Piercing green eyes glared at the letter in her hand with more anger than any six year old should be able to have. Then again, she knew she wasn't a normal child, the letter only proving her point.

Since she was four, she had taken to stealing school books out of Dudley's second room and teaching herself basic school courses. Teaching herself to read and write fluently in half a year with the help of a dictionary and children books, she had quickly progressed through grade one and two, and was halfway through grade three when the Dursley's reluctantly sent her to school.

Of course, she had to make herself stay low in class grades, or the Dursley's would punish her for getting higher grades than Dudley. Not to mention they might get suspicious of where she got her knowledge from as she normally stayed in her cupboard when not doing chores. She had been able to dedicate more time to learning then other kids since she didn't have spare time, being locked in her cupboard when not doing the chores. The Dursley's had seemed to take it to heart to deny her any sort of fun or pleasure in her life. This had the side effect of her being far more mature than any other child her age, as she already knew and understood the world was not the fun happy place most kids thought of it as.

Because of this, she had immediately known that the strange things that kept happening around and to her might be related to whatever the Dursley's insisted was abnormal and freaky about her, and not just random acts to be shoved to the back of her mind. Healing the damage done by the Dursley's overnight for example. Now that she thought about it, it might also be helping her learning speed, as she was pretty sure no child should learn as quickly as she did. She shook her head quickly, clearing her thoughts. She could wonder about that later, now was not the time think about it as she was standing in the middle of the Dursley's main bedroom. She did not want to find out what they would do to her if they found her here, and they could return any minute now. She stuffed the letter back where she found it and walked down the stairs towards her cupboard. She had already taken as much food as she could without the Dursley's noticing, and she still had books to finish so no need to visit Dudley's second room. She stopped outside the door of the cupboard and opened it.

A bed was stuffed in the back, looking like it should have fallen apart years ago. Two shelves were on the wall above the headrest. Empty of course, as the Dursley's would rather lose money rather than spend it on her. A few electrical things were also on the wall, but she didn't know what they did. Her only possessions were the ratty blanket and pillow on the bed. The floor was wooden and rough, and had a few bloodstains on it from when she was thrown in here after the Dursley's punishments. The only thing that really appealed was the darkness of it and the various books hidden under the mattress. The darkness because when she was in here with the door closed, she could be alone with her thoughts and have the chance to read using the thin light from under the door. It also gave her the chance to be away from the Dursley's and their various methods of abuse. She found the blackness comforting in a way, and it had became attached to safety and happiness in her mind.

She would like to get rid of the cupboard though. Grimacing, she sat down on the bed and shut the door, making sure to move the lock back so it didn't seem she had gotten out in the first place. A few months ago, she had found out that if you pushed the door the right way, you could open a gap and be able to move the lock from the inside. It had already proved helpful in getting enough food, water, and books since she could now leave at night, rather than try and sneak them past the Dursley's. Settling down on the bed, she shut her eyes and brushed her hair out of her face, clearing her head, before listing off everything she had just learnt.

She had taken the chance of the Dursley's being out to try and look for this letter Petunia mentioned once that came when she was found. After finding this letter, it both answered and raised several disturbing questions.

First, the fact her parent's were murdered by a dark lord called Voldemort. She apparently only survived because her mother sacrificed herself to save her, allowing this "Can't be blocked by magic, explodes on contact with non magical non living objects, and kills instantly whatever living being it touches" curse to reflect off a one year old baby and kill Voldemort, leaving only his clothes behind. She could already think of several way's this theory's wrong, but that's beside the point. One thing that was worrying was the fact this Lord apparently vanished into thin air, instead of just dropping dead. That meant something else was happening here, and the fact he might still be alive. Which meant that he either had been injured and was still recovering, lost his powers and body and was floating around as a ghost, or had managed to get away in time and hide. She doubted the last one, as the war wouldn't have ended and she would have been killed another way. It was quite reasonable that this Lord could still be hunting her, which was bad.

