Last time...

"So…Who's going to be who?" Ginny asked, pulling Hera's mind back to the task at hand.

"Oh, that's easy. You're Maiden." Hera stated, making Ginny blush a bit. "Hermione is Mother, and I'm Crone."

"I'm older than you." Hermione objected. "Plus, you look after us. That makes you Mother."

"True, but I'm the one with an 'Old Soul', so I'm Crone by default." Hera countered with a teasing smile. "The Crone is wisdom in the same way that the Mother is knowledge. I may look after us, but I'm just as likely to get us into trouble; Experience being how we gain wisdom. You keep us from straying the path too far, giving us knowledge to temper what wisdom we gain. While you are not what your idea of a mother may be, you are Mother, Hermione. I imagine Athena would be proud."

"How is it that you can know so much about obscure things like this, but can't tell me anything about Gamp's Five Laws?" Hermione teased back.

"Wait, you don't believe those are true, do you?" Hera asked, taking on a clueless expression, only to start giggling when Hermione began gaping at her like a fish. "I'm just messing with you, Hermione. Let's get this done first, and then I'll break your brain about Gamp's Five Laws. Sound good?"

Chapter 62

He'd been discussing various prank ideas when the twins, and he had to admit that they were geniuses in their own right. Some of the things they came up with were beyond anything he could have dreamed up, mundane or no; not that he wasn't pulling his own weight. Tony had quite a few stories of pranks he'd pulled in his youth, and how he'd used the every day objects around him; some of which had them writing down ideas. They went off on tangents the way he did, and it surprised them that he was able to keep up. The younger boy Ron looked at the three of them like he thought the end was upon them all; something that had the three of them snickering at him.

"Would you look at that…"

Draco's exclamation distracted him for a moment, and Tony turned to look as well. He had to admit, it was a certainly impressive. Hera, Hermione, and Ginny circled the rather large cauldron in a counterclockwise motion. No special robes had been needed, though Hera had insisted on some kind of simple black frock to prevent splash damage to any of their clothes. With Hera holding out Moody's strangely not destroyed eye over the cauldron, the three young girls reminded him quite strongly of the Fates in Macbeth.

Hera had let go of the eye, gently floating it into the strange not quite visible liquid within the cauldron; most likely in an effort to further prevent any splash damage. He was really going to have to introduce her to D&D at some point. This looked like something straight out of one of his favorite campaigns. Together, the three young ladies raised their hands as if to bring forth something from the depths, shocking Tony when he saw something clear being raised up. It looked like molten glass, the way it rose up as if following a current before pooling into a sphere.

"Ron, did you talk to Bill?" Hera called out.

"Oh, right! I meant to give you these earlier." Ron realized, rushing over to place the odd looking bifocals with far too many lenses attached to them on the nearby table meant for such things. "It won't mess up anything that they were in my pocket, will it?"

"No, that's fine." She replied with an easy smile. "The liquid in the cauldron will clean it of anything, and the sphere will settle in as it should."

Tony didn't know what she meant by that, but he didn't mind. It had been some time since he'd had to actually learn something. Being Hera's big brother, Tony knew he was going to be in that state for quite a while, and he loved it. His mind hated being bored, and with her around he knew he never would be. She smirked, as if knowing where his mind had gone, before making a show of slowly floating the glasses into the cauldron.

She knew he liked to see the magic she did, liked to explore it even if he couldn't do any of it. He wanted to understand it, to know her world as she did. They were planning on taking a trip to Japan at some point, knowing that if any of the wizarding people were close to creating magical technology, it would perhaps be them. Tony had no doubt that mages of that caliber would jump at the chance to integrate the two, bringing more money into their world; which was always a plus. They'd already discussed plenty of ideas, more because of how Hera had been able to safeguard Jarvis; something he knew she would continue to update as she could.

The strange looking bifocals rose from the liquid in the cauldron, joining the molten sphere above it, and Hera breathed a sigh of relief. The most taxing bit of it was done then, Tony realized, something the two girls with her seemed to understand too. They began to relax as well, each wearing matching smiles of accomplishment. It was done, or would be. They backed away, one of the little house elves popping in when they did.

"Little Miss is being reckless, performing such things." Kreacher scolded, though his voice sounded fond. "At least yous is not doing such things alone. Winky and Dobby has warned Kreacher that might happen."

"You do know you're not bound to me, right?" Hera asked, amused, looking to the little guy.

"True, but Winky and Dobby asked scruffy new Master if Kreacher could be goings with them to Hogwarts. They is saying Kreacher needs to be around others, helps with healing Kreacher is doing." Kreacher stated. "Scruffy new Master said Kreacher could go, but that Kreacher had to join something he called Potter Watch, something Kreacher imagines has to do with making sure Little Miss does not be doing too many of the reckless things alone."

"I am never going to live that down." Hera grumbled, though her voice sounded far too fond and amused to be insulted.

"Not on your life." Draco agreed, while Hermione patted her shoulder in a half-hearted consoling manner.

…

They'd missed lunch, what with the ritual they'd done, so dinner was a rather more robust affair. Draco and Hermione argued in good-natured camaraderie, while Ron and Ginny made quick work picking through their food. Ginny had exhausted quite a bit of magic with what she'd helped with, and would need the food; Ron just didn't want her to feel self conscious about it, so he ate as he usually did at Hogwarts, causing Ginny to snort at him in amusement. Fred and George were still talking to Tony about various prank ideas, and Hera distinctly heard her brother promise reading material for inspirational purposes to their most glorious pranks. Hera sighed as she went to join them, having finally talked Bill into avoiding joining the Order; she had an idea in mind for him, something that would involve Gringotts and the Board of Governors teaming up together to accomplish, but it would be worth it.

She let the conversations wash over her as she ate, eating far more than she usually did, and drawing the concerned eyes of both Ron and Ginny for different but similar reasons. Hera had steadily grown to eating proportions nearly as large as Loki and Thor had on Ásgarðr, something she suspected the mead had a hand in in an effort to help her gain a little more height. She suspected that part might not be as straightforward as Wade had hoped it would be, but she wasn't about to tell him either. Ron worried because he'd been the one to help her hide when his mum tried to get her to eat too much food, when she'd been sick because he hadn't been able to hide her in time. Ginny knew that she'd used as much magic, if not more, than she had; knew that she was eating to replenish that, but looked worried that maybe Hera had carried far more of the magical weight than she should have. She gave each of them an easy smile of reassurance, and though it didn't help them relax much, they saw that she wasn't trying to overdo it with the food.

"Okay then." Hermione offered, now that the food was taken care of. At this point, Hera had slowed down to light snacking anyway, and Ron and Ginny's worried glances had abated at long last. "Now that food has been taken care of, care to explain what you meant, Hera? How are Gamp's Laws wrong?"

"Are you sure you want me to answer that?" Hera asked, giving Hermione the only out she was going to give for this. If the girl insisted on it, Hera would explain. "They aren't entirely wrong, but the way we understand them is. Are you sure you want me to go into that?"

"Yes. If it's wrong, I want to understand why. I don't want something masquerading as knowledge, not after the fiasco that was Second Year." Hermione insisted, and Hera nodded in understanding. She never wanted to work from incorrect information ever again, and Hera could respect that.

"The idea of Gamp's Law is that you can not conjure something from nothing. The problem is there is no nothing for which to even test this with." Hera explained. "Technically, his idea was that one could not conjure something from air, the understanding at the time being that air was nothing, but that just isn't true. Everything is made up of something. Air has mass, weight, matter. It's made up of particles, atoms, chemicals, what-have-you. Conjuring something from air is easy once you realize that it is simply particle manipulation at a subatomic level. Air is not nothing. It is simply overlooked."*

Hermione froze, like she'd not considered something she found so obvious until it was spoken like that.

"You're telling me I could conjure food, money, potions ingredients, wands, and maybe even regrow body parts…out of thin air?" The girl asked, looking like she was questioning everything she thought she knew about life. It was strange seeing that look on someone as smart as she knew Hermione to be.

"Well, probably not." Hera allowed. "Air quality seems important. You have less to work with with thin air than you would some place humid and muggy, or just the average air."

