Last time...

"If he's after you-"

"Then I know that should that day come, I will have the ferocity of the Weasley Matriarch bearing down on his arse with all the might of the famed Valkyrie." Hera assured her, which seemed to appease the woman for now. "There's really nothing anyone can do at present anyway, not with everything going on as it is. Don't worry, he's a long way off, and I won't be seeking him out anytime soon."

"It worries me that you think you'll have to seek such a person out at all, Hera dear." Mrs. Weasley pointed out.

Hera just gave her a small smile, as she replied. "To protect your family, Molly, what wouldn't you do?"

Chapter 59

"Are you going to take up the mantle of Lord Black?" He hears, and is horrified, more so when he realizes the person asking is Hera.

"Why would I ever want to do that?" He asks, unable to hide his expression in time. She's already noticed, and is equally unimpressed by it.

"Oh, I don't know. You argue that the whole family is black and rotted, but if you leave it like that, you're at fault for the stench that gets left behind." She pointed out. Before he could object that it wasn't his mess in the first place, she stops him. "We inherit the mess of the last generation, and we leave a mess for the next, and then wonder why they are so bitter since it was done to us; forgetting that we were bitter once for the same reason. If we do not break the cycle now, we are no better than the generations before us. You really want to get lumped in with those louts?"

Ugh. She had a point, but it smelled too much like responsibility to him, and he was really trying to avoid that.

"Why do you feel so strongly about this?" Sirius wondered. It couldn't possibly be as straightforward as she was presenting it.

"I have to have a reason?" She asked, incredulous. Now it was Sirius' turn to be unimpressed. He knew a con when he heard one. Finally, she huffed. "I need to make a quick trip to Gringotts, and everyone else would ask why, especially with it being as late as it is."

"See? Was that so hard?" Sirius teased in good humour, even as he made his way over to the Floo in the next room.

She just followed after him, muttering. "I should have just gone by myself."

It only made him laugh outright.

"I am surprised that it took you so long to come to us for an official meeting, Princess." Ragnok mused when she entered his office, giving a respectful bow, but realized his mistake when the young Lady Potter froze. "He hasn't told you yet, has he?"

"Got it in one." Potter managed, though her voice was strained, before she and Sirius Black each took seats in front of his desk. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I need some form of armour commissioned; not just for myself, but for the children of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang as well. It need not look like armour to do its job. Priority is to be given to Hogwarts, but the others should not be left wanting if it can be done."

"Hera, that's…" Sirius Black tried, but a warning glare from Ragnok silenced him. Just because he had permission to sit in did not mean he had permission to interfere in a Lady's business.

"Why come to us?" Ragnok posed.

"I want the best."

"Niðavellir would be an ideal choice for such a thing." He countered, fighting a grin at the way she all but sneered at the mention of the realm.

It was all the confirmation he needed, not that he'd actually needed any. He was her account manager, the one that had had the blood inheritance test ordered. He'd seen the results, knew that she was godborn, but it was not till his king had come to inquire about her that he'd been clued in to who she could have previously been. While not truly immortal, goblins lived a lot longer than the wixen were aware, being of the earth as they were. Ragnok's father had been there when the dwarves fell upon Loki in their anger at having lost, had told stories of the dishonourable Asgardian King that had ordered no one help the young boy. Sirius Black's eyes were bulging, they were so wide, and Ragnok was reminded that most wixen had forgotten the other realms truly existed.

"I would rather gnaw off my own arm, and then eat it myself, than get that lot to make anything for me and mine." Lady Potter declared, removing the glamour that hid the scars around her lips. "I know all too well how they honour a deal."

"Such an undertaking would be monumentally expensive, not that it would dent your vaults, Lady Potter, but I am afraid that we can not help you." Ragnok informed her. "What you are asking for calls for a metal we do not have, and have no way in which to gain access. Until trade with the rest of the Nine resumes, we can not grant you this."

She looked off to the side, taking in the new information, before returning her determined gaze to him.

"…What if I could get you the uru?"

