Recovered Ivory [1]

Nine

**This chapter contains topics that can be very unsettling and disturbing to some. If you are easily upset or easily triggered you should skip this chapter. You will not miss anything too important and anything you do will come up later on. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED SO DO NOT WHINE IF YOU READ AND ARE UPSET**

I was nursing my glass of sparkling juice as I mingled through the crowds. So far, I hadn't run into anyone I didn't want to speak with, but people were still arriving, fashionably late. The ball tended to run late into the night, but I never made it that long. Draco and I usually disappeared up to one of our rooms by midnight. I was already feeling tired so I knew we would be retiring sooner rather then later.

"Well, I've never seen you around before," a deep male voice said from behind me. I turned, coming face to face with an older Slytherin boy, probably a seventh year.

"You've never been to one of these parties," I pointed out, not in the mood even a little for games. 

"I was trying to give you a compliment," he said, sounding insulted that I wouldn't let him continue.

"Thank you for the hidden compliment," I said, offering him a tight smile. 

"They were right, you are a little..." He trailed off as he walked away. 

My eyes narrowed after him, but I figured it was probably something Pansy tried to set up. I just rolled my eyes and shook my head. I began walking through the crowds again, trying to find Draco. We needed to plan our escape route, which would take time. 

"Ivy," a nasal voice said off to the side of me. I glanced over, finding Pansy, holding two glasses. "I have a proposition for you."

"Oh, this ought to be interesting," I said, walking over to stand in front of her.

"You don't like me, and I don't like you," she began, holding out a glass of sparkling juice to me. My glass was empty, so I took it. "I figure if I keep dogging you like this, Draco will never see me as an option."

"Figure that one out for yourself, did you?" I mused, taking a sip of my glass. 

"Look, we don't have to be friends, we just have to..." she trailed off, not knowing how to finish the thought. 

"We just have to act like we can stand one another for a while until you stop wanting to kill me?" I suggested, cocking my head to the side to watch her. "Pansy, I honestly have nothing against you, except for you beating me up a few months ago. Go after Draco, don't go after Draco; it's his worry, not mine. He is his own person, and I am mine. If we were too similar, we would have ended up in the same house."

She narrowed her eyes at me, but her shoulders finally sagged. "Sounds like the only things that will work."

"Here's to a future of not beating me up," I said, clinking my partially empty glass against hers. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to entertain."

"Of course," she said, the snide tone returning. 

I just rolled my eyes and turned away, taking stock of who I had to say hello to, and who I had already paid mind to. I was usually good at tracking people as they came in, but the five or ten minutes spent with Pansy and whoever that boy was had me a little confused. 

"Ivy, come along," Lucius said, motioning for me to join him and an elderly man. "Ivy, this is Bartemius Crouch, Sr. He is the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Mr. Crouch, this is Ivy Hamilton. Her uncle is a great friend of the family."