Draco wasn't sure what to think. The girl he had met was Ivy Potter? Defeater of the Dark Lord Ivy Potter? And she thought Hufflepuff would be a good House to be in? Her reasoning did make some amount of sense, but still. Hufflepuff. Draco wasn't sure being able to get away with things was a good enough reason to stick it out in Hufflepuff for seven years.
"Well. Draco? What do you think of your new wand? Do you feel ready for Hogwarts?"
Draco wanted to roll his eyes but refrained. He was trying to prove he was ready to go to school, and acting childishly would not help his efforts. So he simply smiled at his mother and said, "Yes, I am quite looking forward to it. And my wand is great."
His mother smiled back at him. He knew she wasn't nearly as thrilled about him going to school as he was. These were the type of rare moments when he wished he had a younger sibling so there was someone else for her to dote on. Just not too much.
"Mother…" Draco wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to tell her about his earlier encounter.
"Yes, darling?"
"I met someone today in the Alley."
"Oh?"
"Yes. I met a girl." His mother smiled. "Wait no, not like that." Draco felt his face heat up a bit.
"What was this girl's name?"
"Ivy Potter."
Next to his mother, his father just barely managed to not spew his wine across the table. The only indication of his mother's surprise was a slightly raised eyebrow.
"And what were your thoughts on Miss Potter?," his mother asked, as his father regained his composure.
Draco thought for a moment. "She said she thought Hufflepuff would be a nice House to be in."
He thought he saw his father's eye twitch just slightly, as his mother calmly replied, "Well, Hufflepuff is certainly an interesting choice. There are many respectable witches and wizards who have come out of Hufflepuff. I'm sure she will be a credit to her House should she end up there."
Draco did his best to convey an entirely unimpressed look. "She said Hufflepuff would be nice because no one would suspect a Hufflepuff and you would be able to get away with a lot."
"Well I suppose there could be some truth to that…" Really. His mother was not helping at all.
August 31, 1991
Albus Dumbledore was not having a good day. It was the day before the students were set to arrive, and he still had no word regarding Ivy Potter. Sure, she had sent her acceptance to enroll at Hogwarts, but that had been it. He couldn't find her, no one had heard anything or seen her anywhere, and the goblins weren't exactly helpful, so he had no idea if she had visited Gringotts or not.
Everything had gone downhill from the time Ivy Potter went missing, though in reality it had started with his wand. One day his wand, the Elder Wand, had given out. Sure, it was still a wand and still responded to him, but it lacked the same type of power he had grown accustomed to. Four days later he had found out that Ivy Potter was missing from the Dursleys. Arabella hadn't known precisely what day she had gone missing, but it couldn't have been more than a couple days.
He couldn't exactly get the ministry involved in finding Ivy, since that would mean revealing that he had not-so-legally placed her at the Dursleys in the first place. Then he had been informed that someone had taken over guardianship of Ivy Potter, and he still hadn't been able to get the name of her guardian. Normally he would be able to find information like that easily, but since he couldn't afford to go through normal ministry channels…
He had watched the spelled quill fill out the Hogwarts letters, but no address had appeared on hers. Just her name. The quill had struggled for a moment, but had eventually moved on to the next letter. Albus had taken that to mean that she was behind some fairly serious wards, which was a good indication that she was safe, at least. Albus could only pray that she would arrive tomorrow at Hogwarts, safe and sound.
If she was living somewhere with wards as strong as that, it was also likely that she was already aware of the wizarding world, and thus he wouldn't need to worry about sending someone to introduce her like he had to for muggleborns.
It was a shame, though. He would have liked to have had an opportunity to gauge her reactions to the wizarding world and help instill proper values and all. She would undoubtedly be seen as a symbol of the light, and he needed to ensure that she followed that path well.
