Last time...

"Rhodey, I'd like you to meet my little sister Hera." Tony stated, introducing them now that they'd had their odd measuring up power play moment. "Hera, this is my best friend and brother in all but blood, Platypus."

She brightened at that, grinning, but he still wasn't expecting what came out of her mouth. "Sugar bear!"

Tony couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Best…response…ever!"

It doesn't help that Rhodey is sputtering indignantly.

"Well, I mean, you're here, so they must have explained magic to you." Hera began, once the laughter had subsided.

"Uh…"

"You didn't explain magic to him?!" Hera demanded, glaring at him now. "Tony, do you know how much trouble you could get into with MACUSA because of this?! With the Ministry?!"

"He's my brother in all but blood, Hera, I wasn't kidding about that." Tony reminded her. "He's been looking after my crazy ass since I was thirteen. Besides, I already got him a pass with MACUSA when we stopped by that first time. He's cleared to know about magic."

"You mean like Houdini?" Rhodey offered up, probably still a little discombobulated from everything he had seen up till now.

"Who's Houdini?"

"Oh, you sweet summer child." Rhodey couldn't help but blurt out in lament, and then. "Wait, if not Houdini, then…?"

"Think Merlin." She replied, deadpan, and then waited.

"You can't…You can't possibly believe magic is real." Rhodey objected.

"You're standing in the middle of a magical hospital filled with people who are doing magic all around you." Hera reminded him, gesturing all around her. "Are you really telling me you weren't paying attention to any of that?"

"Tony?"

"Remember what I said about suspending disbelief?" Tony reminded him. "I've seen dragons, ghosts, pranking poltergeists, tap dancing pineapples, Doctor who pockets, a tree that hits anything that gets close enough, potions that can do all kinds of stuff, and goblins that kick ass as bankers. I've even met their king. A red envelope screamed at me once. There's a list."

Chapter 79

"So…how much can we tell him?" Tony wondered. "Everything everything, I hope?"

"Not without a geas, and even then not until he's had his mind tested against a Legilimens." Hera countered immediately. Tony went to object, but she just pinned him with a glare. "That amulet will protect him, but it will not protect me."

"You didn't put me under one." Tony noted, crossing his arms, defensive all of a sudden. "You didn't even know I was naturally able to block thoughts or anything."

"I had just had my lips sewn shut, you arse!" Hera snapped, defensively. "Everything was at happening all at once, and I was panicking! You're my brother! I needed you to be my brother!"

"Lips sewn shut?" Rhodey mutters, looking between the two of them, looking a bit more alarmed. "Tony?"

"This isn't about Obadiah, is it?" Tony huffed, clearly not seeing the issue here; either that or just wasn't thinking clearly in the moment.

"This isn't about Stane, no. As far as I know, he doesn't have the ability, not that I doubt he could find someone easy enough." She grumbled. Why couldn't he understand? She closed her eyes, clinching her fists as she took a deep breath to calm down. When she opens her eyes, she looks to Rhodey. "I know he loves you like a brother, but I can't place the same level of trust in you that he has, and I am sorry for that. I don't know you."

With that said, she quickly leaves the two of them where they stand, hoping she can find her friends in the tea room.

…

"That was out of line, Tony."

Shocked, Tony turns to his best friend, his eyes practically bugging out of his head as he stared at him. "What?"

"Look, I don't know everything that's going on, okay? I'm still trying to process all of this." Rhodey replied, giving a whirling gesture to indicate the rest of the room and everything he's experienced thus far. "What I do know is that I just watched my best friend, who knows what this girl has been through, who knows how difficult it was getting to the amazing level of trust she must have in you now to have depended on you for support so soon, suddenly expect her to instantly trust someone she's only heard stories about."

"But-"

"She doesn't know me, Tony." Rhodey reminded him. "She's heard stories, embarrassing nicknames and all, but she doesn't know me. You want her to trust me the way you do, but that's not going to happen right away. Can you honestly say that you trusted me after having only known me for five minutes?"

Tony closed his eyes, and hung his head, knowing what Rhodey was getting at now.

"I just…I wanted her to have one more person she could go to, you know? If she ever felt like she couldn't turn to me, or we were fighting, you'd absolutely listen to her and not tell me shit." Tony sighed, looking back up at his friend. "But she doesn't know that. Why do people think I'm smarter than you? Clearly you have the market on brains here. One day I'm going to mess up, I just know it, and then you're going to have to swoop in and pull rank or something."

"Tony…Are you trying to offer me up like some kind of big brother replacement?" The guilty look on his face must have conveyed that he was trying to do just that, because Rhodey sighed. "You're not going to mess up, Tones…Okay, you are. You kind of just did. My point is that you aren't going to mess up this big brother thing so badly that she won't want you to be her brother anymore. And before you ask me how I know that, I know that because you're worried about it. If you weren't worried, especially with how new the two of you still are as siblings? Then. Then, I'd be worried. So, let's go find your sister, and then you can apologize for trying to replace yourself. I already have about a million questions about everything I've seen so far."

