Last time...

"This is all…a lot." Riddle finally stated, looking a little overwhelmed. "Perhaps now would be a good time to take that intermission, Potter?"

"Yeah, we can come at this fresh in the morning." Hera nodded, looking more tired than ever. "I'm already kinda sleepy stupid. Sleep sounds awesome."

Tony snickered upon realizing that as soon as she'd said that, Hera'd promptly passed out.

"I suspected that was going to happen soon." Lucius murmured fondly. "Draco is much the same. Come, I will show you all to spare bedrooms you may use for the night. I have a feeling I will be carrying Draco up to his before too long."

"M'not that sleepy." Draco denied, his voice betraying him even so.

"Of course, you're not." Lucius placated, making sure to put a hand on his son's shoulder to steady him while Tony gently cradled Hera and picked her up. "If you will all follow me."

It wasn't long before he heard Riddle whispering to Severus. "Was he serious?"

"Of course, he was." Severus replied quietly. "While Stark is an impetuous sort, he will back any promise he makes. He offered me a job once, and though I have yet to take him up on it, I have no doubt he would honor it."

"And he knows?" Riddle asked, sounding far more vulnerable than Tony thought a Dark Lord turned teenager would ever sound. "About everything?"

"He does indeed." Severus confirmed. The man must have seen something in the boy's face, because his expression softened somewhat. "Do not concern yourself with it now. It'll keep till morning."

"I just…I don't understand." Riddle admitted quietly. "Who I was…What I did…I did those things. I ordered others to do those things…And the revels? I allowed them, encouraged them. You know what it was like. You were there. How can they just…How can they just forgive me that? Lucius can barely look at me as it is, and you saw how Black reacted to seeing me even as I am now. His reaction I expected, but theirs? I don't know what to do with that."

Severus sighed, sharing a slightly exasperated look with Tony before looking back to Riddle. "If you're looking to me for guidance in finding that understanding, I am afraid you're out of luck there. I have been watching over Potter since she entered Hogwarts, have taken her on as an apprentice over the last year or so, and I am no closer to that understanding than I was from day one. Stark is much the same, as I am no closer to understanding him than I was the day I met him. He's certainly exasperating enough to match her. It does not surprise me that his compassion does as well."

Chapter 95

It wasn't that Hera didn't know about this particular ability. She'd had dreams of Loki's life, remembered most of it even, but…Well, she didn't expect it to happen on its own, which was a mistake really. She'd discovered the multiple cloning thing while under stress, as well as the incorporeal illusion ability. It was to be expected that she'd come into this one under yet another stressful circumstance, but really this was the worst time for this.

She'd gone to sleep on gender, and had woken up the complete opposite. It had certainly answered at least one question for her. She'd wondered at how Loki had thought of himself when he shifted, if he'd cared what pronouns were used; it being one of the things her mind had been fuzzy on. In her mind, Hera still felt like herself, only her outsides were different. Her magic was still her own, and she wouldn't mind if someone referred to her as male or female while she was like this.

It would actually be amusing to see how long she could carry on before someone noticed, but that might have to wait. As it was now, in her not quite panicked state, she couldn't remember how to transfigure clothes. She could remember how to magically alter them, but that was it. Anytime she tried to pull up the knowledge she knew she had, Hera drew a blank. Sighing, even though she knew there was nothing for it, Hera got up and got about getting ready as best as she could before getting to a point where she'd have to call for someone. She was just glad she wasn't going to have any awkwardness about having a certain appendage she hadn't had the night before, her memories of Loki's life being a particular help in this moment.

…

"Draco!"

He startled awake, looked around, saw nothing, and closed his eyes again.

"Draco!"

Not even opening his eyes, Draco groaned and complained. "This is beginning to feel too much like the hospital wing, you realize. What are you even doing in here? This is my room."

"…I need to borrow some of your clothes."

His eyes opened at the sheer unexpectedness of the request. "…What?"

Hera's face appeared floating by the settee, looking red faced and ruefully embarrassed, also appearing and sounding…slightly different somehow. "I need to borrow some of your clothes…and some of your underclothes."

