Notes:

This does mention real world events, in a vague sense, hinting at the tragedy of the loss of lives during 9/11. I wanted to add a sense of realness to this, but in no way am I making fun of it, nor am I planning to place blame. Way above my nonexistent paygrade.

That being said, if there are other real world events you would like me to talk about or mention, feel free to suggest them. It doesn't have to be US or Britain based, not if I can justify a way for Hera to be there.


Last time...

"This is why he's as powerful as he is. He took the magic from all of you, and he could because you offered it willingly, whether you realized that was what you were giving him or not." Hera realized, still staring at the network. "He used a good bit of this magic just trying to bring himself back. If you take it back, your magic, he'd have to get by on his own…or use up those who are still loyal to him."

She vanished the projections, and looked around at them all.

"I chose not to turn you over to the Ministry for one reason. Your children love you. It's the exact thing He will use against you." She informed them. "You all should take the time to decide what you want to do, and ask yourselves if you're comfortable with being used up, if you want that parasitic magic used on your children."


Chapter 44

Lucius stumbled out of the room that had been set up as the girl had asked, looking for more shaken and haggard than his usual well kept appearance normally allowed. The room had been warded against letting sound out, and now he knew why. He, like the other four, had agreed to go through the process that would free them of the Dark Mark. She'd asked him, within the privacy of the warded room, how far he was willing to go for the protection of his family. There's nothing he wouldn't do for them, no measure he wouldn't take to insure their safety, and she'd taken him at his word.

The screams she tore from him as she wrenched the Dark Mark from his magic were far beyond anything he'd done under a crucio. She'd warned him if Magic sensed him insincere, it would exact a fatal price, but he'd meant it. He was fairly certain he could taste his own blood in his mouth right now, but as he stumbled into his wife's open arms, he felt better than he had in years. Draco looked to Potter, who nodded while leaning against the door, before making his way to embrace him.

As Lucius looked around, he could see others hugging their wives and children in the same manner he was. There was only one more left; Nott. The man looked nervous, but strode forward when Potter beckoned for him. All those that had already gone through the cleansing looked to each other with knowing eyes. They did not believe that the man would make it out of that room alive, each of them moving slightly closer to the young Nott boy as a result.

When the boy let out a choking sob, Lucius was by his side in seconds, whispering consoling words. It was a miracle that they could have had this chance at all, even more so that Potter had managed to save four out of the five of them, and they all knew it. However, all were surprised when Nott Sr stormed out of the room, glared at them all, and then made his way out. The Dark Mark was still visible on his arm, and Lucius knew something was wrong. Potter stumbled into view seconds later with a completely bewildered looking expression on her face, a small dagger sticking out of her abdomen, barely making it out of the room before crumpling to the floor.

"Severus!" Lucius called out, even as he's rushing towards her. "Potter's been injured!"

...

He'd known the moment he left the room that something bad was going to happen. Potter couldn't keep out of trouble for longer than five seconds, and of course she would save Nott Sr. for last. Severus had tried to warn the girl that Nott wasn't the type that would willingly risk his life to save his son, but she'd argued that he'd deserved the chance to prove it. Well, the man had certainly done that; with a stab wound. Potter looked oddly pale, Lucius by her side, lying on the floor as she was…and slightly blue. That couldn't be good.

"Don't tell Tony?" Potter pleaded, seeing him arrive.

"You were stabbed, and you want me not to tell your new caregiver?" Severus reprimanded, not even bothering to spare her a glance as he cut away the cloth around the wound. "Any particular reason why, Potter?"

"He'll want to go after him, and I can't let him do that." She explained, wincing in pain when he began to remove the dagger. Her grip on Lucius' hand tightening, and Lucius' face twisted into a grimace as a result.

"No offense, Lady Potter, but your brother is a muggle." Lucius pointed out through the grimace, as if the girl needed reminding of that fact. "I hardly see what one muggle could do against a wizard like that."

"Then you weren't paying attention before. Nott Sr. isn't a Wizard anymore. Magic exacted her price for his betrayal. I thought it would be life, the price, but…" Potter replied, her voice coming out in breathless puffs as Severus worked. "Besides…My brother is one muggle, yes, but he is also the world's most talented weapons designer, as well as one of the richest men in the world…He finds out I was attacked, and it won't matter if Nott Sr. has magic or not…Tony will go after that man with all the power being the Merchant of Death grants him,...because at the core of it all that is who he is, and he will remind you why you feared muggles as a child...I'd say that's reason enough not to tell him. Don't you?"


To say that Tony was pissed would be an understatement. He was livid, enraged, absolutely infuriated. Damn it, he was going to have to invent a new word to express just how angry he was. He'd entrusted Snape with Hera's safety. Not only had that man failed, she'd nearly died from a stab wound. They'd caught the guy who'd done it, and he would be persecuted thanks to the dagger that he'd used that they'd already traced back to the man; eye witnesses helped.

