James Potter reincarnated was closer than anyone had ever gotten to figuring out where he had suddenly sprung up from, since there was at least a biological relation there, but every other theory was ridiculous and he honestly didn't want to know where they were all coming from.

Surprisingly, Rita Skeeter was not a contributor to the ongoing journalism circus that was currently taking place regarding Harry and his minor little appearance at Hogwarts. Although to be fair, he would have been more surprised if he hadn't seen the triple looks on Luna, Narcissa, and Sabrina's faces when the reporter was mentioned. He took those looks to mean it wasn't a problem he needed to deal with, and let all thoughts regarding Skeeter fade blissfully into the background.

November 8, 1994

Exactly one week following his previous meeting in Amelia Bones' office, Harry found himself seated across from the director once more.

The gist of the meeting was as follows:

It was almost certainly Dumbledore, but it was unlikely it would ever be proven.

Needless to say, Harry was not thrilled with the results of the investigation, since he would have much preferred something along the lines ofactionable evidence, but at least his suspicions were confirmed. It was a hollow victory, but Madam Bones was now keeping averyclose eye on the headmaster so maybe something would come of it yet. If she had been irritated with Dumbledore in the past, now she was one eye twitch away from a warpath.

"It's a sign," Harry insisted through the enchanted mirror.

"It's really not."

"Your name came out under Castelobruxo. It is absolutely a sign."

"I'm not transferring."

"I'm just saying…"

Ivy rolled her eyes, knowing her dad wasn't going to truly push it, though she doubted he would forget this coincidence any time soon either.

Because yes, it was a coincidence. Nothing more. And Henry Peverell had been too vocally skeptical of divination to convince her he put much store in it now.

November 9, 1994

Oliver groaned at the persistent banging on the front door.

"Make it go away," he whined into his pillow.

Marcus just grunted a noncommittal sort of grunt, and only grunted a bit harder when Oliver kicked him in the shin.

Oliver groaned again (louder this time), in an effort to sufficiently express the fact that he wasnotgoing to get up and see who was behaving so barbarically outside their flat. It was nine in the morning, for Merlin's sake. Hardly a decent hour for civilized company.

At last the banging stopped, and Oliver thought he heard a few mumbled curses on the other side of the door before it swung open to reveal none other than Percy Weasley, who stood there looking not at all impressed.

Really it was a toss-up as to who looked the least impressed at the moment; Percy, who had spent the last forty (or maybe three) minutes banging on the door, Oliver, who did not appreciate either being woken uporthe look on his friend's face, or Marcus, who looked like he was attempting to create a mentally transmitted version of the killing curse.

"Well?" Percy began.

Oliver just looked at him. He had no idea what was going on and this was the time of day to expect the mental leaps needed to keep up with Percy.

"Are you going to help or what?"

Oliver still didn't have any idea what Percy was saying, or what he was doing here for that matter.

"You had better have a very good reason for being here, Weasley," Marcus ground out, voice even lower than normal from just having woken up.

"Ivy. Tournament. Honestly," Percy said with a huff.

"Is it happening today?" Marcus grumbled.

"Fifteen days until the first task, which is hardly enough time for us to prepare…"

"Then come back in the afternoon like a reasonable human being."

Percy didn't even react to Marcus's disagreeable tone, and Oliver wondered if he could just slide back under the covers and let the two of them duel it out or whatever was about to happen.

"There is hardly enough time for pointless dilly-dallying, Flint," Percy said sharply. "Ivy has two weeks to prepare and we have work to do."

Oliver sighed, resigning himself to dealing with Percy's latest concern regarding Ivy Potter. "Isn't her dad dealing with it?" he asked. "It's been all over the paper."

"Lord Peverell-Slytherin is undoubtedly working to prepare Ivy for the tournament," Percy said primly, "but as he has yet to followanyof my suggestions for a more complete takeover of even the British portion of the wizarding world, I fear he might be rather bogged down at the moment. In any case, we can certainly aid him in his endeavors, and the sixth years we trained before are simply not prepared to handle something of this magnitude."

"So many problems with…" Marcus began to mutter, but Oliver cut him off.