Ragnok didn't let his reaction to the proposal show, but the idea of getting access to the material once more appealed to him on a visceral level.

"If you can buy it from the dwarves, then I see no reason why you could not commission them to craft the armour you require." Ragnok countered, wanting to see what she would do next.

"I never said anything about buying." Potter reposed. "I was thinking something along the lines of retribution for a deal broken in bad faith."

"You mean…" He was starting to see where she was going with this.

"They entered that competition with the same expectations the Goblins did, that they would win. It was hardly his fault that they were overconfident in their abilities." Potter replied, giving a sharp smile full of teeth; the way a goblin would. Jareth would be proud. "When they attacked him, it left a permanent mark, the injury I took from him so that he could be healed at all. I demand retribution, and I will have it even if I have to take it directly from their forges myself."

"And you would use this to arm your fellow Hogwarts students and others instead of saving what is not used on your future armour for something at a later date?" Ragnok questioned.

"I swore on my magic that I would protect those that are mine to the best of my ability. While the vow does not include those of the other schools, they tried to protect me to the best of their abilities, though it wasn't enough to stop what happened. I can do no less for them." She revealed, causing Black to hold his breath in response. "Now, do we have an understanding?"

"What the bloody fuck was that, Hera?!" Sirius hissed, after pulling her aside in the kitchen once they'd made it back to Grimmauld Place.

"Begging your pardon?" She asked in confusion.

"You actually have the gall to appear confused after that?!" He kept his voice low, but he wanted more than anything to shout at her for the recklessness of what she'd done. "That goblin called you Princess! Bowed to you! Not to mention-"

"Come on, Siri, it's not that bad. Please?" Hera pleaded. "Please, can we just keep that between…us?"

Remus had barely opened the door, when he must have thought better of it and vacated the plan, only to return with Snape, Mad-Eye, and Tony.

"I've done riskier things for worse reasons, you know." She grumbled, her shoulders slumping in defeat, upon seeing them.

"Not really helping your case here, Lil Sis." Tony snorted. "What'd you do that's got Sirius in such a fit?"

"Oh, nothing much. He's just found out the goblins consider me their Princess. Did you know?" Hera offered up an innocent and unassuming face. "Absolutely nothing else to be concerned about. Honest."

"See, that just makes me more concerned." Tony pointed out, and Hera's shoulders slumped in defeat again.

She paused for a moment before admitting. "I may have also commissioned the goblins to craft some form of armour or protection for all the children of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang…if I could get the metal for it."

"By stealing it from a realm that's supposed to be a myth!" Sirius added, glaring at her.

"I realm hop in my dreams all the time. He knows!" Hera defended, pointing at Snape. "It's not like it'd be hard to direct that…I could manage!"

Her face was flushed with anger, that stubborn set to her jaw the way James' had whenever he'd wanted to dig in his heels about something, and Sirius groans as he runs a hand down his face in an effort to rid himself of the growing frustration he was experiencing. Of all the times for her to channel her father, it had to be when she was proposing some life risking venture to protect near total strangers because she'd vowed her magic to protect those that were hers. What did that even mean anyway? Hera's clinched fists are at her sides, and it dawns on him that in the lesser known stories of Loki, he is called The Protector of Children. Hera has always tried to do what she could to protect those around her, but he'd never thought about why she didn't go to the adults that could help, assuming it was because she thought they never would; a byproduct of living with the Dursleys. Now he wondered if it was more than that.

"Hera, what you're suggesting is-" Sirius tried.

"What? Dangerous? I won't fail. I can do this. I know I can." Hera insisted, even as the men in the room looked at each other. "Why won't you just trust me?"

"Molly told me what you did. She didn't tell me what she saw," Moody revealed, tapping the strap that held his enchanted eye. "but there was no need."

"You violated her privacy?" Hera demanded, tilting her head as she looked to Moody now, a warning edge in her voice. "You violated my privacy? Is that what you're telling me right now?"

"I'm a paranoid bastard of a technically retired Auror." Moody scoffed dismissively. "Goes with the job descrip–ah!"

