Somewhere More Interesting to Be
Last time...
“You want me to respect you, to listen to your guidance or follow your orders, but I don’t see why I should.” Hera continued, looking around at them all. “You fear me, fear the power I hold and what I could do with it, but that’s only because you’ve been in your positions, some of you, for decades, and yet nothing’s gotten any better. Why is that?”
Chapter 8
A break had had to be called after that, and Albus wasn’t really sure where they were going to go from there. Of all the harebrained schemes Rutherford could have tried, it would have to be the one that would make Hera the most objectionable towards them. He’d warned them what cornering her like that would do, so of course that’s exactly what they’d gone and done. What a mess. He sighed as the door closed, Hera and the others having exited for the time being.
“Rutherford, I ask this because I genuinely have no idea how else to phrase it.” Albus stated wearily, turning to face the man. “What the fuck was that?”
The man in question spluttered, trying to recover. “Just because you’re too much of a coward to say it, doesn’t mean I have to be!”
“No, he’s right.” Harper, a no-nonsense sort of woman, snapped. “For once, Dumbledore has managed to get to the point. I think we would all like to know just what the fuck you were thinking, Rutherford.”
That’s when Albus realized how badly Rutherford was shaking. The man shook with indignation and rage, but it was more than that. There was fear about this man, the kind that only witnessing something can illicit. He sees the moment Rutherford notice him really looking at him, sees the moment when the man realizes he understands. Albus has him in apparation prevention ropes before he can fire off the first spell, bound in a chair so as to prevent his escape.
“You were there.” Albus stated, much to the confusion of the others. “What did you see?”
“I don’t know what you’re-”
“Not all of the Death Eaters were caught the night that Hera Potter’s brother was taken to lure her into a trap. Several escaped. I just did not expect anyone in the council to be amongst them.” Albus cut him off. Rutherford struggled to free himself, but found himself quite unable to do so. “You saw something, something that made you fear her, yet something you couldn’t resist trying to control her to use for your own ends. What was it?”
Rutherford looked around wildly, but upon seeing no one willing to come to his aid, finally cracked.
“You want to know what I saw?” Rutherford growled, lunging forward as much as the ropes would let him. “Fine! I saw the Potter brat completely unhinged, covered in green and gold fire that didn’t burn her, as she tortured Belatrix with the cruciatus!! I hid as I watched that little wisp of a girl catch the killing curse in her fucking hands like it was a bloody snitch!!! And I watched as she threatened Bellatrix with it, casually crushing the spell out of existence. That’s what I fucking saw.”
“Well, that was a complete waste of time.” Hera snorted, once the doors were closed.
“I knew they were going to be stupid, but is it awful that I thought they would be smarter about it?” Hermione wondered aloud as they went further down the hall.
“It did seem rather odd that that guy just…went for it like that.” Ron agreed, nodding. “What on Earth was he thinking?”
“Fear is a powerful motivator,” someone off to the side commented. “as is greed.”
Hera turned towards the sound of the voice, surprised that she had not heard anyone approach. There, in soft yellow robes that didn’t quite match any style Hera remembered seeing, stood a bald woman smiling at them with a kind of polite amusement. At least, Hera was fairly certain they were a woman. The person had a sort of androgynous look to them, much like she did. The rest of them were instantly wary of the new arrival, as none of them had heard her approach either.
“My apologies for the intrusion.” The stranger greeted with a slight nod, before looking to Hera specifically. “I believe we have much to discuss. Would you happen to have time?”
“I would.” Hera nodded, hearing a certain duality to the words.
“Hera Potter, you absolutely do not!” Hermione objected, horrified at the very idea of what they were suggesting. “You can’t just leave a meeting with the ICW!”
“I don’t see why not.” Hera remarked with a snort. “It’s not like those fusspots are going to have anything constructive to say in there. At least this is interesting.”
“They’ll be busy for a while yet.” Luna informed them, tilting her head off to the side.
“I’d wondered if they’d caught onto that.” Salazar admitted, sounding impressed as he looked at Luna. “There’s at least four of them in there.”
It only took a moment for the others to catch up to what he’d meant by that.
“That many?” Draco wondered.
“Indeed.” Salazar confirmed. “Severus would not have known them, but they knew of him. His being here made them nervous. I doubt Lucius would know either, though he might. Abraxus was certainly chatty about the old crowd, before the marks began taking place.”
