Chapter 13: Christmas and Mysteries
When Ivy awoke in her four-poster bed on Christmas day, the first thing to pass through her mind, as it had been every morning, was thoughts of Lord Voldemort. That was why Rose had been trained, because Dumbledore thought she killed him.
The second thing to pass through her mind was that Rose and the others weren't at Hogwarts at the moment, and she was nearly alone.
The third thing to pass through her mind, unlike with previous mornings, was that it was Christmas day. She jumped out of bed, landing on the green rug by the foot of it, and scaring Amaya into a corner. Grabbing her emerald green dressing gown, she began to unwrap the presents at the foot of her bed.
Ron had sent her a book about useful Quidditch manoeuvres. The cover was decorated by a trunk spilled open, with a broomstick, a quaffle, and a snitch spilling out onto the oak table below it. She grinned slyly.
You'll live to regret that one.
Rose's present had also been Quidditch related, with socks coloured green, but, in direct sunshine, would turn vibrant scarlet. She laughed at the cheek. She had received several heavy books from Hermione: 709 ways to milk a frog, the wisty witch's guide to thorough transfiguration, and, funniest of all, the life and lies of Bart, the squib.
Draco had gotten her several chocolate frogs, and had evidently attempted to make them into the shape of snakes. The result was what looked like long, fanged, strangled white chocolate necks, which slivered about the place menacingly. She dared to try one, and was glad she did, for it ended up being fine white chocolate indeed. She made a mental note- then, decided to make a physical note in her diary, to ask Draco where he had got it.
The four founders had all gotten her presents, trying to find modern muggle artefacts that would interest her. The results were hilarious. Salazar had gotten her a ceiling fan, while Godric had attempted to one up him, by getting her a muggle machine called a laptop, which wouldn't become widespread for years into her future. Rowena had gone for a more tame approach, going for a muggle bookmark, which resembled an otter. Helga had gotten her a rubber duck.
She had received a large box of chocolate frogs from Lily and James, and, for some reason, Mrs Weasley, Ron's mum, had gotten her a hand-knitted, fluorescent green jumper, with the letter 'I' written on it in golden, cursive letters. When Ivy had finished putting it on and admiring herself in the mirror, she turned back to the pile. There was one more present.
There was a tag written on it. To Ivy, from James. She turned it over. Don't tell your mum! She stared at it. It felt soft, like fabric. She teared into it a little, to see if she could figure out what it could be. It was fabric, alright. A robe of sorts. Pulling it out all the way, it seemed a very light colour, not refracting, not anything. Had she not known it was there, she might have mistaken it for a slight, concentrated fog.
She pulled it on slowly, staring at the tag, and gingerly made her way over to the mirror.
What.
What?
Was it possible for mirrors to stop working, she wondered. She couldn't see herself at all. It may as well have been a door into an exact replica of her dormitory, with no reflective effects whatsoever. She yanked it off. And- there she was again! And it clicked into place. This was an invisibility cloak, which James had given her! Quite why he had decided to give it to her was a mystery, but here it was! She noticed another tag stuck with nothing more than blue-tack to the cloak itself.
Use it well.
When she had finally made her way down to the Great hall, wondering what on Earth James could be playing at, giving her something so valuable, she found that she had managed to be one of the first. It seemed just about everyone had slept in even more than she had. Pansy was sitting at the Slytherin table, Ernie Macmillan at the Hufflepuff table, and Neville in Gryffindor. The Ravenclaw table was deserted.
She sat down gingerly, admiring the Christmas decorations. Hagrid had somehow hauled twelve enormous Christmas trees around, decorated with baubles, tinsel, magical lights, candycanes, and anything else one could want from the festive tradition. She blinked slightly, brushing some magical snow from her eyes, and looked up as Pansy offered her a Christmas cracker.
The day was quiet, and uneventful, with her spending several short hours in her common room, chatting and gossiping with the remaining Slytherin girls. As night fell, and they retired to bed, Ivy blinked a few times, sensing that she was forgetting something. She glanced beneath her bed, and saw the invisibility cloak, lying in a bundle in her corner of the room.
Use it well. She tasted the words, speaking them aloud as quietly as she could. She glanced at the tag. It was almost taunting her. She grinned at it sheepishly, tilting her head to the right very slightly and raised her left eyebrow.
Hm. Would she do it?
Yes. Yes she would.
She grabbed it, yanking it over herself as quickly as she could without drawing the attention of her slumbering roommates. She was now invisible. Looking down, in the place where she would normally see her body, arms, hands, and so on, she now got a clear view of the floor beneath her. Trippy.
She snuck out of the common room, her eyes darting around nervously. She fully expected to be caught. In truth, she didn't know why she was sneaking out at night, but she felt that she would be doing a disservice to James not to use her new present for troublemaking. She quietly opened the door, disguised as a painting of a snake, unmoving, which was very uncommon for magical paintings. One of the painting's eyes was open. The other, closed. She was not entirely sure if the object of the picture could move, but it wasn't choosing to either way.
