Last time...

"Alright then, we're listening." Ron acknowledged. "What did you have in mind?"

The Goblin King gave a sly grin that reminded him far too much of Hera's more mischievous moments, as if knowing exactly where his mind had gone.

"I know just the thing."

Chapter 87

It started with a Canary Cream. The dinner had gone off without a hitch, and everyone was laughing and having a good time. Many had started pairing off to give each other their gifts, as not everyone had brought something for everyone else, and no one wanted to be rude. She was surprised when every single one of her shield brethren gave Matt something while he did the same for all of them, almost as if they'd all been warned ahead of time. Tony's not quite so innocent face gave him away before he could even try to hide it, and she snickered at the attempt.

Matt gave them all things that they weren't likely to find in the wizarding world; assorted chocolate bars for both Ron and Draco, a book detailing unusual creatures for Luna, a book that turned out to have a secret compartment for snacks for Hera, and a copy of the Big Book of Everything for Hermione. They in turn had gifted him with things he wasn't likely to find out in New York every day; Honeyduke's chocolate (Ron), specially crafted chocolates from some place in France (Draco), a necklace charmed to make the vibrations in his mind quieter (Hera) which Matt put on right away, a fountain pen with a pot of ink that raised when dried (Luna), and a specially crafted wallet that would keep his money separated for him (Hermione).

Hera hadn't known that ink like that existed, and was slightly confused that Luna hadn't remembered Matt was technically blind. She'd just brought it because the gift itself said it was for him. Hera shrugged, chocking it up to one of those things that just happened, and let it be. It was wonderful to see everyone get along. Even Snape was civil with Remus and Sirius, though it looked like he needed an out sometime soon. Perhaps now would be a good time to give him his gift.

"Professor Snape?" She offered. "Could you come over here for a moment?"

"As much as it pains me to leave this stimulating conversation, I suppose." Snape drawled, giving Sirius and Remus an annoyed side glare before following her to a secluded corner of the room. "What is it, Potter?"

"Blessed Yule, Professor." She replied, and handed him her gift.

"I suppose this shouldn't go to waste then." He remarked, before handing her a gift as well.

She was rather distracted with the box, both having sat in nearby chairs to commence with opening their packages. He'd gifted her with a specialized copper cauldron with crystal stirring rods and a set of adamantium knifes for chopping, dicing, and all manner of cutting. It even came with a note: Because iron is beneath you. Now, anyone else would have taken that as an insult, but Hera took it to understand that he'd remembered she was allergic to the stuff; he'd been adamant about making a note of that after the incident with the Labyrinth. She looked up to express her gratitude for the gift, when she realized that he had sort of frozen at the sight of his gift.

"Professor?"

"…Where did you get this?"

"Did Sirius tell you I destroyed one of those soul things in his kitchen?" She hedged, and his face twisted into a grimace. "I sort of…asked Kreacher if I could keep it once I'd destroyed it to little bits, but he insisted it could be repaired, and that he'd hand it over after."

"I can't accept this." Snape denied, trying to hand it back, but Hera gently pushed the box back. "Potter, it's too much. Do you know what this is?"

"It's Salazar Slytherin's locket; the original, by the way." Hera confirmed. "Who else would I give this to? You are the only one I know who would appreciate it for what it is."

Snape could only continue staring at the locket inside the box, as he said. "Close the box, and open it up again."

She did so, not understanding, but then she saw the various crystal vials and glass jars for ingredient storage.

"Professor…"

"You literally just gave me the History of our House." Snape countered, before she could try to object. He'd given her so many things already with just that first gift! "You don't get to tell me that that's too much."

She was about to try anyway, when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. "Was that there before?"

He turned to see what she meant, and saw what looked to be a small bird shaped biscuit with a thin layer of cream in the middle. "Have the house elves taken to leaving treats around when you don't realize you're hungry?"

"…No?" At least she didn't think they did. Did they? "I am feeling a bit peckish though."

"Accidentally summoning food to yourself?" He continued.

"…No?" Could she have? Maybe. Possibly? "I don't think so?"

"Best not to chance it then."

Before she can say a word, he grabs up the cream filled biscuit and eats it. Granted, he'd likely done so to stop her from doing just that, but he could have simply vanished it, and likely hadn't counted on what happened next. Snape got this rather confused look on his face, right before there was a burst of feathers, and in his place was a little canary chic. Hera's eyes couldn't have gotten any wider, and she picked up the little chic, who was chirping rather unhappily about the whole thing. She stood frozen, uncertain of what to do.

"Professor?"

Unhappy chirping continued. Right at that moment, Fred and George burst into the room, only to see Hera holding a baby canary. She couldn't have helped the peels of laughter even if she'd wanted. She barely remembered to put the little chic back down on the chair he'd been in before Snape returned to being himself. He still looked confused, but before he could say a word he coughed up a single feather.