Second, there's the fact she's a witch, with actual magic, to think about. That would explain several things that she attributed to whatever this abnormal freakiness that the Dursley's maintained she had. How she would alway's be healed overnight instead of days or weeks, much to the annoyance of the Dursley's. How some blows didn't do as much damage as they should have. How that even with meagre scraps to feed on normally, with even less or none for punishment, she still looked more or less ok, if a bit thin and stunted. As stated before, it might have helped with her intelligence, as she suspected most other kids her age wouldn't be able to learn at the rate she did and had.

A few times when she had been caught in a position where she wasn't able to get back to her cupboard without being spotted and punished by the Dursley's for being out without permission, she would feel a squeezing sensation and find herself back in her cupboard. This left her drained and sick for a few days though, and the strange things stopped happening. These and a few other minor cases where explained by her being a witch. Maybe her magic was able to respond to her intent or emotion? It also seemed as if she only had a limited amount. She'll look into that later.

Third, she was placed her with the Dursley's to take advantage of her mother's sacrifice, which was meant to protect her against harm from anyone outside a family relation. She could understand that, as Voldemort's followers would probably want to get revenge, not to mention the probably still alive Voldemort. However, this blood ward was obviously not working right, as Vernon was still able to hurt her. Same goes for Dudley and his little gang of followers. Powered by the emotion of love? That would explain it, as there was certainly no love between her and the Dursley's.

Fourth, the scar on her forehead was apparently left behind by this killing curse, which would explain the fact that it never healed despite having it since she could remember. However, something seemed off. Sometimes, when drifting off in her cupboard, trying to clear her mind to ignore the pain, she would feel something there. As if it was sitting in the back of her mind, watching for something. Whenever she would try and focus on it, it slipped away. She was now confident that it had something to do with the scar. After all, being hit in the head with a curse that nobody had been hit with and live would be bound to leave some sort of side effect.

Fifth, her godfather. She knew she had one, as she had heard Petunia rant about having one, yet being stuck here for them to deal with. She was positive she knew him, as she had vague memories of some-one called… Padfoot? The name was attached to a large black dog, a fair size larger than her. She knew the dog could turn into a man, so it must have been a nickname. Why didn't he look after her instead of the Dursley's? Or even visit once? She knew the man adored her, as almost all of her memories of him came with a sense of fun and happiness. She froze for a moment, before her eyes hardened and anger rose up. Unknown the her, the shadows around her shifted slightly and reached out to her, before pulling back. Dumbledore had arranged for her to be here, so he must have done something to stop him. She resolved that if she managed to leave the Dursley's, she would try and find this so called Padfoot.

Sixth, her fame. The letter had mention the title "The-Girl-Who-Lived", and how people were already celebrating her and a wars end. This showed that their world must be hidden, as magic was still only a myth, and a magical war had never been mentioned. This also raised several issues, as during the entire time she'd been at the Dursley's, she'd never received any gifts, which was bound to happen, no visitors, as she was sure the Dursley's would have had a fit at more freaks showing up at their home, and no attempts at contact with her, either at home, school, or on the way to either. She knew that the blood wards weren't working right, so something else must be blocking them. Dumbledore floated to the top of her mind again, and the part of the letter mentioning she was being placed here to avoid the fame. Dumbledore must have done something to stop people finding her, which meant that rescue from anyone in the magical world was out of the picture. She scowled, the shadows shifting again.

And finally, Hogwarts. Apparently she was going to be sent to a magical boarding school of some sort shortly after her eleventh birthday, leaving for most of the year and coming back over the holidays. The school was also apparently run by Headmaster Dumbledore, which wasn't good. It didn't mention much, as it stated that Petunia already knew much of this from Lily. This suggested that Lily and Petunia were most likely closely related, probably sisters.