“Come on, guys, road trip?” Hera suggested, before her face broke out into a grin. “Think about it. Who else can say they ditched the ICW? Can you imagine their faces when they realize?”
“I should point out, as an unwillingly responsible adult, that following a stranger who’s name we don’t even know, who was able to sneak up on all of us – myself included – is a bad idea.” Remus reminded them. “That being said, if we’re going to go, we’d better do it soon.”
“All will be explained shortly. You have my word.” The stranger assured them. “If you’ll follow me?”
Hera nodded, and in wonder watched as they made infinitesimal gestures in the air, creating the same kind of orange circle of sparks she’d seen Strange step out of. In it, she could see a room of sparse decoration. There was a table with mats for as many people as were there, as if whoever this was had expected her to agree and the rest to follow. However, the sparks called her attention back to them. There was something to it all, and she peered closer at them, ever curious.
“Fascinating.” She murmured, as she made her observations. “I can almost see the magic of it, but there’s…something else. Will you show me?”
“I look forward to it.” The stranger agreed, and stepped through the sphere, entering the room.
Hera turned to face the others. “Alright, it’s now or never. Who’s coming with?”
Salazar made to speak, but Luna shook her head against it.
“They’ll find them on their own. You don’t need to stay and help them.” She insisted, and when it looked like he was going to try anyway, she added. “Don’t miss an opportunity just because you think we would be more comfortable without you.”
At that, he relented.
“I’ll stay behind, let them know there’s more than one.” Severus replied. “I’ll say I heard it from a reputable source. I won’t even be lying. That and my reputation? They won’t need more than that to start looking.”
“I should stay; Do the whole Lord Black thing while I’m here.” Sirius admitted, with a regret sigh. “It’ll give you and Moony some more time to bond without me. It’ll be good for the two of you.”
He looked certain in his decision, so Hera nodded in agreement. There were no others opting to stay behind, so she turned and made her way through the circle. It was seamless. One step she was in the building of the ICW, and in the next she was somewhere else entirely. She saw the fascination in her friends’ eyes as they too noted how smooth the travel was.
“Can you tell us where we are?” Remus wondered, looking towards the window at something Hera couldn’t quite see. “Not to state the obvious, but I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
“Is this another movie reference I don’t get?” Hera asked quietly when Hermione snorted, and the girl nodded. “Oh, good.”
“Where we are precisely is a closely guarded secret, but I can tell you that we are in the Himalayas.” The stranger informed them. “Does that answer your questions?”
“Yes, and raises more.” Hera chirped happily. “What is that kind of travel? I’ve seen it before, but had no idea it was so seamless! Marvellous, really. Also, not to be rude, but who are you, and why did you want to meet with me? I’m sort of responsible for my friends here where I’m technically a professor, which has been weird but great. So if they’re going to be in danger or something while here, I’d like to know ahead of time so I can plan for that.”
“Would that we always knew when danger lay ahead, to so easily plan for it.” The stranger commented with kind amusement. “I am called the Ancient One, and I plan no harm to your friends, nor do any of those who reside here; save possibly one, but his mind is in turmoil now, and it is he we need to speak on.”
“It happened then.” Hera stated, knowing it was true before she’d spoken the words, her entire demeanour shifting from happily mischievous to sadness in an instant.
“Yes.” The Ancient One revealed. “Understandably, he is not taking it well. I have tried to see beyond, to know their fate. If I could ease his concerns, it would go a long way, but I was unable to do either.”
This is how they spend the afternoon, over tea and sympathy. Hera tells what she knows of the situation, which admittedly isn’t much. The Ancient One listens as Hera tells her tale, not interrupting to even as questions. She doesn’t know how she’s supposed to help Strange, but she does know he wasn’t the only reason the Ancient One wanted to talk with her. So when she finishes explaining things as best she can, Hera pulled out her special time turner.
“One day, I needed time; needed it so much, it just…showed up.” Hera admitted, gently placing the item on the table. “I’d thought it a time turner in the moment; used it to help one of my professors from getting sacked, and to gather what I needed to help the others. I didn’t know…until one day Stephen Strange showed up, and taught me how to create a time loop. I’d had a thought then, looked to the stone, and asked what else it could do. It…answered. All magic has a kind of sentience, I know, but I’d been foolish to think theirs dormant.”
“Why are you placing this before me?” The Ancient One wondered.