"Of course we want to help Ivy," Oliver said, "but you have to know that Peverell isn't going to let anything happen to her. We all heard about what he did on Halloween."

Percy just rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, he is very intimidating. But this is an all wands at the ready situation. Peverell is impressive, to be sure, but he only has a few associates within Hogwarts and the professors can hardly be expected to keep an eye on one student at all hours."

"And what, you want us to go back to Hogwarts and follow Ivy around?" Oliver asked with as much sarcasm as could be mustered at this unholy hour.

"Fine, we'll do it," Marcus said.

"We will?" Oliver asked, just to make sure he was hearing correctly.

"Now leave," Marcus said to Percy.

"Now that's not exactly what I meant…" Percy began, but apparently Marcus had decided the discussion was over because he physically picked Percy up and set him down on the other side of the threshold, not even bothering with his wand.

Oliver waited until Percy had left, taking his muttered comments about "coups" and "next year at least" with him, before he turned to Marcus with a tired yet inquisitive look on his face. "So what did you sign us up for, exactly?"

"We're headed back to Hogwarts."

"Why in Merlin's bloody name would we do that?"

"You heard the man," Marcus said with a grin.

"Part of it," Oliver corrected. "But aren't you forgetting something? We can't just drop practices and head off to Scotland."

"Well, when do you finish tomorrow?"

"Half five I think."

"So we leave at half six. Problem solved."

"No, problemnotsolved, Marcus. Marcus?"

That's it. Somehow Percy Weasley had corrupted Marcus Flint and Oliver was the one who was going to be suffering the consequences.

"You know, I distinctly remember the both of yougraduating."

Oliver was exceptionally happy to let Marcus deal with his former head of house.

"We're here about Ivy."

"Of course you are," came Snape's muttered reply. "And you thought showing up at Hogwarts would accomplish what, exactly?"

"Weasley told us to," Marcus said by way of response as if that explained the situation well enough.

Though apparently it did, because before he knew it Oliver was swirling through the floo with only the briefest bit of forewarning. Despite the abruptness of his trip through the system, he managed to exit the floo in a mostly respectable manner, landing on his feet at least and not making an utter fool of himself when he realized just where they had landed.

"Hello, boys," came Lady Peverell's greeting. "What can I do for you this evening?"

"We're here about Ivy?" Oliver said. Well, asked more like, but he had meant to say it more as a statement than he did.

"For the tournament or because something happened?"

"Tournament," Marcus replied.

"Percy told us to," Oliver added, since apparently Marcus couldn't be bothered to use actual sentences to explain why they were here interrupting Lady Peverell's evening.

"I'm sure Ivy will be thrilled with the moral support," Lady Peverell said delightedly, "and it will be nice to have a few more pairs of eyes on the lookout during the first task."

Well, Oliver supposed, they had their marching orders now.

November 12, 1994

"No, no no," Draco protested. You don't get it. I need to redeem myself, and I can't redeem myself if I go up to them and start talking to them like a complete and utteridiot."

"They're all very nice," Ivy insisted. "And you're not an idiot."

"IknowI'm not an idiot, which is why I'm not going to go up to them without a proper introduction."

"But you already met them."

"Yes but that doesn't count. I need another one."

Ivy rolled her eyes but agreed to reintroduce Draco to all of her Beauxbatons friends.

Justin watched Draco and Ivy like a hawk. The rumors surrounding the two had skyrocketed over the past couple of weeks since apparently having two visiting schools wasn'tquiteenough gossip material to work with, but he still didn't buy it. He couldn't see any difference between the two of them now versus any point in time last year, or the year before… Really they simply appeared to be carrying as normal.

Cataloging every movement as best he could, he amused himself with the fact that Draco appeared to be just as affected by Delacour's allure as any of the other boys 't appear to be nearly as affected, though. Good for him.

November 13, 1994

The two Slytherins looked down their table to where Ivy was chatting animatedly with a much more stoic Viktor Krum.

"That counts as quidditch related activity, right?" Adrian asked, mostly rhetorically.

"Yeah," Terence responded. "I think that's enough to satisfy Marcus and Wood."

"Ivy is about to go flying with one of the most famous seekers in the world right now. It had better satisfy them," Adrian grumbled.