"Did you…Did you two mean to do that?" She managed to wheeze through her laughter, tears glistening in her eyes she's laughing so much. "Jarvis? Please tell me you saved pictures of that."

"I have a video if you would like stills taken from it, Little Miss." Jarvis replied, sounding entirely too smug about the whole thing.

"You're the best, Jarvis."

"Gentlemen, your gift from me this Yule is a complete lack of any detention from me for the rest of the school year as long as you can do that to Professor Umbridge before the year is up." Snape declared, which just made Hera laugh harder.

…

"Why aren't you worried about him?" Jareth demanded, seeing Hera laughing on the other side of the room.

Tony looked over just in time to see Hera place a rather unhappy looking canary chic down, only for it to turn into Severus Snape.

"Because he's responsible for the death of her mother, and twice her age?" Tony offered. Jareth still didn't look happy. "Look, it's clear to me that he doesn't look at her like that. He's strictly professional at all times, so even if he did look at her like that, he wouldn't dare try anything while she's a student. That still feels kind of icky in my brain, but apparently magicals just live longer than us mundanes, so in a few years it wouldn't be as weird as it would be now. I wasn't worried before, I am now. She made that comment about older men and what goes where, and she's with him all the time. Shit, I hate you for that, you asshole. Is one prank not enough?"

"No." Jareth snickered, before promptly disappearing in a shower of glitter.

"Great, now I'm never going to be able to get rid of that." Tony muttered. "The glitter as well as the image in my brain. Asshole."

…

It happened sporadically throughout the evening. Treats would just appear before her, but the moment she went to pick one up, someone else scooped it up like they'd been called to it specifically. There were canary feathers everywhere, and there wasn't a soul in that room who didn't now have a healthy fear of cockroaches. There were kittens, koalas, at least one ferret, and a sloth. And the glitter! There was so much glitter! Hera didn't think she'd ever laughed so hard in her life as when she saw Tony with glitter in his hair and goatee.

Fred and George were beside themselves with confusion, but she didn't know why. Molly was laughing too much to be annoyed by their antics, and perhaps it was good for her to see how much her sons had achieved. Jareth's grin was far too wide to be human, enjoying the mischief that surrounded him. He'd turned into a kitten at least twice, and always seemed to be on the lookout for the next treat. Arthur had turned into a baby duck once, and when he turned back he'd been the absolute picture of happiness.

"Is this you?" Tony asked quietly, gesturing to the delightful chaos their celebration had become.

"I swear it isn't me." Hera insisted, though she couldn't keep the grin from her face. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"I knew magic was all about the glitter." He grinned, before looking down at the end table. "Hey, Hera, was that there before?"

…

Sirius had had a lot of time to think about this; about the kinds of decisions that he'd been making, and about how they'd lead him to where he was now. The mind healer he'd been seeing had really helped him sort through things, and while he had a lot of regrets about some of his past actions, he knew it wouldn't help him to focus on them moving forward. He'd made amends where he could, hadn't expected forgiveness from those who couldn't find it in themselves to do so or needed a little more time to consider it all, and had been making strides towards who he wanted to be. Through all of that, he'd realized that his perceptions of the world had been heavily influenced by the anger and resentment towards his family, and that he'd unfairly judged everyone that had similar attributes as being just as evil as he believed them to be. It helped to realize that not everyone in his family was as evil as he'd made them out to be, and that the family motto didn't have to be what his parents made it.

It didn't hurt that Hera was cracking into some of those misconceptions. She should have always been in Slytherin, and it wasn't too difficult to see why. She was cunning and resourceful, brilliant like her mother. That she had been Loki had thrown him for quite the loop. The god that he and his Gryffindor Proud friends worshipped back in the day while hating all things Slytherin…was one.

The last time he'd visited Hera and Tony before the whole Dementor incident and the school year kicked back up, he'd made some off hand remark; one he regretted now. He'd thought that her being a part of Slytherin was only so Snape could get her through the tasks. He thought that she'd be happy to go back to Gryffindor. Her whole demeanour had dimmed a little, which had shocked him. He hadn't meant to dampen her spirit, but he thought she'd liked being a Gryffindor.

A part of his mind hadn't understood why she wouldn't want to go back, even though he knew Gryffindor had given her their support in leaving them. Slytherin had helped her through the tasks and political pitfalls she'd become involved in, but that had ended, hadn't it? Why wouldn't she want to go back? Tony had taken one look at her disappointed face, and decided that was it. He'd taken him by the ear like a seasoned professional, and marched him out of the room.

'That is your god daughter in there.' Tony'd hissed. 'You are the closest connection she has to her father, to her mother, and you talking down about the student group she's in now is the same as them doing it. Is that the kind of impression you want to leave her with? That her own parents wouldn't have accepted what's happened?'