Hermione let out a kind of whimpering internal scream sound, likely having an internal crisis.

"So you're telling me I could create money?" Ron asked, with incredulous disbelief that didn't quite hide the hope in his voice.

"Do you know the molecular structure of money?" Hera asked lightly. Ron just looked uncertain. "Then no. To be fair though, it's got to do with more than just that. It also has to do with how much power a witch or wizard has, and if the output of power is worth what you gain. A vault filled with galleons of galleons isn't worth it, after all, if it kills you to create it; or if it puts you in a healing coma no one can wake you from, effectively making it to where you can't spend any of it before you waste away. I suppose you could go for it anyway, knowing this, in an effort to give someone else a better life. One would argue that the person you desire to help would rather have you in their life than the gold, and the kind of person that would rather have the gold than you really isn't worth the sacrifice."

He turned thoughtful at that, nodding grimly.

"Food is a bit more doable, but no less difficult. It won't put you in a coma to conjure something like your mum's shepherd pie, but you have to understand the molecular structure of everything that went into it, and how it all goes together." Hera went on to explain. "When you're hungry, and you want something to eat right now thank you very much, you're not really thinking of much else. You're not thinking of the nutrition that goes into it, or the ingredients. You just want something to fill your stomach, so that's all it does."

"What about the other things?" Ginny asked, eyes wide as she absorbed the information.

"The thing with potions ingredients is that it's another power expenditure problem. You'd have to understand the molecular structure of the end result you want, in order for it to do and interact with other things that you need of it. It's like trying to catch the tiniest snitch in the world while using tweezers. You could do it, but it's just not worth the effort, and something or someone is likely to get blown up in the process." Hera explained. "Now, you could conjure the seed of what you want to grow, and then speed the process of growth to what you need. Much safer, but is it really worth it? The quality's not likely to be great, unless you're Neville. For wands, while it may have fewer things in it, there are similar problems. It's knowing the molecular structure of each thing, plus understanding how the magic of the ingredients interact with each other. It'd involve a lot of trial, error, and explosions, but it's more than doable. Not that it wouldn't be dangerous, because it very much would be, but it also defeats the point if you can. Because, If you could create a wand like that, then you don't really need one."

She took a moment to take a sip or two of tea, and let them absorb the information.

"Regrowing body parts varies in difficulty. We can already regrow bones, but Gamp's Law tells us we can't regrow organs and the like." Hera went on.

"Except you say we can." Draco noted.

"Of course, we can." She snorted. "We have an instinctive understanding of our own bodies. Even before we can communicate with words, we know when we are hungry, when we are sleepy, and so on. This is just an extension of that."

"How?"

She thought for a moment on how to explain.

"Outer things are easier; Noses, ears, skin, things like that. I've actually gotten rid of quite a few scars that way. That cream Snape made could only do so much, you know. Things like limbs and organs are more of a problem, because there's more involved. It's more than just understanding the molecular structure of everything. It's keeping the body functioning while you heal it, even if they're in stasis." Hera continued. "In that vein, healing this way is possible, but not without risk. You can heal wounds closed, internal bleeding to stop and reverse itself, but if you're not careful it could kill you. It takes not just magic for something like this. If you're putting everything into it, Magic takes it to mean that you're willing to give everything. If you know your limits, or can feel the exhaustion creeping in, you can stop and allow another to continue. The only thing I'm not sure about is the brain. It's such a complicated organ, and when there's damage, the brain kind of restructures itself in order to compensate."

"You've looked into this?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"I made a promise." Hera nodded. She couldn't remember if Neville had told them, so she decided to err on the side of caution.

"Wait. If you can create food out of air, why didn't you before?" Ron asked, something that had even Fred and George turning their heads to them; letting her know that they'd been listening in as they talked shop with Tony.

"I didn't know I could." She admitted, a bit embarrassed. "You have to realize something, Ron. I've been conjuring and summoning things absentmindedly for years, before I even knew I could. It was something I assumed anyone could do, before realizing no one else was really doing things like that. When I read Gamp's Law, I made the assumption that the reason I had never conjured food before was because it couldn't truly be done, instead of realizing that they were generalizing something so people wouldn't accidentally kill themselves attempting something stupid."