Tony couldn't help but burst out laughing in relief, and the two went to go find Hera.

…

Hera was decidedly lost. After getting turned around so many times, she didn't even know what floor she was on. But as she stepped onto the landing, she came to an abrupt halt, staring at a small window set into the double doors that marked the start of a corridor signposted spell damage. Something told her she needed to go through those doors, and it's not like they were locked. It was likely that this was just for slightly more serious things that didn't need any added security.

Some of the people she found in there though…It made no sense why they were there! She didn't do much. A few quick healing spells, nothing overly complicated, and certainly nothing that should have brought any attention to herself. That's when she saw the door to the Janus Thickey ward, and suddenly she knew why she'd been drawn to these doors. She'd not forgotten her promise to Neville, doing all manner of research into what had been done to treat them, but she'd not attempted a visit to see them for herself. She'd not wanted to risk attempting to heal them only to do further damage, and she did not wish to hurt her friend anymore than he already had been by this.

It was a wonder she hadn't seen any orderlies yet, and someone really should have noticed the door to the secure ward wasn't…well, wasn't secure, but she made it to the Longbottom's room without issue. She knew what each of them looked like due to photographs, but to see them now was something else. Neville's Mother no longer had the plump happy-looking face Hera had seen in the photos he'd shown her. Her face was thin and worn now, her eyes seemed overlarge, and her hair, which had turned white, was wispy and dead-looking. Hera could see a bit of Neville in her face, but with Frank it was overwhelming how much they looked alike.

"Hullo, Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom, it's nice to meet you." Hera greeted them. "Neville speaks highly of you."

Neither of them talked, but Hera didn't expect it.

"He's saved me in Herbology more times than I can count." She continued. "I promised I'd help you if I could, and I know I should have visited sooner, but-"

It is at this moment that Alice takes her hand, and Hera sees what's wrong. It's clearer than any picture. A maze. The woman is trapped in a maze of her own mind. Hera turns and reaches for Frank, though she probably should have let go of Alice's hand first, to see if his was the same. It was, and when the two combined, Hera was pulled in.

Letting go released her, but it did nothing for them. She grabbed both of their hands again, and she was once more in the maze. Releasing them did the same as before. There was a clue in this, she knew, but she couldn't understand what it could be. She'd need help for this, she knew.

"Jareth?" She called out softly, hesitant and uncertain. He appeared just as quietly as she called, looking rather amused at what he found. "I'm not asking you to help them. I can help them. I know I can. I just…It's right in front of my face, and I can't see it. They're trapped in a maze of their own mind, and I accidentally linked them. If I can't figure out…"

"Breathe, my friend." Jareth stated quietly, comforting her. "You see their way out. You need only lead them to it, or create a-"

"A beacon!" Hera realized. "I can't stay, not for the amount of time it would take to gently guide them out, but a beacon could. Jareth, you're brilliant!"

A quick hug of genuine happiness, and she re-entered the minds of Frank and Alice. The beacon is something easily placed, now that she knows what she'd been missing. A beacon of light, no greater than a wisp, would gently guide them out. She didn't know how long it would take, and she may need to return to strengthen the magic of it, but it would work. She was not expecting to see Jareth still frozen in shock when her mind returned to herself.

"Uh…Jareth?" She quietly called to him. "Are you okay?"

"You hugged me." He replied, still shocked. "I have not…No one has…not outside of family…not in…"

"Shite. Did I overstep?" She asked, askance. "Should I have asked first? Is this a Fae thing I didn't know about? I probably should have asked first anyway. I didn't even think. I don't normally hug people…oh."

"Carnal pleasures are common place for many of the Fae, and so not as much importance is placed on it, but true passion…Genuine emotions, such as true happiness?…" Jareth explained, looking like his emotions had settled once more, though still slightly out of sorts. "You, who have not been free to express or explore your emotions for so long, Hera…You could have buried them deep, hidden them from the world. Instead, you choose to feel everything with an intensity that is near painful. A hug from you is a gift, my friend."

"But you said…" She tried to object, but frowned. "I don't understand."

"I am the king of goblins, Hera. There's not much reason for a bunch of alcoholic chicken obsessed goblins to want to hug me for any reason." Jareth reminded her, arching an eyebrow. "A gift of true genuine emotion, of happiness, even something as simple as a hug has not been mine to experience for a long time."

She didn't want to belittle his statements in anyway, but at the same time she didn't know how to process the information, and did the only thing she could think of.

"Do you want to play a prank on Tony with me?"

"So how many floors does this hospital have again?" Tony asked, trying not to let his rising panic get the better of him. "Feels like we've been walking forever."