"This is the strangest way I've ever been asked for a fuck, you understand, asking to see my under-things." He teased. She swallowed down whatever retort she'd been about to make, but the physical act of that highlighted something he hadn't expected. "Hera…were the stories of Loki's shapeshifting abilities accurate?"

The side glare he got for that was rather telling.

"Fuck." The word was out of his mouth before he could blink, and he was out of the bed and going through his dressers without a thought, throwing clothes onto the bed. "We're around the same height, so that's not a problem. Put this on first, then this, this, aaaand this."

"What is all this?" Hera asked, somewhere between confused, disturbed, and curious.

"These are a wizards under things. Don't tell me muggle men don't wear these." Draco snorted. The quiet was deafening. "They…they don't?"

"Not so many? Not sense the Victorian Era anyway." Hera offered, looking through them with morbid curiosity, which was weird to see as only her head and one hand was visible. "No wonder muggles started wearing less and less. It would take forever to get to the good part if you had to spend most of it just undressing a person. Is this why wizards just vanish things?"

Draco slapped a hand to his face, and groaned. "The things you say half the time, Hera."

"What? Muggle men usually wear one of three things, and that is if they wear them at all. There are boxers, which are sort of like loose shorts, I suppose. There are briefs, which are like a more snug version of that, and something they call tighty whiteies, which are even smaller, and cover less. There are speedos, which have to be illegal somehow, they cover exactly the bits, and barely even that. There are long johns as well, which look like what you're wearing now, but they only wear those when it's really cold, and for some odd reason they come with a back flap but not a front flap. You think they would have included both." Hera rambled, as she continued to sort through them. Meanwhile, Draco was internally dying of embarrassment. "And muggle women? Whatever you think you're going to find under a muggle skirt, you're not."

"What?" Draco managed to get out, sounding strangled, and now he was traumatized.

"You will not find a muggle woman wearing a chemise, stays, petticoats, crinoline, corsets, garters, stockings, or anything like that unless it's for a costume or a particularly bit of kinky sex, and even for that last option it's just the corset and something called a thong. I'm guessing that's the female version of a speedo, to be honest. I suppose they might add the garters and stockings, but that's really more for the aesthetic than anything practical. It is kinky sex, after all." Hera continued to ramble. "Nowadays, women wear knickers, briefs, hipsters, cheekies, or those thongs things I mentioned before. We can go into a muggle ladies underwear shop later if you want visuals. There are bras for the tits, though there are quite a lot of them that just wear nipple pasties or something of the like, close to a strapless bra but without the wraparound. I imagine it's rather freeing. Incidentally, muggle women can choose to wear nothing at all, and you wouldn't be able to tell unless you looked closely enough."

"Hera, have mercy, please?" Draco squeaked, his face now flaming in his hands.

"What? Is it taboo to talk about under things so casually?" Hera inquired, sounding surprised and not mocking at all. "Merlin's pants. It is? Really? How are you supposed to learn anything if no one talks about it? Guess and fumble? That sounds stupid."

"How do you even know any of this?" Draco managed.

"I read. Muggles have this information just out in the open, available to anyone who goes looking." Hera snorted. "Okay, I've put on your silly under-things. Now what?"

"You what?!" Draco exclaimed in surprise, whirling around to see that Hera was standing before him wearing his under-things. "You just…changed right there?!"

"I literally have nothing you haven't seen before just looking at your own body, Draco." Hera scowled, giving him a withering glare. "Seriously though. Now what?"

"I guess you're still a girl in my brain." Draco offered; not an apology, but as close as one as he could get without embarrassing himself.

"Fair. It's not exactly like I really had tits before this anyway." Hera shrugged. "It's like I just switched out my downstairs, and called it a day."

"I'm going to literally die of embarrassment before we get you dressed. I hope you're proud of yourself." Draco grumbled, turning back around to go through his things again, ignoring Hera's snickering behind him. "Okay, put on this first, then this, this, these, and the over shirt. Robes go on after this."

"Draco, I can't wear all this." Hera complained. "I might die of heat stroke as I am. Can't I skip a few layers?"