Hera had been taken to St. Mungo's, where she was treated, not that they'd had to do much. Snape had at least known enough to stabilize her for transport, even going so far as healing the wound as best he could. St. Mungo's had managed to keep the reporters at bay, which was nice. They were also very interested in how she'd managed to cleanse several suspected Death Eaters of their Dark Marks, which brought the Aurors from the DMLE, those Unspeakables from the Department of Mysteries, and Minister Fudge; who he was really beginning to become annoyed by.

The man had not wanted to let Hera go to the US with him, as if he could have stopped them. Tony's custody was iron clad, he'd made sure of it, and as such it was accepted that he would oversee her magical side as well; if he was needed. She didn't need his custody in the magical world, not where she was Lady Potter now, and because of that Fudge had no control over her. When the idiot in that stupid boiler hat of his tried to claim that her minor status negated her claim of Ladyship, Tony smirked as he reminded him that it had been because of his idea to host the Tri-Wizard Tournament at Hogwarts that she even had it at all, and goblin contracts were even more iron clad than his own. Tony respected that about them.

He kind of wondered how long they could keep the Unspeakables from finding out who she had been. There was no way they wouldn't be interested in that. The former DE's were giving statements to the Aurors. Of course this brings the graveyard scene back into question, which brings in Dumbledore, which brings in Fudge again, not that the people of St. Mungo's seemed to mind all that much. They'd been having the time of their lives, tossing people out of the hospital left and right. It certainly was entertaining to watch. If he had known they liked doing that, he would have come here when she'd had the thread through her lips.

At the current moment, he was camped out in her hospital room, waiting for her to wake up. This seemed to be a recurring thing for her, and he was reminded that the Weasley boys had tried to warn him before. This was what happened because of her Saving People Thing TM. This is why they thought he would bail. She'd not been out of that school for longer than a week, and she'd already thrown herself into danger at least twice that he knew of.

...

"Ugh…" Hera groans from the bed. "Remind me never to get stabbed again. That was awful."

"Words to live by, really."

She froze, before groaning again - this time in dread - before opening her eyes. "They told you?"

"Well, you were stabbed, you see." Tony deadpanned. "That tends to be a thing that one would notify the family on. The dagger had a curse on it, something about making you continue to bleed out no matter the healing. You're lucky you aren't dead. We're a blood match, by the way, in case you didn't know before."

"You…You donated blood for me?" Hera asked, shocked out of clearing the sleep away from her eyes. What a contrast to the Dursleys, she thought to herself. The look he was giving her made her want to grimace though. "This is a normal thing families do for each other, isn't it?"

"It is, though it's usually not needed much. They had blood replenishers too, so I didn't need to donate a lot." Tony sighed, apparently choosing not to pursue that train of thought. "Why didn't Snape stay in the room with you?"

"The man was already twitchy, and Snape made him more nervous; not less. I thought having Snape leave the room would calm him some." Hera admitted with a sigh. "I wanted to give Nott the chance to prove he loved his son. Snape had warned me Nott wasn't the type to risk his life for his son, and that as soon as he heard what the price could be for failure or insincerity, Nott would turn on me. I should have listened."

"Yes, you should have." Came Snape's voice from the doorway, as the man himself stepped into the room. "I warned you he would turn on you, but you refused to heed my words. Now, maybe you'll think twice before sending me away like some errant toddler."

"It's good to see you too, Professor." Hera responded with a wide grin.

"Cheeky brat." Snape grumbled, before walking over and setting down a jar of off white colored cream. "When I had to cut off a part of your shirt, I saw a rather alarming amount of scars, Potter. I doubt you'll tell anyone how you got them, but this is in case you want to lessen their severity, and may even heal some of the damage done."

He was out the door before she could thank him.

"If he keeps doing things like that, I might begin to think he actually cares." Tony remarked idly. Hera snorts, but she can't help but agree.


Hera found airplane travel to be an unnerving experience. While there were no problems with the flight itself, Hera found being boxed in a flying metal tube with no way out a bit claustrophobic. Tony had his own private jet, which was a mercy, because Hera wasn't sure how she would have handled traveling like the trips the Dursleys had described. Hermione had described some of her experiences with airplanes, which had not boosted Hera's confidence one bit. Turbulence was the least of her worries, but add lots of people to a small space and screaming babies beside, and Hera did not like how she would have reacted to that.

She hadn't wanted to travel the muggle way, but Tony explained that he hadn't traveled through regular means in the first place, and if he went back the same way he'd gotten to Britain, there would be talk. One could not book a flight for yesterday more than a few times without raising some questions. So she stamped down her nervousness as best as possible, and if she happened to pace the length of the plane several times, she couldn't be faulted. Tony managed to keep her calm, mostly, having realized that putting an extremely powered being inside of a small flying metal tube was perhaps not the best of ideas; this being her first airplane flight. They touched down in New York, where they were to met with MACUSA agents before heading to California where Tony lived.

"Tony…" Hera trailed off, having been looking out the windows while Tony filled out paperwork. "Tony, what are those?"

"The Skyscrapers? Why do you ask?" Tony answered absentmindedly. Looking up, he noted which ones she was pointing to. "Those are called the World Trade Center, or the Twin Towers…Why?"

"Those weren't there when I was here last time." Hera murmured, looking at him meaningfully, hoping he would understand.

