PRINCESS † PERCY WEASLEY

o. granny's letter

THE VANEV FAMILY CREST WAS VERY FAMILIAR TO IVY AND THE ONLY ONE TO USE IT WHEN SENDING LETTERS WAS HER GRANDMA. The lady was old fashioned and adored seeing the beautiful deep blue wax seal, almost as much as she adored sharing her Uncle Boyan's many affairs. As much as Ivy disliked the woman, she still appreciated the thought of the letter. Maybe not so much the reason it was sent in the first place.

Every time Ivy got a letter from her grandmother, it always seemed to be something that would dampen her mood and Ivy hated when that happened. It also didn't help that she would spend about twenty minutes scouring her brain to remember as much Bulgarian as she could, to decipher the letter as her stupid grandmother refused to write in English.

'Dear Ivanka,

This summer, if you have not already been informed by your mother and father, you are coming to Bulgaria to stay with me. You will have the chance to familiarise yourself with your Bulgarian roots with your cousin Darian. You are to spend your first half of the summer with me and then you can do whatever you wish for the remainder of your summer.

I expect you and Darian to be on better terms than you were this Christmas and others previously.

Vesela Vanev'

Spending half of her summer with her grandmother and Darian was like a nightmare coming true and the fact that she had to be civil made it even worse. And this time, there was no working her way out of it. If Grandmother Vesela wanted it, then she would have to oblige. All Ivy could do was hope she didn't have to speak in Bulgarian all that time since she can barely even read it. The most she can do is speak the words 'lion' and 'mother' successfully but that was pretty much it.

The worst part about her whole situation was that she was stuck with Darian, practically just the two of them, for three weeks. All she could do was fake-nice and hope for the best. In hindsight, ripping the letter and setting it on fire seemed like a good idea. But after accidentally burning her bed sheets, Ivy did kind of regret it.

__________

"I don't think I can do it Percy." Ivy sulked, watching the professor write down another addition to her already complex chart. "I'm going to fail this OWL."

"Clear your head and write notes." said Percy, pushing the book closer to her. "I'll show you how to do this later. I doubt you'll fail with my help."

Ivy's lips tugged up at the corner. "Ever the arrogant sod aren't you?" Except this time was different, it was in a joking manner instead of their old comments.

"Says the one who struts down the corridor like she owns the place."

"How do you know I don't Weasley?" Ivy smirked at him, no longer paying attention to the class. "I've kept it under wraps for ages. I own Hogwarts." Her eyes lit up.

Percy rolled his eyes and pointed back at the board trying to get her to focus. "I'm sure if you actually did own Hogwarts, a few people would be expelled by now."

Ivy growled and glared at him. "You caught me, it's true!"

And for the first time since last year, she mustered the courage to look over at a black haired boy who sat by himself, dejected. He was looking right at her; Ivy winced hating the feeling of his eyes roaming over her.

"What did Adam Marin do to you?" Percy asked innocently.

Instead of giving him a straight answer, Ivy whispered. "That's a secret for another day." She resisted a shudder when she turned back around and looked directly into Adam's eyes.

__________

"Merlin, arithmancy was almost unbearable! All that time I could just hear you and Weasley making love eyes at each other. It was actually sickening." Miriam fake-gagged. "But it's nice to see two misfits finding love. Must be hard."

Ivy snapped at her, pushing her against the wall. "What the hell is your problem? I do not like Percy and he does not like me and we most certainly are not in love!" Without thinking, Ivy let her go. "And he is not a misfit. The only misfit is you!"

"Funny, for someone who says they don't like someone, you sure did defend him quickly." Miriam smirked. "I'm beginning to think you're lying to me."

"Why do you hate me so much? I've never given you a reason to." Ivy asked.

And for some reason, Miriam was feeling rather nice. "Train ride. First year. I don't want your big head to implode by adding so much information so that's all I'm giving you."

__________

Ivy had to say, she hated exams or tests or whatever anyone wanted to call them. They seemed useless and generally tired her out. Even the small end of year ones she took after each year at Hogwarts were enough to make her want to sleep for days. And just the revision for OWLs made her sleepy. How could she possibly even start any of her OWLs when she was too tired to even get up that morning?

Falling asleep in the library after missing dinner (although she was unaware of that) was a new low for Ivy, but having to be woken up by Percy Weasley was literally her lowest moment.

"Madame Pince couldn't wake you up, you were like a log." Percy said calmly as Ivy rubbed her eyes.

"What time is it?" Ivy hoped and prayed she hadn't slept all night; she wanted some dinner of course.

"Six."

"So I haven't missed dinner?" Ivy cut him off, collecting her things quickly.

"Six in the morning."

"Wha-why are you in the library at six in the morning?" She asked, yawning as soon as she started speaking.

"I wanted to revise potions before I had a lesson today and I wanted to know if cauldron thickness had anything to do with the quality of the potion. And." Percy paused, trying to figure out whether he should say something or not. "I was coming to see if you were still asleep. You've been in here since classes ended yesterday."

"That's so sweet of you." Ivy gushed, not noticing his pink ears or her own red face. "You probably should have taken me to dinner first though."