Last time...

"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."


Chapter 96

The door closed with the sound of Tony's laughter still filtering through, and Hera turned to her godfather.

"I should probably apologize-"

"I didn't meant to-"

They looked at each other and snickered.

"Let's try this again, shall we?" Sirius offered, and then gestured towards her. "So…how long have you been like this?"

"Went to bed one gender, woke up another." Hera snorted. "In my panic, I sort of forgot how transfiguring clothes worked, and raided Draco's room for his. You should have seen the look on his face as I explained how muggle under-things worked. Draco wanted me to wear four layers of underclothes with this! Four! I'm convinced Wizards just started vanishing clothes because it took forever manually to get to the fun bits. This isn't…I'm still…You're not going to be weird about this, are you?"

"Lucius wasn't wrong about metamorphs being a Black Family trait, though Tonks is the only one living that has the ability, and even she's never managed a complete transformation quite like this. There was that rumour about her walking around as Snape for a bit, but that wasn't transforming herself into a different gender for herself, that was transforming herself into another person." Sirius explained. "Hera, I-"

"Did you do the godfather bond thing, like officially?" Hera blurted. "It's just…What Lucius said back there, I realized I didn't know. I said so much shite to you last night, and I didn't…I don't have any memories of them, but you do. To say those things to you was unthinkable, but I still did it! You were there for all of it, have memories of them, grew up with them, fought by their sides, and I just…What must you think, that I could give him a chance so easily? I-"

"Hera, stop." Sirius cut through, and she effectively clammed up. He sighed, seeing as she'd looked down as well. "You're right. I can't…I can't just go in there, and sit across from that kid like I can't see everything he's ever done. He's the reason my friends are dead, why I spent time in Azkaban, why even now the wizarding world hasn't really recovered or moved on. I can't wrap my head around you not hating him for what he took from you."

"I don't know how to explain it. You have memories, attachments that I just…I just don't. I love them, but for me it's like loving a concept or an abstract idea. I just…" Hera trailed off, feeling decidedly lost.

"And his being a twin?" Sirius questioned. She looked back up in confusion. "I can't see you as a mother. You're barely sixteen in my mind, and you're never going to know what sex is ever."

She just arched an eyebrow at him, and waited.

"Hey, I'm pretending that's part of that last life you just 'don't remember', or that he just never got around to trying anything. It's helpful for my sanity." Sirius objected weakly.

"If I ever have a child, will it also 'help' your sanity for me to make up some lie about a stork, or will immaculate conception do?" Hera teased.

"Nah, one's already got dibs on that, I hear." Sirius went along. "You'll have to come up with something else."

"Sirius?" Hera wondered, hesitant and hopeful. "Are we…Are we gonna be okay, you and me?"

"Yeah, I think we're gonna be okay." Sirius nodded. "It's just…"

Hera waited, uncertain, but unwilling to risk breaking his train of thought.

"I should have expected something like this, I think." Sirius admitted, suddenly looking tired. "Your mother made it a point to always try to see other people's sides, always tried to meet them halfway, or forgive them just about anything…especially after she couldn't bring herself to forgive Snape; at least not soon enough to try and keep him from doing something stupid, and she had a temper too."

"So the anger isn't all his?" Hera asked, surprised, stopping him. "It's just…I've been running on the assumption that I get angry easily because 'Not me' did. You're telling me Mum had problems with it too?"

"She did. It didn't help that your father liked to poke at every nerve she had trying to rile her up either." Sirius remarked with a sad sort of grin. "What can I say? Fiery redheads are hot when they're mad."

Hera snorted, unable to help herself.

"Hera, about this…about this choice…Are you sure? If you're not…If he turns out to be like Wormtail…" Sirius tried, failed, and tried again. "Are you sure?"

"Not in the slightest, but I hope." Hera admitted. She hesitated, wondering if she should admit this. "Siri, I…I get so angry sometimes, it scares me. It's not that I'm not angry at him, because I am, but if I let it rule me…I'm afraid that the more I give into it, the more of me I'll lose."