“I have a feeling it belongs here with you, and I think…” Hera began, placing her hand on the Time stone once more. “I think it would be better if it were kept where more people could protect it. With the way my life is, I can’t promise I can do that. What if something happens? What if they all get taken at once? If they’re separate, they can’t be gotten to as easily.”
“And you’re certain you wouldn’t wish to keep it?” The Ancient One inquired, leadingly. “The power such an item grants is beyond compare.”
Hera made a particular face at that, which had the Ancient One chuckling in amusement.
“In any case, I’m afraid it is a moot point. Though it would do them well to remain separate for their own safety, the stones have a history of showing a strong desire to be together, and Time may find their way back to you in short order.” The Ancient One admitted, bringing Time and it’s casing closer to their side of the table. “I will do what I can in the meantime to keep them occupied.”
“Well…” Hera thought it over, before grinning just a touch. “I suppose that just gives me an excuse to come visit.”
~_~
Meanwhile, Black had gone to do whatever Lord things he thought he could get done while there at the meeting place of the ICW. Severus didn’t quite know what the man thought he was doing, but that wasn’t his problem. No, Severus had had the genius idea to stay behind, and now he had to think up some bullshit excuse as to why Potter wasn’t here that didn’t sound like an insult. He was screwed, and he knew it; because no matter how he tried to spin it in his mind ‘She found somewhere more interesting to be’ still sounded bad. A sound at the door told him his time had run out, and any hope he’d had of coming up with a way not to insult the ICW, only for him to look up and see that Albus had poked his head out; His eyes searched the area for a moment, before looking to Severus.
“She left.” The man observed. It wasn’t a question, but Severus nodded anyway, and the man slumped in defeat. “I can’t say I’m surprised. We made a rather bad showing of it in there. Give me a moment.”
With that, Albus tucked his head back into the room, and the door closed once more.
Stephen had found a quiet place overlooking everything, needing somewhere away from everyone else. He couldn’t stand being here, how same and yet different everything was, nor the guilt over what he’d done; what had had to be done because of his actions, a little voice helpfully reminded him. Everyone and everything in that other…it was all gone, all because of him. Everyone he’d ever known, including Wong and Christine…gone. It was overwhelming, the guilt of it all, so much so that he found he couldn’t breathe for it trying to choke the life from him.
Lost in his own thoughts as he was, he almost didn’t notice when someone sat near him. He certainly hadn’t noticed their approach. They didn’t sit near enough to crowd him, but their presence still felt oppressive. Looking over, he was mutedly surprised to see that girl from before. She stared at the landscape beyond them, not looking at him, but all he could think was that he wanted her to leave him alone.
“Come to gloat?” He glowered, before turning away guiltily. He had no room talking like that.
“I’d forgotten how much of an arse you are,” She snorted in amusement, somehow not taking offence to his words. “but no, I didn’t come here to gloat. A.O. thought you might try to go off on some kind of downward spiral of existential dread or something, and sent out a search party. I’m just the one that got to you first.”
“I didn’t want to be found.” Stephen admitted with a sigh, his heart having plummeted at the idea of a search party. “I just needed…I can’t…”
“It’s a lot; facing what happened to you, facing what happened because of you.” She nodded in agreement. “I can only imagine the empty sounding platitudes you’ve gotten. They mean well, but they’re also full of shite.”
Stephen snorted in spite of himself. “Got anything better than ‘All things heal with time’? That’s been the running theme so far, but I don’t think there’s any amount of time that will heal the loss of an entire universe...timeline...existence just…gone.”
He hadn’t meant the question in any serious way, but she gave him a calculating look regardless.
“There’s nothing that can take the pain away.” She warned, looking away towards the mountains again. “But eventually, you will find a way to live with it. There will be nightmares. And every day you wake up, it will be the first thing you think about…Until one day, it will be the second thing.”*
“I don’t know if that’s better or worse.” Stephen admitted.
“You’re grieving. People tend to forget that isn’t a linear journey. That bastard yo-yos all over the place.” She replied with a shrug, causing him to snort in unexpected amusement once more. “One moment you’re doing fine, and then the next the pain of guilt hits you like a physical force; because you are doing fine, and you don’t think you deserve to be.”
Stephen couldn’t help but really look at this girl now, because she sounded a lot older than her looks suggested. “Just how old are you?”
“I have the guilt of a last life still being lived trailing after me, Strange.” She stated, looking at him as if he should already know that. “Having my friends helps, because they remind me I have people to talk to about things when they get to be too much; even if they don’t understand. I know you don’t really have that here, because of…well, everything…but I could be a sounding board, if you want. Tell me about them, the people you miss. I’ll listen, trade stories, if you want.”
Surprise hits him even as he wars with the guilt eating at him.
“You would offer me that?” Stephen asked, uncertain. “After what I did? What I tried to do? I would have brought you to them, and they would have-”
“They call it being pruned.” She interrupted, and his breath caught in his throat. “When I took up my mantle, I heard many a Loki call out to any who would hear them. They…‘We are being hunted, pruned, killed. We need your help, or you need to hide. Help us, or hide.’ I tried to reply. I don’t think they heard me.”
“…I heard them too, thought it was a trick to get me to stop, didn’t realize…” He tried to get out the rest of the words, but the dawning realization he could see in her eyes told him that it wasn’t needed; that he was a Loki too. “I don’t know how many times I found out, how many times my memories were erased. They took me from some other timeline, planted me where there was already a Loki, but I don’t know why.”
“They’ll come for us both eventually, you know. We’ll have to deal with them when they do. They have the feeling of a later problem that’s quickly gearing up to become a now problem as it is. I have a feeling there’s still going to be a whole lot of hurry up and wait to get through first though.” She sighed, before giving a decisive nod. “In the meantime, let’s say we get you trained up a bit. Your magic is young, and you could use it.”
The statement caught Stephen by surprise, and he found himself sputtering. “I made Sorcerer Supreme in my timeline, I’ll have you know.”
“If you’ve been at this for longer than three years, I’ll eat my shoes right here and now.” She countered, and waited. He couldn’t refute it, and had the distinct feeling she would know if he tried to lie about it. “That’s what I thought. The traditional way of learning probably wouldn’t work for you either. I ended up raiding the restricted section once I figured out how to work around the wards. I was bored, and they weren’t listening when I asked for more specialized studies, but I was also lucky that nothing blew up in my face before I became an apprentice. It could have.”
He smiled a bit, remembering how he’d done something similar, and grimaced as the guilt hit him again.
Even so, he replied. “I opened up small portals to the books I wanted, and took them from the library without having to leave my room. I’d been stealing them from behind his back for weeks, but there was one time I stole the book right from out of Wong’s hands.”
“How pissed was he?” She asked, clearly amused. “Madam Pince was absolutely livid when she realized I’d been getting around her wards for years. Can’t say I ever tried to steal from directly under her nose though. I should do that, just to see what happens.”
“He was quite annoyed.” Stephen relayed, sharing in her amusement. “The Ancient One was amused, though warned me there was a reason Wong was so diligent about his guarding of the library, and that I needed to slow down. I was so sure of myself, that I knew better.”
“Yeah, pacing myself has never been my strong suit either.” She nodded in commiseration. “I’ve actually almost died from magical exhaustion quite a few times.”
“Let’s not forget the time we fought the guy that had the Power stone.” He pointed out. “We died a lot that day.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.” She cringed. “I kept flickering in and out of this weird place. There was a lady there I swear I’ve seen somewhere before, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t talk to her.”
“That didn’t happen to me.” He admitted, wondering what that meant for her, and then decided to turn the topic to other things. “So…about this training?”
“What were you going to do if you couldn’t bring me in?” She asked, with a wry grin; like she already knew the answer.
He flustered a bit, not sure what this had to do with anything, though he responded anyway. “I was going to try to banish you myself.”
“Then try it.” She replied. He looked at her with shock, but she continued. “Not only that. Try whatever spell you like, or any that you can find here. I imagine you’ll want to train here too. I’ll be able to counter it safely, and you’ll be able to practice magic in relative peace.”
“Should something work?” Stephen inquired. He couldn’t imagine her being able to counter everything.
“Then we’ll see what happens.” She shrugged. “Could be fun. Shall we?”
Their arrival back at Hogwarts was met with the stern faces of both Minerva and Albus, though Hera couldn’t imagine what for. All the students had arrived back at school safely, and their trip had netted them a secret society of allies. She supposed she could understand where they’d not exactly gotten approval ahead of time, but all was well. That was when she saw the letter in Albus’ hand, and groaned upon seeing the ICW’s seal. She knew without having to ask, just what was in that letter.
“They can’t possibly expect me to meet with them again, not after the disaster I skipped out on.” Hera stated, wondering what his justification would be.
“We do, though that will be some time from now.” Albus admitted, making to hand her the letter. “There’s quite a lot of cleaning up to be done between now and then, on our side of things. They asked me to give you this in advance.”
