Ivy slips from her shared room with the rest of the first-year girls, padding silently to the Common Room with her satchel held tightly to her chest. She finds a familiar jackal waiting for her, laying before the fire with his head perked up, sharp eyes fixed on her nearing form.

She drops to the floor beside him and scratches gently behind the large ears, pressing a kiss between the glittering eyes. "Hello, Friend," she greets, setting the Book of Amun Ra between them. "Has your Master sent you to me?"

The jackal shifts to rest his head in her lap, closing his eyes in content. "He sent my brother and I to soothe the dreams of you and your brother."

Light footsteps attract their attention, finding Harry and another jackal padding through the Common Room. Harry offers a tired smile before laying down with his own jackal, the Book of the Dead set on the floor at his side. "We have class in the morning, Rania."

"I know," she sighs, laying down next to her brother, cuddling into his open arms easily with their heads pillowed on the warm belly of Harry's jackal. "I miss Egypt, Ammon."

He tightens his arms around her, closing his eyes with a sigh. "I miss the warmth of the desert as well. This land is just too cold and wet for our souls to be at ease." He grasps her wrist gently, finding the disillusioned bracelet decorated with ward stones, activating all of them to release a shimmering golden dome over the four of them and their Books. "Goodnight, Sister," he murmurs, closing his eyes and slowing his breathing.

"Goodnight, Brother," she whispers before yawning, at peace for the first time in over a month.

With a small smile, Severus approaches the twins asleep on the floor, his magical signature having been keyed into the wards upon their creation. "Harry, Ivy, it's time to wake up," he murmurs, shaking their shoulders gently.

Harry wakes up first, blinking up at the professor tiredly before shaking his sister awake, sitting up once she does. "What time is it?" he asks around a yawn, covering his mouth.

Severus scratches behind the ear of the jackal that had been their pillow. "It is twenty minutes until breakfast, children. Mister Flint summoned me when Draco was unable to get past your wards to wake you."

Ivy runs a finger over the activation stone, focusing a small pulse of magic over the rune to lower the wards. "I didn't dream," she informs her Head of House. "It's been years since I haven't dreamed."

Severus hides his sigh of relief. "It is about time you had peace in your sleep without a potion. But for now, you both need to make yourselves presentable for breakfast, then make it to my lab shortly after."

"Yes sir," they chorus, gathering their books and scratching their jackals one last time before vanishing into the dorms.

Severus turns to the two jackals. "Thank you for standing guard over the children last night, to you and your Master," he breathes softly, scratching the second one just before they vanish.

He holds in a proud smile at the work the twins produce, even as he catches them throwing Draco a vicious glare when he whispers to their fellow Slytherins about sabotaging the work of the Gryffindors, Weasley and Brown in particular. Their potion is flawless, no less than he had expected, though Draco's could use a little more focus on the work rather than his scheming to ruin the lab.

He glares at the poor work of Crabbe and Goyle, understanding that they lack the usual intelligence of his Slytherins, but unwilling to allow them any leeway for producing a bright green tar-like substance. He forces himself away from their workstation, silently putting up a ward to neutralize any fumes or contain any explosions before moving on to sneer at the poor attempts at brewing on the Gryffindor side of his lab.

"Bottle a sample of you potion and place it on my desk then leave," he growls at his mostly incompetent class, hardly able to believe his own godson failed to produce the perfect results on a potion he's made flawlessly multiple times in the past under his careful instruction.

My Lord,

The Strengthening Draught you have requested, including alterations, is coming along in the theoretical stages very well. I can imagine the brewing plans should not take more than a day to organize before I may begin the brewing stage. Should the potion work on the test subjects you have so kindly provided, the Draught should be completed and ready for use by the first night of the Yule holidays, just in time for your complete revival.

I would ask that you have a word with the parents among your ranks. It may be above me to make such a request, but I only do as much due to my concern for the safety of the competent offspring the dunderheads have already endangered. I shall send along a memory of the horrific examples of why I make this request and hope you take my concern to heart, and should appreciate the chance to give out the true marks many in my House deserve without the threat of death if they are not passed for belonging to any circle of your ranks.

Ivy and Harry are well my Lord. Ivy has only just had a dreamless night at last, though I worry that she is not the only one of the twins suffering nightmares due to the two of them requiring their jackals and wards in front of the fire in the common room in order to sleep well after curfew. Harry is excited to meet you at last, and has asked many times if he could assist in any way to move up our plans for your revival. Please write to the boy in the near future so that we might all make it through the term with our sanity somewhat intact.

Please write me should you have any further potion requests or any information you should like to be made aware of should I be privy to such interests.

Severus Snape

With the children gone from his lab, he spells the used cauldrons away for a proper cleaning in detention by the Weasley twins tomorrow night. Charming the ink dry on his missive, he stalks into his office to see his black owl Hades. "Take this to the Dark Lord at Malfoy Manor," he orders the creature softly, offering an owl treat and a scratch behind his head before allowing the bird to exit through the enchanted passage that allows the avian messenger access to his private rooms. That small chore done, he breathes a heavy sigh in an attempt to rid himself of his tension derived from the annoyance and fear of dunderheads killing them all in his classes in the two periods before lunch.

He is not looking forward to the after-lunch dunderheads.

Ivy and Harry study with Hermione and Neville in the library quietly, pointing out details for the finer points of the ingredients for the potion they had just brewed today with Neville's supplementary knowledge of Herbology making the task much easier. Madam Pince is glad to be able to ignore the four children due to the care with which she saw them handling the old texts under her care, and even respect for asking her where to find the best books for their references.

"Ivy, I don't understand why we can't add the porcupine quills before taking the potion off the flame still," Neville admits softly, stuck on the point where Hermione had barely saved his potion from exploding in their own class after lunch.

She looks up at him and offers a small smile, capping her ink bottle after finishing her last sentence of the essay. "The quills don't react to added heat very well at all due to the oils the animal produces to keep its skin from drying out and getting flaky. If they're added to something that's not being heated anymore, they won't react beyond a mild bubbling that's expected if they aren't stirred in immediately, but when they are you can't see that effect. If there's more heat being added to the already hot potion, the oils cause the potion to bubble too much, and that much aeration in the potion reacting with the cold dungeon air results in a huge explosion up and out because there's nowhere else for the reaction to go."

He nods in understanding. "So it's like in herbology, where plants need a certain amount of light and water, but too much or too little of either kills it."

She nods warily, thinking about his example. "Something like that, I guess." She watches as Neville draws up a comparison on his potions notes for future reference before adding the last details to his own essay.

"Should we take a break and get some fresh air?" Neville asks softly, gazing out a nearby window longingly. "It's such a nice afternoon and we don't have anymore classes."

Ivy and Harry trade uncomfortable looks. "I think it's actually kind of cold," Ivy admits, missing the heat of her home country. "Plus I want to get a start on the History essay Ardeth assigned today."