Notes:

I didn't think I'd get this chapter done in time, and had planned to post it in a couple of days, but surprise!

Last time...

"Severus? Severus, are you there?" Lucius called out from the floo, surprising the both of them. "I tried waiting, but it seems there's been an incident, and I need your help."

"You'd better go see what he needs." Minerva sighed. "I'll cover for you. Wish me luck."

"Just remember murder's only bad if you get caught." Severus offered helpfully as she left, laughing outright when she sent him a two fingered solute without looking back.

Chapter 91

"What seems to be the p-" Severus began once he'd stepped out of the floo, only to have Lucius yank him further into the room and out the door.

His eyes hadn't even fully adjusted to the light yet, and he was being dragged through the manor by the grip on his shoulder. Lucius must be in panic mode. Nothing else made any sense. He hadn't seen his friend be in such a panic sense their days as Death Eaters, at the end of the war. What he was not prepared for was to see Potter scouring through the Malfoy library like she was on a Granger research binge. Granted, he knew she was coming back soon, but he'd not thought she was going to raid the Malfoy Family library.

"Potter, what are you-" His voice caught in his throat as he realized that this was definitely not Potter. "Fuck."

"Now you see why I called you?" Lucius whispered out the side of his face. "What the hell am I going to do?"

"Oh good, Severus, you're here. Maybe you can help me explain this to him." The young boy stated airily, distracted with his search in the stacks. "Lucius has been having quite the panic in your absence."

"Perhaps you should explain it to me first." Severus suggested, hoping to buy time.

"I suppose she told you about the talk, Severus, seeing as you've taken the girl as your Apprentice. She did say that you were working on an antivenom to Nagini's bite. Did the vial I sent help?" It was only then that he noticed the snake making its way towards the boy. "She offered me a choice. I'm uncertain how to take it. Is she genuine? Is it even possible? How is it that she can offer such a thing? A chance. A choice. Why would she even offer it? A few of my horcruxes have been destroyed, but is it possible to retrieve the soul pieces? Are they destroyed as well, or simply scattered now that the items can no longer contain them? I don't know. I must admit to some memory loss there as I wasn't too interested in learning that bit before."

"That explains why you're scouring the Malfoy family library, but not how you got in." Severus explained. The boy – because Severus couldn't call him the Dark Lord as he was – turned to him in confusion. "You're no longer keyed into the wards."

"No, but Potter is." Lucius realized.

"You never reversed it?" Severus wondered, surprised at his friend.

"I didn't see the point. She'd become an ally." Lucius explained, sounding both pompous and exasperated at the same time. "Besides, she is now shield-sister to my son. It would be rude."

…

A few moments before…

"Hera, what are you doing?" Draco wondered, as he strolled into the library. "If you'd wanted access to the Malfoy family library, all you had to do was ask, you know."

"I am afraid you are mistake, young Malfoy, as to who I am." A stranger's voice responded as they turned around. Not Hera, Draco realized, but then… "Perhaps you'd best get your father?"

"Yeah…That sounds like a good plan." Draco nodded. "I'll just go…do that."

He calmly walked through his home, wondering how he was going to tell his father that the Dark Lord had somehow been deaged and was now camped out in their library, when he saw the man in question walking towards him. One look was shared, that of understanding. One of the Malfoy elves must have gone and alerted his father already. That left Draco clear to make way for the owlery, writing down quick instructions as to which floo she needed to ask for, before making his way there himself. Hera needed to get here before something happened, he was sure of it.

"Draco?" She called from the floo not moments later. "What's going on? This is coming along a little too closely with an alert I have set on Professor Snape."

"You have an alert on Uncle Sev?" Draco inquired, momentarily distracted. "What kind? Does he know?"

"Most likely. It's just something to alert me if he were ever to be put in danger, he's compelled to squeeze the locket, thus sending the signal to me." Hera shrugged.

"Is that a euphemism for something unsavoury?" Draco snickered. "Squeeze the locket? I had no idea you had such designs on my godfather, Hera."

"I gave him Salazar Slytherin's locket, you dweeb." Hera replied, giving him a withering glare. "What's he doing that would have him thinking he might be in danger, Draco?"

"Father probably called him when he saw a deaged Dark Lord in our library." Draco suggested, and oh he should have lead with that. "Hera?…"

"De…Deaged? As in…"

"He looks about our age now." Draco confirmed. "Whatever your ritual reversal did seems to have run its course."

"I'm co…Alright, alright. We are coming through." Hera declared, though it had appeared as if she wasn't only talking to him. A moment and one quickly set up temporary allowance ward later, she stepped through the floo with Jör wrapped around her, Fen along side, and Hedwig perched on her shoulder…followed closely by Tony and another gentleman he didn't recognize. "Draco, Rhodey. Rhodey, Draco. Where is he?"

…

"Oh dear." Hera blurted when she got a proper look at him, quite unable to help herself.