So, in short, she was stuck here with the Dursley's after being left on a doorstep in the middle of the night, with faulty protection, an abusive family, in a place that no one could find her, which meant no help from either her godfather or anyone else. She also had something stuck in her head left behind by what sounded like one of the most dangerous and probably illegal curses there could be, which couldn't be healthy. Not to mention this Dumbledore person, who seemed to have some sort of plan for her. After all, why bother sticking her here and placing protections, faulty as they were, instead of her godfather? When she went to Hogwarts she would have to keep a careful eye on him.

Really, all she had going for her at the moment was her own personal magic, which seemed to respond to intent and desire. The letter had mentioned wands, but from the books that mentioned magic in myths and the fact it was listed as one of the things she would get for Hogwarts, she guessed it was probably a tool to help use magic. They probably also relied heavily on them as well, since why bother using how to use magic without one if you could just wave a stick and say words instead?

She resolved to learn anything she could about her magic, as from what it had done already had most likely saved her life more times then she could count. She also wanted to find out if it possessed some type of intelligence, as it seemed capable of acting on it's own, or if it just followed best it could to the intent of the user if they focused hard enough. It also seemed to respond to emotion, as the times she teleported it reacted to her fear and moved her to safety.

Hearing the Dursley's pull into the driveway from their late trip to the movies, she quickly hid the few books still out under the mattress and laid down on the bed, wrapping the blanket around her small form, and her hair like a makeshift scarf in an attempt to ward off the chill.

At least she knew her parents names now. Ivy Potter, daughter of Lily Potter nee Evans and James Orion Potter.

She fell asleep with a warm feeling of happiness in her heart.

Two days later

Ivy lay on the bed in the closet, trying to focus on the slight, almost unnoticeable tingling that was underneath the pain from another broken arm. She had dropped a plate while washing after Dudley shoved the chair she was standing on, and Vernon had seen fit to punish her for it. She still wasn't sure if a healthy human face was meant to go to colours as extreme as Vernon's did, but that might have something to do with his weight. Dudley seemed to be following in his fathers footsteps as well, almost as wide as he was tall. She had the usual assortment of bruises, but the broken arm came from when he shoved her into cupboard and it caught on the frame. Trying to clear her mind, she focused as hard as she could on the area of the break. She could feel something there, but it was hard to latch onto it.

A few seconds later, she felt something shift inside, almost as if something had been hiding it from view but gave slightly, and she could suddenly feel a current of sorts circling the broken bone. It felt sluggish, as if it was filled with mud or sludge, and seemed weak. Something was wrong, as she could feel that the current came from something within her chest, and that something felt powerful. She frowned again, as she noticed that something seemed wrong with that something as well, as if it was straining against something. Decided to refer to it as a core, as it seemed to be where her magic was located and stored, she focused even harder and tried pushing, in a sense, more magic toward the current in her arm. It worked for a second, before whatever was blocking her magic latched onto it and closed it off, leaving her with a small sting as it was violently shoved back. It hurt, but she was used to pain.

Instead of trying to force it out again, she tried feeling her core, trying to find out what exactly was blocking it. All she could really get was that her core seemed large, but most of it seemed to be behind a wall of some kind. From what little was left, two or three things seemed to be draining it, leaving only the small amount left to try and heal the damage done by the Dursley's and keep her alive. Both the wall and and other drains felt unnatural, as if instead of her magic flowing into them, they were reaching out and ripping part of it away. Feeling slightly detached, she withdrew her focus and tried to guess why someone had set a limit on her core. From what she could feel, the wall seemed to be fractured slightly, as if it was trying to hold back more than it could. Thinking of who did it was pretty easy, as Dumbledore seemed to be the cause of a lot of her current situations now.

He had probably been trying to stop her magic from showing itself, until she turned 11 and headed off to Hogwarts. Her mind cleared again, and anger made itself known.