He kept silent, looking suddenly horror-struck at her words.

"It would be so easy to hate him, to let all the vile and horrid things he did to fill my mind until that's all I saw, but…" She continued, hoping he would understand, unable to look anywhere at the floor as she whispered. "I don't want to lose myself, Siri."

"I'm so sorry, Pup." And then his arms were around her. "I'm afraid this is my fault, at least in part. I should have waited till you were older, till you'd been warned of the dangers, but I'd planned on being there. I'd always planned on being there."

"I don't understand." Hera murmured, and Sirius pulled away enough to move them to one of the settees by the wall.

"I did do the bonding ritual that made you my god-daughter in the eyes of Magic. Like with the blood ritual James did to blood adopt you before you were born, the bonding ritual I performed gave you some of my family's traits. It's why we can pass off your shape shifting as a gift of the Black Family line, but being a Black comes with a downside. People refer to it as the Black Family madness." Sirius explained apologetically. "The anger you speak of? How it can control you? That's it. It's a powerful feeling, but if you give into it, you're not always able to pull yourself out. Even when you give in, and you can pull yourself out, you're never quite the same again. I had always meant to be there for you, to explain what was happening if it ever did, but then…And to think I wanted you to get angry! I thought it hadn't touched you, not with how you've handled everything, but Hera…"

The man ran a hand through his hair, frustrated, and sighed.

"Hera, if this is what you need to do, I'll support you…but I can't go back in there. I'll hurt him, and I'm not sure I'd stop hurting him, you understand?" He told her. She did understand. "How do you do it? Control it like you are? Bellatrix went mad with the power it gave her, and lost any sense of who she'd been. She never even tried to control herself. Narcissa and Draco have the Malfoy family magic to bolster them, but me? I'm not exactly the winning case here, and my control over that is not the greatest. I would blame Azkaban, but I wasn't the best at controlling myself even in school. You can ask Snape about that, if he hasn't told you already. I wasn't there to help you, and now I can't even begin to figure out how to help myself; let alone you. I want to go back in there. I want to hurt him, to hit him until he stops breathing, and I don't think I can stop wanting that."

She took one of his hands into her own, and squeezed slightly in commiseration.

"It's not that I never give in, mind you, I just channel it into constructive things." Hera replied, choosing to look at their hands. "I'm angry all the time, but…it's not blinding. It's more like it's simmering in the background, waiting for a chance to boil over, and I can't go looking for ways to let it out or it will find them all the easier for it. I've found though that if I am defending another, if it's not about me or even the anger itself, I can vent it a bit."

"I'm so sorry, Hera." Sirius apologized, squeezing her hand fiercely for a moment before relaxing. "Your parents were insistent I be godfather to you, that whatever the downside was, I would be there to support you…I wasn't. I wasn't there, and I can't go back and change that. If I could go back and change things, I would."

"I wouldn't." Hera admitted, surprising him. She gave him an apologetic smile. "I do wish I had the opportunity to know my parents, and I wish you hadn't been sent to Azkaban at all, but things aren't all bad. I have Tony now. I get to know you now, and Moony too. I get to make those memories with you all now. Things might have been better had they not happened as they did, had Mum and Dad not died, but then we wouldn't be who we are to make these memories as we are. I like who I am. I've fought hard to be this person, to be better than who I'd been, and if I had the chance to give it all up for the possibility that a life with them would be better…I can't help but think it would mean killing a part of myself to make that happen, and I doubt that's something they'd want for either of us."

Sirius was silent for a moment, before cracking the smallest of grins as he said. "You have got to stop being smarter than me. How am I supposed to impart wise words of wisdom and whatnot if you're the one giving me advice all the time?"

"We could always collaborate on pranks together, you know." Hera offered, bumping his arm with her shoulder. "That might be fun."

Sirius chuckled at that. "You know, I came here in an absolute rage, ready to forbid you from making that boy any sort of family to you, but instead you're over here teaching me anger control and offering prank collaboration. How'd that happen anyway? Snape said that boy wants to learn magic from you."

