The Heiress of Slytherin

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By the time she was done, Ivy had already drifted to sleep, so pulled up the blankets around her shoulders, blew out the candle next to her, and went off to her room for the night.

Ivy was woken up the next day to the doors slamming open and a rowdy group of anxious voices walking down the room.

"Medusa Ivy Stone. How dare you?!" Shouted Theo from across the room once her caught sight of her.

"Do you have any idea how worried your mother and I were?!" Chimed in Blaise, draping an arm over Theo's shoulders while making the sandy haired boy crack a reluctant smile.

I swear to Merlin, Stone, that the next time you disappear into the medical wing without telling anyone, it will be because I put you there." Said Pansy dangerously.

"Or me." Added Selina. Pansy motioned her thumb towards the blonde and nodded. "Yes or Selina. Likely us both."

Ivy was laughing uncontrollably by now, but it slipped when she saw the murderous calm on Draco's face. "Salazar almighty Malfoy, you look dangerous. Please tell me you're not actually that peeved at me just because I got a little banged up."

He shook his head slowly. "No, not mad at you love. Just wondering what happened last night that saw you going to meet Harry and Ron then coming back in the middle of the night to go to the medical wing when they are both perfectly fine?"

His voice was ice cold and sharp, but Ivy knew it wasn't aimed at her. Before he could let his impressive imagination run away with him, she shook her head and held out her arms for him to come over.

"Honestly Draco, it was nothing like that. We're working together on the Chamber, on ending all of this madness. They didn't put me in harms way at all, I barreled headfirst into it and we all got put together, alright? Please don't do anything silly that I'll make you regret." His eyes still held a deep anger beneath them, but he nodded slowly and moved to sit on the bed next to Ivy, pulling her in tightly for a long hug.

The group stayed with her for a while as she caught them up on the adventures from the previous night, changing no details except perhaps making Harry and Ron seem slightly more valiant and less scared shitless so that Draco wouldn't lose his mind again.

Once the bell rang to signal the end of their free period they all reluctantly picked up their bags and began to troupe out the door. Ivy was sad to see them go, till Harry and Ron walked in not a few minutes later and she realized that divine intervention had prevented a duel between them and Malfoy in the hospital wing.

They walked up to her bed and gave her matching rueful smiles. Ron pulled a chocolate frog, uneaten, much to Ivy's surprise, out from behind his back and gave it to her. "How are you feeling?" Asked Harry, and his concern was so clear it touched her heart.

"A bit stiff but otherwise right as rain. Don't go worrying yourself sick Potter, we can only afford one person in these beds at once." She smiled up at him then glanced across the room to where Hermione lay, shielded by her curtain.

She didn't know why she felt like she had to, but she swung her legs out of bed and walked down to the bed, pushing past the curtain and sitting down by her side. Harry and Ron weren't far behind.

She turned over everything she knew in her mind slowly and methodically. As she absentmindedly reached up to take Hermione's petrified hand in her own. Once again, only the feel of cold, rough stone met her hand - but then something else, something softer.

She looked down and their hands. Something yellow was poking out of Hermione's fist. Ivy reached forward and pulled it out, then smoothed the crinkled paper with trembling hands. Her eyes scanned quickly, then she sucked in a quick breath and began to read it aloud: