forty-six

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        Justin's hand hovered over his left arm, daring to take a step closer. Ivy paused, thinking about the situation carefully, a million thoughts running through her head.

        "Justin," Ivy said, trying to remain as calm as possible, but you could still hear a waver in her voice. "Please. Be smart about this."

         "I am!" Justin shouted, his hand twitching towards his forearm. Ivy took a step back, trying to get him to put away the dark mark.

        Ivy blinked, thinking thoroughly about what to do. She assumed Remus was contacting the Order in the other room, hidden from Justin. She wanted to just stall until they all got here, but she wasn't sure if Justin would be so patient.

        As Ivy began to reply, a figure apparated, interrupting her. Justin placed his hand on the Dark Mark, summoning their army as Ivy's came behind her.

White and black smoke appeared in and outside of Ivy and Remus's home, causing spells and curses to already be thrown at everyone. Sirius decked Justin in the face. Bellatrix Lestrange tried to cast a spell towards James, but he deflected it.

As everyone got there, a full-on battle began. Spells were cast, injuries made. As Ivy battled alongside her friends and mentors, she thought carefully about what to do, since this whole battle was sort of over her.

It seemed their goal was to capture Ivy and get her to join their side. Through torture or bribing, they would do anything. If she won't give them any information even with torture, she would be killed. Once she gave them enough information, she'd probably be killed. Seemed like a lose-lose situation.

Ivy thought as quickly as she could for a solution. People could die on her behalf. She decided to take a different angle. They want her information. How can she get rid of that information, or make it completely inaccessible?

          It came to her in a flash. A plan laid out before her eyes. She smiled slightly before running across the small battlefield they set up, grabbing Sirius's hand and hiding behind a piece of wall that managed to survive all the spells.

         "I have a plan," Ivy said quickly, spells flying over their heads. Sirius waited for her to continue. "I'm going to Obliviate myself."

        He blinked. Then blinked again, waiting for her to say this was a joke or something. "Seriously?"

        "Think about it!" Ivy said impatiently, looking around her for any enemies. "They want me because of my knowledge and connection to Justin. If I can get rid of those, they won't want me anymore!"

        "They'd just kill you then!" Sirius said back, worry overcoming him as he thought of what could happen to his best friend.

        "It's better than all of our information getting leaked! I'll die either way!"

         "I don't want you to die!"

         "I won't if you cover me. Perhaps they'll just leave me alone then," Ivy said, getting more and more impatient as their time to plan things began to run out.

        "This is too risky!"

        "What other plan do we have?!" Ivy yelled back at him. Sirius fell silent. Ivy sighed. "I'm going to grab their attention, and make them all watch me Obliviate myself."

        "What if you erase too much? What if you cause yourself to forget everything?" Sirius worried.

        "We don't have time for this!" Ivy said, looking around herself. They were quite far away from the battlefield, but close enough to be caught and killed. "I've cast the Memory Charm before. I'll be okay. And if I erase too much, so what?! It's better than everyone being killed because they manage to gain my knowledge!"

        "It's not a good idea," Sirius said, shaking his head. Ivy laughed in spite of herself, her shoulders shaking.

        "It's the perfect plan!" She said, barely being able to talk through her laughter. "Be even better if I just killed myself!"

        "Shut up!"

        Ivy smiled bittersweetly. "If I die, make sure to tell everyone how awesome I was. Especially Harry. I need him to know how badass his Godmother is."

        Tears filled Sirius's eyes. Ivy smiled, her eyes watering as well. "You won't die. I won't allow it."

         "You better fight your ass off then," Ivy said, the tears falling as she beamed. She grabbed his face, planting a kiss on both of his cheeks. "I'll see you soon."

        Ivy got up, sprinting to a pile of rubble and standing on top of it, pointing her wand to her throat to make her voice louder. "Hey, listen here!"

        They all turned to the sound of the voice, seeing Ivy standing there, a slight smile on her face, and her wand pointed to her head. "Death Eaters, I'm speaking to you. One more spell from any of you, and I'll kill myself."

       Sirius's eyes widened. What was she doing? This wasn't part of the plan she came up with. The whole battlefield was silent for a few seconds as everyone sort of looked at each other. All the Death Eaters seemed to be debating on what to do.

         "Oh yeah? What makes you think you're so valuable in the first place?" Lucius Malfoy said, a smooth voice penetrating the tension-filled air.

         "Because you came up with a plan to capture me! Sending Justin here to get me? Perfect! Would have worked if Remus wasn't home!" Ivy yelled. "You thought he would be at work, and I'd be home alone, but no, Remus took the day off! So you used your backup plan to summon all the Death Eaters."

         "What if you die, and then we just move on to another intelligent individual of the Order?" Lucius inquired once again.

         "No one in the Order is as smart as me with the same coincidental connection, other than possibly Dumbledore!" Ivy said. "And you can't capture him, he's too powerful! You want me because of my connection to Justin, my knowledge, and the fact that I don't look like a threat!"

        The whole field was silent. Ivy looked at everyone in turn. James, Sirius, Dumbledore, Marlene. Remus.

        She smiled at Remus. He shook his head, opening his mouth to speak. He wasn't given time, because Ivy cast a non-verbal spell straight to her head, then falling to the ground in a heap.

        The whole field looked at the body in shock. Lucio scowled darkly.

        "I suppose we should retreat and reorganize. Our objective is gone," He said to everyone. They all began to disapparate as the Order attempted to kill them before they got away. Once they were all gone, everyone turned their attention to Ivy, who laid there, seemingly lifeless.

        "What is wrong with her?!" James shouted, throwing his wand. "We could have negotiated with them and found another way! We didn't need for you to kill yourself, idiot!"

       Dumbledore sighed. "Frank, scan the area for any remaining Death Eaters. Report back here when you're finished."

        They all stood quietly, mulling over the idea of Ivy being dead. After a few minutes of silence, Frank came back, handing James his wand.

        "All gone, sir," Frank said, walking swiftly back over to the OOTP.

        Remus walked to Ivy, kneeling to get a better look at her. Before he could get a closer look, her eyes popped open.

        "What—?!"

        "God, I don't know how I pulled that off," Ivy said, sitting up and looking around. "I thought I would do it wrong, and forget my goal to pretend to be dead. I somehow remembered that, but since it was what I was focused on, I overdid the actual charm. So everything is pretty hazy right now."

        They all stared at her, not knowing what to say. Sirius scowled, kicking a rock at her. She yelped when it hit her.

       "Ivy, you bitch! Explain!" Marlene said, tears streaming down her face. Ivy blinked. She remembered barely anything beyond the fact that she would pretend to be dead until all death eaters left.

         "Marlene?" Ivy asked, squinting her eyes. "I went to school with you."

        "You suck! You don't even remember anything!" Sirius said, kicking another rock at her. Ivy yelped again as the rock hit her in the side.

        "Sirius. I went to school with you!" Ivy said in a delightful voice that didn't match the mood of everyone else. "And James, Peter. Lily? Was that her name? Remus!"

        Ivy yelled the last name, several memories of him coming back vividly. She smiled, almost smug. "I remember Remus quite well, actually."

        "But you can barely remember anyone else, asshole?" Sirius said, kicking another rock at her.

        "Stop with the rocks!" Ivy yelled, grabbing one and throwing it back at him. She missed. "I remember most things. But my plan worked as I wanted. I remember nothing about the Order. I didn't tell you what I was going to do, Sirius, because I needed everyone's reactions to be authentic! And to answer you, Marlene, I cast the memory charm but pretended it was the death curse. So if I accidentally forgot to play dead, they'd get nothing out of me."

        "Well, I guess we'll have to fill you in again," Dumbledore said with a small twinkle in his eye. "Right. Let's go to headquarters. Ivy, we have a lot of explaining to do."

        Remus helped Ivy up, then wrapping his arms around her tightly. She hugged back, sighing.

        "I don't think I could never forget you, Remus."

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