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Growing up Ivy thought she knew the difference between good and evil. She watched muggle movies showing characters who chose right from wrong, and she was taught to always be the good hero, but why didn't she feel like one? The hero never talked to snakes, the hero never thought of burning the whole school to the ground, the hero didn't have whispers in their head about the darkness overpowering the goodness, the hero never walked through the halls in the middle of the night not knowing their surroundings.

She briefly remembered the times she had with her father before her magic began to shine through. They'd sit together in bed as he read her a story to help keep the monsters away, little did she know she'd become one. Ivy always imagined she'd be Belle, not the beast, but as the darkness engulfed her mind she knew she was far away from being any sort of princess.

It was a quarter past twelve and Ivy sat on the bathroom floor praying that moaning Myrtle wouldn't come to disturb her. For the past couple of weeks, since the encounter with her father, Ivy hadn't been able to sleep a wink. Memories of her childhood would rush through her head, and a small glimpse of her mother were persistent as well. Madam Pomfrey said it was a fever, but she knew something was wrong. She began to notice snakes following her every move, and even her cat seemed to distance herself from her in their dorm.

She tried splashing some cold water on her face in hopes of calming her nerves. All she wanted to do was scream for help, but they would all think she was mad. They'd label her as something she was not, and talking to snakes wasn't a good sign in the Wizarding World. It quite frankly was the worst ability any witch or wizard could receive.

"And what might you be doing here so late at night?" A high-pitched voice called out nearing the flustered Ravenclaw. "I haven't seen you here before."

Ivy internally groaned at the ghost who neared. She had wanted to be left alone, then again she should have known better than to try to hide from the ghost. "I'll be out of here in a minute Myrtle, just please give me some time." She pleaded in hopes of the ghost disappearing.

"But no one ever comes and visits poor lil ole me." She whined. "The only guest I've had here in a while was some strange girl with snakes in her bag, but you didn't hear that from me!" The ghost exclaimed putting her hand over her mouth. "The girl threatened to harm me if I told a soul."

Ivy raised an eyebrow hearing her statement. That would have explained the odd amount of snakes that appeared on the school grounds. "What did she look like Myrtle? Was she a student here at Hogwarts, if so what house?"

"She looked older." Myrtle mused happily since the Ravenclaw was stirring a conversation and not leaving. "I don't believe she came to school here, but it's almost impossible to enter the school if not a student or professor."

"Is there anything else about her appearance that caught your eye?" Ivy questioned awaiting an answer from the ghost. "Anything really, just something that stood out."

"She had long hair, almost as white as snow, with a couple of blue streaks. She had a few tattoos here and there, but that is all I remember, she forced me to close my eyes after our encounter." Myrtle finished.

"Myrtle, is there anything else you could tell me, maybe something you overheard her saying?" Ivy asked in hopes of the ghost spilling out some information she had overheard from the mystery girl.

"Revenge and power," Myrtle said in a whisper. "She said she would get revenge and earn power at some maze." Myrtle finished racking through her mind for more thoughts.

Ivy froze at the mention of the maze, there was no other option but the one the champions had to face. Knowing the reputation the tournament had gained throughout the past years, she should have known something was to go wrong. Even before the death of Cedric Diggory, the competition had many great injuries to other students from each school. Now some mysterious lady was interfering with the challenge, something was bound to go wrong, especially since she carried snakes for fun.

Ivy racked through her brain trying to connect the pieces she had discovered, which weren't that many if she was being honest with herself.

One, she could talk to snakes all of the sudden, out of her sixteen years of living she had never had the ability. Two, the tournament itself was unusual, and the timing was even worse. The tournament was known to be banded after the incident in 1995, why would they bring it back the same year James Potter, who happened to be the son of the boy who lived, was eligible to enter. Lastly three, a mysterious woman was roaming the castle at that very moment. She didn't know the identity of the woman and couldn't go tell everyone about what Myrtle had told her. No one ever believed the ghost, and even though she was skeptical at first about Myrtle's statement, she trusted her word. It all seemed to make sense in some sort of odd way.

Although the last thing she wanted to tell James was to back out, especially since the competition was only now two weeks away, she knew she had to. Even if she had to lock him in the dungeons, she wasn't letting James compete, no matter how selfish it seemed, no matter if it ruined what they had. She rather have to deal with the heart-break than seeing his lifeless body.

Her position entering the tournament was to help him, now it was to prevent him from going anywhere near it.

~

this was SUPER short,
but just because i needed
to include it for the plot !!

also y'all are gonna hate me,
but there is around five
chapters left-

favorite taylor swift song?