"You! This is your fault." He scowled. "I sound like I'm going through puberty. Again!"

"I did tell you to contact me when the weird things began happening, you know." She reminded him. He glared at her, completely unimpressed. "Besides, I didn't do this. You did."

"…What?"

Everyone was looking at her like she'd spoken in a language they didn't understand.

"Really? You can't see it?" She asked, looking to them all before turning her attention back to him. "All I did was reverse a ritual. Because you'd split your soul into so many pieces, you weren't allowed to die, so you had to recreate yourself. Only when you did that, all you had was blood and bone to guide you. You depended more on my blood than his bones, because that's where the magic was."

"Be that as it may, we need to decide what to do now." Snape pointed out.

"No, we don't. He does, only that isn't true either." Hera insisted, hoping she made sense. "He already has. He just has to acknowledge it."

"I haven't decided anything!"

"Oh, but you have." She countered. "Your magic didn't just use mine as a template, it embraced it for the lifeline it provided. My magic gave you what you needed in order for you not only to come into being, but to stabilize your magical core. You'd need to get your soul pieces, or at least most of them, to stabilize it the rest of the way. Isn't that what you were doing in here? Researching how to get them back?"

"That doesn't mean I've decided anything!"

"Doesn't it? What were you intending to do with your new magical core once it had been fully stabilized? Were you really able to convince yourself that you could just disappear? You're too brilliant not to want to delve into something, and you're too much of a showman not to want others to know about it." She countered again. "Try again."

The boy before her shook with nerves, trying to find some firm place with which to argue from. "I am the Dark Lord, and I demand respect!"

"I see." Hera replied. It was his only warning before she used a wandless nonverbal force spell to knock him back into the wall. "You get respect when you give it. You are no longer the Dark Lord. Your magic is different. You don't even look like him anymore. Try again."

"If I'm not the Dark Lord, then who am I?" He demanded, in panic and anger, reminding her far too much of one of Loki's breakdown moments.

"You tell me."

"I…"

"Who are you? What is your name? What do you want?" Hera continued. "Choose."

"You say that like they are things I can change."

"They are." Hera insisted. He just glared at her like she was being obtuse. "Okay, normally that isn't the case, but here? Here, it is. Your magic is completely different than it was before. You can literally reinvent yourself in a way most people can only dream of. You want a new name? Pick one. You want to be someone new? You get to decide who that person is, who you become. You have choices you didn't before, options that weren't available to you then. Don't waste this."

"Why are you so invested? It's not like it changes what I did. The people I killed are still dead." He argued; not like she needed a reminder of that. "No matter what I choose, I have nowhere to go but that decrepit old manor! If I choose to try again as a Dark Lord, I'd have to start all over! If I choose to forge a new path, I have to face everything I've done."

"All things that can be dealt with later, and nothing I'm not familiar with." Hera kept on, just as stubbornly. "Choose."

…

"What do you mean…nothing you're not familiar with…" He wondered, shaking in anger, feeling very much as if he were on a precipice.

"I did give you a summary of what he'd done before he became me, you know. I am the consequence, the choice made when he'd faced what he'd done." Potter reminded him. "But you can bet your arse I'll have to face what he did too, if only because self righteous arseholes just want to make something bleed under the guise of justice."

"Do those of mine in Azkaban get this choice?" He inquired, narrowing his eyes at her. There was no way anyone would be so forgiving.

"Absolutely not. Don't even ask why. You already know the answer to that." She shot him down without even thinking about it. Good. At least she still had some sense.

"Why are you the one speaking for this?" He demanded, lashing out.

"Because, magically speaking, I'm the oldest one in this room." Potter snapped, unimpressed with his mood. "Even if I wasn't, I outrank them."

"You know, it's easy to forget you're a princess now." The young Malfoy heir mused, thoughtful.

"Princess?" He demanded, thrown for a loop. "When did that happen?"

"That's not important at the moment." She shrugged, as if it were no big deal. "This is. Choose."

"Why are you so invested in this?"

"Why are you avoiding answering the question?"

He took a deep breath, and slowly released it in the hopes that he would not murder her before he got his answers.

"If you already know my choice, why do I have to answer?" He countered.

"Trying to outsmart Magic is what got you into this mess." She pointed out. She must have seen something in his movement, realized how uncomfortable he was, because she stood at attention. "If you would like them to leave before we discuss this, they will."

There was a protest from everyone at that.

"They will. If that's what you need. Is it?" Potter inquired. He shook his head no. "Very well. They'll stay."

She then casually conjures a meeting table into being, as if it were something simple, and gestured for him to sit down.

"Alright, now let's get started."

…

"Why did you call for her?" Severus hissed, demanding answers from his godson. "We could have handled it!"

"Did you know that Hera cast a compulsion charm on the locket so you'd squeeze it when you thought you were in danger?" Draco returned. He had not known that. "That's why she's really here. All I did was inadvertently save the lot of you from her bursting in here like someone was about to die."