She shook her head and walked off. It was a fascinating experience, walking past portraits, teachers and even ghosts, while going undetected. Once or twice, she would run into Mrs Norris, and freeze in spite of herself. She was staring at the place she was. But she couldn't possibly see her. She shivered, remembering the forest and the unicorn-drinking creature, supposedly Voldemort.
She entered a few classrooms, seeing if she could find anything interesting. They were all deserted, naturally, though some had desks moved around, as though in a hurry. Especially in Potions classrooms, they seemed to have been torn apart during the Christmas holiday, as though somebody was somehow capitalising from the lack of lessons to search for something. Any offices were nearly empty.
She felt a chill run down her spine as she saw a particularly ravaged Transfiguration classroom at the end of a corridor, and continued on. She wasn't sure why she had decided to go for a nighttime stroll in the first place, but now she felt pulled to explore further. She went into a classroom to its right. Not quite as many desks had been knocked over, but there was still activity. She ran over to another one, this time on the left. Completely devoid of anything. She walked, at a brisk pace, over to the right, stopping every now and again to look at the rooms. Sure enough, they were getting progressively more damaged, with smashed windows, shattered glass, desks and chairs all over the place, and, in one, some mould on the carpet, though that had most likely already been there.
She heard something that made her stop as she rounded a corner. There was a slight giggle. High pitched and cheeky, not quite male or female. She began backing away from the sound, feeling behind her for a door, anything to get her out of this corridor. Footsteps reverberated around her, getting louder and clearer as she walked on. She finally felt a doorknob, and forced her way inside, bolting and locking the door behind her. As she leant against the door, breathing heavily, she felt the air get colder, as something passed.
Ivy waited. She heard… whatever it was, walking backwards and forwards outside that door a few times. Through the key-hole, she spied it knocking down several doors with its wand. It was wearing all black robes, which were heavily torn, and seemed to be moving around frantically. No. It couldn't be. But it was, plain for all to see, Lord Voldemort, who had drunk unicorn blood, and nearly killed her at the age of one. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and willed it to calm down. Surely, if he was so close, he would hear it…
And then, Voldemort ran off, muttering darkly, though now in a definitely male voice, if still high. Very different from the one she had just heard. It sounded vaguely familiar. She shook her head, and waited as still as she could. It didn't sound like he was coming back. As Ivy turned her back to the door in relief, she got her first plain view of the room she was in. This room, the one she had just entered, also looked a little worse for wear, though only a few small pieces of furniture were scattered around. In fact, the only piece of furniture which looked sturdy and strong, and was, in fact in the correct place, was a large mirror, with a gold trim, which had one word written upon it in enormous, cursive writing.
Erised
She took in the mirror, uncomfortably aware of how odd it was that something, evidently, of such value would be left untouched while Voldemort tore half the school apart. She wondered how lessons would be when they restarted, with so many untidy classrooms, or just straight up destroyed. Grimacing, she took a step closer to examine the mirror. Erised… Erised… she tasted the word. It wasn't quite French, or Spanish, or Latin (all languages which Ivy had learnt throughout her short time travelling adventures) but it didn't seem quite like a made up word either. Perhaps… a caesar cipher? Well, if it was, it could keep what it meant, she didn't have the energy for that. She tried, on a whim, reading it backwards, as though it was a mirrored word.
desirE
Ah, she thought, that makes sense. A mirror, perhaps where one could look to find their deepest desire. What they wanted, whatever they wanted. She grinned, and walked in front of the mirror, and stopped. For a moment, nothing happened. But then, it changed. She was in Slytherin, and standing around her were the four founders and Merlin, patting her on the back. Back where she belonged. She smiled, in spite of herself, but then, it switched. She was in Gryffindor, and standing around her now were James, Lily and Rose. That couldn't be right. She di- but then it switched again, to her and the founders, and then back to her family. She was breathing heavily again, she had become aware of it, but her breaths came out strangled.
"No," she whispered, but it came out hoarse.
The last thing she saw from the mirror was her beginning to take something out of her pocket, before she made a dash for it. Everything was a blur, as she tried to make it to her common room, down in the dungeons. She was uncomfortably aware of the possibility of Lord Voldemort being this way, and he would surely kill her in an instant. But she kept running. She nearly forgot that she was wearing the invisibility cloak, and several times her footsteps would wake up some of the paintings, who would wonder what it was that had woken her up, but she didn't care. She bounded all over the place, until she made it to the familiar painting of the snake.
"Venom," she muttered, and then louder, "Venom!"
It swung open upon receiving the password, and she slammed it shut behind her as fast as she could, pulling off the invisibility cloak and taking a seat by the fire. She was more scared than she could remember feeling in years. She grabbed the invisibility cloak, and made to throw it into the fire… but no. She couldn't.
She stared at the cloak. She wasn't… couldn't possibly be… addicted to this?
Could she?
AN: Take a shot every time I end a chapter on a question lol