The enchanted eyeball was wrenched from the man's head, and launched to Hera's hand as if summoned, but Sirius knows damn good and well that such things are impossible…or should have been. Moody had it spelled against anything that could take it away, and judging by the shocked look on the man's face, he hadn't expected that it ever could be. Hera's face was thunderous, and she's standing there glaring at the man, while holding his own enchanted eyeball – strap and all. No one else has moved or spoken, either too wary or too intrigued to see what would happen next. She looks from him to the eye, and begins inspecting it as if she could see the inner workings of the magic it held.

"Girl, you'd best give that back." Moody warned, though it sounded hollow, and Hera returned her glare to him.

"Or you'll what?" She challenged. "You've violated the privacy of a woman who thought she was alone enough to grieve without interruption, in a home of a trusted friend, where she should feel safe and protected as she was vulnerable. I may have stumbled upon her, but you watched as she struggled with each dead body she saw, as she shared with me things in confidence, as I shared things with her in confidence, and you did that because you had this; not because you were concerned for us, but because you could."

It was crushed in her hand not a second later, something else Moody was too shocked to stop her from doing.

"Those who can't respect others privacy shouldn't have the toys allowed to them." She stated coolly, daring Moody to say anything of it.

"Hera…" Sirius tried again. "We're only trying to do what's best for you, to protect you."

"Then maybe you should have thought of that when I needed it." She snapped, glaring at him now. "You weren't there when I needed protecting, no one was, so I had to learn how on my own. I have been protecting myself, and those that are mine for far longer than I've known you, and I won't be put into the box of innocent helpless kid now that you're actually here and willing. I am the Lady of my House, and I will do what I have vowed, with or without your help!"

Shaking, she looked away, trying to regain control of the emotions she'd let slip. When she appeared calm, though she was shaking, she kept her eyes down.

"My apologies for the outburst." She mumbled, and then walked briskly out of the room.

"I did warn you, you know." Snape stated, looking to Moody.

"Yeah, Yeah. Wait till me pride isn't so bruised before ye rub it in." Moody grumbled, rubbing at his cheekbone near the socket that no longer had anything in it.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Sirius demanded of Snape. "And since when is she the princess to the Goblin Nation?"

"Some time over the summer." Tony informed him, waving his hand dismissively. Snape and the others looked surprised at the information, so at least Sirius wasn't the only one. "She got wished away when she was in one of those realm hoping dream things she just talked about, and rather than wait to be rescued as some sort of damsel in distress, Hera worked out how to free herself. What she did was enough to impress their king. He stopped by for her birthday, gave her the ring as a gift, but didn't tell her what it meant. When I cornered him, he told me."

"She removed a glamour I hadn't even known she was wearing, covering scars around her lips. They looked like puncture marks, and she mentioned taking away an injury. She's met him?" Sirius questioned. Tony grimaced and made a so so gesture. "She mentioned retribution."

"She stumbled on him after he'd already had his lips sewn shut, and transferred the injury to herself." Tony explained. "Those that wanted to help him couldn't, due to some physical compulsion thing, but she could. She said he was in something that looked like a healing coma. She'll want retribution for that, though from whom I'm not sure. There's bound to be a list, and where she's been made princess to the Goblin Nation, I imagine this is something they will take very seriously."

"As for me, I didn't say anything due to the spell a Master and Apprentice have placed on them whenever they enter into such an arrangement." Snape admitted. Moody didn't seem surprised or confused, but he was the only one, and Snape sighed as he endeavoured to explain. "The accidents an Apprentice can get into can be highly destructive, a good deal of them fatal. To help negate this, a spell is cast on both Master and Apprentice during the bonding, to alert the Master when the Apprentice is about to attempt such a feat of recklessness. As it had not triggered, I saw no need to interfere."

"She literally brought you, because out of all of us, you're supposed to be the 'fun' one." Remus realized with a fond sort of smile. "Very much a James move. He must be laughing at us."

"I would laugh too if I hadn't watched her destroy a horcrux in my own kitchen." Sirius grumbled.