"Honestly I don't think either of them will be completely satisfied until she is single-handedly responsible for winning the World Cup."

"You don't win the Cup single-handedly," Adrian argued. "If you could, Krum would have down it in August."

"Well don't bother trying to explain that to Marcus or Wood anytime soon. They'll try to stick a new training regimen on us or something."

They both shuddered slightly at the prospect.

"They've all seen me fly before, I don't see what the big fuss is about now," Ivy said jokingly.

Viktor snorted under his breath, not bothering to turn towards the rather large crowd of students following behind them.

Ivy paused for a moment, causing Viktor to stop as well and turn towards her.

"You know," she said, "if we're really boring they'll go away."

"And vat do you propose ve do, hmm?"

"Good?" Ivy asked.

"Good," Viktor responded.

The people below them were hardly even tiny ants anymore, given how high up in the air they were.

"And you vill not get in trouble for zis?"

Ivy shrugged. "Only if I get hurt, I guess."

Viktor nodded, before pulling out his wand and waving it in Ivy's direction to indicate he wanted to cast something.

Ivy nodded her assent and Viktor mumbled a few spells that Ivy wasn't exactly familiar with, but could guess the general idea of.

"Now if you fall you von't get hurt."

"So I guess you're kind of my older brother now too?"

"Is zat vat happened before?"

Ivy shrugged. "Sort of. I mean, Thomas was trying to protect me, even if I didn't actually need that, but looking back I suppose he didn'tknowI didn't need protecting, so it was sweet of him to care."

"Better safe…" Viktor said, trailing off with a wave of his hand.

"You're probably right. I think everyone else just, happened?"

"And everyone is your sibling now?"

Ivy laughed. "Okay but, when I was eleven I thought that's just sort of how it worked? I mean my Dad and I pretty much just picked each other and that was that. So I just kept picking out my family, and it's too late to back out now. They're stuck with me," Ivy finished with a mischievous grin.

"Vell in zat case I vould be honored."

Ivy's grin grew wider.

"Did I mention the First Task is dragons?"

"No. No, you did not."

November 17, 1994

The First Task was in one week and there were so many things Harry could be doing instead of sitting here listening to the endless, pointless prattle of theesteemedWizengamot.

To be fair those two facts had very little to do with each other. The First Task was one week away, true, but none of the things Harry could be doing at the moment actually had anything to do with the First Task directly. It was more the principle of the matter.

Ivy had insisted she had things under control.

Harry had absolute faith in her, as well as in the collective ability of Barty, Severus, Filius, Minerva, Sirius, Sabrina, Remus, Lucius, Narcissa, Percy, and Moody, along with himself and Luna, of course, to prevent anything exceptionally disastrous from occurring.

It was fine, really.

It would all bemore fineif he could just get out of this blasted meeting.

"How can you spend every day in this building?" Harry asked, collapsing onto an uncomfortable chair by Percy's desk.

"Bad session today?" Percy asked sympathetically.

Harry nodded. "And it's not even over. I don't know how some of them can keep talking for so long about something that no one cares about."

"Well, I'm suresomeonecares about it," Percy began.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure it's all important," Harry said, remembering who exactly he was talking to. "But does it have to take so long?"

"Well, I suppose you could always bring up something else instead."

"Yes, great plan. Any ideas?"

Percy's face lit up and Harry could see why Ivy might refer to him as her brother. The similarities at this particular moment were rather striking. And worrisome.

Percy's wand waved a bit and a hundred or so files came shooting out of various drawers and stacks from around the room.

Percy began muttering as he sorted through them all.

"No, no, not until Julyat least…"

"Perhaps…"

"Well that one won't work until after that other…"

"Too much for one day…"

Harry was growing concerned.

"Ah, here we go," Percy said finally. "Here's the perfect one. A perfect test."

"A test? What kind of test?"

"A test of your influence, of course. We all know you're powerful, and you've gotten quite a few things passed in the Wizengamot already, but this will let you know just far your influence reaches."

"I don't think I want that," Harry began.

Percy continued on, completely ignoring him. "It's simple, really. All you have to do is introduce a change to the scheduling. Move the regularly scheduled Wizengamot sessions to another day. Perhaps Tuesday or something."