Still, tomorrow she would (hopefully) be at Hogwarts, and his work could begin. Regardless of who her guardian turned out to be, Albus was sure he would be able to adequately influence her over the school year. The invisibility cloak he had intended to give her had been recalled by the goblins, so he would need to find something else to encourage her with. Maybe providing some other type of memorabilia of her parents? She would certainly be interested in that. No matter, she would be here tomorrow and his plans could begin.
September 2, 1991
Harry paced back and forth. Today was the day. Well, technically yesterday was the day, but today was the day he would find out what house Ivy had been sorted into. Hopefully it wouldn't make much of a difference what house she was sorted into. She would do well anywhere, and make friends, and have a distinct lack of dark lords trying to kill her, and all would be well.
Speaking of dark lords, he had nearly forgotten about Quirrellmort. He should probably take care of that.
But back to the important matter at hand. Harry didn't particularly care what house Ivy ended up in, but he had concerns about each of them. She could end up in Gryffindor like he had been. But Harry knew what the Gryffindors were like. He had been one, and he doubted whether there were too many differences between the other Gryffindors in his world and the Gryffindors in this one. On the one hand, Ivy might end up being friends with Ron and Hermione like he had been. Harry knew that her life would not end up the same as his (that was kind of the whole point of this, after all), but the thought that she could have the same good friends he had had was a nice one. On the other hand, Gryffindor might encourage Ivy's…adventurous tendencies. Plus there were the Weasley twins. Harry had no doubt that Ivy would somehow get them involved. Hopefully Hogwarts would be left standing by the end.
Then there was Ravenclaw. That seemed like the least likely house to Harry. Sure, Ivy was smart, but she tended to be an act first and research what went wrong later sort of person. He had no idea where that had come from. Plus in Ravenclaw there was a good possibility that she'd be bored. And a bored Ivy was not a good thing. The Montréal incident was a fine example of that.
Ah, Hufflepuff. The house Ivy claimed to want to be in. Harry had no doubt that she'd have at least tried to talk the hat into it. It would probably have come down to who was more stubborn. Most Hufflepuffs were nice when they didn't think you were a traitor to wizarding-kind, so Harry could see that turning out well. As per his request as the supportive, yet reasonable parental figure he was, she had agreed to keep all her plans for world domination strictly theoretical, so Harry wasn't too worried about her suddenly taking over with an army of loyal Hufflepuff minions or anything. Not at all. That's the beauty of ignoring that little niggling in the back of your mind and shoving it into the furthest recesses of your brain so you don't have to think about the possibility of the mini you you're trying to raise suddenly taking over the wo… Yep. No worries whatsoever.
Last but not least was Slytherin. Harry was fully prepared for an Ivy in Slytherin. Besides the fact that most people would be shocked (not that Ivy would particularly mind), there was a chance that some of the other Slytherins would be upset, what with the whole kill-the-dark-lord-as-a-baby thing. After confirming that Ivy was a parselmouth, Harry had taught her Serpensortia, stressing that it was for emergencies only. Same went with sticking Tiger on anyone. The highly venomous snake (that she had named Tiger of all things - it didn't even have proper stripes) was only allowed to attack people in case of Ivy's imminent death. And no, someone being stupid is not a good enough reason to stick a snake on them. Imminent death.
And then there was Snape. If Ivy did end up in Slytherin Harry was going to invest in a pensieve just to catch a glimpse of the look on Snape's face at the pronouncement. Harry idly wondered what Sirius would have thought had he been in Slytherin…
SIRIUS!
That's it. Harry was the worst godson-from-another-universe ever.
First Quirrellmort and now Sirius. Harry felt like he was failing in spectacular fashion.
After what seemed like an eternity (it was almost lunchtime for Merlin's sake), a school owl finally came into view with the expected letter, brushing aside his nearly overwhelming feelings of guilt about having forgotten about his, well technically Ivy's, godfather for the past couple years. Harry eagerly accepted the letter, presented the owl with a plate of bacon, ignored Hedwig's glare in his direction, and began reading. He skimmed through the first few lines, knowing he wouldn't be able to focus on anything else the letter contained until he knew the outcome of the sorting. Ah, there it was.