Dumbledore had tried to take away her magic. He took away her godfather, placed her with the Dursley's, was apparently trying to plan her life for her, and generally had made her life hell. Those were already unforgivable, but she could bare it for now. Now however, she found out that he had also tried to take away the one thing that has helped her so far. Despite only knowing of her magic for two days, she already felt a intense connection with it, seeing as it was the only thing that she owned and cared for, and the one thing that has helped her more than anything else. A single thought kept repeating itself as anger started overwhelming her.

He tried to take away my magic.

He tried to take away my magic.

He tried to take away my magic!

Not even noticing the fact that the shadow's around her had darkened and where currently swirling around her at fair speed, she gathered what little magic was flowing around her body and squeezed it into a ball, before hurling it along with all the anger, rage, pain and sadness she felt at the barrier blocking her core.

Now, after Ivy had been recovered from the wreckage of the cottage in Godric's Hollow, and been prepared to be delivered to the Dursley's, Dumbledore had placed a block on Ivy's magical core. He had seen that it was already larger than normal for an infant, and would most likely result in her being one of the strongest witches of the generation under the right conditions. However, after finding the sliver of soul lodged in her scar, he had realised the true meaning of the prophecy and knew that for Voldemort to truly die, Ivy first had to be regrettably sacrificed. Knowing this, he had placed a block on three quarters of her core, enough to let her body have the necessary magic during growth, but not enough to result in much accidental magic. He hoped to try and condition her via the Dursley's, who he knew disliked magic, and receive a meek, submissive girl in awe of magic to mould into the final weapon against Voldemort. This required her to be completely clueless about anything magic, and so he tried to keep as much magic locked away as was healthy. However, he failed to account for three things.

One, the horcrux. No-one had managed to implant a horcrux inside a living host before to his knowledge, and didn't bother to find out the side effects. Due to having a supply of magic to work with, it started leaching off it and grew stronger, trying to gain enough strength to influence it's host and potentially take over. In response, her core had to dedicate part of it's magic towards fighting it off. This had the result of it taking up a third of the available magic left over from the block.

Secondly, the blood wards. Being one of the more powerful ancient magics there is, it was meant to work off the emotion of love between child and adult in a blood relationship. Unfortunately, Dumbledore did not fully understand the ward. Created from the supposed pure sacrifice of Lily for Ivy, he moved it from the child to the Dursley's house, weakening it from absolute protection of the child recharging itself of a tiny percent of it's core, to partial protection of an entire household, blocking those with ill intent from finding the house, and fending off attackers, but able to be broken by a skilled ward breaker. It also dramatically increased the magical cost, resulting in it absorbing another third of the available magic left.

Lastly, the Dursley's. Dumbledore knew they didn't much hold respect in regards to magic, but severally under estimating how far they would go. Expecting indifference, which he hoped for, he never bothered to make sure of Ivy's true safety, having utmost confidence in his blood ward. Instead, the Dursley's regarded Ivy as non-human, and a freak of nature. Trying to beat the magic out of her, the remaining 8% of her magic was unable to meet the demand of usage trying to heal the wounds and delay starvation.

All this was being powered by a child's magical core, which had yet to reach magical maturation and was still growing. As 75% was blocked off, and the other 25% was being slip into three separate groups of roughly 8% and failing to meet each demand, it instead was forced to expand dramatically, trying to fit more magic into each 8% slot to try and provide enough to keep up with the demand. This resulted in her core being far larger than the average adult, as it had to fit more magic than the average 18 year old magical had into a mere 8% of storage to keep up with daily healing and repairs, along with the magic needed during growth, another amount into the horcrux to combat it to stop it's advance of the main soul and mind, and lastly powering the blood wards, which were being powered barely enough to keep away those with ill intent, never less fight them.