"God, it's like watching little Tony own a room." Rhodey muttered, watching the girl. "What does she mean by magically older than any in the room?"

"Time shenanigans." Tony chirped, before Severus or Draco could answer. Not quite in the know then, though neither was Lucius. "Plus, out of a system he respects, she does outrank us."

…

"Why would I have to confront them?" He demanded. "If I'm someone new-"

"Don't be obtuse." Potter interrupted. "They'll know it's you, those closest to me will at any rate. They know I've given the choice. Whether they agree with it or not is their choice, and they deserve to confront you for what you did, just like you deserve the chance to start over."

"No one deserves either of those things."

"So then why are you arguing about it?" She countered. "You want to start over? They want to air their grievances. It's that simple. It's not about deserving, not with this. You deserved the choice, but understand that that is all you deserve."

He scowled at her.

"What? You thought redemption would be easy?" She snorted.

"Who said I cared for redemption?"

"Atonement then."

He was silent at that.

"Ah, I see negotiations are going well." An unfamiliar voice registered, and he turned to see…who was this? He'd wondered where that bird had gone off to, seeing that it must have been to get him. Another one of Potter's allies perhaps. "I am the Goblin King. You are?"

"As yet undecided." Potter chirped. "Please try not to trick him out of a name he hasn't even picked yet…Oh, now there's an idea."

"What? What's an idea?"

"You hate your name. Why don't you give it to him? Then you really can be anyone you want." Potter proposed. "Be honest, do you really want to be Tom Riddle?"

"…No."

"And do you still wish to take over the world?"

"Who doesn't?" He quipped, which earned an up-tick of the corner of her lips.

"Paperwork."

"Underlings."

"Mutiny."

"Point." He sighed. Having underlings overthrow you once you'd gotten everything set up just the way you like it did sound like quite the bother. "Perhaps not the whole world then."

"A conversation for another time." She allowed with a nod, amusement colouring her voice, before her expression turned cold. "Do you regret what you've done?"

"…I can't accurately answer that." He admitted, not wanting to look at her now. "I still…Emotions are new to me, Potter. Rage? Anger? Those, I understand. The others?…I haven't even begun to understand them."

"Does it make you feel uncomfortable to think about the things you did? The things you allowed to happen around you?" Potter clarified. "Does it sit like a stone in your stomach? Twist and writhe like a living thing?"

He suspected she knew the answer already, but still. "…Yes."

"Then what's holding you back?" She asked, pulling him up short. "You've already lost everything, but that just means you've got nothing left to lose. There's nothing holding you back, but your own thoughts. So what is it?"

"…What if I fail?"

"If you let that stump you, you already have." She snorted. "Come on now, what is it really?"

He glared at her, hating that she could read him so easily.

"I have questions I need answered." He admitted. "Why are you so invested in this? Why are you so willing to forgive me? I don't deserve-"

"No, you don't, but that's the thing. No one deserves it. It's forgiveness." Potter interrupted him, but her words rang true. He stayed silent, waiting for the rest of it. She looked like she was struggling with it. "It would be so easy, being angry at you, hating you for what you took from me…but then I'd have to hate them too, because they're guilty of the same."

He froze as he listened to her, unable to believe his ears even though he knew the words to be truth.

"You physically killed them, but their decisions are just as responsible for it as you are. They chose to have me in a time of war. They chose to fight in that war, and not send me away." Potter continued, looking torn but determined. "I don't want to hate them, so I'm choosing not to hate you."

"I'm not sure that's how that works." He admitted, eyeing her speculatively.

"I'm trying, dammit!" She snapped, frustrated. "Do you have to make this so bloody difficult?"

"Well, I did kill your-"

It happened without warning, her leaping across the table, and then…Crack!…Pain exploded throughout his face, and he crumpled to the floor. It felt like his eyes wanted to vacate his skull, if only to escape the pain within it, and he clinched his eyes shut against the feeling. She'd hit him with far more force than he'd expected from her, and it took some time before he was able to get back up again and right his chair to sit in it once more. When he did, she was glaring at him from where she sat across from him in a way that expressed annoyance over anger, and he was confused once again.

"Feel better?" She asked, arms crossed in front of herself. He only looked at her in confusion, one hand still covering his cheek. "You wanted me to hate you, so I hit you. Feel better?"

"That…" Oddly enough, he did feel a bit lighter for it.

"Don't goad me like that again in the future, or anyone else either. That sort of coping mechanism isn't healthy; getting someone to hit you because you feel guilty for what you did, and can't bring yourself to accept the kindness from them. I already have people telling me I need to see mind healers, and if I need to see them, you definitely do." Potter demanded with a scowl. "Now, are we actually going to negotiate, or are you going to keep whining about how you did horrible things and don't deserve it?"