Slytherin.
Satisfied with that bit of knowledge, Harry went back and began reading the letter more carefully. Met some people on the train… good, good. Oh, the Headmaster asked to speak with her after the feast, well no surprise there. Harry had certainly been in that office enough times during his own school years. Asking for a large box of chocolate for…Snape? Huh? Harry reread that part a few times.
My new head of house, Professor Snape, seemed really upset last night. He looked sort of grumpy and worried all at the same time. Could you please send me a large box of chocolates so I can give it to him? Maybe the ones with the exploding strawberry bits. Those are my favorite and they make everything better.
Sure, until she gets a sugar high and runs around for an hour screaming naming the way each species of dragon is most likely to kill you. Surprisingly it's not all death by fire.
Well, that was an interesting take on Snape. Harry wasn't sure Snape would actually appreciate a box of exploding chocolates from his new student, but maybe it'd be worth it just to get a pensieve memory later…
Harry continued reading until he came to what would forever be known as the paragraph.
I miss you, and I hope you're not too lonely while I'm gone.
Well, that was sweet of her. He missed her too.
Maybe you should be friends with Professor Snape.
Ah. There it was.
This morning at breakfast I was talking to Draco, and he came up to us and his eyes were doing the same twitch thing that yours do.
Harry resisted twitching his eye at that. He had impressive muscle control at this point.
I think the two of you would get along very well.
Not likely, but by all means, continue.
Oh and speaking of friends, I met Draco again on the train,
Wait, again? Oh, that's right, she had met him getting robes like he had.
He was very nice and I think we will be best friends. There was another girl, Pansy, who said she was his best friend, and I said we could all be best friends. She didn't seem very happy about that. Maybe she doesn't want more friends. I thought everyone likes more friends, but maybe she's just shy.
Harry actually snorted at that.
I met a lot more people on the train and last night, and I think I made a couple other friends too. How many best friends can you have? So far I think I have three. Maybe four if Pansy wants to be friends. But either way I have Draco, and then the two other boys I met. Their names are Fred and George.
Harry froze. No, no, no, abort, find a time turner, this was not happening…
They were really nice. Aren't they the ones you said would be able to find me anytime? That seems like a good thing for friends to be able to do.
In his defense, Harry had told Ivy not to sneak around or do anything reckless because Dumbledore, Snape, and the Weasleys would always be able to find her. That had obviously backfired.
Anyway, they asked me what house I wanted to be in, and I said Hufflepuff because I could get away with anything, and they thought that was really funny. Today on the way to breakfast they found Draco and I and helped us get there. They were really nice and said that they were looking forward to having friends in the snake house. Draco said they weren't friends, but I think he was just hungry.
Oh Ivy…
So if all three of them are my best friends, can I still have more? There were a few other people I met that were
Here it was scratched out, but Harry could make out something that looked vaguely like…cut? Huh. Wonder what that was.
really nice. Like this one boy named Neville. He's in Gryffindor too. He said he likes plants, so I lent him my copy of 101 Venomous Vines of Venezuela. He looked excited.
Harry had definitely not seen that book in her trunk. He wondered if she had taken any other books with her that could be potentially used for chaos. Harry chose not to think on that any longer, choosing instead to focus on the fact that Ivy had potentially made friends with Neville. Hopefully that friendship continue to grow. It would be good for both of them. If Neville was anything like the Neville he had known, then being around Ivy could help him raise his confidence, and hopefully being around Neville would tone down some of Ivy's…plots. Harry was choosing to be extremely optimistic about the situation instead of worrying about the fact that a Slytherin Ivy had made friends with the Weasley twins on her very first day. And Malfoy… Well maybe he wasn't such a prat in this world. If he was, Ivy would show him the error of his ways soon enough, and that was comfort enough for Harry.
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