The Dursley's meanwhile were actually succeeding in their attempt at beating the magic out of Ivy, though if they actually knew in what way they would have been horrified. Even while Ivy's core was expanding, it was fighting the block with all it had in an attempt to break it down and allow the rest of her magic to help with the demand. It only started to have an actual result at the age of 5, forming small cracks in the wall and allowing wisps of raw magic through. Normally, a young magical core would mould itself toward it's parent's magic, such as a young wizard possibly gaining the ability's of it's parents and gaining an affliction for wizarding magic, while an unicorn would gain unicorn's magic, and a dragon would gain dragon's magic. Being mostly blocked off after only a year of moulding, and the remaining being used almost instantly, her core lost whatever affliction it had.

Instead, it gained experience in both healing, due to having to repair almost every part of her body at some point, and the mind arts, as it had to constantly defend itself from the horcrux while trying to fight it back. It learned from the horcrux as well, stealing it's techniques of Legilimency and Occlumency and adapting them into itself. The small wisps of magic that weren't being used, lacking a human magical core, or at the very least a magical core of any type, instead moved to the physical environment around it's host. Due to Ivy spending most of her time inside her cupboard, and developing a comfort in darkness, it started moulding itself to the shadow's themselves, turning Ivy into one of the rare elemental's of wizarding myth, long thought to have died out. It would have taken over a year to fully finish this, as only the magic escaping the walled off area could mould itself.

Now, at the age of 6, the block Dumbledore had placed was under immense stress, trying to hold off far more magic then it was meant to, not to mention the magic actively trying to break it down instead of passively grinding it away like normal. It was only a testament to Dumbledore's magical strength and skill that it was still even there to begin with. With large cracks in it, with magic rushing out to meet the demand, Ivy's magical core was now fighting the block on both sides, again learning experience, this time in fighting off foreign object's on her magic itself. When Ivy gathered the spare magic on the other side of the wall, which was the weakest, charged it with negative emotions, increasing it's destructive ability, and threw it at the barrier, it knocked down whatever little defence it had left. The raw magic it was holding back quickly overwhelmed and absorbed the wall, before flooding the last quarter and merging. The horcrux was taken by surprise, finding itself fighting over eight times the amount of magic it was before. It was quickly beaten back, the drain snapped, and locked away. This would eventually result in the scar healing over, but it would still need the horcrux removed before fading entirely.

While Ivy's magic was distracted by the horcrux, the blood ward began taking as much of it as it could, rapidly strengthening itself and integrating with the house. However, due to Ivy labelling it as a threat, once the horcrux was dealt with it began fight off the blood wards as well. It fought back, as the runes and ward stone used the magic it collected to keep the connection stable. It was hardly a fight though, as it was Ivy's magic on both sides, it rejoined itself and the blood ward detonated. With all threats gone, it quickly spread though it's hosts body healing anything and everything to full health, shifting the broken bone back into place and merging the two pieces together, before it rushed out of her body to finish moulding itself to the shadow's. As her magic's several times stronger and larger than even the strongest magical's, all of it leaving at once produced violent forces on everything in quite a large area around her. This all brought on several major effects on the physical world.

Ivy felt the ball of magic seemly sharpen a bit as it merged with her emotions, before hurling itself at the wall in her core. Upon impact, the wall promptly shattered, the pieces being swallowed by the wave of magic on the other side. There was far more then she thought there was, as if it had been compressed as well as blocked. That quickly lost interest though, as she felt a large sting as her magic swelled to fit the edges of her core, stretching it to fit, then overfilling and spreading outwards over her small body. It felt incredible as it washed across her body, healing little pains and impurities she hadn't even noticed hurt, such as the little chips in her rips or the slight differences in arm lengths. Apparently her magic had only enough before to fix the major damage then leave the rest to heal normally. She felt the bone in her arm actually twist and lock into place, then a sharp stab of pain and her arm felt fine. The bliss only lasted a moment however until it hit the lighting bolt scar on her forehead. She felt her magic pause for the slightest of moments, before feeling it grow almost angry and race towards it, leaving only small amounts behind to continue healing.

