Ivy was born in December of 1864, three years after her older brother Pine. She was quickly followed by fraternal twins Buttercup and Fern, who were born in early 1866. The Shaw household never saw a quiet moment, not with children as rowdy as Ivy and her siblings. They were all thick as thieves and had a penchant for getting into trouble even before they could walk. Ivy was a notorious 'shiny thing eater' and had to be watched carefully around anything small enough for her to put in her mouth. Once she graduated past that, she got into playing with her brother's things and wearing the clothing that he was outgrowing. Her mother fought to keep her dressed appropriately, but she lost in the face of Ivy's thrashing and biting. When Pine developed an interest in sports, she did too. The both of them often got into scraps over who "really" won whatever game they'd been playing. Agnes "allowed" Ivy to do as she pleased because the girl would have it no other way. Her father had never outgrown a teenage sense of humor and came from a wildly eccentric family where such behavior was normalized, so he found it all funny.

Collectively, the Shaw children drove off any tutor their parents attempted to hire, so they were pushed into local schools until it was time for Hogwarts. Finally, Agnes put her foot down where dresses were concerned. The Shaws got enough side eyes as things were. Someone had to care about the family's reputation in the wider world. Ivy was wrestled into "proper" attire, even though it didn't suit her at all. At school, Ivy was teased mercilessly for her awkwardness and lack of feminine grace, especially by boys. That was when her dislike of them started. In fact, her first act of magic was setting fire to the trousers of a particularly rotten boy who held her down and forcibly cut her hair. 'If you want to be a boy so much, I'll help you look like one,' he'd said. After that, Ivy never allowed her hair to grow longer than shoulder length again and became obsessed with physical strength. She would not allow anyone to touch her like that again.

By the time she was sent off to Hogwarts in 1876 (she'd missed out on enrollment in '75 due to her late birthday), she had a massive chip on her shoulder. She was swiftly sorted into Gryffindor like her older brother had been. Classes only interested her for the first two years, when everything was new and shiny. Once she realized that school could be boring as all hell even when magic was involved, Ivy turned her attention fully to Quidditch. She'd been a fan of the sport for years and often played ramshackle versions of it with her brother and cousins. Unsurprisingly, in her third year ('78-'79) she tried out for the team. She made it in as a beater due to her upper body strength and ability to maneuver on a broomstick. She only added one OWL course to her roster - Care of Magical Creatures - because she didn't want academics getting in the way of sport.

In fourth year ('79-'80), puberty struck and she began have feelings about her fellow classmates. Admiration of the male Quidditch players she didn't hate became proper crushes. All of those were then eclipsed by the sapphic infatuation she developed for a girl in her year. The girl was soft and pretty and kind, and Ivy spent hours daydreaming about being her husband one day. Ultimately nothing came of her feelings except for the knowledge that she didn't have to rely exclusively on men for affection. After fifth year ('80-'81), she left school with mediocre OWLs scores and her mind made up about a career. Parental approval or not, she was going to play Quidditch. Predictably, her mother had a fit about it and her father gave his blessing. Agnes would later go on to attend all of her daughter's games while Larkspur preferred to check the paper for scores.

Ivy tried out for the Holyhead Harpies and was taken on as a second string beater. Two and a half years later, she was moved up to first string, much to her delight. There was little she enjoyed more than the weight of a bat in her hand and the feel of it connecting with a bludger. Spiked butterbeer was a close second.

Ivy has played diligently without much incident ever since, persisting through team and staff changes. She did break a man's nose for saying he would "tame" her, but she was spared from public consequences due to his embarrassment about the whole ordeal. In terms of life events, most recently, her older brother and younger sister found spouses for themselves, sparing her from any parental nagging about marriage. At least that's what she hopes.