"Oh, I keep denying it, but he thinks I'm the god of magic." Hera supplied, and watched the wonder of it cross Sirius' face; cracking the man's face into the biggest grin she's ever seen him wear.

"Holy fuck, Hera, that's perfect!" The man laughed, looking like years had shed from him with how happy he was. "I don't believe it. This could work? This could really work?! You're brilliant!"

It's as he's hugging her like his life depended on it that both Remus and Snape came storming out of the nearby fireplace, stumbling onto the scene before them, both of whom began looking rather confused.

"Do you need Acolytes?" Sirius asked, enthusiastically, ignoring their confusion for now. "For your whole god of magic shtick? Oh! I could swear an oath of fealty! Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Please don't." Hera groaned, which only made his laughter continue. "Lucius Malfoy was a split second from kneeling before me and calling me his Lord or whatever."

"That would have been a sight." Sirius snorted. "Why ever did you stop him?!"

"I feel like I should point out that I am not in fact a god of magic." Hera reminded him.

"…Potter?" Snape inquired, his voice sounding strangled.

"Oh, Hey! So, I haven't worked out polyjuice potion yet, but I've discovered I can do shape shifting! Does that mean I can learn how to do the billowing robes thing?" Hera asked, taking the opportunity presented. "Or was that specific to the polyjuice?"

"I should have known." Snape muttered to himself, already pinching the bridge of his nose, even as Sirius and Remus started snickering at him. "Shape-shifting. It just had to be shape-shifting."


"Alright, now that everything's settled, let's get started." Jareth declared.

Apparently, the reason he hadn't been there that morning had been because of some last minute preparations the goblins of Gringotts had wanted to go over with him regarding all of this. Hera was just glad the situation with Sirius was on the upswing; not entirely resolved, but getting better. Sirius and Remus had gone, while Snape had decided to stay in order to be able to relay to them what happened. It helped them not to worry quite so much, which eased many a mind. When Hera and Snape entered the dining area once more, it was to see Jareth standing before them, making Narcissa look slightly nervous as he conversed with her son.

"You know what's going to happen." Jareth continued, after explaining where he'd been, before looking to Riddle. "Are you prepared?"

Riddle looked from Jareth to Hera and back again. "As I'm ever going to be. Yes."

"Good. Have your new name written down? You aren't likely to remember it after this, so you'll need the visual reminder." Jareth continued. Riddle nodded. "Good."

"Can I see?" Tony asked, morbidly curious. Riddle hesitated, but then handed him a slip of paper. Hera looked over his shoulder, also curious at what he'd chosen.

'Salazar Cadmus Gaunt'

"That's some name, kid." Tony whistled.

"Are you planning to give Dumbledore an aneurysm later?" Hera snorted, grinning a bit. "He's bound to know it's you."

"That hadn't actually factored into my choice, no." Riddle denied, before cracking a small grin of his own, much to their amusement. "It is, however, a rather fortunate side benefit."

"Let us continue then." Jareth stated, bringing things back to point. He looked quite serious now, as opposed to his normal demeanour. "Give me your name."

Riddle took a breath, nervous, but his voice was steady. "My name is Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"No longer is this your name, taken from you as it is." Jareth continued. Riddle…No, he wasn't Riddle anymore…and Hera noted the confusion that seemed to come upon most everyone else in the room.

"You wrote this." Hera stated, handing him the paper he'd given Tony not moments ago. "Open it, and know your name."

He did so, taking a deep breath even as his eyes widened and he looked to Jareth, who nodded in confirmation.

"My name is Salazar Cadmus Gaunt." The young man declared, his voice shaking now.

"I did not ask to have this name, or for you to give it, and so it is your own." Jareth replied. "Keep it well."

A sort of heaviness seemed to lift from the room in that moment.

"Now, documents have all been made up for you, all of which will now include your new name. We'll get things sorted with the horcruxes we can before the start of the new term." Jareth explained, and then gestured to Hera and Tony. "Will you take the offer?"