Her only warning was a sense of shock that she knew wasn't hers before it felt like all the pain she had ever felt had been condensed into a spike before being promptly stabbed directly into the scar. Her small form spasmed and a scream caught in her throat, as she became acutely aware of the presence that had been haunting her, a cloud of malice and hatred floating in a pool of oily magic that made her raw magic burn. She felt it's outrage before it was promptly torn to shreds, compressed, and locked away. Immediately she felt her head clear, as if it had been foggy this entire time and she'd never noticed. Her magic also felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted off it. Dully she noted that the presence must have been one of the things eating her magic, but that thought as well only lasted a moment before her magic noticed the blood wards, which were currently absorbing large amounts of it. Her magic seemed to label this a threat as well, and promptly tried to snap it.

It resisted, but the magic it was using was never meant to fight off threats from the inside, and was destroyed as well. Almost instantly she heard several explosions from various places around the house, and actually felt one from the backyard area, before feeling a wave sweep over her and away from the house. The link that had been absorbing magic vanished, and her magic again felt lighter. It also found several minor connections that had escaped notice, and cut those loose as well. Before she had a chance to wonder at what those were, her magic stopped. It spread through her body, healing the damage and pain left over from the Dursley's and the recent fight with the scar, before pulsing once and rushing out of her body.

If one had been watching Ivy as this happened, they would have seen her literally glow for a moment, as reality seemed to shift slightly under the force before it swept outwards. Her cupboard disintegrated under the force and was blasted backwards, along with most of the house. The resulting wave was felt across most of Britain, as electronics close the centre of the wave broke completely, and everything else fizzled and shorted out for a few moments depending on distance as the magic interfered with their workings. Magical life felt the blast directly to varying degree, humans, creatures and plants alike, the more powerful animals and spirits reacting the strongest. Anything magical also seemed to flicker slightly, as their enchantments reacted with the wave. The entrance to the wizarding world malfunctioned, a dirty looking restaurant coming into view for a second. People at King's Cross station thought they saw an entrance to another train platform for the briefest of moments before vanishing.

Brooms seemed to stop working for the smallest of moments before flying weakest spells canceled completely while the stronger enchantments only paused for a moment. Wards seemed to shimmer lightly as they fended off the wave. Where Ivy's form lay, a small indent was pushed into the ground. The house around her was ruined, as anything near the cupboard was torn apart into dust, while the rest looked like a bomb had gone off. Houses nearby had peeled paint and a few tiles missing, but was mostly undamaged. The Dursley's themselves weren't home, due to it being a Monday. Petunia was at the shops stocking up enough food to last the week, which was quite a lot since both Vernon and Dudley had a large appetite, Vernon was driving to work, and Dudley was at school. Ivy herself was at home, locked in her cupboard due to the fact of being to injured to go to school and not raise questions they didn't want answered. Her magic had swept out of her body in a rush, and due to being inexperienced in the area, wasn't subtle about it. While it was out, it integrated as much of itself into any shadow it could find, moulding it's core workings to it, particularly shadows in magic filled areas. After doing that, it quickly retracted back into it's hosts small form, this time with a much lesser reaction. The magic returning to Ivy was slowly changing her body as it adjusted to holding a largely different type of magic than before. She wouldn't have a chance to observe the results however, as the incoming rush of magic proved to be overwhelming, and she fainted.

Authors Note

This is my first attempt at a story, and would welcome any reviews to it. Criticism in particular, as I would like to know where I messed up. Thanks :-D

This first chapter is mostly just a set up for the plot, with information more than anything. A more personal point of view will be shown in the coming chapters. After all, I can't just make her wish for a family and receive something as big as the Zerg Swarm, can I? After all, she would normally have a child's magic, nowhere near enough to break dimensions. That's why I had to give her a stupid amount of magic in a reasonable-ish way, which will be multiplied by the up and coming magical event. The zerg will be introduced in two or three chapters, maybe more.

Again, this is my first attempt at writing any kind of story, so review please.