James and Lily both would have adored her no matter what, he knows that, and Tony's words had shocked him into silence.

'That girl in there looks up to you, so get your shit together. Because if I see that look on her face again because of you, I won't hesitate.'

He hadn't needed any elaboration as to what Tony meant, but it had really kicked him into gear. He couldn't let himself fail his little Prongslet. So he'd really buckled down this time, her speech having come back to haunt him more than once, and got to work clearing out the cobwebs. While he wasn't done with the mind healers just yet, he'd been making a lot of progress. He'd taken up the Lordship he'd denied, and had been trimming the family tree; adding back members that had been disowned for bigoted reasons, and cutting off those that were rotted. Gringotts had audited the Black family vault for him, and it was because of that that he'd gotten an idea, one he wanted to share with Hera.

"Hey, Prongslet." Sirius nudged, once she'd recovered her breath from laughing over the latest animal transfiguration candy event. "I got you something. Two technically, but Remus helped me with this first one."

"You didn't have to do that." Hera objected, even as she let Remus guide her over to a clear spot.

"We wanted to, Hera." Remus insisted. "Neither of us have been around as much as we should have been, and while things can't take the place of a person, we wanted to make you something."

"You…You two made it?" She asked, suddenly looking a bit wrong-footed.

"In a way." Remus answered vaguely.

"Of course we did!" Sirius called out brightly, getting the attention of the rest of the room. "Cover her eyes, Remus, this needs to be a surprise to be appreciated fully."

He did so, Hera smiling all the while. Sirius took this time to reach into his pocket and take out the motorcycle he had shrunken down to fit, set it out on the floor, and then with a simple charm he returned it to its proper size. True to the colour scheme she seemed to favour, her motorcycle was covered in a paint that mimicked polished green obsidian with gleaming gold accents lining certain features. He nodded for Remus to let his hands drop, and Hera was faced with a 1971 Harley Davidson FLH-1200 Electra Glide Shovelhead with white rimmed tires and an added 67 side car. Her jaw dropped, taking it all in.

"Tell me this thing flies." She all but whispered.

"Of course, it does! Remus and I took it apart, cleaned it out, and reassembled it to add in the proper charms. It'll run on magic now." Sirius announced. "We added the side car, but it can be taken off and shrunk to fit in a side compartment here (He points to said compartment before moving on). There's an invisibility field generator spell added in that can be activated as needed, and one for quietening the sound of the ride as well. There's also a colour changing charm added in."

He pressed a button by the speedometer, and the entire thing turned a dark candy apple red with shining silver assents.

"Sirius, it's…"

"I figured if there was anyone ever following you, you can just turn a corner, activate the colour charm, and presto." He stated, a bit nervous now. "Or if you just felt like a change to spice things up a bit, whichever."

"…it's…"

"I don't want you to think your parents wouldn't have been proud you're in Slytherin, Hera. They would have been proud of you no matter what." Sirius added quietly. Her eyes were watery. Why were her eyes watery? "I know I am."

"Sirius,…it's beautiful." Hera whispered quietly, right before wrapping her arms around him in a fierce hug. She did the same to Remus. "I can't believe you two."

"I'll go over the basics with you later, but where you're an excellent flyer with a broom, you won't need much more than that." Sirius explained. "I probably shouldn't have drawn so much attention with that display. This next one needs a bit of privacy."

"Go. I'll take care of the motorcycle." Remus insisted, shooing at them.

When they were out of sight, Sirius brought out the next gift.

"I took up the title of Lord Black not too long ago. Yes, I know, I can practically feel the smugness radiating from you, you know. When the Goblins finished their audit, they brought this to me. As it turns out, I had a Seer in my family. As far as we know, she never gave any official prophecies, choosing to keep them to herself. She crafted this, and left a note with the goblins that it wasn't to be touched till certain conditions were met, and even then it was to be given with instructions. When I took up the lordship for the House of Black, I unknowingly met the conditions, and you can imagine my surprise when the instructions were to give it to you."

He handed her the orb.

"Sirius, why would your great great grand something or other want to give me a Galaxy in a Globe?" Hera wondered, as she held it up to look at in greater detail. "It's beautiful, and I love it, but you can find these in Diagon Alley."

"Not like this one, you can't." Sirius informed her, before commanding the globe. "Earth."

He saw the view in the globe shift, zero in on the planet, and saw Hera's eyes light up in understanding.

"You can explore the galaxy in real time with this. I think she saw you, saw your plan to bring magic back out into the open, and I think she saw two possible futures; one where muggles accept magic and that it can't fix all their problems, and one where they don't. There's a bunch of notes and things I'm still going through from her, and I wanted to read through them all before I gave them to you, but you'll be getting those too at the end of your school year." He continued, and then paused as he saw a dog bone shaped biscuit. "Was that there before?"