"You…You still wish to adopt me?" Gaunt asked them in confusion. "Granted, my name may be different, but you should still remember what I did."

"I knew when I offered it the first time. It's still up for grabs, if you want it." Tony confirmed. "You don't have to. You can be family without it, if you want to go that route."

"You offered to adopt him?" Rhodey inquired. "Is he like Hera?"

Rhodey, for all that he was close to them and had been there, would have to have things explained to him again; such was the strength of Fae magic.

"In a manner of speaking." Hera nodded, answering him, before looking to Gaunt. "So, what do you think? We're crazy; quite possibly certifiably insane. Tony lives in the muggle world most of the time, and is around people who don't know what I am, so we've had to make up a lie to explain when I do something magical around them."

"Muggles? Like you?" Gaunt inquired, gesturing to Rhodey.

"I'm in the know, but yeah, like me." Rhodey nodded in bemusement. "Not all us mundanes are as chill as I am, but humanity is a mixed bag like that anywhere."

Gaunt hesitated, looked to Tony, and nodded. "I think I might like that. Family. Siblings."

"There's already paperwork in place for this. I had a meeting with Miss Pepper Potts, who began tentatively setting things up in case this was the choice made. I will let her know what the name of the one she needs to look up the records for, and get things started before we go hunting." Jareth explained. "I got the distinct impression that an Obadiah Stane would not be happy about this."

Of course, the Fae disappeared in a shower of glitter in the next instant.

At this, Hera took a tentative look around the room, before inquiring. "So…Last minute clothes shopping? Anyone?"


Twilfitt and Tattings had been ecstatic that she'd gone to them about the school robes she would need for when she shifted; randomly or otherwise. While Madam Malkin's hadn't balked at the sudden gender difference, she'd had to inform her that the fabrics she tended to use wouldn't lend themselves to such constant transfiguration needs like Twilfitt and Tattings' did. It was weird how not weird everyone was about things. While Hera knew it wasn't a permanent change, the longer she went without doing so, however, the more Tony started fidgeting. This was the first time he'd ever reacted with anything other than enthusiasm for something she could do, and she didn't know what to do about it. It wasn't until they were almost about to Floo to the station, having been invited to do so by the Malfoys, that Hera got her answers.

"Hera, hold up."

Sighing, Hera turned from the Floo. "Tony?"

"Hera, look," Tony began, a serious look on his face. "at some point you're going to have to go to the bathroom."

"You think I haven't already?" Hera wondered. The surprised and slightly embarrassed look on his face told her that's exactly what he thought. A check to Rhodey made her realize he'd known Tony was freaking out about this, and had just decided to let it play out. "Tony, how often do you use the loo?"

At that, Rhodey snorts, and then proceeds to lose it.

"How was I supposed to know magical bladders were the same?" Tony objected, still looking embarrassed, though he was also grinning just a touch. "How are you not worried? You've not shifted back. You're confident that you're not stuck like this. You're not even stressing about being a different gender than you were yesterday. I mean-"

"Tony, breathe!" Hera snickered, relieved that at least he was concerned about her well being instead of anything horrible she could have thought of. He dutifully took a deep breath, grinning even wider now. She looked over to Rhodey, but the man had walked away a touch, becoming seemingly absorbed in some sort of wall decoration; effectively giving them space. "Tony, you remember Loki's a shape shifter, right?"

"That's why you aren't stressing out? And why you don't seem embarrassed at all?" Tony realized. Hera nodded.

"Some days he just woke up different, others he played with the look. There were days he set out to seduce the soldiers just to see if he could, and others…" Hera informed him, before her grin turned decidedly more lecherous than it had been. "Well, I'll just keep that to myself, shall I?"

"So…you're sticking to this to get a feel for being another gender again?" Tony inquired. Hera's grin became one of pure innocence in that moment. "What are you about to do?"

"I was thinking of changing the look up a bit, but not acting any different, and then seeing how long it took people to realize it was me." Hera admitted, her mischievous grin getting a touch wider. "If it unnerves that odious pink cow, well…that'd be more of a side benefit, wouldn't it?"