"They were built in the 70's." One of the clerks objected.

"Is this from the future knowledge stuff?" Tony asked, instantly taking her seriously, ignoring the clerks now.

"Yeah. It wasn't needed info at the time, so it's a bit fuzzy." Hera nodded, her brows furrowing in worry as she went back to staring at the buildings. "Sometime before 2012, I know. Does 9/11 mean anything to anyone? I don't know what that means, just that it's bad, and those buildings won't be there anymore after than. I'm sorry."

"Is she for real right now?" The clerk asked, looking to Tony.

"Sometimes I see things, future things. I don't always know what it means, and they aren't prophecies." Hera apologized, even though that particular talent wasn't how she knew this. "Professor Trelawney said I'd get better at it though."

"Cousin of mine is like that, says Seeing is a curse because none of it makes sense till after it's happened." One of the other clerks nodded in commiseration. "We'll let the appropriate people know, though I can't promise anything will come of it."

"Now, I understand things are a bit different across the pond, so I'll need to update you on the regulations and things here." The original clerk stated, bringing them back to the original purpose of being there. "Where Mr. Stark is your brother, he's allowed to know about magic, but his being a public figure puts a lot of things at risk; the Statute of Secrecy being the top of the list."

"We have a plan for that. I'm hoping to get involved in politics here soon, though I might have to change a few things, and start advocating for mutant rights." Tony replied, before Hera could comment.

"Mutant?" Nice clerk asked, to which Hera promptly turned blue and back again. "Ah, I see. Anything magical she does would then just be thought of as a mutant ability. We should have thought of that."

"It won't be just to hide as a mutant." Hera felt the need to point out. "It's to clear the way so that one day, we might not have to hide at all. Just…call it another one of my future knowing things."

"You think witches and wizards will have to come out of hiding?" Not nice clerk shrieked. "Why would we do that?"

"I said might, not will." Hera corrected, though this did little to mollify the man.

"Moving on." Nice clerk interjected, seeing that his coworker was about to lose his mind. "Inherited titles don't mean the same thing here. I know you're Lady Potter there, but it won't hold the same sort of weight. You understand?"

"Fine with me." Hera agreed enthusiastically. "I really only took it because I was forced to compete in the Tri-wizard tournament against my will. It allowed me to be magically emancipated, so at least it was good for something."

"We heard about that too. Nasty bit of business. Don't know what they were thinking, holding a competition like that with school children." Nice clerk grumbled.

"Especially with a Potter in attendance." Hera snickered. "Pretty sure there's a curse on the Potter line, something along the lines of 'May you live in interesting times'."

"You seem to weather it well." Nice clerk commented with a slight smile. "Now, I understand titles usually come with estates, land, and if the family is old enough…slaves. That's not allowed in the US, magical or no."

"How does that apply to symbiotic species like House Elves?" Hera asked with a grimace. "Dobby enjoyed freedom, but wanted to protect me. Winky didn't handle being forcibly freed well, and took to drinking butterbeer until Dobby pleaded for me to take on her bond."

"House elves are a tricky bunch." Nice clerk agreed. "They receive pay, lodgings, clothes, and days off?"

Hera nodded enthusiastically.

"You got them to agree to all that?" Nice clerk asked in surprise. "How?"

"Work uniforms aren't freeing clothes, and they get to decide what their work clothes look like. Days off are there so they can be better workers. Pay is for their clothes, or when they need to take sick leave or vacation, whatever they want really. Lodgings are because I refuse to treat a magical being with less respect than any other, and everyone should have a space that is just theirs." Hera recited from memory the list she'd come up with when interrogated by Winky. "My friend Hermione is hoping we can talk them into being free and still working if they wish, but any House Elf I talk to insists they'll lose moons if freed. Dobby wasn't free long enough for me to know if it would have killed him, but he took a job at Hogwarts, so there was ample ambient magic to feed from."

"We'll have to take you over to the Body for Protection of Magical Species." Nice clerk stated after a moment of thought. "They'll go over the guidelines with you, maybe give your friend some ideas. Also, you and Mr. Stark should see about stopping by the Office for Magic Relations and Education, the Fedural Bureau of Covert Vigilance and No-maj Obliviation, and The Wizarding Resources Department, and the Major Investigation Department."

"So, we'll make a day of it, and visit every department in MACUSA." Tony decided with a sharp nod.

"Our plane leaves in less than an hour!" Hera objected, protective instincts on high alert. "Also, you're not going anywhere near a department of obliviators!"

"Private jet leaves whenever we say it does. I own it. I can just tell em we decided to take in the sights, Hera. You've never been to New York, so we should do that while we're here anyway, and if we take a little longer than the norm, who would say anything to an enthusiastic teen about her first trip to the US?" Tony countered. "They're not going to obliviate me, Hera. I'd bet anything it's to update their surveillance, and we still have to talk to them about integrating magic with tech. I want in on that."

He was headed towards the nearest sign while she struggled internally not to forcibly stop him, before alarms rushes through her, and she's following at top speed. If he was going to wander around MACUSA, he wasn't going to go alone.