"Why in Merlin's decrepit name would I do that?"

"Well because it's tradition, of course. The Wizengamot has met on Thursdays for centuries. Longer than any of those old bats have been on it at least. It takes a lot to change a tradition."

Harry couldn't argue with that part at least.

"So you try to change it. Everyone agrees? You have clear skies ahead and can race as fast as you want to your inevitable victory. A few holdouts? Promising, but may take a bit more time. Widespread disagreement? Then clearly something went wrong and I severely underestimated parts of my ten-year plan for you."

Harry was rubbing his eyes by this point. "Look, Percy," he said, "I appreciate the effort, but I truly am not aiming to take over the world. Not even a part of it. I am trying to keep Ivy safe, everyone else safe, stop people from killing each other, and from generally being idiots if such a thing is possible, but I don't want to take over the world."

Percy moved to speak but Harry held up a hand.

"And I don't particularly want Ivy taking over the world either. If she chooses to, at some point in theverydistant future, she can, so long as she can be nice about it. But I'm not going to do it for her, and I'm also not going to do it for me." And, okay, so there were still a few things wrong with that statement, but for now it would have to do.

"You actually could stop Ivy from taking over too soon," Percy half-whispered in a semi-awed tone.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I'm not sure that's the part we ought to be focusing on."

"But what if she does it on accident like you have?"

"Well apparently I've already done it, so…" Harry hated admitting to any part of that, but that's what people kept telling him so perhaps there was atinysliver of truth to a minuscule part of that.

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense." Percy looked relieved.

Harry did not share that sentiment.

November 18, 1994

Ivy sat calmly outside the classroom where the wand weighing ceremony was to take place on a transfigured chair courtesy of Cedric who was pacing lightly in front of her.

"I'm sure it's all going to be fine," Ivy said.

Cedric snorted. "You hardly have any self-preservation instincts. I'm not sure if your version of fine ought to feel like a relief or not."

Viktor and Fleur both nodded as if Cedric was making an entirely reasonable point, which, rude. She did too have self-preservation instincts. She had recently begun referring to him as Dad and he was going to be here any moment.

Still, it was getting rather boring. Their plan had been to come early so they could meet up and all go in together, but they had been sitting here for forty minutes already and maybe that was a tad unnecessary.

"Hey, watch what I can do," Ivy said suddenly, looking at Viktor and Fleur.

She promptly stood up and transformed into a honey badger, hardly believing she hadn't even done that yet for all the time she had been spending with the two.

Both foreign champions looked at her in silence as she ran around a bit. This was a much better way of passing the time.

"Zat makes a lot of sense, no?" Fleur said.

Viktor just snorted. "Da."

Ollivander looked pleased as punch to see Ivy, Dumbledore looked like he had accidentally sucked on a lemon, and Rita Skeeter looked like she was trying to be anywhere but in his general vicinity.

Harry was feeling great.

November 19, 1994

"Who isthat?"

The rest of the girls barely managed to stop themselves before running into Pansy who had abruptly stopped in the middle of the path.

"That's Charlie Weasley," Daphne said, puzzled at the question. "You've seen him before."

Pansy hardly acknowledged the response. "I'm certainly seeing him now," she said.

It took Millie and Hannah a full minute to get Pansy moving again. Tracey and Susan were absolutely no help at all, seeing as they were far too busy laughing to do more than keep up with the others.

Neville was confused about the seemingly sympathetic pats on the back he was receiving. Hopefully nothing bad had happened. Surely someone would tell him, right?

Pansy grabbed Neville by the arm, though he was almost used to it at this point and didn't drop a single thing.

"I need you to tell me all about the Weasleys," she said, as she pulled him away from the other students.

"What do you want to know? Aren't the twins around you a lot anyway?"

"No, not them," Pansy huffed. "Other Weasleys."

"Like Ron?"

"What? No, of course , if you please."

"Well why didn't you just say so," Neville grumbled.

"I did," Pansy replied.

"Er, well, he's the one that works with dragons?" Neville offered. "And I'm pretty sure Ivy has adoption papers she's waiting for him to sign."

Pansy's face lit up with a grin that had Neville subconsciously taking a half-step back.

"Perfect."