Salazar snatched the letter out of the man’s hand before it could make it to her, and it began glowing blue. “Nice try, Albus. Better luck next time.”
“What was that?” Hera demanded, not sure which one of them she was asking. “I didn’t quite catch it before.”
“A low grade compulsion, one so low it is likely they hoped it wouldn’t have been noted at all.” Salazar replied, while glaring at the Headmaster.
“I told them it was a bad idea.” Albus admitted with a sigh. “They were hoping it would make you more amiable to meeting with them again.”
“You still did it! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about, Albus.” Hera snapped, before taking the letter and burning it in her hands. “You and your lot can take that poorly disguised attempt at a manipulative apology, and shove it up your arses!”
…
Minerva waited until Hera and her friends were gone before turning on Albus, who was already looking a little chagrined.
“Well, you really stepped in it this time, Albus.” She sighed, hoping the disapproval she felt was clear in her voice. “What were you thinking?”
“That if it had been anyone one else, she’d have done a lot worse than yell at them.” Albus admitted with a shake of his head. “They weren’t going to go with another plan, Minerva. I tried. I told them there would be consequences for trying to force a god of magic to get along side when we’d already made such a bad showing of things prior to this, and that this would not endear us to her. When they wouldn’t budge, I asked to be the one to deliver it instead. Now, I just have to hope she understood what I was trying to do.”
It had taken the day, and part of the next, before Hera calmed down enough to where she could think on the situation calmly. It helped that by the time she actually had calmed down, Dumbledore came back with news. The ICW was cleaning house, as there had been several Death Eaters and even more sympathizers within the ranks. How they hadn’t known before, Hera had no idea, but they also weren’t blaming the group entirely for their lack of decorum either. What she hadn’t been expecting was for Horace to use the distraction to finally corner her into accepting an invite to one of his parties.
“Did you hear, there’s supposed to be a vampire coming?” Hermione asked, surprising her. She’d surprised Hera with picking up what she felt were good bits of gossip, but one didn’t room with Lavender and Parvati without picking up at least an appreciation for it, and it was a good source of information gathering if one was careful with it.
“Is it weird that that would be the most normal thing so far?” Hera wondered, as they made their way down. “Tony will be stoked to discover vampires are actually real, and I’m sure there will be movie marathons on the subject in my future once I tell him. Thanks for going with me to this.”
“Of course.” Hermione acknowledged, before giving her an amused grin. “Though I’m surprised you didn’t ask one of your many would be suitors.”
Hera groaned at the reminder, causing Hermione to chuckle at her antics, when they finally made it to Slughorn’s office. Upon entering, Hera could see the man had magically expanded his office to accommodate the party. The ceiling and walls had been draped with emerald, crimson, and gold hangings, so that it looked as though they were all inside a vast tent. Loud singing accompanied by what sounded like mandolins issued from a distant corner; a haze of pipe smoke hung over several elderly warlocks deep in conversation, and a number of house-elves were negotiating their way squeakily through the forest of knees, obscured by the heavy silver platters of food they were bearing, so that they looked like little roving tables. The room was crowded and stuffy and bathed in the red light cast by an ornate golden lamp dangling from the centre of the ceiling in which several small fairies were fluttering, each a brilliant speck of light; and upon seeing her, the tiny fairies abandoned their post to play with her hair, thus alerting Horace to her presence.
“Hera, my dear!” boomed Horace, upon seeing them. “Come in, come in! Glad you could make it, Miss Granger! The rest of your shield-brethren are here, of course, as is young Mr. Gaunt.”
Horace was wearing a tasselled velvet hat to match his smoking jacket, something Hera barely noticed as he began to lead them both purposefully into the party.
“There’s so many people I’d like for you to meet!” Horace insisted, jovially, guiding them to two such individuals. “Hera, Miss. Granger, I’d like you to meet Eldred Worple, an old student of mine, author of Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires — and, of course, his friend Sanguini.”
AN: Quote from Reddington - The Blacklist. I was not expecting to use another of his quotes, but here we are lol
Also, I feel like I should apologize. I'd planned to update this much sooner, but the job hunt has really taken over, and that's already hard to do with a chronic illness. I swear Fibromyalgia is like walking around covered in ankle weights that both freeze and burn depending on what mood my nerve endings are in. So I am definitely on the hunt for a nice sit down job ^_^ Wish me luck, and speedy chapters!