"Quit being a baby, and put on the damned clothes, Potter." Draco huffed, but when he turned around, Hera hadn't budged. "What?"

"Madam Malkin's made my robes of thinner fabric when I told her I overheated a lot, and when I went to get my robes from Twilfitt and Tattings, I had them add a cooling charm to the fabric." Hera admitted, and realization dawned in Draco's mind.

"Jötnar don't wear layers." He said, more to show he understood.

"They hardly wear what would be considered clothes." Hera clarified in reminder.

"I should have remembered. Hang on." Draco nodded, and began inspecting the pile. "Don't bother with this, this, and this can go too. Take off the under shirt too. Just wear these two things, and no one will notice."

"I appreciate you not being weird about this." Hera commented, already taking off and putting on what he suggested. He still turned around so he wouldn't see her dress, despite that their anatomy was more similar at the moment than not. "I take that back. You're being weird about this."

"Well, it wasn't like I expected you to be a different gender when you woke me up this morning." Draco smarted back. The two promptly descended into giggles not seconds later.

Rhodey was an observant enough of a person to be able to read a room. He'd learned to be; both through his own life experiences, and being friends with Tony. So when he arrives to breakfast, after thanking one of those little house elf beings for getting him there, it wasn't difficult to see that everyone had stayed up long past when they should have called it a day. Most of them were bleary eyed, holding onto their mugs like they held the elixir of life or something, and only the regal looking woman sitting with the man who had introduced himself as Lucius Malfoy seemed to be awake in any sense of the word. Though she looked cool and aloof, he could tell that she was secretly amused with the state of her guests.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced." She greeted him with a slight smile, an admonishment and greeting all in one.

"Ah, yes, Ma'am. Hera was going to come here alone, but no one wanted to be left behind." He offered in apology. "My name is James Rhodes, but most people call me Rhodey, which I blame Tony for."

"You're from across the pond then?" She asked in surprise, her eyes darting to Tony and back again. He wondered if that was her way of wondering if he wasn't magic like she was. "My apologies. I have not properly introduced myself either. I am Narcissa Malfoy. Welcome to my home. I hope you find your stay enjoyable, unplanned though it was for you. Please, sit, there is more than enough for everyone, and if you have any preferences, please let the elves know. Their cooking far surpasses my own."

"I'm not much of a cook either." Rhodey nodded in commiseration, making his way to a seat next to Tony, though across from the boy who had been a Dark Lord. In a moment of inspiration, he decided to strike up a conversation with the now teen boy. "Is the elixir of life a thing?"

"In technicality, though it is not available to just anyone." The boy grumbled ruefully. "Why?"

"It's just that you're holding that mug like it's got the elixir of life in there, and I didn't want you to spill any." Rhodey commented casually, gathering what he wanted from nearby dishes. The boy doesn't respond, but he does narrow his eyes at him and pulls the mug closer to himself, causing those around them to snicker into their own mugs.

"Coffee is the elixir of life, Platypus." Tony insisted, raising his mug to the boy as if in toast. "Everyone knows that, or they should."

"Of course, you'd say that, Broðir." Hera interjected as she and Draco walked into the room. "You drink your weight in it a day."

Tony made sounds of mock objection, but Rhodey tilted his head in confusion. Something was…different. Hera caught him looking and grinned, before looking up slightly and swallowing…Holy fuck. His shock was evident, but she only only winked and sat down next to the boy, availing herself…himself?…of the choice dishes around her. Draco only snorted and sat down on her other side. The boy stiffened minutely, before relaxing back into things.

"So…how did negotiations go last night?" Rhodey asked, wondering how long it would be before Tony noticed what was going on.

"Not good." Hera sighed. "The actual negotiations went well, but…Well, I messed up. Riddle needs to atone, and for that he needs to interact with those he wronged. I meant only for a particular house elf to come hear him, but my godfather came along with him, and…it didn't go well."

"That's an understatement." Draco snorted. "The man outright attacked us, trying to get to him."

"I shouldn't have called for Kreacher, not before I'd gotten to talk to Sirius more." Hera insisted, looking properly miserable. "I hurt him. The look on his face when I said I'd have to hate my own parents…I shouldn't have said that."

"I still think you should have let him have at me. At least he would have gotten it out of his system." The boy, Riddle for now at least, grumbled.

"He wouldn't have stopped till you were dead." Hera snapped. The silence from Riddle was a bit too telling. "You wanted…?"

"He would not be the only one, Potter." Riddle reminded her.

"I know, but…" Hera trailed off in uncertainty, before squaring her shoulders and looking to the boy. "Till now, the two of us have only ever been surviving. In order to make this work, to fulfil the prophecy or perhaps to spite it, we need to both choose to live. Do you understand?"

Earlier that morning…

"He's in there." Remus said in greeting when he opened the door, seeing Severus standing there. A crashing sound could be heard in the background. "I don't know what happened, but he was like this when I got here, and he won't…I don't know what to do."

"Potter happened." Severus snorted, as he stepped inside. "How much do you know about the choice she gave the Dark Lord?"

"Just what you told us. With Umbridge watching the mail, she's not been able to send anything like that to either of us. It'd have to be coded, and even then it was a risk I don't think she'd be willing to take." Remus admitted, helpless. "He agreed?"

"He's been de-aged." Severus relayed, which surprised him. "Her magic stabilized his for the most part, but the thing is it took his body back to a time when his core hadn't gone through the tremendous stresses it had when he'd split his soul. He'll have to reabsorb what horcruxes he can in order to stabilize it the rest of the way, but…he's agreed."

"I don't think Sirius wanted to believe it was possible. He was prepared to comfort Hera when her plan failed, but he wasn't about to stop her trying, not after everything she'd gone through to remove the Dark Marks. She has her mother's heart. He wasn't prepared for her idea to work." Remus admitted quietly, shocked into sitting down in a nearby chair. "What happened when Sirius found out that it had?"

"There is something you must understand. Potter plans on getting the boy…Riddle, we're calling him for now…to face those he's wronged. She does not expect them to forgive him, but in order to atone, he needs to face what he's done. She's already gotten him to face Jör, because he'd used the basilisk to kill in creation of his first horcrux." Severus explained solemnly, choosing a nearby seat himself. "She thought to have him face Kreacher, but Kreacher brought Black with him. It…ended badly. Potter doesn't want to hate Riddle, because she views it to mean that she'd have to hate her own parents, and she doesn't hate them; doesn't want to hate them. In her effort to explain things, I fear she did more damage than good, and will likely be punishing herself for it."

"What are you doing here?" Sirius demanded, storming into the room. "Aren't you supposed to be simpering before your new youthful Dark Lord?"

"Would it bring them back?" Severus asked, watching him carefully, confusing the angry wizard. "If you hit him? If you killed him, would it bring them back?"

"Nothing will bring them back!" Sirius shouted, looking gutted for the declaration, still stalking forward. "You know that!"

"Would it make you feel better? He's offered to stand there and let you, you realize." Severus continued, keeping his voice even and conversationally calming. Sirius stopped short, having not expected that, and to be fair neither had Remus. "He goaded Potter into hitting him, kept bringing up that he killed her parents while they begged for her life to be spared till she actually hit him; a solid right hook. He would stand there and let you hit him, let you attack him however you like until he was nothing but a bloodstain on the ground. He would let you kill him, if you wanted."

Sirius began shaking.

"I hate who he was." Severus continued, because neither Remus nor Sirius had stopped him. "I hate what I did in service to him, who I became because of what I was willing to do to get the power that he offered; though it was an empty promise. Would it help you to hit me?"

"I can't go in there, and act like everything's okay! He killed them!" Sirius shouted, rage and grief etched into every syllable.

"Potter would never ask that of you." Severus reminded them. "She wants to help him atone, even if he is never forgiven. I highly doubt she'd anticipated Kreacher bringing you, but I imagine she wished for you to watch him, to see what becomes of him, to confront him if you so chose."

"He's playing a game. He'll betray her, I know it." Sirius insisted, shaking his head.

"Are you sure? I'm not." Severus reposed. Though Sirius looked doubtful, it had certainly surprised Remus. "You weren't there, so you didn't see what I did. He won't betray her, not now. Maybe if she hadn't reversed the ritual, her influence wouldn't be there, but now…"

"What do you mean?" Remus asked quietly.

"His world is centred around her now, you understand." Severus revealed. "He'll do anything if it means keeping himself in her good esteem. Her magic guides his, and he won't want to lose that."

"Her good…Her good esteem?" Sirius asked, baffled and angry. "Why the bloody fuck would he care about her good esteem?"

"Several reasons. He knows she was Loki, for one." Severus revealed. Sirius froze where he was. "He'd do anything just to learn magic from her. Access to magical knowledge this world hasn't had since we were abandoned by the gods? I wouldn't pass that up either. Other than that, she's offered him the one thing he's never had; family."

"What the-"

"With what Potter did, reversing the ritual, it made him the magical equivalent to her twin or her son. Stark has offered to adopt him." Severus explained. "He won't want to risk losing that."

"She's going to…" Sirius trailed off, eyes wide. "No! I won't allow it!"

Without waiting for a reply, he stormed out of the house, a crack of sound resounding not long after.

Lost in his own thought, Remus didn't expect to hear Severus mutter to himself. "Well, that could have gone better."

Tony has been sleepy stupid for the better part of the morning, but as he's letting the conversation at the table wash over him, he notices something is off somehow. He can't decide what it is yet, and so he leaves it to ruminate in the back of his mind until he's more awake. Hera is talking with Riddle and Draco about something or other, and it dawns on him. He'd heard the stories of Loki's shapeshifting abilities, and while none of them were in any way flattering, he's willing to bet the real stories are much more entertaining. His quiet snort is only heard by Rhodey, who leaned in subtly.

"About time your ass woke up enough to notice this. Do you know how long I've been quietly dying over here?" Rhoday said under his breath. "Is she stuck like that? Is shapeshifting just a thing Hera knows now? I don't even know what pronouns to use anymore. I've got questions."

"Hera…Hera, please, can I tell him?" Tony started giggling. "I'm dying over here."

"Did he ask if I'm stuck like this?" Hera asked with a cheeky grin. "Good to see you finally awake, Broðir."

"I was wondering why you were wearing my son's clothes." Lucius remarked with amusement. "Do you know if Black formally did the godfather bonding ritual, as Severus did when Draco was a baby? The Black family has the gift of metamorph that crops up in the line from time to time, and the bonding ritual could have transferred the potential for the ability to you."

"What's a metamorph?" Rhodey wondered.

"Shape shifter." Hera offered easily, and he nodded in understanding. "At any rate, I'd rather you didn't, Tony. I don't know if he can protect his mind like you can, and I know it doesn't look like it, but I am trying to keep a low profile here."

"Does he not know?" Riddle wondered in surprise. "You literally had Fenrir and Jör tower over me to intimidate me into even listening to you, and then you raged at me all the reasons why you thought I was being an idiot using stories of your previous life. How does he not know?"

"He might have been asleep for some of that." Hera mumbled. Down the way, Lucius' mug shattered as it hit the floor, and Narcissa looked like her eyes were frozen wide open. "Damn it, not you too."

"My-"

"You call me your Lord, and I will curse you bald, Lucius Malfoy." Hera warned, glaring at the man. "Don't think I won't!"

"Well, if anything, I got to see what fear looks like on Lucius' face. I think I can live with that." He hears Sirius from behind him, and he gets to see Hera's face light up just in time for it to fall into confusion. "Hey, Pup, can we talk?"

She nodded, and moved to leave the table.

"Wait, does he know?" Lucius asked in shock. Turning to Sirius, he demanded. "How can you act the way you have when you know who she'd been?"

"Not in front of virgin ears, for the love of Ymir!" Hera scolded, as she looked at Lucius with a scandalized expression on her face, before turning to Rhodey with a soft smile and an apology. "There should be one person in this room who doesn't know all this crap. I know it's tempting, learning new things, magic all around, the allure of the unknown, whole new world and all that, but stay strong. Don't let them tempt you into giving up your innocence, Sugar Bear. You're only a virgin once, you know."