"Barely an hour at best, if that. You're the one who insisted on starting from the first floor and working our way up." Rhodey teased, knowing exactly what he's doing, because Rhodey is the best like that. "Why didn't you just ask that orderly for help?"

"Because if people know that I've lost her, they'll find a way to take custody back, I just know it. You think people go crazy when I go anywhere, you should see how people react to her. She survived a particular kind of assassination attempt no one else ever had before or since, and now she's like their savior or something. It's weird, because they also act like she owes them something, but then again people treat me the same way."

"How old was she when she survived the attempt?" Rhodey asked, because Tony has a habit of spiraling, and both he and Rhodey know this.

"Little over a year old, I think." Tony replied as they kept walking, causing Rhodey to shake his head at the logic of all he'd told him. The third floor had revealed nothing, and now they were making their way to the fourth.

"Why didn't you just tell her friends up in the tea room?" Rhodey continued his quest to keep Tony from worrying.

"Because I didn't want them to worry about their friend while they're already worried about their dad." Tony sighed. "This is stupid. You're right. I should have just-"

"Hang on. Is that David Bowie?"

Rhodey's random question stops Tony in his tracks, because there is only one other person 'other than David Bowie himself, of course' who looks like that. Sure enough, Jareth is sitting in a window seat with Hera. She doesn't look upset now, which Tony is thankful for, but she's also looking at Jareth like he'd hung the moon, and now he's worried for an entirely different reason. The goblin king has one arm around her waist, another cradling the back of her head, and he's leaning in. Her head's tilted just enough that it looks like…it looks like…like they're…

"Okay, you two, you can stop now." Rhodey snorted, seeing as how Tony is too busy having tourettes of the face.

Jareth snorted, and Hera thumped his shoulder with her forehead as she laughed. Hera's shoulders are shaking, she's laughing so hard, and soon Jareth is too. They pull apart, making half-hearted hand gestures to each other in Tony's direction like they're having some kind of conversation only the two of them can understand, and even Rhodey began chuckling a little. When they've all finally calmed down, and Tony's face isn't spazzing out, he and Rhodey make their way over.

"Seriously, who are you?" Rhodey is the first to ask, before Tony can say anything.

Hera bursts into a giggling fit again, only managing to take a breath before she's able to utter a single syllable as she flaps her hands at her side.

"Who!"

This, of course, sent Jareth into a laughing fit as well; Jareth doesn't help, because when the two calm down he repeats it back to her, and they're like that for a good few minutes.

"Alright, alright. If you two are quite done." Rhodey scolded, though the fondness in his voice and the humor in his eyes gives him away. "Tony, I believe you had something you'd like to say?"

"I shouldn't have expected you to trust Rhodey like I do, not right away. He's great though, I promise, would absolutely keep your secrets if you wanted to tell him something but not me." Tony apologized, awkwardly shuffling a bit. "I also…I mean, I know you have enough honorary brothers as it is, but I figured one more couldn't hurt, especially with how annoying I-"

"Broðir." Hera interrupted, causing not only himself but Jareth to take note as well. With Jareth's reaction, Tony understands this is something important, but he doesn't understand how. "Perhaps I was unclear before. You are my brother, my broðir, no one else. There are people that are like brothers to me, and I have shield-brethren, but you are my broðir. Do you understand?"

Tony looked to Rhodey, floundering and uncertain, but Rhodey just looked impressed; so Tony figured he must have some idea of what this means, why it's different, but Tony doesn't.

"Shield-brethren are like brothers in arms, I think, but the term broðir?…There's usually only one." Rhodey explained to him. "You're not replaceable, Tony."

Tony ducks his head, and grins; He's an idiot, he knows, but it's nice to be reminded that there are people who don't believe he is replaceable to them.

…

Once everything is settled, they head up to the tea room, but the Weasleys are gone. Tony is a lot more comfortable here than he is, but Rhodey understands it's because he's been trying to learn about his sister's world. When Tony sets his mind to something, he's all in. The two siblings are entrenched in a conversation about holiday plans and the possibilities of techno-magic capabilities. He's not sure how those two things coincide, but he's not about to interrupt this to ask, so he turns his attention to the only other occupant that he can.

"What's your name anyway?" Rhodey asked politely. "I'd asked before, but then giggles happened."

"I'll give you mine if you give me yours." The wild looking man replied slyly, with a wicked grin.

The words are on the tip of his tongue, breath taken in, when a hand slams over his mouth. He looks to see Hera Potter sort of perched on an armrest, practically leaning on him. How had he not felt that before now? How had he not seen or heard her approach? The confusion must have been noticeable, because Hera sighs and lets up her hand from his mouth, before relinquishing her perch on the armrest.

"You almost gave a High Fae your name. I thought you might like to keep it. If you don't, that's your business." She shrugged.

"I don't…I don't understand?" Rhodey admitted, more than a little confused.

"Who do you think that is?" She demanded, glaring up at him now.

"Uh…David Bowie?"