"So what's the difference between summoning and conjuring?" Ginny asked.

"Conjuring is creating something, transfiguring it out of the air around you. Summoning is what the name implies." Hera explained. "Think of your hair brush, your favorite one, the one you would murder your brothers for touching. Know where it is? Exactly where it is?"

Ginny nodded enthusiastically.

"Good. Now, want it."

"But it's been packed!" Ginny objected. "I'd have to go all the way to my room if I wanted it!"

"No." Hera's voice was commanding, and Ginny froze where she'd been about to get up. Hera gently nudged her back down, and took her wrist into her hand, spreading the fingers apart a bit. "We are beings of power. We shape the world around us through sheer force of will. If we want something, it should come to us. Now, reach out with your power, find your hair brush, and. Want. It."

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed, and they all looked down to see the brush that was now in Ginny's hand.

"You did that." The girl tried, obviously in denial.

"I did not." Hera denied. "I didn't even know where it was to make the attempt."

"But…" Ginny looked back up to her.

"Why are you so surprised by this?" Hera reposed. "We're taught in first year how to summon our brooms. This is no different."

Ginny looked at her like she'd had some sort of epiphany. Before Hera could ask if she was okay, the girl had wrenched her hand free, and bolted towards the kitchen, yelling for her mother in excitement; The brush still firmly in Ginny's hand. Draco, Ron, and Hermione share a moment of mad eye twinkling that would have made Dumbledore proud, which Hera wondered at, but not enough to ask about it. The conversation of the night easily turned to wandless nonverbal magic, with Hera insisting that it wasn't nearly as hard to learn as the books said it was, and Hermione insisting that not everyone was naturally gifted or predisposed to learning it quickly. This felt entirely too much like a challenge to Hera's mind, and she spent the rest of the evening teaching them how to summon and send back one object of their choosing; this she made sure they could all do wandless and nonverbally. It didn't make the eye twinkling go away, and in fact made it bad enough that Hera began wondering if it was going to become a later problem.

Later on that night…

Somewhere in the haze of being asleep and awake, Hera drifted, thinking over the events of the day. They'd made the glasses, and she'd taught her friends something new. She was set to make her heist attempt, with all the support her friends could give her. They'd all insisted on staying the night in her room, even the boys; something that sent the adults into a frenzy for some odd reason. Hera'd rolled her eyes at the outright backwards rhetoric that the adults started going on about; things like 'Back in their day', or 'When we were your age'.

Honestly! It wasn't like they were planning on having an orgy in there…oh…Maybe that's what they were worried about…To that end, she'd offered to host Tony and Bill as well – as the chaperons, if only to get the others to shut up about it. Everyone was piled up on obscenely gigantic and plushy beanbag beds, as a varying chorus of snoring carried on around her. As always, Hera seemed to be the last to fall asleep.

"Hera? Are you awake?"

Well, at least she wasn't the only one.

"Barely." She replied, sleep already wanting to cling to her voice. "…Why?"

"Just thinking." Ron admitted, sounding as sleepy as she did. "Are you sure you can't take anyone with you?"

She thought about it for a moment, before replying. "Not really…I can bring stuff with me, leave things…Should be able to, but I've just never tried, ya know…And with this?…What if something happened, and someone gets left behind?"

"…Is that why you're sleeping in battle gear?"

Hera snorted. Trust her friend to pick that out of all the things to wonder about. "Yes. It is."

"Say one of us went with you…just to run through this…what would they need?" Ron asked quietly.

"Proper clothes, for one." She replied with a bit of snark, before truly thinking about it. "As long as they had their wand, they'd be fine, providing everything went smoothly."

"What are the odds this goes smoothly?" Ron asked, being snarky right back at her.

"You have met me, yes?" She reposed, and the two quietly laughed at that. "As if anything in my life has ever gone smoothly."

The two sort of lull into silence after that, the easy camaraderie having eased the tension Hera held.

…

Only just as she's too far into falling asleep to wake easily…someone reaches out to take her hand.