"You let her do what?!" Molly shouted in alarm.

Well, shite.

...

Frozen by the door, Ron couldn't even move as it swung open and Hera stormed out. He'd been about to get another sandwich or something, but had stumbled upon a lot more. Princess of the Goblin Nation, realm hopping through dreams, stealing from a mythical realm, a vow of magic to protect children. He didn't understand why she'd sounded so cold towards Moody for the breach of privacy, not when she'd thought the twins' extendable ears were awesome. Perhaps it was because he'd actually seen the moment Hera had spoken of, instead of only hearing it?

He doubted his mother had even seen him as she stormed into the kitchen, no doubt after hearing from Hera what Moody had witnessed, only to be shocked by something else. Hera had been able to destroy a horcrux, actually destroy one, though he still didn't know what that meant for her. Malfoy needed to be here, needed to know, but there was no way that a man willing to spy on his own allies would trust a Malfoy in the home of the Order. Only Dumbledore could grant access, but he already had in a way. Ron just had to get to those extra pieces of paper, and pray no one noticed.

...

Ronald Weasley's head was in his fireplace. Of all the things Draco thought he would be seeing today, this wasn't one of them.

"What are you doing, Weasel?" Draco asked, because really… "What am I even looking at right now?"

"You should know I snuck out a book on how to make a floo connection for this, which I'm pretty sure is illegal; so eat slugs, Malfoy." Ron scowled; and if that wasn't a surprise, nothing was. "We don't have the time we thought we did."

"And why, pray tell, is that?" Draco reposed, setting his latest horcrux related research book down.

"Hera managed to destroy a horcrux over the summer," Ron informed him, letting it sink in before adding. "and she's planning a heist of a mythical realm for some kind of metal that will protect every child she's come across in the last year. She made a vow on her magic. We don't have the kind of time we thought we had. Here."

A piece of paper flew out of the fire, and Draco balked upon reading it. The Order of the Phoenix is located…

"I can't just leave, Weasley." He snapped. "The school list came back, and Father has been out trying to talk Fudge out of the biggest mistake of his career! Do you know who's going to be teaching us Defense this year? It's an outrage! We aren't going to learn a thing."

"I know. I'd ask Hera to teach us if I thought we could get away with it somehow." Ron grumbled in commiseration, and the both of them froze. "Do you think…?"

"I don't know, but that's as good a reason as any." Draco nodded. "I'll leave a note explaining. Mother and Father will understand."

He scribbled a quick note to his parents about an idea that could salvage the Defense class even if Umbridge taught it, and grabbed the floo powder. He was through the fire before he could think better of it, book in hand, and Ron shushed him before the two quietly made their way to what he assumed was Hera's room here; Hermione was waiting for them by the door, and followed them in. It was…not like he'd thought a girl's room would look like, but then what did he know? It's not like she lived here on a permanent basis anyway. She had a desk covered in papers, staring at something in her hand, and scribbling notes onto paper without looking at it. Draco couldn't help himself, picking up a piece of paper at the corner of her desk, trying to understand what he was seeing.

"Your writing is atrocious." He noted, unable to read a thing it said, and then looked at what was in her hand. "Is that Moody's eye?"

"Yes." She replied, all but growling the word. "It is."

"And what are you doing with it? How did you even get it?"

"Mapping out the magic. I need something of it to see through things but know they're there." She continued writing as she explained. "I may have tricked him into thinking I destroyed it after he witnessed something he shouldn't have."

"Why?" Draco wondered. "Not that that isn't enough of a reason, but well…We can't help if we don't know what you're doing."

Hera actually stops for a moment; stops moving, stops writing, stops breathing. She's in too much shock, unable to process what he's said even though he knows she's heard it. Anger and protective instincts fuel her actions now, he knows. He's seen it in his mother and father often enough, though they have different ways of going about it, but it's more than that. Hera has chosen a path to follow, and she's already halfway into walking it alone. No wonder Ron was worried.

It was confirmed for him when she leveled him with a look that rivaled even theirs, as she declared. "You're not going."